Interview with Chocolate & Zucchini

Back in November, (ugh, where has the time gone?) I was fortunate enough to meet Clotilde Dusoulier, of Chocolate & Zucchini fame.  She was in Canada to be the writer in residence at the Stratford Chef School. While she was here she also managed to make her way over to Toronto and give a talk at George Brown College, (where I did my Chef Training) and sign books at The Cookbook Store.  

Clotilde was nice enough to answer some questions I had for her about the changing role of the chef and her experience with the students at the Stratford Chef School and I'm finally getting around to sharing those answers with you.

In other exciting news, today is the first day I’m doing a video post! I’m back in school taking a post grad in New Media Journalism and one of the things that I’ve found myself surprisingly drawn to is video editing.  I’m having a lot of fun with it and I hope you enjoy the video of Clotilde! 

Inspired by my meeting with Clotilde, I made some yogurt scones with a recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini.  To make it a little more fitting, I opted to make them Chocolate Chip Yogurt Scones, but feel free to use whatever mix ins you’d like.

Yogurt Scones, (from Clotilde of Chocolate & Zucchini)

215 grams (1 2/3 cup) flour


30 grams (2 rounded tablespoons) sugar


1 teaspoon baking powder


a good pinch salt


30 grams (2 tablespoons) butter, chilled


125 ml (1/2 cup) plain yogurt


2 tablespoons milk


2 to 3 tablespoons chopped nuts or dried fruits, or 1 teaspoon citrus zest, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or 2 teaspoons orange flower water, or the flavoring of your choice (optional)

(Yields 8 small scones)

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Dice the butter and blend it into the dry ingredients with a fork or pastry cutter, until no visible lump of butter remains. Add the yogurt, milk, and whatever flavoring ingredient you want to use, and blend them in until the dough forms a ball. Handle the dough as lightly as you can. Avoid overmixing, or the scones won't be as tender.

Pat the dough into a flattish round, about 3 cm (a little over an inch) in thickness, and cut into eight wedges with a knife or a pastry cutter (alternatively, use a cookie cutter to make eight neat rounds). Place the wedges on the prepared baking sheet, giving them a little space to expand. Bake for 15 minutes, until the top of the scones is set and lightly golden.

Serve warm, with an assortment of spreads, such as clotted cream, butter, jam, honey, nut butter, apple butter, maple syrup...

Let Her Eat Cake

When my nephew Alex was little, my brother used to think it was funny to play a game called “What do you like more?” The game basically consisted of him asking my nephew what he liked more, between his Auntie Bri, (me!) and something else.  


In the past, I’ve lost to things like ice cream, dragonflies and dump trucks as things he likes more than me.  I’ve never liked that game.  



Fast forward four years and Alex is now far too smart to be fooled by his Papa into saying things are better than his Auntie Bri who gives him cookies and takes him to play mini golf.  His younger sister, Julie, on the other hand, is just getting to the age where my brother once again thinks this is a hilarious game to play.

I have no doubt that Julie would happily tell you that chocolate cake is better than Auntie Bri, even if Auntie Bri was the one who made the cake…  Just let her eat cake!

If you’re looking to please a demanding, (but adorable) 2 year old, this cake will certainly do the trick.  The only change I made to the recipe below was to make add a sour cherry layer instead of just straight ganache.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

 If you had of asked me six months ago where I would be today, there’s no way I could have predicted this.  I’m back in school again, this time doing a one year New Media Journalism postgrad program.  But what’s most surprising is that I’m actually enjoying it!

So I’ve been writing again, a lot, but mainly school related.  It’s inspired me to get back into blogging and sharing my cooking.  I also have aspirations to add some new forms of content to the blog.  I’m learning how to shoot and edit video at school and I’d like to try out some video posts!  I’m excited about it!

But today, I’m sticking with what I know and giving you my new favourite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, from Chef at Home, Michael Smith.  I had the pleasure of hearing Michael Smith give a talk in Toronto a few weeks ago and I met him afterwards during his book signing.  I was thrilled to discover that he’s not only an amazing Chef, but an amazing speaker as well.  It doesn’t hurt that he’s also super nice and pretty easy on the eyes too!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, (From the book Chef Michael Smith’s Kitchen by Michael Smith)

½ cup butter at room temperature

2 cups brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 ½ cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375F.  Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

Beat the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy.  Whisk in the egg and vanilla until well combined.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Scrape down the butter bowl and gradually add the flour mix, beating just until combined.  Stir in the chocolate chips with a spoon.

Scoop out a ball of the dough, roll it briefly in your hand to an even ball, then place it on the cookie sheet.  Flatten the ball slightly. Repeat, leaving 3 or 4 inches between the balls. 

Bake for exactly 12 minutes, (test the first batch, depending on your oven and the size you make the balls, you make have to reduce this time).  Cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove and cool further on a rack.   If you overbake these cookies, they will be crispy, but baked for just the right amount of time, they’re wonderfully chewy and perfect!

Makes about 18 cookies.

Oreo Brownies and Apartment Hunting

The search for a new place to live is a pain no matter when you have to do it or what you’re looking for.  This process is made especially difficult by people who lack basic communication skills.  I am currently in the unfortunate position of having to look for a shared apartment with roommates and the interactions I’ve had with some people during my search is enough to make me want to live in a cardboard box under a bridge.  At least then I’d have the place all to myself.

I have spent the past weekend trekking all over the city from place to place, checking out apartments and having interviews with potential roommates.  It’s not enough for me to like a place, the roommates have to like me back.  So far the stars have not aligned for both of those things to happen.  Many of my encounters with potential housemates could have been avoided altogether if people would simply learn to write a proper roommate wanted ad.  For example:

Look to the Cookie

 Cookies are my favourite thing to bake.  They're easy and offer instant gratification.  The cookie dough, which I might argue is the best part of any cookie, is ready in no time and warm, gooey cookies from the oven can be had in less than 25 minutes.  What's not to like?  How could anyone not love a homemade cookie?  Or someone who makes them homemade cookies?  And why don't people settle their differences over cookies and milk?

I'm not the only one who thinks cookies are the solution to all problems.  Does anyone remember the Seinfeld episode with the black and white cookies?  Jerry really sums it up best when he says:

"The thing about eating the Black and White cookie, Elaine, is you want to get some black and some white in each bite. Nothing mixes better than vanilla and chocolate And yet somehow racial harmony eludes us. If people would only look to the cookie all our problems would be solved"

Valuable life advice- Look to the cookie!

Where Is the Love? Balsamic Roasted Strawberry Brownies

Just like the Black Eyed Peas in 2003, people got me, got me questioning, where is the love?  Cause I am not feeling it lately.  You know those times when it feels as though the universe if conspiring against you?  And things just seem to be going awry?  That’s pretty much my life right now.  My roommate, Diesel, has decided to sell the condo, which means for the past two weeks, potential buyers have been parading through my living space with possible intentions of taking it away from me.  I eye each person with wariness, silently pleading for them not to make me go through the awful ordeal of trying to find another place to live.  I may not love living with Diesel, but the rent is cheap, the amenities are good, the location is where I want to be and above all else, moving is a pain in the ass and I don’t want to do it!  People have tried to tell me that I don’t have to worry about finding a place too quickly because he needs to give me proper notice before kicking me out.  But then I remind them that I don’t have a lease and I pay rent month to month, in cash.  It’s both a positive and negative aspect of living here.

As if the threat of soon being homeless wasn’t bad enough, I have to put up with all the condo gawkers coming to see the place on a daily basis.  At first Diesel just told me people would be coming randomly for showings but after a few surprise knocks at the door, (not cool when I’m in the shower) I informed him that he needed to be more specific about when viewers would be arriving.  So now I get sporadic texts that say things like “maybe ppl coming 6-7 and 9-10”.   Between 9pm and 10pm on a Tuesday?  Seriously?  I get up at 6am, I want to be in my pajamas, lounging around at 10pm, I don’t want to have to look presentable for when strangers tramp through my bedroom.  This does not make me happy.  Coupled with a myriad of other life disasters lately, I am definitely not feeling like the universe loves me.

Shameless Copycat Starbucks Oatmeal Fudge Bars

Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  It’s good advice and I should remember to apply it to all areas of my life, not just baking, but for the time being, let’s focus on the baking.  A while back a co-worker insisted that I try Starbucks Oatmeal Fudge Bars.  She claimed that they were addictively good and that I was missing out by never having tried one.  One afternoon, after a few weeks of reminders, I was feeling the need for a sugar fix and ventured out to my closest Starbucks, (it’s like you can’t go a block anymore without tripping over a Starbucks) to pick up an Oatmeal Fudge Bar.  Turns out they aren’t half bad!  In fact, they’re kinda good…  Almost addictively good… 

A couple days later I felt a sugar craving coming on again and started itching to return to Starbucks.  Damnit!  They had me hooked, but I refused to be fooled twice.  I knew I could make their overpriced bars myself and serve them in reasonable portion sizes that coffee shops seem oblivious to, (since when did muffins become the size of soccer balls?).  A quick internet search proved that I wasn’t the only person looking to make these bars at home and I turned up a number of results for copycat recipes.  I then made my own Oatmeal Fudge Bars and brought them into work to share with my co-workers.  The result?  Homemade bars beat Starbucks bars, hands down.  And I was left feeling victorious, if only in one small area of my life.  Starbucks won’t fool me twice.

Hello Spring! Hello Cupcake!

 

  

When I made these chocolate cupcakes a month and a half ago, the green icing was festive for St. Patrick's Day.  But since I didn't get around to writing about them until now, I suppose I should put some sort of spin on the choice of icing colour and say it's for Spring, which is hopefully going to arrive and stay any time now.  If it snows one more time this year, I'm getting on a plane and going back to Australia.  Even though it's approaching winter there, it will still be nicer than here.  On the upside, chocolate cupcakes never go out of season especially if they're made using Magnolia Bakery's recipe.  I made the icing by adding a bit of green food colouring and Baileys to vanilla buttercream.  You could substitute the Baileys with another flavour, but I don't think Baileys should be season specific either...

Sweet Pretzel Cookies are the Opposite of Bikram Yoga

 

A while ago I mentioned how I had started attending Bikram hot yoga classes.  At the time I said I wasn’t exactly enjoying them.  Now, after 20 classes, I can firmly say that was an understatement.  Not only do I not like Bikram yoga, I hate it.  Strong words?  Perhaps.  But true.  I gave it a chance.  People told me it would get better.  It does NOT get better.  I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!  Wooo, that felt good to get off my chest!  Some people would question why I would attend so many classes if I dislike it so much.  It’s partially because I’m stubborn and hate giving up on things and also because I saw results with Bikram yoga.  I felt myself getting stronger and more flexible and quite quickly too.  But those good things are more than cancelled out by the fact that it’s such a struggle to force myself to attend classes because of how terrible I feel before, during and afterwards. 

Happy Pi/Pie Day!

This Mini Apple Crisp Pie, topped with Vanilla Ice Cream, Walnut and Honey was born out of necessity.  I didn’t want to make it, but I had to.  I needed reasons to use up ice cream, aside from just shovelling it into my mouth.  For some silly reason, my condo building is without power today from 9am-5pm so I’m currently sitting at Starbucks trying to kill time.  About a week ago, signs went up in the elevators in my building, stating that the power would be off today and to take appropriate measures to assure that none of your food spoiled during the outage, which would shut off all fridges and freezers.  Is a week really enough notice for such a thing?  Why wouldn’t the powers that be, consider doing their repairs in two, four hour spurts so that everyone’s lives were less disrupted?  Apparently I’m the only person that employs logic when making decisions.  And of course, this is occurring on one of the few days that I get to leave work early so instead of being able to spend my free afternoon baking, I’m sitting in a noisy Starbucks.  I didn’t manage to snag one of the comfy armchairs either so I’m sitting on a wooden chair near the entrance where a cold wind blows in every time someone opens the door.  It’s not pleasant.

What all of this means is that for the past week I’ve been eating a lot of ice cream because I can’t bear the thought that it might melt and be spoiled if the power outage drags on.  I thought I should attempt to pair the ice cream with something, so I made apple crisp.  And since I had some leftover frozen mini pie shells that I didn’t want to thaw and refreeze, I scooped the crisp into the pie shells and topped them with ice cream, walnuts and honey.  And since tomorrow is 3.14/Pi/Pie Day, it seemed very appropriate that I tell you about my born out of necessity mini-pies.  Happy Pi Day everyone! 

Reasons to Bake Cake

I like birthdays but only because they’re an excuse to bake cake, other than that, they’re not much fun.  So I started looking for other reasons to bake cake.  Office jobs are great for that, you can bring in cake for any reason and people will devour it.  Perfectly valid reasons for bringing cake into an office:

-It’s snowing
-It’s Tuesday
-The Leafs won a game
-It’s Friday
-The Raptors won a game
-It’s Thursday
-It’s raining
-It’s Monday
-It’s almost Spring
-It’s Wednesday

Post World Dulce de Leche Day Round Up

After World Nutella Day I was pretty excited for World Dulce de Leche Day, although I think I needed more backing power.  It was not quite the resounding success I had hoped for,  The round up consists of a small but awesome group of bloggers with an immense love of all things DdL.  I know there are more DdL lovers out there so I'll have to start my campaign earlier next year to get more people involved.  Nevertheless, enjoy the following treats, they look pretty amazing.  I certainly haven't tired of the sweet, caramelly goodness of dulce de leche yet so I will be in using it throughout the year.

Happy World Dulce de Leche Day!

I love delicious, arbitrary holidays and that’s why I decided a few weeks ago, on World Nutella Day, that there should also be a World Dulce de Leche Day.  Patience is not my strong suit so I couldn’t wait any longer than the end of February to declare a second gooey, sticky, food centred holiday.  February 28th has arrived and that means that if all has gone according to plan, there should be a spike in food blog posts about dulce de leche and the world will be a sweeter place today.  If you’re one of the lovely people who have chosen to wax poetically, or otherwise, about the virtues of dulce de leche, send me a link to your post and I’ll do a round up of goodness at the end of the week.

Dulce de Leche Cookie Sandwich

World Dulce de Leche Day is TOMORROW, that's Monday, February 28th! If you're stuck for an idea about what to make, bake a batch of cookies, any type of cookie, place a spoonful of dulce de leche on a freshly baked and cooled cookie and sandwich it together with another cookie.  Presto! You've got yourself a post for World Dulce de Leche Day and a sweet treat to beat away a case of the Mondays.  It's win-win.  I opted for Coconut Oatmeal Raisin Cookies to go with my Dulce de Leche, but feel free to choose whatever makes you happy.  Just be sure to send me a link and let me know about it tomorrow!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Is it a Hallmark holiday?  Yes.  Is it horribly cheesy?  Yes.  Does it put ridiculous pressure on guys to come up with something romantic for the girl in their lives?  Yes.  Does it make girls feel bad if they if they don’t have a boy to celebrate with?  Yes.  Is it avoidable?  No.  So if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em and you might as well eat cake while you’re doing it.  Food is generally the best part of any holiday and Valentine’s Day is no exception.  It’s one of the only days of the year where it’s totally acceptable and justifiable to cram your face full of chocolate and ice cream and sweets.  It’s definitely my kind of holiday.

Regardless of how you feel about Valentine’s Day, you’re still going to see red and pink hearts everywhere and read mushy cards and hear love songs on the radio, so you might as well embrace it and do what I did.  I invited my friend Ruby Clicks over for some wine and cake ball making, which translated into eating a lot of mashed up chocolate cake with cream cheese icing, reminiscing about our travels and then going out for a candlelit sushi dinner complete with hearts on the plate.  What’s not to like about that?  As a bonus, Ruby takes really pretty pictures and was able to help me sort out why my fancy camera was acting up.  It seems that the auto-focus is broken, (sadface) but that I can still take pictures using manual settings until a life sponsor swoops in to fix things… I think I’ll be struggling with this one for a while, bear with me.

If you want to get into a festive Valentine’s Day mood, The Kitchn has a great recipe and tutorial for making cake balls.  If you plan on making your own cake and icing, (which you’d be a fool not to) the whole process is somewhat time consuming, but I like that.  You could mix and match cake and icing flavours to your heart’s content but chocolate seemed very appropriate for Valentine’s Day and cream cheese icing is appropriate for everyday.

I’d like to leave you with two thoughts:

1- Dulce de Leche Day is coming soon, February 28th, so start planning your recipes.  For more info, click here.

2- In the words of the great 50 Cent- “I love you like a fat kid loves cake!”  Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Get Your Dulce de Leche Recipes Ready!

While it's perfectly acceptable to eat dulce de leche with a spoon, I know you bloggers are a creative bunch so get your recipes ready for World Dulce de Leche Day!  It's coming soon, so get in the kitchen and get busy.  Then, on World Dulce de Leche Day, February 28th, post your amazing masterpieces and send me a photo and a link for the ultimate dulce de leche round up.  And yes, I've been made aware that there's actually a Dulce de Leche Day in Argentina, but really, can you ever have too much dulce de leche?  It shouldn't be restricted to one country, we need to bring this sweet to the whole world!

If you need help making dulce de leche, David Lebovitz provides the following recipe which couldn't be easier, (and doesn't risk having a can of boiling liquid explode everywhere).

Dulce de Leche or Confiture de Lait (Adapted from The Perfect Scoop)

Preheat the oven to 425° F (220° C).
Pour one can (400 gr/14 ounces) of sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk) into a glass pie plate or shallow baking dish. Stir in a few flecks of sea salt.

Set the pie plate within a larger pan, such as a roasting pan, and add hot water until it reaches halfway up the side of the pie plate.

Cover the pie plate snugly with aluminum foil and bake for 1 to 1¼ hours. (Check a few times during baking and add more water to the roasting pan as necessary).
Once the Dulce de Leche is nicely browned and caramelized, remove from the oven and let cool. Once cool, whisk until smooth.
Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Warm gently in a warm water bath or microwave oven before using.

Coming Soon: World Dulce de Leche Day!

 There seems to be a “day” for everything.  Today was World Nutella Day, January 23rd was National Pie Day, April 14th is National Pecan Day, May is apparently is a whole month devoted to Chocolate Custard, September 17th is National Apple Dumpling Day and December 7th is National Cotton Candy Day.  I don’t exactly know who makes up these so-called National and World Days, but I feel like I need to add one to the mix- World Dulce De Leche Day.  I will concede that Nutella is pretty amazing, but Dulce de Leche is equally so and it deserves a day in the spotlight too.  How about arbitrarily making February 28th,World Dulce de Leche Day?  Why not?  Who wouldn’t want a day devoted to sweet, gooey, decadent dulce de leche?  Food bloggers have got quite a lot of influence around the interwebs, so spread the word, there’s a new holiday in town and it’s delicious!

For any of you out there who may not be familiar with dulce de leche, (what rock have you been living under?) it’s a thick, caramel-esque spread which is Latin American in origin and whose name is literally translated as “sweets made of milk”.  Dulce de leche is essentially sweetened milk that has been cooked to the point of caramelization but how this is achieved, varies. 

One way to make dulce de leche is by boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk, in the can, fully submerged in water in a pan on the stove top.  If that sounds scary, it should.  If you’re not careful, there’s a possibility that the can could explode.  The thought of boiling hot dulce de leche being flung all over my kitchen in a single bang does not appeal to me.  That’s why I’ve adopted David Lebovitz’s much safer method of pouring a can of sweetened condensed milk into a pie plate, covering it with tinfoil and baking it in a water bath at 425F for about an hour to an hour an a half, until it darkens.  Same great results, minus the explosion potential.  Win-win. 

I’m going to get the February 28th Dulce de Leche Day festivities started early with, (another) David Lebovitz recipe, this one for Dulce de Leche Brownies.  I already love brownies so when you add swirls of dulce de leche, it pretty much puts them over the top.  And it’s easy to do too!  Now then, on to official business, if you’d like to participate in World Dulce de Leche Day, simply make an awesome sweet treat using dulce de leche, take a photo and post about it to your blog on February 28th!  Send me the link and your info to brilynnf @ yahoo dot ca and I’ll do a round up of all the awesomeness!  If you don’t have a blog, that’s cool, just send me a pic and a line about you and your recipe and I’ll post that too.  Spread the word!  There’s no reason World Dulce de Leche Day can’t become as successful as World Nutella Day, (or why the two shouldn’t be combined for ultimate world domination).

Dulce de Leche Brownies, (from David Lebovitz's The Sweet Life in Paris)

8 tablespoons (115g) salted or unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 ounces (170g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/4 cup (25g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
3 large eggs
1 cup (200g) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (140g) flour
optional: 1 cup (100 g) toasted pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup dulce de leche

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (175 C).
Line a 8-inch (20 cm) square pan with a long sheet of aluminum foil that covers the bottom and reaches up the sides. If it doesn’t reach all the way up and over all four sides, cross another sheet of foil over it, making a large cross with edges that overhang the sides. Grease the bottom and sides of the foil with a bit of butter or non-stick spray.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the chocolate pieces and stir constantly over very low heat until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth. Add in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the sugar, vanilla, then the flour. Mix in the nuts, if using.
Scrape half of the batter into the prepared pan. Here comes the fun part.
Drop one-third of the Dulce de Leche, evenly spaced, over the brownie batter, then drag a knife through to swirl it slightly. Spread the remaining brownie batter over, then drop spoonfuls of the remaining Dulce de Leche in dollops over the top of the brownie batter. Use a knife to swirl the Dulce de Leche slightly.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes. The brownies are done when the center feels just-slightly firm. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
Storage:These brownies actually become better the second day, and will keep well for up to 3 days.

Raspberry & Blueberry Crumb Bars and Hot Yoga

So I’ve started doing Bikram style hot yoga.  Everyone I’d talked to who had done it said how great it was and how amazing they felt afterwards.  They raved about it.  They reported being able to sleep better afterwards.  They called it refreshing and rejuvenating.  It all sounded too good to be true, I had to try it for myself.  Then I saw a deal to get 25 hot yoga classes for $35 and I took it as a sign to jump on board.  The verdict?  All those people lied to me.  It does NOT make me feel better.  After my first class I felt like I’d been turned inside out, beaten up and run over by a bus.  I promptly returned home, showered and went to bed.  This was at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon.  Bikram yoga destroyed me.  I was told it would get better.  The second class was exactly the same.  For those of you unfamiliar with Bikram style yoga, it takes places in a very hot studio, (around 105°F, but hotter when you cram that room full of sweaty wannabe yogis) and is a 90 minute session which consists of 26 postures, throughout which you’re encouraged NOT to drink water, NOT to wipe your sweat away and NOT to leave the room for any reason.  They’re very particular.

It was after my third hot yoga class that I made these Raspberry & Blueberry Crumb Bars.  All I wanted to do was go to bed but I had promised to bake something to bring into work the following day.  Given my post-yoga state of confusion, it’s a wonder they turned out at all, especially as I had to make numerous substitutions to the original recipe.  I had intended on going to pick up some groceries after yoga but I completely forgot in my quest to get home as quickly as possible so that I could collapse.  That meant that when I started to try to put these bars together I realized I didn’t have enough butter or flour or lemons.  Absurd!  What kind of baker doesn’t have butter and flour?  So I had to make changes like substituting cream cheese for part of the butter, ground oats for part of the flour and limes for lemons.  I’ve given you the original recipe with my substitutions in italics.  As for the yoga, I’m persevering and am determined to go to all 25 classes that I’ve paid for, even if it kills me.  As incentive not to die, I’ve decided that I get a treat after every yoga class and these bars are perfect for that.  Besides, they’ve got anti-oxidant rich berries and fibre from the oats.  They’re practically health food.  I’m sure Bikram would approve.

Raspberry Blueberry Crumb Bars, (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour (1 ½ c flour, 1 ½ cup ground oats to make 'flour')
1 cup cold butter (5 ounces butter + 3 ounces cream cheese)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest and juice of one lemon (zest of 1 lime + ¼ cup milk)
4 cups fresh raspberries (2 cups raspberries, 2 cups blueberries)
1/2 cup white sugar, (½ cup brown sugar)
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch pan.
On a work surface or in a medium bowl, mix together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan. I lined my pan with parchment paper. It makes it easier to remove the bars when they are done.
In another bowl, stir together the sugar, the cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the raspberries. Sprinkle the raspberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Mini Banana Cream Pies

 It was -22°C today in Toronto, -30°C with the wind chill.  That sort of temperature does not inspire me to want to go outside.  Ever.  Instead I stayed in and thought about all the warm and tropical places I would rather be. And after I accepted the reality that I’m stuck here for at least 2 more months of winter I decided to spend the day baking.  However, deciding what to bake is never an easy task.  As usual, I spent an absurd amount of time scanning recipes and trying to find something that I felt like making and for which I also had all the ingredients, because as previously discussed, there was no way I was going outside.

Then I saw some bananas sitting on the counter and narrowed my search to banana recipes.  I should really have more banana recipes in my repertoire and should make them more often because The Boy likes “anything with banana”.  I mentioned my boyfriend in my last post, (and how he’s not impressed with my oversized male roommate…) but despite the only recent mention, he’s not new and he’s actually existed on my blog for quite some time, albeit in various disguises.  If you’ve been around Jumbo Empanadas since the early days, you may also know The Boy as a certain Ukrainian Princess who refused to eat pierogies… 

Other than that though, he’s a pretty good eater, likes sweets and will generally try anything I put in front of him, (pierogies being the obvious exception).  As I said, he especially likes anything with banana.  He also likes pudding.  Given those two facts, it seems like banana cream pie should be one of his favourite desserts.  While looking at recipes with bananas, I sent him a quick message asking his opinion of said pie, as I thought it odd he had never requested it.  Turns out he’s never had banana cream pie.  How is that possible?

I shouldn’t be surprised though, this sort of situation happens quite often.  I ask him what he thinks of something, he replies he’s never had it and I then add it to the “list of things to make The Boy”.  Unfortunately, despite the fact that I evidently ending up making banana cream pies, they’re still on The Boy’s list.  He lives in another city and didn’t get to try any of these.  But I figure if I keep making banana desserts like this he’ll have to come visit me more often…

 Banana Cream Pie (from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home to Yours)

2 cups whole milk
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar, pressed through a sieve
1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into bits
3 ripe but firm bananas, sliced

To make the custard, bring the milk to a boil.  In a separate saucepan, whisk together the eggs, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt until blended and thick.  Whisking without stopping, drizzle in about ¼ of the hot milk.  Continue to whisk while slowly pouring in the remainder of the milk.  Bring the mixture to a boil while whisking and continue to whisk for 2 minutes at a boil.  Remove from the heat and whisk in the vanilla.  Let cool 5 minutes before whisking in the bits of butter until fully incorporated and the mixture is smooth.  Cover the surface of the custard with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool.  Remove from the fridge and whisk again before scooping into tart shells, alternating with a layer of sliced banana until you reach the top of the shell.

***I used Dorie’s recipe for the custard only.  For the tart shells I used a 3-2-1 pie dough, fully baked and cooled.  I topped the mini pies with lightly sweetened whipped cream and a banana slice with caramelized cinnamon sugar on top.  There are chocolate curls beside the tarts in the photos, but afterwards I added those on top too.

Platonic Pretzel Rolls

A number of people who I’ve talked to find it strange that I have a male roommate.  One of my coworkers said she would only live with girls and wouldn’t know how to deal with a male roommate who wasn‘t her boyfriend, (particularly one found off Craigslist).  Another person told me it was impossible for members of the opposite sex to live together platonically.  I disagree with both of those people.  For one thing, guys are far easier to live with than girls because in general, they’re pretty direct.  If there’s a problem in the house, they’ll just tell you about it instead of leaving a sticky note on the fridge and then avoiding you for a week.  And it works both ways, if something your guy roommate is doing is pissing you off, you can yell at them without worrying about hurting their feelings.  They’ll take it in stride, either fix the problem, (or not…) and move on. 

Secondly, not only is it possible for members of the opposite sex to live together without being anything more than friends, it’s absolutely necessary.  When roommates date, it always ends poorly and generally results in someone having to move out.  It took me over a month of solid looking just to find a place to live and I have no intention of having to repeat that process because of something silly like dating my roommate.  Furthermore, I have a boyfriend who does not want to even entertain the idea of roommates dating.  He has nothing to worry about though, because my roommate Diesel doesn’t have a sweet tooth and doesn’t really care about food and that’s essentially in direct opposition to everything that I believe in.    

When I first moved in I tried to be a good roommate and share some cookies that I had made.  I gave Diesel the cookies along with my rent cheque and he politely accepted them but didn’t seem too enthusiastic.  I thought maybe he just wasn’t feeling well.  But then on a separate occasion I baked some banana and chocolate chip muffins and left some with a note to help himself.  He didn’t touch them.  Another day I left cookies cooling on a rack, open for the taking and he couldn’t have cared less.  Eventually he told me he just didn’t have a sweet tooth and would rather have chips or a salty snack than baked goods.  At that point I considered moving out because I couldn’t possibly be friends with someone who would reject my baking.  I calmed down though and got over it, more for me. 

I thought maybe he would appreciate good savoury food at least, that is until I found out that his main concern with his meals was quantity over quality.  He told me he’d been to a few ‘fancy’ restaurants with multiple course meals and that he wasn’t very impressed as he always left hungry.  I suspect he’s a fan of All You Can Eat buffets.  When I made a roast chicken he commented that I could have just bought one already roasted at the supermarket for $9.99 so why bother making it at home?  When I bake bread he tells me they sell that at the supermarket too.  These comments are met with great sighs from me.  On the upside, however, it should leave my boyfriend feeling very confident that I will never, ever want to date my roommate.  I couldn’t even consider dating someone who wouldn’t appreciate the food I made for them and would rather order Dominoes than eat a homemade gourmet pizza.  And do I even need to go into detail about how much it would break my heart to try to date someone who refused my baked goods?  It’s the biggest insult I can think of.

So yes, it’s very possible to live with a member of the opposite sex and have a completely platonic relationship, it’s especially easy if you disagree on fundamental life basics.  These pretzel rolls are the only thing Diesel has eaten that I’ve made that’s elicited a bit of a positive response.  It went something like this: “Those bread things you made weren’t bad, but you know can buy bread at the store, right?.”  High praise.

I found the recipe for these pretzel rolls over at Sweet Pea’s Kitchen and she found them at Stresscake.  Make them and enjoy!