Satisfy your sweet tooth at CSR’s Bake Sale – Saturday, August 28^th from 12-4pm. If you’ve never attended the Bake Sale before, you’re in for a sweet treat. CSR’s Professional Pastry Arts class will be baking up delicious cakes, pies, croissants, cookies, quiches, and more. New on the menu this year will be a Farm Fresh Peach Pie, Colorado Apple Pie, Old Fashioned Layered Chocolate Cake along with an assortment of gluten free items, cupcakes, and candies. Join us as we transform our kitchen into a bake shop filled with goodies galore.  Pastry Arts students will be baking all day but shop early for the best selection!

Hybrid fruit may soon be taking over farmers’ markets and grocery stores. Check out these nectaplums, they are a cross between a nectarine and a plum. I came across them this morning over at TheKitchn (a lovely site if you’ve been there before).The variety featured here is called a Spice Zee, which is supposed to be rich sweet and round on the palate with just a touch of acidity. What two fruits to you think would be perfect crossed together?

Here’s what CSR has learned from our first Win a Date contest we held last week: LOTS of our home cooks need a night out with their honey. After reading all of the comments that came in about why YOU need a Dinner Date Cooking Class for two, we have chosen the winner to be Deborah! In Deborah’s entry she wrote, “After a quick evening of throwing together dinner, baths, practicing school work, walking the dog, feeding the cats, brushing teeth and convincing our two year old that he really does need to sleep tonight…we’re spent. We need to re-connect, but the only time left that we have would be best spent sleeping so we can re-energize for another day full of rushing out the door in the morning, to get to work, to get home, to start again.”

Thanks to all of our fans and readers who entered in our Win a Date Contest! All of your comments were deserving of a date – and it was hard to pick just one winner. Between your careers, kids, yard work, wedding planning, and pets – CSR now knows how busy your lives are. Thanks for sharing a snippet of your life with CSR. Hopefully, we’ll have the chance to see all of you the kitchen soon. Congratulations to Deborah on winning a hands-on cooking night out with her hubby this Friday!

By Sarah Blecher

CSR’s Office Manager & Social Media Strategist

Some of you may remember (but don’t worry, I don’t expect you to) back in April I wrote a guest, guest blog post about my new obsession with gardening. I went on and on about how I had some dismal experiences with seeds, soil, and shriveling, and for the first time, had sprouts of cucumbers! Well, I thought that was just the best. Turns out, the best is actually when you can pick the veggies that have grown from the tiny sprouts! Let me tell you – it’s way better.

I was overjoyed about the encouraging comments I received from our fans, followers, and readers about how you were so excited for me and my first garden. It helped cheer me on, and to thank you, I’d like to share with you what I grew: my first cucumbers; which I have already turned into pickles and labeled “from Sarah’s garden”.

Since I’m still a novice, I always appreciate hearing your gardening tips and tricks. Is there something I need to know that no one’s told me? Tell me! Leave you comment on the blog, or on facebook to tweet to me. I guarantee I’ll not only read it, but I promise to try it at home.

By guest blogger Sharon Halkovics

In my opinion, sour cherries make the best pie filling in the world. With their complex, tart flavor they embody the quintessential essence of summer.

Like many ‘gems’ in life, sour cherries are hard to find, tricky to keep, but absolutely worth searching for.  Here’s a simpler, more rustic alternative to making a pie.  I halved the recipe and made one big galette versus a bunch of smaller ones.  Galette requires a little less filling than pies, so I can spread my treasured cherries among more summer desserts.

Fresh fruit pie cooling on the window sill is the essence of summer. Learn to utilize the freshest produce the season has to offer – there’s still room available in our Pies & Tarts class on Thursday, August 5^th.

Sour Cherry Galettes

From Hungry Cravings blog

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

½ teaspoon kosher salt

12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons, or more, cold water

1 ¾ pounds sour cherries, pitted

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

1 tablespoon heavy cream

2 tablespoons Turbinado sugar

Combine the flour, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the water and pulse until the dough just comes together. Test the dough by squeezing a small amount together with your fingertips. If the dough holds together, it’s ready. If it’s crumbly, add up to 1 more tablespoon of water and pulse 2 more times. Transfer the dough to a work surface, bring together into a ball, and cut into eighths. Form each portion into a ball and then flatten into a disc. Wrap each disc separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425ºF. On a lightly floured surface, roll out each disc of dough to a 7-inch wide, 1/8-inch thick circle. As you work, transfer the circles to parchment-lined baking trays. Refrigerate for about 10 minutes.

Toss together the cherries, remaining ¾ cup of sugar, cornstarch, and almond extract in a large bowl. Divide the cherry mixture among the dough circles, mounding it in the center of each one. Fold the edge of the dough over the cherries, pleating it as you go. Refrigerate for another 10 minutes.

Lightly brush the galette crusts with the cream and sprinkle the galettes with the Turbinado sugar. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until golden brown.

Makes 8 individual galettes. Work quickly and with a light touch to prevent the butter in the pastry from melting. Serve at room temperature, perhaps with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

After hours of recipe testing and deliberating, we’ve selected a 2^nd place winner in CSR’s Splendid Scoops Ice Cream Contest! Splendid Scooper, Sarah, created a creamy Colorado Sweet Corn & Fresh Cherry Ice Cream. This ice cream is the perfect summer treat in a bowl. The combination of corn and cherries gives the right balance of sweet and savory in one delicious bite. We recommend you try a scoop of this today!

Colorado Sweet Corn and Fresh Cherry Ice Cream
This recipe yields only about a pint, but can easily be doubled.
Ingredients:
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
2 ears corn, kernels removed and husks cut in thirds
1/2 cup sugar
5 eggs yolks
2 cups cherries, pitted and cut in fourths

Method:
Place the milk, cream, 1/4 cup sugar, corn kernels and husks in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Bring to a boil, remove from heat, cover, and let steep for thirty minutes.  Once steeped, return to a boil and then reduce heat to medium low.  Whisk the egg yolks and remaining 1/4 cup sugar.  Temper eggs by adding a small amount of the hot milk mixture while whisking constantly.  Add egg mixture to hot milk and cook over med-low until thickened slightly (enough to coat the back of a spoon).  Once thickened, remove husks and strain mixture through a fine-mesh sieve.  Chill custard base for at least 4 hours.  Once chilled, freeze according to your ice cream machine’s instructions.  About half-way through the freezing process, add your cherries.  Freeze until firm and enjoy!

Cooking is Sexy.

Life is crazy. Kids. Work. Yard chores. Pets. Mismatched schedules.

Does this sound familiar? Well, we want to help you make some special time with your SO (significant other). It’s easy as pie: Tell us why YOU need a date and win a Dinner Date cooking class (spot is good for one couple) at Culinary School of the Rockies on Friday, August 6^th.

Every couple needs a fun night out together and we want to treat you to that.  Just leave a comment on the blog explaining to us why you should be chosen. We’ll decide on the winner at 12:00 PM MST, Monday, August 2^nd and post excerpts from your posts on our blog, facebook, and twitter throughout the week. Get creative, every couple has a story, and we want to hear why you and your cupcake need a night out.

Make sure to leave your email address with your comment so we can contact you if you win. Good luck!

Read official contest rules.

CSR received an overwhelming array of delicious ice cream recipes over the past few weeks. All of the entries were fabulous, and we can’t thank our splendid scoopers enough for all of their frozen work. But, the winner has been chosen. Drum roll please…. Congratulations, Mo McKenna! Mo created a lovely Farmers’ Market Goat Cheese and Seasonal Stone Fruit Ice Cream. It is rich, creamy, and farmers’ market delicious. Mo writes along with the recipe, “It’s easy to get inspired to make ice cream after a trip to Boulder’s Farmers Market.”

Farmers’ Market Goat Cheese and Cherry Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 cup of any seasonal stone fruit like cherries, plums, peaches, or nectarines pitted and cut into small dice (Mo’s recipe used cherries)

1/2 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

A splash of kirsch (optional)

Combine cherries, water and sugar and bring to a boil in heavy sauce pan. Remove from heat and let steep for about 30 minutes while you make the ice cream.

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup milk

4 Wisdom Farm egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons Red Wagon Organic Farm honey

4 ounces Haystack Mountain goat cheese

Method:

1. Heat the cream and milk and ½ the sugar in a medium saucepan until the mixture is steaming. Add the other ½ of the sugar to the egg yolks and stir. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

2. Stir the mixture over medium heat until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula.

3. Crumble the goat cheese into a bowl and pour the thickened custard into the bowl stirring until the goat cheese melts. When the goat cheese is melted, add the honey..

4. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator.

5. Strain the fruit that has been steeping and add a splash of kirsch if you are so inclined. Refrigerate until you are ready to make the ice cream.

6. Freeze the chilled custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Add the steeped fruit the last couple minutes of churning.

Splendid Scooper, Sarah, Stirs her Ice Cream Base

We’re getting frozen at CSR with all of our splendid scoops entries being churned in. Our scooptestants are crafting some tasty ice cream flavors and we can’t wait to share them all with you. Monday, July 26^th, we’ll be announcing the winner – so stay tuned to the blog. Don’t forget the deadline to enter Splendid Scoops is only hours away so make sure to send your recipe to office@culinaryschoolrockies.com soon!

Elisabeth's Basil Ice Cream

Another wonderful Splendid Scoops Ice Cream Contest entry, by Elisabeth: “For my final [ice cream entry] choice, I wanted to go with my favorite part of my small garden:  the sweet basil plant.  Purchased on a Saturday in June, from the Longmont Farmer’s Market, this little plant has been flavoring marinades and salads all summer long.  Only fitting that it should go from appetizer, main course, and now… dessert!”

Farmers’ Best Sweet Basil Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1/2  cup sweet basil leaves

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup half & half

1 teaspoon lemon zest

4 egg yolks, beaten

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:

1.   Cut smaller basil leaves from sweet basil plant, rinse, and pat dry with paper towel.

2.   Heat cream, half and half, and basil leaves in pot, stirring occasionally.  Do not boil.  Leave on warm setting for 30 minutes to allow basil flavor to infuse.

3.   Pour mixture into blender and mix until basil leaves are in tiny pieces.

4.   With whisk, blend eggs with sugar until smooth.  Add salt and blend.

5.   Slowly pour basil cream into bowl with egg mix and stir gently until combined.

6.   Pour mixture into ice cream maker and churn for 30 minutes.

7.   Pour mixture into an air-tight container, cover, and place into the freezer.