Summer Berry Tarts
Excellent-quality puff pastry (F&W likes the Dufour brand) makes all the difference to this minimalist fruit dessert. Berries simmered in a little sugar become a slightly gooey, fresh-tasting topping.
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Hibiscus-Berry Gelatins
A lovely way to serve raspberries, blackberries and blueberries: suspended in a hibiscus gelatin.
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Summer Berries with Cumin Meringues and Crème Fraîche
This recipe combines antioxidant-packed summer berries with an easy-to-make, protein-rich meringue. A touch of cumin gives the meringues an exotic earthiness, but they’re equally delicious without the spice.
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Cherry-Berry Pie
Pastry chef Paula Haney buys produce at the farmer's market, including the cherries for her stellar pies.
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Mixed-Berry Dutch Baby
A Dutch Baby, also known as a German pancake, is a mixture of eggs, flour and whole milk that gets baked in a heavy skillet until it becomes puffy and golden. In the terrific version here, Grace Parisi folds in fresh berries to create a wonderful summer dessert that’s also great for breakfast.
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Melon, Berry and Feta Salad
Jenn Louis uses whatever melon looks best at the market, and she sometimes swaps out the feta for ricotta salata, or the chives for mint.
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Mixed Berry Hobo Packs with Grilled Pound Cake
Berries grilled in a foil pack are delicious with everything from ice cream to grilled pound cake.
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Free-Form Pineapple, Mango and Berry Tarts
“Río Negro is like the Garden of Eden, with fruit trees everywhere,” Piero Incisa della Rocchetta says about the region in Patagonia where he makes wine. Local chef Mauricio Couly created these tarts filled with local fruits like pineapple, mango and blueberries that grow around Bodega Chacra. The filling can, of course, vary depending on the season.
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Lemon-Poppy Polenta Cookie and Huckleberry Sorbet Sandwiches
Any tart store-bought sorbet (like raspberry, blood orange or lemon) would be delicious with these cookies as well.
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Marilyn Batali's Blackberry Pie
While walking in Galicia with Gwyneth Paltrow, Mario Batali spotted a bush full of ripe blackberries, his “favorite fruit in life,” and recalled filling the back of his parents’ station wagon with buckets of blackberries when he was growing up in Seattle. After getting his mother, Marilyn, to e-mail him her recipe, Mario prepared this luscious pie.
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Berry-Yogurt Pavlovas with Chamomile-Lavender Syrup
Aromatherapists take advantage of the calming powers of both chamomile and lavender. Melissa Rubel Jacobson steeps the flowers in a syrup for antioxidant-rich berries.
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Cinnamon-Raisin Bread Custard with Fresh Berries
Chef Bradley Ogden’s recipe for ultrarich bread pudding is perfect for dessert or brunch. It can be made with store-bought bread, but it’s best made with a fresh bakery loaf, sliced 1/2 inch thick.
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Fire-Roasted Berry Crostini with Honey Crème Fraîche
Grill this super-simple dessert right before you serve it: It takes just 30 minutes.
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Fresh Berries with Lemon Cream
This luscious lemon cream, a staple in Belinda Leong’s crème brûlée—style lemon tarts, has a bracing tartness. It’s lovely as a topping for scones and biscuits at brunch or dolloped on fresh berries for dessert, as in the recipe here.
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Red Berry Shrub
“Shrub” refers both to a syrup made from fruit, sugar and vinegar and to a drink made with said syrup. The vinegar, says bartender Jennifer Colliau, acts as “a lovely, unusual acidifier,” replacing the citrus juice typically found in cocktails.
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Mixed Berry Snack Bars
This berry filling is tart and fruity, and superbly balanced by the crisp, buttery shortbread crust.
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Mixed-Berry Conserve
This thick raspberry-and-blueberry sauce is the perfect topping for yogurt, ice cream and even a piece of toast.
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Brioche French Toast with Fresh Berry Compote
Pastry Chef Mariah Swan bakes buttery brioche for this crisp French toast, which she tops with a warm berry compote. The compote comes together in less than 10 minutes but tastes surprisingly complex for something so quick.
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Honey-Sweetened Mascarpone with Berries and Pistachios
Dahlia Narvaez adored the deliciously rich mascarpone cheese she ate in Umbria. “It’s such a great backdrop for all the different honeys made in Italy,” she says. She made this dish with delicate Umbrian wildflower honey but says stronger honeys like chestnut would also be terrific.
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