I am fortunate to be blessed with 14 nephews and 10 nieces. My nephews will inhale anything I cook or bake for them. The nieces are a bit more finicky. Two of them are vegetarian and two are vegan. One of them insists that white chocolate is the devil’s spawn. She even refused to try blonde chocolate (caramelized white chocolate). She is stubborn. Her mom says it comes from her father’s side of the family.
Although I don’t follow a vegan diet, I feel that every good baker should have one or two vegan treats in their repertoire, that they can easily whip up in the event of a vegan guest. I made these cookies for my #1 (in chronological order) niece. She thought they were fantastic. I’m going to try a few more different recipes and I’ll report back to you.
This recipe comes from the “Oh She Glows” website. Baking chocolate chip cookies without butter and eggs is a challenge. This recipe uses coconut oil and almond butter as the main sources of fat and arrowroot flour acts as a binding ingredient, holding the cookies together. They are sweetened with maple syrup, and of course dark chocolate. Use the very best quality bittersweet chocolate you can find. I adore Valhrona 64% feves. Oat flour, almond flour and oatmeal combine to take the place of all-purpose flour, so they are gluten free too!
Chill the dough for about an hour to prevent the cookies from spreading too much. I used a #30 ice cream scoop to form the cookies. That way, you ensure they are all exactly the same size and will bake evenly. A final sprinkle of flaky sea salt before they go into the oven, is a prefect finishing touch.
Blondies are often described as brownies without chocolate. I think that definition is insulting to Blondies. It’s like saying that women are men without penises. No, blondies have their own distinct charm and personality and it’s all about the brown sugar.Whereas brownies depend on chocolate for their flavour, for blondies it’s all about the brown sugar, giving the blondies their unique molasses flavour. Rich and chewy, with caramel undertones, they are a special dessert in their own right. If you are asking me to choose between a Brownie and a Blondie, I am team Blondie all the way. Although my sister Jody’s brownies are unparalleled!
A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a recipe on the Valrhona web site for blondies studded with chopped blonde chocolate. I have written about the glories of blonde chocolate here before. The folks at Valhrona roast white chocolate to coax out its caramel/butterscotch notes. Typically, butterscotch chips are added to Blondies. I loved the idea of using chopped blonde chocolate instead.
I wanted to put my twist on these Blondies. In my mind, I was envisioning a triple layered treat. A crunchy salty pretzel base and a chewy Blondie top layer sandwiched together with a blanket of salted caramel.It took me five tries to get this right. The first time, I baked the pretzel crust for about 10 minutes, added a layer of slightly cooled salted caramel and topped that with the Blondie batter. I baked the whole thing for 20 minutes, let it cool, and then sliced it into squares. As I cut it, I realized that the Blondie batter was under baked, and too gooey. They were still delicious but not what I had envisioned. Into the freezer the first batch went, for snacking.
The second time, I baked them for 30 minutes and a toothpick inserted into the top layer tested done. I let them cool, and proceeded to slice them into squares. The caramel oozed as I cut and I noticed that it had seeped under the pretzel crust. My vision of 3 distinct tidy layers had not been achieved. Again, still very delicious, but not what I had in mind. Batch 2 went into the freezer, making my husband very happy. In case you were wondering, they are absolutely fantastic straight from the freezer.
I realized I was compounding the problem, by baking the caramel sauce between the two layers. What if I baked the pretzel crust and Blondie batter layer separately and then sandwiched the two together with the caramel sauce. Yes, a bit more work, but it would be worth the effort if it worked. This trial was en epic fail. The layers did not hold together and it was just a big gooey mess. This batch went straight into the garbage.
These blondies were keeping me up at night, and not just from the sugar rush because I couldn’t stop snacking on them. I just couldn’t let go of my vision of three separate layers. It’s all about the photographs these days, and these just weren’t camera ready.
My husband came home that night to a very excited me, babbling on about a brilliant solution I had come up with to my big problem. I entered “Thick caramel layer that slices neatly” into the search box and Dr Google prescribed the Australian treat, “Caramel Slice.”
In this treat, sweetened condensed milk is cooked with brown sugar to make the caramel layer. It is meant to be baked in the oven. I replaced my traditional caramel sauce recipe with this version and tried again. Sure enough, these sliced up beautifully, and the three layers, (pretzel crust, caramel filling and blondie topping) were visible and distinct. We tasted them and while they were quite good, they didn’t have the deep caramel/toffee flavour that you can only get from cooking sugar to 380°F and making real caramel.
And then I remembered an article I had read in Cook’s Illustrated for a Chocolate Caramel layer cake. They described the problem of the caramel oozing when the cake was cut. They solved it by adding additional butter to the caramel sauce so that it would set up more firm at room temperature. I decided to try one last time. I made my favourite caramel sauce recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum, and I doubled the butter. This batch was a home run. It was perfectly balanced. it sliced up into three distinct layers. The almost bitter caramel layer in the center is the perfect bridge for the crunchy, salty bottom layer and the sweet, chewy top layer. Just a word on cutting these into squares. A very sharp knife, run under hot water and then dried, before each cut will give you those pristine clean edges. You know who you are and you will either follow my advice because pristine neat tidy edges are important to you (Hello Jody), or you don’t care about such things and will hack them into bite sized pieces, willy nilly, because they are still delicious no matter how you cut them (hello Bo). No judgment here, Just make them and enjoy them.
P.S. This morning, I heard my husband cursing these Blondies, as he stepped on the scale. I promised to stop making them.
On Sunday, in Ottawa, we are expecting 10 centimetres of snow. I figured it was a perfect time to post a lovely spring cocktail.
The black in the title of this drink refers to Ribena, a blackcurrantconcentrate. Ribena was developed in the UK in 1938. It was originally marketed as a healthy drink for kids, owing to its distribution to children as a vitamin C supplement during World War II by the British government. I think it was served to us at snack-time when I was in kindergarten.This is a totally adult version, with gin, lime juice, tonic and lots of ice. I discovered this recipe in the Spring 2013 issue of Food&Drink magazine. Don’t forget to garnish with a few blackberries. We’re going to be fancy! If you want to go the mocktail route, a splash of Ribena is delicious with San Pellegrino and a lime wedge.
Clearly no local asparagus was harmed in the making of this soup. I had to rely on Mexico’s finest. I used leeks instead of onions as my allium choice. I prefer their gentler flavour profile for this soup. Sautee leeks and a touch of garlic. I opted for vegetable stock over chicken as I really wanted to let the flavours of the vegetables to shine through. Frozen peas are perfect for this. Puree the soup in the blender. After that, I am asking you, very nicely, to please strain the soup through a wire mesh sieve. Asparagus is a very fibrous vegetable. Straining it will give you the most velvety texture. I made some toasted breadcrumbs to sprinkle on top of the soup, I love a bit of crunch with smooth soups. When you are cutting up the asparagus, save the tips. Blanch them in boiling water and use them as a pretty garnish. A drizzle of cream or some really fruity extra-virgin olive oil is a beautiful way to finish this soup.
Marbled Matzoh Crunch is my spin on Marcy Goldman’s “Caramel Matzoh Buttercrunch”, from her classic book, A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking.
Making Matzoh Crunch, on the surface, looks like a fairly simple process.
But, there are a few details you need to pay careful attention to, so that it comes out perfectly.
Make sure you line the baking sheet with foil and then lay a sheet of parchment on top of that. If you use only parchment paper, you will be scrubbing baked on caramel off the pan. If you use only foil, you will have a very hard time peeling the hardened matzoh crunch off of the foil.
Do not use chocolate chips. Buy good quality bittersweet or semi sweet chocolate and chop it up, or buy couverture chocolate callets. Chocolate chips have less cocoa butter in them so they keep their shape during baking, making them more difficult to melt and they have less flavor than bars or callets.
Use real white chocolate. Many products out there that look like white chocolate, especially chips, contain very little, if any, cocoa butter.They will not melt into a smooth liquid, like real white chocolate.
When cutting your matzoh to fit into the baking sheet, cut along the dotted lines the matzoh has, not across them. It will cut into straight pieces.
When cooking the butter and brown sugar, you will get to a point where the butter will separate from the brown sugar and look like an oily mess. Keep stirring and it will come together and thicken and bubble. That’s when it’s ready to pour onto the matzoh.
Do not omit the step where you sprinkle the wet chocolate with the sea salt. Chocolate and caramel are sweet. You need the salt.
Once the chocolate is set, remove it from the fridge and let it sit for about 30 minutes before cutting it into pieces. If you cut it cold, right from the fridge, the chocolate layer will separate from the caramel covered matzoh. If you wait until the chocolate softens a bit, it will stay sogether with the caramel. A very sharp knife is essential. For an alternate version, use milk chocolate and chopped toasted almonds. Also very delicious.
I decided to put a tropical twist on my macaroons. This year our Seder theme is to come dressed as a character from a Tom Hanks movie. (don’t ask!!). I figured that these cookies would be right at home on the set of Cast Away. I started with a recipe from David Lebowitz for coconut pineapple macaroons. Cook down some crushed canned pineapple and sugar until it reaches a jam-like consistency. I ramped up the tropical vibe with some macadamia nuts and white chocolate. It is traditional to utter these words at the end of every Passover Seder, “Next year in Jerusalem.” It’s entirely possible these little macaroons will have us declaring “Next year in Hawaii.”
This tart was created because I had a big bowl of wild mushrooms languishing in my fridge from a photo shoot last week. The mushroom photo below was my homework for the Composition Essentials Course I am taking from the very talented Australian food photographer, Rachel Korinek. Not only does she take gorgeous food shots, but she is an extremely skilled teacher.One of our assignments was to look at our past photos and find gaps, areas we had not explored from certain compositional viewpoints. In reviewing my pictures, I noticed that I shoot really tight, and don’t leave much breathing room. I guess it’s the photographic equivalent of close talkers.
Negative space is naturally calming. It helps to emphasize your subject and provides your image with balance. The second compositional tool I incorporated into my mushroom photo was advanced lines. I used a gently curving arabesque, which takes your eye on a journey from the top to the bottom of the frame.
I wanted to make something springlike, because I’m tired of roasted veggies and hearty soups. Leeks are one of the first signs of spring to appear on the market shelves, and their sweet mellow flavour is a perfect complement to earthy mushrooms. Plus, they don’t make me cry, like onions do, when I slice them.
This galette dough is one of my favourite pastry recipes. I learned how to make it in my very first kitchen job almost 30 years ago. It uses butter and sour cream and it rolls out like a dream. No cracking or shrinking.
Ricotta, gruyere and parmesean cheese are combined to create a base before the mushrooms and leeks are added. Leave a border and then gently pleat the dough to encase the filling.
A drizzle of olive oil before baking.
A generous zesting of lemon after baking.
Although the calendar says that Spring arrives this week, my reality says otherwise. I live in Ottawa. There is no rhubarb poking it’s little head out of the frozen earth, begging to be picked, in my neck of the woods. Yet, I’m anxious for it to be Spring already, so I hurried things along by using frozen rhubarb and imported strawberries. Desparate times, folks.
These yeasted cornmeal waffles are the perfect vehicle to showcase the strawberry-rhubarb sauce. These are not waffles to be made on a whim. You must plan ahead and make the batter overnight. Sorry, but time is the secret ingredient in these sublime waffles. These cornmeal waffles are my spin on Marion Cunningham’s waffles from her classic tome, “The Breakfast Book. Although this little book is over 20 years old, it has stood the test of time. If you love breakfast/brunch foods, you need to add this book to your shelf.
Yeast, warm water, and a pinch of sugar get things going. Add some buttermilk, salt, all-purpose flour and cornmeal and mix up the magic. Leave it on the counter overnight. In the morning, behold a glorious bubbling concoction. Add eggs and baking soda and you’re ready to waffle. Let’s talk strawberry-rhubarb sauce. First, the elephant in the room. Rhubarb is bracingly sour. We need something to tame the tang. Of course you could use sugar, but we’re making waffles here, so maple syrup is my sweetner of choice. It has more depth of flavour than plain white sugar and it really flatters the tart and acidic tone of rhubarb. As a bonus, it helps to enhance imported strawberries.
Roast the fruit with maple syrup for about 40 minutes. This sauce will keep in the fridge for about a week. I have been mixing the leftover sauce into my plain greek yogurt in the morning. So much better than buying flavoured yogurt.
Happy Pi Day (3.14/March 14). Pie making is not my strong suit. I have always struggled with uneven and cracking dough while rolling, and shrinking dough while baking. I’m much more comfortable whipping up a swiss meringue buttercream for a cake or a dozen salted caramel macarons.
It seems like every day is National Something or Other Day. There is actually a calendar to keep us informed. Did you know that April 14 is National Ex-Spouse Day? Maybe people celebrate it with a smash cake? Some food bloggers are super organized and maintain an editorial calendar to track and feature all these days. Sadly, I don’t fall into that category. But, Pi day is something I feel like I can get behind. Last year we celebrated with Spiced Lamb Hand Pies.
I have a thing for hand pies. They’re just so adorable and I feel no guilt about eating a tiny pie.
The pie dough for this recipe comes from pastry wizzard Stella Parks, over at Serious Eats. She calls for a 1:1 ratio of flour:butter, by weight. Most typical pastry dough recipes use more flour than butter. The extra butter in her dough creates a dough that’s pliable but strong, making cracks and tears a thing of the past. It gets folded once, to create extra flaky layers.
The apple filling is classic and simple. Apples, brown sugar, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Sharp white cheddar makes a fine companion for apples, but use orange cheddar if that’s all you have. I decided to get fancy and make a decorative braided border on my pies. Ever since I saw this Apricot Pie I wanted to try my hand at dough braiding. I still need a bit of practice, but it was fun to do. You can simply leave them plain and they’ll be equally delicious
Last week, as I was watching TV, this commercial caught my attention. It featured a young woman, staring wistfully, at the bountiful bread counter at Whole Foods. As they panned across the crusty artisan loaves, the tagline, “Maybe bread and you should be a thing again”, scrolled across the screen.
I’m a big believer in Julia Child’s credo, “Everything in moderation…including moderation.” So many people I know are abstaining from bread. While I don’t indulge in it everyday, I believe that if it’s good bread, I have a responsibility to eat it. The burnished crust on the baguettes at my local bakery were too calling my name.Sandwich making is not as simple as slapping a filling between two slices of bread. There’s an art to it. I’ll fill you in on how the pros do it.
Use two sauces instead of just one. Elevate plain mayo by adding a teaspoon of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce. Their smoky mild heat takes plain mayo from drab to fab. Slather this on one side of the baguette. On side two, spread some olive tapenade for a punch of umami. You can make your own, or purchase some from the olive cart at the supermarket.
If it’s not the height of tomato season, roast some little cherry or grape tomatoes. Make sure you oil and season them well. Every layer of the sandwich should be seasoned. Slice some roasted or grilled chicken. A supermarket rotisserie chicken is perfect for this.
Even if you aren’t an onion fan, I urge you to try pickling some onions. It takes about 15-20 minutes and is simple to do. It removes all the harshness of raw onions and becomes quite mellow. I’ve included instructions in the recipe. Don’t forget to show your avocado some seasoning love as well. A squeeze of lemon or lime juice, some salt and pepper are all that’s needed. Finish with some fresh basil and some peppery arugula or a handful of micro greens.Dagwood would be jealous!
I am fortunate to be blessed with 14 nephews and 10 nieces. My nephews will inhale anything I cook or bake for them. The nieces are a bit more finicky. Two of them are vegetarian and two are vegan. One of them insists that white chocolate is the devil’s spawn. She even refused to try blonde chocolate (caramelized white chocolate). She is stubborn. Her mom says it comes from her father’s side of the family.
Oat flour, almond flour and oatmeal combine to take the place of all-purpose flour, so they are gluten free too!
A final sprinkle of flaky sea salt before they go into the oven, is a prefect finishing touch.
