Roasted Grape and Olive Oil Cake

A classic lemon olive oil cake, topped with bright, late summer grapes, roasted with brown sugar and fennel.

Baking with grapes is just so much fun. All through pastry school, we never touched grapes. We used lots of berries, created a bunch of cakes with bananas, and even played with tropical fruits like mango, pineapple, and passionfruit. But grapes, those were basically for snacking and really nothing else. The idea of creating desserts with grapes truly did not even cross my mind until I was working on the pastry team at Blackberry Farm. We were the most spoiled pastry chefs in the world and would daily get garden deliveries from both the farmers at the resort and other local farmers in the area. Produce deliveries were the highlight of the day and we’d smoosh together (obviously pre-COVID) around cardboard boxes of warm summer strawberries and peaches, snacking as we cleaned them and transferred them to sheet trays (where we would continue to snack off of them all through service…half of the good produce made it into desserts, the other half went straight into our bellies.

Then, in early August, our daily berry haul started to turn into grapes. We got baskets of dark, seedy concord grapes and moon grapes that looked like baby eggplants. They made the most stunning colored sorbets and were worked them into all kinds of desserts on the menu. My mind was blown. But then I returned home where I was greeted with sad, grocery store grapes meant for lunch boxes. Until we moved to Minnesota.

I’ve talked before about our cute little co-op across the street literally bursting with local, seasonal produce. I walked in a few weeks ago to find little satchels of bright, seasonal concord grapes lining the shelves and it took every single ounce of my willpower not to bring them all home with me that very minute. I did, however, start brainstorming about this little cake recipe.

how to make a roasted grape cake

For this cake, I really wanted to grapes to shine so we made them the focal point. A very simple, lemon olive oil was the perfect canvas for our little grape babies. We make the cake by simply whisking together flour, sugar, lemon zest, leavening agents and salt. I added a little semolina flour for a bit of texture, but if you don’t have it, you can just substitute more all purpose flour. Then we mix together the wet ingredients—eggs, buttermilk, lemon juice, and olive oil. The wet ingredients join the dry ingredients and are whisked until the batter is very smooth.

While the cake is baking, we roast the grapes. Simply toss the grapes in brown sugar, some crushed fennel seeds, and olive oil and transfer it to a baking dish. Let the grapes roast until they are beginning to blister and burst (like cherry tomatoes) and the liquid is bubbly. Then spoon the roasted grapes over the cooled and sliced cake and enjoy!

And, if you have any leftover grapes and juices, save them for spooning over ice cream or serving with a dollop of creme fraiche and some shortbread cookies. The flavors in this super simple dessert will impress all your friends, I promise!

Yield

one 9" cake, or 8 servings

Author

Anna Ramiz

Prep time

15 Min

Cook time

50 Min

Total time

1 H & 4 M

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Roasted Grape and Olive Oil Cake

A classic lemon olive oil cake, topped with bright, late summer grapes, roasted with brown sugar and fennel.

Ingredients

for the roasted grapes

• 10 oz (300 g) grapes
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 2 tbsp olive oil

for the olive oil cake

• 1 1/4 cup (250 g) granulated sugar
• Zest of one large lemon
• 1 1/2 cup (180 g) all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (80 g) semolina flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• Juice of one large lemon
• 1 cup (200 g) olive oil
• 1 cup (227 g) buttermilk, at room temperature
• 3 eggs, at room temperature

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Roughly chop fennel seeds and place them in a large bowl. Add the grapes, brown sugar, and 2 tbsp of olive oil and stir to coat. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish and roast for 20-25 minutes, until grapes are soft and have just begun to burst. Remove from the oven and let cool.
3. Grease a 9” springform pan with olive oil and line with parchment paper, set aside.
4. In a large bowl, combine granulated sugar and lemon zest. Use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar until well-mixed. Add the flour, semolina flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to the sugar mixture and whisk everything to combine.
5. In another medium-sized bowl or large glass measuring cup, whisk together olive oil, buttermilk, lemon juice, and eggs until smooth and homogenous.
6. Slowly pour wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients, and whisk until the batter is smooth and no clumps of flour remain.
7. Pour batter into your prepared springform pan and smooth into an even layer using a knife or offset spatula. Bake for 45-55 minutes, until the cake is dark golden brown in color, the sides are beginning to pull away from the pan, and the center is set and no longer wiggly. (If the top is getting too brown, but the center is not yet set, you can loosely place a piece of foil over the top to slow down the browning.)
8. Let the cake cool completely in the pan before inverting onto a plate. Slice the cake and spoon the roasted grapes over top of each slice.

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Olive Oil Granola Fruit Crisp

A very easy, accidentally vegan summer fruit crisp recipe. Bright summer berries are topped with crunchy olive oil granola and then baked until bubbly.

summer berries and an olive oil granola fruit crisp

I have three criteria for summer desserts. 1) FRUIT! Give me all the berries, cherries, and stone fruit that the season has to offer. 2) Simple is better- I want easy, toss together, pantry recipes that can be made quickly, adapted easily, and shared with a crowd. 3) Topped with ice cream. All good summer desserts should be able to be topped with a big scoop of ice cream.

Lucky for us, today’s new recipe meets all of our stringent summer dessert criteria. This olive oil granola fruit crisp, is ridiculously easy to mix together, is accidentally vegan and can very easily be made gluten-free. The crumble topping is so versatile and you can use it with any of your favorite fruits, and fruit crisps and vanilla ice cream go together like PB&J.

what is a fruit crisp

When it comes to a baked fruit dessert (ie. cobblers, crisps, crumbles), it’s all about the topping. According to my personal dictionary of dessert words, the definitions for each are as follows: cobbler- fruit topped with a biscuit or cake like topping (this would include a liquid ingredient, like buttermilk or heavy cream, in the recipe), crumble- fruit topped with a thick, streusel like topping (when developing recipes, if I include cold butter, I generally consider it a crumble), and crisp- a lighter streusel topping, generally with oats and some sort of nut.

Again, these are my personal working definitions and opinions may vary (we haven’t even included buckles and clafoutis!). Ultimately, a fruit crisp consists of fresh summer fruit topped with a lighter, crunchy layer, making it 100% okay to eat this for breakfast.

how to make an olive oil granola fruit crisp

You guys know how I feel about olive oil in baking. I was actually thinking about it the other day and I think that olive oil might be my number 1 favorite baking ingredient. It’s ridiculously versatile and I just love the tiny, savory quality it gives to sweet recipes. It’s the simplest way I know to elevate a recipe.

For the crisp topping, olive oil and maple syrup (you could use honey) are whisked together and then poured over a bowl of granola-esque goodies—oats, walnuts, coconut, brown sugar. There is a touch of flour in this recipe, which helps to bind everything together, but you could easily substitute buckwheat flour or a cup-for-cup gluten free flour. Everything is tossed together until just moistened and then spooned over some macerated berries. It’s baked until crispy and golden and bubbly, then topped with vanilla ice cream, a glug of olive oil, and a pinch of flaky salt.

You can very easily use another fruit, like peaches or cherries or nectarines. I recommend eating this outside for maximum summer vibes.

Yield: makes one 9" pie dish

Author: Anna Ramiz

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Olive Oil Granola Fruit Crisp

Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 45 MinTotal time: 1 Hour

A very easy, accidentally vegan summer fruit crisp recipe. Bright summer berries are topped with crunchy olive oil granola and then baked until bubbly.

Ingredients

for the berry filling

• 1 lb fresh strawberries, quartered
• 6 oz fresh raspberries
• 6 oz fresh blueberries
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• Juice of 1/2 of a lemon

for the olive oil granola topping

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 6 tbsp high-quality, fruity olive oil
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 cup toasted walnuts, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together granulated sugar and cornstarch to break up any clumps.
3. Place fruit in a large bowl and toss with sugar and cornstarch mixture. Add lemon juice and toss to coat. Let macerate while you prepare the topping.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, walnuts, and coconut. In a smaller bowl, whisk together olive oil and maple syrup until combined. Add the olive oil and maple syrup to the dry ingredients and use a rubber spatula to stir well, until everything is moistened.
5. Pour fruit into a deep 9” round baking dish. Place crumble topping in an even layer on top of the fruit and bake for 40-45 minutes, until fruit is bubbly and topping is deeply golden brown. Let cool for 15-20 minutes, and then serve warm with vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of olive oil.

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Double Strawberry Galettes

Farmer’s market strawberries are tucked into homemade pie crust to make these miniature double strawberry galettes. Serve with macerated strawberries and vanilla ice cream for an easy, summer dessert.

Galettes are my very favorite summer dessert and I don’t care who knows it!

As I was brainstorming for this recipe, I had a bit of a culinary revelation. Galettes are best in the summer and pies are best in the fall—here is why. In the summer, fruit is amazing! We have bright, juicy berries, plump peaches, dark plums, sweet (and tart cherries). We get blessed with nature’s candy for a few months out of the year and I don’t want to do anything to cover up those flavors. This is where galettes come in. In the galette application, pie crust is basically just there to be a convenient vessel for piles of fruit. It’s crispy and buttery and complementary, but doesn’t take away from the main event.

Pies on the other hand, are where you want a lot of crust. In my humble opinion, fall and winter fruits need a bit of support to shine. Apples are always better basted with spices and pears like to be poached in wine. They need the tender layers of a pie crust to help round everything out.

Anyway, that’s my little speech and it might be a hill I’m ready to die on. You probably won’t catch me making any pies this summer, but galettes will be plentiful.

how to make homemade flaky pie crust

Making a good homemade pie crust is fairly simple, but needs practice. I follow Erin McDowell’s general pie technique and have found it works perfectly every time. Here’s how it works:

1. Toss together your dry ingredients. I like to use a blend of all purpose flour and cake flour because I find it gives a little extra flakiness. You could also use 100% all purpose, or 100% pastry flour, no problem. There’s also a little salt and a little sugar added.

2. Add cubed cold butter. I follow two steps when adding the butter. First, I add all of the butter cubes to the bowl and gently toss it with my fingers so that each piece of butter gets dusted in flour. Then, using my thumbs and forefingers, I flatten each butter cube. When all of the butter has been flattened, I use my finger tips to gently break the pieces down until they are the size of large peas or black beans.

3. Add the ice water. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and drizzle in a few tablespoons of ice water. Most pie recipes call for a range of water to be added—always start on the low end and add more if needed. Toss gently with your fingertips, just to hydrate the dough and then begin to knead gently, adding more water if needed. The dough is ready when you can squeeze a clump in your hand and it stays together when you open your hand.

4. Wrap and chill. Turn your crumbly dough onto a work surface and use the heel of your hand to gently press it into a disc. Your disc should have no dry pockets of flour and you should still be able to see pieces of butter threaded throughout. Wrap it tightly and chill it for at least an hour. Most doughs shrink because they haven’t been sufficiently chilled so give it some time—overnight is best.

tips for making the best summer fruit galettes

I used the most beautiful farmer’s market strawberries for this recipe, but the best thing about galettes is that you can use any fruit you’d like! Here are some tips to make your galettes shine every time.

• Taste your fruit! Natural sweetness varies from fruit to fruit, so taste yours and then adjust the amount of sugar accordingly. In my personal opinion, not much is needed so I usually start with a tablespoon and then add more if needed.

• Add a bit a of cornstarch. Galette juices can be a bit runny, so adding a teaspoon or so of cornstarch will help thicken things up.

• Save some macerated fruit for topping. That’s where the double strawberry part comes in for this recipe. Reserve some of the macerated fruit and spoon it on top of your galettes (along with ice cream) for maximum summer fruit flavor!

Yield: one large galette (9") or four individual galettes

Author: Anna Ramiz

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Double Strawberry Galettes

Prep time: 30 MinCook time: 30 MinInactive time: 1 HourTotal time: 2 Hour

Farmer’s market strawberries are tucked into homemade pie crust to make these miniature double strawberry galettes. Serve with macerated strawberries and vanilla ice cream for an easy, summer dessert.

Ingredients

for the pie crust

• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp (82 g) all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp (70 g) cake flour
• 2 tsp granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, cold
• 4 tbsp of ice water

for the strawberry galettes

• 1 batch pie dough, recipe included
• 1 lb fresh strawberries
• 2 tbsp sugar
• Juice of 1/2 of a lemon
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• Egg wash
• 2 tbsp demerara sugar

Instructions

to make the pie crust

1. Cube butter and place in a bowl in the freezer while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cake flour, sugar, and salt.
3. Add the butter cubes to the bowl with the dry ingredients and toss them to coat. Using your thumbs and forefinger, flatten each butter piece and begin to work them into the dough until they are the size of black beans. When all of the butter has has been broken dough, make a well in the center of the bowl.
4. Add 3 tbsp of ice water to the bowl and use your fingertips gently toss the mixture until combined. Begin gently kneading the dough, taking care not to overwork it, and adding another tablespoon of water if needed. To test if the dough is moist enough, grab a handful and squeeze it together. If the dough stays clumped together when you open your hand, your dough is ready. If not, add a bit more water and knead a little more.
5. Turn your dough onto a clean work surface and use the heel of your hand to continue gently kneading until there are no more dry patches of flour, but streaks of butter are still visible.
6. Press dough into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least an hour.
7. When the dough is ready, roll it out on a floured work surface until it is about 1/4” thick.
8. If making one large galette: roll the dough into a circle, roughly 10” in diameter.
9. If making miniature galettes: use a ring or cake pan to cut four 6” circles out of the dough.
10. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and return to the refrigerator until you are ready to fill and bake.

to make the galettes

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F.
2. Remove the green stems from the strawberries and quarter them. Place berries in a large bowl and toss with sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice until all of the berries are well-coated. Let rest for 15 minutes.
3. For one large galette: Spoon half of the berry mixture onto the center of your prepared pie crust, leaving at least 1” border around the edge. Fold the edges of the galette up and over the fruit and press to seal. Brush the edges with egg wash and sprinkle with Demerara sugar.
4. For miniature galettes: Spoon about 1/4 cup of berry mixture into the center of each pie crust and fold the edges up and over the fruit. Press to seal and then brush with egg wash and sprinkle with demerara sugar.
5. Bake the galettes for 25-28 minutes, until the crust is deeply golden brown and the fruit mixture is bubbling.
6. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature. Serve with vanilla ice cream and a spoonful of the remaining macerated berries.

Notes:

You can substitute any summer fruit that you enjoy in place of strawberries. I recommended tasting your fruit and then adjusting the sugar levels based on the natural sweetness of your fruit.

Pie crust can be made ahead of time and stored in the freezer for up to a week or in the freeze for 3 months.

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