doughadear

Pane di Fichi - Fig Bread

2012-02-07T13:00:00.007-05:00

I am sure I have mentioned before my weakness for fruited breads. Whether it is raisin, cranberry, blueberry, currant or you name it, it is sure to make me salivate. And if I am in a bakery and I spy a loaf of crusty raisin bread then you can bet it will find its way into my shopping cart, even if I know that I have a couple of homemade loaves in the freezer. I don't care that I can feel my hips expanding with every bite, (well maybe a little) the sheer pleasure each sweet morsel brings outweighs the cons. And not only that, once in a while for a special indulgent treat I top a slice or two with soft, melt in your mouth blue cheese like cambazoola. This delightful fig bread by Carol Fields is no exception.

In her book The Italian Baker she describes this bread as "succulent and delicious as well as easy to make" and it is. This bread probably dates back to the middle ages when the Sunday bread was enriched with honey, fruit and nuts. Fortunately we don't have to have this bread on Sundays only. Paired with some soft cheese it really is a treat to eat. The only problem is limiting how many slices to allow yourself.

The recipe produces one round loaf but I divide the dough into three smaller portions. That way I can freeze a couple of loaves and enjoy them on a later date.

I highly recommend this deliciously sweet bread and whether you have it for lunch or for breakfast, you can't go wrong.

Pane di Fichi - Fig Bread

2-1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast or 1 small cake (18 grams) fresh yeast
1 cup warm water
1½ tablespoons olive oil
About 3 cups (375)grams unbleached all-purpose flour, plus 2 tablespoons for the figs
1 teaspoon (5 grams) salt
1 cup (200 grams) figs, preferably Calimyrna or Greek string figs, cut into about 12 pieces each

Stir the yeast into the water in a mixer bowl; let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in the oil with the paddle and then 3 cups flour and the salt. Mix until the dough comes together. Change to the dough hook and knead until velvety and moist, 3 to 4 minutes.

First Rise. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Filling. Toss the figs in 2 tablespoons flour to coat the surfaces. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Without punching it down, pat the dough into an oval and spread half the figs evenly over the surface; roll up the dough. Pat the dough into an oval again and sprinkle evenly with the remaining figs; roll it up again. Shape into a round loaf, being gentle but, at the same time, pulling the skin taut over the figs. Place the loaf, rough side down, on a lightly floured peel or oiled baking sheet, cover with a towel, and let rise until doubled, 1-¼ to 1-½ hours.

Baking. Thirty minutes before baking, heat the oven with a baking stone in it to 450°F. Sprinkle the stone with cornmeal just before sliding the loaf onto it. Bake 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375°F. and bake 15 minutes longer. Cool completely on a rack.

Yeastspotted.

Fresh Trout with Capers - Just the Recipe

2012-01-28T18:00:00.001-05:00

If you enjoy fish I highly recommend this very easy and tasty pan seared trout.

Fresh Trout with Capers
As seen on CityLine by Massimo Capra

Coating the filets with egg before frying helps seals in flavour, plus it keeps the trout nice and moist.

Ingredients
4 x 8oz trout filet
2 large eggs
3 tbsp capers
1 lemon, juiced
Salt & pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter

Method

Crack the two eggs in a bowl and season with a little salt and pepper, beat them well and place the washed trout filets in them. Set aside.

Preheat a skillet and place the butter and oil in it, remove the trout filet from the egg and place into the foaming butter skin side up.

Cook until golden brown and then turn, add the capers and cook until done (about 2 minutes), sprinkle the lemon juice and remove from the fire after 30seconds.Remove from the skillet and place on top of a ragú of cauliflower, squash and leeks.

26% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread with Seeds

2012-01-12T14:30:00.007-05:00

I have never considered myself to be a wimp but it seems that I am. I found a recipe for Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread with only 50% whole wheat for those who prefer less whole wheat in their bread on Rose Levy Beranbaum's site which she describes as her new favourite sandwich bread. For those of us who prefer even less whole wheat in our bread she modified the recipe to 26% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread and titled it Special for Whole Wheat Wimps and that would include wimpy old me. Really, there is nothing wimpy about this bread at all. In fact it is a wonderful sandwich bread that even with only 26% whole wheat it is elevated to a healthier version than plain old white bread. I then proceeded to up the ante for an even healthier bread by adding some seeds. This recipe with a small amount of old sourdough added to it produces a lovely to work with dough and baked in a 5 x 9 loaf pan you are rewarded with a large loaf of bread worthy of man sized sandwiches.

If your omit the old sourdough Rose instructs to bake the bread in a 4 x 8 loaf pan instead. I have to admit I prefer the smaller pan size for sandwiches so next time I make this and want to keep the old sourdough in the recipe I will just remove a small portion of dough and shape it into a roll and bake it together with the loaf.

If eating this bread makes me a wimp then I will proudly carry the label, and as I am sure there are many of you out there let us raise our hands in solitarity or better yet let us roll up our sleeves and bake this amazing bread.

You can find the recipes here: http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2008/06/whole_wheat_sandwich_loaf.html

http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2008/08/special_for_whole_wheat_wimps.html

Yeastspotted.

Apple Pecan Olive Oil Cake for Thanksgiving

2011-10-06T12:08:00.002-04:00

There is nothing that says fall better than an apple cake and this one from Chatelaine recipes is pretty easy to assemble and looks amazing when baked. So with our Canadian Thanksgiving just around the corner I hope this cake inspires you to bake it for your own feast.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

APPLE PECAN OLIVE OIL CAKE

Ingredients
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1 1/2 cups peeled, grated apples (about 1 1/2 apples) preferably Granny Smith
• 1 firm red apple, preferably Royal Gala, cut in half and thinly sliced
• 15 pecan halves

• FOR GLAZE:
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
This moist, delicious cake is chock full of apples and nuts, plus the goodness of whole wheat and olive oil — and it’s dairy-free! Pretty enough for parties, it’s also perfect for brunch

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Insert the base of a 9-in. springform pan lip-side down. Lightly spray with oil, then line with parchment. Set aside.
2. Whisk flours with cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk egg with granulated sugar and 2/3 cup oil in a large bowl. Stir fl our mixture into egg mixture. Stir in chopped pecans and grated apples. Scrape into prepared pan and smooth top. Arrange overlapping apple slices around edge of cake. Arrange pecan halves in one layer in centre. Make glaze by stirring brown sugar with 2 tsp olive oil and 2 tsp water in a small bowl. Microwave until sugar melts, 30 sec. Brush apples and pecans with half of mixture. Reserve the rest.
3. Bake in centre of oven until a tester inserted into centre of cake comes out clean, about 45 min. Transfer to a rack. Brush top of warm cake with remaining sugar mixture. Run a knife between the pan and the outer edge of the cake, then remove ring. Gently remove cake from base. Let cool completely, about 1 hour. Serve with whipped cream. Keeps well at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Flipping the base of a springform pan will make it easier to remove the cake.

Open Faced Peach Tart

2011-09-25T16:09:00.014-04:00

I mentioned in the previous post that I had a couple of entries that should have been posted in August. This is number two. I thought I'd better get it in before it would no longer be relevant to the season.

August is always bittersweet for me; the sun is noticeably setting earlier and earlier and warm days give over to cooler nights, signalling the lazy days of summer coming to an end. But the sweetest part of August is the incredable peaches that are at their peak. Our peaches come from the picturesque Niagara region just a short hour and a half drive south of Toronto, and they are at their peak from around the middle of August to early September. They are wonderfully juicy and sweet to eat as they are, but as a summer dessert, who can resist peaches baked in a flaky pastry?

So here it is, an open faced peach tart that is to die for. I could easily eat this pie all year long. You certainly can get peaches at the market all year long but they are never as good as they are right now, so I try to make as many in this short period as I can and with no regard whatsoever to the state of my waist.

I found this wonderful recipe by Bonnie Stern in the newpaper. If I recall the introduction to this tart recipe correctly, she was at at friend's cottage when she decided she would make an open faced peach tart for dessert. She didn't have a rolling pin to roll out the dough so she used a bottle of wine instead. Now that's what I call quick thinking and making do with what you have on hand. I love making this tart because it is so easy to assemble; just one piece of dough to roll out, no fluted edges to fuss over and no slitting the top.

The pie dough is prepared and set aside.

The peaches are tossed with flour, brown sugar and cinnamon to coat well and centered onto a rolled circle of dough. You must remember to place the dough on parchment paper before adding the filling or you'll never move it onto the baking sheet. I have found the easiest way to do this is after you have rolled out the dough to fold it in half, then in half again and center it over the parchment paper before opening it up again.

The dough is then folded over to encase the peach filling.

And brushed with an egg wash which will give the dough a nice sheen and bake up golden brown.

The pie dough is further enhanced with a sprinkling of turbinado sugar and put into a hot oven to bake.

I like to serve it barely warm with a scoop of ice cream.

To change it up I have added sweet plums along with the peaches

or paired the peaches with blueberries.

Open-Faced Peach Tart

Pastry

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt and sugar
¾ cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
¼ cup ice water or more

Filling

4 large peaches, sliced but not peeled
½ cup brown sugar
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. cold butter diced

Topping
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp. coarse sugar

For pastry, place flour, salt and sugar in large bowl. Mix together, Add butter and cut into flour with a pastry blender or your fingertips. Add water and toss mixture until moistened. Lightly knead into a ball. You will probably need an extra few tablespoons of water. You can do all this with a food processor if you have one.

Roll dough out on a floured surface to a 12 inch circle. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Toss peaches in centre of pastry. Fold the edges over the peach mixture overlapping as you go leaving centre open. Brush pastry with egg and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake in a preheated 425 F oven for 20 minutes. Lower heat to 375 F and bake 30 to 40 minutes more, until golden.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Grilled Pizza

2011-09-12T21:00:00.013-04:00

I have a couple of blog entries that I should have posted in August but I was so busy, including a trip to Florida for a week, that I just kept putting it off. So I finally had to bite the bullet and sit myself in front of my computer and write about this wonderful grilled pizza. By the way the term bite the bullet comes from pre-anaesthetics days where soldiers who unfortunately needed amputation of limbs from war injuries were given a bullet to bite on to help endure the pain and prevent them from biting off their own tongue, while the limb was sawed off. Of course writing about grilled pizza really isn't painful at all, as a matter of fact it brings back memories of a delicious way to make pizza without heating your kitchen in the middle of a sweltering summer.

First you have to prepare the dough and you can use any favourite pizza dough. This one happens to be Fougasse Dough by Patricia Wells that I've written about before. The dough is divided; I've divided it into four pieces and each piece is stretched out on parchment paper to fit half of my barbeque grill. The parchment paper helps to transfer the dough to the grill.

The dough is placed under a large plastic tent where they are left alone to rise for about half a hour or so.

When the grill is preheated and ready I transfer two sheets of dough to my deck table.

I lift one of the sheets and quickly and nimbly invert the dough onto the hot grill. When I first heard of grilling pizza I had visions of dough dripping down between the grills making a sloppy mess. Instead as soon as the dough hits the grill it coagulates and firms up immediately. I leave the parchment on the dough until it has firmed up and then peel it off carefully. At this point with your tongs on hand you lift a corner of the dough to inspect for grill marks and to access if the heat has to be adjusted. You don't want it to be too hot otherwise the dough will burn before you put the toppings on.

I completely forgot to take pictures of toppings ready to go, so please imagine a bowl of tomato sauce, sliced mozzerlla, fresh basil leafs, and sliced prosciutto nearby.

When the underside of dough has nice grill marks like this and the top has bubbled up you turn it over and quickly start adding the toppings. It is also wise to wear oven mitts to protect your hands from the heat. At this point I add another sheet of dough on the other half of the grill.

Really you can add any toppings you wish. The key here is to not overload the dough. I think the simplicity of a Pizza Margarita works very well here. I upped the anti on a couple of the pizzas by adding sliced prosciutto after they came off the grill. I think this method of cooking pizza is the next best thing to a wood burning oven. It is incredibly delicious. I especially like to have it with a mesculin salad which makes quite a memorable meal.

I wish those poor soldiers had had this to bite on instead of that awful bullet.

Latticed Blueberry Pie

2011-07-12T18:58:00.002-04:00

In my last post I made a blueberry pie from Martha Stewart's Pies & Tarts. I didn't lattice the last pie because I thought it would be fussy and since the pie in the book is latticed I thought for my second pie I should at least try it. It turns out it wasn't fussy at all. As a matter of fact the cut out leaf patterned pastry was probably a bit more involved. Who knew? So here it is.

Unfortunately I didn't photograph the weaving of the strips of pastry dough. But it is quite simple to do with alternate flipping of the strips.

I didn't have a fluted pastry wheel so it probably isn't as asthetic as it could have been, but I was pleased with the way it turned out.

The recipe is on the previous post.

Blueberry Pie

2011-06-24T20:00:00.003-04:00

Ah June, hockey season is finally over and blueberries are in season, fresh and abundant at the grocery store. On the day that the Stanley Cup would finally be handed over to either Boston or Vancouver I came across the most amazing looking blueberries while shopping. We were having friends over to watch the game and I decided that I would make a blueberry pie for dessert. Normally making a blueberry pie wouldn't even enter my mind (hubby doesn't like blueberries, or most fruit for that matter) but I had recently purchased Martha Stewart's Pie and Tarts and remembered an amazing looking blueberry pie in the book. Martha's version has a latticed topped pie but I find the process of proper "latticing", i.e. weaving the strips of dough, too time consuming so I opted for an easier method of just rolling out the dough and cutting out leaf patterns, with my nifty leaf pattern cutters from William Sonoma that would provide vents to allow the steam to escape and the leaf cutouts would be "glued" over the crust for a decorative finish.

The filling is so easy! Just wash the berries and pick through for any bad ones (I think I discarded only one from a 2 lb. container) and add some sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and lemon juice. This is far easier than making apple pie (which hubby loves - he likes apples) which eliminates the peeling and chopping. The blueberries are piled onto a pastry lined pie plate and topped with the decorative pastry.

The pie is fluted and brushed with milk and sprinkled with a dusting of sugar. Martha brushes her pastry with an egg wash but I find my method also works well. The pie is baked in a hot 400 degree oven for 20 minutes and then the temperature is lowered to 350 degrees and baked for 55 minutes more.

It comes out of the oven golden and beautiful, with some of the bubbling filling oozing from the vents.

After my son had a slice he asked me why I've never made blueberry pie before. Our friends enjoyed it as well, though they weren't happy at all that Vancouver had lost. Hubby on the other hand was so thrilled that Boston won (he was rooting for an original six team) he didn't even notice the pie.

Blueberry Pie

Pastry
(Pate Brisee)
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup of ice water.

Pulse flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor (or whisk together by hand in a bowl). Add butter, and pulse (or quickly cut in with a pastry blender or your fingertips) until mixture resembles coarse meal, with some larger pieces remaining. Drizzle 1/4 cup water over mixture. Pulse (or mix with a fork) until mixture just begins to hold together. If dough is too dry, add 1/4 cup more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse ( or mix with a fork).

Divide dough in half onto tow pieces of plastic wrap. Gather into two balls, wrap loosely in plastic, and press each into a disk using a rolling pin. Refrigerate until firm, well wrapped in plastic, 1 hour or up to 1 day. (Dough can be frozen up to 3 months; thaw in refrigerator before using.

Shortening Variation: Replace 1/2 cup of butter with 1/2 cup of cold vegetable shortening cut into to small pieces.

Filling

2 lbs. (about 7 cups) fresh blueberries, picked over and rinsed.
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 large egg yolk, for egg wash (I used milk or cream)
1 tablespoon heavy cream, for egg wash
Fine sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400 F. On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 disk of dough to 13-inch round, about 1/8 inch thick. Fit dough into a 9-inch pie plate.

In a large bowl, toss together berries, granulated sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and lemon juice until combined. Pour mixture into pie plate piling in center.

On lightly floured surface, roll out remaining disk of dough to 13-inch round. To make lattice, cut dough into ten 1-inch wide strips using a fluted pastry wheel. Lightly brush edge of dough in pie plate with water. Carefully arrange dough strips on top, weaving to form a lattice. Trim dough to a 1-inch overhang. Fold edges under as desired, and crimp with a fork. In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolk and cream for egg wash; brush on top of dough strips and edge of pie shell. Generously sprinkle with sanding sugar. Refrigerate or freeze pie until firm, about 30 minutes.

Transfer pie plate3 to a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet, and bake until crust begins to brown, about 20 minutes. Reduce heat o 350 F. Continue baking until crust is deep golden brown and juices bubble, 55 minutes more. (If crust browns too quickly, tent pie with foil.) Transfer pie to a wire rack; let cool completely, at least 3 hours, before serving.

Alpine Baguettes - Alpler Baguette

2011-06-18T08:00:00.007-04:00

These wonderful baguettes by Clemens Walch who has a bakery at the base of a ski slope in Lech in the beautiful Austrian Alps are so good that Daniel Leader included the recipe in his book Local Breads. I was drawn to this bread because of my favourite mixture of seeds in the dough, mainly sunflower, pumpkin, flax and sesame along with some rolled oats.

The seeds and rolled oats are soaked the night before to plump up and soften.

The recipe has a small amount of German rye sourdough which gives the bread a slight tang. Daniel Leader gives instruction for developing a rye sourdough culture but I have to admit that I cheated here. Making his rye sourdough culture from scratch would have meant waiting for almost two weeks to develop and I just didn't have the patience for that so I used my regular sourdough culture and refreshed it a couple of times with rye flour and water. By then there was enough rye flour in the culture that I was pretty confident that it would work as well.

The one problem I found in the recipe was the high hydration. The dough was quite wet and even after 15 minutes of mixing with the KitchenAid the gluten wasn't developing as I thought it should. I will confess that I ran out of bread flour and had to use unbleached flour so this may have caused the problem but I just added more flour along with a handful of rye flour and the dough came together just fine. It still had to be poured out of the mixer into a rising container but after a two hour rise it was manageable on a well floured surface. Next time I'll try decreasing the amount of water used to soaked the seeds and oats. I preshaped the divided dough by folding rectangles of dough into thirds and allowed them to rest covered for 10 minutes.

After the rest they were easily shaped into long baguettes, covered and allowed to rise for another 40 minutes or until they looked puffy and light.

They baked up beautifully and they crackled nicely when they were removed from the oven, a sign that they were ready.

This recipe is definately a keeper, as a matter of fact I now keep a rye culture in my fridge along with the regular sourdough culture.

The crumb is lovely and toothsome with a nice crisp crust. The only complaint I had with this bread was that there was not enough salt for my taste, so next time I'll have to remember to add a bit more salt and it will be perfect. I really like this bread alot.

Alpine Baguettes

Yield: 3 thick baguettes, ~12 inches long (368 g each)
Ingredients:

100 g mature, 100% hydration rye sourdough

28 g rolled oats

28 g sunflower seeds

28 g pumpkin seeds

28 g flax seeds

28 g sesame seeds

525 g water, divided

5 g instant yeast

500 g unbleached bread flour

10 g sea salt

Refresh the rye sourdough 12 to 24 hours before mixing. Also, pour the rolled oats and seeds into a bowl and cover them with 175 g water. Soak them overnight, so that they swell and soften.

When you are ready to mix the final dough, pour the remaining 350 g water into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the yeast, bread flour, soaked oasts and seeds, and salt with a rubber spatula. Stir down the rye sourdough and add it to the mixture. Stir well to combine.

Use the dough hook and mix the dough on medium-low speed (3 on a KitchenAid mixer) for 8 minutes. Turn off the machine and scrape the hook and the sides of the bowl. Drape a piece of plastic wrap over the dough and let it rest in the bowl for 10 minutes. Turn the mixer back on to medium-low and knead until the dough is smooth, silky, and elastic 5 to 7 minutes more.

Transfer the dough to an oiled container. Cover it and let is rise until it has doubled in volume (2 to 2 1/2 hours).

An hour before baking preheat the oven to 450 F with a baking stone and steam pan.

Divide the dough into three equal pieces. Flatten one piece of dough into a rectangle and fold it into thirds like a business letter. Turn it smooth side up. Repeat this process with the other two pieces. Cover the piece lightly and let rest on the counter for 10 minutes.

Shape the pieces of dough into a baguette about 12 inches long and 2 inches wide. Dust a piece of parchment paper with flour and place the baguettes on it, seam side down, about three inches apart. Cover lightly. Proof the baguettes at room temperature until they are puffy and light, 30-40 minutes.

Slide the baguettes into the oven. Bake them with steam for 10-15 minutes and without steam for another 10-15. Turn the oven off and leave the baguettes in for another 5-10 minutes. Let the loaves cool for at least 30 minutes on a wire rack. These are delicious enjoyed warm.

Chocolate Biscuit Cake

2011-06-13T11:51:00.015-04:00

Way back in the sixties my mother used to make a cake that was called the Salami Cake. It was made with a chocolate batter and broken biscuits, the kind that you would serve with tea. The broken biscuits were mixed until well coated with the batter and then rolled into a cyclinder wrapped in aluminum foil and refrigeratered until firm. When the roll was sliced it resembled salami, the broken cookies looked like the bits of fat in salami. I used to really like it but like so many recipes this one was lost and forgotten about until this recipe for Chocolate Biscuit Cake which was featured on the Oprah show on the day William and Kate were married brought back memories of the Salami Cake.

This cake was made for Prince William as a groom's cake because it was his favourite cake. I decided to make it because it reminded me so much of the cake I had loved.

The biscuits are broken into almond sized pieces

Butter and sugar are whipped until very light and then the melted dark chocolate is mixed into the mixture.

An egg is added and mixed until well incorporated.

The cookies are added to the batter and mixed until well combined and then the mixture is poured into a greased 6 inch cake pan. I used a springform pan which worked very well.

The cake is refrigerated for a few hours. Meanwhile more dark chocolate is melted and put aside to frost the cake when it has set.

It looks very nice. However the cake doesn't slice nicely. I probably did not compress it enough into the pan. The chocolate coating is also hard and brittle so getting a nice clean slice was impossible.

Nonetheless it was well received by my family including my mother who was over for dinner.

My son said it reminded him of dobosh, a multi layered chocolate torte that is a favourite around here. My husband who wasn't going to try a piece decided to give it a try when he heard that it was similar to dobosh torte and liked it. It was very different from the cake I had known as it wasn't as easy to slice and the distinct almond flavour in the salami cake was missing here. I was glad I tried it, though I don't know that I would make it again. Then again I just might as I have a feeling my family may request this cake again.

Chocolate Biscuit Cake
by former royal chef Darren McGrady

Servings: Makes one 6-inch round cake (8 portions)

Ingredients

1/2 tsp. butter , for greasing
8 ounces Rich tea biscuits
4 ounces unsalted butter , softened
4 ounces granulated sugar
4 ounces dark chocolate , for the cake
1 egg
8 ounces dark chocolate , for coating
1 ounce chocolate , for decorating
Directions
To make cake: Lightly grease a 6" x 2 1/2" cake ring and place on a tray on a sheet of parchment paper.

Break each of the biscuits into almond-size pieces by hand and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until the mixture starts to lighten.

Melt the 4 ounces of dark chocolate and add to the butter mixture while constantly stirring.

Beat the egg into the mixture.

Fold in the biscuit pieces until they are all coated with the chocolate mixture.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake ring. Try to fill all of the gaps on the bottom of the ring because this will be the top when it is unmolded.

Chill the cake in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

To coat and decorate: Remove the cake from the refrigerator and let it stand while you melt the 8 ounces of dark chocolate.

Slide the ring off the cake and turn it upside down onto a cake wire.

Pour the melted chocolate over the cake and smooth the top and sides using a palette knife.

Allow the chocolate to set at room temperature.

Carefully run a knife around the bottom of the cake where the chocolate has stuck to the cake wire and lift it onto a tea plate.

Melt the remaining 1 ounce of chocolate and use to decorate the top of the cake.

Panettone

2011-06-04T15:00:00.015-04:00

I know that panettone is a Christmas sweet bread and we are well into spring but I woke up with such a graving for a slice of this sweet bread that I just had to bake one up. There was no time to bake a superior panettone made with a pre-ferment; that would have meant waiting another day so I had no choice but to refer to a reliable straight dough recipe from Canada's Best Bread Machine Baking Recipes by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt. I only use my bread machine to mix the dough and then I proceed as with any bread and bake it in the oven. This recipe is simple to make as you just dump all the ingredients in the mixing chamber of the bread machine. The bread is scented with a grating of lemon rind, cardamon and marsala and studded with plump raisins. I omitted the currants and candied citron and added more raisins. The marsala isn't part of the recipe but it adds so much to the panettone's flavour. Sometimes I soak the raisins in the Marsala before adding them to the dough but there was no time for that. I had bought dry milk a while ago as it saves you the step of scalding milk so I thought I would try it out in this recipe and substituted the cup of milk with a cup of water and 1/4 cup of dry milk and hoped for the best.

The dough is lovely and soft and rolled into a ball and placed in a panettone pan.

I proofed my dough in large plastic bags where it is left alone for a while.

When I checked it the dough had risen well over the top of the pan. I've made this recipe many times and I don't remember the rise being so significant. I think the dry milk contributed to the awsome rise.

The oven spring was also significant and I was rewarded with this lovely tall, domed sweet bread. Before baking I had to adjust the rack to the bottom of the oven to allow room for the dough to rise and not hit the top of the oven.

A trick I discovered was to invert the panettone into the pan to cool. The top crust is strong enough to support the panettone and hold it in place without sinking back into the pan. If you cool it in an upright position the panettone can collapse onto itself while it is still warm. Some books suggest using a pillow to support a cooling panettone but this method works as well.

When the panettone was still warm I sliced into it and I was quite pleased with the crumb. I could now finally have a slice with a cup of coffee. My graving was sated.

Italian Panettone

1 cup (242 gr.) milk or 1 cup of water and 1/4 cup dry milk

1 egg

2 tbsp. (42 gr.) honey

1 tsp. salt (I used 1-1/4 tsp.)

2 tbsp. butter

3 tbsp. marsala

3-1/4 cups (460 gr.) all-purpose or bread flour

1/2 tsp. cardamon

2 tsp. bread machine yeast (instant yeast)

1/2 cup raisins, (plumped in 3 tbsp. brandy or marsala)

1/2 cup currants

1/3 cup candied citron

Measure all ingredients except currants, raisins and citron into baking pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Insert pan into the oven chamber. Select Sweet Cycle. Add currants, raisins and citron at the "add ingredient" signal.

I use the dough cycle and allow the dough to rise twice and then shape it into a ball in place it in a panettone pan. I allow it to rise until doubled and then bake it in a 350 F. oven for about 40 minutes or until the top is golden dark brown. If the top is browing to quickly then tent it with a sheet of aluminum foil.

Cool as shown above and enjoy.

Yeastspotted.

Beef Teriyaki - Just the Recipe

2011-04-28T20:00:00.003-04:00

With the warmer days ahead you will want to spend as little time in a hot kitchen as possible. This easy and tasty stir fry dish can be whipped up in about half a hour.

Beef Teriyaki

1 lb. boneless beef sirloin steak ¾” thick
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1-3/4 cups beef stock
2 tbsp. soya sauce
¼ cup teriyaki sauce (optional)*
1 tbsp. packed brown sugar
¼ tsp. garlic powder or 1 tsp. fresh
4 cups broccoli flowerets
1 red pepper, slices
5 thinly sliced mushrooms
4 cups hot cooked rice

Slice the beef into very thin strips. If the beef steak is slightly frozen it is easier to slice.
Set aside. In a bowl mix cornstarch, broth soya, stir-fry sauce, sugar and garlic. Set aside.

Stir-fry beef in a nonstick skillet or wok until browned and juices evaporate. Add broccoli, red pepper and mushrooms and cornstarch mixture. Cook until mixture boils and thickens, stirring. Serve over rice.

Note: I use 2-1/2 cups Uncle Ben’s converted rice cooked in 5 cups of boiling water.

Blooming Coffee Cake Ring

2011-04-19T23:00:00.009-04:00

It is well past the middle of April and although spring has officially arrived you would never know it. Cold temperatures continue with howling cold winds and yes it was snowing just this past weekend. My poor tulips are still in tight buds with no sign of blooming anytime soon and so it seems that the only thing blooming around here is my coffee cake.

But this is where I stop carrying on about our dreary spring and write about this wonderful coffee cake that I have been baking every Christmas and Easter for probably the last twenty years.

It has become a tradition to have this for breakfast on these special occasions and also to have it on our dessert table along with other goodies.

This coffee cake ring is filled with sugar, brown sugar, chopped walnuts and cinnamon. The recipe also has raisins in it but I omit them because hubby doesn't like them. Many years ago when my children were very young I use to make another version of this bread that was filled with apples, nuts, sugar and cinnamon. My children don't remember this bread ever being filled with apples but my nephew Robb (with two b's) who was probably seven or eight years old at the time does. When I began making it without the apples my clever nephew began referring to this bread as the Appleless Apple Coffee Cake and almost twenty years later he still does.

It is a delicious sweet bread that isn't terribly difficult to make. It takes a little more effort than just shaping into a loaf but in the end you are rewarded with a handsome yeasty coffee cake.

I bake them ahead of time and store them in the freezer and on Easter morning I drizzle them with a vanilla icing.

Happy Easter.

Yeastspotted.

Blooming Coffee Cake Rings

Makes 2 rings
Sweet-Roll Dough

2 pkg. dry yeast
¼ cup warm water
1 cup milk, warmed
½ cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
½ cup butter, softened
3 eggs
5¼ to 5-¾ cups all purpose flour

Note: If eggs are refrigerator cold, pour hot water over them and let stand for several minutes to warm before cracking.
Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water in a small cup or bowl, stir, and let stand for a minute of so to dissolve. Combine the milk, sugar, salt, butter, and eggs in a large mixing bowl, and beat well. Stir in the dissolved yeast. Add 2-1/2 cups of the flour, and beat until smooth and well blended. Add 2-1/2 cups more flour and beat until the dough holds together in a rough, shaggy mass. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a minute or two. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Resume kneading for 8 to 10 minutes more, gradually sprinkling on a little more flour if the dough sticks to your hands, until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk.

Punch the risen dough down, and it is ready to be formed and baked according to other recipes which call for Sweet-Roll Dough. You can also freeze the dough at this point, or store in the refrigerator for a few days in a tightly covered container.

Filling

½ cup sugar (100 gr.)
½ cup brown sugar (95 gr.)
1 tbsp. cinnamon (10 gr.)
1 cup chopped walnuts (110 gr.)
¼ cup melted butter
1 cup raisins
Boiling Water

Place the raisins in a small bowl and pour boiling water over them to cover, if using. In another bowl, combine the granulated and brown sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, and nuts, mixing well.

Divide the dough in half. Roll one half on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 8 inches wide and 20 inches long. If the dough is difficult to roll and constantly springs back, let it rest for a few minutes, then continue rolling. Brush the surface of the dough with 2 tablespoons of the melted butter. Sprinkle half the sugar-nut mixture evenly over the dough. Drain the raisins is using and pat them dry with paper towels. Sprinkle half the raisins over the dough. Gently press the filling into the dough with our fingers. Roll u the long way, to seal. Turn the dough so the seam is on the bottom. Form the dough into a circle by bringing the ends together, overlapping them lightly, and pressing firmly to seal. Roll out, fill, and shape the second coffee cake the same way. Grease one large or two smaller cookie sheets – if you have a sheet about 14 x 18 inches, you can fit both rings on one. Transfer the cakes to the baking sheet or sheets. With a pair of scissors, or sharp knife make twelve to fourteen deep cuts all around the outside of each ring. Turn each out slightly to expose the cross-section. Cover and let rise for about an hour, until puffy and swollen, but not quite double in bulk.

Bake in a preheated 375 F oven for 25 to 30 minutes (reversing the sheets form top to bottom and front to back if you are baking on both racks), until nicely browned. Remove from the oven and slide rings onto racks and cool completely.

To make the glaze: Combine the confectioners’ sugar and water, and mix until perfectly smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the warm cakes.

Buttery Chocolate Chip Cake

2011-04-10T21:00:00.014-04:00

As soon as I saw this cake on Rose Levy Beranbaum's site today I promptly headed out to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients so that I could make it for dessert today. This is my kind of cake, easy to make, packed with flavour and studded with chocolate chips that would satisfy the chocoholics in my family. This delicious cake is the creation of Lisa Yockelson and it is a keeper.

The cake is made with butter, sugar, eggs, and egg yolk, vanilla, flour, baking powder, salt and plenty of miniature chocolate chips and moistened with half and half which give the cake a lovely richness and tender crumb. The batter whips up beautifully and it is poured into a prepared bundt pan. After baking for one hour it has risen well over the top of the pan and is golden and ready. After ten minutes it is inverted onto a rack to cool.

It is sprinkled generously with icing sugar after it has completely cooled.

After dinner we all had a slice and it was devoured. It was given rave reviews by everyone and there is no doubt in my mind that this cake will be made again many times. It is the perfect snacking cake, the kind you serve with a good cup of coffee or a large cold glass of milk.

Buttery Chocolate Chip Cake

Lisa Yockelson

3 cups flour

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

2 1/3 cups miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs plus 1 extra yolk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup half-and-half

Confectioners' sugar (for sprinkling)

1. Set the oven at 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch Bundt pan. Dust the pan with flour, tapping out the excess.

2. In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt to blend them.

3. In another bowl, toss the chips with 2 tablespoons of the flour mixture.

4. In an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium speed for 3 minutes. Add the granulated sugar in 3 additions, beating 1 minute after each. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the extra yolk.

5. With the mixer set on low speed, add the flour mixture in three additions alternately with the half-and-half, beginning and ending with flour. Scrape down the bowl often with a rubber spatula.

6. Remove the bowl form the mixer stand. With a large spatula, stir in the chips.

7. Spoon the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Bake the cake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake is clean when withdrawn, and the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan.

8. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Carefully invert the cake onto the rack to cool completely.

9. Dust the top of the cake with confectioners' sugar.

Basic Hearth Bread - Multi Grain Version

2011-03-29T21:00:00.007-04:00

I hadn't made a multi grain bread in a while and I thought it was high time to whip up a few loaves, one for now and a couple for the freezer for a later date or to give away. I turned to a favourite recipe that I found on Rose Levy Beranbaum's site a while ago and that I have made several times. This recipe appears on Harvest King Flour bags but the recipe on her site has extra tips and variations which you can find here http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2006/11/harvest_king_flour_tips_and_re.html.

I increased the recipe by 50% so that I could have the extra loaves. For the grains I added 10-grain cereal mix, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and flax seeds that I purchased at the bulk food store. Although the recipe did not specify to soak the grains, I did by mixing a half cup of warm water and the grains (not the seeds) in a bowl and let them sit for about half an hour. I just had to decrease the water in the recipe by half a cup and proceed with the recipe. The dough mixes up beautifully and looks lovely speckled with all the healthy grains and seeds. My machine struggled a bit because of the extra dough but it managed to mix for the specified time of seven minutes.

After two risings I divided the dough and decided to shape them in long free form loaves each weighing about 440 grams.

The kitchen was cool so they doubled in about an hour and a half and then they were ready for the hot 450 F. oven. I sprayed them with water and threw in some ice cubes on the cast iron tray on the floor of my oven for steam. After ten minutes I lowered the oven to 425 F. and continued baking for another 25 minutes.

They baked up beautifully golden and after removing them from the oven they crackled so I knew they were done. I allowed them to cool for about an hour before having a slice with butter.

This bread is really good and I can hardly wait for breakfast to have a couple of slices with jam.

Yeastspotted.

Granola - Just the Recipe

2011-03-26T20:00:00.000-04:00

For a really good and satisfying breakfast mix some of this healthy granola with plain yogurt. For a special breakfast presentation layer yogurt and granola in parfait glasses.

Granola

Active time: 10 min start to finish: 50 minutes

4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2½ cups sliced almonds (½ lb)
1 cup chopped pecans
1½ cups sweetened flaked coconut
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup honey
½ tsp vanilla
1 cup dried cranberries (5 oz)
1 cup golden raisins (5½ oz)
½ cup dried blueberries

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 300°F. Line a large shallow baking pan with foil and oil foil.

Toss together oats, almonds, pecans and coconut, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together oil, honey and vanilla, then stir into oat mixture until well coated. Spread mixture in baking pan and bake 20 minutes. Remove from oven and stir the mixture around and return to oven for another 20 minutes until golden brown. Stir in cranberries, raisins and blueberries, then cool completely in pan on a rack.

White Shrimp Pasta - Just the Recipe

2011-03-12T08:00:00.002-05:00

A very tasty pasta dish that can be prepared in the time that it takes to boil the water and cook the linguine.

White Shrimp Sauce

2 tbs. butter
3 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 small onion, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
pinch sage
2 oz. white wine
1 cup whipping cream
2 oz. chicken stock
1 lb. small or medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 lb. linguine, cooked and drained

In a saucepan or wok on medium heat melt the butter and add the garlic, onion, and shallot and sauté for a few minutes until the onion is softened.

Add the sage, wine, cream and chicken stock and simmer for 10 minutes or until slightly thickened.

Add the shrimp and cook until the shrimp turn pink, about 3 minutes.

Add the cooked linguine to the pan and toss to coat. Allow to sit for a few minutes, then toss the linguine again and serve.

Pandoro Bread Pudding

2011-02-26T08:00:00.009-05:00

I think bread pudding served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream is probably my favourite comfort food. And yet until the last couple of years bread pudding was not something I ever had and now I feel that I may have missed out all those years. As a matter of fact the thought of a pudding made with bread really didn't do much for me but over the years I became curious about this concoction that I would hear others rave about so I thought that I would like to at least give it a try. I came across a recipe for Panettone Bread Pudding in the food section of the Globe and Mail newspaper a couple of years ago by Lucy Waverman, cookbook author, food writer for the Globe and Mail and cook extraordinaire who lives here in Toronto. Mmm I thought, panettone was right up my alley, being raised in an Italian family and having an uncle who owned an Italian bakery in Little Italy, who made panettone regularly, not just for Christmas, I was practically weened on it.

I was quite excited to try this recipe, after all panettone, studded with plump sweet raisins, and candied peel and flavoured with lemon peel and vanilla, is no regular bread. So using panettone and all these flavours that I was familiar with, instead of plain bread, suddenly made this sweet dish sound more appealing to me.

Putting it all together is simple enough. Panettone is cut into cubes and put into a large bowl, eggs are beaten with the cream and milk, salt and vanilla are added and poured over the bread and mixed until moistened. This is poured into a buttered baking dish and baked in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. In the oven it puffs up and the wonderful sweet scent fills the kitchen.

I can still remember when I first tasted this incredible bread pudding, I knew I was hooked for good. In the article Lucy Waverman described this as the best version she had made over the years and all I can say thank you for this wonderful recipe. I may have missed out all those years but now I can make up for it by making it whenever I can get my hands on panettone.

For this version I adapted her recipe but substituted Pandoro for the Panettone and added about half a cup of sultana and golden raisins. I can honestly say it is just as good.

Nowadays it seems you can only get panettone and pandoro at Christmas time so I buy a few boxes and since it has a long best before date I store them in my cold cellar just for making bread pudding.

Submitted to YeastSpotting.

Panettone Bread Pudding

Serve with softly whipped cream and marinated fruit salad.

1 panettone
6 eggs
1 cup whipping cream
2 cups milk
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Butter a 9 x 13-inch baking dish and set aside.

Cut panettone into 2-inch cubes and remove dark brown crusts. You will need about 10 cups. Place in a large bowl.

Whisk together eggs, whipping cream, milk, sugar and vanilla.

Pour over panettone and toss to coat. Transfer panettone and custard to prepared baking dish, squishing the pieces around to absorb custard and to fill pan in an even layer.

Set aside for at least 45 minutes or wrap well and place in the refrigerator overnight.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Bake bread pudding for 35 to 40 minutes or until deep golden brown and puffed.

Cut into pieces and serve warm or at room temperature. Serves 6 with leftovers.

Pandoro Bread Pudding

6 eggs
1 cup whipping cream
2 cups milk
2/3 of a Pandoro
½ cup of a mixture of sultana raisins and golden raisins.
1/3 to ½ cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Proceed as above.

When I made this I only used about 2/3 of the Pandoro because it was quite large. If you have a large crowd and want to use the entire pandoro you can increase the recipe by 1/3 to 1/2 and it should still work out.

Pecan & Molasses Scones with Vanilla Glaze

2011-02-17T08:00:00.003-05:00

It's kind of funny how I have come across three different scone recipes in the last few weeks and all from different sources. It's not like they are seasonal, like say strawberry shortcake in June, where you would expect a deluge of recipes for the dessert. Nor did I seek these recipes. The first, Dried Cranberry Scones, was featured in the food section of the National Post, the second, Scones Two Ways, was posted on Marie Wolf's blog Breadbasketcase that I follow, and the third, Pecan & Molasses Scones with Vanilla Glaze was in the new Food & Drink, a free magazine put out by our LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario).

I made all of them slightly altering them one way or another to suit my taste but keeping the body of the recipe intact. For the Dried Cranberry Scones I followed the recipe almost exactly except that I added grated orange peel. I was very happy with how they turned out, until I tried the Cream Scones (Scones Two Ways) using cranberries and orange peel instead of dried apricots or nuts as Marie did. Also instead of using a food processor I made these the conventional way in a bowl. They were far better than the first I made and I think the whipping cream in this recipe, instead of milk used in the last recipe made all the difference. When I saw the photo for the Pecan & Molasses Scones in Food & Drink and seeing as I was in a scone making phase how could I but not make these. By now I had made scones using milk and scones using cream and I was confident that substituting some of the milk with the cream in this recipe would only enhance the flavour and produce a lighter textured scone.

Dried Cranberry Scones - National Post

Cream Scones with Cranberries and Grated Orange Peel (Scones Two Ways - Breadbasketcase)

The method is the same for all of them; cut butter into flour, baking powder and salt mixture, add nuts or dried fruit and bind together with cream and flavourings. Once you gather the mass into a ball, flatten into a circle and cut into wedges but this particular recipe instructs to divide the dough into two and form each into a circle, folding in half, then in half again and finally patting the dough into a circle and cutting into six wedges.

So I carried my altering tendency to the instructions as well and instead formed the entire dough into a rectangle instead of two circles, folding it in half, then in half again and finally patting the dough into a rectangle again about 9 by 6 inches and a scant inch thick.

Then I cut the dough into six equal pieces forming squares and then

cut each square on the diagonal to form twelve wedges. These are then transferred onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

Into a 425 degree oven they go and about 12 to 14 minutes later they have risen by almost double.

While they are warm they are topped with a spoonful of vanilla glaze and sprinkled with chopped pecans. The texture was light and flaky so I was glad I used the cream, and the molasses and pecans are a nice combination. At first I thought I might skip the glaze so as to not add more sugar but in the end I decided to stay true to the recipe and I was glad I did because the glaze added some sweetness to these scones that are not overly sweet. Besides they did look nice with the glaze melting over the tops and sides.

These were very good and I would certainly recommend them. I especially liked the folding method which I think helps the scones rise so high. But I have to admit that my all time favourite flavour for scones is a combination of cranberries and orange. All I need now is to find a place near by that sells clotted cream so that I can slather my scones with a generous dollop.

Pecan & Molasses Scones with Vanilla Glaze

by Marilyn Bentz-Crowley

Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp. granulated sugar

1-1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup cold unsalted butter

3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. milk

2 tbsp. fancy molasses

3/4 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

Glaze

1/2 cup icing sugar

1 to 2 tbsp. cream, preferably whipping

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup pecans, finely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 425 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, stir flour with sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Coarsely grate or cut in butter; toss to coat with flour. Make a well.

3. Measure milk; add molasses. Stir to dissolve molasses. Add milk mixture and pecans to flour mixture. Stir with a rubber spatula just until dough forms. Turn out onto lightly floured surface.

4. Divide into half. Lightly sprinkle each half with a bit of additional flour. Pat each half into a round about 1 inch thick. fold each in half and then into quarters. Again pat each mound of dough into a round a scant inch thick. Cut each round into 6 wedges. Place on a lined baking sheet at least 1 inch apart.

5. Bake in centre of oven for 11 to 14 minutes or until firm to touch and lightly browned. (If making ahead for freezing or for another day, cool completely before storing in airtight container. Warm in a moderate oven for 5 minutes before glazing.)

6. Meanwhile stir icing sugar with 1 tbsp. of cream and vanilla. Stir in remaining cream as needed to have a thick almost pourable glaze. Transfer hot scones to a cooling rack. Immediately coat tops with glaze and sprinkle with finely chopped pecans. Serve warm.

Makes 12

Reine de Saba - Just the Recipe

2011-02-08T17:00:00.001-05:00

I made this delicious cake last year for Valentine's Day but I didn't post the recipe so here it for this Valentine.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Reine de Saba

Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child

For the cake:

4 ounces or squares semisweet chocolate melted with 2 Tbsp. rum or coffee

1/4 lb. or 1 stick softened butter

2/3 cup granulated sugar

3 egg yolks

3 egg whites

Pinch of salt

1 Tbsp. granulated sugar

2/3 cup pulverized almonds

1/4 tsp. almond extract

1/2 cup cake flour (scooped and leveled) turned into a sifter

For the Icing:

2 ounces (2 squares) semisweet baking chocolate

2 Tbsp. rum or coffee

5 to 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter

For the Cake:

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

Butter and flour the cake pan. Set the chocolate and rum or coffee in a small pan, cover, and place (off heat) in a larger pan of almost simmering water; let melt while you proceed with the recipe. Measure out the rest of the ingredients. Cream the butter and sugar together for several minutes until they form a pale yellow, fluffy mixture. Beat in the egg yolks until well blended.

Beat the egg whites and salt in a separate bowl until soft peaks are formed; sprinkle on the sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed.

With a rubber spatula, blend the melted chocolate into the butter and sugar mixture, then stir in almonds, and almond extract. Immediately stir one fourth of the beaten egg whites to lighten the batter. Delicately fold in a third of the remaining whites and when partially blended, sift on one third of the flour and continue folding. Alternate rapidly with more egg whites and more flour until all egg whites and flour are incorporated.

Turn the batter into the cake pan, pushing the batter up to its rim with a rubber spatula. Bake in middle level of preheated oven for about 25 minutes. Cake is done when it has puffed, and 2-1/2 to 3 inches around the circumference are set so that a needle plunged into that area comes out clean; the center should move slightly if the pan is shaken, and a needle comes out oily.

Allow cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Run knife around the edge of the pan, and reverse cake on the rack. Allow it to cool for an hour or two; it must be thoroughly cold if it is to be iced.

For the Icing:

Place the chocolate and rum or coffee in the small pan, cover, and set in the larger pan of almost simmering water. Remove pans from heat and let chocolate melt for 5 minutes or so, until perfectly smooth. Lift chocolate pan out of the hot water, and beat in the butter a tablespoon at a time. Then beat over the ice and water until chocolate mixture has cooled to spreading consistency. At once spread it over your cake with spatula or knife, and press a design of almonds over the icing.

Yield: For an 8-inch cake serving 6 to 8 people

Navarin of Osso Bucco - Just the Recipe

2011-02-05T08:00:00.009-05:00

I am introducing a new feature on my blog called Just the Recipe where I’ll post, from time to time, a recipe that I’ve made. I won’t write anything about it, I’ll let the photos do all the talking. It will provide for me a log of what I’ve been cooking and a forum for you for comments. Who knows, you might find just the recipe you’re looking for.

Navarin of Osso Bucco

1 sprig thyme
3 sprigs parsley
1 sprig basil leaves
3 bay leaves
2-2 inch strips lemon peel
6 – 5 oz osso bucco
all-purpose flour for dredging
salt and pepper to taste
½ cup vegetable oil
1 large onion
1½ tbsp. all-purpose flour
1½ cups dry white wine
3 cups beef stock
2 cups canned Roma tomatoes with juice, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced

Prepare the bouquet garni: tie together thyme, parsley, basil and bay leaves with strips of lemon peel.

In a large skillet, over medium-high heat, heat oil. Dredge osso bucco in flour, salt and pepper. Brown osso bucco in hot oil on both sides. Remove from pan and set aside.

Skim oil from skillet, leaving 1 tbsp. oil. Lightly sauté onion. Add flour and cook for a few minutes.

Add wine, stock, tomatoes, bouquet garni and garlic. Bring to a boil. Submerge osso bucco in skillet. I transferred the mixture into a large roasting pan to finish off in the oven.

Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 to 3 hours or until very tender. From time to time baste the meat to keep moist. This can be done on the stove top or in a 350 F. oven. Remove meat to serving platter and keep hot. Skim off fat and reduce the liquid to intensify flavours.

Serve with small penne rigatte or any small pasta of choice flavoured with garlic infused olive oil, or polenta.

French Country Boule

2011-01-29T21:00:00.008-05:00

I'm afraid I collect cookbooks like some women collect shoes. That might not be the best analogy in my case but you get the point. I cannot resist buying cookbooks and should that cookbook be on bread promising an artisan type loaf or even better a glorious fruited bread out of your own oven, well then I'm sunk, hook, line and sinker. Sometimes I will buy several books at the same time and as much as I try to bake something from all of them, one or two will inadvertantly end up on the book shelf unused until I am inspired to try something new. So for this bread I turned to Local Breads by Daniel Leader, a first from this book. Flipping through the pages I came across a recipe for French Country Boule (Pain de campagne) that sounded pretty good to me. You certainly can't go wrong with a bread made from a sourdough culture and with my trusty culture in the refrigerator waiting for expansion I was well on my way.

The night before I added some water and flour to the liquid soughdough culture and by morning it had doubled.

The dough has some whole wheat and rye flours as well as A/P flour and mixed up to a lovely dough. It is a fairly soft and tacky dough so it needs a banneton to support it in its final rise. The recipe makes two boules and I only have one banneton so I improvised by using a bowl lined with a clean cotton towel. The banneton and towel lined bowl have to be heavily dusted with flour to ensure that the dough doesn't stick and I have to admit I always fret about this step as I have had stubborn fully risen doughs that have not pulled away without some persistant coaxing. I'm always afraid that I will be left with a completely deflated loaf.

But this was not the case with this particular bread and they both came out of their molds without a hitch. Of course I had flour flying all over the place but at least my boules were intact. Scoring the bread wasn't easy - either my serrated knife wasn't sharp enough or the dough was too soft and I think I'll blame the latter. In any case I managed to score each bread differently mostly because the criss cross design took some doing so I opted for a more straight forward slash for the second boule.

After baking the boules in a 400 F. oven for about 25 minutes they were done. I thought they looked pretty good. After cooling I just had to have a taste and I was not disappointed at all. The bread is quite springy with a very nice crumb so a sharp serrated knife to slice through easily is key. I certainly would make this bread again. Mr. Leader you make good bread.

On the very day that I baked these boules a package was delivered to my door. I wonder what it could be. It was too thin to be from Zappos.

As I mentioned I'm a real sucker for bread cookbooks and when I read about this one I just had to order it.

French Country Bread
Pain de champagne

Liquid Levain Starter

50 grams liquid levain
175 grams Water, tepid
135 grams Unbleached all-purpose flour

Pour the liquid levain ito a small bowl. Pour in the water and stir with a rubber spatula. The levain will froth. Mix in the flour until the mixture is fairly smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours. When ready, it will have expanded by about one third and the surface will be bubbly, like a large pancake ready to be flipped. It will have a wheaty fruity, mildly tangy aroma.

Bread Dough

250 grams Water, tepid (70 to 78 degrees)
440 grams Unbleached all-purpose flour
30 grams Stone-ground whole wheat flour
30 grams Fine or medium rye flour
310 grams Liquid levain starter
10 grams Sea salt

Pour the water into a large mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Add the bread flour, whole wheat flour, and rye flour and stir with a rubber spatula just until it absorbs all the water and a rough dough forms. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes to hydrate the flour and give the gluten a chance to develop on its own.
Add the Levain in and Salt. Stir the levain with the spatula to invigorate and deflate it. Scrape it into the bowl of dough. Sprinkle the salt over the dough. Use the spatula to blend the levain and salt into the dough.
Use the dough hook and mix the dough on medium speed (4 on a KitchenAid mixer) until it is smooth, 8 to 9 minutes. It will be soft and tacky but will clean the sides of the bowl.
Ferment the Dough. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled, clear, straight-sided 2-quart container with a lid. With masking tape, mark the spot on the container that the dough will reach when it has doubled in volume. Cover and leave it to rise at room temperature (70 to 75 degrees) until it inflates into a dome and reaches the masking tape, 2-½ to 3-1/2 hours. It will feel springy and less sticky.
Divide and shape the boules. Heavily dust the bannetons or two bowls lined with kitchen towels with flour. Lightly dust he counter with flour. Scrape the dough onto the counter. With a bench scraper or chef’s knife, cut the dough into 2 equal pieces (560 grams each). Shape each piece into a boule. If you don’t achieve a perfect round, leave it. It’s important not to overwork the dough. Place each round, smooth side down, in a prepared banneton or bowl. Lightly sprinkle with flour and cover loosely with plastic wrap.
Proof the boules. Let the boules stand at room temperature until they become pillowy and nearly double in size, 1 to 1-1/2 hours. When you press your fingertip into the dough, the indentation will spring back slowly.
Prepare the oven. About 1 hour before baking, place a baking stone on the middle rack of the oven and cast-iron skillet on the lower rack. Heat the oven to 450 degrees.
Score the Boules. Lightly flour a baker’s peel or rimless baking sheet. Uncover the loaves and tip them out onto the peel or sheet, guiding them fro a soft landing and arranging them at least 2 inches apart. With a lame, a single-edged razor blade, or a serrated knife, make 3 parallel slashes centered on each loaf, each about ½ inch deep.
Bake the boules. Slide the loaves, still on the parchment, onto the baking stone. Place ½ cup of ice cubes in the skillet to produce steam. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 400 degrees and continue to bake until the boules are red-brown, 20 to 25 minutes.
Cool and store the boules. Slide the peel or the rimless baking sheet under the parchment paper to remove the loaves from the oven. Slide the loaves still on the parchment, onto a wire rack. Cook the loaves completely, about 1 hour before slicing. Store the cooled loaves in a brown paper bag. They will stay fresh for about 4 days. For longer storage, freeze in resealable plastic bags for up to 1 month.

Eryn's Shower

2011-01-23T20:00:00.002-05:00

Last summer I promised my daughter's friend Eryn that I would write something about her shower. I know it's a bit late but this is for you Eryn.

My daughter Andrea met Eryn in Grad school where they were both studying architecture. There they became friends and found that they had a lot in common and soon became inseparable. When Eryn became engaged, she asked Andrea to be her maid of honour. Delighted, Andrea decided she would host a bridal shower for her and so she asked me if I would prepare some food for the event and of course I was more that happy to help.

Andrea worked very hard taking care of every detail, including designing the invitations, so that the shower would be a success. The invitations were sent and replied to and soon the special day arrived. It was a beautiful warm sunny day, which we'd hoped for so that we could have the shower outside. It was a bit breezy but no one seemed to mind. Everyone arrived to drinks and hor'dourves and bruschetta and then the shower games began.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves including Reena who flew in from Lagos.

Mary the mother of the bride-to-be and close friend Aline were having too much fun trying to guess how many nuts were in the boxers. I think they wanted to win the prize.

The luncheon included four different quiches; crab, quiche lorraine, asparagus and broccoli, spinach and pear and feta cheese salad, a pasta salad and Rose's Best Buns.

For dessert I had made sugar cookies in the shapes of flowers decorated with royal icing in the theme colours of pink and light green. There were also chocolate cookies, slices of currant pound cake, and truffles and fruit on the dessert table. But the crowning glory was the lovely cake by Irene's Cakes. It was a mixed berries shortcake covered with fondant and decorated with pink, green and yellow flowers.

Eryn opened her gifts, one of which she would not take out of the gift bag because it was naughty.

It was fun watching her giggle uncontrollably.

Eryn with Geraldine, her mother-in-law to be, and her mother Mary.

Each guest left with a party favour - an espresso cup and saucer with truffles wrapped in cellophane.

In September Eryn married her long time boyfriend Chris, a sailor who competed in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, in a lovely ceremony by the lake.

Rosemary Baguettes

2011-01-16T19:00:00.003-05:00

My parents always had rosemary growing in their garden, that wonderfully fragrant herb that flavoured our Sunday roasts and many other dishes my mother would prepare for us. When I acquired a yard of my own I began to grow rosemary as well so that I could have on hand sprigs of this herb to flavour my roasts and sauces. The only downside of growing rosemary in Canada is that it does not survive our long cold sub-zero winter season. My rosemary grows in a large container that I bring indoors sometime in November for the winter. The funny thing is that I store it in my cold cellar which has a small window and during the winter months its temperature is around zero degrees Celsius, and there it thrives. I have tried leaving it in a warmer room of the house but the environment caused the leaves to mildew, and eventually the rosemary plant would succumb to this powdery white invader and die. In the cold cellar as the days get longer the plant receives more sunlight and it begins to bud. By April or May depending on how cold the nights are I put the plant outdoors again and the buds open up to pretty little blue flowers.

One of my favourite ways to use rosemary is in bread. Though rosemary has a distinct and pungent flavour, when baked in bread its flavour isn't over powering at all. For this particular bread I use my old and faithful recipe for Basic Bread for Fougasse by Patricia Wells. I love this wonderful and versatile straight method dough that I use often for baguettes and pizzas, as well as the Onion Focaccia that I have posted a while ago and where you will find the recipe.

I just chop up about one tablespoon of rosemary and add it to the dough. I love the little green speck of rosemary and the soft dough is marvelous to work with.

After its final rise I shape and slash the bread and bake it in a hot 425 degrees F. oven and while it is baking the house is filled with a wonderful aroma. When I pull the baquettes out of the oven I can hardly wait to have a slice, but to resist the temptation to cut into the bread, I leave the room and come back later to enjoy a slice with butter. This bread is especially wonderful with roasted meats.

Yeastspotted.

Toasted Raisin Cranberry Slices

2011-01-11T19:33:00.008-05:00

I love hors d'oeuvres but quite frankly do not enjoy making them at all. I find them time consuming and finicky to make and they are the last thing I think about when I am having people over for dinner. Eventually however, I do have to think about what to serve as a pre- dinner course so when the idea to serve baked brie or cambozola on crispy slices of raisin cranberry bread came to me I was quite pleased with myself and wondered why I hadn't though about this sooner. I would make the bread in advance, toast the sliced bread and store them in the freezer until I needed them, then just arrange them and the cheese on a platter and voila easy peasy.

I have several recipes for raisin cranberry bread that I enjoy making but for this particular bread I used a recipe I have for a Sourdough Multigrain Bread and tweeked it a bit by omitting the mixed grains and seeds and adding the dried fruit to it. I suppose now that this recipe has been so altered I really should call it Sourdough Cranberry Raisin Baguettes as it has little resemblance to the former. The dough comes together quite nicely, and instead of shaping the dough in boules as I normally would, I shaped them into baguettes so that when sliced you have small rounds of crispy bread to top with cheese.

I didn't take of photo of prepared platter of crispy bread thins and cambozola or of my guests enjoying them so you'll have to take my word they were pretty good.

I have since then tweeked this recipe again to Sourdough Cranberry Walnut Baguettes and again I shaped the dough into baguettes only this time I didn't bother to toast the slices and they were a very nice accompaniment to baked brie.
Yeastspotted.

Sourdough Raisin Cranberry Baguettes

500 grams unbleached all-purpose flour

150 grams liquid sourdough starter made with whole-wheat flour, refreshed 12 hours earlier
½ teaspoon instant yeast

20 grams olive oil
1⅞ tsp. salt
280 grams water, at room temperature
50 grams raisins
50 grams dried cranberries

In the bowl of the mixer, mix water and sourdough starter. Add flour, and instant yeast.
Mix for a minute to form a rough mass. Turn mixer off and let the dough rest for 20 minutes. Add salt, raisin and cranberries mix for 5 minutes on #4 setting.
Place the dough in a container that has been sprayed with Pam or oiled. Allow to rise until almost doubled.
Divide the dough into 2 portions and form into a ball and allow to rise again covered until almost doubled.
Form balls of dough into baguettes, place on parchment paper and allow to rise until doubled or well puffed.
One hour before baking preheat the oven to 450°F.
Place the baguettes on the baking stone and throw in about 4 or 5 ice cubes on a cast iron pan set on the floor of the oven to create steam.
Bake the bread for about 25 minutes rotating halfway through baking.
Cool bread before slicing.

Christmas Cookies - Spitzbuben

2010-12-21T20:31:00.016-05:00

Long before the season was in full swing I announced that I would not be baking as many cookies as I usually do for Christmas. I had decided with full conviction that I would bake two batches of the most popular cookies and that would be it. But as the season approached, the pull of baking one or two more cookies - new cookies that I had not baked before - was too great to resist and so I found myself leafing through seasonal magazines yet again for new recipes. One of these recipes was for Spitzbuben, a sandwiched cookies that I had always wanted to bake. I had even bought the proper cookie cutter.

The ingredients for the dough consist of your basic sugar cookie dough; butter, icing sugar, egg yolks, flour and salt. Once the dough is mixed it is wrapped and refrigerated for one hour. The dough is then divided into six even pieces and each piece is rolled out to a 9" square. Using a 2" round cookie cutter cut out circles of dough, then you cut an equal amount of circles with a special insert to the cookie cutter that cuts a decorative hole in the centre. The dough is baked and cooled.

Meanwhile seedless raspberry jam is heated in a small pot to thicken and reduce by one quarter and because there are chocoholics in the family I decided to make a chocolate ganache as well to fill the cookies.

About a teaspoon of filling is spread over a cookie and another cookie, with the decorative hole, is dusted with icing sugar and placed on top. It takes a bit of time to put these cookies together but in the end you are rewarded with a really pretty cookie that tastes really good.

I've also baked Cinnamon Rugelach, Lora Brody's Rugelach, Kifli, French Macaroons and Pecan Tarts and made White Chocolate Bark with Pistachios and Cranberries and Truffles. So much for two batches only - maybe next year.

A tin of cookies ready for giving.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Spitzbuben

3/4 lb. butter, softened (3 sticks)

1-1/2 cup icing sugar

3 egg yolks

3-1/2 cups flour

Pinch of salt

1 cup seedless raspberry jam

Icing sugar for dusting

Beat butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time beating until smooth after each addition. Mix flour and salt together and then add flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time beating between additions. Scrape the dough onto a large sheet of plastic wrap. Press into a 9" x 11" rectangle and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 325 F. Place two racks evenly spaced in the centre fo the oven. Divide chilled dough into 6 even pieces, then rewrap 5 pieces and put back in fridge.

On a lightly floured surface, work one dough piece at a time. Keeping surface and dough floured, roll dough into a 9" square. Using a to 2" round cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough and transfer them to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, spacing cookies about 1" apart (reserve dough scraps for rerolling later). Repeat process with remaining chilled dough pieces, then combine leftover scraps into a ball, reroll and continue circles until most of the dough is gone. Using small star cookie cutter punch a hole in the centre of half of the circles - these will become the tops. Bake all cookies in batches, rotating pans on racks halfway through, until cookies are a pale-golden colour, about 15 minutes. Let cookies cool.

Pour raspberry jam into a samll pot and heat over medium until it comes to a boil, stirring every so often. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, still stirring, until thickened and reduced by one-quarter, about 5 minutes. Transfer jam to a bowl and cool.

Using a fine-mesh sieve, dust cookie tops with icing sugar. Turn whole cookies upside down and spoon about 1 teaspoon of jam onto each cookie. Using a small spatuala, spread jam to 1/8" of the edges leaving a small mound of jam in the centre of the cookie. Cover each with a cookie top. Serve cookies immediately or store between sheets of waxed paper in an airtight container at room temperature or freeze.

Tiramisu Cake

2010-07-01T18:00:00.006-04:00

Tiramisu is probably my all time favourite dessert, with strawberry shortcake and trifle coming in at a close second. A few years ago I came across a recipe for a Tiramisu Cake in a magazine. Instead of layering the tiramisu with lady fingers and mascarpone cream, you use layers of a plain yellow cake. I was so intrigued with this new method that I just had to make it. That was a few years ago but it had been on my mind so I thought I would make it again for my husband Randy’s birthday.

The recipe calls for a cake mix (what’s a cake mix? – sounds like a compilation of music my daughter would burn on a CD to bake my cake by). I baked my own cake from a recipe that I found in The Good Housekeeping Cookbook many years ago for Yellow Cake, which is an exceptionally easy cake to make and tastes pretty good as well. You certainly could use a génoise for this recipe – as a matter of fact it would probably be ideal for this cake. It is also advisable to bake the cake a day before, otherwise you’ll be in the kitchen most of the day baking and assembling the cake.

The cake is baked in two 8” round pans and once they are baked you use only one of the cakes and put the other away for another use. The cake is then sliced in half so that you have two layers.
The cream mixture is mixed as any other tiramisu recipe: beat the egg yolks with sugar over simmering water until very light and when cooled add the mascarpone and whipped cream.
You need lady fingers to decorate the sides of the cake and you can buy them at the bakery if you can find the soft kind but I decided to make my own. I used the recipe from the Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Making lady fingers is pretty easy — you need a piping bag and parchment with lines three inches apart penciled in to keep the ladyfingers uniform. Just flip the parchment so you aren’t piping on the pencil marks.

The cake is brushed with a coffee-liqueur mixture (I used cognac), layered with mascarpone, another cake layer, again brushing with coffee-liqueur mixture and another layer of mascarpone. Then you grate chocolate curls and generously sprinkle them on the top. The ladyfingers are placed on the sides of the cake as a finishing touch and voila, you have a Tiramisu Cake.

I refrigerated the cake overnight and brought it over to my parent’s house so that we could celebrate Randy’s birthday with everyone and celebrate Father’s Day as well. The cake was delicious and was enjoyed by all.
A few days later I made a strawberry shortcake with the remaining cake layer.

I’ll be in Italy for the next couple of weeks but I look forward to reading your comments on my return.

HAPPY CANADA DAY

Tiramisu Cake

1 box (18.25 oz.) yellow cake mix or make your own from scratch
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp. confectioners’ sugar, divided
¾ cup chilled heavy cream
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 containers (8 oz. each) mascarpone, softened
1 cup cold espresso or strong coffee with 2 tbsp. cognac or favourite liquor.
1 cup grated dark chocolate
1 pkg. Store-bought ladyfingers (about 24) or make your own from scratch (recipe below)

In small bowl with electric beater, beat egg yolks and 1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar until mixture is thick and pale yellow, about 2 minutes.
Place bowl with egg and sugar mixture over saucepan of simmering water, and whisk until mixture reaches 160 F. Remove from heat and cool.
In a small bowl with electric beater, beat heavy cream until frothy. Add vanilla and remaining 1 tbsp. confectioners’ sugar, and continue beating until soft peaks form.
Place mascarpone in a large bowl, then fold in egg and sugar mixture to incorporate completely. Follow by gently folding in freshly whipped cream.
Slice one of the cooled cakes into two layers horizontally. (Freeze remaining cake to use later.)
Place first cake layer on cake plate. Brush layer with 1/2 cup espresso and cognac. Spread ½ of the whipped cream mixture over that. Place the second layer of cake over the cream and brush with remaining coffee and top with remaining cream. Sprinkle top with grated chocolate.
Press ladyfingers gently into side of cake so that they stand upright and are evenly spaced around its perimeter. Cover cake with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 8 hours or, if possible, overnight

Yellow Cake
Good Housekeeping Cookbook

2-1/4 cups cake flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
¾ cup shortening
¾ cup milk
3 large eggs
2-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. almond extract

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Combine all ingredients in large bowl of electric mixer. Mix for 1 minute at low speed then for 5 minutes at high speed. Place in a bundt, tube or 2 9-inch round cake pans. Bake large cake 35 – 45 minutes; round cakes 30 minutes.
Note: This is a good all purpose cake. It makes a delicious strawberry shortcake.

Biscuit a la Cuilliere - Lady Fingers
The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

6 large eaggs, separated
¾ cup sugar
2-1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1 tbsp. warm water
1-1/2 cups sifted cake flour
¾ tsp. Cream of tartar
Two large baking sheet, lined with parchment and lined with piping guides (parallel lines 3 inches apart).

Preheat oven to 400 F.
In a large mixing bowl beat the yolks and ½ cup sugar on high speed for 5 minutes or until the mixture is very thick and ribbons when dropped from the beater. Lower the speed and beat in the vanilla and water. Increase to high speed and beat for 30 seconds or until thick again. Sift the flour over the yolk mixture without mixing in and set aside.
In another large mixing bowl beat the whites until foamy, add the cream of tartar, and beat until soft peaks form when the beater is raised. Gradually beat in the remaining ¼ cup sugar, beating until very stiff peaks form when the beater is raised slowly. Add 1/3 of the whites to the yolk mixture and with a skimmer or rubber spatula fold until all the flour is incorporated. Gently fold in the remaining white.
Scoop batter into the pastry bag and pipe out 3-inch by 1-1/2 inch side-by-side “fingers.” Be sure to hold the pastry tube high enough above the surface of the sheet so that the batter can fall feely from the tube and not get flattened by the edge of the tube. There should be a ¼-icnh space between the “fingers” as they spread sideways as they are piped. Sift the powered sugar completely over the fingers. After a few seconds the batter will dissolve and absorb some of the sugar. For a pearled effect, sprinkle with a second coat. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown and springy to the touch. Remove the sheets to racks and cool slightly. To prevent cracking, remove from the sheets while still warm with a long, thin spatula or pancake turner.

Blueberry Poppy Loaf

2010-06-17T00:00:00.007-04:00

Have you ever come across an interesting recipe in a book that you have owned forever and wondered why you hadn’t noticed it before? Well that’s what happened with the Blueberry Poppy Loaf I came across while flipping through More of Canada’s Best Bread Machine Recipes by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt. I can’t tell you why I had missed it all this time, especially since I leaf through this book often.
The interesting part of this recipe is that the bread’s only liquid is sour cream. I love sour cream and I love the flavour and richness it imparts in cakes, but making yeasted bread with it would be a first for me. It also had dried blueberries along with poppy seeds which sounded like a pretty good combination, and one you normally don’t see in bread.

I had seen dried blueberries in the bulk store and remembered that they were quite expensive but I only needed half a cup so really that couldn’t add up to much, right? Well I set off to the grocery store and headed straight to the bulk foods section and there in a bin were tiny little dark blue dried wild blueberries. The price was just over $4.00 for 100 grams so I scooped a little more than I needed and figured that amount would cost only a few dollars. I picked up some other things I needed and went to the check out. It wasn`t until I got to the car that I checked the bill to see just how much the blueberries had come to and it was a good thing I was seated in the car because had I been on a chair I probably would have fallen off of it. The dried blueberries cost $18.00! Even if I only used half the blueberries I bought that still would be a lot. Well I thought this better be really good bread for that price. I shudder to think what they would charge for this bread in a bakery. Anyway I was still looking forward to making this bread.

It was super simple to put together especially since I just had to throw all the ingredients into the bread machine pan and let it do all the mixing. The recipe called for ½ cup of poppy seeds but I thought that seemed like an awful lot so I just used ¼ cup. The dough mixed up quite nicely and I let it rise in the pan. When it was doubled I divided the dough in two portions and shaped them into batards. I allowed the shaped dough to rise again until doubled and then baked them in a preheated oven. As I’ve mentioned before I never bake bread in the bread machine.
The loaves baked up beautifully and I couldn’t wait to try this million dollar bread. When they were just cool enough I sliced into a loaf to try it out. It was excellent! The crust was tender crisp as you would expect with the high fat content of all the sour cream in the recipe – a full two cups.

I was glad I had cut the amount of poppy seeds in the recipes because there were plenty in the crumb and I honestly think the full amount would have been far too much. The blueberries were plump with an intense blueberry flavour. I thought the bread was delicious and that making it once in a while given the cost of the blueberries was a justifiable indulgence. I had it the next morning toasted with butter and it was a real treat. I’ll definitely make this bread again even if I have to mortgage the house.

Submitted to Yeastspotting.

Blueberry Poppy Loaf

Make 2 loaves

2 cups sour cream

2 tsp. lemon zest

1-1/2 tsp. salt

3 tbsp. granulated sugar

2 tbsp. vegetable oil

4 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour

1/4 cup poppy seeds

1 tsp. bread machine yeast

1/2 cup dried blueberries

Measure all ingredients expect dried blueberries into baking pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Insert pan into the oven chamber. Select Sweet Cycle. Add dried blueberries at "add ingredient" signal.

Set the machine to dough cycle. When the cycle is complete allow the dough to rise until doubled.

Divide the dough into two pieces and shape each piece into a batard or free form loaf. Allow to rise until double and bake in a preheated 400 F. oven.

If you don't have a bread machine you can use a mixer.

Combine sour cream, lemon zest, salt, sugar and yeast. Add the flour and poppy seeds and mix using dough hook for about 5 minutes. Remove the dough from bowl and on a lightly floured roll out the dough and add the blueberries. Roll the dough up and knead for a few minutes to incorporate the blueberries. Place in a greased bowl and allow to rise until doubled. Divide the dough into two and shape into free form loaves. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled. Preheat oven 30 minutes before baking. Bake the loaves for about 30 to 40 minutes or until deep golden brown.

Grammy's Chocolate Cookies

2010-06-01T20:00:00.004-04:00

My daughter Andrea is giving her best friend Eryn a bridal shower at the end of July, just a week after I get back from Italy, and Andrea has asked me to help her out. I won’t give away everything we are making for the shower just in case Eryn reads this, but I can say that I will be baking some cookies for the event. As well, my friend and neighbour Maria asked if I would bake some cookies for her son’s fiancé’s shower, taking place the day after I get back. So I will hit two birds with one stone by baking big batches of cookies ahead of time for both parties. I asked Andrea, while she was on the phone with Eryn one day, to ask her what kind of cookies she likes and without any hesitation Eryn said “anything with chocolate”.

As I flipped through my binder of recipes for cakes and cookies I’ve collected over the years I came across a chocolate cookie that would fit this bill. Grammy's Chocolate Cookies are chocolaty crisp cookies that would satisfy any chocolate lover as the recipe has a generous ¾ cup of cocoa powder and it yields over 100 cookies, plenty for both showers.

I can just picture Grandma baking up a batch of this easy cookie for all her grandchildren when they come to visit and I can picture all her grandchildren dunking these delicious cookies in their glasses of milk and devouring every single bite.

They really are very simple to whip up. Mix the butter, sugar and eggs until light a fluffy and gradually add a mixture of dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, cocoa, salt into the egg mixture. Refrigerate the dough for one hour and then roll the dough into one inch balls and dip the top of th cookie into a bit of granulated sugar. Place the balls onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. The little balls of dough flatten out as they bake. I placed them into freezer bags to keep for the shower.

Grammy’s Chocolate Cookies
Makes about 100

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1-1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar, plus more for dipping
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Sift together flour, coco powder, baking soda, and slat. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, and eggs on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix to combine. Gradually add dry ingredients, and combine with mixer on low speed. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and chill until dough is firm, about 1 hour.
3. Heat oven to 350 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Dip top of each ball into sugar. Place on prepared baking sheets about 1-1/2 inches apart. Bake until set, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool. Cool on Baking Sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool

Biscotti

2010-05-28T08:00:00.002-04:00

Many years ago on CityLine - Canada's longest running lifestyle show - Sandra Pittana, the fashion expert who is a regular guest on the show, deviated from the norm of fashionista and from her kitchen showed how she made her favourite recipe for biscotti. This particular recipe yields quite of lot of cookies so the dough can be divided into two or three bowls to which you can add different ingredients such as almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, cranberries, dried cherries, chocolate chips or any combination thereof, and end up with three different flavoured biscotti. Of course I knew that I would try this recipe, and although I’d been making biscotti for a while, after trying these any prior recipe became history and this one became my favourite. Until recently.

As Ontarians we have to buy our liquor from the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario). Yes, our government has total control of the liquor sold here, and why would they give that up to privatization? After all, the LCBO is a cash cow for them. Now that I got that off my chest, I will say that the LCBO has two pluses: one is that the stores are really beautiful and wonderful to shop from (not like the old dowdy establishments they use to run years ago, where you would hand a requisition with a list of liquor you wanted to purchase to a clerk who in turn would go to the back to retrieve your bottles) with well stocked aisles of every kind of liquor and wine you might want, including a vintage section. Some of the stores offer taste samples and run cooking classes as well. The second is that they put out the Food and Drink magazine about six times a year, a beautiful glossy magazine with great recipes and gorgeous mouth watering photos to whet your appetite and it’s free. You can check out their website http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo-ear/RecipeController?action=search&language=1&recipeType=1 for all their past issues’ recipes.

In the recent “Early Summer 2010” issue in the Techniques 101 section of the magazine was a recipe for Biscotti. The photos begged to be made and it was an easy recipe to put together as well. This recipe called for dried cherries but since I’m not so crazy about them, I thought I would substitute them with cranberries which I prefer. When I started the recipe, I realized I didn’t have any on hand, so I opted for currants instead which I like as well and thankfully had on hand.

You basically mix the dry ingredients along with the nuts and fruit in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another and mix the two together. The dough is slightly wetter than the one in Sandra Pittana’s recipe so I found that rubbing some oil on your hands before shaping helps to keep all the sticky dough off your hands. After you have shaped them into two ovals along the width of the sheet pan you bake them for about 35 minutes. After cooling slightly you cut them into 1/2” slices and bake again to dry them, very easy. The biscotti were delicious and a couple of days later I made them again with cranberries. This time I shaped the dough along the length of the pan so that when you sliced the loaves the biscotti were a bit smaller in length. They were also very good.

So now I have two recipes for biscotti that I love. One yields more biscotti and you can easily divide the dough to add different nuts and fruit or chocolate to have a variety of flavours. The other is just slightly easier to mix together because you use oil instead of butter. I’ve included recipes for both.

Best Biscotti
Sandra Pittana

4 eggs
2 tbsp. liqueur (brandy, amaretto, etc)
2 tbsp. vanilla
4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

Wisk together eggs, liqueur and vanilla.

Sift together, flour, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Gradually beat in egg
mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in flour mixture. Divide into 3 or 4 equal
amounts.

Add flavourings to each individual dough, enough that there are lots of chunks but not so much that the dough can’t hold together. (Between ¾ cup and 1 cup total per dough if divided in four pieces 1-1/3 cups if divided into three pieces.)

On two parchment-lined baking sheets, shape into 12 by 1-1/2 inch logs for 4 pieces, or 16 x 1-1/2 inch logs for 3 pieces.
Bake in a preheated 325 F. oven for 30 minutes or until firm and golden. Let cool on baking sheet 15 minutes; transfer to a cutting board.
Cut diagonally into ½ inch thick slices using a serrated knife. Lay cookies flat in baking sheets; bake about 25 minutes longer or until golden brown and crisp, turning once during baking.
Makes about 5 dozen biscotti.

Suggested flavours for additions:

• Pistachio, dried cranberries or cherries, white chocolate and orange zest.

• Orange zest, cinnamon, dried cranberries and toasted pecans.

• Almonds, white and dark chocolate chunks or chips.

• Orange zest, almonds or pecans, and cranberries.

Cherry Almond Biscotti

Food & Drink Magazine

Butter, to grease cookie sheet (I used parchment paper)
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup coarsely chopped almonds
½ cup dried cherries (cranberries, currants, chocolate)
1 tbsp. grated orange rind
3 large eggs
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup fresh orange juice or amaretto
Glaze
1 egg, beaten
Pinch of Salt
¼ cup granulated sugar
1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Butter and flour a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, chopped almonds, cherries, and orange rind.
3. Whisk together eggs and olive oil. Stir in orange juice. Make a well in middle of dry ingredients and slowly stir in liquid ingredients to form a dough.
4. Divide dough and place on cookie sheet. Shape into 2 loaves, about 9 x 5 inches. Brush on beaten egg and sprinkle with salt and sugar. Bake for 30 minutes or until dough is a golden colour with cracks on top. It will not be firm to the touch.
5. Cool on racks for 20 minutes, then cut into ½-inch slices. Place on cookie sheets and bake for 15 minutes on each side or until golden brown and dried out. Cool on racks.
Makes 24 pieces.

Nonna's Lasagna

2010-05-14T08:00:00.003-04:00

Without doubt or bias my mother’s lasagna is the best darn lasagna you will ever taste and that’s not just my opinion. Just ask anyone who has had the pleasure of savouring a plate of this stuff and they will salivate at any mention of it. My son always asks his grandmother if lasagna will be served for a special dinner, though he need not ask as it always is the first course of a celebration dinner. On the rare occasions that lasagna isn’t served, my husband has become quite indignant at its absence. My son and my nephew, both huge fans of this dish, will gladly forego the second course for a second helping.

My mother will gladly share her recipe, with pride, to anyone who asks, and as a matter of fact she might just volunteer to show you how. She doesn't have this recipe written anywhere, and as a matter of fact, unlike me, she rarely cooks with a recipe. My nephew Rob and his girlfriend Chantal recently went over for a lesson and wrote all about it http://petitpear.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/a-family-cookbook-lasagna/. You can just imagine how happy my mother was when after she taught them how, they volunteered to make lasagna for Thanksgiving dinner. It was delicious! So where did my mother learn to make such amazing lasagna? The story I was told long, long ago was that my uncle, a pastry chef, who lived with us at the time, had a chef friend who came over for dinner and volunteered to cook a lasagna for dinner for us. Not a bad little deal, and in the process my mother learned to make it.
This lasagna is made up of four components; the pasta, a really simple but flavourful bolognese sauce, a bechamel sauce, and two cheeses, parmigiano and mozzerella.

What really surprised me was that she had never heard of lasagna when she lived in Italy over 55 years ago. Maybe it was a southern Italian specialty that just hadn't made it up north at that time. With my curiosity peaked, I googled “origins of lasagna” and was surprised that a recipe for loseyn, pronounced lasan was found in what is believed to be the first cookbook written in England back in the 14th century, a dish of layers of pasta, sauce, and meat. There would not have been a tomato based sauce here as the tomato would not be imported to England for another two hundred years. Did the English really have pasta back then? It is highly unlikely that it all started in England as there is evidence of similar layering of pasta and cheese recipes prior to the 14th century from Italy. The latin word lasanum translates to cooking chamber and the dish that was prepared in it later took the name of the vessel in which it was cooked in.

However it came to be I’m just glad that the chef who came over all those years ago decided to make lasagna for us because we have been enjoying it ever since. I don't make lasagna nearly as often as my mother does, but I made this one a few weeks ago and although my son insists that nobody makes it like Nonna, it didn't stop him from going for seconds.

Nonna's Lasagna

2 pkg. Lasagna Noodles
1 recipe of meat sauce
1 recipe of Béchamel sauce
1b. Mozzarella cheese
Parmigiano cheese
2 tbsp. butter

Bolognese Sauce

2 oz. Olive oil
1 Onion, chopped
2 Cloves garlic, minced
1 Stalk celery, diced
1 Carrot, chopped very fine
2 lbs. Ground beef, veal and pork
2 tbsp. Tomato paste
2 Bay leaves
Pinch Nutmeg
6 oz. Red wine
3 – 28 oz cans Peeled tomatoes, crushed
1 cup Beef stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large pot and sauté the onion, garlic, celery and carrot for about 5 minutes. Add the meat and cook until browned. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in tomato paste. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer over low heat for 1 hour.

Béchamel Sauce

4 tbsp. Butter
4 tbsp. Flour
1/8 tsp. Nutmeg
2 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste

In a small saucepan melt butter and add the flour stirring for a few minutes. Do not allow to brown or you will have to start over again. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper and add milk stirring constantly with a whisk to eliminate lumps. When the sauce is thickened and bubbly remove from the heat. If the sauce thicken as it sits just add more milk.

Cook the lasagna noodles in a large pot of salted boiling water until cooked to desired doneness.
Drain in colander and rinse with cold water and lay out noodles on a piece of parchment paper or waxed paper or a clean tablecloth.

Grease a 9” x 13” baking pan. Lightly coat the bottom with a few spoonfuls of sauce. Then top with a single layer of lasagna then a light coat of béchamel sauce and a few tablespoon of meat sauce to cover pasta evenly and top the sauce with a sprinkling of grated mozzarella cheese and parmigiano cheese. Continue this layering until you reach the top of the pan ending with sauce and a light sprinkling of cheese and then dot with butter. At this point it can be covered and refrigerated until ready to bake or covered with plastic and aluminum foil and put into the freezer.
Remove from freezer remove the plastic and thaw before baking.

Bake at 350 F. for about 1 hour.

Let cool ten minutes so that it doesn’t fall apart when serving.

Raisin Focaccia

2010-04-24T20:00:00.006-04:00

I recently discovered Yeastspotting, a site to showcase your recently baked bread. This is the brainchild of Susan of http://www.wildyeastblog.com and each Friday a new line up of all types of breads are featured. What a wonderful resource to find new bread recipes! It is here that I saw a raisin focaccia by baker Sandra of My Daily Bread http://aromigolosi.weebly.com/my-daily-bread.html and my mouth watered. I love anything made with raisins and I’ve been making savoury versions of focaccia for too long to remember, so why didn’t I ever think of this combination for a sweet version of focaccia? I left a comment on Sandra’s blog only to find out that this recipe is in Peter Reinhart’s The Baker’s Apprentice which I have. Focaccia originated in the Ligurian region on the north west coast of Italy, where you will find the picturesque port or Portofino and the Ligurian capital of Genoa. Peter Reinhart writes, “ that there is a strong tradition of sweet, or breakfast-style, focaccia in Liguria”. It is mentioned as a variation to his herbed focaccia on the side bar, but I hadn’t noticed it before, but with fairness to me, I haven’t made this particular focaccia as I have another recipe for focaccia that has always worked for me and have stuck to. On Saturday I had whipped up a batch of dough to make carmelized onion and rosemary focaccia which I’ve already blogged about. Only this time, just as Sandra had done, I divided the dough in two; one for the onion focaccia and one for the raisin focaccia.

It was very simple; just knead in plenty of raisins to the dough and let it rise until doubled. Punch the dough down and after a brief rest shape the dough out flat on a baking sheet, cover with plastic and allow to rise until doubled. I sprinkled some turbando sugar on top and baked it at 400F. for about 20 minutes.

To say I love this thin, sweet focaccia loaded with raisins would be an understatement. I love love love this focaccia! It satisfies my sweet tooth without being overwhelmingly sweet. It hits the spot for a snack or as an accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee. Come to think of it a combination of raisins and cranberries would be a great in this focaccia as well.

A week later having devoured this excellent foccaccia and wishing I had more to snack on I mixed up another batch of dough to make more. Only this time, again dividing the dough, I made one with potatoes and onions on my son's request and one with raisins and cranberries. The Potato focaccia turned out really well even though I forgot to add some fresh rosemary. The Raisin Cranberry version was also delicious.

I liked how Sandra arranged her slices of raisin focaccia for her photo that I took a photo of mine similarly arranged. I hope she doesn’t mind. I’m glad that she posted this on yeastspotting otherwise I may not have discovered it in The Baker’s Apprentice for quite awhile.

You will find the dough recipe in the Carmelized Onions Focaccia blog. If you make a full recipe just add about three cups of raisins to the dough in the last few minutes of kneading. Let the dough rise until doubled. Stretch it out in a 12 x 17 inch sheet pan. Let is rise and sprinkle with turbando sugar and bake at 400F for about 20 minutes.

Potato Focaccia

adapted from Jim Lahey Potato Pizza

2 potatoes

1/2 onion sliced thinly

1 tsp. salt, divided

1 sprig of fresh rosemary

olive oil to drizzle over potatoes

Make dough (see Carmelized Onion Focaccia blog) while the dough rests prepare potato topping.

Slice potatoes very thin using a knife or a mandoline. Then soak them in water to remove excess starch and prevent discolouration. Drain slices in a colander, toss with 1/2 tsp. salt, and set aside for ten minutes; drain any accumulated water. In a medium bowl, combine potatoes, sliced onions, rosemary and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and set aside.

Stretch out dough on a prepared rimmed baking sheet and let it rise for about one hour. Evenly spread potatoes over the surface of the dough up to the very edge, or about 1 inch from the edge if you desire a crust on your focaccia. Season with remaining 1/2 tsp. salt and olive oil.

Bake at 425 F. for about 30 minutes.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

2010-04-17T17:30:00.015-04:00

It is believed that this Roman dish was developed during the Second World War when American soldiers stationed in Italy supplied bacon and eggs to Italians who made this pasta dish and cooked it over charcoal, hence the name carbonara which is derived from the Italian word for charcoal. But the origin of Spaghetti alla Carbonara is obscure and another theory is that it was fed to coalminers to provide them with a substantial and nourishing meal. Yet another theory is that it was made with squid ink that gave it a charcoal colour. I’d heard that it was called Spaghetti alla Carbonara because the generous sprinkling of freshly ground pepper resembled charcoal. How ever it originated it is a fast and delicious pasta to make and when I want to make something quick or don’t particularly feel like cooking, this dish fits the bill.

I was taught to make it by my aunt in Italy over thirty years ago where it was simply made with eggs, pancetta, parmigiano cheese and pepper. But I have since adopted the North America version of adding cream, onions and bacon. We will be visiting Rome this summer and my husband will no doubt order this pasta, if it is on the menu, as it is one of his favourite pasta dish. It will be interesting to see how the Romans make it.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

2 tbsp. olive oil
8 slices of bacon or pancetta, chopped
1 small onion, diced
4 eggs
4 tablespoons cream
½ cup of grated parmigiano cheese
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Salt to taste

Cook 450 gr. of spaghetti in boiling salted water.

In a large fry pan (I use a flat bottomed wok) heat oil and add onion and bacon and cook on medium high heat until the fat has rendered from the bacon without it getting crisp, turn down the heat to keep warm. In the meantime beat eggs and add the cream, parmigiano cheese and black pepper. Set aside. When the pasta is al dente, drain and add it to the bacon mixture and toss to coat. Quickly pour in the egg mixture and toss to coat the spaghetti, the heat of the pasta will cook the egg. Serve and enjoy.

Apple & Cream Cheese Braid for Easter

2010-04-08T19:35:00.033-04:00

I was convinced that I had walnuts in the refrigerator but when I went to retrieve them there were no walnuts to be found and I couldn’t go out to buy some because every supermarket was closed for Good Friday. I had been to the market a least three times the week leading to Easter and it didn’t even occur to me that I might need walnuts. Why would I? I was convinced I had walnuts! I had planned to make the Blooming Coffee Rings which I usually make for Easter to take to my parent’s house for dessert. I had made the dough the day before and it was sitting very nicely in the refrigerator developing wonderful flavours. I couldn’t wait till Saturday when all the stores would be open again because I had a busy day planned and would be out most of the day. I was not too pleased with myself! What to do? What to do? Well I do make a braided loaf made with a sweet dough, not this particular recipe, but it was a sweet dough nonetheless, so why not make a braid. I had made a braided bread not that long ago for New Year’s Eve so it was still fresh in my mind. I had all the ingredients so yes, I would make the apple with cream cheese braid and like the blooming coffee ring the recipe yielded two breads, one for us to enjoy and one for the dessert table on Easter.

I removed the dough from the refrigerator to sit and warm up a bit and proceeded to make the apple filling. With a recipe from the Joy of Cooking as a guide I peeled and sliced a couple of Granny Smith apples and threw them into a pan with some butter, brown sugar and cinnamon to cook for a few minutes until the apples softened a bit. For the cream cheese filling I mixed cream cheese, an egg yolk, vanilla and sugar until smooth and set it aside. I divided the dough into two portions and rolled one out to a rectangle about 14 x 9 inches and placed it on parchment. If you omit this step it will be difficult to transfer the braided dough to the sheet pan.

Then I cut three inch diagonal cuts about ½ inch apart on both sides. I spread half the cheese mixture in the middle, topped it with half the apple mixture and then beginning at one end, criss crossed the strips of dough to the other end.

I lifted the dough with the parchment paper to a large sheet pan, covered it with plastic and did the same with the remaining dough, cheese and apples. After the dough doubled I brushed it with egg wash and sprinkled it with sliced almonds. It was baked in a 350 F. oven for about 35 minutes.
When the braids were cool I wrapped them in foil and put them in the freezer to maintain their freshness for Easter.
On Easter we were all going to my parents for dinner and I had an awful lot of food, a braid, a cheesecake and other items that I had to bring over. I asked my son to get one of the braids out of the freezer from the refrigerator in the basement so that it would be thawed before we went. I had everything written on a note so that I would not forget a thing. Olives, check, boconcini, check, bread sticks, check, cheesecake, check, cherry pie filling, check, lemons, check, coloured eggs, check, chocolates check, Easter cards, check, braids, check.
Randy loaded up the car and just before walking out the door I went to get the cheesecake out of the refrigerator but it wasn’t there. My husband called to me that the cheesecake was on the table. Oh I thought, I didn’t take it out of the refrigerator, or did I and forgot I did, oh well then I’ll just put it in the car. And we were off.
Fast forward to dessert time. Coffee is poured, cheesecake is sliced and being served, fruit tray of cantelope and mixed berries is on the table. 'Randy where did you put the braid'? 'What braid'?! So after all that the braid was left at home. My son had taken the cheesecake out of the refrigerator not the braid out of the freezer. When I questioned Steven about the braid his response was "More braid for us."

My computer is temporarily down so I had to use my husband's computer to post this. I have submitted this bread to YeastSpotting, http://www.wildyeastblog.com/ and since all my recipes are on my computer I will include the recipe as soon as I get my computer back.

Sweet-Roll Dough

2 pkg. dry yeast
¼ cup warm water
1 cup milk, warmed
½ cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
½ cup butter, softened
3 eggs
5¼ to 5-¾ cups all purpose flour

Note: If eggs are refrigerator cold, pour hot water over them and let stand for several minutes to warm before cracking.
Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water in a small cup or bowl, stir, and let stand for a minute of so to dissolve. Combine the milk, sugar, salt, butter, and eggs in a large mixing bowl, and beat well. Stir in the dissolved yeast. Add 2-1/2 cups of the flour, and beat until smooth and well blended. Add 2-1/2 cups more flour and beat until the dough holds together in a rough, shaggy mass. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a minute or two. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Resume kneading for 8 to 10 minutes more, gradually sprinkling on a little more flour if the dough sticks to your hands, until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk.

Punch the risen dough down, and it is ready to be formed and baked according to other recipes which call for Sweet-Roll Dough. You can also freeze the dough at this point, or store in the refrigerator for a few days in a tightly covered container.

Apple Mixture

3 Granny Smith Applies
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
¼ cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

In a fry pan add all the ingredients and cook for a few minutes until the apples just begin to soften. If there is a lot of syrup remove some of it otherwise it will leak out of the dough. Set aside.

Cream Cheese Filling

1 cup cream cheese
¼ cup sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 tsp. Grated lemon rind
1 egg yolk
Mix together until smooth. Set aside.

Topping

1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp. water
¼ cup blanched sliced almonds

Assembly

Divide the dough in half. Roll each half into a 14” x 9” rectangle. Place on a piece of parchment. Spread with half the cheese mixture lengthwise down center third of rectangle. Top with apple mixture. Make diagonal cuts from outer edges one half inch apart and 3 inches long. Fold alternate strips of dough over filling. Cover and let rise 45 minutes or until double in volume. Brush the dough with egg wash and sprinkle with sliced almonds Bake at 350 F. For 30 to 35 minutes. Yield: 2 Braids.

Lacquered Birthday Cake

2010-03-31T19:45:00.001-04:00

Normally for birthdays I just phone up a bakery and order a cake, simple, no stress, just pick it up and enjoy. However, having baked my daughter's birthday cake it was only fair that I would also bake my son's birthday cake and besides if I hadn't I know I would have heard something like -"mom loves me more because I got a homemade cake" to which my son would have responded with something like - "yes, but I'm mom's favourite".

I've been wanting to try the lacquered glaze in Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Bernanbaum for a while now so I knew for sure that I would use it on this cake. I also wanted the cake to be a genoise with a custard cream filling and frosted with a ganache. All of this sounded pretty good to me but in the end it wasn't the best combination of choices.

I made the genoise the day before using the recipe for Genoise Rose because it had five eggs in it and I thought it would give me more cake baked in a 9" x 3" round cake pan. This went off without a hitch. The cake baked up high, light and lovely and I could cut it into three layers.

Normally I use a recipe from The Five Roses Baking Book that makes a great custard cream that holds up really well in cake layers but I wanted to try something new. I decided to use a recipe for a chantilly custard cream in the Joy of Cooking and although it was good it just wasn't very stiff but once it cooled I managed to fill the cake layers moistened with coffee flavoured sugar syrup and all was well.

I made a simple ganache of chocolate and whipping cream and when this cooled I frosted the cake but this is where I realized that this wasn't the best choice for the light genoise because as I frosted the cake the cake's crust would lift off. I had to use a light hand so this would not happen. I also had to be careful frosting the sides of the cake as some of the custard was oozing out and made frosting difficult, but slowly I managed to frost the entire cake and by the time I was finished I thought the cake looked pretty good.

I had heard how easy it was to make the lacquer glaze and sure enough it was. Once it cooled to the proper temperature I poured it all at once over the cake making sure the sides were well glazed also. The only problem was that because the sides weren't prefectly straight, the glaze, which is unforgiving and shows any imperfections, was uneven here. The top was just fine and boy was it shiny.

After the glaze set a bit I wrote Happy Birthday Steven with royal icing and I was done.

If I had to do it all again I would not use a ganache for this cake because when it set it was just too stiff for the light cake and cream and slicing was difficult. A buttercream would have worked out better. We enjoyed it nonetheless and even had seconds.

Happy Easter!

Pollo Bianca

2010-03-19T13:00:00.010-04:00

Many years ago the Toronto Star Starweek (a weekly TV guide) had a column called Mary McGrath's Chef’s Showcase where a reader could ask that a favourite recipe from a restaurant be featured. I have cut out many recipes from this section that appealed to me, especially if they were pasta dishes or great desserts. A wonderful carrot cake was featured here and has remained a favourite ever since. There are several recipes that I have torned out from this section that I've made over and over again and Pollo Bianca by chef Sandra Vattay of Pimentos is one of them. Pollo Bianca (gramatically I think it should be Pollo Bianco and that's what we call it), translated means White Chicken and the dish is aptly named because all the main ingredients are pretty much colourless; chicken breast, onions, garlic, mushrooms and cream, white wine and chicken stock. The only colour is in the sundried tomatoes and rosemary and the tri-coloured pasta.

It is one of those pasta dishes that you prepare when you don’t feel like cooking and spending hours tending a pot. It is also a recipe you make if you want to impress your guests - it's that good. That is also why I though this pasta dish would be a perfect entry for Presto Pasta Nights www.prestopastanights.com #156 hosted by Our Taste of Life and created by http://bernardosworld.blogspot.com. Pollo Bianca is a creamy chicken pasta dish simply flavoured with a bit of fresh rosemary which I snip off from two of my rosemary plants. I prepare all the ingredients before hand and place them in small bowls. Once this is done I put on a large pot of water to boil the tri-coloured fusilli (or rotini as I've use here) and then I cook the sauce. It could not be easier, and honestly you’ll wonder how something so good didn’t take hours to make.

It has been many years since I've cut out this recipe and I wonder if Pimento is still around and if Sandra Vattay is still chef there, probably not I imagine, as restaurants and chefs come and go and just as columns come and go as well, Chef Showcase is no longer featured in Toronto Starweek. I really miss it and I'm sure a lot of readers miss it as well.

Pollo Bianca

2 tbsp. butter
8 oz. boneless chicken breast, diced
salt and pepper
1 small onion
4 oz. mushrooms, quartered
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp. dry white wine
½ cup chicken stock
1 to 1½ cups whipping cream
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped
1 oz. oil-packed sundried tomatoes, chopped
1½ cups cooked fusilli pasta (you can use 3 cups)
chopped fresh parsley, garnish

In a sauté pan brown chicken in hot butter. Season with salt and pepper. Add onion, cook 1 minute then add mushrooms and cook 2 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook 1 minute.
Deglaze pan with white wine, add chicken stock, cream, rosemary, and sundried tomatoes. Simmer gently until thickened. Add cooked pasta, parsley and spoon into two bowls. Garnish with fresh parmesan cheese if desired. Serve immediately.

Polka Dot Cake

2010-03-05T09:00:00.003-05:00

I can whip up an ordinary plain cake quite easily, but making a celebration cake, one with buttercream frosting and piping decoration appropriate for the occasion is quite another thing for me. Let just say that with my limited knowledge when it comes to decorating a cake, I could never take on a task of making a wedding cake. The stress just thinking about it would surely raise my blood pressure to the point of needing medical attention.

However, having said that, on very rare occasions I will make a birthday cake. My daughter celebrated a birthday last week and I decided that rather than order a cake from a bakery, I would bake a cake for her. Andrea requested a chocolate cake so that part was easy enough. After flipping through the Cake Bible and Heavenly Cakes both by Rose Levy Beranbaum I decided on the Perfect All-American Chocolate Butter Cake from the Cake Bible. I was sure that I had two 9” x 1-1/2” cake pans lying around in my “not often used storage place” but they weren’t there. I must have thrown them out some time ago, probably because they were old and rusted. I had one newer pan that came in a set (why would they not have included two pans? who uses just one 9” x 1-1/2” round cake pan?) but that wasn’t going to help me any and I wasn’t about to go out to purchase one. I had recently purchased a 9” x 3” round cake pan and, although I am sure this would affect the height of the finished cake, I decided that I would use this pan and cut the cake in half myself. The cake was easy to assemble and I could tell that it would be rich and chocolaty. I poured it into the pan and wrapped the pan with a homemade cake strip from the instructions on Virginia Taylors’ blog and set the cake in the oven. It took about 45 minutes to bake in the one pan but by the time it was almost done the kitchen smelled intensely of chocolate.

The last two times I made the Neoclassical buttercream I used the KitchenAid mixer and even though I had been very careful to keep the syrup away from the beaters, the sugar syrup landed on the beaters and hardened on the beaters as well as the sides of the bowl as I was mixing it into the beaten eggs. I was afraid that not enough of the syrup had been incorporated into the eggs so I boiled a bit more of the corn syrup and sugar to make up for the hardened sugar. I am sure I upset the balance of the ingredients by doing this but in the end it seem to have turned out alright, except that it left my confidence frazzled as to whether I could ever whip up a really good frosting.

I was determined to give this buttercream one more try, only this time I would use a hand held mixer instead. I began with the eggs, beating them until they were light and fluffy, and when the sugar syrup boiled I poured it into the oiled measuring cup and held my breath. If only I had used a hand held mixer the first two times I would not have been so stressed this time.
This time the sugar syrup mixed beautifully into the eggs and I was very happy that none clumped onto the beaters. Now I just had to keep beating until the mixture was totally cooled. This seemed to take an awfully long time. I opened up the kitchen window to let the cold air in to help the process along, but it still took a long time. When it was finally coolish I began beating in the softened butter, and this process seemed to go off without a hitch. I thought a coffee flavoured buttercream would be nice with the chocolate cake so I added instant espresso granules mixed with a bit of water as per Rose's recipe. I was all out of coffee flavoured liqueur so I added a bit of brandy instead. For the first time I had a really nice buttercream ready to frost the cake.

I plainly frosted the cake with all the buttercream leaving none aside for piping decoration. I am not very good at piping so I decided to decorate it in some other manner. All I knew at this point was that I would use a chocolate plate and write on it - Happy Birthday Andrea - and place it on the cake as I had seen bakeries do. That part was easy enough; I melted semi-sweet chocolate and with an off set spatula smeared the back of a baking sheet lined with foil as evenly and thinly as I could with the melted chocolate.

Once the chocolate was hard again I cut a rectangle with a sharp knife. I wrote Happy Birthday Andrea as best I could (not as easy as with a pen) with royal icing and placed it on the cake. Still the cake looked plain and it really did need to be jazzed up a bit. I had an awful lot of chocolate left so I decided that I would cut two sizes of circles using a melon baller for the larger circles and a decorating tip’s round end for the smaller circles. When I cut out enough chocolate circles I randomly placed them on the cake. As adornment this easy decoration did the trick and my daughter was very happy with her birthday cake.

The cake with the coffee buttercream was delicious, very chocolaty and dense.

Challah of a Mess

2010-02-26T12:00:00.014-05:00

I probably I hadn’t baked a challah for well over a year. Before that I had been baking challah often and even became quite proficient at the fours strand braid, without having to refer back to the how-to diagrams in the Bread Bible. So having mixed up a bread machine recipe for challah in the morning I had a risen dough waiting for shaping.

Actually I thought I had it filed under memory and proceeded to braid the first challah without referring to the book. With four strands laid out before me, I began braiding that dough like it was nobody’s business, only to discover that as I was coming to the end, the whole thing wanted to lean over as if it wasn’t properly supported.

I tried straightening it out but that didn’t seem to help much, it just kept leaning over. I had done it all wrong – it didn’t look terrible but it wasn’t right. I wanted to take it apart and start over but by now the strands were sticking together and I would have made an even bigger mess of it all, so I left it as it was. There was one more challah to braid - I would redeem myself with this one - so I opened up the Bread Bible to the instructions for the four strand braid and sure enough I had completely forgotten that you had to bring the strands under instead of over as I had done. I had done this before so I thought I would get the hang of it again - this one would look like the challahs I had made in the past. Instead, the instructions were confusing me, and as I braided the strands I got a loose mess and not a tightly braided loaf. As though that wasn't enough, for some reason the dough seemed to be softer and it wasn’t holding its shape at all. Well now I was totally frustrated, and this time I just could not leave it as it was, so I tried to take the braid apart but the strands were sticking together even more than with the first challah because of the soft dough. What a mess! This one was worse than the first one so, exasperated, I bunched up the whole mass into a ball and divided it into three pieces, and rolled each piece out to braid the easier three strand braid. I began braiding from one end to the other, completely forgotting that you are suppose to start to braid from the center, braiding one end and then flipping it and braiding the other end. I hadn't shaped the strands very carefully either, so instead of having a nicely shaped loaf tapering at either end, it resembled a tornado.

Sometimes a loaf of bread just doesn’t turn out as well as we would like! The baked challah tasted good, it just didn’t look pretty. The next time I make challah I will practice on four pieces of strings like I used to before moving onto the dough.

As a comparison, I made this challah a while ago and is what I had hoped these challahs would have looked like.

Valentine's Days Dinner

2010-02-14T11:16:00.013-05:00

I had been thinking about making an extra special dinner for Valentine’s Day all week and I knew exactly what it would be. For special occasions I like to make Short Ribs with Polenta and vegetables and Beranbaum's Best Buns. I will often make this for a dinner party because the short ribs are that good. I just couldn’t figure out what I wanted to make for dessert except that it had to be chocolate. The problem was this – I was intent on making a heart shaped cake but I could not find a heart shaped pan anywhere where I went shopping. I even went to the States on Saturday for a quick shopping trip and checked out three places including Target and I had no luck finding a heart shaped pan. I guess all the pans had been bought for Valentine’s Day and leaving it to the last minute didn’t help. The frustrating thing is that I will come across a heart shaped pan during the year and not pick it up because I figure I’ll get one closer to the occasion. Note to self: buy heart shaped pan when you see one.

At breakfast my husband Randy gave me a Valentine’s card and in it was a certificate for cooking lessons, privately or in a group, the choice was mine, with a chef. I looked at him and said “are you trying to tell me something?” In all honesty this is something I’ve always wanted to do so I was pretty happy. My gift to him was a nice bottle of wine to go with dinner, and I would bake a

chocolate cake (his favourite) for dessert.

For my birthday in September, my daughter gave me three Julie Child books; Mastering Vol. 1, My Life in France which I enjoyed very much and Julie & Julia by Julie Powell which I haven’t started yet. So I’ve been on a Julia Child kick lately - I even find myself thinking French phrases while making a JC recipe and I can’t speak French for beans, except that being Canadian you can’t but be exposed to some French. I had made a Reine de Saba (Chocolate and Almond Cake) iced with a Glaçages au Chocolate (Chocolate-butter icing) in the fall from Mastering Vol. 1 and it was quite good. So that's what I finally decided for dessert; it met the criteria for chocolate, and though it was baked in a round pan it was made from the heart.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Braised Short Ribs in Red Wine

by Bonnie Stern

· 6 lbs. short ribs, cut in thick chunks or strips
· 1 tbsp. each salt, pepper and smoked paprika or regular paprika
· 2 tbsp. olive oil
· 2 onions, chopped
· 3 cloves garlic, chopped
· 2 cups dry red wine
· 28 oz. plum tomatoes, crushed with juices
· 1 cup beef stock
· 1 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Heat oil in Dutch oven or roasting pan. Brown short ribs well on all sides. Remove from pan. Discard all but a few tablespoons of oil.
Add onions and garlic. Cook until tender. Add wine. Bring to a boil. Add tomatoes and stock. Heat. Place ribs in sauce; cover directly with parchment paper and then with lid or aluminum foil.
Place in a 350 F. oven for 2½ to 3 hours or longer, until meat is very tender. Remove to serving plate and keep warm. Skim fat from the sauce. Reduce sauce, if necessary, by cooking without a cover until slightly thickened.
Combine the sauce with the ribs and sprinkle with parsley.
Note: If you like you can add a sprig of rosemary tied in cheesecloth to the sauce.

Beranbaum's Best Buns

These delicious, preservative-free buns can be made in just 3½ to 4 hours with no more than about 45 minutes of actual work — less than 30 minutes if using a food processor (see TIP, below). The recipe can be doubled and the extra baked buns frozen to have on hand for a speedy summer supper. The added crunch of sesame seeds sprinkled on top of the buns is nice; a mixture of seeds and grains kneaded into the dough provides still more fiber and flavor.
· 3 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour, plus more as necessary
· ¼ cup whole-wheat flour
· 1¼ teaspoons instant yeast, such as rapid-rise or bread machine yeast
· 1½ teaspoons fine sea salt
· 1⅓ cups room-temperature water
· 1 teaspoon mild honey, such as clover
· ¼ cup olive oil
· ¾ cup toasted mixed seeds, such as cracked flax, sesame, poppy, sunflower and pumpkin, or 1 tablespoon sesame seeds for the topping (optional)
Milk or water, for brushing the tops of the buns (optional)
In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, whole-wheat flour and yeast, then the salt. Add the water, honey and oil. Using a mixer with a dough hook on medium speed, or by hand, knead the dough for 7 minutes (10 minutes by hand) until smooth and springy. The dough should be soft and just sticky enough to cling slightly to your fingers. If it is still very sticky, knead in a little flour. If it is too stiff, spray it with a little water and knead it. Allow the dough to rest, covered, for 20 minutes and then knead in the seeds, if desired.
Set the dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl and lightly spray or oil the top of the dough. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and set in a warm spot. Allow the dough to rise for about 1 hour or until it has doubled. (The indentation from a finger stuck into the center of the dough should remain.)
If you plan to bake the hamburger buns the next day, press down the dough and place it in a large, oiled resealable plastic food storage bag, leaving a tiny bit unzipped for the forming gas to escape, and refrigerate it. Take it out of the refrigerator about 1 hour before shaping.
When ready to shape the dough, set it on a very lightly floured work surface and form it into a log. With a sharp knife, divide it into 8 equal pieces. (If you prefer very large buns, you can divide the dough into 6 equal pieces.) Shape each piece into a ball by cupping your hand over the dough and rotating it. It works best if you use only as much flour as you need to keep the dough from sticking. A little resistance helps to form a round ball. Keep the balls of dough covered with damp paper towels to prevent drying; allow them to rest for 5 minutes.
Transfer the dough balls to a parchment-lined baking sheet or inverted sheet pan, leaving enough space between them to allow for a 4-inch bun. Flatten the balls to a height of about 1 inch. (If the dough is very elastic, you can flatten them again after 15 minutes of rising.) If using the sesame seeds, brush the dough lightly with milk or water and sprinkle with the seeds. Cover the balls with a large inverted plastic box or with plastic wrap lightly coated with baking spray, and allow them to rise for 1 to 1½ hours, or until almost doubled; when the dough is pressed gently with a finger, the depression should very slowly fill in.
While the dough is rising, set the oven rack toward the bottom of the oven and place a baking stone or baking sheet on it. Set a cast-iron skillet or heavy baking pan on the floor of the oven or on the lowest shelf. Preheat the oven to 425° degrees for 45 minutes or longer.
Mist the dough with water, quickly but gently set the baking sheet on the hot stone or hot baking sheet, and toss ½ cup of ice cubes into the pan beneath. Immediately shut the door and bake 15 minutes. Rotate the pan front to back and bake for 3 to 5 minutes or until the buns are golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. (An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center will read 200 to 210 degrees.) Transfer the buns to wire racks until they are completely cool or barely warm.

The Carrots and Brussel Sprouts recipe is in Epicurious and the Reine de Saba is in Julia Child's Mastering Vol 1. and if you don't have the book you can google it.

Duivekater - A Lazy Bakers Project

2010-02-05T16:30:00.007-05:00

This is my first entry as a Lazy Baker and I must admit that in the past I secretly wished that I was part of the group so when Melinda invited me to participate, I was thrilled. The Duivekater, a sweet Dutch bread usually made between St. Nicholas, December 6, and Epiphany, January 6, was chosen by Melinda as a Lazy Bakers project and you cannot get much lazier than this.

Most breads are lazy projects, after all there are only a few minutes of actually prep time and then while the dough is rising you can go about your business or just continue to be lazy. The recipe is straightforward with no pre-ferment, no toasting or skinning of nuts (an exercise in futility especially with walnuts), no soaking of fruit, and no fancy shmanshy ingredients that you can’t find in your local supermarket.

I threw all the ingredients into the KitchenAid and using the dough hook mixed the dough. The dough was quite stiff I thought, and even though the recipe states that it should be on the stiffer side, I thought it could use a bit more milk. I carefully added a few drops of milk until the dough softened somewhat and continued kneading for a few minutes.

I placed it in my dough rising container. This large bread crumb container is the perfect size for many of the breads I make so rather than throw it out I converted it to a dough rising container. I measured and marked it with a permanent marker to accurately show when the dough doubles. I was quite pleased with myself and for my contribution to a greener earth.

After about two hours I removed it from the container and shaped it into a ten inch torpedo shaped loaf. I made a four inch cut in the middle of each end and pulled the pieces to elongate them. I looked at the cut dough and thought it looked like a huge deadly virus sent by aliens to invade our earth. It does look rather sinister doesn't it? I was surprised how easy it was to stretch out the cut pieces without them receding back especially since I hadn’t rested the dough. I coiled the ends inward as the picture showed and placed the dough in a plastic bag for the final rising. About an hour later it was ready for the egg wash and decorative slashes.

I wanted to be creative with the slashes but after some thought I combined a couple of designs I had seen on the internet. Slashing was pretty easy too – I thought I might have trouble with the intricate design but the stiff dough allowed the sharpened knife to slash the dough effortlessly. I placed the Duivekater into the preheated oven and set the timer for 35 minutes. As it was baking a lovely scent of bread baking and citrus wafted through the kitchen. Halfway through baking I looked in to see how it was doing and everything looked good except some of the deeper slashes had opened up a bit too much making the design not as sharp, otherwise I thought the bread was quite handsome and not alien at all.

I had a slice after dinner and thought it was quite nice with the flavour of citrus and cardamom coming through with just a hint of nutmeg and I thought it would be perfect with a cup of tea. My daughter said it reminded her of panettone and my son said he really liked it and went for a second slice. The next day I brought some over to my parent's for them to enjoy and by evening the entire loaf was gone. I enjoyed making this bread – I hope the Dutch approve.

Sourdough Bread

2010-01-18T19:29:00.027-05:00

My sourdough culture turned three last November and I’m so happy that after three years I have made countless loaves with it and that with regular (and sometimes not so regular) feedings it is still alive and kicking. There was a time before its birth that I thought I would probably never make sourdough bread.

I had tried to develop a sourdough culture once or twice with poor results, mostly due to incomprehensive instructions. I would console myself that I really didn’t like San Francesco Sourdough that much anyway, so why would I want to maintain a culture to make bread that I wasn’t crazy about? And besides, didn't sourdough bread take hours and hours to rise? Little did I know then that sourdough bread made at home bears little resemblance to store bought sourdough, and that with the addition of commercial yeast the rising time wasn't more than bread made without a starter. It wasn’t until I purchased The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum and read the lengthy and informative chapter on sourdough once or twice that I felt I had the confidence to try again - after all I really really wanted to make a bread with yeast that I cultured by simply allowing water and flour to sit for a few days. I set out my bowl of bait and hoped that this simple mixture of flour and water would capture the yeast around me. I watched it closely for the first few days for any sign that it had gone bad. Everything so far seemed to aim toward success; the scent of paint, the small bubbles forming on top, and the absence of colour that would indicate spoilage. I think it was on the third day that my culture more than doubled and I was so thrilled I felt as if I had actually given birth to a child that I would love forever. But it wasn’t done yet, I still had to continue feeding this lovely mass for a least a few more days. On the fifth day something had terribly gone wrong, or so I thought, because when I checked on it, it just wasn't as active as it had been the day before, even though I had fed it, there was no sign of life whatsoever. What had gone wrong!? I quickly went to Rose’s blog and issued an S.O.S (save our sourdough). She advised, "each sourdough seems to have a mind of its own so be patient and it surely will develop as it should", so, relieved, I continued feeding it and sure enough just one day later it was active again, it was so active that the first name that popped in my head to call it was Casanova. I thought that was pretty funny at the time but when I told my daughter she just looked at me and said, “that’s gross Mom”. My starter has remained nameless ever since. My baby may not be referred to by a proper name but it always responds enthusiastically to feedings. Sometimes I wonder if with all the feedings it has received if any molecules from the original batch are still present.

Nonetheless, I have made many loaves of bread with my reliable little starter and some have become favourites, but my all time favourite is the Sourdough Bread recipe from The Best of Better Baking.com by Marcy Goldman & Yvan Huneault. It is the first recipe I tried with my new starter and the one I make the most. It is truly exceptional bread. This recipe has some commercial yeast in it, but I’ve cut down the amount I use by half with very good results. I have even made it omitting the commercial yeast altogether - it just takes a little longer to rise and produces a slightly more sour loaf. I highly recommend this bread.

Sourdough Bread

Sourdough Bread from The Best of Better Baking.com by Marcy Goldman & Yvan Huneault

1½ cups liquid white sourdough starter at room temperature and recently refreshed
1½ cups water
2 teaspoons (I use 1 teaspoon)
½ tsp. malt powder or packed brown sugar
1 tbsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. semolina (optional)
4 to 5 cups bread flour

In the bowl of an electric mixer, stir down the starter to deflate it. Stir in the water, yeast, malt powder or brown sugar, granulated sugar, olive oil, semolina if using, and 4 cups of the flour. Mix to make a soft mass. Let rest for 10 to 12 minutes, add the salt and gradually add more flour as required to form a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and form it into a ball. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the dough rise for 30 to 45 minutes, or until almost doubled.
Gently deflate the dough. Spray the top with nonstick cooking spray and return the dough to the bowl and cover with plastic. Let rise for 1 to 2 hours or until puffy and 75 to 80 percent larger in volume. Gently deflate the dough. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and form into a large ball. Place it on the prepared baking sheet and spray the dough with non-stick cooking spray. Cover with plastic and let the dough rise for 2 to 4 hours, or until puffy.
Preheat the oven to 500°F. Using a sharp knife make 3 or 4 diagonal slashes 1½ inches apart on the top of the loaf. With a spray bottle mist the dough with water and then dust it with flour. Place in the oven and immediately lower the heat to 450°F. Throw in ½ cup of ice cubes on a shallow tray placed on the oven floor. Bake for 10 minutes then lower the heat to 400°F. Bake for an additional 35 to 45 minutes, or until the loaf is well browned. Let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Instead or making one large loaf divide the dough in 2 or 3 pieces and form into a long loaf.
Note: You can omit the yeast, but rising time will be longer.

Oatmeal Raisin Bread & Whipped Cream Cake

2010-01-07T18:44:00.026-05:00

Often when I'm flipping through bread books I'll come across recipes that I would like to bake, but then as I scan down the list of ingredients, buttermilk powder is listed as an ingredient. I have a mental list of items at the back of my mind which I'm always on the lookout for when I'm shopping and buttermilk powder has been there for a while. I know you can get this item, otherwise it wouldn't be listed, but when I've shopped at my local supermarket or any other supermarket within a five mile radius I can never find it. Well my luck finally changed when I was shopping at the bulk food store recently. I know I had checked for it here many times before, never to be found, but I persisted and as I looked over each bin, this time, there it was near the skim milk powder which, by the way, you can find everywhere. Not only did they have buttermilk powder, there in a bin nearby I finally spotted dry milk. I came close many times to ordering dry milk from King Arthur but shipping to Canada was more than double the cost of the item so I resisted. Dry milk differs from milk powder in that dry milk does not dissolve in water, and is used in bread recipes and eliminates the scalding milk step. I had no idea what recipes I would be baking with either of these ingredients, but I scooped a bit of both into small plastic bags and came hope quite satisfied, having hit two birds with one stone.

I went through my bread machine baking book where I had seen the buttermilk listed in many of the recipes and came across Oatmeal Raisin Bread. I love raisin bread and this one had oatmeal in it, how bad could that be I thought, well not bad at all, so I eagerly assembled all the ingredients into the pan as described and set my machine to work. How easy is that! This time to keep things simpler I didn't bother to convert the recipe to the sponge method, I could always do that next time. This recipe is loaded with raisins which I like. Often bread machine recipes skimp out the amount of raisins added to the dough and I will normally increase the amount to my liking but I didn't have to this time because this recipe is loaded with raisins.

The dough was nice to work with and before I knew it, it was time to shape the dough into loaves, allow to rise and bake. About a half an hour later the house smelled divine and the bread was done. The bread was quite good, certainly better than any bread you find in your grocery store bakery department. I'm sure the buttermilk improved the flavour from a loaf made with skim milk powder but I didn't have one to compare it to so I couldn't do a taste it. I certainly will make this again.

Oatmeal Raisin Bread

Makes 1 loaf (1.5 Lb. or 750 gr.)

1-1/4 cups water

1-1/4 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. granulated sugar

2 tbsp. shortening

3 cups all purpose flour or bread flour

1/3 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup buttermilk powder

1-1/4 tsp. bread machine yeast

1 cup raisins

1. Measure all ingredients except raisins into baking pan in the ordr recommeded by the manufacturer. Insert pan into the oven chamber.

2. Select Basic Cycle or Sweet Cycle.

3. Add raisins at the "add ingredients" signal.

1. Select dough cycle.

2. Add raisins.

3. Transfer dough from pan to a greased bowl to rise until doubled.

4. Deflate slightly and give two business turns and return to bowl.

5. Allow to rise until doubled

6. Deflate slightly and roll to fit a 4 x 8 bread pan.

7. Allow to rise until doubled.

8. Bake in a preheated 375 F. oven for about 35 minutes or until internal temperature reads 205 degrees.

I am not a member of the Heavenly Cake Bakers, but I do look forward each week to what was baked. There are so many wonderful cakes in the book like the Plum Ingot cakes that I can't wait to bake when plums are in season again, but recently Marie Wolf (Heavenly Cake Place)posted the Whipped Cream Cake and I couldn't wait to bake it.

My photo of the finished cake doesn't do it justice but if taste could be photographed then this photo would win first prize.

I had never made a cake where the cream is whipped and then the rest of the ingredients are added. The batter was so light and lovely. I greased the pan with Pam then floured it but after baking I had a bit of trouble removing the cake from the pan. A small piece of cake stuck to the pan but I gently removed it and placed it back on the cake. You could hardly tell after I sprinkled on the icing sugar. I had a slice with some whipped cream and wished I had had some macerated strawberries to go with this cake, one of the best tasting cakes I've ever had.

Country Harvest Bread

2010-01-05T19:26:00.018-05:00

Over the holidays I was so busy baking cookies and cakes that I hadn't baked any bread at all. I have to admit that I resorted to buying a few loaves which doesn't happen much when I'm in full bread baking mode. I didn't even have a loaf in the freezer in reserve. Well that was going to change today. I missed having my bread in the morning toasted with jam so I decided to make my good old reliable Country Harvest Bread from Canada's Best Bread Machine Baking Recipes by Donna Washburn & Heather Butt. This is a wholesome loaf of bread made with whole wheat flour, bread flour, a touch of honey and flax, sesame, and sunflower seeds. I use my bread machine because it does a good job of kneading, but that's where its function stops because after the dough has risen I shape it and use my oven to bake the bread. The recipe straight out of the book works really well, but because I like to improve the bread's flavour, I converted this recipe to the sponge method as described in The Bread Bible by RLB. I also increased the recipe by 25% so that I get two loaves, one for now and one for the freezer for a later date. If you don't have a bread machine you can use a stand mixer.

I mix the sponge in a bowl and poured this mixture into the bread pan. I combine the flour mixture together with the yeast and sprinkle this over the sponge and allow it to sit for 1 to 4 hours, any longer and it should go in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. I turn the machine on and after a 20 minute it begins its cycle and I add the honey and shortening to the mixture and let is mix for a minute or so and then turn the machine off. I immediately turn the machine on again (my machine doesn't have a pause button) and it goes into the 20 minute warming again which is just the right time for the autolyse and add the salt and seeds when the kneading begins and allow the machine to finish the kneading cycle. I remove the dough from the machine and place it into a greased bowl for the risings.

I divide the dough into two portions and shape into loaves. One hour later the loaves are ready for the preheated oven and about 35 minutes later two lovely loaves are ready.

I love the texture of the crumb and the crunch from the seeds and it makes great sandwiches but I really look forward to breakfast when I make this bread.

Country Harvest Bread

Sponge
· 360 grams water
· 25 grams skim milk powder
· 20 grams honey
· 100 grams whole wheat flour
· 200 grams bread flour
· 1 tsp. instant yeast

Flour Mixture

· 110 grams whole wheat flour
· 165 grams bread flour
· 1 tsp. instant yeast

Add in

· 20 grams honey
· 35 grams shortening

After the autolyse add

· 2 tsp. salt
· 40 grams flax seed
· 20 grams sesame seeds
· 45 grams sunflower seeds

In a bowl combine the sponge ingredients and mix for 2 minutes to incorporate air and pour into the bread machine pan.
Mix the flour mixture together and lightly spoon over the sponge. Allow the mixture to ferment for 1 to 4 hours.
Turn on the machine on dough setting and mix the sponge and flour for a few minutes until combined, then turn of the machine. Turn on the machine again, there will be a 15 to 20 minute period before the machine begins again.
When the machine starts add the salt, flax, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds. Allow the machine to run its cycle. Remove the bread dough and place it in a greased container to rise.
When the dough has doubled in about 1 hour deflate it and return to bowl to rise again until doubled. Remove the dough from the container gently deflate and divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Let the dough rest 5 minutes and then shape into two loaves and place the loaves in two greased loaf pans. Cover with plastic or place into a large clear plastic bag and let them rise until the dough has risen about 1 inch above the rim of the pan.
Preheat the oven to 450°F. one hour before baking.
Spray the loaves with water place them in the oven and throw in 1 cup of ice cubes in the pan on the floor of the oven. Turn heat down to 425°F and bake for 35 to 45 minutes
Allow to cool completely.

Christmas Baking Finale - Almost

2009-12-21T20:43:00.019-05:00

I have been baking the Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake for about thirty years. The recipe was given to me so I don't know who created this exceptional cake, but it is everybody's favourite. The cake is delicious and it has a wonderfully decadent struesel topping. If you love chocolate, then this coffee cake will not disappoint.

All the cookies I have baked so far are the old standards that I’ve baked year after year, some older than others. I try each year to introduce a new recipe that I’ve never baked before. This year, as I was flipping through Martha Stewarts Cookies, which I recently purchased, the Rum Raisin Shortbread caught my eye. They are your typical shortbread, - butter, sugar and flour - and these are flavoured with orange rind and coconut and studded with currents which I like. Martha explains that currents, are tiny raisins made from the Zante grape that's why they are called Rum Raisin Shortbread. The currants are soaked overnight in rum, but I didn’t want to wait to make them the next day so I just let the currants soak for a few hours before preparing the dough. The dough is rolled into a log, wrapped and chilled for a couple of hours. The recipe says to bake at 325F for 20 minutes but they browned too quickly and the centers were still not cooked enough. I adjusted the temperature to 300F and baked for about 15 minutes, and they turned out just fine.

Finally, I made some Sugar Cookies that I really wanted to try from Rose's Christmas Cookies.

Again, these were very simple to make and after a two hour chilling period I rolled them out and cut them with Christmas cookie cutters. I dashed out to buy some meringue powder for the Royal Icing rather than use egg whites because then I would have yolks left over, which would mean I'd be looking for a recipe to use them up, (I feel wasteful throwing out yolks) and I really didn't feel like making more cookies. I was eager to decorate them and forgot how time consuming it was. Four dozen cookies may not seem like a lot, but when I was fiddling around with coloured icing and piping each cookie I started asking myself exactly what I was thinking going through this exercise? Would a dusting of sugar not have been easier? I just wanted to finish really quickly, so the decorating is just mediocre. I guess it doesn't matter, it's not like I will be selling these at my local bakery, but after I put them on a plate for a photo I thought they didn't look too bad.

Here is a tin filled with cookies ready to go to my parents home for Christmas.

Happy Holidays.

Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

1 cup sugar
½ cup butter
2 s eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup sour cream
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Topping

½ cup brown sugar
½ cup chopped walnuts
¼ cup flour
2 tbsp. cocoa
¼ cup butter
½ cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven at 350 F.

Beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat well. Add vanilla. Combine flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to egg mixture alternately with sour cream, mix on low speed only to combine. Add chocolate chips and mix until combined. Do not over mix as this toughens the cake.

Combine topping ingredients to form a crumbly mixture and sprinkle over batter.

Bake for 60 to 65 minutes.

Christmas Baking Part Two

2009-12-16T18:42:00.038-05:00

As I mentioned in my last entry I used to start baking cookies in November, so that most of the baking would be done by mid December and not leave everything to the end and stress myself silly. This year I’ve left it too close to Christmas and I’m now stressing myself silly. You see if I don’t bake cookies that my family are use to it is not left unnoticed and I get comments like “didn’t you bake these” or “are you going to bake these” and “you have to bake these”, and I don’t want to let anyone down so there is a ‘must bake’ list of cookies with one or two new ones thrown in to keep things fresh.

A couple of days ago I baked the 'absolute must bake' Jewel Cookies from Martha Stewart. They are a favourite of both my daughter and son and they are pretty delicious. They are your typical thumbprint cookie rolled in chopped pecans with a raspberry jam center. I don’t use my thumb to make the depression but the end of a wooden spoon. I have to mention also that my husband doesn’t like jam, so I place a chocolate chip in the center of half of the cookies which is fine because they taste just as good, besides it looks like I’ve baked two different batches.

Today I baked three different cookies. The first I baked aren’t a cookie at all but Mini Pecan Raisin Tarts which I’ve been baking for ever. The recipe was given to me by a friend so I don’t know their origins but they are a favourite of mine. The original recipe was call Uva Tarts, (uva translated means raisins), but hubby doesn’t like raisins (are you seeing a pattern here?) so half the filling has pecans only and half has the raisin and pecans. One of the mini tart pans I have is slightly smaller than the other two and I make the raisin pecan tarts in that one and the slightly larger mini tart pans are used for the pecan only tarts, that way there is no confusion to which one is which. Again with the same recipe I get two different tarts. These are time consuming because you have to make the dough and prepare the filling, then roll out the dough, line the pans and fill with fillings and bake and repeat until all the dough and filling are used up. You get about a million tarts with this recipe but could certainly make half the recipe if you wish.

The second I baked were Evelyn’s Christmas Cookies, from John Clancy's Christmas Cookbook, that again I’ve been baking for ever. Evelyn was his friend and neighbour and from whom the recipe came from. They are super simple to make and they are simply flavoured with vanilla and you can’t just eat one. These are also a thumbprint cookie, filled with raspberry jam and yup, you guess it, I place a chocolate chip in about half the cookies. To shape the cookies fast and the same size, I divide the dough into two pieces and roll it out into a long rope and cut it into even pieces that will approximately give me a one inch ball and roll each piece into a ball. It almost looks like I'm making gnocchi doesn't it?

I was left with four egg whites from the last two recipes so I made Amaretti, (Almond Macaroons) a favourite Italian cookie which has a nice crisp exterior and soft chewy interior and are quite delicious. This recipe was also given to me by a friend many years ago and I have been baking them ever since. They are super simple to make with only four ingredients; egg whites, sugar, ground almonds and almond extract. I top half of the cookies with a whole almond and the other half with a whole coffee bean. No picky husband here, he likes both.

I feel good that I have got this baking done, now I only have some cakes to bake.

I don't have the Mini Tarts in my files yet but I have included the recipes for the other three. They all freeze beautifully.

Jewel Cookies
Martha Stewart

1-1/2 cups unsalted butter
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs, separated
2 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. salt
2-2/3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 cups finely chopped pecans
1 cup thick raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 350 F. and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg yolks, vanilla, and salt, then the flour. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Brush each dough ball with beaten egg whites, then roll in the chopped pecans. Place balls 2 to 3 inches apart on baking sheets. Press the center of each ball with your thumb, and fill with ½ teaspoon of jam.

Bake until just golden around the edges, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool cookies on rack.
Makes 5 dozen cookies.

Evelyn’s Christmas Cookies
John Clancy's Christmas Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg yolks
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
½ cup raspberry jam

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Cream the butter and sugar until very light in colour. Add the egg yolks and continue to beat until the mixture is fluffy. Stir in the vanilla, and gradually add the flour.

To form the cookies, pat 1 tablespoon of dough at a time into a 1-inch diameter ball and place it on a lightly greased or parchment lined baking sheet. With your fingertip, make an indentation in the top of each cookie. I use the end of the handle of a wooden spoon to make indentations dipping it into some flour from time to time so that the dough doesn’t stick to it. Spoon raspberry jam into each indentation.

Bake the cookies on the middle rack of the oven for about 8 minutes, or until the edges turn a light golden brown.

For a different variation add a chocolate chip in the middle of each cookie instead of the jam.

Amaretti – Almond Macaroons

4 cups ground almonds
1-1/2 cups sugar
4 egg whites
1 tsp. almond extract
Whole Almonds

Beat egg whites till frothy, add sugar and beat until they are stiff. Add extract and ground almonds. Dough should be somewhat stiff. Take about one tablespoon of dough and roll into a 1-inch ball, and roll into granulated sugar. When your hand become sticky rinse with water. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet and top each one with a whole almond.
Note: You can also top the amaretti with a whole coffee bean, or red or green candied cherries that have been quartered.

Christmas Baking Begins

2009-12-10T18:08:00.034-05:00

Every year I declare that I will bake less cookies and every year my daughter says she will believe that when she sees it.
I can remember when I was just married I use to do all the Christmas baking on Christmas Eve. I would get out of bed at 6:00 a.m. and begin the baking marathon. By noon I would have about four cakes and several types of cookies baked and wrapped up. Half would go to my husband’s family where we would celebrate Christmas Eve and the other half would go to my family the next day for Christmas.

Over the years my cookies and cake recipes grew and making everything on Christmas Eve would be impossible so I would begin baking at the end of November. By mid December my freezer would be full with cookies and cakes. Most were given away as gifts to dear friends and of course to our families for Christmas celebrations.

This year my baking has begun in earnest having baked four batches of cookies so far. I baked the first batch, Vanilla-Walnut Crescents, last weekend with my daughter’s help. They are an easy cookie to put together and the end result is melt in your mouth goodness. I was in the mood to bake today and decided on Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies, a double batch of Date ‘N Walnut Delights, and Lora Brody’s Rugelach from Rose’s Christmas Cookies.

The Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies which I love are from Gourmet magazine. They are flavoured with a hint of orange rind and cinnamon and when they are sliced they remind me of little stain glass windows.

I have been making Date ‘N Walnut Delights for I can’t remember how many years and are a particular favourite of my daughter Andrea. They are full of dates, walnuts and are cooked with butter, sugar and eggs in a skillet on the stovetop and after stirring for about 15 minutes the mixture transforms into a soft paste and when it has cooled, vanilla, cornflakes and coconut are added, formed into balls, rolled in coconut and chilled. I like them best out of the refrigerator.

The Rugelach is a newcomer on my Christmas cookie list that I have been baking for only a couple of years now and is a favourite of my son Steven. There is a bit of work putting them together but overall easy to make and utterly delicious.

I still have a few more batches to bake so stay tuned. I have posted the recipes for Vanilla-Walnut Crescents and the Date 'N Walnut Delights, the other two are in Epicurious.

Vanilla-Walnut Crescents

1 cup butter
2/3 cup icing sugar
2 tsp. vanilla or 2 envelopes of vanilla sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup ground walnuts
icing sugar

In a large bowl, cream butter; beat in sugar with vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually stir in flour and walnuts. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Divide dough into 4 portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion into long thin ropes, about 18 inches long. Cut into ¾ inch pieces; then curve into crescent shape. Arrange crescents ½ inch apart on ungreased baking sheet or parchment and bake in 375 F. oven for 8 – 10 minutes or until no longer soft to touch. Transfer to wire rack; let cool for 10 minutes; Sprinkle generously with icing sugar while still warm. Makes about 8 dozen crescent.

Date ‘n Walnut Delights
A chewy no-bake cookie ball that is prepared in a saucepan for easy clean-up from Robin Hood’s Cookies and Squares.

1 cup chopped dates
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup butter
2 eggs
2-1/4 cups corn cereal flakes
¾ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tsp. vanilla
½ cup coconut or sifted icing sugar

Combine dates, walnuts, sugar, butter and eggs in a saucepan or large frying pan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until dates soften and mixture is smooth, about 15 minutes.

Set aside and cool for 5 minutes.

Stir in cereal, ¾ cup coconut and vanilla. Cool until easy to handle.

Shape into 1 inch balls and roll in ½ cup coconut or icing sugar.

Chill until firm. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Makes about 36 cookies.

Raisin Pecan Bread

2009-11-12T17:49:00.015-05:00

I just love fruit and nut breads so when I came across the recipe for Cherry Pecan Bread on Bread Cetera I knew that I would be baking this bread, except I would substitute the cherries, which I am not a fan of, for either raisins or cranberries. Actually the original recipe which was created by James McNamara, of Wave Hill Breads in Wilton, Connecticut called for cranberries, but SteveB of Bread Cetera is not a fan of cranberries so he substituted them with cherries, hence the name Cherry Pecan Bread on his site, and now it has since had two reincarnations in my kitchen as a Cranberry Walnut Bread and a Raisin Pecan Bread.

I expand the sourdough culture the day before I plan to make the bread and the next morning, putting the recipe together is pretty straight forward except that while I am measuring all the ingredients and reading through the steps I feel like I’m following instructions for a lab experiment rather than a recipe. Also, I think a novice baker would find these recipes a little frustrating as they are written assuming you know a thing of two about bread baking. Nevertheless SteveB has links to formulas and procedures, helpful videos and some of the nicest photos of bread I’ve ever seen, and if the rest of the breads are as good as this bread is then it is worth reading through the site and learning as much as possible before starting out.

The recipe makes two large loaves but I decided to divide the dough into four smaller loaves and shaped two in a fendu and two as batards. The bread pictured on Bread Cetera’s site is shaped in a Fendu, French for split: you shape the dough into a boule, flour the middle top lengthwise and with a dowel, press along the floured area and roll the dowel back and forth creating a "valley" in the centre about two inches wide. Then you bring the dough on either side of the “valley” to meet creating a crevice in the center and gently turn the loaves up side down on a floured couche to rise. I don’t have a couche, so I made a makeshift couche with a folded tablecloth and instead of making a mess with flour I placed the shaped dough on parchment. This worked out just fine except, I didn’t get the nice effect of flour on top of the finished loaves that a floured couche would give. Just before baking you gently flip the loaves right side up again and place on a sheet pan lined with parchment. I was anxious to see what they looked like so I flipped them before I should have and let them sit on the baking sheet and they began to pull apart in the middle so you can see mine didn’t turn out quite right.

The very first time I made this bread I used cranberries and walnuts and now that I’ve made it with raisins and pecans I can honestly say they were both very good and excellent served with a soft blue cheese like cambozola.

Apple Pie

2009-11-08T21:29:00.016-05:00

Every year I make two apple pies to bring to my parents for Thanksgiving dinner. So on that weekend my husband Randy and I go to the apple orchard in King City, a twenty minute drive north from where we live and pick Northern Spy, my favourite pie apple. They are the very best apples (in my opinion) because they are slightly tart and hold their shape beautifully during baking.

I could kick myself this year for not bringing my camera with me. In all the years that we have been picking apples I don’t remember ever seeing trees laden with apples so abundant that they showed no mercy to their branches drooping low to the ground. I was able to fill my bag from one tree leaving plenty for someone else to pick, whereas in past years I would walk the entire row looking for the perfect apple, eventually filling my bag and irritating my husband to no end. Much to his shock I had filled my bag quickly and only had one more bag to fill, but this time with MacIntosh and Cortlands for eating, and there were plenty still on the trees even though picking these varieties had begun earlier.

My family celebrates Thanksgiving on Sunday so that morning I made the pies. I have been using the same recipe for the pastry for years because it works so well for me. My method of making pie dough is the antithesis of everything I have read about pastry as I don’t chill my pastry. I know there is merit to this rule yet my pastry is always very flaky without chilling. I was taught in high school home economics class to never overwork pastry if you want to achieve a flaky crust and I have applied that lesson ever since. After I’ve cut the fat into the flour I use ice water to bind the mixture and I use a fork to lightly stir the mass until it just comes together and then use my hands to ever so gently pat it together to form a ball. I cover the dough and let it rest while I prepare the apples. Hubby had peeled the apples so I just had to cut them up, add the sugars, flour, lemon rind, salt and cinnamon and toss. I lined two glass pie dishes with the pastry, piled in the apples, dotted the filling with some butter and rolled out the remaining pastry to cover the apples. I fluted the edges, cut a few slits to allow the steam to escape, brushed it with a bit of milk and sprinkled turbinado sugar on top and it was ready for the oven.

The aroma of apple and cinnamon wafting through the house was wonderful, no wonder they say if you are selling your home, put a pie in the oven for a quick sale. In about 50 minutes the pies were done.

Served barely warm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream it is a heavenly dessert.

Deluxe Apple Pie

Crust
From Crisco’s No Fail Pastry
Make a double crust

2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. salt
1 cup shortening*
6 – 8 tbsp. ice cold water

In a bowl stir flour and salt together. With a pastry blender or two knives cut in cold shortening until it resembles course meal. Add the ice water and with a fork stir the mixture just to combine, do not overwork. When it comes together, gather the mixture with your hands and form into a ball, again not over working the dough. Divide the dough into two portions and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to use.

A mixture or shortening and butter can also be used for a richer crust.

Deluxe Apple Pie
From Five Roses – A Guide to Good Cooking

6 apples, preferably Northern Spy
6 tbsp. brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. butter
½ tsp. grated lemon rind

Preheat oven to 450 F. Prepare pastry and line a 9” pie plate, reserving some for top crust. Core, peel and slice apples. Combine brown sugar, sugar, flour cinnamon and salt together, then mix with apples. Spread apple mixture into unbaked pastry shell. Dot with butter, sprinkle with lemon rind then cover with top crust, sealing carefully and making slits to allow steam to escape. Bake in a hot oven then reduce heat to 350 F. and bake 30 to 35 minutes.

Onion Foccacia and Apple-Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake

2009-11-01T19:39:00.001-05:00

October 31, 2009

I had been out and about most of the week so I hadn’t baked anything and now it was Saturday, it was gloomy outside and I wasn’t going anywhere so I was itching to bake something, but what? I’d been thinking about pizza but I didn’t want pizza for dinner, I had already taken out some chicken breast from the freezer. An onion foccacia is similar to pizza, and it would make a nice accompaniment to dinner. I had also received my copy of the Heavenly Cakes this week and really wanted to make the Apple-Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake as I had plenty of apples from a recent visit to the orchard even if I only needed one. I would make both.

I mixed up my regular pizza dough recipe which is really a fougasse recipe but makes a great base for either pizza or foccacia. As a matter of fact I use this recipe to make baguettes also. When you find a winner you stick with it. Once the dough was mixed and in my makeshift bread rising container (a large plastic tub, that had originally contained bread crumbs, just the right size for 1-1/2 pounds of dough) I thinly sliced four onions and threw them into a fry pan with some olive oil and a few sprigs of rosemary, freshly cut from my rosemary plant, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. I turned down the heat and let the onions cook slowly until translucent without browning so they would be sweet and delicious.

Assembly was easy enough – stretch out the dough on a large sheet pan, top with onions and let it rise for about half an hour. Bake at 400 F for about 20 minutes and it’s done.

While the dough was rising I made the cake. I assembled the crumb topping, reserving part of it. I made a small mistake here, when I read the ingredients I failed to see “melted” next to butter and used soft butter instead. Oops. When I make mistakes I feel like I’m in a classroom and I’m being docked marks for carelessness. Next time I will read carefully – lesson learned. Next I sliced the apple and added the lemon juice and set it aside. Mixing the cake was easy, though not creaming the butter with sugar etc, throws me for a loop. The mixed batter was light and lovely and ready for the pan. I scraped some batter in the pan, sprinkled in the reserved crumb topping, added the apple slices, overlapping them slightly and topped with the remaining batter. I then partially baked the cake, added the crumb topping, this steps prevents it from sinking into the batter, and finished baking the cake.

The kitchen smelled divine. With the onion slowly cooking on the stove top and the cake in the oven it was like it was Thanksgiving again.

The cake was ready and it looked just like the picture in the book, and it tasted wonderful, not too sweet and the cake was tender and the crumb topping didn’t suffer much from my error, it was lovely.

Basic Bread Dough for Fougasse
By Patricia Wells

Makes 1 ½ pounds of dough

1 tsp. Active dry yeast
1 tsp. Sugar
1 1/3 cups Lukewarm water (about 105 degrees_
2 tbsp. Olive oil
1 tsp. Sea salt
3 ½ cups Flour, plus more if necessary

In the bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with a dough-hook attachment, combine yeast, sugar, and water, and stir to blend. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Stir in the oil and salt.

Add the flour, a little at a time, mixing at the lowest speed until most of the flour has been absorbed, and the dough forms a ball. Continue to mix at the lowest speed until soft and satiny but still firm, 4 to 5 minutes. Add additional flour, if necessary, to keep the dough from sticking. The dough will be quite soft.

Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator. You may also let dough rise at room temperature until doubled. Simply punch down the dough as it doubles or triples. Use to make one large or several small fougasse.

In a large baking sheet with sides stretch dough out to cover the pan and cover to rise 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Onion Topping

¼ cup olive oil
4 yellow onions sliced 1/8 to 14 inch.
2 sprigs of rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste

In a fry pan add oil, heat and add onions, rosemary and season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 20 minutes on low heat until the onions are soft and translucent without turning brown.

Scatter onions over risen dough and bake on a pizza stone in a 400 F. oven for about 20 minutes or until edges are golden.

Heart of Wheat Bread

2009-10-29T09:56:00.001-04:00

Once in a while I come across a recipe that is so phenomenal that I know it will become part of my repertoire. This was the case with the Heart of Wheat Bread from the Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. In all its simplicity -after all its ingredients are only flour, water, honey, yeast, salt, and a healthful addition of wheat germ - it is perfection. I have made it countless times and every time I’ve made it I’ve doubled the recipe to make two loaves. It is an easy bread to put together; you mix up a sponge, cover it with a flour and yeast mixture and let it sit for four hours. After a 20 minute autolyse you add the salt and you mix the dough for 7 minutes. The dough is silky and lovely to work with. After you give it two rises you shape it and place into a loaf pan and give it its final rise. It is placed in a hot steamed oven where it gives the best oven spring ever. After about 30 minutes it is done, but I turn off the oven and leave it in for another 5 minutes for a crisper crust. I take it out of the oven and - this part is very satisfying for a bread baker - it crackles, it crackles like no other bread does. The bread is talking to me and it’s telling me that I’m in for a treat. How I wish I could cut into it as soon as it comes out of the oven, but I (not so)patiently wait for it to cool, and then I have a slice with butter and it never disappoints. Its crust is crisp and its crumb has just the right amount of chew. The next morning I look forward to breakfast because it makes the most wonderful toast. Rose writes that "..eating it inspires absolute and reverential silence!” That’s exactly how I feel.

Starkey Hill Hike & Pot Luck Lunch

2009-10-23T08:36:00.001-04:00

Sunday, October 18, 2009
Fall is a perfect time for a hike. The air is crisp, the trees are ablaze in their autumn colours and there are no mosquitoes to contend with. Our friend Julie, organizer of events, planned an outing where we would hike through a trail close to property once owned by her grandparents. Invitations were sent out and in the end twelve friends met at the trail’s entrance. It could not have been a better day for it, there was not a cloud in the sky and the air was comfortably cool. It was not a long or difficult trail to walk except for a network of tree roots that criss-crossed the path underfoot or rocks menacingly peeking through the earth so that you had to watch your step. I had my trusted walking cane, a broken branch I picked up on a hike many years ago. It is naturally ergonomically shaped - at least I think it is, because it has a natural curve in the middle of it and if you can believe it, it even has a handle. An expert might tell me that it is too long for my height but it has served me well providing me with support for my bad knee and balance and stability through tricky passages. We passed large coniferous forests, with their only pines at the top of the tall trees where they met the sun, and several vignettes along the way, one of which laid a plaque with a dedication to the Starkey family that once owned the land.

We walked in twos as the path did not allow for more than that, and you had to line single file when someone was coming from the opposite direction. I’ve always liked how when you pass perfect strangers on a hike you greet each other with a friendly hello, as this rarely happens on city streets. As we walked we enjoyed a nice conversation with whomever we were walking with, but as we walked along someone would inadvertently fall behind or move forward and you would have a new partner to speak with, so conversation was varied and interesting. Before we knew it, we had walked about four kilometers and we were back were we had started from.

We headed back to Rod and Julie’s for a pot luck lunch that included wonderful butternut squash & pear soup, a delicious spicy chicken chili, lasagna, a tasty artichoke and mushroom salad, pasta salad, coleslaw and Caesar salad and bread followed by a lovely pumpkin cheesecake, brownies and fresh apple cake and coffee.

By the end of the day we were already discussing next year’s hike.

My First Blog

2009-10-17T18:56:00.001-04:00

The last time I tried to create a blog I was given message that I could not proceed and I couldn’t figure what it was so I thought providence was sending me a sign that I had nothing interesting to write about so it intervened to save me from embarrassment. Well maybe not, but I left it, thinking I would try again sooner or later so here I am with the help of my computer savvy daughter trying once again and keeping my figures crossed that this time my entry will be accepted.

Marie Wolf (breadbasketcase) made The Best and Easiest Home-made Bread recently and I wrote her telling her that I would give this bread a try, so here it is. I started it on Thursday evening and let the sponge sit overnight in our cool kitchen so that it would be ready for the final mixing and rising Friday morning and hopefully ready for lunch. The dough was pretty easy to handle and I let it rise in my banneton, but the kitchen was cool because it is so cold outside and it took a little longer to rise. I inverted the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment, slashed the dough and set in the oven to bake. The finished loaf is quite lovely and I was quite excited about it. My son and I had some for lunch and it was good. Thank you Marie for posting the recipe, I’m always happy to try new ones.

My husband and I are joining about 16 friends and acquaintances on a hike tomorrow and then going back to our dear friends Rod and Julie’s home for a pot luck lunch and I offered to bring dessert. I hummed and hawed about what to make and finally decided on a Fresh Apple Cake because apples are in season and thought it to be a fitting dessert for a fall day. The recipe comes from the Fanny Farmer Baking Book by Marion Cunningham. I made this cake years ago and remembered it to be quite good. It is a spicy cake chock full of finely diced apples, raisins and chopped walnuts and perfect with a cup of coffee or tea. Since my husband doesn’t like fruit in desserts I also made a batch of brownies. Hopefully the hike plus the pot luck lunch and good company will become an annual tradition to look forward to.

The recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar but I find that it is quite sweet so I've decreased the sugar to 3/4 cup. I doubled the recipe to make a 13 x 9 inch cake.

Fresh Apple Cake

(one 8-inch square cake)

There is no need to peeel the apples for this moist and spicy cake. It is at its best the day it is made and absolutely delicious plain or frosted.

1/3 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ground allspice

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

2 cups finely chopped raw apple

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour an 8-inch square pan. In a large mixing bow, beat the butter until it is smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until well blended. Add the eaggs and vanilla and beat well. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves, and sift them together into the butter-sugar mixture. Beat until smooth and well blended: the mixture will be very stiff. Add the chopped apple, rainins and the optional walnuts, and beat well.

Spread evenly in the prepared pan. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack. Serve warm or cool, with whipped cream or vanilla ice-cream, if you wish.

Fresh Pear Cake. Substitute 2 cups finely chopped raw pear for the apple.

Well here it is, my first blog and thank you Melinda for giving me the push I needed.