Plum Cake, or a Lucky Mistake

     I have been spending a lot of time putting up bounty lately.  Summer tomato sauce, tomato basil soup, blueberries and plums into the freezer, and so on.  I have been (mostly) staying ahead of said bounty, but the plums have caught me unawares.  I thought I had a bit more time, but evidently not.  And with a vacation looming, I am feeling guilty guilty guilty.  But the freezer is filling up, and I still have more.
     The other thing I have been doing is watching all of the episodes of The Great British Bake Off.  I even succumbed to accepting a (cough) pirated thumb drive with the elusive 3rd season yesterday.  I cannot reveal my sources.  GBBO is an incredible obsession.  This cooking/reality show where one home baker gets eliminated each week is all the rage in Britain, and PBS has taken it on, but has mysteriously only started with Season 4, calling Season 1, and making obsessives like me go crazy trying to find You Tube versions of the first 3 seasons.  All this has forced me to pursue a life of crime.  It's for a good cause!  I aspire to avoid soggy bottoms and improve my piping skills.  One never knows where this might lead!  But first, the plums.
     I had a solution for a couple cups of of them today, which has Bryce eating thirds for breakfast and demanding that I bake another cake.  I found a couple recipes for fruit filled cakes, one on Food 52, one in Alana Chernila's latest book, The Homemake Kitchen.  But the first called for peaches, the second for rhubarb.  Not my fruit problem right now.
     So, I ended up largely going with a Food 52 version, but made what would later be called a happy mistake.  Alana's version calls for 8T of butter, Food 52 for 6.  Oops, I used the 8T and had to adapt my recipe even more than I was expecting.  Also, frankly it was too sweet.  I already cut the sugar a bit, but would cut it even more.  The result:  a tender buttery cake with a crunchy top, that had NO trouble being consumed for breakfast.  Even though the fruit sunk to the bottom (a sin in Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood's eyes, but who cares?  I'm not on that reality show!) it is definitely worth a repeat.

Summer Plum Cake

heavily adapted from Food 52's version of Simple Summer Peach Cake

2 c. plums, pitted and sliced 1/2" thick

2T sugar

1/2t nutmeg

         

8T unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 c sugar (consider decreasing somewhat)

1 egg

1/2 c buttermilk (or thin yogurt, or clabbered milk, I used clabbered milk)

1/2 t vanilla

1/4 t almond extract

1 c + 2 T flour

1/2 c almond flour

1/4 t salt

1/4 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

Turbinado sugar

Toss plums, 2T sugar and nutmeg together, and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F.  Butter a 9" square baking dish

Cream butter and 3/4c sugar together, add egg, then buttermilk.  Add extracts.  

Whisk dry ingredients together and add to butter mixture, stir until combined.  Scrape into prepared pan and spread out batter.  

Drain the plums (juice will not be used), and place them over the surface of the batter, press them slightly into the batter.  Sprinkle with Turbinado sugar.  

Bake 40 minutes, or until golden brown on top, pulling away from the sides, and a cake tester/thin knife/toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool x 10 minutes, then let the crowds at it!

Zucchini re-invented

     We celebrated a 17th birthday yesterday.  Actually, this was a relatively low key event, in that the only thing that really occurred was a dinner.  However, it allowed me to pull out a few stops and create a menu that turned out to be a winner on all fronts.  The weather also cooperated, and we ate outside.  Considering the size of my house, this is a plus.

      I was given requests for hummus, flat bread and beef kebabs.  The rest was up to me.  I built this menu around that:  

Appetizers:  toasted almonds, salted pistachios, olives and marinated mozzarella balls

Dinner:  Bengali Shish Kebabs

              Hummus and Felaveri (Syrian Flatbread)

              Bulgur with almonds, green olives and raisins

              Tomato, pepper and cucumber salad 

              Zucchini Carpaccio

              Pavlovas with whipped cream, lemon curd and seasonal berries

     The entire meal went together fantastically.  The kebabs are Steven Raichlen's, the bulgur and tomato salad are riffs from Ottolenghi.  The zucchini dish was Patricia Wells.  This all underscores that, while I rely on online sources for some of my cooking, I also have a fairly sizable cookbook collection.  Okay, it's perhaps a hobby of mine, maybe even an obsession.  I have pared down over the years, and I don't have a roomful.  But they do take up a couple long shelves in my kitchen...

     Sometimes, you don't know what you want.  You know you want a certain style or region of cooking, and maybe even an ingredient (or maybe not).  Cookbooks give you gestalt.  Flavor.  Themes.  Sometimes they can take you in a direction completely unexpected.  I find that harder online.  Several sites try to help, but it isn't the same.  Perhaps that makes me a traditionalist.

     The zucchini is a great example.  I had a fair number of them (it being the season) and I had my fallback plan to grill them.  But thumbing through Patricia Wells' Vegetable Harvest gave me the winner.  I would never have come up with this on my own.  I would not have thought to research online for raw zucchini recipes.  Yet here it was.  

     This dish is inspired.  You need a mandoline.  This recipe relies on multiple super thin slices on the longitudinal of zucchini, marinated in a lemony vinaigrette.  This would be hard to uniformly achieve without one of these devices.  A steady hand and a vegetable peeler might be able to do it.  Her recipe then goes on to pair this with avocado.  I found that to be superfluous and skipped it.  I also forgot about the lemon thyme, but would add that the next time.  What gilds the lily here are the chopped salted pistachios.  The texture of the velvety zucchini with the mildly salty crunch of the nuts was nothing short of sublime.  Ask the guests, they were all converted.  

Zucchini Carpaccio

Adapted from Patricia Wells

Serves 4-8

In a small jar:

1T freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 t sea salt

1/4 c best quality olive oil

Shake to combine, set aside.

Using a mandoline, cut 2-4 zucchinis (see notes) into very thin lengthwise slices.  

Place on a platter and pour the lemon mixture over, making sure to coat all slices.  This should be done gently so as not to break them into smaller pieces.  

Let marinate at least 30 minutes, but an hour is best.  

At serving time, sprinkle 1/4 c chopped salted pistachios over the top.  Sprinkle with coarse salt to taste.  Garnish with a few sprigs of thyme.  

Notes:  This is a great example of where it is better to use a smaller zucchini.  Nothing longer than about 6-8", or larger than 1 1/2" across for these zucchinis.  I am not confident that a forgotten torpedo would be an acceptable option.  

Also, this is also a great example of where the ingredients are fairly simple, so using a really good olive oil is better, as it is a main stage player.  

Patricia Well's recipe as it is originally written can be found on Food 52.  It uses pistachio oil (might be a great one to try), and adds avocados.  I'm still not so sure about that.  She would also individually plate this recipe, which would be fine, but serving it on a larger platter also was lovely.  

     

Where Science and Art Meet, or Orange Honey Buns

     I love my daughter's school.   It spurs such creativity, and in the most interesting places.  As it is an arts-based curriculum, that means that art can take many forms and be found in many forums.  In her first year, there was this project in her geometry class that utilized a portrait and something about how to create it with triangles and rhomboids and such.  This year, she needed to use art to illustrate an issue that had to do with the constitution, such as a SCOTUS case.  She picked a case from Georgia about whether a gay couple had the right to privacy in their own home.
     Then there is her chemistry class this year.  This teacher really runs with it.  He asked them to create projects that illustrate chemical principles like alcohols and esters.  She had to create a board game that spoke to all of the material they learned.  And her final project was something about showing chemical transformations.  For Bryce, this did not involve a drawing or painting, something that she would be the first to say she doesn't have much skill in doing in any case.  No, she decided that food is art, and she made bread.
     Specifically, I taught her to make rolls.  These would be easier to transport, and divvy up and would not require a bread knife (a weapon, and thus verboten!).  I confess I sort of stole this opportunity to riff a little.  We agreed on rolls, and she wanted something with white flour, not whole meal flour.  From there I started thinking about rolls that are more like challah.  That led me to a few recipes (Smitten Kitchen's, The Hot Bread Kitchen).  Those appeared worthy, but didn't match my vision.  I wanted something sweeter, with a more pronounced flavor.  This is what ensued.
     These orange honey buns are rich, buttery and sweet.  The orange is almost a perfume.  I envision this as part of a brunch or breakfast.  Or tea time.  Even better, a great science-meets-art project, where the chemical changes in bread, sugars and yeast are a delicious way to show how we use chemistry in the kitchen every day.

Orange Honey Buns

makes a baker's dozen

1/2 c honey

5 T unsalted butter

zest of 1 orange

1/2c orange juice

         1.  Melt butter and honey in a saucepan over medium heat.  Let cool.  Add orange juice and zest, stir to combine. 

2 1/4t yeast (I use your standard active dry yeast, but bread machine yeast would be fine too)
1/2 c warm water
1 t sugar

          2.  Mix in the bowl of a stand mixer, unless you want to get your arm workout.  Let sit 5 minutes.

5c flour (+/-, you might need a bit more).
2 1/4t salt
2 eggs

After the yeast has had a chance to proof in the bowl, add 2 cups flour and start beating with the dough hook of the stand mixer.  Once incorporated, add the honey/butter mixture (make sure it's only warm and not hot).  Beat to incorporate, then add the eggs.  Continue to add 2 more cups of the flour and the salt,  and mix to form a dough.  It will probably be fairly sticky.  At this point, continue to add flour in 1/2 c increments, until it is no longer really sticky.  Continue to knead with the hook, and add small amounts of flour as needed although I found that no more than 1/2 c extra was required.  It should be a smooth, satiny dough that pulls away from the bowl as it mixes.  (I am sure this can all be accomplished by hand, but as this recipe starts off fairly sticky, it will take a dough scraper and some patience to get this to all come together.)

Use about 1-2 t oil to coat a large bowl, and turn the dough into this when finished kneading.  Flip so the top is oiled, and cover with a towel.  Set in a warm place to rise until doubled.  This will take 1-2 hours.  You know it's proofed enough when you can poke a finger in 1" or so, and it stays depressed.  Punch down, turn over and let rest.
Prepare your pans:  You will need 2 baking sheets, and I use parchment paper.



This dough will make 13 buns, about the size of a large plum or 1/2 of a peach.  Form into round buns, and place about 2" apart on the pan.  Cover and let rise another 1 hour or so, until doubled.  Again, you should be able to gently poke into the bun and it will leave a depression.   When you are about 3/4 of the way there, start pre heating your oven to 350F.
Egg wash:
1 egg with 1T water:  beat until uniform, and when the rolls are ready to go into the oven, brush with the wash.
Optional:  sprinkle each roll with Demerara or Turbinado sugar.
Bake for 18-20 min.  Remove to a rack to cool.

Spring Bounty with Yotam

     My friend Mark came over for dinner last night.  Ostensibly to discuss the desk he is going to build for me, it was also a great opportunity to cook.  Mark is one of the people I know who loves to cook, is good at it, and is quite omnivorous.  This allowed me to select a menu that sounded great, but was also a bit challenging to throw together perhaps, as I knew that I wouldn't have to do all of the work.
     Who better to utilize for such a menu than Yotam Ottolenghi?  His cookbooks are full of beautiful photos and great stories.  The recipes rarely disappoint either.  For some reason, I don't dip into them often enough, a habit I shall have to change.  Admittedly, this menu took a fair amount of labor to throw together, but could easily have been broken up into pieces, had I been more organized.
     It started with lamb chops, a recipe I have from some other source which I don't recall.  These are reliable and delicious, coated in garlic and herbs and grilled quickly.  The other dishes were from Jerusalem and Plenty More:   Chermoula eggplant with bulgur and yogurt, and Spiced chickpeas and fresh vegetable salad.  To finish:  a roasted rhubarb dish with sweetened labneh.  All are excellent!
     I love cooking with someone else who knows their way around a kitchen.  I set Mark off on the chickpeas and chopping while I did the eggplant.   It also helps to have excellent ingredients.  The eggplant and tomatoes are from the store, but the rhubarb, and herbs are from the garden.  The yogurt is Ellenos, which I confess I have become addicted to.  Other yogurts are embarrassed to be in it's presence.
     I think what makes Ottolenghi's recipes excellent is the really creative combinations of flavors.  You don't just roast the eggplant, you baste it with a spiced oil mixture first.  You don't just throw bulgur on top, you mix it with green olives and golden raisins and herbs.  You don't just chop some cucumbers and tomatoes, you make a lemony vinaigrette and then sauté some chickpeas in spices to warmly accompany it.  The rhubarb was inspired.  A prefect combination of sweet and tart and crunchy.
     The Chermoula eggplant recipe can be found online.  It would be easily made gluten free by substituting quinoa.  (I think rice might be too large a grain).  I quadrupled the cilantro.  I would use smaller eggplants, the longer skinnier versions, for ease, as the larger globe version is a bit much.  So, using 2 globe eggplants easily makes enough for 6-8 when served as part of this menu.  Then again, it was designed to be an entree.

     The chickpea recipe is also online.  The only adjustment I made was in deference to the clock:  I used a can of beans, and didn't cook my own.  It worked just fine.  May lightening not strike me.

    The lamb and rhubarb recipes are found below.   The rhubarb is easily made ahead of time.  It lends itself to modifications.  My suggestion:  Make the whole batch of recipes for a fantastic meal in late spring and wait for the accolades to flow in!

Baked Rhubarb with Sweet Labneh 

adapted from Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi

This recipe serves 4

1 pound rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2" pieces

7T muscat or other sweet dessert wine (orange juice would work as well)

5 1/2 T sugar

1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, and seeds scraped

1 lemon:  you want the rind, 1/2 shaved in strips, 1/2 tested

3T shelled unsalted pistachios, coarsely chopped

1 1/2c plain Greek yogurt

3-5T powdered sugar

Place the rhubarb in a baking pan that fits them all snugly.  Place the lemon strips, vanilla and seeds around them, sprinkle with sugar and then wine.  Bake at 400F x 20, until tender but not mushy.  Set aside to cool.

Mix yogurt with powdered sugar to make it slightly sweet, or to taste.  Add lemon rind, chill until ready to serve.  

To serve:  Place yogurt in a serving dish, top with rhubarb, spoon some of the cooking juices on top, then sprinkle with pistachios.  

Thyme Rubbed Lamb Loin Chops

serves 4, or more if you are making all of the recipes

2 garlic cloves

salt

1 1/2t thyme leaves

1/2 t red pepper flakes

1 T cider vinegar

2T extra virgin olive oil

8 x 1" thick lamb loin chops

Prepare grill for direct cooking over medium high heat. 

Mince and mash garlic to a paste with 1/4t salt, add the remaining ingredients and coat the chops.  This can sit a short while if needed.

Oil grill rack, and grill the chops, covered, until grill marks appear, approx 6 minutes total for medium rare.  Let rest x 5 minutes.  

Possibly the Best Dessert (at least in a long while)

     I had a group of folks over for dinner yesterday.  The entire meal was admittedly amazing, and almost every scrap was eaten (always a good sign).  You can never predict these things.  Sometimes I make too much food, sometimes the food is not as memorable.  Sometimes the company doesn't gel as well.  Who knows.   Suffice it to say this one was a hit.
     The menu bears repeating, and all components are worth making again (coming around again on the guitar, as I like to say).  Chicken and beef lemongrass marinated satay skewers with peanut sauce.  Coconut rice.  Asian slaw.  The first two can be found on FineCooking, and I didn't mess with the recipes.  The Asian slaw was adulterated a bit, in terms of the vegetable ingredients, but I didn't do anything with the dressing.  I think it would benefit from some chopped roasted peanuts, but was otherwise delicious.  This was also found on FineCooking.
     It was the dessert that was, in my mind, inspired.  I had a vision.  It's spring, and from the garden come only a few things just yet, but one is rhubarb.  The other is eggs.  Those girls are laying a lot of eggs.  The daughter has been requesting custard for a while.  I kept trying to envision how I would do this:  a custard with a sauce?  How would the sauce work, as I didn't want to fiddle with unmolding the custards, and in fact, was thinking brûlée.  Then it struck me: a layered arrangement.
     I would like to say this was an original idea.  Turns out it's not.  I found a few versions of this online, but I have never heard of it.  One referenced Jamie Oliver.  So maybe it's an English thing.  But not in this part of the world.  So I am going to do my part to spread the word.  I knew the dairy and rhubarb combination was good already, as I have made a meringue pie with a rhubarb layers.  Why does no one speak of this method?  Society surely needs this.
     The rhubarb is roasted, which concentrates and caramelizes the sugars,  and is also a completely unattended way of cooking it.  This can be done ahead of time, and brought to room temperature when you are ready to use it.
    The custard is basically the same one in Richard Sax's book Classic Home Desserts.  That is, it's the same with the exception of the fact that he doesn't have a brûlée recipe, just a Pots de Creme.  But when all these elements:  rhubarb, custard, brûlée are combined, the results are well worth it.  Additionally, this sort of brilliant dessert is mostly made ahead of time, and in steps, making it a great option for a multi course meal.

 The rhubarb before the custard is added

 I used Turbinado sugar in this recipe, as the versions I saw insisted this was the key.  It is NOT.  It doesn't brûlée well, and gets somewhat granular.  Plain white sugar does a more even job.  

Rhubarb Creme Brûlée

serves 6

Adapted partially from Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax

10 oz rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1/4-1/2" pieces

6 T sugar

juice of 1/2 tangerine, or about 3T fresh orange juice

          

1 c. cream

1c. milk

1 vanilla bean, split down the middle, or 1 1/2t vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

1/3c sugar, plus extra 

Lightly oil a 13 x 9 baking pan, and roast the rhubarb at 375F x 1 hour.  It should be very soft and lightly caramelized.  Remove from the oven and stir together, adding the 6T sugar and the tangerine juice.  Set aside to cool, or chill until ready to use, then bring to room temperature. 

Heat the cream and milk, add the vanilla bean, allow to infuse x 30 minutes, then remove.  Beat the eggs and yolks and sugar together, and add the heated milk to this carefully so as not to curdle it.  Scrape out the inside of the vanilla bean and add.  If you are using extract instead, add it at this time.  

Strain as you pour this into a large measuring cup or other vessel that makes it easy to decant it.  

Place the rhubarb into custard cups, about 2-3T per cup, depending on the size cup you are using.  

Using an inverted teaspoon to prevent the rhubarb from displacing or mixing with the custard, pour the egg/milk mixture over the spoon and into the custard cup until within 1/4" of the top.  

Place all of these cups into a large baking pan (13 x9) and pour hot water in the pan until it comes halfway up the sides of the cups.  Bake at 300F x 25-30 minutes, or until the custard is nearly set, with only a slight jiggle in the center.  Remove from oven and cool.  

When ready to serve:  sprinkle a fairly generous amount of white sugar over each custard and using a blow torch, caramelize the sugar until it is melted and turning amber.  Allow to set briefly, and serve. Await accolades.  

Notes:  If a blow torch isn't available, this can be done in the oven under broil.  I haven't tried this, but I have heard it is possible.  

I only used the tangerine because it was available.  

I made a double custard recipe, and served this the second day with a rhubarb compote, as I had custards without the rhubarb underneath.  This is also brilliant, if you want an alternative way to present this.  

Single Serving Pie, or What To Do With Extra Crust

     I am in an energetic and enthusiastic cooking and baking phase.  This seems to coincide with the acquisition of a few items....a couple new cookbooks, my new Kitchenaid, the ever improving status of my kitchen-in-remodel.... all have convened to create a higher level of inspiration than in previous months.  It could also be that the days are getting longer, making all items of greater interest to me.
     The Kitchenaid is a great forward move.  I have had the same previous mixer for about 20 years, and it was a bit inadequate from the get-go.  This new one has more power and can take the volume of 2 loaves of bread dough.  What do do?  I must put it though its paces.  So this weekend has been filled with a batch of cinnamon swirl bread, pie dough, cookies (Bryce's endeavor) as well as a chocolate cake with frosting for the Hoover Boys (this is the name I have given Bryce's friends who come over to play D&D.  I love having them and they are very friendly and polite.  They can also eat a frightening amount of food).  All have been excellent.
     Today's efforts, however, are worthy of mentioning here.  I made the pie dough for 2 reasons:  First, as mentioned above, to text the behavior of the Kitchenaid.  It's big enough, I should name her.  Freda?  Sounds good.  But I didn't actually need both crusts, only 1 for dinner yesterday ---a quiche.
So today I was faced with a request to make a pie, so that Bryce could bring a piece to school for a friend.  This posed the complicating question of how it would hold up on the bus and in the backpack.  Which is when I recalled that I had these small tartlet pans that I had never used.
     The pans have always intimidated me, as I have never actually baked with these before.  But they would solve the transport and durability question.  The next issue was the recipe.  I riffed a recipe from Dorie Greenspan's book Baking for an Alsatian Apple Tart, with great success.

     Basically, this uses pie crust---please don't consider using store bought, in simply isn't tender enough or flavorful enough, in a tartlet pan.  It is filled with thinly sliced apples, with a custard poured on top, and then baked.  They were delicious.  It would probably work with a tart crust as well.  It would work with pear as well.
     I am sure it would work as an entire tart, as written, but I had other goals in mind....

Alsatian Apple Tartlets

based on the recipe from Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking

makes 6-8 tartlets

1 pie crust, chilled.  (I used the recipe from Alana Chernila's book, The Homemade Kitchen)

2-3 sweet-tart apples

1/3-1/2 c heavy cream

1 egg

3 T sugar

pinch salt

freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350F.  Lightly oil the tartlet pans.  Roll the crust out and cut into rounds the same size as the pans, and fit inside, trim the excess.  Repeat until all the dough is used.  I broke rules and re-rolled the scraps with no real discernible negative effect.

Peel, quarter, core and slice the apples thinly.  Neatly place into each pan, filled about 80-90%. 

Beat egg, sugar, salt and cream, in a container with a spout, and pour over each filled little apple collection.  The apples will sit proud of the cream somewhat.  

Grate a small amount of nutmeg on top. 

Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes, until custard is set and crusts are golden.   

A Taste of the Tropics for the Dark Months

     So I am blessed with a great group of friends.  We were thrown together through our children:  preschool coop and kindergarten primarily.  They are all 16 +/- now.  Our kids don't go to the same schools.  They are all only's or one of two's.  Maybe that's the lynch pin.  They all, curiously, amazingly, get together and seem to resume their conversation and relationship even though it may have been months since we last gathered.
     I believe we would get together if this were not the case, but it is one of those great superlatives that our kids enjoy each other's company as well.  And they are now at an age where you can have an intelligent conversation with them.
     We had one of those get togethers the other day.  My task was the dessert.  What to serve a fairly large group of people, which makes for a refreshing and not-too-filling dessert?  Oh did I mention that it needs to be gluten free?  There are many things that fit that bill, to be sure.
      Luckily for me, I had just engineered just such a dessert recently.  To boot, it is somewhat tropical in flavor, which, given the cold and dark season we are in, makes it a welcome option.  It's not February yet, but I am already beginning the slog toward the days of longer light.  Any illusion of light and the tropics fits my bill.
      This used to be a pie.  I don't know the original source, but find the same version (more or less) on Fine Cooking.  But I don't generally make it as a pie anymore.  Neither do I use the same topping that is included in that recipe.  I haven't had tapioca for a while either, so that was substituted.  So by now it is a cousin of the original recipe anyway.  But to my mind, this is a better version.  The blueberries really get to stand out here.

Blueberry Lime Crisp 

adapted from Fine Cooking

serves 4-6

2 pints blueberries  (see notes)

1/2 c. sugar

3 T cornstarch

zest and juice of 2 limes

Crisp Topping:

1 c. almond flour

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c unsalted butter, at room temp 

1/8 t kosher salt

1 c. regular oats

1/4c unsweetened flaked coconut

Preheat the oven to 425F.  Mix sugar, cornstarch and lime zest together.  Add the berries and lime juice.  Place in a pan large enough to hold this (a 9" square pan works well).  If the berries are frozen,  cover the pan with foil, and bake 15-20 minutes.  They will not be completely thawed after that, but it's fine.  

Make the crisp topping:  mix the flour, sugar and salt. Add the butter, mix until well blended. Add the oats and coconut.  It should be lumpy.  Cover the berries with the topping.  

Decrease the oven temp to 375F, and bake the crisp for another 20-30 min, or until it is bubbling and the topping is golden brown.  

Notes:  you can use fresh or frozen berries.  This doubles well, use a 9 x 13" pan or similar size.  The cornstarch is an estimate.  If you use less the juices will be looser, and the topping may sink into the berries somewhat.  It will still taste good, but may not be as pretty in appearance.