Have Your Tradition and Eat It Too

The nostalgia craze has moved beyond quaintness to absurdity. The other day, I encountered an ad for something called Country Baker Apple Pie Room Scent, which encouraged me to “Scent the air with the scrumptious aroma of freshly baked apple pie. Bring back the delicious memories of Mother’s Kitchen.”

In the soft-focus world of nostalgia, everyone is supposed to share the same delicious distant past. But for some people, even the aroma of baking pies does not evoke sweet memories. Consider my friend, cookbook author David Ricketts.

“My grandmother baked terrible pies,” he recalls with a laugh. “I’d wake up on a Saturday morning, and she’d be whacking the pie dough, taking out all her frustrations with a rolling pin. My mother would roll her eyes heavenward and say, ‘She’s making that apple pie again.’ ”

Nostalgia is not the same as tradition--it is a cheap imitation, an apple pie room scent for the mind. And the danger is that we might tire of tradition as we tire of our sugared dream of the past. It is a danger because traditions like the old-fashioned desserts featured here embody some wonderful qualities well worth preserving.

Berry shortcake and warm fruit desserts such as cobblers, crisps, grunts and slumps, will always make our mouths water. They are appealing not only because they evoke memories of childhood, but because they are so plainly, simply good. And all their timeless, traditional goodness can be preserved while the one thing we do not want as much of now--fat--is reduced. You can have your traditions and eat them too.

Aside from the traditional fruits--gooseberries, greengage plums, raspberries--fools can be made with any fruit that can be mashed or crushed. Purple plums, blueberries, blackberries and mangoes work well. In this updated fool, most of the whipping cream is replaced with nonfat yogurt.

APRICOT FOOL

1 1/2 cups nonfat yogurt

1/2 pound dried apricots

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup amaretto liqueur

1 teaspoon vanilla, optional

1/4 teaspoon almond extract, optional

1/3 cup whipping cream

1/4 cup sliced almonds

Line colander with cheesecloth and set over bowl. Spoon in yogurt and let drain at room temperature 1 hour, or until yogurt is reduced to 1 cup.

Meanwhile, combine apricots, granulated sugar and water in heavy saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer until apricots are tender, about 10 minutes. With slotted spoon, remove 12 apricot halves and chop coarsely. Set aside.

Transfer remaining apricots and cooking liquid to food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Place puree in bowl. Cover and refrigerate 20 to 30 minutes, or until cool but not cold.

Stir together apricot puree, drained yogurt, chopped apricots, powdered sugar, amaretto liqueur and vanilla and almond extracts in bowl. Place cream in separate bowl and whip until stiff. Fold cream into apricot puree. Spoon into serving bowl, individual dishes or parfait glasses. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour. (Recipe can be prepared ahead to this point and refrigerated up to 2 days.)

Spread almonds in pie or cake pan and toast at 350 degrees until golden 5 to 10 minutes. Let cool. Sprinkle almonds over fool and serve. Makes 6 servings.

This compote is just a cool blend of summer fruits in white-wine syrup. Nothing complicated, nothing extraneous. The syrup is basic and can be used for any combination of fruits in season.

PLUM AND RASPBERRY COMPOTE

1 cup semisweet white wine, such as Rhine or Mosel

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

4 thin slices peeled ginger root

1/2 cinnamon stick

1 pound prune plums, halved and pitted

1 cup fresh raspberries

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt, optional

Combine wine, water and sugar to taste in saucepan. Bring to boil. Tie vanilla bean, ginger root and cinnamon stick in piece of cheesecloth and add to wine mixture. Reduce heat to low and simmer 3 minutes.

Add plums. Cover and simmer gently until plums are tender, 5 to 7 minutes, turning once or twice. Remove from heat. Gently stir in raspberries and lemon juice and set aside 20 minutes.

Discard cheesecloth bag of spices. (Compote can be prepared ahead and refrigerated, covered, up to 2 days.) Serve warm or cool, with yogurt. Makes 4 servings.

Shortcake--what better celebration of summer? Made with buttered, split biscuits, shortcake began to appear in American cookbooks in the 1850s and continued to be popular in the decade after the Civil War. By the 1880s, recipes for strawberry and peach shortcakes were standard, made with biscuit dough and frequently served at breakfast or teatime.

This shortcake is made with a low-fat buttermilk dough, yielding a tender biscuit. The rounds are topped with almonds and sugar, forming a crunchy glaze as they bake. You can make the biscuit dough ahead and put the rounds on a baking sheet to be baked during dinner.

PEACH MELBA SHORTCAKE

2 1/4 cups flour plus extra for forming biscuits

1/3 cup sugar plus 1 tablespoon for sprinkling over biscuits

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3/4 to 1 cup low-fat buttermilk

1 tablespoon oil plus extra for preparing pan

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

1 tablespoon nonfat milk

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1 pint strawberries

1/3 cup sugar, preferably superfine

4 ripe peaches

3 cups nonfat vanilla frozen yogurt

To prepare almond-buttered biscuits, brush baking sheet lightly with oil or line with parchment paper. Set aside.

Stir together 2 1/4 cups flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in mixing bowl. Using pastry cutter or fingertips, cut butter into flour mixture until crumbly. Combine 3/4 cup buttermilk, 1 tablespoon oil and vanilla and almond extracts in small bowl. Make well in center of flour mixture and add buttermilk mixture. Stir with fork just until combined, adding additional buttermilk as necessary, to form slightly sticky dough. Do not overmix.

Place dough on lightly floured surface and sprinkle with little flour. With fingertips, gently pat dough to even 1-inch thickness. Using 3- or 3 1/2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out biscuits and transfer to prepared baking sheet. Gather together scraps of dough and cut remaining biscuits. There should be 6 biscuits. Brush milk over biscuits. Scatter almonds over tops and sprinkle lightly with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. (Biscuits can be made ahead and refrigerated, covered, up to 1 hour.)

To prepare filling, toss berries with sugar in large bowl. With back of wooden spoon, crush few berries. Let stand at room temperature at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until berries have formed light syrup.

Using slotted spoon, dip peaches into boiling water about 20 seconds and refresh under cold water. Peel, halve and pit peaches. Slice halves and add to berry mixture. Stir gently.

Bake biscuits at 425 degrees until golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool slightly. Using serrated knife, split biscuits. Set bottoms on dessert plates. Spoon on fruit mixture and frozen yogurt and crown with biscuit lids. Serve immediately. Makes 6 servings.

Slumps and grunts are old Yankee desserts. Author Louisa May Alcott must have been partial to them, because she named her house in Concord, Mass., “Apple Slump.” The curious terms are used to describe fruit desserts (with biscuit toppings) that are simmered on top of the stove rather than baked. Grunts are usually made of blueberries, slumps of apples. Their backgrounds are obscure. Do the berries actually “grunt” as they simmer? That’s what some say. Do the biscuit dumplings “slump” down into the fruit as they bubble away? Maybe.

The biscuit dough for slumps and grunts is made slightly softer than for a cobbler, then spooned over the fruit--these are actually drop biscuits or dumplings. When simmered tightly covered (you are really steaming them), the dumplings set but do not brown.

BLACK AND BLUEBERRY GRUNT

1 cup flour

Sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Salt

1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

1 tablespoon oil

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 pint blueberries

1 pint blackberries

4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Dash cinnamon

Dash freshly ground pepper, optional

1/4 cup water

1 quart nonfat vanilla frozen yogurt, optional

To make dumpling dough, stir together flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, baking soda and 1/8 teaspoon salt in mixing bowl. Combine buttermilk, butter and oil in small bowl. Make well in center of dry ingredients. Pour in buttermilk mixture and stir until just combined. Set aside.

Combine 1 tablespoon sugar and cinnamon in small bowl and set aside for sprinkling over dumplings.

To prepare fruit, combine blueberries, blackberries, 1/2 cup sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, pepper and water in 8- or 9-inch heavy skillet or shallow flame-proof casserole. Toss gently to combine. Cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and remove cover.

Drop dumpling dough by spoonfuls evenly over simmering fruit mixture. Sprinkle reserved cinnamon sugar over dumplings. Cover pan tightly with lid or foil and cook until dumplings are firm to touch, 15 to 17 minutes. Serve hot, with frozen yogurt. Makes 8 servings.

As with cobblers, brown Betty and even pie, recipes for crisps (and their British cousins, crumbles) do not turn up in print much before the end of the 19th Century. It was assumed that these fruit desserts were so simple that cooks didn’t need recipes for them. Rolling out a pie crust, or putting together a quick dessert with apples from the cellar, was something anyone with the most basic cooking knowledge could do.

By the 1920s, cookbooks published by Good Housekeeping and the like began to define the norm of American cooking, and cobblers and crisps appeared in print. The crisp topping contained a great deal of butter, but in this adaptation the butter is greatly reduced--apple juice helps bind the topping.

PLUM-BERRY CRISP

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup flour

2 tablespoons oil

2 teaspoons butter

2 tablespoons apple juice

Firm-ripe peaches or nectarines

1 1/2 pounds ripe purple plums, pitted and sliced

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

1/4 cup maple syrup

3 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Dash ground ginger

1 quart nonfat vanilla frozen yogurt, optional

To make topping, combine brown sugar, oats and flour in large bowl. Blend in oil and butter with pastry cutter or fingertips until crumbly. Stir in apple juice with fork until mixture is evenly moistened. Set aside.

To prepare fruit filling, dip peaches into boiling water about 20 seconds. Remove with slotted spoon, refresh under cold water and peel. Halve and pit peeled peaches or unpeeled nectarines. Cut into thick wedges and place in large bowl. Combine plums with peaches. Add blueberries, maple syrup, brown sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, nutmeg and ginger and toss gently to combine.

Transfer fruit mixture to shallow 2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle topping evenly over fruit. Bake at 400 degrees until top is golden and filling is bubbling, about 40 minutes. Let cool about 10 minutes. Serve hot or warm, with frozen yogurt. Makes 8 servings.

Sax recently completed work on a cookbook of old-fashioned desserts from around the world, to be published by Simon & Schuster next year.

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