Baked Pancake with Berry Sauce and Melted Ice Cream from the Inn at Isle au Haut

On the east side of the island, there is a lovely inn run by my friend and culinary comrade, Diana Santospago. While Diana is much more than just her inn, the Inn at Isle au Haut is a perfect manifestation of Diana’s many talents.  Because there are no other restaurants on Isle au Haut, the inn offers three delicious, fresh, and beautifully presented meals every day, accompanied by some of the best shorefront scenery in the world.  So good, in fact, that the Inn at Isle au Haut was just listed by Yankee Magazine as one of Maine’s top ten “Dinners with a View.”

Here is Diana’s choice for Mother’s Day breakfast:

“Baked Pancake with Berry Sauce and Melted Ice Cream is my choice for a breakfast recipe for your blog for a couple reasons. First, it’s practically foolproof for kids(with Dad’s help of course)to make for Mom for that special breakfast in bed, and it’s totally yummy.

First make the sauce.

Berry Sauce

• 1-1/2 cups of fresh or frozen raspberries, blackberries, strawberries or blueberries or a combination of any or all. (If using fresh berries, mash half of them.)
• 1/3 cup sugar or honey
• zest of 1/2 a lemon

Combine the berries, sugar/honey and zest, tossing gently. Let sit at room temperature until the berries release their juice and the sugar is dissolved.

Meanwhile, scoop out about 1 cup of good quality vanilla ice cream and set aside to melt.

Baked Pancake

• 2 eggs
• 1 C. milk
• 3/4 C. all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt pinch of cinnamon
• 1 T. unsalted butter

Here’s where Dad comes in!

Preheat a cast iron skillet in a 425-degree oven. Beat the eggs. Add the milk, flour salt, and cinnamon and mix well. Add the butter to the skillet. When melted, pour in the egg mixture. Bake for 15 minutes then lower the heat to 325 degrees and bake until puffed and golden-about 6-8 minutes. Slide onto a serving platter, slice into wedges, spoon on the berry sauce and drizzle with the melted ice cream.”

Blackberry Cream Cheese Scones

A long time ago, during my past life in a land called Santa Cruz, California there used to be a fabulous pastry shop called Rebecca’s Mighty Muffins on Front St.  Rebecca and her crew baked up some of the tastiest organic, homey, completely over-the-top muffins known to the human race.  Personal favorites included her California Glory and Zucchini Millet–but by far, my favorite pastry to accompany a double latte and the Sunday SF Chronicle, was her Blackberry Cream Cheese Scone.

This delectable crisp-on-the-outside, tender-and-crumbly on the inside piece of pastry perfection has haunted me since I first bit into one at the tender age of 19.  At the age of 28, on the day before I moved from Santa Cruz for good, I screwed up my courage, marched into Rebecca’s, and using all my powers of persuasion, tried to convince the cute counter boy to get me the recipe.  I was politely, but resolutely, denied.

Ten years later I am still trying to re-create that scone.  The following recipe, though not as delectable as Rebecca’s, is still pretty darn good–at least good enough to grace the pastry case at my own bakery here on the island; and, I’m proud to say, have attracted their own passionate followers.

Black Dinah Cafe Blackberry Cream Cheese Scones

Ingredients:

• 1/2-3/4 c. buttermilk
• 2 large egg yolks
• 3 c. flour
• 4 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. salt
• 8 T. cold, unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 oz. frozen cream cheese
• 1 c. frozen blackberries

Method:

Heat your oven to 400°.

Whisk together buttermilk and egg and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  On the large holes of a hand grater, grate cold butter into dry ingredients, tossing the flakes into the flour mixture with your hands as you go.  Pour in the sugar, and with cold hands, quickly rub the sugar into the flour/butter mixture.  Don’t over do it–leave some nice fat flakes of butter in there.

Next, cut the frozen cream cheese into rough 1/4-inch chunks, and toss them into the dry ingredients.  Same deal with the blackberries.

Pour in the buttermilk/yolk mixture and mix very quickly with a rubber spatula.  Tumble all this stuff onto an unfloured board (or a nice cool granite counter if you have one) and gently and quickly knead together using a bench scraper.

Pat this gorgeous purple-bejeweled dough into a rough disc, about 7 inches in diameter.  With a very sharp knife, cut the disc into 8 triangles and place on two cookie sheets, 4 to a sheet.  Space them out, so they have plenty of room to crisp up, unencumbered by the releasing moisture of its neighbor.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets once, about halfway through the bake time.

Remove the scones from the oven and immediately transfer to a cooling rack.  Allow to cool until you can’t stand it anymore, and then dive in.

Happy accident

Yesterday, in an attempt to create an energy bar that I could take along on my daily walk into the national park, I accidentally came up with this.  Not quite what I was going for, but I must admit, today finds me more in love with them than yesterday.  I’ll still be trying to come up with an energy bar that I can choke down, but for now, these babies get me where I want to go.

Flourless Peanut Butter Blondies

Ingredients:

1	cup natural peanut butter
1/4	cup raw honey
1	egg
1	banana, mashed
1	tsp. baking soda
1/2	tsp. salt
1/4	cup black sesame seeds
1/4	cup raw almonds
1/4	cup raw sunflower seeds
1/4	cup golden raisins
1/4	cup unsweetened coconut

Method:

1. Combine peanut butter and honey until smooth.
2. Beat in egg, banana, baking soda and salt.
3. Stir in remaining ingredients and spread into 8 x 8 square baking dish.
4. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely before cutting into 16 portions.