Poached Fruit With Clove Granite And Cookies Recipes

PERFECT POACHED FRUIT

Steps:

• Place the vin santo, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla bean, and zests in a large, shallow saucepan with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
• Peel the pears, leaving the stems intact, and scoop out the seeds from the bottom with an apple corer or melon baller. Lay half the pears on their sides in the poaching liquid and simmer for 20 minutes, carefully turning the pears once with a spoon. Remove with a slotted spoon. Poach the remaining pears in the same liquid. Snip off the hard stems from the figs with scissors. Add the figs, apricots, prunes, and the first batch of poached pears and simmer 5 to 10 more minutes, until the pears and the dried fruit are all tender.
• Chill the pears, dried fruit, zests, and poaching liquid. Remove the cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla bean before serving if you like.

MOSCATO POACHED FRUIT

Steps:

• Combine the wine, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla bean, cloves, orange zest, and lemon zest in a large (10 to 11-inch diameter) pot or Dutch oven, such as Le Creuset. Add 2 cups of water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
• Add the figs, apricots, prunes, and peaches to the simmering liquid and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until all the fruit is tender and the liquid is reduced. (Not to worry if the figs are less tender; you don't want to overcook the rest of the fruit.) Remove and discard the cloves.
• Off the heat, stir in the cherries and allow the fruit to cool to room temperature in the poaching liquid. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Reheat and serve warm or at room temperature with poaching liquid and a dollop of crème fraiche.

POACHED FRUIT WITH CLOVE GRANITE AND COOKIES

Steps:

• To poach the fruit, combine the wine, sugar and cloves in a large wide pot. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and add the pears and figs. Simmer until pears are soft but not falling apart, about 15 to 30 minutes. Meanwhile, use a paring knife to remove all peel and pith from the oranges. Cut the sections out from between the membranes. Add the sections and simmer 1 minute. Remove the fruit from the liquid with a slotted spoon, place in a bowl and let cool. Cover and refrigerate.
• Let the syrup stand until cool and strain into a shallow, nonreactive pan. Place in the freezer until firm throughout, stirring from time to time. (The granite can be made a day ahead.)
• To make the cookies, pulse the hazelnuts in a food processor until coarsely chopped. Add the flour, salt and sugar and process until nuts are ground and mixture is well mixed. Add the butter and pulse to combine. Add the egg and milk and process just until the dough begins to come together.
• Press the dough together and divide it in half. Shape into cylinders, about 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 3 days. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. If the dough is very cold, let stand at room temperature until firm but not too hard. Cut the dough across into 1/8-inch slices and place on the baking sheets about 1 inch apart. (Cookies must be baked in batches.) Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Cool.
• Melt the chocolate and dip half of each cookie in the chocolate. Set aside and let dry completely.
• To serve, arrange the pears, figs and oranges in 10 shallow bowls. Use a spoon to scrape the granite into mounds and place a mound in each bowl. Serve immediately, passing the cookies separately.

FRUIT COCKTAIL DROP COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
• In a medium bowl, cream together the shortening, brown sugar and white sugar. Stir in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and cloves, stir into the creamed mixture. Carefully fold in the raisins, fruit cocktail and nuts, try not to crush the fruit.
• Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to12 minutes in the preheated oven.

POACHED SECKEL PEARS WITH CLOVE GRANITE

Steps:

• For the granite, combine the water, cloves and light-brown sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Set aside to cool. Remove the cloves and stir in the vinegar. Pour into a shallow metal pan and place in the freezer. Freeze until firm but not frozen solid, about 2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes.
• For the pears, combine the wine, cloves, honey and nutmeg in a nonreactive saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add the lemon and orange slices and the pears. Cover and simmer until the pears are tender, about 15 minutes. Remove the pears and fruit slices with a slotted spoon and set them aside. Raise the heat and simmer the poaching liquid until reduced to 1 cup, about 30 minutes. Set aside to cool.
• Coat 4 plates with the poaching liquid and place 3 pears in the center of each plate. Arrange the orange and lemon slices around the pears and place a scoop of the granite beside them. Serve immediately.