Plum Cake

button birthday

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 20:04:00 +0000

Imogen turned one in March. She loves buttons (although now she loves dogs more).

calvados toddies

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 13:05:00 +0000

Wow, it's been ages since I've posted here. I am currently embarking on a mission of using up my pantry and my liquor cabinet in anticipation of our moving. We're not 100% sure about where we're moving to, but our days in Ottawa are ending. Hopefully some interesting baking will come out of the project.

The first entry in our project were these calvados toddies. It was too late to bother with pictures, but if you want something warm, sweet, and boozy to ease the cold winter nights I highly recommend these.

sweet corn & blueberry tartlets

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 23:07:00 +0000

This tart is the result of a bad decision. For me, there's always this moment at the end of summer, when summer has actually become fall but I don't want to admit it yet, when I know that winter is lurking but I'm not ready to face cold reality, this moment when I want to buy every last fruit and vegetable at the farmer's market for fear that I may never taste anything fresh and bright ever again. There's this moment when I want to linger with the stickiness of peaches on my fingertips, the crunch of carrots between my teeth, bits of sweet corn on my chin. Wouldn't it be wonderful, I think, if I could taste these flavors all winter long? What if I bought a lot of sweet corn, yeah, a really big bag, a bag you sort of need two people to carry, and shuck it and blanch it and pack all of the kernels into freezer bags and then I could eat it all winter? That would be perfection.

Let me just say, winter is long in Canada. And it is not made any shorter by apparently endless bags of sweet corn in your freezer. Look, there are only so many ways you can saute corn or make a corn soup. And then it's summer again and there are new, fresh, sweet ears of corn so you're clearly going to eat that instead of the corn that is still in your freezer. And you're left with a lot of corn, and a little bit of guilt over the impending waste, and a sense of self-loathing at your failure to plan realistically. But still, there are only so many ways you can saute corn or make a corn soup. This has led me to explore new uses for corn, namely desserts. Earlier this summer, I played around with corn and blueberry popsicles, which were pretty tasty. And now, these corn and blueberry tartlets. (obviously, I need to work harder at this get-rid-of-the-corn project because I'm stuck on the corn/ blueberry combo). To be honest, I thought these tartlets would be at best fine, a fun experiment for a Saturday afternoon; I reasoned that even if they were disgusting I would be able to move some corn from the freezer to the bin in a guilt-free way. But, much to my surprise, these tartlets were seriously delicious--"thank god I froze so much corn last summer so I can make some more" delicious. The combination of sweet corn pastry cream and fresh blueberries is far more than the sum of the parts. It really is end of summer perfection.

Sweet Corn Pastry Cream*
500 grams whole milk
500 grams sweet corn kernels (fresh or frozen & thawed/drained)
6 large egg yolks
100 grams sugar
45 grams cornstarch, sifted
50 grams unsalted butter, room temp

Put milk and corn in a medium saucepan and bring just to a simmer over medium heat. Remove pan from heat, cover, and let steep for an hour. Puree milk/corn mixture until very smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer. Get an ice bath ready (fill a large bowl with ice and water). Return corn milk to the medium saucepan and reheat just to a simmer. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch in a medium bowl. Once the milk is warmed, slowly pour a small amount into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Pour the remaining milk into the eggs, whisking constantly. Pour the milk mixture through a fine-mesh sieve, back into the saucepan. Cook the mix over medium heat, stirring constantly until it comes to a boil. Cook for another minute or so, still whisking, until it thickens. Pour into a clean bowl, set into an ice bath and let cool to 140 F, whisking occasionally. Remove the bowl from the ice bath and whisk in butter a bit at a time, making sure each piece melts thoroughly. Return to ice bath to cool completely. When cooled, cover with plastic wrap and let set in the fridge.

Sweet Cornmeal Crust
80 grams butter, room temperature
100 grams confectioner's sugar
2 large egg yolks
140 grams all-purpose flour
80 grams cornmeal
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. heavy cream
(sorry for the mix of measurement styles here; I always weigh big amounts and measure small bits)

Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing completely. Stir in flour, cornmeal, salt, and heavy cream. Gather dough into a ball, and flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for two hours.

To Assemble:
This recipe makes one 9-inch tart or 6 3-inch tartlets. For the tartlets, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out 4 inch circles and press into 3-inch tart rings. Trim off any overhang. Gather up the dough scraps and re-roll for remaining tartlets. Put a small piece of parchment paper or foil in each tart shell and fill with dry beans. Bake tart shells at 350 F for 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned. Let cool. Fill tart shells with pastry cream. Top with fresh blueberries (a pint should suffice). You can serve the tarts as-is, or you can finish them with a jam glaze. Heat apricot or red currant jelly over med-high heat until boiling. Brush the jelly over the fruit and allow to set.

*My recipe is adapted from the Pierre Herme/ Dorie Greenspan vanilla pastry cream which I always find gives me the best results.

strawberry hazelnut muffins

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:38:00 +0000

Poor strawberry. For a little while every year, you're everybody's darling. The first real fruit of the season--except for rhubarb, which despite all of our efforts to dress it up is still just a vegetable--is bound to get all of the love. And surely the strawberry deserves it, especially the rich red ones you can get at the Farmer's Market, the shiny ones that practically melt when you pick them up, the ones with a hint of perfume. Strawberries are joyous after the winter's dearth of luscious fruit. But then the other fruit comes: the cherries (sigh), the plums, the raspberries, the currants. I'm already distracted. I'm still buying strawberries, but I'm not sighing so much when I pop them in my mouth. I'm not gobbling them down in a couple of days, but leaving them to linger in the back of the fridge where their mushy edges will have to be hidden in a smoothie. I like you, strawberries. I just don't like like you.

Looks like it's time for strawberry muffins, a sad use for strawberries I must say. Really, strawberries should be in a tart, carefully arranged atop sweet and silky pastry cream and a flaky crust. Oh well. Time is short these days and sometimes muffins are all you can manage. These muffins certainly don't convey the glory of strawberries, but they are delicious. And maybe, like me, you and strawberries are ready to part ways anyhow.

Strawberry Hazelnut Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 T. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
8 T. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup sliced strawberries

Hazelnut Streusel:
3 T. unsalted butter, room temp
6 T. all-purpose flour
1/2 cup ground hazelnuts
1/4 cup sugar
(Blend together all of these ingredients; I just use my fingertips)

Oven at 400 F. For muffins, whisk together flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, butter, and milk. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, until just combined. Gently fold in strawberries. Divide batter into muffin tins (I usually make 8) and top with hazelnut streusel. Bake for 20 minutes.

Note: For ground hazelnuts, spread whole hazelnuts on baking sheet. Roast at 350 F. for about 10 minutes. Let cool. Rub hazelnuts with a kitchen towel to remove skins (you won't be able to get them all off, but no worries; I often just rub the hazelnuts between my hands). Grind the skinned nuts finely in a food processor.

rhubarb, orange blossom & anise vacherins

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 01:49:00 +0000

This dessert is sweet and tart, with a hint of perfume. Smooth, with just a bit of crunch. And it's pink. This would be perfect for a bridal shower or a baby shower or a solo lunch on a hot summer day, which is when I've been enjoying mine.

Vacherin is a lovely warm-weather dessert composed of a baked meringue, ice cream, fruit, whipped cream. My version is a lightly anise flavored meringue topped with rhubarb sorbet and orange blossom ice cream. So delicious. I thought about the flavors for a few days, not sure if they would work together, but it was lovely. Simple, but sophisticated. It took a little effort to create each part and put them together, but they've been making me happy all week. Certainly worth the time.

And FYI, the orange blossom ice cream blended with milk and fresh strawberries makes a killer strawberry milkshake.

Note: the beautiful rhubarb for this sorbet came from Acorn Creek Farm. You can find them at the Ottawa's Farmers Market on Thursdays and Sundays.

Rhubarb Vacherins with Anise and Orange Blossom Water
This recipe can be made in single servings or as one large dessert. I used 3 inch ring molds for mine.

Anise Meringue
60 grams egg whites, room temperature
60 grams (about 5 T.) granulated sugar
60 grams confectioner's sugar
3/4 tsp. finely ground anise seed

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Trace your ring molds (unless you have a good eye), then turn parchment paper over so the ink won't bleed.

Heat oven to 150 F. In the bowl of a stand mixer w/ whisk attachment, begin whipping the egg whites on low speed until frothy. Turn the speed to medium-high, adding granulated sugar a little at a time until egg whites are stiff and glossy. Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and sift confectioner's sugar and anise seed over the egg whites and fold them in. Scoop meringue into a pastry bag fitted with a plain round tip (I used #803). Using the circles you traced as your guide, pipe the meringue in concentric circles from the outside in. Bake the meringues for about an hour. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Rhubarb Sorbet
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 T. fresh lime juice
1 lb. rhubarb cut into small pieces
2 T. corn syrup

Combine sugar, water, and lime juice in a medium saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar dissolves. Add rhubarb and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until rhubarb is soft (10-15 minutes). Puree until smooth. Add corn syrup. Cool in refrigerator, then freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.

Orange Blossom Ice Cream
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
pinch salt
6 egg yolks
1 tsp. orange blossom water

Put a fine-mesh sieve over a large bowl. Set this aside. In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks. Warm cream, milk, salt and sugar over medium heat. Slowly pour warm milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Pour the custard through the fine-mesh sieve into the bowl. Stir in orange blossom water. Cool the mixture over an ice bath, then chill in the refrigerator. Freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

To Assemble
Before assembling, make sure that the sorbet and ice cream are relatively soft to aid scooping and molding. Place a meringue disk into the bottom of each ring mold. Add a 2 oz. scoop of sorbet, smoothing it into the mold. Freeze for two hours. Add a 2 oz scoop of ice cream, smoothing across the top. Freeze for two hours. To unmold the vacherins, rub the outside of the mold briskly. The vacherin will slide out. Top with whipped cream, if you like.

Note: You can make individual vacherins without the ring mold. Just drop mounds of meringue on a baking sheet and make a well in each with the back of a spoon. Top with a scoop each of the sorbet and ice cream.

summer afternoon tea

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 01:12:00 +0000

Summer afternoons are bliss, especially lazy Sunday afternoons when you can sit on a sunny patio (made a bit too sunny by my over-pruning), chatting with a friend and sipping cool iced tea.

Cranberries are certainly more fall than summer, but it's clean-out-the-freezer season around here. I've had some beautiful cranberries from the farmer's market sitting in my freezer since last fall, so I figured it was about time to use them. And cranberry iced tea seemed like a perfect accompaniment for gianduja ice cream sandwiches. Not the most traditional afternoon tea menu, but lovely for a sunny summer afternoon.

cranberry iced tea

make cranberry simple syrup:
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
Bring ingredients to a boil in a medium saucepan. Simmer until berries pop, about 15 minutes. Set a fine-mesh sieve over a bowl, pour cranberry mix into sieve, and let sit for about an hour. Chill syrup.

make tea:
Boil 2 cups water. Pour over four bags English Breakfast tea. Steep for five minutes, remove tea bags. Add 2 cups cold water. Chill.

Mix tea with 1/2 cup syrup (or to taste). Serve over ice.

gianduja ice cream sandwiches

cookies:
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
3 T. ground hazelnuts
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
7 oz. unsalted butter, room temp.

In the bowl of a stand mixer w/ paddle attachment, stir together sugar, flour, hazelnuts, baking soda, and salt. Add butter, a little at a time, and mix on low speed until the dough just begins to come together. Form the dough into two balls; flatten these into disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for two hours.

Heat oven to 350 F. Roll chilled dough between two sheets of parchment paper to 1/8 inch thick. Cut w/ round cookie cutter. Bake on parchment-lined baking sheets for 12-15 minutes.

ice cream:
1 1/2 cups hazelnuts, toasted
1 cup whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
4 oz. dark chocolate, finely chopped
5 egg yolks

Rub off as much of the hazenuts' papery skin as you can. Grind the nuts finely in a food processor. Warm the milk, 1 cup cream, sugar and salt. Remove the mixture from the heat, add ground hazelnuts, cover and let steep for an hour. Pour the hazelnut-infused milk through a fine-mesh sieve and squeeze nuts to get as much liquid as possible out. Set milk aside.

Warm the remaining cream. Add to chocolate and stir until the chocolate is completely smooth. Whisk yolks in a medium bowl. Re-warm the hazelnut milk mixture in a medium saucepan. Pour slowly into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Pour this egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the custard coats the back of a spoon. Pour this mixture into the chocolate through a fine-mesh sieve. Stir the mixture, and set the bowl into an ice bath to cool. Cool the mix thoroughly in the fridge, then freeze in an ice-cream maker.

To assemble the ice cream sandwiches: Before assembly, chill the cookies in the freezer. The ice cream should be firm, but still malleable. Place a scoop of ice cream on one cookie, top with a second, and push down gently. Put the assembled sandwiches on a baking tray and let them firm up in the freezer before serving.

daytime ottawa: pistachio rhubarb linzer cookies

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 23:25:00 +0000

If you've been reading this blog for a while this recipe will be a repeat for you. Hopefully you'll forgive me for the repetition. I'll be baking these on Daytime Ottawa tomorrow, June 9th so I wanted to make the recipe available to any new readers. Welcome!

I hope to be doing more baking and blogging soon! I've been busy learning how to be a mother to my beautiful 3-month-old girl. Look for a recipe for chocolate-hazelnut ice cream sandwiches later this week.

Pistachio Rhubarb Linzer Cookies

These cookies are a great way to use some of the rhubarb that's abundant this time of year. Chances are someone you know is growing some in their backyard! The jam for these (recipe below) is easy-peasy, but you could substitute your favorite store-bought flavor. If you can't find pistachios, you can use hazelnuts or almonds; you can find ground almonds at nearly any grocery store which will make the process that much easier.

2/3 cup unsalted roasted pistachios
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
8 oz. unsalted butter, room temp
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Rhubarb jam

Whisk together dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon). Set aside.
In a food processor, finely grind pistachios with 1/4 cup brown sugar. Set aside.
Beat butter and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add nut mix and beat until combined well. Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Mix in flour mixture. Form the dough into two balls. Flatten each ball to a 5 inch circle, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least two hours.

After the dough has chilled, heat the oven to 350 F.
Put one disk of dough between two sheets of parchment paper to prevent sticking and roll the dough to 1/8 inch thick (you’ll get a circle that is around 11 inches). Use a 3-inch fluted cookie cutter to cut as many rounds as you can. Using a 1 inch cookie cutter, cut the center from half of the cookies. Put the cookies on a parchment-covered baking sheet about an inch apart. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough. Note: For the dough you don’t use in the initial cutting, reroll the dough and chill it for 10-15 minutes, then roll again. If the dough ever gets difficult to work with, just throw it back in the fridge to chill a bit more.

Once the cookies cool, sprinkle the windowed cookie with powdered sugar. Spread rhubarb jam on a full cookie and then sandwich with the windowed cookie.

Quick Rhubarb Jam
1 cup sliced rhubarb
1/4-1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. cornstarch

Mix 1 tsp. cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of water, then mix with rhubarb and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and boil for about 5 minutes. Set aside to thicken.

Goodbye, Mr. Easy-Bake.

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:25:00 +0000

My love of baking began with the Easy-Bake oven.

Sadly my passion had little to do with craft or artistry, but with making money. My parents weren’t the allowance types, which meant that acquiring spending money (money I typically used for candy) meant either working for my parents’ sweatshop-like wages (10 cents to iron a piece of clothing?!) or generating some type of entrepreneurial scheme.

I often sold things door-to-door, either cleverly packaged, holiday-themed snacks or greeting cards. I could always sale my wares, but I was painfully shy and rarely willing to venture farther than the friendly doors in my immediate neighborhood.

The one money-making venture that never failed me and never forced me to leave my own front yard was the sugar cookie business. My sisters and I would spend long summer mornings cutting and baking bite-sized animal-shaped sugar cookies. Our cookies were well-loved in the neighborhood and they always made us a happy stash of money. The ingredients were so basic, my parents didn’t even expect a cut of the profits.

Our cookie-baking mornings always began with batches made in my sister’s Easy-Bake oven. I think we reasoned that tiny cookies required a tiny oven. We would eventually realize that sticking with the Easy-Bake would take all of our time and we would never make any money, so we would switch to the Big Oven. Yet, even as we baked in the Big Oven, we’d still run batches through the Easy-Bake. I suspect we believed this practice added more authenticity to our process. And as children, we found a certain kind of magic in light-bulb baking that just didn’t exist in the Big Oven.

Every time we baked our sugar cookies, even though we were fully aware of the limitations of the Easy-Bake, we started off with the tiny light bulb oven.

This week, the inventor of the Easy-Bake oven, Ronald Howes, died. In memory, I baked a batch of tiny sugar cookies. I think everyone has an ideal sugar cookie from childhood. My husband’s is crisp, lightly spiced with nutmeg, and topped with colored sprinkles. This is mine: soft, cakey, and oh-so-slightly browned. And bite-sized.

Only the Big Oven to work with today. Tasty cookies, but not quite the same. Goodbye, Mr. Easy-Bake. And thanks.

Cut-out Sugar Cookies
4 oz unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
½ cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3 ½ cups flour
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Whisk together flour, salk and baking powder, set aside. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, milk, and vanilla. The mix will be lumpy and separated, but no worries. Stir in dry ingredients until just combined. Divide dough into two balls. Roll one out to ¼ inch thickness. Cut dough into desired shapes and place cookies on parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, rotating baking sheets halfway through. The dough scraps can be re-rolled.

These cookies are great plain, with icing, or with a sprinkling of cinnamon-date sugar.

orange cream trifle

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:41:00 +0000

When I lived in England more than a decade ago, I was pretty excited about the prospect of eating trifle. It is English after all. Sadly, most of the trifles I ate while there were a lackluster mix of red jell-o, Bird's custard, and store-bought sponge. I will rarely turn down any type of sweet, so I ate this sad trifle quite happily, but I was always wanting more.

Despite my longing for delicious trifle, I never actually made any. Why? Too many steps, too many servings, no trifle bowl? Finally, a few years ago in planning for a family Christmas party, I decided it was time for trifle. I purchased a trifle bowl for all of $10 and got to work planning ideas. I drove Will and my sis crazy with my thoughts on the trifle: "What about this? Do you think that will taste good?" Really, I was annoying. But the results were lovely.

For this year's celebration, I decided it was time to give the recipe (and my trifle bowl) another go. From the first attempt, the trifle needed a bit of perfecting which I think I achieved. The trifle is sweet and lovely--a cakey, custardy version of a creamscicle. The trifle relies on my favorite winter citrus, the blood orange, for its flavor and color. I've only made the kid-friendly version of the trifle, but it would amazing with a bit of booziness soaked into the pound cake. Grand marnier would work wonderfully with the citrus flavors, but but there are plenty of other good options--brandy, rum, the traditional sherry. Just add a brush of whatever you choose to the pound cake slices before assembling the trifle.

Orange Cream Trifle

one pound cake : I like Dorie Greenspan's recipe in her lovely Baking for its lightness and general fail-proofness, but any would work--as would storebought

vanilla pastry cream: I go for Greenspan/ Herme here, a recipe which can be found in Desserts and Chocolate Desserts

blood orange curd:
8 large egg yolks
zest of two blood oranges (make sure you buy unsprayed)
1/2 cup, plus two tablespoons of blood orange juice (fresh is best, but you can often find blood orange juice in Italian food shops)
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
10 T. (5 oz) unsalted butter, cut into chunks

Whisk egg yolks, zest, juice and sugar in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook over med-high, stirring constantly until the mix reaches 160 F and is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove pan from heat. Mix in salt, then add butter one piece at a time until smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium bowl. Cover surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled and thickened.

chestnut whipped cream
2 cups whipped cream
1 cup chestnut paste (creme de marrons): found in most Italian food shops or other fancy food stores

blood orange segments, from 4-5 blood oranges, pith removed entirely. To easily segment oranges, slice of top and bottom, then remove remaining skin and pith with pairing knife. Slice flesh along the membranes to remove.

rasberry or red currant jam

dark chocolate

To Assemble:
Cut pound cake into 1/2 inch slices (depending on preference, you may remove the crusts). For fit, I slice these slices further into approx. 1 inch by 4 inch sticks. Heat up jam (about 1/2 cup) until smooth and slightly run. Brush each cake slice with jam (and alcohol, if using).

Cover bottom layer of trifle bowl with cake slices. Top with half of the blood orange curd. Lay all orange segments on top of the curd, and top with a scant amount of vanilla pastry cream just to cover the orange slices.

Arrange another layer of pound cake and top with the remaining curd.

Arrange final layer of cake and top with vanilla pastry cream.

Make chestnut cream. Whip two cups of whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Scoop 1/3 of the cream into a bowl and gently fold in chestnut paste. Then fold this back into the remaining whipped cream. Spread this on top of the pastry cream. Shave dark chocolate over the top as desired. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve. To allow flavors time to develop, it's best to prepare the trifle a day before serving.

new season

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:59:00 +0000

Autumn always makes me feel a little melancholy, especially days like today when the cold air is tempered by brilliant sunshine, and there's a tiny breeze lifting up the papery leaves strewn about. Autumn typifies transition to me, a state of being I've never been fond of. Too much unknown, too much anticipation for what may come, too much longing for what has passed.

This entire year has been transitional for me: a marriage, a move, a job lost, a job returned, a baby. And then there has been my baking and this blog. So many new experiences and so much floundering. I feel lucky to be living my life.

Being able to bake this summer, to go each Sunday to the farmer's market and sell pastries and talk with people has been an immeasurable joy. My favorite moment of the summer was when a woman buying a bag of apricot jellies lingered to tell me about a candy store that used to be in Ottawa, where every creation was handcrafted. She described layers of taffy and oversized candy canes and her delight in all. As she described all of these remembered moments, she was clearly transported back to her childhood and I was there with her. It was magic. And this is where a little fruit, a little sugar, and a bit of craft can take you.

I was planning to finish up my season with the last two weeks of the market, but my life seems to be getting too full to manage everything. My sincere apologies to those of you who I told you'd see me sometime during October. I hope you'll understand. And thank you, thank you, thank you for stopping by my booth on Sundays. I can't even tell you how much I've loved every minute of this experience.

I will be continuing to blog here, so I hope you'll stop by. And I may be back to the market next fall.

For now, to take the edge off autumn melancholy and the cold air, there are pumpkin doughnuts. These are basically this recipe, but I swapped out half of the flour for spelt flour, and for the topping I used a mix of white sugar, date sugar, with a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg.

back to the market

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:58:00 +0000

Apologies galore for being so absent from this blog and so absent from the market! I spent three lovely weeks at home in Utah, where the only things I baked were a peach pie for my dad and a princess cake for my niece. It was a good break and we spent some much-needed time with family and playing in the mountains/ desert.

For the remaining two months of the market, I will be attending on a more limited schedule. For September, that means this Sunday, the 13th and the following Sunday, Sept. 2oth. I'm still working out my plans for October. My reduced schedule is due to a couple of factors: first, I'm back to work at my full-time job and second--more importantly--is that I have a new little baking project in the works. I am pregnant, with the new little person set to arrive in March. With the return to work and the pregnancy, I just haven't had the time or energy to make every market. So, I will look forward to seeing you all occasionally this fall. I wish I could be there every week, but life right?

So, this week I'm still tweaking the menu, but it looks like I'll have:

kouign amann
ground cherry clafoutis tarts
peach-blackberry pie
pear tart
something plummy

in macarons:
gianduja
apricot
maple pecan

and, finally, apricot jellies

see you at the market!

sunday's market

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:51:00 +0000

I hate to say this, but because of an unexpected and lingering illness (got to love those nasty summer colds; maybe it's all this rain?) I won't be at the market tomorrow. I am planning to be back to a regular blogging and market schedule next week. See you then and enjoy the market! Be sure to go support all of those farmers who have been harvesting in the downpour!

sunday market menu

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:55:00 +0000

Life has been hectic and wonderful the last couple of weeks, which has led to no blogging. Sorry! And sorry I didn't get the menu up last week. sigh. Looks like tomorrow will be a lovely day, so hopefully a busy one at the market. Cherries will be at the market tomorrow, which I'm pretty excited about. Can't wait to make some sour cherry jam.

I'll be taking next week off from the market (will and I are taking our tandem on a bike tour), so be sure to stop by tomorrow for your macaron fix.

In macarons this week, I just have three flavors:

mint chocolate (ganache made with some crazy amazing swiss candy mint from Riverglen Farm; they only seem to bring it when I ask them for it, but stop by their booth to check it out--potent and delicious)
strawberry
coffee

In tartlets, I'll have:

strawberry-rhubarb lattice (loved them so much, had to give them another week)
rhubarb flan with ginger streusel
chocolate--maybe with a little strawberry, maybe just plain

Pithiviers are back this week (s'mores aren't making the cut, but will be back soon). I'll also have a chocolate beet cake. And, of course, there will be kouign amann.

Rhubarb and strawberry jam. And maybe, if I get it together, there will be rhubarb jellies.

Hope to see some of you at the market. If you read the blog, be sure to say hello when you stop by!

tart-finished pig

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:44:00 +0000

At the end of the market day a couple of weeks ago, I tossed a pile of mangled tarts into the bin. My booth neighbor yelled (very nicely, mind you) at me for wasting them and told me that his pig would love them. He jokingly said he could finish the pig on tarts. So, now I toss my mangled and unusable tarts into a plastic bag to be carried home to a certainly happy pig. I love the idea of a pig growing fat on bits of sugary tarts, its snout covered in sweet meringue and flaky crust. It's no surprise that I'm enchanted by the notion of a tart-finished pig. The image in my head is reminiscent of one of the more singular reading experiences of my childhood.

Charlotte's Web is one of the best foodie novels I can think of. What impacted me when I read the book as a child (and still) isn't so much the emotional drama of Wilbur and Charlotte's friendship, but the unexpectedly luxurious descriptions of food. Fern picks wild raspberries and sucks nectar from clover delighting the abundance of farm-life. But even better are the descriptions of what Templeton the rat and Wilbur the lucky pig are eating.

At the fair, Templeton delights in "a real gorge": "popcorn fragments, frozen custard dribblings, candied apples abandoned by tired children, sugar fluff crystals, salted almonds, popsicles, partially gnawed ice cream cones." In his slop bucket, Wilbur finds "skim milk, crusts, middlings, bits of doughnuts, wheat cakes with drops of maple syrup sticking to them, potato skins, leftover custard pudding with raisins."

As a child, I was delighted by how my mouth would water with these descriptions of pig slop and a rat smorgasbord. As an unashamed carnivore, I don't think every pig should have Wilbur's fate, but I do try hard to ensure that my meat-eating is ethical. I don't consume much meat, and I make sure to buy that meat from small producers. I believe it is ok to raise and slaughter animals for meat, but I believe those animals should be well-cared for. And I believe that tarts, whether for human or pig consumption, make life just a little bit better.

sunday market menu

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:54:00 +0000

I'll try to add a few pics here later, but here's Sunday's market menu--early!

Macarons:
almond (customer request--if you have a flavor, just let me know!)
vanilla chai
chocolate
strawberry
ginger rhubarb

Tartelettes:
Maple Meringue--Happy Canada Day!
Strawberry w/ pink peppercorn meringue
Rhubarb flan w/ graham streusel
Strawberry chocolate

Misc.:
Kouign Amann
strawberry jellies
pithiviers

I'll also have three kinds of jam: rhubarb, strawberry, and strawberry w/ mint and black pepper. Hope to see you at the market!

strawberry whiskey granita

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:30:00 +0000

Today was just one of those days. Good thing I had strawberry granita ready to eat in my freezer. Cold, fresh, and especially good topped with a bit of whiskey. I got the strawberry/ whiskey idea from Larousse des Desserts, my favorite new cookbook which is both teaching me French and better dessert-making skills. The strawberry-whiskey granita there is fresh strawberries topped with a whiskey granita. That would be good too, I'm sure. The coolness of icy ripe strawberries with a splash of whiskey (ok, maybe more than a splash) was just what I needed today, a day when I spent the afternoon in my un-airconditioned kitchen making jam, with the hot afternoon sun blazing through the window. (Not that I'm complaining about the heat, mind you, after the long Ottawa winter). The beauty of granita is that it's entirely simple: fruit, water, sugar.

Strawberry Granita
2 pounds or so of strawberries, rinsed and hulled
1/4-1/2 cup of sugar, depending on sweetness of berries and preference
1 cup water
whiskey, to taste

Macerate the strawberries with the sugar for an hour or so. Puree the strawberries with water until smooth. Strain the strawberry puree to remove seeds (or skip this step if you don't mind seeds). Taste the puree and add more sugar if you'd like. Pour the puree in an 8-10 inch pan (with high sides--2" plus) and put in freezer. After an hour, rake through the mix with a fork to break up forming ice crystals. Do this again every half hour or so until the puree is a lovely, flaky ice. If you forget to do this scraping as I tend to do, no worries. Once the strawberry puree is completely frozen, just let it sit at room temperature until slightly softened and then scrape through the mix with a fork to create the flaky granita. Spoon into a glass, top with a bit of whisky (or not) and enjoy.

By the way, I have to say something about my piggy glass in the picture. It's a shot glass with one small pig for the "ladies" pour and one large pig for the "gentlemen" pour. Once, on a backpacking trip with my dad and his buddies we stopped at a restaurant that had ladies and gents portions. I was outraged, so I ordered the gents portion. All of the men had to subsequently change their ladies' orders to gents. Ridiculous. This shot glass is ridiculous too, but I just can't help loving it. And, of course, I always take the gentleman's pour.

market menu

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:10:00 +0000

If you're stopping by the booth tomorrow, here's what's on the menu:

Macarons (only four flavors this week):

Cardamon w/ rosewater buttercream--back by popular demand
Maple Pecan
Gianduja
Strawberry Rhubarb

Tarts (most of these minis):

honey mint
strawberry w/ goat's milk pastry cream
rhubarb meringue
chocolate walnut

Lemon cake, kouign aman, and pithivier.

And finally, strawberry marshmallows and maybe strawberry pate de fruits.

--Will took a few pics at the market, so I thought I'd post them.

strawberry marshmallows

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:48:00 +0000

It's probably sacrilege to devote any of the season's first sweet, ripe, local strawberries to something other than a simple tart or eating right out of hand--especially when the beginning of strawberry season is so late around here--but I couldn't resist these marshmallows. I've been waiting for strawberries to arrive just to make these marshmallows; the recipe is in Dorie Greenspan's Paris Sweets, a new cookbook for me. (You can find a version of Greenspan's marshmallows here; just scroll down a ways. For the strawberry, fold in 1/3 cup of strawberry puree and 1 tsp. orange flower water at the end).

I made sure to buy an excess of strawberries at last week's market to ensure that I could make jam, tarts, and these lovelies. They are made in typical marshmallow fashion with egg whites, sugar, and gelatin, but strawberry puree and orange flower water are folded in at the end to produce an ethereal, aromatic treat. Luscious seems the wrong description for a marshmallow, but these are most definitely so. In the cookbook, these are a finishing element to a strawberry tart, a concoction I was skeptical of. After tasting these, I get it. They would be perfect combined with pate sucree and richly glazed strawberries.

For now, though, I'm just eating them out of hand and hoping that a few will make it to Sunday's market.

sunday's market menu

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 10:19:00 +0000

I had plans for a longer post, but the kitchen gods seem to be testing me at the moment. Since I need to get back to wrangling them, I'll quickly give you tomorrow's menu. Cross your fingers for sunny skies tomorrow!

Apple tarts w/ spelt crust
Rhubarb puff pastry tarts
Chocolate strawberry cake
Pithiviers
Kouign amann

Macarons:
lemon mint
chocolate
apple cinnamon
coffee
cardamon

apple and rhubarb pates de fruits

rhubarb jam and strawberry jam w/ mint and black pepper--jam sold out quickly last week, so stop by early!

seed cake

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:44:00 +0000

My childhood culinary education at home was pretty limited. Food at our house was a very utilitarian affair. Healthy and filling, but not terribly inventive or varied. Even though there wasn't much culinary excitement in the kitchen, we did have a good cookbook collection because my mom's sister was a prop stylist who mainly worked on cookbooks. She would always send my mom copies of her latest project. My mom would browse through the books and put them on the shelf, where they never got used. I loved looking through these books, imagining what the creations must taste like, wishing my parents would try some of them out. One of these lonely cookbooks was some type of American heritage collection, with recipes like muffaletta and sally lunn buns. I credit this cookbook (whose title I can't remember and my mom seems to no longer have) with my endless fascination for old recipes. I love reading old cookbooks (a habit much aided by google books), trying to figure out instructions and ingredients. With some old recipes, it's obvious why the preparation faded from fashion. But with others, I find there needs to be an immediate revival.

This seed cake is an example of the latter. The seed cake is British in origin, which makes sense given its ideal suitability for an afternoon cup of tea. It has a pound cake-like texture, but a bit lighter. It's flavored with a bit of rum and caraway seeds; fennel or anise would also work nicely here, but I like the caraway because it's an ingredient that is often relegated to rye bread and coleslaw. Not only should this cake be revived, but so should caraway as an ingredient in sweets. I suspect it would be really nice with something apple--a quick bread or an apple tart. Hmm, maybe I'll work on this for the weekend market.

The recipe I used for this cake comes from the American Heritage Cookbook, a 1964 two-volume publication which includes history and recipes. I usually only post recipes here if they are mine, but since this collection is long out of print and this cake needs to be baked, I thought I'd share it.

Caraway Seed Cake
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1//4 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
1 cup ( 2 sticks) butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. caraway seeds
6 eggs, separated
2 T. brandy
Caraway comfits* or sugar for topping

Butter and flour a loaf pan. Heat oven to 350 F.
Sift together flour, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.
Beat egg whites to stiff peaks. Set aside.
Beat butter until light and creamy. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Mix in caraway seeds and egg yolks one at a time, beating until fully incorporated. Add flour and brandy, alternating between the two. Mix in 1/3 of the beaten egg whites to lighten the mixture. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites. Spread batter in the loaf pan and top with granulated sugar. Bake for about an hour (I used a ceramic loaf pan, which takes forever to bake, so mine took longer--add baking time if needed). Let the cake cook completely and remove from pan. Wrap tightly and let sit for a day or two to develop flavor. (Note: Because I have a husband who tends to hover as I remove things from the oven, I did not let the cake mellow and it still tastes quite fine).

*Caraway Comfits: Please, how adorable is that name? The original recipe called for a topping of caraway comfits, a new concept to me. I did some research and learned that comfits are candy-coated seeds, like the candied fennel seeds you get at some Indian restaurants. Good and Plenty are probably the modern version of comfits. I found a few tips for comfit creation, so I gave it a shot even though hot, boiling sugar and me don't get along too well. I didn't watch my boiling sugar very well, so it carmelized before I got too many layers of sugar on my seeds. I read some recipes that had more than twenty layers of sugar on the seeds, but I ended up with 3-4. They looked a bit ragged, but I could see the white candy coating starting to develop. Certainly not what they should be, but they tasted good on the cake. They added a more substantial caraway flavor, but if you don't want to bother, you could just leave the cake plain or dust it with sugar before baking to make it pretty.

pithiviers and sunday's market menu

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:18:00 +0000

I made a few pithiviers for last week's market to use up some ingredients, specifically puff pastry and coconut curd. I loved them so much, I'm making them again this week. And I suspect they will be making regular appearances throughout the season. I may decide to make them every week. Traditionally, a pithiviers is two layers of puff pastry filled with a mix of almond cream and pastry cream and it's typically made as one large round (also, if it is baked with a token inside, it becomes a Galette des Rois, a cake to celebrate the Epiphany). Mine are small and are currently being filled with creamy smooth coconut curd and rhubarb jam. Not traditional at all, but delicious. The rhubarb and coconut bake together nicely, creating a creamy-tart filling. Even if you're not a fan of rhubarb, you will like this filling. These just might be the perfect pastry for me--buttery, crunchy, sweet, jammy. So good. I'll be getting up early, early Sunday morning to put these in the oven, so I hope you'll stop by and try one.

If you can't stop by, you may want to try making these. Making puff pastry is pretty easy--time consuming, but simple. The results are so satisfying. You could also make these with frozen all-butter pastry. I love Dorie Greenspan's recipes, as she makes seemingly complicated processes very straightforward and accessible, so I'll link you to her instructions for Galette des Rois. You can add your favorite jam with the almond cream, or replace another type of pastry cream.

In addition to the pithiviers, this week at the market, I'll have:

chocolate mint tarts

apple puff pastry tarts (Hall's had some nice winter apples still)
lemon cakes
rhubarb bakewell tarts: [6/29 note: The rhubarb bakewell tarts were inspired by this month's daring bakers challenge. In the rush to get ready for the market, I forgot to take pics, but the tart was delicious. The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.
brioche

For macarons this week, I'll have:

gianduja (chocolate-hazelnut)
maple pecan
strawberry rhubarb
vanilla honey
green tea w/ white chocolate caramel

I'll also have some lovely jars of rhubarb jam for sale, plus two types of pates de fruit: apple and rhubarb.

rhubarb anise ice cream

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:52:00 +0000

I should probably just start calling my website "rhubarb" since that's all I seem to write about these days. But when you are living in the cold, cold north and it only feels like you might get a summer, there's not much in season besides rhubarb and asparagus. Before this spring, I'd never really done much with rhubarb beyond an occasional strawberry-rhubarb jam. I always felt sort of meh about the vegetable/fruit. My mind has been completely changed. Rhubarb is amazing! Sharp and tangy and completely versatile. I love, love, love it. You're probably not surprised to hear me say that.

Now that it is finally starting to feel like summer around here, it's time to get the ice cream machine in heavy use. I use it during the winter, but come summer I keep two freezer containers ready to go instead of just one. If you don't have an ice cream maker, I highly recommend them. I feel they are an essential kitchen appliance, far more important than a microwave or a toaster.

Anise and rhubarb is a combination I discovered from a rhubarb upside down cake recipe a few years ago--I think it's from the Gourmet cookbook. I'm not a huge fan of upside down cakes, but the flavor combination stuck with me. It's perfect in this ice cream. The anise ice cream is from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop. This is also essential, according to me. Lebovitz provides very clear directions, so even if you haven't made ice cream before the process is easy. The book has a variety of basic and exotic flavors, with sections on mix-ins and toppings if you want to go crazy. To make the anise ice cream, though, you can use any basic ice cream recipe and steep your cream with anise seeds for an hour or so before continuing with the recipe. The rhubarb swirl was a simple compote. I would give you the recipe, but I wasn't really paying attention. I do that sometimes. Epicurious has a good basic recipe. Mine was pretty close to this, but had less sugar and a bit of lemon juice. The creamy anise ice cream balances the tartness of the rhubarb well, so I'd recommend a tart compote.

Here's hoping for more sunny days. Or at least a lot more ice cream. At least I can do something about that.

this week's macarons

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Sat, 30 May 2009 21:54:00 +0000

On a customer's suggestion, I decided I would try to post details about what I'll be selling at the Sunday market. Hopefully in the future I'll be posting earlier than now. It's hard to fit in the posting with all the baking. Anyway, I'm actually finished (well, more or less) at a reasonable hour today, so I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep. I'm crossing my fingers for the weather. Current report says light rain tomorrow, but it also says that for today and it's completely clear right now. Maybe we'll get a rainy morning and a sunny afternoon.

Now, to the menu. For macarons, I'll have

chocolate
coconut
rhubarb
cardamon pistachio w/ rosewater buttercream
coffee

In tarts, I'll have

rhubarb meringue
chocolate pecan
asparagus/ feta puff pastry

I'll also have palmiers (if they turn out), pithiviers with coconut curd and rhubarb jam filling, and the usual kouign aman. There may be one other item if I get up the energy for it.

Lots of rhubarb this week, but it is rhubarb week at the market after all. And not much else is in season besides asparagus. Off to finish a few odds and ends. Looking forward to tomorrow.

rhubarb soda

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:29:00 +0000

I love when baking one recipe leads to something unexpected and perfect. For last week's market, I made some rhubarb flan tarts which required macerating the rhubarb for a couple of hours. After the maceration, I drained the rhubarb to get it ready for baking. I was left with a gorgeous pink syrup, a perfect blend of tart and sweet.

Luckily the weather has started to feel summery around here (except for today, which is wet and dreary), so it's a perfect time for a sweet, pink soda. Just pour some of the syrup in a glass, add club soda to taste and toss in some ice. This syrup would also make a great cocktail. I would have tried it with vodka, but sadly there is no vodka in my house at the moment. I suspect this would also be good with gin, but I tend to think everything will taste good with gin.

To get this syrup, I macerated one pound of rhubarb with 2/3 cup sugar. I drained the syrup off after two hours. Since this method uses a lot of rhubarb, it's probably not the best method if you only want syrup. But, if you are going to be baking with rhubarb anyway, I would recommend macerating the fruit first so you can get this delightful syrup. It really is perfection.

If you only want the syrup, then you can make it by combining equal parts water, sugar, and rhubarb (you can adjust the sugar for taste) and bringing the ingredients to a boil. Once at a boil, reduce to a simmer and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Let the syrup cool and then strain. This should work very well, but I suspect the uncooked version will have a stronger rhubarb taste (which may be a good or bad thing, depending on your perspective).

Market Day

noreply@blogger.com (lis) — Sun, 10 May 2009 23:24:00 +0000

Boy, am I tired. All week, I've been wondering to myself, what was I thinking? In addition to preparing for my first farmer's market, it was finals week in my other life as a teacher and reluctant PhD students, so I spent hours responding to students and taking a final. I also had a deadline for a freelance article (about Ottawa farmers' markets, so at least on a theme) that I completely procrastinated. All of this other work has meant that my baking got pushed to Friday/ Saturday, and mostly Saturday. Yesterday was a 16-hour day, leaving me with 4 1/2 hours of sleep. Will is out of town at a friend's wedding, so I had to do all of the loading, unloading, set-up by myself. Luckily I have nice booth neighbors who helped me set up my canopy which I couldn't manage on my own despite my best efforts.

The day was freezing and I feel like I spent most of the day going for more coffee and jumping up and down to keep myself from going numb. I thought the Ottawa winter had toughened me up, but this cold May day pretty much did me in. My feet are still freezing. It's 7:30 and I want to be asleep. But I made it through my first market day!

I didn't get my signage figured out, so I sort of felt like a lost soul in my little booth, and I didn't have time to print business cards, but I do think my display looked good. Those weeks of scouring flea markets and ebay for trays and cake stands paid off. A photographer took some pics of me and my table for Ontario tourism or some such, so I think that says good things about my aesthetics.

Because of the weather, the market was pretty slow. People kept telling me not to be discouraged. Maybe I just looked discouraged because I was so cold. Overall, I felt pretty good about the day. I didn't sell as much as I'd hoped, but I traded a bunch of stuff for honey from Berg En Dal (my neighbors), greens from Hoople Creek (they said I should move in with them so we can all live happily on pastries and greens) and spelt flour from Waratah Downs. Having extra tarts just means I don't have to wake up early tomorrow to bake for the coffee shop, so that makes me pretty happy. My macarons were probably the biggest hit. They are the one thing that seemed to get people to come to my booth from afar. I will probably end up making a lot more of those than I had originally planned. For today, I made four flavors: strawberry-rhubarb, maple-pecan, chocolate, and lemon. I also made three kinds of tarts (walnut, rhubarb meringue, and lemon chocolate), kouign aman (more on this one later), linzer cookies, apple turnovers, rhubarb anise tea cakes, and pate de fruit.

When I started on this baking adventure, it was because I had been laid off from my teaching position. I figured it was a good time to do something I'd always wanted to try. A few weeks ago, I found out that I'm not actually being laid off. So, now I just get to relax into the baking and enjoy my time at the market. I don't have to worry so much about how much money I'm making. For me, doing the market is really about learning. It's hard to justify baking excess in day to day life, so now I can bake whatever I want. It's sort of like my poor-man's culinary school.

Now that I've gotten this first week out of the way, hopefully I'll be back to regular posting. Off to sleep now.