Challenge Accepted!

I love a challenge. As a result of this, I can often get suckered into doing something I don’t really want to, just because someone challenged me to it. You can get me to make pretty much anything by telling me I can’t do it or that you can do it better than me. My ego can’t handle the thought of being inferior so it puffs itself up and tells me “of course you can make that/do that, and you’ll do it better than anyone’s ever done it before.” Grudgingly, I attempt to do whatever needs doing. Stupid ego. This is the case with a particular blogging event called Paper Chef. It is now in its 23rd edition. The basic premise is that four ingredients are chosen at random from a list of possible ingredients and after the final four have been announced, you have a weekend to come up with a dish that incorporates those four ingredients. This sounds easy enough, but when I happened upon this event during its 21st edition, the four ingredients were giblets, eggs, fermented black soy beans and something that reminded you of Africa. Buhwah??? I thought about it for a while and then conveniently was out of town that weekend. I don’t really have an excuse for missing the 22nd edition except that I didn’t realize it was going on, silly me. I’m ready to take on the challenge now though, so without further ado, I present to you my creations for Paper Chef #23, hosted by Tomatilla!
Challenge: Vermouth (interpreted as any fortified wine or herb-influenced liquor), Cranberries, Sparkling drink (of any kind) and Something Wild, (interpreted however you like, could be wild in nature, could be zany-wild). Allez cuisine!



For my first offering, a Wild Cherry Gin Fizz. I concocted this recipe myself just for the occasion and I have to say, I was quite pleased with the results. I’ve since become reacquainted with my shaker, making drinks is fun! Shake shake shake!

Wild Cherry Gin Fizz:
1 1/2 ounces gin
1/2 teaspoon superfine sugar
1 ounce wild cherry syrup
3 or 4 ice cubes
Chilled Apple-peach sparkling drink
Put first 4 ingredients in a shaker, shake, drain into a chilled glass and top with apple-peach sparkling drink.
Serves 1.

Ingredients Checklist:
Vermouth √ (gin substitute)
Cranberries :(
Sparkling Drink √ (Apple-Peach Sparkling drink)
Something Wild √ (Wild cherry syrup, made with cherries from my trees)



Now that you’ve wet your palate, let us move on to a salad. I hope you enjoy delicate baby spinach tossed in a vinaigrette of sparkling apple drink, olive oil, grainy mustard and a pinch of sugar, topped with dried cranberries and warm goats cheese rolled in toasted pecans. Let the dressing tickle your taste buds and delight in the variety of textures as the crunch of the pecans gives way to the smooth and flavourful goats cheese.

Ingredients Checklist:
Vermouth :(
Cranberries √
Sparkling Drink √ (Apple-Peach Sparkling drink)
Something Wild √ (I’m declaring the goats cheese to be wild… this category is easily interpreted and I’m milking that for all it’s worth)




Prepare yourself for the pièce de resistance; tender, succulent venison chops, drenched in a rich cranberry gravy, studded with shiitakes. It’s a feast for the senses. Watch as your knife glides effortlessly through the moist chop, breathe in the heavenly aroma and then let the flavours swirl around in your mouth, blending wonderfully on the tongue. Don’t forget to save room for dessert…


Venison Chops and Shallots with Shiitakes and Dried Cranberry Gravy
(Adapted from Epicurious)

2 venison chops
2 shallots, trimmed and peeled
1 tablespoons vegetable oil plus additional for rubbing the venison
1/4 cup beef broth
1/4 cup red wine
1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup water
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 scant tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon gin
Handful fresh shiitake mushrooms

Preheat the oven to 425°F. In a roasting pan toss the shallots with the oil and salt and pepper to taste and roast in the middle of the oven, stirring occasionally, for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are golden.
Pat the venison dry, season it with salt and pepper, and rub it generously with additional oil. Heat a large heavy skillet over high heat until it is hot and sear the venison on all sides. Push the shallots to the sides of the roasting pan, stand the venison racks in the middle of the pan, allowing the bones to rest together, and roast the mixture in the middle of the oven for 23 minutes, or until a meat thermometer registers 125°F., for rare meat.
Meanwhile, sauté mushrooms in the pan used to sear the chops, set aside.
When the chops are done, transfer them with shallots to a platter and let them stand, covered loosely with foil, for 15 minutes. To the roasting pan add the broth, wine, mushrooms and gin and simmer the mixture, scraping up the brown bits, for 5 minutes. Whisk the cornstarch mixture, and add it to the saucepan with the cranberries, the balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer the gravy, whisking, for 5 minutes, until thickened. Pour the gravy over the chops and serve.
Serves 2.

Ingredients Checklist:
Vermouth √ (gin, and while we’re stretching things, there’s red wine too)
Cranberries √
Sparkling Drink :(
Something Wild √ (If the venison’s not wild, I don’t know what is! From my backyard to the table..)



No dinner is complete without dessert and I assure you, you’ll be glad you left some room for this one. A tall, light and lemony cheesecake smothered in a fresh cranberry and opulent port sauce. Creamy and delicious.

Drunk Cheesecake
(Adapted from Epicurious and Foodtv)

Crust
1 cup graham wafer crumbs (250 ml)
1/4 cup melted butter (60 ml)

Filling
1 ½ packages cream cheese at room temperature
3/4 sugar (175 ml)
Pinch of salt
6 eggs, separated
1/2 cup sour cream (125 ml)
Juice of 1 lemon (about ¼ cup/60 ml)
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla (5 ml)
1 T cornstarch

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.
Combine graham wafer crumbs and melted butter in a small bowl. Stir well and press into a 9” springform pan that has been lined on the bottom with parchment paper and greased.

In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar and salt. Beat just until smooth. Do not over beat the mixture – you don’t want to incorporate too much air in the cheesecake – it increases the chances for the cake to crack and fall. Add the egg yolks three at a time beating after each addition. Scrape down sides of bowl and add the sour cream, lemon juice, vanilla and zest. Blend until just smooth, careful not to over beat the mixture. Add cornstarch and mix until smooth.
In a clean stainless bowl whip the egg whites until soft peaks hold. Fold egg whites gently but quickly into cheese mixture, making sure no streaks of the egg whites remain. Again do not over beat the mixture.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in middle of oven for 70 minutes or until cake is just firm. If it is not golden on top at this point, increase oven temperature to 300 degrees F and bake another 10 minutes until cake is golden. Turn oven off and open oven door. Leave cake in oven for another 20 minutes. Remove and cool completely.

Cranberry and Port topping
1 cup ruby Port
1 cup sugar
1 whole star anise
1 cinnamon stick
2 whole cloves
Peel of a clementine
2 cups fresh cranberries
Bring Port, sugar, star anise, cinnamon stick, cloves, and clementine peel to boil in heavy large saucepan over high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 5 minutes. Add cranberries and simmer mixture until cranberries begin to pop, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Transfer to medium bowl; refrigerate until cold.

Serve cheesecake draped in port sauce.

Ingredients Checklist:
Vermouth √ (Port)
Cranberries √ (Fresh)
Sparkling Drink :(
Something Wild √ (It’s a drunk cheesecake, that’s wild!)

And there you have it, a complete meal filled with the four secret ingredients, served in a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere. Consider this challenge complete... Oh, and since I'm a multi tasker, I'm using the Cherry Gin Fizz for this round of Mixology Monday being hosted by The Spirit World.


Technorati Tags:
Food + Gin + Cranberries + Port + Venison + Cheesecake + Paper Chef + Mixology Monday

And If Your Dinner Tries to Get Away, Just Bop It on the Head

Welcome to Fish Friday! Today’s fish comes in the form of a bouillabaisse and serves two purposes. Purpose the first: To be really tasty. Purpose the second: To enter into the Super Souper Challenge which is a one off event being hosted by Tami of Running With Tweezers. You can’t go wrong with a flavourful soup full of scallops, shrimp, cod and mussels.

And now for a fish related story… My brother likes to fish and so he and his son, Baby Genius, (who has his own little rod) go fishing together pretty much every week when the weather is good. With all the fishing they do, Brother was wondering if seeing the fish being killed had any effect on Baby Genius. Sometime later he got his answer. After reeling in a smallish fish, Brother was trying to unhook it to throw it back in when Baby Genius exclaimed “Bop it on the head with a rock Papa, so it doesn’t get away!” You can’t sneak anything past Baby Genius…



Boillabaisse (Adapted from The Soup Bible by Debra Mayhew)
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
1.5kg/3-3 ½ lbs mixed assorted cod, mussels, shrimp, scallops
225g/8oz tomatoes
A pinch of saffron threads
Olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 celery stick, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 strip orange rind
2.5mL/ ½ tsp fennel seeds
15mL/ 1 T tomato paste
30mL/2 T Pernod
Salt and pepper
(Extra veggies and fish shells for stock)

Make a stock by putting the shells and some fish into a pot of water along with an onion, carrot and celery and a bouquet garni, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 min. Strain and reserve liquid.

Heat oil in a large pan, add onion, leek, celery and carrot, cook until softened. Add the garlic, orange rind, fennel seeds and tomatoes and then stir in the saffron and the reserved stock. Season with salt and pepper, bring to a boil and simmer for 30-40min. Add the shellfish and boil for about 6 min. Add the fish and cook for 6-8 min more until it flakes easily. Add the tomato paste and Pernod, check the seasoning, then serve.


Technorati Tags:
Food + Blogging Event + Fish + Soup + Recipe

I Wish There Could Be Warm Snow

There’s tons of snow and I got out for my first ski of the year (despite the -10 degree weather)! That has nothing to do with cooking. But it does make me exquisitely exhausted. For dinner I’m eating a venison meat pie that my Grandma made and I had in the freezer. I made some good cookies last night, but they just look like normal cookies and like I said, I’m exhausted so I’m not posting a picture, (I may also have already eaten a disproportionately large amount of the cookies). The cookies were Cherry-Chocolate-Pecan and are courtesy of Martha, go make them. Or you can go make twice baked sweet potatoes. Those were courtesy of me and there is no recipe but they’re filled with great things like bacon, sour cream and green onions, go make them. If you haven’t left yet to make either of those then you can continue reading this “3 Things” meme that Artizen Flair of Artizenkitschen tagged me for. You’re only excused from reading if you’re in the kitchen.




Three things that scare me: boiling sugar, people who don’t like food, losing my eyebrows to an exploding kitchen
People who make me laugh: Alton Brown, Charlie Brown, James Brown
Three things I love: food, presents, food related presents.
Three things I hate: when I mess up a recipe and the Kitchen Fairy doesn’t fix it, rain, jerks.
Three things I don't understand: why someone won’t pay me to just be me, why at some point in ancient history little things were deemed cute and lovable and why that’s never changed.
Three things on my desk: I don’t have a desk, I’m sitting in a lazyboy with my laptop but I’ve got a cat, a clipboard and some markers up here with me
Three things I want to do before I die: eat good food in Vietnam, share sushi with a dolphin, find the Holy Grail.
Three things I can do: turn left, eat mass quantities of cookie dough, tie cherry stems with my tongue (life of the party, right here folks).
Three things you should listen to: anything I say, anything the devil on your shoulder says, anything I say.
Three things you should never listen to: Nigella’s doctored recipes, anything I say, Styrofoam rubbing together.
Three things I'd like to learn: how to get someone to be my life sponser, how not to ruin perfectly good food, how to make marzipan Mario, (I might be closer to crossing that one off my list than you can even imagine…).
Three favourite foods: I like food.
Three beverages I drink regularly: wine, rum, gingerbeer… er, I mean water, water, gingerbeer.
Three TV shows I watched as a kid: Gummi Bears (bouncing here and there and everywhere), Smurfs, Alvin and the Chipmunks… now I will eat all of them!
Three blogger friends that I am going to tag: I won’t force anyone to participate, but should you feel the need to divulge your most intimate secrets as well, by all means, be my guest.


Technorati Tags:
Meme + Cookies + Sweet Potato

Taking A Trip To Poland

While browsing other food blogs, I often file away the recipes I like into my “to do” pile. That would be the same “to do” pile that houses the recipes I get from my monthly subscriptions to Bon Appetit and Fine Cooking magazines, as well as those bookmarked in my stack of cookbooks and random Epicurious searches. It’s a big pile. I don’t think there’s enough time to ever make it through everything, and yet I continue to add to it. Recently I’ve stolen a couple recipes from Scott at Real Epicurean. That’s not to say I’ve made any of those recipes, most of them, like the Naan bread recipe I liked so much but didn’t make, are now hidden deep in the “to do” pile. Scott’s latest post was for Polish Pierniki and they looked perfect. When I first saw the picture I didn’t think they could possibly have been homemade. I copied the recipe and you know where it went. Apparently I was destined to actually make this one though. Mom’s work is doing Secret Santas and she wanted me to make something for her person. And that’s when I realized that I was actually going to take something out of the pile, making it (imperceptibly) smaller.



Prior to seeing the Pierniki at Real Epicurean I had never seen or heard of it before, but it just looked good. Scott had also said you could cut the cookies into whatever shape you wanted, and I’m a fan of cutting things into fun shapes. Unfortunately, my ineptitude with baked goods prevented me from being able to make these into anything other than blobs. I probably should have chilled my dough as it ended up too liquidy to be able to roll, but I’m impatient. Instead, I got the brilliant idea that I would put it in a pastry bag and pipe it into neat spirals. Of course, I don’t actually have pastry bags so I used an empty bread bag. Leave it to me to pick a bag with a weird bottom. The hole that I cut ended up being almost 2 inches across so the dough glopped out haphazardly, completely ignoring any style I might have been trying to give it. It was also not liquidy enough to be piped so a lot of it stuck to the inside of the bag and wouldn’t budge. I got very sticky. Despite my best efforts at failure, the dough baked up pretty nicely and smoothed itself out. I didn’t even have too much trouble dipped the cookies in chocolate. Granted, my technique is sub par and the cookies are totally covered, but the job got done. And they taste good too! They’re nice and sweet, (but not overpoweringly so) and chewy with a little spice. I used some great Australian honey in the cookies that was given to me by Ellie in the last Blogging By Mail. So they were Polish Piernikis with a little help from Australia. Pierniki: the cookie that unites nations. Smacznego!


Technorati Tags:
Baking + Cookies + Recipe

Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

Last week I cooked dinner for Parent-Teacher Interview night. Among the desserts that I prepared were Baklava Muffins and Roxanne’s Millionaire’s Shortbread, both from Nigella Lawson’s How To Be A Domestic Goddess. Obviously both were edible, they’re sugary baked goods, how could they not be? But both of them were flawed.

In the case of the Baklava Muffins, they had a filling which consisted of butter, sugar, cinnamon and walnuts which was also supposed to be sprinkled on the top of the muffin. That was all well and good, except that it ended up on the bottom of the muffin cup, even the ‘topping’ sunk to the bottom. The muffins were tasty enough, but a pain to eat. The top half of the muffin was light and cakey but underneath was a non-cohesive mass of sugary-nutty filling that had to be picked out of the muffin cup. It just wasn’t a solidly constructed muffin. And as for the taste; it was good, but the name was misleading. I would have more likely called them Walnut-Honey Muffins as opposed to Baklava Muffins. You can’t recreate baklava in muffin form, or at least Nigella can’t.



As for Roxanne’s Millionaire’s Shortbread, the shortbread base was good, but I had problems with the subsequent layers. I thought this caramel layer would be easy for me, it was just condensed milk, syrup and butter mixed together in the microwave. I didn’t have to use a thermometer to determine just the right amount of heat so it seemed easy, mix and done. Not so much. I used as big a bowl as I could reasonably fit in my microwave and this stuff repeatedly boiled over, making a lovely mess. I lowered the heat and kept whisking, trying to achieve that light golden brown colour Nigella told me about. I got to the point of what seemed like the right colour, but the texture was weird. I hoped that maybe when it cooled it would be alright. That problem never resolved itself and the caramel layer was somewhat grainy. The top layer was just chocolate, it should have been fine. This recipe calls for a ridiculous 12 ounces of chocolate. I (surprisingly) reduced the amount of chocolate and that was probably for the better as these bars are very difficult to cut. The chocolate solidified into a thick layer that resisted being cut through. Often it would crack and straight lines were few and far between. And while I was trying to hack my way through the chocolate layer, the caramel decided to ooze out the sides. Once again, I’m not saying they weren’t good, they got eaten, but they definitely didn’t reach the level I thought they should have.

And now that I’ve had some time to think about the outcome of my baking, I’ve got a bone to pick with Nigella “The Domestic Goddess” Lawson. I feel like she’s purposefully leading me astray. She smiles pretty and tells everyone they can be a Domestic Goddess but she doesn’t mean it. She’s not unlike a certain sister of mine, wanting everything for herself. But in this case instead of sticking me with the wonky Santa while she keeps the good one, she sticks me with the wonky baking while she showcases her masterpieces. I don’t know how I got on the Nigella bandwagon, I’ve never really even watched her show. I guess I just got sucked in with the pretty pictures and promises of becoming a Domestic Goddess. And that’s the way she wants it- for everyone to think they can be just like her but for no one to actually be able to achieve it. Because then she wouldn’t be special. If everyone had the title ‘Domestic Goddess’ it wouldn’t be nearly as impressive. For example, if I introduced myself as ‘Domestic Goddess Brilynn,’ I’d most likely get a response like: “Pffft, you’re a Goddess? Who cares? So am I.” It’s as a result of this that I’ve come to the conclusion that Nigella bakes with one recipe, but publishes another. When Nigella bakes, her Baklava Muffins are probably an exact replica of baklava, but in muffin form. Mine are doppelgangers. They might resemble the original, but you know there’s something not quite right with them. Bringing you back to the Santa’s, mine was obviously the doppelganger. You knew he was a Santa, but what was up with him? With all the similarities between Nigella and the Sister, it leads me to ask the question….



The likeness between the two is creepy. Very creepy… (Cue Twilight Zone music.)

Here are the recipes if you’d like to give them a shot. If you’re good at tweaking and modifying recipes these could be a challenge for you.


Nigella's Baklava Muffins

Filling
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter, melted

Muffins
1 cup flour + 7 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup buttermilk + 2 tablespoons buttermilk

Topping
1/2 cup honey



Preheat oven to 400F degrees. Mix all the filling ingredients together in a small bowl, set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and sugar. Mix the egg, melted butter and buttermilk.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and add gently mix in the wet ingredients.
Fill 12 muffin cups 1/3 full, add a scant tablespoon of filling, cover with more muffin mixture until 2/3 full. Sprinkle any remaining filling on top of the muffins. Bake for 15 minutes.
Put the muffins onto a rack to cool and drizzle with honey (it may be easier to drizzle the honey if it has been warmed first).


Roxanne’s Millionaire’s Shortbread

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
1 2/3 cups unsalted butter
14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
4 tablespoons light corn syrup
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1 9inch square pan or similar, greased and the bottom lined with parchment or wax paper



Preheat oven to 325F.
Put the flour and sugar into a bowl and rub in 12 tablespoons of the butter, clumping the dough together to form a ball. Press this sandy shortbread mixture into the pan and smooth it with either your hands or a spatula. Prick it with a fork and cook for 5 min, then lower the oven to 300F, and cook for a further 30-40min until it is a pale golden and no longer doughy. Let it cool in the pan.
Melt the remaining butter in the microwave (in a large microwavable bowl) for 2-3 min, then add the condensed milk and syrup. Whisk the mixture well until the butter is thoroughly incorporated. It’s ready when it’s thickened and turned a light golden brown. Pour this molten toffee evenly over the cooled shortbread and leave it to set.
Break the chocolate into pieces and melt it in the microwave. Pour and spread it over the fudge mixture (the less you touch it the shinier it will be) and leave to cool. Once set, cut the caramel shortbread into pieces. The squares can be stored in the fridge to keep them firm, though if it’s winter that shouldn’t be necessary.
Makes about 24.


Technorati Tags:
Baking + Domestic Goddess + Nigella Lawson + Chocolate + Recipe + Muffins

Working My Way Through the 7 Deadly Sins

glut•ton –noun

1. a person who eats and drinks excessively or voraciously.
2. a person with a remarkably great desire or capacity for something: a glutton for work; a glutton for punishment.
3. Brilynn of Jumbo Empanadas.

[Origin: 1175–1225; ME glutun < OF glouton < L gluttōn- (s. of gluttō), var. of glūtō glutton, akin to glūtīre to gulp down ]

—Synonyms: gourmand; gastronome; chowhound.

If you go check the dictionary this is precisely what you will find. And it’s no surprise considering what I had for breakfast. I’ve been meaning to make crepes for a while now. There’s a place in Toronto on Queen St. which makes crepes right in the front window of the shop and every time I walked by the smell of crepes would overwhelm me, compelling me to enter. Somehow I always managed to resist, (shocking, I know) telling myself that I could make my own crepes and not charge myself an arm to do so. Well, I finally got around to making them on my own and if it took this long I figured they might as well be decadent cause who knows how long it could be before I made them again? That’s why not only was I making them all for me, but I was also going to slather them with mass quantities of nutella, drape gobs of fruit sauce on top and then drizzle maple syrup, (ie- dump the bottle) gracefully over the plate. I was tempted to add whipped cream, but there wasn’t any in the fridge, curses.



The 7 deadly sins are so much more interesting than the 7 contrary virtues, so go ahead; listen to the devil on your shoulder, be a glutton.

Whole Wheat Crepes

Scant cup buttermilk
1/3 cup whole wheat flour, (you can taste this, so if you don’t like whole wheat, use all purpose)
1 egg
1 T butter
1 t sugar
Tiny pinch salt
Blend until smooth. Pour a couple tablespoons at a time into the hot pan and swirl. Cook on med heat, approx 1 min on each side.
Serves 1 glutton.

Sauce
Blueberries and mixed berries
Wild cherry syrup
Maple Syrup
A little cornstarch mixed with cold water
I didn’t measure any of this, I just threw it in a pan, boiled it, then simmered it until thick.

Putting it together: Spread each crepe with nutella. Fold in half, and then in half again. Pour the berry sauce and maple syrup on top.


Technorati Tags:
Food + Breakfast + Recipe + Crepes

Bloggers Bake Biscotti... and It's Good!

A couple weeks ago I made biscotti. I wasn’t overly impressed with it. I even went so far as to say that I didn’t really like biscotti. I may also have been heard to utter something like “tastes like rocks.” But I was mistaken. I tip my hat to Dorie Greenspan who proved me wrong. Bravo Dorie, bravo. (Insert slow clap here.) The wonderful author of Baking: From My Home to Yours taught me that biscotti can be good, better than good, it can be great! I learned that I do in fact enjoy biscotti, just not the inferior variety. However, after my last unsatisfying experience with biscotti, I was in no hurry to make it again. Then fate intervened in the form of Ivonne from Cream Puffs in Venice and Lis from La Mia Cucina. They recently collaborated on a pretzel making adventure (seen here and here) where they each made pretzels from the same recipe and blogged about it on the same day. I was jealous. I wanted in on the fun and I told them so. Being the nice folks that they are, they invited me to participate with them in their next joint blog, and wouldn’t you know it, they were making biscotti. Why do the Gods mock me, why??? Then I heard that Peabody from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody and Helene from Tartelette were also in on it and I have yet to see these 4 bloggers produce anything less than spectacular so that was encouraging. And then when I found out the recipe was from Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home To Yours, which everyone has been raving about lately (and which had better be under the tree on December 25th) I knew I was in.



The original recipe was for chocolate-almond biscotti, but at the end of her recipe, Dorie offers two possible variations:
1- The addition of cherries.
2- Dipping the finally product in white chocolate.
Hm, both of those sounded good, what to do, what to do… Eureka! Put those two variations together to create the ultimate ‘chocolate-chocolate wrapped around vanilla-cherry-almond drizzled with white and dark chocolate biscotti’. A mouthful to say, a joy to eat. One lucky person will even be receiving the lovely box of biscotti you see above thanks to another round of Blogging By Post hosted by Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness.

Chocolate Biscotti (adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours)
My method takes an extra long time because I basically made the dough twice, there are easier ways to do this, but obviously you’ve got nothing but time so here’s the long route:

Begin by centering a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350º F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.

Vanilla-Cherry-Almond Dough
1 ¼ c. all-purpose flour
2 T instant cappuccino powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda, generous
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 T unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 c. sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 c. chopped almonds
1/3 c. chopped dried cherries
Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until pale, about 2 minutes; the mixture may be crumbly. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the eggs and vanilla and beat for another 2 minutes; don't worry if the mixture looks curdled. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the dry ingredients in 3 additions, mixing only until a dough forms. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix in the almonds and cherries, then turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead in any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

Chocolate-Chocolate Dough
1 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda, generous
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 T unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 c. sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 T kirsch
1 T wild cherry syrup
2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
Sift together the flour, cocoa, cappuccino powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until pale, about 2 minutes; the mixture may be crumbly. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the eggs, kirsch and cherry syrup and beat for another 2 minutes; don't worry if the mixture looks curdled. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the dry ingredients in 3 additions, mixing only until a dough forms. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix in the chocolate, then turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead in any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

Divide each flavour of dough in half. Working with one half at a time, roll the dough into 12 inch long logs. Take one chocolate log and one vanilla log and wrap them around each other. Flatten both logs together with the palm of your hand so that they are 1/2 to 1 inch high, about 2 inches across and sort of rectangular, then carefully lift the logs onto the baking sheet. Repeat with remaining halves.
Bake the logs for about 25 minutes, or until they are just slightly firm. The logs will spread and crack - and that's just fine. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, put it on a cooling rack and cool the logs for about 20 minutes. (Leave the oven on.)
Working with one log at a time, using a long serrated knife, cut each log into slices between 1/2 and 3/4 inch thick. Stand the slices up on the baking sheet - you'll have an army of biscotti - and bake the cookies again, this time for just 10 minutes. Transfer the biscotti to a rack to cool.
In a double boiler melt white chocolate chips and drizzle over the biscotti. Then melt dark chocolate chips and drizzle again.
Storing:
By their very nature, biscotti are good keepers. They'll keep in a cookie jar or an open basket for a week or more. Wrapped airtight, they can be frozen for up to 2 months.
(Dorie says this makes about 40, I got closer to 32.)


Technorati Tags:
Food + Blogging Event + Biscotti + Chocolate + Recipe

Pink Is Pretty, But Only In Your Food

I love the way the beet juice colours things a nice rosy pink, like those clementine slices for example, or my fingers... Well, you can’t win ‘em all. I was going to say that this is a really fast salad to whip up, but that would be lying. Roasting beets takes forever. I guess I could say this salad is really easy to whip up and doesn’t require any measurements. That would imply that most of my cooking does require measurements. That’s another lie. I’m not doing too well tonight. I can truthfully say however, that the salad is tasty. I can also say that it’s an appropriate entry for the Fall Salads event being hosted by My Life As A Reluctant Housewife. I don’t think I’d be a reluctant housewife, I’d think I’d be a happy one… So long as there were no kids, a maid and a rich sugar daddy. Any takers? I can cook…

And if you want to cook like me, here’s how to make my roasted beet salad:
1- Roast some beets. Peel and slice them.
2- Pour some olive oil, balsamic vinegar and orange juice over the beets.
3- Crush some fennel seeds and throw those in too.
4- Add some clementine slices and toss.
5- Toast some chopped walnuts and add them on top.
6- Crumble some goat cheese on top of that. This can be performed interchangeably with step 5.
7- Eat.


Technorati Tags:
Food + Blogging Event + Fall Salads + Beets + Recipe

I'm turning into a Loaf of Bread, or 6 of them.

Are you tired of me talking about bread yet? Tough, here’s another post. This one extends slightly beyond bread to the wonderfully festive “Parent-Teacher Interview Night.” What could be more festive than that? Smiley, happy faces all around. Maybe not. It’s hard for parents to hear that their darling angels are brats. To at least make this night more bearable, (there’s no reason everyone should suffer) some schools provide dinner for their teachers. In this case, I’ve been asked to prepare dinner for the teachers of two local schools. The principals of these schools left it up to me to decide what they were having and since this would be a substantially larger group than I usually cook for, I decided they were all getting the same thing: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup, Broccoli Salad, Baked Ham, Homemade Bread and for dessert Roxanne’s Millionaire Shortbread Bars, Baklava Muffins, (both Nigella recipes) and Lemon Bars. My kitchen is a mess.

I’m just going to focus on the bread for now. A while back I made Mom’s bread and was so happy that I actually succeeded in making bread… with a little help from the Kitchen Fairy. I posted the recipe that went along with it, but what I didn’t post was the fact that I scaled it down to 1/6th of its actual size. According to Mom, she used to make a batch of this bread once a week. Of course this was before my time, I never received such treatment. A loaf here or there maybe, but the weeks of 6 loaves were only for my brother and sister. Well it’s back! I had to do it myself, but I made 6 loaves last night. And developed some more respect for Mom. Do you have any idea what it takes to knead 20 cups of flour? This wasn’t just bread, it had a life of its own. I think I heard a heartbeat. I made some changes to the recipe this time too. I was asking Mom about the recipe and she basically said that you could put anything at all into this bread. She claims to have but all sorts of leftovers into the bread, apparently tomato soup gives it a nice pinky colour… I wasn’t that adventurous. I’m still shocked every time my bread turns out so I tried not to deviate too far from the recipe.

Mom’s Bread with Bri’s Adaptations

In a pan heat: 2 c buttermilk, 4 c water, 6 tbsp butter, 6 tsp salt, 1 c sugar, cool to lukewarm.
In a bowl put 2 c lukewarm water. Stir in 3 tsp sugar. Sprinkle on 3 tbsp (or 3 envelopes) yeast. Let stand 10min.
Into a very large bowl, pour 1st mixture and mix in 6 c multigrain bread flour. Mix in 2nd mixture. Mix in 2 more c multigrain bread flour and 2 c all purpose flour. Gradually add approx. 10 c white flour at first stirring in with a wooden spoon and then kneading by hand. Knead at least 15min (I kneaded about 22min, and was actually sweating at the end of it… too much information) or until dough is soft and elastic and hands come clean.
Set to rise in a greased bowl covered in a warm place until doubled in bulk. Punch down and knead for a few minutes. Divide into 6 balls for loaf pans. Let stand 10min.
Grease 6 loaf pans.
Place the balls of dough into the pans.
Cover and set to rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk.
Bake at 375°F for 10min and then at 350°F for 25min, (my oven sucks and I did this in 2 batches).
Remove from pans, butter tops, let cool.

If I can repeatedly make this bread successfully, so can you. Seriously. Go make bread, it’s festive.

Speaking of festive, Anna over at Morsels and Musings is hosting a Festive Food Fair and this is my contribution of festive food. Parent-teacher interview night is certainly a festivity and every festivity needs bread. Put one and one together and you get two, (some of those bratty kids may think otherwise, but it is indeed two).

I promise, no more bread… for at least a week.


Technorati Tags:
Bread + Blogging Event + Recipe + Festive Food Fair

What Santa Really Wants

Forget milk and cookies, if you really want Santa to be good to you, leave him one of these- a Coffee-Chocolate drink spiked with a generous shot of Baileys. The more generous you are with the Baileys, the more generous Santa will be with you. If you really want to suck up, you'll leave him a Baileys infused truffle or two as well. The particular recipe for this drink came from the 1956 Constance Spry Cookery Book, which is a good read if only for its hilarious suggestions of when you would eat certain foods. Drinks were filled under “Shooting Party”. No, not an alcoholic shooters party, (that’s what I first thought of, maybe that’s just me) but an actual “Bang-bang! Animals die now!” kind of party. I love the 50’s… Since this recipe is so old, it serves as the perfect entry for this month’s Retro Recipe Challenge which has alcohol as its theme. Ok, so maybe the original recipe didn’t have Bailey’s in it, but the Coffee-Chocolate, (they could have come up with a better name) is an excellent wintery drink that is only improved with a good dose of alcohol.

Unfortunately for me, my parents were responsible and never let me have alcohol as a kid, (or coffee for that matter) but I suspect the former would have made for a more festive and friendly Christmas atmosphere between my sister and I. Every year when the Christmas decorations were being spread throughout the house, from out of the boxes would emerge two Santas. Each of us would get one of them to put in our room for the holiday season. The Santas, however, were not created equal. One was cool, the other was not. Guess which one I always got stuck with. I’ll give you a hint- it wasn’t the cool one. Every year I would try to steal the better Santa but my sister always won that battle. Have a look for yourself and see why I was disappointed with the Santa that decorated my room.



My sister hogged the nice Santa, you know, the one that looks normal. As opposed to my Santa, that would be the one with the wonky legs, his belt around his nipples and no hands! What kind of Santa was that??? He doesn’t have hands! He’s like an out of work B-list celebrity Santa impersonator. He probably doesn’t even know the reindeers’ names. Jerk. My pleas to have the real Santa, if only for a couple days, went unheard. No matter what kind of scene I made, my sister always got the better Santa. She was older, she did what she wanted. Clearly, I didn’t stand a chance.



It’s hard to make a cabbage patch doll look sinister. I did my best.

You’ll be happy to know, that the Santa sharing issue isn’t a problem anymore. I’m bigger now, I don’t live with my sister, and I always get the good Santa. He likes me better, I give him Baileys.

Coffee-Chocolate (The Constance Spry Cookery Book, 1956)

Mix 1 pint strong black coffee with 1 pint milk, sweeten and pour from a height into a jug. Keep hot. Melt 2 bars of unsweetened chocolate with 2 tablespoons cold water. Boil 4 cups of milk with 3 tablespoons of sugar, and chocolate and vanilla, and pour from a height into the jug containing the coffee. Beat till frothy, serve with unsweetened whipped cream on top.
**When I made it, I scaled the recipe down to make only one big mug for me. I used Mexican chocolate in place of the unsweetened, and of course, a large dose of Baileys.

Technorati Tags:
Drink + Blogging Event + RRC5 + Chocolate + Recipe + Coffee

Stir and Stir and Stir and... Risotto!

Donna Hay has gone Italian. The theme for Hay Hay It’s Donna Day #8 is risotto and is being hosted by il Cavoletto di Bruxelles. Risotto is relatively new for me, it always seemed like something that was hard to do. I knew it was good, but I thought it was out of my league. Let me set the record straight right now: Risotto is NOT hard to make. True, it takes time, but it’s not difficult. If you can stir, you can make risotto. It’s all about the stirring. Anyways, this is my second blogging event where I’ve made a risotto. The first one was for the “Take Two” round of the Monthly Mingle, hosted by Meeta of What’s For Lunch Honey. I made a butternut squash risotto with zucchini and sage and thoroughly enjoyed it. I previously hadn’t done much cooking with sage, but I really liked it. This post has nothing to do with sage.



This time around my risotto consists of wild mushrooms and fennel. The reason for that choice was quite simply that I had recently received a very large box of shiitakes from my mushroom growing friend, (to which I added dried morels from my cupboard) and I had a fennel bulb that needed to be used asap. I looked at a few risotto recipes, mainly just because I like looking at cookbooks, but then decided to wing it. For the most part, risottos all have the same base which can then be built upon to create endless variations. I made this recipe up as I went along, and as you’ll see; my instructions for making it are therefore all approximate. If you make a risotto once by the books then you’re all set to do your own thing afterwards. I had originally wanted to do a bunch of risottos and post them all, but then the deadline for HHDD snuck up on me and so this is all you’re getting, (but it's a good one). Expect a dessert risotto from me sometime in the near future.


Wild Mushroom and Fennel Risotto- Courtesy of Me!

A few splashes of olive oil
A chunk of butter
An onion, chopped
1 fennel bulb, chopped
Some fennel seeds and roasted garlic powder
A generous handful of fresh shiitakes, sliced
A smaller handful of dried morels, soaked for ~20min, reserve liquid and slice morels
1 cup white wine, (take a few sips off the top, then pour yourself a real glass)
1 ½ cups Arborio rice
About 4 cups of stock, combination of reserved morel liquid, chicken stock and water
Lots of freshly grated parmesan

• Heat olive oil and butter in a large pan.
• Add onion, fennel, mushrooms, fennel seeds and garlic and stir occasionally until soft.
• Add rice and mix in well.
• When rice is fully coated, add wine and stir until wine is almost completely absorbed.
• Begin adding stock, about ½ cup at a time, allowing each previous ½ cup to absorb before adding the next one. At this point you will almost have to stir continuously.
• When your rice looks slightly creamy but is still a little aldente to the taste, add the parmesan and mix it in.
• Then eat it!


Technorati Tags:
Risotto + Dinner + Recipe + Donna Hay + Blogging Event

Cute vs. Big: Round 1

Oooh, look at the little bundt cake. Isn’t it cute? Doesn’t it inspire you to talk in a baby voice… it’s a cutesy wutesy bundtsy wundtsy. NO! No it doesn’t. I hate little things, (little things being cute by definition). But they’re just so easy to love. You can pick them up, swing them around, give them piggy back rides, cuddle them and smother them. These are all things you can’t do with something that’s big. Big things are clumsy and awkward and don’t make people want to say “awwww.” And I want people to love my baked goods so I try to make little things, (this time using my new mini bundt molds), but no matter how hard I try, cute is not something that I can achieve. Maybe I’m harbouring a hate against cute things that extends beyond baking… You see, I’m almost 6’2, (188cm) so I think it’s obvious that I’m never the little one. And I’m going to come right out and say it- I’m jealous of the little girls. They have all the advantages. They can get away with anything they want just because they’re little. And it’s always the little girls that get picked up and swung around and piggy backed. Big girls can’t get away with anything, they can’t hide in little spaces, they can’t wear nice shoes and they have to carry themselves everywhere. Oh, and that’s another thing, just because I said it, doesn’t mean you can; I highly suggest you don’t use the word ‘big’ to describe a tall girl. I don’t care how you meant it, it sounds like you’re calling me fat. Nobody likes that... I seem to be getting sidetracked, (what else is new?) and you’re probably wondering what all of this has to do with today’s baking. Well, the above picture is how my mini bundt cakes were supposed to turn out, little and cute. Instead, they looked like this:



Big and awkward. The first picture is a fraud. I chopped off the bottom of the cake and ate it. The above photo is how my supposed “mini” bundt cakes really turned out. Not so mini after all. The thing is, even as I was pouring the batter into the molds I knew how they would turn out. I was well aware of the fact that I was overfilling them but that didn’t stop me. A smarter person would have filled the bundt pans ¾ full and then poured the extra batter into mini muffin cups, therefore multiplying the cute factor. Not me though. Perhaps I was secretly sabotaging the mini bundts, knowing perfectly well that they would overflow and wouldn’t be cute anymore if I filled the pan all the way to the top. Take that cute! Score one for big!



You’re probably thinking “Shut up Brilynn, just tell us about the cake, we don’t care about your big complex.” Fair enough. The cakes are Mini Cinnamon Swirl Chocolate Chip Bundts. I adapted the recipe from All Recipes.com, the original one had an equally long title and was called a Cinnamon Swirl Bundt Coffee Cake. I’ve never had the original, but I can only assume mine is better. Mine has chocolate chips in it.

Bri’s Not So Mini Cinnamon Swirl Chocolate Chip Bundt Cakes

INGREDIENTS
1 ¼ cup sour cream
3/4 cup butter
¾ cup white sugar
¾ cup brown
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup chocolate chips
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Grease bundt pans.
Cream sugar and butter together until well blended. Add sour cream and eggs one at a time and beat well. Add flour, baking soda, and baking powder and mix well. Stir in vanilla and the chocolate chips.
Mix the remaining brown sugar with the cinnamon.
Pour some of the batter into the prepared pans. Sprinkle generously with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Cover with cake batter, then more sugar and cinnamon mixture and then top with cake batter.
Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 8 minutes. Lower heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake for an additional 20 minutes.

The verdict? They big and they’re spectacular! (Topped with cream cheese icing).

They may not be cute, but in a fight, we all know big wins every time.




Technorati Tags:
Food + Baking + Cinnamon + Chocolate + Bundt

Big Boule Bread: I'm Taking Over the Bread World

I’m on the biggest bread kick ever lately, spurred on by the fact that my bread is turning out really shockingly well. Previously, my bread has sucked. It’s been short and dense with a soft crust and just generally disappointing. I was ready to give up bread making, hang up my apron and resign myself to the fact that it just wasn't for me. But Joe Pastry promised me that bread making really wasn’t that hard, he gave me some suggestions, I had visit from the Bread Fairy and low and behold I recreated Mom’s bread, and it was good. Then along came the ubiquitous No Knead Bread and it was a huge success. Even with my enormous bread ineptitude, I discovered that it was possible for me to produce a wonderful loaf of bread. The only downside was the length of time it took to produce this bread, almost a full 24 hours. When I want bread I just can’t wait that long. Apparently I’m not the only one. As I was browsing the blogs I saw that Adam, the Amateur Gourmet had received some fancy schmancy cheese and wanted to enjoy it with some nice homemade bread that didn’t require a days worth of waiting. Enter Nigel Slater’s recipe for "A Really Good and Very Easy White Loaf." Best of all it was ready in a fraction of the time required for No Knead Bread. Adam made an enormous loaf of "A Really Good and Very Easy White Loaf" and enjoyed his cheese with it. He then encouraged readers to make this bread and send him pictures of the results which he would post, giving those intrepid bakers instant fame and popularity. I can’t say that didn’t play into my decision to make this bread. Alas, as usual, I was behind on the trend and he’s already posted the round up of people who have made this bread. I’m sure they’re all very famous now and people are showering them with cash. A day late and a dollar short. But I persevered. I tried to forget about the fame in order to focus on the bread.



I was rewarded with another absolutely wonderful loaf of bread which I’ve renamed “Big Boule Bread” cause it sounds cool and that’s what it looks like. Watch out people, I’m on my way to dominating the bread world, one loaf at a time.


Technorati Tags:
Food + Bread + Recipe

It’s Like Your Italian Grandmother’s Pizza… But Better.

Yeah that’s right, I said it, but better! I love my homemade pizza. Ok, maybe I don't have an Italian Grandmother to confirm that mine is better than hers but I love my pizza more than any take out. It varies depending on what ingredients I have around, but it’s always real good. It’s better than real good, it’s amazing. I’m bragging, I don’t care, I love my pizza. It’s such a common item that everyone eats but there’s a huge variety in the quality that you can get. Why do people continue to eat bad pizza? If we boycotted it, maybe it would go away. I’m not a fan of cardboard masquerading as pizza. I don’t like plastic pretending to be cheese. Some people think they’re improving things by using a raw buckwheat biscuit like crust. They’re not. I want a yeasted, baked dough for my pizza, thank you very much. It’s so easy to make wonderful pizza and yet people still mess it up.



Don’t let anyone try to fool you either, pizza dough isn’t hard to make from scratch. As far as bread goes, it’s as easy as you get. You don’t have to worry about trying to make it rise as high as bread dough and if it’s ugly it doesn’t matter because it gets covered up anyways. Plus, if you make a bunch at once you can store balls of dough in the freezer and you’re all set to go for next time. And how hard is it to cut up some fresh toppings? Chop, chop, done. The lovely pizza you see before you, (yes, pizza is lovely) includes the following tasty toppings: olive tapanade, spicy tomato sauce, caramelized onions, shiitake mushrooms, yellow peppers, sweet and spicy marinated red peppers, chorizo sausage, feta and mozzarella cheese. A-m-a-z-i-n-g.


Technorati Tags:
Food + Pizza + Gourmet

Now That's A Spicy Curry!

Scott of Real Epicurean made a delicious looking Coriander Naan Bread. I thought that would inspire me to do the same but apparently it just reinforced my desire to make curry and to shamefully eat it with store bought naan bread. In my defense, ever since that No Knead Bread came along, I’ve been pumping out a loaf a day. I don’t know where it all goes, I think I’m eating it in my sleep. But one day, I’ll make the naan to go with my curry. Put it on the list.



But back to the curry, it was a lamb curry and was my own creation. I basically just threw in whatever I wanted to, including some fresh shiitakes that I got from my mushroom growing friend, onion, peppers, carrots, peas, a forgotten habanero pepper. Mmmm spicy. The lamb was on sale so I had picked up two chops which I then deboned and cubed. I made stock out of the bones and used some of it in the curry sauce along with a lot of curry powder, cumin and curry paste, (I also added some coriander in remembrance of Scott's naan). There was some orange juice in there too… I was just tossing things in, but strangely enough it all worked out really well. Or maybe it was just so spicy that I couldn’t have tasted whether or not it was actually edible. I’m going to believe that it was good, even if I had to mop up the sauce with store bought naan.


Technorati Tags:
Food + Cooking + Curry + Lamb

Miracles All Around

No Knead Bread is taking over the blogs and why should everyone else have all the fun? If bread making could really be this easy, I wanted in on it. Ever since a New York Times article lauded this recipe for No Knead Bread as the new greatest thing, promising a perfect, crisp crust and no kneading, everyone has been trying it. Slashfood provided a list of just a few of the many, many bloggers who have made this bread. I first read about it on Joe Pastry and when he suggested that even I could make this bread turn out well, I moved the recipe to the top of my “to make” pile. And the fact that Joe Pastry finally included some pictures with this post, (which I’m so happy about because I love his blog and would like to see what all of the wonderful things he makes look like) made me even more sure that I needed, (no pun intended) to make this bread.

Much to my surprise, my bread actually turned out like everyone else’s, which is to say very good! The crust was exactly as predicted, crispy and bakery like, and it was really easy to make. The recipe required quite a lot of waiting time, but hardly any actual work. Basically it sits for about 20 hours. It couldn’t be easier. And there’s really no kneading involved, although you couldn’t knead it even if you tried, this dough is extremely sticky. The interesting part is that it’s baked in a preheated crock pot with the lid on. Here’s where I went slightly wrong. I can’t make any recipe without something going wrong, and here’s my warning for this one: Make sure your crock pot doesn’t taper at the top, therefore trapping your bread inside. Yeah… I had to crush one side of the bread in order to extract it from the pot. I suppose most people have a wonderful Le Creuset pot that would work perfectly for this occasion, sadly, I do not. The only other minor complaint I have about this bread is that it could use more flavour, (and I even added a little sugar because I can’t leave well enough alone) but the crust distracts you so that you don’t really notice that lack of flavour immediately. But it’s plain white bread, so how much flavour can you really get? I’m going to experiment with adding some different salts or spices or types of flour to see what happens. The first loaf I made, (I’ve already got a second loaf on the go as the first one was gobbled up in less than 24 hours) prior to putting it in the oven was almost more of a liquid than a dough so I reduced the liquid slightly in the second one and it’s looking much more dough like. The recipe can be found on the Slashfood site, Joe Pastry, or just about every other blog currently in existence. I’m always the last one to know when things are happening.



For my second miracle, I present to you another very easy and very good recipe, this time for a Chocolate, Caramel and Pecan Pie. At the beginning of October I attempted to make a Chocolate, Caramel and Walnut Tart (I actually used pecans)from the new issue of Bon Appetit. The end result was super tasty, but the route I took to get there included a whisk welding itself to a pan, mass amounts of hard caramel, grape juice boiling over on the stove and a very loud and annoying smoke alarm. It wasn’t exactly an experience I was rushing to repeat. Everyone loved it though. That meant I’ve had repeated hints to make it again. So last night when I inquired as to whether anyone had any preferences for what dessert I should make, the response I got was something like this: “Chocolate… or caramel… with pecans… chocolate, caramel and pecans.” Although I was well aware of what they wanted me to make, I was stubbornly refusing to give in. Instead I started perusing the Bon Appetit cookbook, trying to find another recipe that included chocolate, caramel and pecans, but that wouldn’t drive me to the brink of insanity. Success was found in the form of a Pecan, Caramel and Fudge Pie recipe that promised a no bake crust and a filling that only required 10 minutes in the oven. This recipe has a very similar taste to the other one but is ridiculously easy. It has a crumb crust rather than a dough crust, but I actually think I like that better in this case. The recipe called for crushed chocolate cookies but I used a combination of vanilla crumbs and graham crumbs, that’s what I had. Now, I’m generally pretty slow in the kitchen, I dawdle around, don’t get all my ingredients out at once, eat half the ingredients and have to get more, (you know how it is…) but I made and baked this pie in about 20 minutes, including baking time. Freaking amazing. And if you make this, everyone who tries it will love you. I’m sure they told you they loved you before they tasted your pie, but now they’ll actually mean it.

And here's one more great thing, that I should have taken a picture of, but didn’t, so I guess it’s not as great as it could have been for you, but I assure you, it was great for me. You’ll just have to believe in the miracles to trust that this was one impressive breakfast. Before I begin, I have to once again thank Linda of Kayak Soup for the wonderful package she sent me. I used her cranberry-apricot chutney and cranberry sauce to make Cranberry and Brie French toast. It was like decadence on top of decadence. The brie gets nice and gooey and when you add maple syrup on top of that, well basically I’m reduced to a drooling idiot, unable to take photographs.


Technorati Tags:
Food + Bread + Baking + Chocolate + Recipe + Pie

Truffles- The More Accessible Kind

Mmmmm sugar high, mmmmm truffles… For an entire week there was a package sitting on my counter, just waiting to be opened but I wasn’t there to open it. I knew my Canadian Blogging By Post parcel had arrived and I couldn’t wait to get back home to find out who it was from and what was inside. Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict hosted this second edition of CBBP and when I finally got to open my package I found out that it was from Linda of Kayak Soup, all the way from Vancouver! I’ve been reading Kayak Soup for quite some time now and Linda’s always cooking up something great so it was no surprise to find some wonderful homemade goodies in my package. I got some homemade blueberry and pink peppercorn jam, cranberry sauce, apricot-cranberry chutney and red currant jelly. I also received 2 bars of 86% cocoa chocolate and an accompanying recipe for liqueur truffles!



I’m so happy with everything I’ve received, (I’ve already tried the jam and am looking forward to the rest) but the truffle recipe was an especially good choice. This month The Passionate Cook is hosting the 25th round of Sugar High Friday and the theme is none other than truffles. I’ve been wondering what kind I should make and Kayak Soup solved the problem. Linda’s recipe called for cassis, (she had made her own) but said that any kind of liqueur could be substituted so I opted for Baileys. I also decided to make two different kinds of truffles using her recipe as a base. I added the Baileys to half of the mixture and maple syrup and vanilla to the other. I rolled the Baileys truffles in cocoa and the maple-vanilla truffles in chopped pistachios to finish them off. Truffles are ridiculously easy to make, the hard part is trying not to eat all of the chocolate in the process. I think Űter summed it up best when he said: “Don’t make me run, I’m full of chocolate.”



I know this SHF will yield much more interesting variation of truffles than the ones I made, but I think mine are pretty tasty anyways and I’ve consequently already had way more than my share. Thanks again to Linda for the wonderful recipe and package!

Liqueur Truffles by Kayak Soup

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used part 86% cocoa chocolate and part semi sweet chocolate)
1/3 cup unsalted butter
¼ cup heavy cream
¼ cup Blackberry cassis*

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate over simmering water. Remove from heat, mix in the butter until smooth, then whisk in the cream and wine. Cover and chill until it firms up. Then form round balls (1 to 1 ½ inches) of the chocolate mixture. Roll them in the cocoa to coat or dip in tempered chocolate. Store, covered in the fridge until just before serving.
*Because I used so much of the dark chocolate I added some confectioners’ sugar to sweeten it up a little. I substituted 1/8th cup Baileys in one half of the chocolate and 1/8th cup combination vanilla and maple syrup in the other half.


Technorati Tags:
Truffles + Dessert + Baileys + SHF25 + Chocolate + Blogging Event

Testing.... Is This Thing On?

I signed up to test recipes for Cooks Illustrated. From what I gather they randomly send you recipes and if you feel like testing it, go ahead, if not, no big deal. I forget what the first recipe they sent me was for. Maybe some sort of steak dish. In any case, I didn’t get around to trying it in time to give them input, (you have about 2 weeks from when they send it to you to test it). The second recipe they sent me was for crumb cake and I decided to give it a shot. Since I was testing a recipe I thought I would try to be really good and follow the recipe exactly. And I actually did! Who would have thought it was possible?

As for the cake itself, everyone who has tried it has enjoyed it, but I wasn’t overly impressed. Maybe for what it is, it’s very good, but not anything special. It’s a fairly plain crumb cake, not too sweet, nice with a cup of tea or coffee. It doesn’t knock your socks off but it would probably please finicky eaters who don’t like trying anything new or unusual, (ie- anything fun). It didn’t turn out quite like I expected though, but maybe I didn’t know what a crumb cake was. I think I was picturing a lighter, higher coffee cake and what I got was much smaller and more dense crumb cake. I also expected the top to be more crumbly, like a streusel topping. But the recipe made so much topping that it basically sank into the cake and didn’t sit lightly on top. The end result was by no means bad, it just wasn’t what I was expecting... I just went back and read the intro to this cake provided by Cooks Illustrated, I may have followed the recipe exactly, but clearly I didn't read any of the extra info. This is what they had to say about the cake:

"This is not a coffee cake, but rather a tender, buttery cake topped with loads of chunky crumbs that are more cohesive and less crunchy than a traditional streusel."

Well, I guess that explains things then, doesn't it? In any case, this cake also needs some dressing up if you’re going to take it out. The recipe called for dusting the top with icing sugar and without it I think you’d be embarrassed to take this cake anywhere with you. Maybe it would be more appropriately named Eat-It-In-the-Dark Crumb Cake. This cake’s like a country bumpkin, I’m sure she’s very nice on the inside, but she ain’t pretty to look at.

I’m struggling with giving this recipe a rating. Like I’ve said; the cake is good, but plain. I think that was its goal though, and in that respect it succeeded. I like my sweets to have more pizzazz though. Yes, pizzazz. I doubt I’d make it again without adding some things to it. Maybe a jam layer in the middle… Some strawberries, raspberries or blueberries, fruit of some sort. Or maybe I’d top it with a caramel sauce. Or fruit and a caramel sauce. Basically I’d be this cake’s fairy godmother and transform her into something beautiful for the ball so that everyone would want a piece of her.


Technorati Tags:
Baking + Cake + Cooks Illustrated + Recipe

Biscotti Blues

I’ve been getting hints from Dad lately that he wanted me to make biscotti. Usually he doesn’t come right out and say “I want you to make biscotti” which would be the easy thing to do. Instead he’ll hint about it in a not very subtle manner. He’ll say stuff like “I saw a recipe for biscotti on Foodnetwork today.” or “You know what’s good? Biscotti.” or “I haven’t had biscotti in a long time.” It’s not too hard to see what he’s getting at. In general I’m happy to make whatever Dad wants because odds are I’ll like it too. Today I finally got around to making the biscotti that Dad has been talking about. When a magazine was left on top of my computer, open to a biscotti recipe, I knew it was time. This particular recipe was from a Longo’s magazine and was called “My Mother’s Chocolate Almond Biscotti”.

I didn’t really see any reason to change the recipe at all, except that I only had a ¼ cup of almonds when the recipe called for ½ cup. While looking for more almonds I found some candied ginger and dried cherries and decided those were better than almonds anyways. I did half the recipe as it was written, and the other half I changed slightly. Or at least that was my plan. The recipe called for 2 tsp of baking powder and ½ teaspoon of baking soda. I stupidly reversed those amounts, clearly not on purpose, I just can’t read, sometimes I think I’m dyslexic. I didn’t like the effect of the switch on the outcome of the biscotti. No one else seemed to notice, but I thought they had a bit of a baking soda taste to them. Ew. The chocolate drizzled on top helped to cover that up though. I also decided I liked my ginger cherry version better than the original chocolate almond. But I didn’t love either of them. The reason for this may be that I’ve come to the conclusion I don’t overly enjoy biscotti in general. It pains me to say that. The problem isn’t so much the taste, (at least not when I follow the recipe) but the texture. I know biscotti is supposed to be crunchy and that’s why people like it, but I don’t think I like how hard it is. I find biscotti is more likeable when it’s been dipped in hot chocolate or cappuccino, and has lost its crunch. I guess that’s not really biscotti though. Complete aside- my spellchecker has been trying to fix some of my sentences because it was saying biscotti should have been in the singular form. I didn’t know that it was in the plural form, and quite frankly, I didn’t believe my spellchecker. So I looked it up on dictionary.com and apparently biscotti is the plural of biscotto. Biscotto??? Who knew?

Chocolate Almond Biscotti (adapted from Longo’s recipe for “My Mother’s Chocolate Almond Biscotti, with proper amounts of baking powder and soda)

½ cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 T vanilla
½ cup unsweetened cocoa
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 t baking powder
½ t baking soda
Pinch of salt
Handful of chocolate chips
¼ cup slivered almonds, toasted
Chopped candied ginger and dried cherries, combined to equal about ¼ cup
Bittersweet chocolate, melted

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time and vanilla. Beat in cocoa, 1 cup of the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in remaining flour. Bring dough together with hands. Divide the dough in two. In one half of the dough mix in chocolate chips and almonds, in the other half mix in ginger and cherries.

With floured hands, shape into 2 logs about 12 inches long and 2 inches wide. Place on parchment paper (or silpat) on a baking sheet. Flatten into a rectangle shape.

Bake at 350°F for ~20min or until firm. Let cool on racks for 15min and then slice diagonally into ½ inch slices. Place on baking sheet cut side down and return to oven at 300°F for an additional 20min or until crisp. I then just turned off the oven and left them inside for about an hour.

Let cool completely and then drizzle melted chocolate on top.


Technorati Tags:
Food + Biscotti + Baking + Chocolate + Almonds + Recipe

Comfort In A Bowl

Ivonne of Creampuffs in Venice and Orchidea of Viaggi e Sapori are hosting a one off event called Dishes of Comfort. They’ve asked that we post about a special dish from our youth that brings back wonderful memories when we have it now. The first thing that came to mind was macaroni and cheese, but I thought I should be able to think of something better than that. Mac and cheese is so simple. The more I thought about it though, the more I kept coming back to macaroni and cheese.

I remember when I was in kindergarten and only had half days of school. I would come home at lunchtime and have Kraft Dinner while watching Mr. Dress Up. Whenever Mom gave me a choice in what my lunch would be, the answer was always KD. A few years later while at my best friends’ house, we made Kraft Dinner for the first time all on our own and were so proud of ourselves. I remember how many times we read and re-read the directions on the box and how we went running to her Mom every 30 seconds to clarify something. Was the water boiling when we saw little bubbles? How do you measure butter? How much salt do we add? How much should you stir the pot? When were the noodles done? I think it took us almost an hour to make macaroni and cheese, but we were so happy with the results.

Even with our amazing success, it took a while before I became confident enough in my ‘chef’ skills to make it on my own. In the meantime Dad would make it for me and he would often add extra cheese, spices and whatever else he felt like putting in. He’d let me help out too, I was always the official noodle tester, letting him know when the pasta was done. Gradually I became more comfortable making it myself. I no longer had to measure the salt or milk or butter. I also started adapting the recipe to suit my liking. And I liked cheese. I would grate as much extra cheese into the pot as I could. I think sometimes there was more cheese than pasta.

Later, I graduated from modifying Kraft Dinner to making my own macaroni and cheese. I liked to make it with shell noodles because the cheese would get trapped inside the shells, exploding in gooey goodness in your mouth. It got to the point where I had reached what I thought was macaroni and cheese perfection. Then, in my first year of university, in residence and without the luxury of a stove or fridge, I reverted back to Kraft Dinner. But KD had changed! Now there was Easy Mac. Everything was contained in the package. I only had to add water and heat in the microwave. I was in heaven. Late night snacks or mid day munchies were satiated in less than 5 minutes. Although it wasn’t my macaroni and cheese, it was an excellent substitute for the time being.

I was only in residence for one year and after that I was back to making my own version of KD with shell noodles. I branched out though too, sometimes I would add veggies, like broccoli or peppers, (hot ones are especially good). Chorizo sausage was often seen in my bowl and if there was leftover steak in it went. I also really began to experiment with different kinds of cheese. By experimenting I mean more than simply exchanging mozzarella or extra old cheddar for regular cheddar. Right around the corner from my apartment was the best cheese store in the world, Global Cheese, (76 Kensington Ave, Toronto) and it introduced me to cheeses I never could have imagined. If you love cheese, this is the place you want to be. They’ve got everything. The whole store is cheese and the people who work there are great. They let you sample whatever you want and always have suggestions. My macaroni and cheese was reborn with smoked gouda one day, maasdam another, the possibilities were endless!

This was also around the time however, that I was starting to experiment more with cooking in general. As much as I loved my mac and cheese I made it less and less as I began to explore the range of cuisines that Toronto had to offer. Sushi, red bean buns, Korean bbq, bubble tea, fresh made pasta, street meat, schwarma, jerk chicken, (from Jerk Spot, oh the memories), patties, doubles, pho, the list continues to grow and I continue to seek out new foods wherever I go. No matter what else I’ve tried though, if I’m having a bad day or a good day or I just want something easy, nothing beats a big bowl of my own macaroni in cheese. It’s my ultimate dish of comfort.

Technorati Tags:
Cooking + Macaroni + Dishes of Comfort + Blogging Event + Cheese