RICE PUDDING

The Vancouver 2010 Olympics is fast approaching, and the weather is not exactly cooperating.  It’s so mild you can walk outside in a t–shirt!

However, during the evening, it’s still quite nippy…enough to warrant a warming comfort food my daughters simply love.  They get all excited over puddings.  Warm rice pudding is their absolute favourite. 

I rummaged around my “rice bin”, which is simply a drawer filled with close to 100 pounds of practically 20 different varieties of rice.  I’ve got black rice, red rice, wild rice, Jasmine, Basmati, Brown, Semi-brown, glutinous, sushi rice and the list goes on. 

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CYPRUS SALT-CRUSTED CRISPY OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES

Sometimes a little more salt is not a good thing.

Ordinarily, I'm all over Salty Caramel and Salty Chocolate (and even more so if the salt in question is Fleur de Sel).  One cookie in which I like a salty-sweet combination is a Chocolate Chip Cookie with salty almonds.  But nuts are supposed to be salty.  So it works for me.

Since experimenting with sprinkling some Cyprus Salt on my Crispy Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies, I am not so convinced they belong on this traditional cookie.  They were definitely not bad, but they weren't "wow, that was amazing!"  So in the interests of my family's blood pressure and my own (though my bp is low) I think I'll pass on the sprinkle of salt on these cookies. 

I used Superstore's President's Choice Cyprus Mediterranean Salt. Pretty, isn't it?

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BIB'S 3RD BIRTHDAY CAKE

Bib's request for her 3rd birthday was "Chocolate.  And strawberries."

I baked a 6 inch chocolate cake and then at the last minute decided to change buttercream recipes.  I tried Rose's Heavenly Cake's Meringue Buttercream.  It was a pain in the you know what to make and the results though yummy were not worth the extra effort.  I have made other meringue buttercreams and this one is finicky and creates unnecessary anxiety.

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DIVIDED BENTO CONTAINERS ROCK!

white chicken nuggets, mini sausage roll, potato smile, edamame, strawberries, and a huge container of ketchup!

We visited Daiso in Richmond the other day and I must say, $2 is a pretty good deal for a bento box!  The one I bought above though, is $4.  I really liked the fact it had a divider and it had a tighter fitting sealed lid than some of the other ones.  That being said, you can still buy a decent bento box for $2.

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MINI SANDWICH BENTO

Mini soft dinner roll stuffed with ham, sliced strawberries and a wedge of orange

I think I am starting to get the hang of preparing bento for Bebe.  The key is to make stuff the night before and pack it.  That way, in the morning, when I'm rushing off to work, I'm not freaking out trying to make her something cute so she'll eat it.

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VENTURE INTO BENTO

grape skewer, surimi impaled with a giraffe-pick, edamame, mini broccoli and cheese quiche, 2 white-meat chicken nuggetts, one mini pizza, one potato face, ketchup in the green chicken container

Bebe's in Grade 1 and it's tough coming up with lunch ideas that she'll eat. 

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CAKEBRAIN’S CHRISTMAS COOKIES 2009

Rudolph Sugar Cookies

From a quadruple batch of Sugar Cookie dough (from Martha Stewart’s Sugar Cookie recipe), I made a whole herd of reindeer, a veritable snowstorm of Tiffany Snowflake Cookies, and a forest of Christmas Tree cookies.   I divided up a batch of royal icing and tinted it using Teal coloured gel paste for the snowflakes and brown gel paste for the reindeer.   The reindeer noses were Wilton red-coloured candy sprinkles and the eyes were flat white confetti sprinkles coloured with a black food pen. 

This year, my chocolate flavoured cookie was  a Pierre Hermé  recipe from his book Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé.  Last year I had so much success with the beautiful Vanilla Bean Chocolate Diamonds (pictured below),
  
that I contemplated making Hermé’s Chocolate Sparklers recipe, but since I already made a batch of my slice and bake Vanilla Bean Butter Cookies, I thought it would be nice to have a piped one for the different shape.  I decided the Viennese Chocolate Sablés would be perfect.  They are piped with a large star tip ( I used Wilton 1M) and though the dough is soft, this didn’t help for ease of piping…it was pretty stiff and difficult to pipe.  I had to ensure I didn’t fill my bag too full or it became almost impossible to pipe properly.  Check the bottom of this post for the recipe.

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XMAS BLING FOR OREO WREATHS

This is the lazy-man’s Christmas cookie.  I searched high and low for the White Chocolate covered Oreos I decorated with snowflakes last year, but I couldn’t find any.

Instead, these Oreo Wreaths caught my eye.  They didn’t look particularly festive so I thought I ought to add some Christmas bling to them.  I employed my new gadget:  the Cuisipro Decorator Pen to pipe the melted coloured white chocolate.  The pen was okay but white chocolate isn’t exactly the easiest product to pipe with at the best of times.  

The pen works like a syringe.  You remove the tip, pull on the syringe to suck up the melted white chocolate or whatever icing or frosting you’re using and proceed to squeeze the silicone body of the pen to get the product flowing.  Sometimes I had to push the plunger to get the chocolate coming out or to get rid of an air bubble…and I had a couple of close calls where a big blob of chocolate burst from the tip, but I had a custard cup nearby to catch the drip so it wasn’t so bad.

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CHOCOLATE VELVET FUDGE CAKE

My nifty new NordicWare bundt pan is called "Bavarian".  I purchased it at the CookShop in City Square and immediately started looking for new recipes to try out.  I have Rose Levy Beranbaum's new book, Rose's Heavenly Cakes, which is chock full of interesting recipes.  I chose the "Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake" because I had all the ingredients in my pantry and it seemed so straight-forward.

After taking the pictures of the whole baked cake, I was impressed by the intricate grooves that showed up quite nicely in the cake.  I took a hot sliver of the chocolate bundt and ate it.  It was soft and fine textured but left a dry taste in my mouth, kind of like the dryness of cocoa powder.  I was perplexed.  It looked moist inside.  It seemed chocolatey.  It wasn’t over-baked.  In fact, I followed the instructions for a dark metal pan by baking it at 325degrees F and I took the cake out at the 50 minute mark.  I weighed my ingredients instead of using volume measurements.  I think perhaps this is just the way the cake is meant to be. 

Anyhoo, the girls liked it.  However, I wanted something to help the dry mouth feel and so I decided to make a chocolate glaze.  I mean, how can you go wrong by adding more chocolate?

In a glass measuring cup, I quickly melted 4 oz of dark chocolate pieces in the microwave along with 4 tablespoons of butter.  I stirred in 1 Tablespoon of corn syrup and mixed thoroughly.  While it was still warm, I poured it over the whole cake.  It looked so lovely.  Bebe came up and took a peek.  She said, “Mommy, it looks like a really big chocolate doughnut!”.  She licked her lips. 
 
It did look like a huge glazed chocolate doughnut.  The girls liked the cake much better with the glaze and it does go well with a cup of milk or some tea.  My mother of course, didn’t really dig it because she likes “wet” cakes. 

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HOMEMADE VANILLA EXTRACT

Homemade Vanilla Extract is the ultimate culinary act of recycling.  In my home, none of those expensive vanilla beans go to waste.  I use real vanilla beans in various ways.  The whole bean is split and scraped of its seeds for custards and is used in my baking.  The empty seed pods are sometimes ground up finely with sugar to add gorgeous speck of vanilla flavour to cookie doughs, and if I'm not making cookies that day, the empty pods are simply submerged in a huge bottle of vodka where I have been soaking other used vanilla pods.  I sometimes even put a few whole split pods in the vodka bottle, seeds and all, to give it an extra vanilla boost.  Reader, you must join me in my duty to spread the vanilla love so continue the jump for some cool ideas.

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SKINNY OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES

I like cookies that are the size of a saucer.

A good oatmeal cookie in my books is crispy, slightly chewy, and full of oat-ey-licious goodness. Oh yeah…and wafer-thin! Ha! you didn’t think it would actually be low in calories from the title, did you?

No, today, it’s all about the butter and sugar, lovey. Head over to one of my low carb recipes instead for inspiration if you feel mislead. No, these cookies are full fat! and chock full of dark chocolate chunks! A Skinny Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookie from my kitchen is the size of a saucer, fooling your brain into thinking you’re eating a behemoth. But wait. There’s a sliver of health in this delicate biscuit. It’s full of fibre and though it looks really big, it’s still the same amount of cookie dough per cookie, but it’s smooshed flat prior to baking so that the resulting cookie is super thin, crispy all around and ever so slightly chewy from the large old-fashioned rolled oats. It’s all smoke and mirrors, people.

In order to achieve these super thin oatmeal cookies, which are approximately 4 to 5 inches in diameter, I rolled the cookie dough into a neat ball and pressed them flat on the parchment-lined cookie sheet. Because they were a tad sticky, I used plastic wrap over the dough balls to make my life a lot easier and my hands much cleaner. The biggest cookie I made was about 5 inches and it was a thing of beauty. My 6 year old eyed that one first. It was particularly thin and it was almost more like a chip than a cookie in appearance.

Though the original recipe called for flattening the dough to 3/4 inch in thickness, I didn’t find that the resulting cookie was thin enough for my liking. I actually ended up flattening them down to 3/8 inch (about 1cm) and was extremely happy with the crunchy results. You need to watch the first batch carefully and adjust the time in the oven to ensure you don’t burn them. I ended up baking them for 13 minutes at 350 degrees F.

You can only make a cookie happier if you toss in quality dark chocolate chunks. I would hazard a guess that healthier folk may like to add chopped dried fruit or craisins; dried cherries and the like. I like oatmeal cookies that are super thin and enjoy them even more so when they are baked until golden brown. Maybe even a tad darker.

These were so good that I think I’ll be making them again very soon. Because I’m a mommy, and fibre is good, I added an extra shot of fibre in the form of inulin (Fibre Sure), which is a natural vegetable fibre derived from chicory root. You can only relate to the necessity of this extra shot of insurance if you have kids. Sometimes I add extra flax seed, but the inulin was totally undetectable. Let’s just say, better safe than sorry. Ahem. Trust me.

SKINNY CRISPY OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES

(adapted from Cook’s Illustrated, “The Best of America’s Test Kitchen: Best Recipes and Reviews 2009”)

makes 24

• 1 cup (5 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 14 tablespoons ( 1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup packed ( 1 3/4 ounces) light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• [cakebrain’s additions: 1 cup dark chocolate chunks & 2 tablespoons Fibre Sure]

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 3 large (18- by 13-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars at medium-low speed until just combined, about 20 seconds. Increase the speed to medium and continue to beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute longer. Scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the egg and vanilla and beat on medium0low until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the bowl again. With the mixer running at low speed, add the flour mixture and mix until just incorporated and smooth, 10 seconds. With the mixer still running on low, gradually add the oats and mix until well incorporated, 20 seconds. [cakebrain’s note: add Fibre Sure, if you need it and toss in the chocolate chunks] Give the dough a final stir with the rubber spatula to ensure that no flour pockets remain and the ingredients are evenly distributed.
3. Divide the dough into 24 equal portions, each about 2 tablespoons, then roll between the palms of your hands into balls. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 1/2 inches apart, 8 dough balls per sheet. Using your fingertips, gently press each dough ball to 3/4-inch thickness [cakebrain’s note: I used plastic wrap to assist and flattened them down to 3/8-inch thickness]
4. Bake one sheet at a time until the cookies are deep golden brown, the edges are crisp, and the centres yield to slight pressure when pressed, 13 to 16 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking. [cakebrain’s note: I baked mine for 13 minutes since they cook more quickly when they’re uber- thin]. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack; let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet before serving.

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A BIRTHDAY TREAT FROM NOTTE’S BON TON

Vancouverites familiar with the legendary Diplomat Cake from Notte’s Bon Ton Pastry and Confectionery likely enjoyed their first bite of this multi-layered, rum-soaked sponge and puff pastry cake at a birthday party.

A birthday feels so much more special when you have a Diplomat Cake. The recipe is a well-guarded secret but as you can see, the components are clearly apparent: layers of shatteringly crisp puff pastry, heavenly smooth French buttercream, rum-soaked sponge layers and yet more buttercream. The maraschino cherry on top and the nubbly nutty sprinkles on the side of the cake are signature as is the whisper of ground pistachio sprinkled like fairy dust on the surface of the Diplomat.

It is pure buttercream bliss. The textural contrasts are wonderful and suitably memorable for birthdays. I care not to try to replicate this particular cake because the bakery has obviously honed the recipe over the many years they have been in operation. It has been an institution since 1926. My 7 inch cake was $14 and change.

My birthday isn’t until Monday, but I didn’t think there was any point in having my birthday cake on a work day when I was way too busy shuttling Bebe to karate class after school. I wanted to put my feet up and savour every bite. Bebe wanted to surprise me, but knew how particular I was about purchased cakes. She asked me what I wanted. I said, “Either chocolate layered with marshmallow frosting or a Diplomat”.

We headed over to the bakery after having Dim Sum at Sun Sui Wah and Bebe promised that instead, she’d surprise me on my actual birthday with something else…I can’t wait!

In the bakery’s window front display, there are a multitude of trays of petit fours. You can find a mini version of the Diplomat among a bevy of multi-coloured, nut-encrusted, maraschino-bejewelled pastries. There are so many to choose from that it is quite overwhelming—almost. The bakery keeps a supply of Diplomat Cakes as well as other cakes on hand and we didn’t have to pre-order one. I imagine though that if you had an important party, you’d want to pre-order just in case they ran out on a busy day.

I wanted to try the Chocolate Diplomat but didn’t want to be disappointed so I got the mini version instead to try out. Also interesting was the Mexican, so I bought a mini version of it as well. The rest were as usual, chosen for their chocolatey-come-thither-appeal.

Above is the Mexican. It’s so cute.

This one is like a trifle. It has chopped up maraschino cherries, which Bebe loves. That, and the cherry on top sure helps.

This is called a Chocolate Progressive. I think there’s ground almonds inside.

The above petit four is a slice of Chocolate Diplomat. I didn’t think it would look like that and instead thought there would be puff pastry layers. That looks like some sort of raspberry filling.

All in all, it was a successful outing. As you know, I love chocolate and I love cake. I got both. What a day!

Notte’s Bon Ton
3150 W. Broadway
Vancouver
604-681-3058
Directions

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CHOCOLATE OVERDOSE FROM T ROOM BAKERY!

Seeing as I was battling the H1N1 at home with the two girls…both came down with it early in the week…and they’ve been cooped up at home, I thought it prudent to fight the virus with chocolate. Okay, they’re both on Tamiflu, but the chocolate is for me. I mean, I needed some chocolate as a pick-me-up because I was hoping it would cheer me up and help my body resist the icky germs that must be flying in my face every day from the girls.

You know me: I always have to overdo it. I carry sanitizing gel with me in my pocket, I wipe and spray surfaces and I wear gloves. I wash my hands after every contact with the girls, and at night after helping Bib get back to sleep, I keep the gel next to my bedside if I’m too tired to go wash my hands. I even bought one of these toothbrush sanitizers, the Zapi, with the ultraviolet technology to get rid of potential germs flying around my bathroom. I’ve been taking Red Reishii capsules, probiotics and been drinking green tea daily. I’m doing everything short of putting out cut onions around the house, which I don’t think does much other than make your house smell of raw onions…and that’s a waste of onion in my opinion, when you can be making it into something nice like a caramelized onion dip. mmm.

Silly me. With all this, I still have a feeling I’m going to get it. What’s a mommy to do? I’m not eligible for the flu shot yet because they’re still only immunizing all the at-risk people and now schoolchildren are eligible today. Oh well, too late for us. But, don’t you think chocolate ought to help? The doc said to get plenty of rest so I don’t get run down caring for the girls. I took it to mean to also treat myself to something indulgent. Any excuse.

I headed off to T Room Bakery and Kitchenware. I hadn’t visited in a while, but I know I wouldn’t be disappointed by perusing all the neat kitchenware and goodies on display. Looking at kitchenware and little French cakes always cheers me up. One side of the shop is dedicated to kitchenware and the other side is the tea room/cafe. They also have other rooms tucked away in the back and facing a little courtyard garden. In the centre of it all is the pastry display where the resident bakers get to make whatever strikes their fancy. On one visit, I noticed macarons! Today, they brought out a freshly baked rum cake. There was so much rum dripping off of the warm cake and pooling onto the platter that the cashier was overwhelmed by the fumes. That’s gotta be good.

Today I felt like chocolate and I really couldn’t decide, so I chose a Sacher, a Marjolaine and another chocolate layered cake with chocolate mousse, feuillitine and enrobed in ganache (I forgot the name) but you can see the pic I took below. And yes, in sticking with my over-the-top attitude, I overdid it again by buying 3 sinfully chocolate cakes instead of just one.

T Room Bakery & Kitchenware

4445 W 10th Ave, Vancouver, BC

(604) 677-2579‎

Check out my previous post on T Room here

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BAKED CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES

I just love new cookbooks.  A recent acquisition was Baked:  New Frontiers in Baking.  I kept flipping through the pages but didn’t really have an event that called for some of the amazing looking cakes in the book.

You may be shocked to hear that I actually need an event to bake at all.  I generally like to bake layer cakes for special events like birthdays but find it kind of over-the-top for everyday eating pleasure. 

Lo and behold the simple and straight-forward Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe I found in the book!

I had an ample stock of Callebaut chocolate chunks on hand and who doesn’t like Chocolate Chunk Cookies any day? 

Before long, I had a nice hot batch of cookies, straight from the oven.  I kept the rest of the dough in the refrigerator to bake off during the rest of the week so that we could get that “freshly baked” feeling each time. 

Though I never met a Chocolate Chip Cookie I didn’t like, this one is very good.  It’s up there for making again.  I would say I like my cookies under-baked because I like the gooey innards characteristic it creates.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

(from Baked:  New Frontiers in Baking)

makes approx. 24 cookies

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 2/3 cups (16 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips [I used Callebaut Dark chocolate chunks]

1. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda together; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugars together until smooth and creamy. Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. The mixture will look light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat for 5 seconds
3. Add half of the flour mixture and mix for 15 seconds. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat until just incorporated
4. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Cover the bowl tightly and put in the refrigerator for 6 hours.
6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
7. Use an ice cream scoop with a release mechanism to scoop out dough in 2-tablespoon-size balls. Use your hands to shape the dough into perfect balls and place them on the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, rotating the pans once during the cooking time, until the edges of the cookies are golden brown and the tops just start to darken.
8. Remove the pan from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Use a spatula to transfer the individual cookies to the rack to cool completely (although they are delicious warm).
9. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

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LEMON-GLAZED BANANA BUNDT CAKE

    

Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we could solve problems with cake? 

I have my own reasons for baking and one of them is of course my quest for the best darned fool-proof cake recipes.  Another reason is that baking cakes brings me immense pleasure.  I actually like the feeling you can get when the cake’s in the oven and the aromas wafting out are sweet and enticing.  I like the anticipation when you have to wait until the cake cools on its rack—or you’ll risk unmolding a broken cake if it hasn’t had time to firm up. I like my fingers dancing a hot chunk of cake into my mouth; the crust still crunchy, caramelized and warm. 

However, one of the more esoteric reasons I bake, is so that I can give away my goodies.  Only that doesn’t jive with some people I know.  The concept eludes them.  They must think I’m nuts to spend good hard-earned money, time and effort to feed people I don’t have any reason to feed.   I understand.   It must seem weird.   But it feels good.  So I do it.   

I must not be alone though.  There are a kajillion food blogs out there (hello, fellow foodies!) and not a small number of these food bloggers also gift the products of their labour away. 

I do wonder what those other people (the food recipients) think though.  Sure, you get recipients who, like Pavlov’s dog, start salivating when they see you.  Or the Hoovers who eat pretty much everything and anything you place on the staffroom lunch table (bless them!) and profess their undying love for your baked goods.  But there are a few recipients who kind of smile a little funny at you and you can detect their little hamster wheels turnin’ inside as they’re thinking “what the heck does she want in return?” 

Nothing.   Don’t wanna be your friend if you aren’t already.  Don’t want a favour.  Don’t want you to bake me something in return (unless of course you want do).  Don’t want to pad my “Owes me something” list.  Don’t want to get rid of stuff ‘cause it tastes bad. 

Don’t eat it if it’s causing you any angst whatsoever because it’s simply flour, butter and sugar.   It’s not a covert operation where I’m baking and gifting for some sort of world domination.

or maybe?

BWA-HAHAHA!

Well, not this time.  I was recently inspired to make yet another cake with bananas when I noticed a frozen lump of ripe bananas in the back of my freezer.  No, it didn’t have freezer burn.  Frozen bananas don’t really last too long in my household.  Not when there are so many different banana cake recipes to try!

 

This Lemon Glazed Banana Bundt cake was inspired by Greenspan’s “Classic Banana Bundt Cake” recipe in her Baking:  From My Home to Yours.  I say inspired because I totally took liberties with it and adapted the heck out of it.   However, the overall recipe and technique is still pretty much the same.  I discovered that I don’t really like sour cream in my banana cake.  It’s too twangy for me.  But buttermilk’s okay.  So I tried an experiment using a soured whipping cream.  I added a tablespoon of lemon juice to one cup of whipping cream and let it sit for a while while I readied my other ingredients. I swapped out the regular sugar for a combination of brown sugar and organic evaporated cane sugar and used all organic ingredients to ensure profound yumminess.

LEMON GLAZED BANANA BUNDT CAKE

(inspired by and adapted from Greenspan’s “Classic Banana Bundt Cake” from Baking:  From My Home to Yours)

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup organic evaporated cane sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• approx. 4 very ripe bananas, pureed (1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups)
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

1. Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Generously butter a 9-to 10-inch (12 cup) Bundt pan. 
2. In a cup, add the lemon juice to the whipping cream and allow to sit until ready to use.
3. Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together.
4. Working with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until creamy.  Add the sugars and beat at medium speed until pale and fluffy.  Beat in the vanilla, then add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each egg goes in.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the bananas.  Finally, mix in half the dry ingredients (don’t be disturbed when the batter curdles), all the soured whipping cream and then the rest of the flour mixture.  Scrape the batter in the pan, rap the pan on the counter to de-bubble the batter and smooth the top.
5. Bake for 65 to 75 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.  Check the cake after about 30 minutes—if it is browning too quickly, cover it loosely with a foil tent.  Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before unmolding onto the rack to cool to room temperature.
6. Glaze with the Lemon Glaze (recipe follows).  Or eat plain because it’s SO good on its own too!  Wrap in plastic and allow to sit on the counter overnight before serving—if you can wait that long!

LEMON GLAZE

Sift 3/4 cups confections’ sugar into a bowl and squeeze in enough lemon juice to make an icing thing enough to drizzle down the Bundt’s curves (2 teaspoons, added in drops).

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HALLOWE’EN OREOS

What’s a mommy to do when her 6 year old daughter has a play-date the next morning and there’s no time to bake?

I wanted to do something craftsy, but then didn’t have any idea what to do on such short notice. You know I have a pantry of baking supplies, so I thought best to bake cookies or something. The girls could bake the cookies and decorate them for hallowe’en. I had a flashback to last Christmas when I did something similar and recalled vividly the colourful sprinkles and dragees all over the countertops and floor. You couldn’t walk a step in the kitchen without hearing the tiny crunching of the sprinkles and roly-poly dragees underfoot. If was fun but oh so messy! Also, considering my time frame, I thought I had better rethink that whole process. By the time they rolled out the dough and cut them out, it’d be time for her buddy to go home and the cookies wouldn’t even have been cooled and decorated yet.

Fortunately, I work well under a bit of duress and the creative juices seemed to be flowing. So, being the smartie-pants that I am—actually, in this case, the m&m’s-pants—I had the brilliant idea to use white chocolate-covered oreos for my cookie base and just have the girls decorate with prepared tubed black icing (from Wilton). I grabbed some mini m&m’s, some hallowe’en coloured sparkles and raided my cake decorating cupboard for little sprinkles and candies. The spider bodies are of course, brown m&m’s. The heads are brown-coloured decorator candies. I clumsily piped 8 legs on the body and had myself a pretty tasty-looking spider!

When I did my jack o’ lantern oreos, I used the same black icing to pipe the lines that would hold the orange sprinkles first. Then I piped more icing on the north pole to have the green sparkles stick. The face was piped last.

A batch of Hallowe’en cookies isn’t complete without some ghosts, so I did some simple free-hand ghosts with the piping tube. The pink sprinkled ghost is a girl ghost.

You know…kind of like a “princess” ghost? Well, you’d know what I mean if you had a girl.

I am loving these white chocolate covered oreos. Whenever I see them in the store from now on, I’m going to grab myself a few dozen bags! What a super easy treat for Hallowe’en!

Happy Hallowe’en and do link back to me with your own creative Hallowe’en Oreo images!

Boo!

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THANKSGIVING DINNER

I promise I have a reasonable excuse for not having posted regularly in such a long time. Really I do.

First, since I’m an English teacher, you know that high school can be hectic in the first couple of months. It has been a tad more hectic this time--more than usual.

Also, last week, I just had two root canals redone. My ex-dentist didn’t really didn’t do a good job of it (about 10 years ago) and I think as a result I developed an infection recently. I went to a fantastic specialist—an endodontist this time and he was highly recommended by my current dentist. I am much more confident that this time it’ll work.

However, after 2 hours in the chair and listening to drilling and chiselling, I still currently have cheeks that only a chipmunk would love and I have slight bruising. This is all normal of course, and though I ate congee for the first few days, I was able to eat the gorgeous free range turkey I roasted today. I just cut everything in itty bitty pieces and chewed on my left side only. Hey, whatever works, right?

Since I discovered the joys of brining turkeys, I’ll never go back. One year, I delayed too much at purchasing a turkey and as a result I couldn’t find a fresh one anywhere in the supermarkets. I happened to go to Capers/Whole Foods and lo and behold, they had quite a few fresh turkeys left in their fridge. I grabbed one and made the tastiest turkey ever. Since then, I haven’t gone back to the regular supermarket turkeys. I buy free range or organic. It costs way more money but the taste is remarkable. This turkey was a little over 15 pounds. It was $95. Yup. That is indeed pricey. But it is so flavourful!

I loathe dry breast meat and so I don’t waste my hard-earned money on a pricey bird by treating it poorly. I always brine my fresh turkeys the day before. I start in the morning and put the turkey in a large plastic bin. Then I mix hot water and kosher salt with a bit of sugar and stir to dissolve. I then toss in a tea bag filled with some cloves, black peppercorns, and juniper berries. I add plenty of cold water and then submerge the turkey in the brine and stick it all in the fridge until the evening. I drain and dry the turkey and place it uncovered on a rack atop a sheet pan and allow it to dry in the refrigerator overnight. This helps with a crackly skin.

I start the bird out on a rack in the roasting pan lined with carrots, onions, celery, thyme sprigs from my backyard and some water to catch those yummy drippings. The turkey starts its journey to yummyville with its back up, at a high temperature – 400 degrees F. After an hour, I flip it over and have it breast up for most of the time at 250 degrees F. Then I blast it on high heat again for the final hour for a crisp and crackly skin. Because I have a Wolf oven, I have the luxury of the built-in meat probe and also a convection feature if I’m in a hurry. I never have problems with over or under-cooked meat.

The best part is the stuffing, and though I’ve tried other types of stuffing, I like a traditional moist bread stuffing: cubed white bread, onions, celery, parsley, poultry seasoning and some eggs and chicken broth. It never disappoints.

Sure, I’ve even heard of sticky rice stuffing and thought of making it, but since I only make turkey twice a year, I don’t want to take a chance on anything we may not like as much. I’ve tried sausage, bacon, fennel, pine nuts and all the fancy other additions to stuffing, but I like the star attraction to be the turkey. The plain bread stuffing is a wonderful accompaniment.

One of my daughter’s favourite side dishes is creamed spinach. This time I added chopped white mushrooms. I sauteed them until dry and added them to the creamed spinach mixture and topped everything with parmesan cheese. After baking, it was bubbly, creamy and delicious!

For dessert, I had planned to make a pumpkin créme brulée. Unfortunately, when I got to Superstore, the entire section of canned pumpkin was sold out. I looked high and low and thought it better to just forget the idea. So I made créme caramel. It was a perfect ending to a satisfying meal.

Now, I’ll be saying bye for now because I have a stack of things to mark and my seratonin levels are sky-high from all that turkey. I’ll be putting my feet up shortly.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

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QUICK CUPCAKE FIX

Here’s a quick post about getting a fast fix of sugary chocolatey goodness by baking a really yummy one-bowl chocolate cupcake. I used Martha Stewart’s One Bowl Chocolate Cupcake recipe from her Cupcakes book.

The verdict? Yes, it’s quick and easy and you can do it all in one bowl. I like that. In addition, you don’t have to worry about softening butter. It uses veggie oil. That helps for moistness too.

I swirled some vanilla bean Swiss Meringue Buttercream on my mini chocolate cupcakes and then decided to get fancy with a variegated pink buttercream. I just plopped pink and white buttercream blobs in my piping bag and it came out looking all swirly pink. It’s kind of neat. It looks fancy but it’s quick and easy too.

The buttercream is so smooth and delicious I don’t know if I can ever go back to a simple confectioners’ sugar & butter concoction again! It rivals my favourite Beranbaum buttercreams which use a sugar syrup method or a boiled sugar and corn syrup method. At least the Swiss Meringue method doesn’t require you to boil sugar. My only pet peeve is all those egg yolks I have left over…and yes, I do know what I can do with all those egg yolks (pastry cream, creme brulee etc.) but you know how I like things all neat and tidy!

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GETTING FIGGY

So I want to grow figs.

I’ve been busy what with school starting and haven’t posted in eons. However, recently, I’ve immersed myself in fig culture trying to figure out how to grow myself a gorgeous fig tree in my backyard. I don’t particularly like dried figs, but fresh figs are a revelation.

I called all around and didn’t find any fig trees in any garden centres at this time of year. Undeterred, I researched how to propagate fig trees from green cuttings…and just jumped into it by using a neighbour’s fig tree for cuttings.

My neighbour’s fig tree yields big juicy green figs with a pinkish centre. They are honey-sweet and truly amazing freshly picked from the tree. You know the figs are ripe when they’re hanging from the branches all heavy, juicy-plump; looking as if they’re going to explode. A gentle squeeze and you’ll know that they’re ready to be picked.

Let me be clear here. This is an experiment on my part. I have never propagated anything in my entire life. I don’t know anything about plants. I just want to grow myself some food! I just called a nursery and asked a few questions. I looked online and I read a whole lot of information…often contradictory.

Apparently, there are many people out there that are seriously passionate about growing figs. They say it’s addictive.

I’m just glad that I haven’t killed all my cuttings so far.

It’s been 12 days since I stuck fig sticks in vermiculite. I started out by dumping out all my old purses that were stored in this large rubbermaid container.

The lid has a vent that could be opened and closed so I thought that would be good. I heard that you could use clear plastic cups (the taller the better) because they are flexible and you can see proper root development. I went and bought myself 2 bubble teas (not a hardship on my part). I cleaned the cups and searched around for more plastic cups but only came up with smaller party cups and 2 large plastic mayonnaise jars.

The party cup is not ideal because it’s not tall enough. Oh well.

I found an old cookie rack and placed that at the bottom of the rubbermaid container. At the bottom of each cup, I pierced drainage holes and then I filled them with vermiculite. I moistened the vermiculite well with tepid water and let the water drain through.

I dipped my cuttings in root hormone and inserted them into the vermiculite.

I even placed two extra cups in the rubbermaid container to hold extra water so as to provide a humid environment when the lid was closed.

The environment under the lid is quite controlled. I don’t have a thermometer in there, but I think it’s pretty humid. I didn’t have to water the cuttings at all (for fear of mold growth) and besides, you can see it’s moist enough because there’s condensation on the sides of the cups. As you can see through the plastic bubble tea cup, there is significant root development from some of the cuttings. I found the leafless cuttings had more roots and the cuttings from the ends of branches started to grow little fig leaves.

Does that look like a root way up there as it branches off? What am I going to do with this now?

I have a few weirdly spaced cuttings but I threw caution to the wind and rammed them in vermiculite too just to see what would happen. One of the double-branched cuttings with leaves didn’t have much root development perhaps because it was using up energy to keep those leaves alive. I subsequently snipped off the leaves to allow the cutting to direct energy to root development. Hope it works.

Here’s how it looks so far: the cutting on the left, which initially had a leaf bud at the end, is starting to grow a little fig leaf. I don’t see much root development. The plain old leafless stick on the right has tons of roots and is also starting to have a little green bump on one of the nodes.

Right now, I’m airing out the cuttings every day by opening up the lid, looking for mold growth and generally inspecting them for root development. It’s a good idea to open the lid every day anyways for ventilation. In general, the lid is on most of the day though. I just leave the vent open on the top of the closed lid. Lately, I noticed a little bit of fuzz on some nodes so I just took some of the root hormone and a cotton swab to them. The root hormone said it had a fungicide in it, so I was hoping that might kill off whatever the heck the fuzz was. I heard somewhere you could disinfect your cuttings before putting them into the cups, but I didn’t disinfect them at all. I couldn’t be bothered. When I saw the fuzz, all I had on hand was hand sanitizing gel…so I used that with the cotton swab to wipe it away. I could be doing a whole bunch of things wrong but I’m not going too much out of my way to spend extra money on this project. I just want a fig tree (for free). I’m crossing my fingers. I’ll post again if they survive to the next step, which is potting soil. I have to wait for more roots though I think. There’s always winter for me to start all over again if I totally screw this up!

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XO SAUCE: HOT SAUCE HEAVEN

The first time I tried XO Sauce at a Chinese restaurant during dim-sum, I was wondering what the heck the “XO” meant. Could it mean it’s so good you’ll get “Hugs & Kisses”? nah. I knew XO sauce was expensive owing to its costly primary ingredient: dried scallops (conpoy). Initially, I didn’t know the name derived from its link to the premium XO Brandy. In fact, there isn’t any XO Brandy in any version of XO Sauce I’ve tried. “XO” seems to allude to its expense and its deliciousness. All the ingredients in the sauce are of a premium quality and special in this regard.

XO Sauce is a Cantonese hot sauce. You can eat it as a condiment with wonton soup, noodles, or dumplings. You can use it to make fried rice, fried noodles or put it in a stir-fry with veggies or meats.

Here’s a picture of the costly ingredient in question. The dried scallops I used in my recipe just happened to be pretty big whole scallops. You can also buy tiny itty bitty ones or broken scallops that of course taste the same but are not whole like the ones you see in this pic. These had been sitting pretty in my cupboards for at least half a year. I think if you freeze them, they’d last a really long time. I have used dried scallops in the past that have been hanging around for a few years and they were a little darker and drier, but had the same flavour. I have a feeling they could last almost indefinitely, though I have never had occasion to experience that in our household. Generally, I add dried scallops to “jook” (congee). I don’t really like fussing with the long soaking periods to create steamed and stewed dishes where you can actually rehydrate the suckers (intact) to go with fresh Chinese veggies.

It had never occurred to me to make hot sauce or even XO Sauce for that matter. However, the other day, my MIL gave me a bottle of homemade XO Sauce from her friend and it was da BOMB! I took to eating it dolloped on a boiled egg. I even got fancy and made devilled eggs (yolks piped with a piping bag) and decorated it with a smidgen of XO Sauce on the top; sprinkled with snipped chives. It was so good! Unfortunately, I ate all of those and there aren’t any pictures.

Try it on eggs, it’s out of this world and so easy! It’s also Low Carb and makes for a great snack when you’re feeling for something salty, savoury and spicy.

Notice that pool of oil in the sauce? Well, that’s how it’s preserved. You keep the XO Sauce in the fridge and it should keep for a few months (unless of course you’re me and eat it practically every day). I used fresh red Thai chili peppers and must confess it was a pain to deseed them. I wore rubber gloves and used a paring knife to split the chilies. I scraped out the seeds and cut off the stems. Then I rinsed them. I think that if you like your hot sauce really hot, you could leave more of the seeds in there. I like it mild.

The recipe I developed doesn’t contain any JinHua ham (a dry-cured ham). Even a prosciutto might do. I didn’t feel like heading to the market to look for it. I just used more dried scallops instead. If you like a smoky-sweet flavour, do try finding some dry-cured ham and finely dice it up to add to the scallops. I imagine you could adapt the recipe to suit your tastebuds. You can play around a bit with the proportion of chilies, scallops, dried shrimp and ham. I used scallions and garlic too and think this is preferable to onion, but I guess you can substitute onion for the scallion.

I don’t like my XO sauce swimming in oil, so my version is kind of “dry”. If you like more oil, you can just add more to ensure that all the ingredients are submerged. You can use the hot oil for stir fries and as a condiment too. What a versatile sauce! My recipe makes a huge quantity of XO Sauce…enough for gifting. I would say it would make a great Christmas gift. You could scale it down easily.

CAKEBRAIN’S XO SAUCE

(makes approximately 5-6 cups of sauce)

• 300 g dried scallops (conpoy)
• approx. 50 g JinHua ham (optional)
• 150 g garlic
• 150 g fresh red Thai chilies, destemmed and deseeded (wear gloves)
• 250 g shallots
• 200 g dried shrimp
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 tablespoons pure sesame oil
• kosher salt, to taste
• 4-5 cups grapeseed oil or flavourless oil

1. Prepare the fresh chilies first. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. After 15 minutes, or when the temperature has been reached, turn off the oven. Wearing gloves, remove the stems, split in half and scrape out the seeds. Rinse and dry between paper towels. Spread on a sheet pan and place in the turned off oven. Leave the oven door ajar and allow the chilies to dry, preferably overnight.
2. Wash and clean the dried scallops. Cover with hot water and soak for about 3 hours until soft (or overnight if you wish, refrigerated). Strain and reserve the scallop liquid for adding to stir-fries and stock or soups. Finely shred the scallops by hand.
3. Soak the tiny dried shrimp in hot water for 3 hours. Drain.
4. If using the dried ham, dice finely.
5. In a food processor, put the shallots, chili peppers and garlic in the bowl and pulse until finely minced. Remove to a bowl and set aside.
6. Using the food processor, add half the scallops to the processor bowl and pulse a few times. Empty into large bowl. Then put all the ham if using, and the drained dried shrimp in the processor. Pulse a few times until crumbled in appearance. Add this to the large bowl. Finally, add the other half of the dried scallops and mix thoroughly.
7. Heat 4 cups of oil over high heat in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Add the minced onion, garlic and pepper mixture. Saute until translucent. Add the dried scallop mixture and turn down the heat to med-low; continue stirring for approximately 20 minutes. If more oil is needed in order to submerge the ingredients, then add more.
8. Season the XO sauce with paprika and salt to taste. Stir in sesame oil. Continue to cook until there is no longer any moisture rising from the mixture.
9. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
10. Place in containers and seal. Store in the refrigerator.

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