Wood Fired Cherries!

Last summer when Karl brought a really big box of cherries home from "Apple Joe" I told him no way, I am not pitting cherries! Somehow he convinced Amanda it would be fun and I sent the two of them outside to the picnic table. I remembered the year before cleaning cherries stains from everything in my kitchen and a ruined t-shirt I was wearing! I wish I would have taken some pictures of the two them pitting cherries. I never thought I would be writing about cherries in our Roundboy Oven!

This summer I will take some pictures and I may even help them out. Cherry Clafouti from my favorite recipe book THE ART OF WOOD FIRED COOKING by Andrea Mugnaini was so worth the mess of pitting cherries. I did come across a cherry pit in my piece of this fabulous dessert. My mother tells me every time I bake with our cherries that finding a pit tells you it is home made and delicious.

The oven was nice and hot from making pizza. We cooled it down to 375* and placed an upside-down pie pan under the cherry dessert to keep the bottom from burning.

A sprinkle of powder sugar and the cherry liqueur whip topping and it was perfect!

Cherry Clafouti from Andrea Mugnaini  and THE ART OF WOOD FIRED COOKING


1 TBL butter
1 cup milk
1/4 cup cream
2/3 cup sugar divided
4 eggs
2 TBL cherry liqueur
1/2 teas vanilla extract
1/8 teas salt
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 lb frozen pitted cherries
2 teas corn starch  
powdered sugar for dusting & optional whipped topping


Butter a 10 x 10 baking dish. Put the milk, cream,1/3 cup sugar, eggs, liqueur, vanilla, salt and flour in a blender and blend for 30 seconds to combine.


Toss the cherries, remaining sugar,and corn starch in a small bowl and transfer to the baking dish. Spread the fruit evenly over the bottom of the dish and gently pour the custard mixture over the top. Place in oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until just puffed, browned and set in the middle. The Clafouti will deflate as it cools, so, if possible serve warm directly from the oven, dusted with powder sugar and a dollop of whip topping.


Whipped Topping
8 ounce cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 TBL cherry liqueur   
1/2 teas vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream


Combine the cream cheese, sugar, liqueur and extract in bowl of a stand mixer. At medium speed beat the mixture until combined and softened. While the mixture is running, gradually add the heavy cream and whip until stiff peaks form.
serves 8

NOT FAST ENOUGH!!!

Spring is on hold. The snow was melting last week and I could see the grass. More snow came along and another storm is coming Thursday night. Spring is taking it's time.
Our Roundboy Oven's web page is being created and I had a peek at the site and it is coming along nice.
Karl and Harry met with a company to supply us with what we need to make improvements on how we make our ovens.
I am not patient, I like things to happen and happen fast! I can't wait to make pizza and I want to bake bread! I want the sunshine and to see the grass even if it is mud. I can't wait for our website so I can work on brochures and we can grow our business. I have so many ideas for my blog and want to get going on them. I have recipes ready to make and write about. I can't wait for the new improvements and designs even if I do not understand when Karl talks about them

I am forced to wait. I will keep knitting and be patient because this is all not fast enough......

PIZZA IS ALWAYS GOOD!

I have spent a month with a cast on my foot. I have been home and hibernating more then I have ever done. I am really surprised at how well I have done being stuck in the house! If you ask my family they would not agree. I am surprised at how fast the month went and I really enjoyed knitting,sorting thru papers and files and watching Netflix! Working in my salon for the past 30 years I am used to being with people and talking and hearing what everyone is doing. This time has forced me to enjoy doing nothing. It forced me to let someone do things for me and I hope I learned to let having control go a little. The letting go part is what I drove my family crazy over!
This brings me to talk about pizza! Sunday night my BFF Cathy and George invited Karl and I out for pizza to a local pizza place. Pizza is not something Karl and I eat out much anymore. We have gotten used to our own pizza with fresh toppings and wood fired of course. My son lives in New Jersey and he won't order pizza anymore because it never taste as good as our wood fired pizza. Karl and I were happy to get out of the house. Karl as much as I because he has been doing all the cooking this month and has been stuck around the house with me.
The pizza was good! We both love our pizza but we both agreed pizza is always good! George and Cathy are the friends that no matter where we go or what we do with them we have fun! Spending just a few hours out and laughing about Karl and I surviving my foot in a cast, the economy and how it changed our lifestyle and hearing how cute Bella ( George and Cathy's granddaughter) is was just what we needed. All this while eating pizza.
So what I think about now is that making our wood fired pizza, trying different recipes and playing with the fire and oven to make the pizza just right is fun and the pizza is always good! I think about making pizza this winter and having a pitch card game and pizza night like we did last winter to get thru the winter. I look forward to spring and summer and having parties around the oven while we bake pizza. The pizza is always good! Just like Sunday night at our local pizza place with George and Cathy and the pizza was good!
I think making pizza in a wood fired oven with fresh toppings and fresh tomatoes and our next favorite dough recipe is only part of what makes having a outdoor wood fired oven so wonderful. The real reason we love having a wood fired oven and making pizza and having people over is the oven is a reason to entertain to enjoy our back yard to spend time with my children and their friends and our friends and family. The oven is all about the social element it brought to my yard, it is a entertainment and social feature in my back yard that I could not live without! And the pizza is always good!

Baking Pizza in a Round Boy Oven

I asked Karl to fire up a Round Boy Oven so we can show you some pictures of the oven being used. I also asked him for some tips or tricks he could offer on using the oven. Karl gave me three tips as he told me "There is nothing to making pizza in the oven. It is simple.".
Tip # 1 get the oven roof to white hot.                                 
Tip # 2 Keep the fire to one side so you can turn the pizza to cook evenly.
Tip # 3 Lift the pizza with the peel as if to check the underneath to see if it is done, if the pizza bends in the center it needs more time. When it is done it will be crisp and it will not bend in the center.

Well it is easy! Here are the pictures of the oven baking pizza. 

 The pizza was delicious!