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Get into the holiday spirit with these Star-Spangled desserts
By Marialisa Calta
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | You've got to love the Fourth of July. There are, of course, all those historical and patriotic reasons, but there's also the fact that it's our most down-home holiday. Few people think of going out to a fancy restaurant for July 4. What's way more likely to be on the calendar is a picnic at the lake, a concert in the park, municipal fireworks, backyard sparklers and a neighborhood game of volleyball or Frisbee.
STAR-SPANGLED COBBLER
For the crust:
• 3 pints strawberries
• 1 pint blackberries or blueberries
• juice from one lemon
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly butter a 10-by-6-inch or 11-by-7-inch baking dish.
To assemble the cobbler, rinse the berries separately, and drain them. Hull the strawberries, and halve them. Stem the blackberries or blueberries if needed. Arrange the berries in a flag pattern in the baking pan, with the blackberries or blueberries grouped in the upper left corner and the strawberries in the rest of the pan. Sprinkle with lemon juice. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg, and sprinkle over the berries. Distribute the butter pieces over all.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry to 1/8-inch thickness. With a star-shaped cookie cutter, cut out six stars along one edge of the dough. With a knife, slice the remaining dough into six or eight 1/2-inch strips long enough to fit your pan. Arrange the stars over the blackberries or blueberries, and arrange the stripes over the strawberries.
Bake for 35 minutes, until the crust is golden and the berries are bubbly and tender. Allow to cool, and serve warm or at room temperature.
Yield: 8 to 12 servings
Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling the cups two-thirds of the way. Sprinkle tops with brown sugar. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly tapped.
Yield: 18 standard muffins
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To give your Fourth of July spread a holiday air and distinguish it from just any old summer weekend gathering, you may want to go for a dessert with the red-white-and-blue theme. Red-and-sky-blue popsicles, vanilla ice cream with strawberry or blueberry sauce (or both!) and ice-cold watermelon will fit the theme. But if you feel like going that extra mile, make this Star-Spangled Cobbler and get everyone's attention.
For the filling:
Make the pastry: In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces, and distribute over the flour mixture. Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the water over the pastry, and pulse until the dough clumps together. If it does not, add more water, a teaspoon at a time. Once the dough clumps together, form it into a ball and wrap in wax paper or plastic wrap, and refrigerate while you assemble the other ingredients.
RED, WHITE AND BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
Preheat oven to 400 F. Butter 18 standard muffin cups or line with paper baking cups.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the sugar and oil, and beat until well blended. Add the eggs, alternating with the half-and-half, beating after each addition. Then add the baking powder and salt, and beat well. Mix the flour in well. Using a spoon, stir in the dried fruit and then gently fold in the blueberries.