Ripe Fruits Perfect For Fresh Desserts

Even if your idea of preparing food during August is to take the lids off carry-out cartons, you’ll never find fruit desserts as luscious as those you can make yourself.

Supermarkets and farm stands are brimming with raspberries, blueberries, peaches, plums and melons. Unlike winter fruit, the summer crop usually comes to market ripe and ready to eat. If fruit is slightly overripe, don’t worry; that’s fine for desserts.

A fruit smoothie is the easiest dessert you can make. Blend fruit, milk and yogurt together into a thick froth. The secret to a great frosty smoothie is to skip the ice, which can dilute the drink, and use frozen fruit instead. Spread sliced, peeled peaches, nectarines or plums on a baking sheet and place in the freezer for a few hours.

Use the Blueberry Smoothie recipe that follows for your basic formula. Then experiment with fruits. Berries and nectarines are a great duo, and you can’t go wrong with a berry melange.

Cobblers take a little more effort, but you’ll get that marvelous combination of flaky crust and tender filling, which is worth a little work. The inspiration for the following Peach and Raspberry Cobbler comes from “The Buffet Book,” by Carole Peck with Carolyn Hart Bryant (Viking, 1997). I’m used to a biscuit topping for cobblers and loved Peck’s recipe for a thinner, more elegant lid.

Blueberry Smoothie

1 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt

2 cups frozen blueberries (see note)

1/2 cup milk

Dash ground nutmeg

2 to 3 teaspoons sugar, depending on sweetness of berries

Combine yogurt, blueberries, milk, nutmeg and 2 teaspoons sugar in blender container. Puree until mixture is thick, like a milkshake. Taste; add additional 1 teaspoon sugar if desired, and puree 10 seconds to mix in. Immediately pour into 2 chilled glasses.

Yield: 2 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 252 calories, 3.2 grams fat (11 percent fat calories), 9 grams protein, 49 grams carbohydrate, 10 milligrams cholesterol, 118 milligrams sodium.

Note: Either put 1 pint blueberries in freezer for 3 hours, or for faster freezing spread berries on baking sheet in freezer for 1 hour or until solid.

Peach and Raspberry Cobbler

Filling:

1 pint fresh raspberries

1 large peach, peeled, pitted and thinly sliced

3 to 5 tablespoons sugar, to taste

1 tablespoon flour

Juice and grated rind of 1/2 lemon

Crust:

1 cup flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Dash salt

2 tablespoons butter

Milk

Vanilla ice cream, optional

For filling, gently combine raspberries, peach slices, 3 to 5 tablespoons sugar (3 tablespoons is slightly tart), flour and lemon rind and juice in bowl. Spoon into 1-1/2-quart casserole, 6 inches wide across top. Set aside.

For crust, stir together flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, baking powder and salt in mixing bowl. Cut in butter until crumbly. Add enough milk, 5 to 7 tablespoons, until dough comes together.

Pat dough out on floured board into circle slightly less than circumference of dish and about 1/2 inch thick. Place over fruit. If cobbler will be served plain, brush crust with 1 to 2 tablespoons milk and sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. If it will be served with ice cream, omit milk glaze. Cut X in center for steam to escape.

Bake at 375 degrees until crust is golden and fruit is bubbly, 35 to 40 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes. Serve warm, plain or with ice cream.

Yield: 2 heaping or 3 regular servings.

Nutrition information per each of two servings (without ice cream): 588 calories, 12.7 grams fat (20 percent fat calories), 8 grams protein, 113 grams carbohydrate, 31 milligrams cholesterol, 208 milligrams sodium.