Archive for the 'dessert' Category
Snow in May calls for a sweet, doughy consolation prize.
Eat your heart out Hef. Could there be anything sexier? This doughnut could be a cover model. Or a centrefold. Do they even have centrefolds anymore? It wouldn’t need any photoshopping, anyway.
Age has brought with it a certain persnicketiness in the doughnut department. At one time I would have been thrilled with Timbits, but I’ve become spoiled – if I’m going to eat a doughnut it might as well be a really fantastically great one. This is not to say I easily shun a box of coffee shop doughnuts should I discover one in my vicinity. Warm ones, made from scratch with real vanilla, are a little more difficult to resist. But why would you want to, when slush is falling from the sky and you’ve pulled out your woolly socks again?
I buy this vanilla bean paste from the Cookbook Company Cooks for applications such as this, where the flavour is predominant and the smooth glaze allows you to see the bitty black seeds. You could use actual vanilla beans too – I just find the paste a bit easier and more economical. Also – I used every last bean in my cupboard to (finally) make my own extract. So easy-I’ll fill you in soon.
Doughnuts from scratch is the sort of thing I generally reserve for company, for days when I know more mouths will be around to help me out, because leftovers (it could happen!) don’t age well.
It may be the sort of thing I’d make if I had a group of friends over to make peroghies! Remember when I put it out there? The suggestion to have a good old-fashioned peroghy bee? I was thinking it might be a suitable Food Revolution Day activity. It’s coming up fast – May 19th – but really, any longer than two weeks would be far too long to wait. So if you’re free to come make peroghies and nibble coffee and a pile of warm doughnuts that Saturday, leave a comment here!
Vanilla Bean Doughnuts
Adapted from Canadian Living
Sponge:
1 tsp. sugar
1 cup warm water
1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp.) active dry yeast
1 cup all-purpose flour
Dough:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla bean paste or good vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Vanilla Bean Icing:
2 cups icing sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla bean paste or good vanilla extract
canola oil (or another mild vegetable oil) for cooking
In large bowl, dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water; let stand until frothy, about 10 minutes. Stir in flour until you have a smooth paste. Cover with plastic wrap; let stand until bubbly and stretchy, about 30 minutes.
In large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, vanilla and salt, beat in sponge. Stir in flour until you have a sticky dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 6-8 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Place back in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and place in a warm place until tripled in bulk, about an hour and a half.
Punch the dough down and roll or pat it out about 1/2-inch thick. Using a 3-inch doughnut cutter or a round cutter and a smaller one for the hole, cut out doughnuts. Transfer doughnuts and holes to a baking sheet, cover and let rise for another hour, until doubled in bulk.
In a wide, shallow pot, heat 2 inches of oil until hot but not smoking. Cook a few doughnuts at a time for a couple minutes per side, turning as they turn a rich golden. Remove from the pot with a slotted spoon and set aside to drain on a wire rack or paper towels. Makes 1 1/2-2 dozen doughnuts.
Vanilla Icing: Whisk together all the ingredients, adding a little extra icing sugar or milk if needed to make a dippable/drizzlable consistency. Dip or drizzle over doughnuts while they’re still warm.
May 05 2012 | bread and breakfast and dessert and sweet stuff | 19 Comments »
This post could have been mighty impressive and star-studded, photo-wise – instead, I’m offering up some yumminess and asking that you use your imagination. Ready?
So this weekend, if you haven’t already heard, I made lunch for Darth Vader. I did!
For reals. Also – Sir Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard) and the entire cast of Star Trek-Next Generation, and on Sunday – Adam West! And his wife, both of whom were lovely.
Yes, I did in fact make lunch for Darth Vader AND Batman in one weekend, and yet my six year old boy is not sufficiently impressed with the fact that this is what his mom does when she goes to work. At least (very) occasionally – I should stress that this is not the norm.
(Although in past years I have cooked for Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner – some cook for kings, queens and presidents; I cook for captains of the Enterprise and miscellaneous sci-fi stars. Also on the list: Elvira, Tia Carrere and Max Headroom. Tired of the name-dropping yet? I’m not!)
I don’t have photos of myself with these stars of stage and screen because when they come back to the gold room for a rest and some lunch, it’s their downtime. I don’t want to disturb their break with yet another request for a photo and autograph when that’s what they’ve been doing all day, for people who have waited in line for hours. Sometimes they’re chatty – although rarely about the movies or shows that made them famous – and it’s fantastic to be able to sit and talk about Jarlsberg cheese and backyard gardening and how to grow lovage with Gil Gerard – Buck Rogers! – after all, they’re just people. Which is why I bring food – but never my camera.
I made these cheesecakes in a jar for the stars of the Calgary Expo this weekend – often they don’t want to take much time away from their panels or signing duties, and so I figured they’d be something tasty they could screw the lid on and take to go. Little unbaked cheesecakes in mason jars are popular on restaurant menus, and ridiculously easy to make.
Those small (125 mL) ring-top jars are perfect. I totally winged it. Although I’m sure graham crumbs straight-up would have been fine, I mixed mine with a little melted butter and sugar (1 Tbsp. each to 1 cup crumbs) and then pressed a spoonful into the bottom of each jar.
The filling is a package of cream cheese, beaten with cream and sugar until it’s smooth and fluffy and dollopable – I did 1 – 8 oz. pkg with 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2-3/4 cup whipping cream, although you could adjust each according to your taste. I added a big drop of vanilla too (vanilla bean paste, in fact – I love that you can see the seeds – they have it at the Cookbook Company in Calgary).
On top, some quickly stewed strawberries and rhubarb – both just chopped and simmered in a small pot with some sugar and a splash of lemon juice. You don’t have to worry about it turning into jam, just that it tastes good. Any fruit preserves would do well here, which means the little cheesecakes in jars you just mastered are perfect for any season of the year – and perfect for parties. Whether your friends have been on the Starship Enterprise or not.
May 01 2012 | cheese and dessert | 24 Comments »
I know, who makes blueberry perogies anymore? Nobody, that’s who.
And I never have either, until the subject of Alberta cuisine arose earlier this week – and while we’re known for our beef, bison, canola, and really a ton of other great ingredients, there are few dishes that get up and scream Alberta. But homemade perogies – they truly are the food of the prairies. And sure, you could stuff them with any number of potato-cheese-bacon-saurkraut combos, but I wanted to give berries a go – in fact, I suddenly felt as if it would be unpatriotic to not make them. And besides, I wanted to know if they’d translate well into little doughy two-bite pies of sorts. Browned butter, berries and sour cream-oh my.
Perogies fall into that category of foods hardly made from scratch anymore because there’s no need. At one time perogy bees were the social events of the season – the original social medium – wherein folks would gather to catch up, gossip, discuss politics and together solve the problem of how to feed their families. This is what girls did before Starbucks, I guess.
Multitasking is not new – at peroghy bees thousands of perogies could be assembled in an afternoon to feed families, raise funds, or in preparation for social events. I love the thought that at one time weddings didn’t have ginormous trade shows and magazines and everyone just got married in the church where they lived, and the community got together to make perogies and dainties to serve afterward. Is that just in my head, having grown up watching Little House on the Prairie? I loved that show. I so wanted to be Mary, except for the blind part.
This dough is one of many versions out there, and simple to mix together. The finished perigees were boiled, then scooped out of the pot with a slotted spoon and browned in a hot pan with butter until they were golden and crisp on both sides.
You don’t have to fill them with blueberries, of course, if you don’t want to – take the leftover mashed potatoes from dinner, add a handful of grated cheese, and set the kids at the kitchen table with an after-school project.
OR. Gather a few pals and bring back the bee. Which brings me to my idea. (Insert eye-roll via Mike.) I think it’s been too long since our last playdate, which was before Christmas, come to think of it. Should we have our own perogy bee? Should we? Should we?
I’ll make dough, and get some bubbly, everyone can bring a filling, and we’ll open the back door and let the spring air breeze in while we cover the house with dough and flour. And I’ll enlist Mike to clean-up duty with the promise of homemade peroghies with bacon, onions and sour cream.
And blueberry perogies for dessert.
Blueberry or Saskatoon Berry Perogies
adapted from Canadian Living
Dough:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
pinch salt
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
3/4 cup milk
1 large egg
1/3 cup water (approx)
Filling:
2/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 cups fresh or frozen (don’t thaw them) blueberries or saskatoon berries
butter, for cooking (optional)
sour cream or whipped cream, for serving
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl (or Pyrex measuring cup) stir together the butter, milk and egg; add to the flour mixture and stir until you have a dry, shaggy mixture. Add the water about a third at a time, until you have a soft, slightly sticky dough. Knead it about 10 times, then cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let rest on the countertop for 20 minutes.
To make the filling, stir together the sugar and flour; stir in the blueberries. On lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a scant 1/4-inch thickness. Using a 3-inch round cutter, cut into rounds. Stretch each round slightly; fill with a spoonful of the blueberry mixture, ensuring you get some of the sugar-flour in there as well.
Pull dough over filling into semicircle; pinch edges together to seal. Cover with tea towel. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Freeze in a single layer or cook immediately.
In large pot of lightly salted water, boil perogies in batches, until they float to the top and the dough is tender, about 10 minutes. With slotted spoon, transfer to dish; drizzle with butter to prevent sticking. If you like, brown the well-drained boiled perogies in a hot pan with butter until crisp and golden; dribble the remaining butter from the pan overtop. Serve with sour cream or whipped cream. Makes about 3 dozen peroghies.
April 25 2012 | breakfast and dessert and freezable | 42 Comments »
I know – I’m sure by now you’re all chocolated out, swimming through a fuzzy cheap chocolate hangover. (Or maybe that’s just me.) But. Stick this in your back pocket for a time when you’re not. When you need something decadent and creamy, or something to bring to the table that will provide an element of surprise – that triggers that hunting instinct that was so evident when W and his five cousins were set loose to sniff out sugary sweets this morning. It doesn’t have to be Easter to get a thrill out of tapping through the crackly shell of a creme brûlée only to discover a peanut butter cup suspended within its creamy innards. I should write Harlequin novels.
Unwrap a peanut butter cup and set it in the bottom of a ramekin. Do about five. Or four. Or six.
Whisk together egg yolks, sugar and cream. Easiest thing ever. Pour it overtop and bake in a water bath (this is totally not complicated – set the ramekins in a 9×13″ pan and pour water in to come halfway up their sides – this provides a gentle, even heat. Bake them until they’re set but still a tad jiggly in the middle. You’ll get a feel for this-creme brûlée is worth learning how to make.
Chill, then sprinkle with sugar. If you have a torch, use it. A broiler also works, but you risk scrambling your eggs; you could also cook sugar until it caramelizes, then pour it in a thin pool on top to harden. Or leave it off entirely and call it a pot de crème.
Dive in.
Peanut Butter Cup Crème Brulée
2 pkgs peanut butter cups
5 large egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy (whipping) cream or 18% coffee cream
1/2 tsp. good-quality vanilla
sugar, for sprinkling on top
Preheat oven to 325°F. Place a peanut butter cup into each of 4-6 small ramekins. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. Whisk in the cream and vanilla.
Pour into the ramekins, over the peanut butter cups, and place into a roasting pan or 9×13″ pan; pour water in so that the water comes about halfway up the sides of the ramekins. This will sort of insulate them so that they cook gently and evenly.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the custards are set but still just slightly jiggly in the middle (you’ll get a feel for this!). Take them out, let them cool and then refrigerate for a few hours or overnight, until nice and cold.
Sprinkle an even layer of sugar over each dish and caramelize with a torch. Refrigerate again, or just let them sit on the countertop while you eat dinner or make coffee, just until the sugar is set and crackly.
Serves 4-6.
April 08 2012 | dessert | 7 Comments »
If there’s anything I’ve learned from having a sore throat for a week, it’s this:
Note: The Liberté company had nothing to do with this post – it was all me and my tonsils.
March 06 2012 | dessert and freezable and snacks | 38 Comments »
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