It took me a couple of weeks and a lot of practice but I finally got it.

The idea for this dessert came from a half-empty bottle of maple sugar. I really wanted to make frozen yogurt with it. Which turned out to be a fantastic idea – the extreme sweetness of maple is but a pleasant hint in the tangy frozen yogurt. Though I’ve had great success with making homemade yogurt, I’ve recently adopted Friendship as my yogurt of choice. It’s sold in the bodega downstairs from my apartment in quarts (the perfect size for blending with sweeteners, flavorings and dumping right in the ice cream machine), is much cheaper than other brands of yogurt, is all-natural and is the absolute thickest yogurt I’ve ever come across, easily beating out Greek yogurts that are four times the price. (Just a note, I don’t have sponsorship from these guys or anything, I just REALLY dig their yogurt.)

Sandy, yummy buckwheat flour.

Shortly after I had mentally filed the concept of maple frozen yogurt into a crevice of my brain, I was inspired by the tasty streusel we made at work for some pear cobblers and decided to play with a buckwheaty streusel to go with the frozen yogurt.

It's from a rectangular pan but I decided I liked triangular slices for this.

Shortly thereafter, I got pan-guilt and decided I NEEDED to use my rectangular tart pan more often – I’d only used it once! The shame!

Not enough apples...a pretty accident.

I also had a jar of tiny wild Maine blueberries that my aunt had preserved with sugar a little cinnamon. Last winter I enjoyed some with yogurt for breakfast many mornings, so I decided Maine wild blueberries were in. While I was at it, I figured an all-out tribute to my original home of Maine was in order, and ordered up a Benriner (I’ve actually already used it three times and it’s really fun) to add a layer of MacIntosh apples to the party. I sliced them paper-thin, and really could’ve gone thicker…after a day in the fridge the pie/tart thingy’s blueberry layer had soaked clear through the apple layer, turning the whole thing a tie-dye of purpleness. But I actually think the dessert is prettier this way…white apples would have made the dessert look kinda stormy; blueberry skies, on the other hand, are pleasant on both land and sea.

Wonderfully blueberry-ish, with tangy yogurt and crunchy, earthy streusel...yum.

Blueberry Sky Beach, Maine

Buckwheat Brisee Crust

1. 155g cake flour
2. 30g buckwheat flour
3. 1/2 tsp salt
4. 1/2 tsp sugar
5. 95g unsalted butter, cut into small chunks and frozen
6. 50 mL ice cold water

Sift together the dry ingredients and place in the bowl of a stand mixer or food processor, or on a bench if working by hand. Add the cold butter and beat, pulse or cut until the butter is the size of small lentils. Slowly add the water and gradually work it in until a rough dough forms. Don’t use all the water if you don’t have to. Work out any dry spots by hand by mixing with a bowl scraper or on the bench and wrap tightly in plastic. Chill thoroughly before using. When ready, roll out to desired shape and size at 1/4″ thick. Line your pan and bllind-bake in a 350F preheated oven until the crust is crispy but doesn’t take on much color. While hot, use the back of a wooden spoon or the end of a solid wooden pastry rolling pin to press down any bubbles in the middle. Allow to cool before filling.

Buckwheat Streusel

1. 155g AP flour
2. 40g buckwheat flour
3. 150g sugar
4. 1/4 tsp cinnamon
5. Pinch salt
6. 110g unsalted butter, melted & cooled slightly

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. Pour melted butter in and combine with hands until clumpy but still crumbly. Chill thoroughly before using. Once ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350F and spread the streusel evenly on a lined baking sheet. Bake, raking the streusel around every 5 minutes or so, until the streusel is crispy and a few pieces begin to take on color. Allow to cool before using.

Maple Frozen Yogurt

1. 1 quart good quality, thick natural yogurt
2. 1/2 cup maple sugar
3. 1/4 cup sugar
4. 2 Tbsp vodka (or maple liqueur if you’re lucky enough to have some on hand)

Whisk all ingredients until fully combined, then churn in an ice cream maker or by hand. Freeze until hard and scoopable.

The chippy garnish thing nestled in beside the frozen yogurt is a piece of blueberry bark that my mom sent me. It’s basically blueberries that were mashed and dehydrated. They add another textural element of crisp to the dessert, as well as an extra hit of blueberry flavor.

This dessert is very good – earthy and just sweet enough, with a lot of breakfasty flavors that remind me of where I came from. The streusel looks incredibly like the sand at the beach I used to visit with my family and eventually briefly lived near, which has been eroded like crazy over the last few years. I created my own little piece of the beach on one end of the plate and cut the rectangular tart into a wedge that I think resembled both a sailboat and the ocean, with the little squiggly fluted edge like a wave cresting towards the quenelle happily resting on the sand.

But! Fear not! Because I am here to share a very simple, VERY easy recipe that has been wanting to get out of my brain and into my kitchen for a couple of months now.

What manner of frozen delicacy might this be?

“But Anna,” you might say. “Isn’t it a little bit chilly out to be churning things up in the ice cream maker?”

“QUIET, YOU!” I would reply. “THIS IS ALL I HAVE TIME FOR. Besides, it’s SEASONAL. And pretty healthy. And REALLY yummy. Yeesh, just put on another sweater while you eat it or something.”

Cinnaminnaminnamon!

“Seasonal?” you’d query. “What could possibly be seasonal about something you’re keeping in the freezer in DECEMBER?”

“Duh,” I’d say, “IT’S GOT SEASONAL FRUUUUUIT.”

Yum yum.

“What manner of fruit is this?” you’d scoff. “It looks kinda like pumpkin, which, may I remind you, IS A VEGETABLE.”

“Ha!” I would say dismissively. “Shows what YOU know. This is, in fact, made with a fruit, though it can be squash-like in texture if it’s still hard.”

“What,” you would reply expressionlessly.

“PERSIMMONS, FOOL!” I’d shout, pelting you with the squat little orange fruits, which I have in abundance since the grocery store downstairs sells them five for $2.

"Thanks for sparing me!" says Mr. Persimmon. "But Mr. Persimmon," says I, "you have a greater destiny: lunch."

Persimmon Frozen Yogurt

1. About 6 large-ish Fuyu persimmons (yielding 2 1/4 cups puree)
2. 3 cups Greek or other thick yogurt (please don’t use something with additives like gelatin, it’ll throw off the texture and be kind of unpleasant – all you need is milk and cultures)
3. 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp sugar
4. 2 Tbsp vodka (I actually used tequila because it was either that or blackberry brandy…yeah)
5. 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
6. 1/8 tsp ground ginger

Peel the persimmons and cut them into large chunks. Puree in a blender, then add the rest of the ingredients and puree until smooth and homogenous. Churn in an ice cream maker or follow these handy-dandy instructions to machine-free chilly treats.

Oh yeah, sorry I threw fruit at you. I’m under a lot of pressure these days from school. And I’m very excitable lately. And I have OH MY GOD SO MANY COOKIES TO GET TO SOON (gettin’ the feeling they may be NEW YEARS cookies). If it makes you feel any better, you can keep the fruits I just bounced off your cranium and go make this awesome frozen yogurt.

Z had to ask if I had used any food coloring in this...the answer is no.

Yogurt is fine for me because it contains happy little enzymes that break down the lactose for us. How nice of them!

It really is a lovely color.

Blueberry season is SO ON right now and what goes better with a big, healthy bowl of yogurt than some lovely, antioxidant-laden little berries o’ blue? Not an awful lot, I can tell you that. Blueberries, yogurt, honey, a little lemon…and chamomile! I always feel bad because I don’t think I use chamomile enough and it really is a wonderful flavor. Don’t worry, little chamomile, you’ll get your time to shine on this site soon enough. For now, please accept this delicious supporting role!

Not bad for you at all...if you can forget about the sugar (alcohol is a health food right?)

Sometimes with great combinations of flavors, one ingredient will set another off in an unusual way or the flavors will create something wholly new together. That’s not the case here – this is one of those combinations where you taste each flavor pretty much distinctly one after the other, but in a great way that feels like a little adventure every time you take a bite. First you get the tangy surprise of “hey, this is yogurt, not ice cream!” and then you get blueberry, glorious blueberry! With a hint of honey. And then, once you swallow, your mouth goes “ahhhh…chamomile.” And then you smile.

Remember Kids: Use really good yogurt for your frozen yogurt. Don’t do what I did and buy a big container of fat free, pectin-ized stuff just because you’re broke (and trying to drop a couple ice cream-induced poundages). Greek/strained yogurt is great, homemade is better.

The blueberry flavor is as intense as the color.

Blueberry Chamomile Frozen Yogurt

1. 1 pint blueberries, rinsed & drained
2. 2 Tbsp water
3. 1/4 cup honey (I used blueberry honey but lavender, clover or wildflower would all work wonderfully)
4. 1 tsp or so lemon juice
5. 1 bag chamomile tea (or 1 Tbsp loose dried chamomile flowers in a tea ball/stick)
6. 4 cups plain yogurt
7. 3/4 cup sugar
8. 2-3 Tbsp vodka

Combine the blueberries, water, honey and lemon juice in a medium saucepan over medium heat. With a potato masher, smash most of the berries so that they are broken down slightly but not completely obliterated – you do still want a few whole ones in there. Add the tea and simmer until the blueberries have cooked down some and are in a thick syrup of their own juices and the honey. Remove the teabag (give it a squeeze before you take it out) and chill the blueberry mixture (either with an ice bath or just transferring it to another container in the fridge). Once the blueberries are cold, place them in a large mixing bowl along with the yogurt, sugar and vodka. Stir until fully combined, then churn in your ice cream maker or follow my handy-dandy instructions for making ice cream and other such frozen treats without a machine. Freeze until hardened and scoopable.

I ate some plain for breakfast and it was great on a hot morning. It would be delicious sprinkled with a honey or cinnamon granola.

I almost left them this way...but no.

Well, not REALLY downhill. I did, after all, make these fairly wonderful cupcakes.

Ah, that's better!

The nut on top may look a little out of place what with those sugary little sprinkles, but they both serve their purpose.

You want the breakdown?

Toasted hazelnuts are one of the nicest kitchen smells.

Well, raspberries are lovely with yogurt. So I found a nice-sounding recipe for yogurt cake. My vanilla extract isn’t quite ready yet, so I scraped myself a nice juicy bean and called it vanilla yogurt cake. As you can see from the first picture, I pressed a raspberry into the middle of each cupcake before baking. Before I pressed each one in, I dropped a tiny bit of rose water into the middle of each raspberry. Just because.

You could call the sprinkles unnecessary, but really, when are sprinkles ever not necessary?

The cupcakes came out smelling incredible, but the raspberries were quite tart. I considered filling the middle of each with a little blood orange marmalade I made this past winter, but I wasn’t sure if it was good or not (there were little bits of white stuff in the marmalade that I decided was either pith or mold and figured I should play it safe). I settled for just dropping a bit of agave nectar into each one to give it a more neutral sweetness.

Crumbly little cupcake stub!

I’m not entirely sure where I got the idea to add orange and hazelnut (well, besides an excited late-night session with the Flavor Bible when I first found out this month’s theme) but I’m glad I did. I used a little Frangelico (my absolute favorite drink…yes, straight up…well, usually on the rocks) and a whole lot of orange zest. I also toasted some hazelnuts, which is what you see on top there. Oh, toasty hazelnuts…

There's that raspberry!

So, yes, there is a lot happening in these little guys. But it’s all quite nice together – the cake is soft and sweet and the raspberry provides a burst of juicy tartness in the middle, with the barely-perceptible rose water enhancing the red berry flavor and giving the whole thing a lingering floweriness. The natural sweetness of the toasted hazelnuts is deliciously rounded out by intense, creamy orange. Yummm.

There's a lot going on here, but trust me, it works.

Raspberry Yogurt Cupcakes with Orange and Hazelnut

First, Make the Cakes:

1. 2 eggs
2. 1 cup plain yogurt
3. 1 cup sugar
4. 1/3 cup vegetable oil
5. Seeds from 1 vanilla bean
6. 1 tsp light rum
7. 2 cups AP flour
8. 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
9. 1/2 tsp baking soda
10. About 1 cup fresh raspberries, washed & drained
11. Rose water

Preheat the oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, yogurt, sugar, oil, vanilla and rum. Stir gently until well-combined. In a separate smaller bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add to the yogurt mixture and mix well. Pour into lined mini muffin tins. Press a raspberry into the middle of each one, with the open side of the berry up. Add 1 tiny drop of rose water to the inside of each raspberry. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cakes are puffed and lightly golden around the edges. Cool slightly in pan, then remove to wire racks to cool completely before finishing.

Then, Make the Frosting:

1. 3 egg yolks, room temperature
2. 1/2 cup sugar
3. 3 Tbsp water
4. 1/2 lb. (2 sticks/1 cup) unsalted butter, soft & cut in Tbsp
5. Zest of 1 orange
6. 1 Tbsp Frangelico
7. Few drops each yellow and red food coloring

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the yolks on high until light and foamy, about 5 minutes. While they’re whipping, combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan over high heat and bring to a temperature of 248. Turn off the mixer and drizzle some of the syrup in, then turn it on and mix it in, alternating off and on until all the syrup is incorporated. Whip until cooled to room temperature. If there are any large chunks of solidified sugar after that, remove them – they won’t break down and there isn’t enough sugar in them to make the frosting any less sweet. Switch to the paddle attachment and turn the mixer to medium-high, then add the butter 1 Tbsp at a time, waiting for each addition to be fully incorporated before adding the next. If the frosting curdles, just wait it out and let the mixer beat the air back into it – it’ll work itself out. Beat in the orange zest, Frangelico and gradually incorporate the food coloring until you have a light orange (or a brighter one if you want).

To Assemble:

1. Cupcakes
2. Agave nectar, honey (orange blossom would be lovely) or marmalade
3. Frosting
4. Toasted hazelnuts*
5. Red sprinkles (optional)

Place a tiny amount of your sweetener of choice into the middle of each raspberry. Place the frosting in a pastry bag fitted with an open star tip (if it’s not big enough the zest may clog the tip) and cover the raspberries with a small piped pile of frosting. Place a hazelnut on the top of each pile of frosting and add sprinkles, if desired.

*To toast hazelnuts, preheat the oven to 350. Spread the nuts out in a single layer on a baking pan and bake for about 10 minutes, until the nuts are fragrant and have blistered skin. Remove to a kitchen towel. Wrap the towel around the nuts and rub the skins off. Allow to cool completely before using.

Our June ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

• A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935
• A groovy linocut piece from BLOCKHEAD PRESS http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6108705
  
• a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice – sweet!

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .

That's not cake, or frosting, and that's DEFINITELY not sprinkles.

Partially inspired by my recent adventures in yogurt-making, but mostly because of my love for chickpeas, I decided to make falafel “cupcakes.” They’re really just baked falafel in foil cupcake wrappers, with some homemade cucumber-yogurt sauce on top, but they’re tasty and they qualify.

Not pictured: totally awesome fluffy pitas, which do not add to the cupcake illusion, hence the non-inclusion.

Like most vegetarians (and many omnivores) I really love falafel. It’s awesome stuff. So I thought it deserved a little tribute and a little special treatment. Plus the first and only other time I’ve tried to make them at home they fell apart in the frying pan (and then exploded all over the inside of the microwave when I heated up the leftovers of what I’d managed to salvage).

Parsley, chickpeas, cumin, yogurt, cucumber...what more could you want?

I’m going to make another batch of these in the next couple days and may season them a bit more. I don’t think I’d feel that way if I hadn’t had some crazy-flavorful falafel in New York. You can’t really buy fresh falafel around here so making my own is my only option. Fresh parsley goes a long way towards helping, as does copious amounts of cumin. And then there’s the super awesome yogurt sauce. Which I will definitely be making with every batch of falafel from now on.

Falafel “Cupcakes” with Cucumber-Yogurt “Icing”

Paprika sprinkles!

First, Make the Falafel:

1. 15-20 oz. chickpeas, cooked & drained (canned is fine)
2. 1 small onion, chopped
3. 1/2 tsp chopped garlic
4. 1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
5. 2 Tbsp AP flour
6. 1 tsp ground coriander
7. 1 tsp ground cumin
8. 1/2 tsp baking powder
9. Salt & pepper
10. Pinch cayenne pepper
11. 2 Tbsp olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350. Drizzle the oil in a large, shallow baking dish and set aside.

Mash the chickpeas and blend in the onion and garlic. Add the remaining ingredients to form a thick paste. Shape into golf ball-sized balls and place, evenly-spaced, inside the baking dish. Bake 18-22 minutes, turning halfway through baking. Place on a plate lined with paper towels to soak up excess oil.

Then, Make the “Icing”:

1. 1 cup plain yogurt, preferably strained/Greek-style
2. 1/2 cup shredded cucumber, drained
3. 1 lime, zested & juiced, with juice divided
4. 1/2 tsp ground cumin
5. 1/2 tsp salt
6. Paprika, for sprinkling

Combine all ingredients except paprika in a medium bowl and mix well. Keep refrigerated.

Place each falafel ball into a small foil cupcake wrapper and top with a generous amount of yogurt sauce. Sprinkle with paprika.

I am planning on a second entry this month (with actual cake involved!) but it’s going to take a bit of experimentation. There are components I need to make for the first time, not to mention I don’t have the proper equipment to make the kind of cakes I want. It’ll be an adventure!

Obligatory Iron Cupcake Earth Official Information:

Our May ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

• A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935
• something sweet and dangly from CHERRYCREEKCHARMS at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6686445.
• a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice – sweet!

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com