Goodbye March!

You were a busy month. You whizzed right by me with almost no opportunity for me to bake. But it’s time for you to go now. April is knocking at the door and I see she’s bringing flour and eggs and baking pans.

But before you go, March, I wanted to thank you for bringing Beth Hensperger’s Bread for Breakfast with you. What an incredible book! Small, but worth every penny. Every recipe I tried was a pleasure and it’s so obvious that Ms. Hensperger is a lover of bread an an excellent teacher.

I had to try one more recipe, before I could let you take this book from me. Because dried apricots have always reminded me of little gems, I decided to try the Apricot, White Chocolate and Walnut Scones. Sure enough, out of the oven, the tiny pieces of apricot glimmered like jewels, surrounded by melty rings of white chocolate.

How I enjoyed these scones! Diets be damned, I piled them all high with butter and jam and made sure to lick my fingers when I was done.

So long, March. See you next year!

Ciao!

Technorati tags:  scones, dried apricots, beth hensperger, bread for breakfast

Beth Hensperger’s Bread for Breakfast has been the gift that keeps on giving in the Cream Puff household this month. I can’t believe this lovely cookbook sat on my shelf for years without being touched! What the heck was I waiting for?

Besides the Orange Bread that I made earlier in the month, I’ve made a number of other recipes including some incredible Glazed Orange Rolls and an unbelievable Oatmeal Cinnamon Swirl Bread. Each of these recipes has been easy to follow and with my recent experience with bread baking both in class and at home, I feel more and more confident trying bread recipes. Not that you need a lot of experience to try Hensperger’s recipes as they are simple and straightforward and use a lot of really wholesome ingredients, which is nice when you’re making baked goods for breakfast.

Yes. Even the Cream Puff likes to think of nutrition every once and a while.

The Oatmeal Cinnamon Swirl Bread involved making a very basic bread dough that had oatmeal in it. After an initial rise, the bread goes into the refrigerator to continue rising slowly overnight. In the morning, the dough is divided and rolled into two rectangles. A lovely filling of brown sugar, butter and cinnamon is spread over the dough and then both rectangles are rolled up to create the swirl pattern in the middle.

The bread baked up so beautifully in the oven! It was hard to resist the urge to just tear the hot bread apart and devour it. But I managed to do that long enough so that my family would have a chance to try the bread. It was incredible!

I didn’t change the recipe at all so I won’t post that one, but if you’re interested you really should take a look at the book as I can’t imagine a better book on simple breads for the home baker.

Spurred on by my success and with a massive craving for macadamia nuts, I decided to try a recipe for Giant Macadamia Rolls.

They were so good tried them several times and had the opportunity to tweak the recipe a bit. Like most of the other breads in the book the recipe involves putting together a basic dough recipe and giving it time to rise. The star of the show here is the macadamia filling. The original recipe calls for a brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, macadamia nut and raisin filling.

I added a bit of nutmeg for more depth in the flavour of the filling. The other change I made is to the glaze, which I found needed a bit more orange flavour so I added lots of orange zest.

Whether you’re experienced with bread or not, I really do hope you try this one.

Ciao!

Macadamia Nut Rolls with Orange Glaze

Adapted from Bread for Breakfast by Beth Hensperger.

Note:  You can easily enjoy these for breakfast all that’s required is that you get up earlier than usual but it’s worth it. If you prefer, you can use lemon juice and lemon zest in the glaze. Also, try these with walnuts! These rolls are best served warm, but you can also serve them at room temperature. Wrap any uneaten rolls in plastic wrap and refrigerate. You can reheat them before eating.

For the rolls:

• 2 tbsp. active dry yeast
• pinch of sugar
• 1 cup warm water (warm to the touch)
• 1-1/2 cups buttermilk (also warm to the touch)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tbsp. salt
• 6-1/2 to 7 cups all purpose flour (preferably unbleached)
• 4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1. Combine the yeast, sugar and water in a bowl and stir. Let sit for about 10 minutes until foamy.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the buttermilk, brown sugar, eggs, salt and 3 cups of the flour. Mix on low speed until combined (about 2 minutes).
3. Add the yeast mixture and the butter to the batter and mix on low speed for another 2 minutes.
4. With the mixer on low speed, begin adding the rest of the flour, a half cup at a time. You want to add enough flour so that a ball of dough that does not stick to the sides of the bowl forms. As soon as this happens, your dough is ready. I found that 6 to 6-1/2 cups of flour is usually enough.
5. Remove the dough from the mixer and place it on a floured work surface.
6. Knead the dough by hind until you can form a ball that is relatively smooth. If the dough is sticky, continue kneading and adding any remaining flour a little bit at a time (but do not add more than the 7 cups).
7. Once the dough is ready, place it in a greased bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and place it in a warm place to rise for about an hour and a half (or until the dough has roughly doubled in size).

For the filling:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)
• 5 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

1. Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, nuts and raisins (if using) in a bowl.
2. Turn the risen dough out onto a work surface and roll into a rectangle that is roughly 14 by 20 inches.
3. Brush the dough with the melted butter.
4. Sprinkle the sugar and nut mixture over the dough, being sure to leave a one-inch border all the way around.
5. Starting at one long end, roll the dough up jelly roll style. Using a sharp knife, slice the roll into 16 or 18 equal rounds, depending on how thick you want your rolls.
6. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and divide the rounds between the baking sheets. Make sure the rolls aren’t too close together.
7. Cover the trays loosely with plastic wrap and let the rolls rise for an additional 45 minutes.
8. About 20 minutes before the rolls are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
9. Bake the rolls for about 20 minutes, rotating the trays halfway through baking. When the rolls are done, they will be golden on the bottom and on the top. If you cut one open, it should be completely baked through.
10. Remove from the oven and prepare the glaze.

For the glaze:

• 5 tbsp. butter, softened
• 2 cups icing sugar, sifted
• 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 1/4 cup orange juice (preferably freshly squeezed)
• 2 tsp. orange zest, finely grated

1. In the bowl of the electric mixer, combine all the ingredients and mix until you have a smooth glaze that isn’t too thick or too runny. If it’s too thick, thin with a bit of milk or orange juice. If too thin, then thicken with a bit more icing sugar.
2. Once the rolls are out of the oven, let them cool for about 10 minutes then spread some glaze over each roll.
3. Enjoy!

Technorati tags:  bread, macadamia nuts

When my brother and I were children, we lived in a one television household. As horrifying as this may seem nowadays, it actually worked out quite well as the family enjoyed the viewing pleasure of Italian news programs, the Muppets, hockey and Sesame Street.

Television life, in general, was good.

Of course every now and then, the television gods would throw us a curve ball. For my brother and I, that came in the form of the "old movie". Being children, this meant anything that was in black and white, involved cowboys or - the horror of all horrors - had subtitles.

Shudder!

For the children in my family, Gone With the Wind was considered to be by far the worst old movie. This was due entirely to the fact that it was soooooooo loooooooong. Being allowed to watch television for only an hour a day at most meant that having the television monopolized by a movie that was over four hours in length seemed grossly unfair. Yet despite our most heart-rending pleas to forsake the movie in favour of Kermit and Miss Piggy, the answer was always the same. Gone With the Wind is on. We’re watching. Deal with it.

Sigh.

So, right around my eleventh year, I finally decided that if you can’t beat ‘em, you might as well join ‘em. I sat my glum self down resigned to a night of hoop skirts and Southern accents. But as often happens in life, all it takes is a single moment to change your outlook forever. After one brief glimpse of Scarlett O’Hara flouncing around in yards and yards of beautiful material, with that floppy hat on her head and all those Southern boys clamouring for her attention, I felt transformed. In that brief moment I knew that my destiny was to be a Southern belle.

Try explaining that one to your Italian family. It became clear, very quickly, that a corset and big hat with a bow weren’t in my near future.

I fell in line comforting myself with the fact that my mother’s side of the family being from Southern Italy meant that I was already a Southern belle … of sorts. Of course my "Southern belleness" came with garlic, tomato sauce and kerchiefs wrapped around the head.

As time went by, I became resigned to the fact that the Old South just wasn’t in the cards for me. That is until I read an article about New York’s Magnolia Bakery and the famous Red Velvet Cake. I’d never heard of this dessert before and so knew little about its origins. But as I read more about it, it became apparent that the ubiquitous Red Velvet Cake may have been born in the Southern states. I’m not sure why, but I attached myself to this speculation like Scarlett grabbing on to a new dress.

Red Velvet Cake gets its name (as you may have already guessed) from the deep red colour of the cake’s crumb. While there is much arguing over how the cake gets its colour (some think it has to do with the reaction between the cocoa and the buttermilk that some recipes call for), the fact is that most of these cakes are red thanks to the use of red food colouring. Some sources indicate that when Red Velvet Cake was first made, cooks would have used beets to colour the batter.

In pursuit of this cake, my first idea was to go to New York and visit the famed Magnolia Bakery and of course try some Red Velvet Cake. Well the trip to New York hasn’t quite happened yet. So I finally decided that it was time for me to make it myself and take one step closer to claiming my rightful place as a Southern belle.

Happily, Red Velvet Cake was accepted as the challenge for the month of March by the Daring Bakers. For those of you that are familiar with our baking group, the Daring Bakers was started by Lisa and myself back in November 2006 when we decided we’d try our hand at pretzels. Since then, we’ve been joined by more and more bakers each month. In addition to Brilynn, Helene, Peabody, Jenny, Veronica, Hester, Mary and Tanna, we are joined this month by Freya of Writing at the Kitchen Table, Jen of The Canadian Baker, Morven of Food Art and Random Thoughts, Pat of Feeding My Enthusiasms, Mary of The Sour Dough and Valentina of Trembom in English.

And for this month’s challenge, the cherry on the sundae has been the beautiful logo designed for us by none other than Ximena of Lobstersquad. If you haven’t already been enjoying Ximena’s delightful illustrations, then you should be ashamed of yourselves! Especially since her blog is one of the most well-written and witty sites out there. Ximena, the Daring Bakers thank you. (I wonder how well Red Velvet Cake would hold up if mailed to Spain???)

Unlike previous challenges, we had a difficult time deciding on which recipe to use so we all tried the recipe that we preferred. I chose (of course) to try the recipe from More from Magnolia. Making the cake couldn’t have been simpler as this is a very standard cake that uses butter, flour, sugar, eggs, baking soda, salt and buttermilk. While I rarely use food colouring in baking, it was fascinating watching as the batter went from a creamy colour to a deep red. I’ll admit, my inner Southern child was quite delighted.

Because I wanted to bring this cake to a function I was attending, I decided to make cupcakes as they are easier to transport (for me) than a three-layer iced cake. The cupcakes baked beautifully and while the colour lightened slightly, they still remained a deep red. To adorn my beautiful red cupcakes I made the Creamy Vanilla Frosting, also from More From Magnolia. But being Southern, I just had to make sure that my cupcakes would be the most beautiful girls at the ball so I reserved some icing and used a few drops of red food colouring to tint it a lovely pinkish colour. I whipped out the piping bag and dolled my little cakes up.

The cupcakes were very good. They had a strong cocoa flavour but they were not at all heavy. The frosting was also just right for these cupcakes as they cake itself is was not overly sweet so it’s a good base for the frosting. And they were just so pretty to look at!

Now if only I could find my bonnet and parasol, I’d take my little cupcakes out for a walk and bask in the glow!

Ciao!

Note:  This was the first time that I made this cake so I did not adapt the recipe in any way hence I’m not posting it. However, More From Magnolia is a lovely baking book so I do recommend it. It has a number of delicious recipes (besides Red Velvet Cake) so its worth it if you’re looking for a cookbook on sweets. I followed the standard recipe and then baked it in two muffin tins which yielded 24 cupcakes in total.

Take a look at what the other Daring Bakers did with their Red Velvet Cakes:

Lisa:  The Cake That Had Me Seeing Red …

Brilynn:  Well it Certainly is Red

Helene:  Red Velvet Cakes …

Peabody:  Don’t Wear White When Eating This…

Jenny:  Exploring the Red Velvet

Veronica:  A Daring Cake for Daring Bakers

Hester:  March Challenge:  Red Velvet Cake

Mary:  Red Velvet Cake

Tanna:  Yes, It’s Really RED

Freya:  Introducing … The Daring Bakers!

Jen:  Daring Bakers March Challenge - Red Velvet Cake

Morven:  Daring Bakers Do Dallas

Pat:  Post not up yet.

Mary:  A Tale of Two Red Velvet Cakes and Sixteen Daring Bakers

Valentina:  Despite the Last Minute Rush, A Beautiful Recipe

Technorati tags:  daring bakers, red velvet cake, cake, magnolia bakery

It has been a beautiful Sunday.

After too many weekends spent at work, I find myself returning to the routine of the Sundays that I love. Late mornings, the newspaper, coffee, catching up with my mother, time with my cookbooks and most importantly, food.

Today was an especially beautiful Sunday thanks to the sunny skies and the incredible dinner we enjoyed at Oyster Boy for a belated celebration of my mother’s birthday.

But what made it most beautiful was the pizza. I was supposed to make this pizza for an article for Paper Palate covering the March issue of Bon Appétit magazine. I’m behind with my Paper Palate writing (my apologies to Andrew), but I’ll catch up. In the meantime, if you can still find the March issue of Bon Appétit than do pick it up as it’s a good one.

Of particular interest is the basic pizza dough recipe from Giada De Laurentiis. We have a family pizza dough recipe that is our standard, however, I’m always game to try a new one. Giada’s recipe is very easy and quick to make. I mixed it all by hand but you can use a food processor as the original recipe indicates. Also, there’s only one hour of rising time required before you shape your pizza and bake it. That means you could come home from work, start your pizza and serve it with dinner an hour and a half later. Not bad.

I tried the three-cheese pizza recipe also included in the issue and judging by how quickly it went, it’s a good one.

Enjoy what’s left of Sunday and have a wonderful week!

Ciao!

Three-Cheese and Mushroom Pizza

Adapted from the March 2007 issue of Bon Appétit magazine.

Note:  Here’s the original pizza dough recipe and the recipe for the Three-Cheese Pizza with Pancetta and Mushroom Pizza. I omitted the pancetta and made my own marinara sauce.

• 1 batch of pizza dough
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1-1/2 cups tomato puree
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup fontina cheese, grated
• 1 cup mozzarella, grated
• 1/2 cup parmigiano reggiano, grated
• 1/2 cup mushrooms, thinly sliced
• handful of basil leaves, torn

1. In a saucepan, heat the olive oil and add the onions, garlic and red pepper flakes.
2. Saute over medium heat until the onions and garlic soften, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the tomato puree and bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Simmer the sauce until it has thickened slightly, about 5 minutes.
5. Remove the sauce from the heat and let cool for about 10 minutes.
6. While the sauce is cooling, preheat your oven to 475 degrees F.
7. Divide the pizza dough into two and shape each half into a rectangle that’s roughly about 13 x 8 inches. The dough will be very thin. Transfer the dough to two baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
8. Divide the sauce between the two pizzas spreading it evenly but leaving a border of about an inch all the way around.
9. Sprinkle the fontina, mozzarella and parmigiano reggiano evenly over the two pizzas.
10. Sprinkle the mushrooms evenly over the cheese.
11. Divide the torn basil and sprinkle evenly over the two pizzas.
12. Bake the pizzas for about 20 minutes, or until they are golden brown and the cheese has melted and is very bubbly.
13. Remove from the oven and let the pizzas cool for a minute or two before slicing and serving.
14. Enjoy!

Technorati tags:  pizza, marinara sauce, giada de laurentiis

I blame Mary.

I was doing alright. I was dealing with the fact that work has kept me out of the kitchen and away from my beloved baking. I was coping.

And then I saw Mary’s Almond Apple Bars and broke down. And it wasn’t graceful either. It was a temper tantrum worthy of any five-year-old anywhere.

"I want my baking!!!"

You see nothing gets to me more than baked goods with apples in them. For me, they are the epitome of comfort. To this day, my mother’s warm freshly baked apple pie is my very favourite baked thing in the world. So to see Mary’s delicious Almond Apple Bars was more than I could take.

I didn’t get home from work until past 11:00. I was exhausted, delirious, bleary-eyed and battling a headache that I’d had all-day long. And yet into the kitchen I went with my copy of Bread for Breakfast, my Flavour of the Month, which I flipped open to the recipe for Oatmeal Applesauce Bread.

What could possibly make you feel better than oatmeal and applesauce married in a beautiful, golden loaf? It took me about ten minutes to put this bread together. I threw in some orange for good measure.

And in the early hours of the morning, as I watched butter melt on a warm slice of this beautiful bread, I felt a little bit better.

Ciao!

Orange Oatmeal Applesauce Bread

Adapted from Bread for Breakfast by Beth Hensperger.

Note:  Bake this loaf in a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. I use homemade applesauce when I make this bread but store-bought is fine. Just make sure that it’s unsweetened or your bread will be too sweet. The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup of chopped dried apples to be added but you don’t need them. I’ve been wanting to try the bread with dried apricots but haven’t had the chance. This bread has a lovely crumb filling and topping that is worth the extra effort.

• 1-1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
• 1/2 cup firmly-packed brown sugar
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 tbsp. orange zest
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1-1/4 cups applesauce (unsweetened)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/3 cup pecans
• 4 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. orange zest

1. Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
3. In a bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (flour, rolled oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange zest, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
4. In another bowl, mix all the wet ingredients (applesauce, oil, eggs and buttermilk).
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Don’t over mix. Let the batter sit while you make the crumb filling and topping.
6. By hand or in a food processor, chop the pecans until they are very fine. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon and orange zest and mix well.
7. Spread half the batter in your prepared pan. Sprinkle half the crumb topping over the batter. Spread the remaining batter over the crumb topping and finish the cake by sprinkling the rest of the crumb topping over the batter.
8. Bake the bread for 55 minutes and check for doneness by inserting a cake tester or toothpick in the centre of the bread. If it comes out clean, the bread is done. If not, bake for an additional 5 minutes and test again. In my oven this cake took 55 minutes.
9. Enjoy!

Technorati tags:  oatmeal, applesauce, bread

I’ve often heard people say that their least favourite months of the year are November and February. Myself, I’ve always had a challenge with March. Granted there are some highlights like my mother’s birthday and the gentle promise of spring, but overall, for me it’s always a bit of a tricky month to get through.

When it came time to choose the Flavour of the Month, I knew that it would have to be somthing comforting. Almost immediately my eyes fell on Beth Hensperger’s Bread for Breakfast. This charming book has sat on my bookshelf for quite some time, unused and neglected. I took the book down and within a few moment, I knew that I’d found the cookbook that I wanted to focus on in March.

Beth Hensperger is an accomplished writer and cookbook author. She’s probably best known for her cookbook The Bread Bible, which won a James Beard Award. I own several of Hensperger’s cookbooks and have always enjoyed them. While I haven’t tried a lot of recipes, the ones that I have tried have always been successful.

I chose this particular cookbook because it’s full of the sort of recipes I imagine myself enjoying on lazy mornings when I have lots of time to sit and enjoy my coffee. Since March is typically a month where I almost never have the time to do this, I figured I might as well live vicariously through Hensperger’s book.

Unbelievably, it’s already March 12th so I suppose it’s time to get down to business. I’ve mentioned before how I often have trouble eating all the bananas I buy and I found myself in a similar position with some oranges. I’d bought some last week with the intention of enjoying one every day but suddenly found myself with a basket full of uneaten oranges. Flipping through Bread for Breakfast, I found myself drawn to a recipe for Orange Bread. Not only would I be able to use some of the beautiful oranges I bought, but I’d get to knead bread dough, always a blissful experience.

This particular bread is an excellent one, especially for someone who is just starting out baking bread. While the dough can easily be made in a mixer, it can just as easily be made by hand. The ingredients are few (yeast, flour, milk, orange juice and zest, melted butter and egg) and the time it takes to make the bread is relatively short. After letting the yeast bloom for about ten minutes, another ten or fifteen minutes of mixing results in a lovely dough. An initial rise of one and a half hours is followed by the shaping of the dough. The recipe doesn’t require bread pans, you can simply shape the dough into two round loaves. Another forty five minutes of rising time is followed by about forty minutes in the oven.

The end result is two wonderfully fragrant and golden loaves. We especially loved the bread toasted with butter and jam. Because I only tried this recipe once, I won’t post the recipe since I didn’t adapt it in any way, but I’m already looking forward to trying many of the other recipes in Bread for Breakfast.

Work has kept me out of the kitchen for too long. This beautiful Orange Bread was the perfect welcome back!

Ciao!

Technorati tags:  bread, orange

It’s time to summarize the last two weeks of my Art of Pies course at George Brown’s culinary school. The Week 5 menu featured Key Lime Pie and Sun Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Quiche. Unfortunately, the Cream Puff was under the weather and had to miss that class.

So sad! But not to worry, we shall make quiche another day! In the meantime, Cream Puff recovered and made it to the sixth and final class.

On the menu for Week 6:  Pecan Pie and Butter Tarts.

We began class by preparing the dough that we would use for both our pecan pie and butter tarts. Unlike the other doughs we made in this class that always used bread flour, this particular pie dough also used pastry flour. In addition to the bread and pastry flours, we added butter, cold water, egg and salt.

The addition of the pastry flour made this a slightly more delicate pie dough than the others. It was tender and flaky and had an amazing flavour. I think I liked the pie dough even more than the filling and I will most definitely be trying this dough at home.

The filling for our pecan pie and butter tart was the same. The idea was to create a filling that we could use for many different purposes and we certainly came up with a very versatile filling. It consisted of brown sugar, corn syrup, pure maple syrup, cornstarch, vanilla extract, salt, butter, eggs, pecans and raisins. We made the filling by combining all the ingredients in a mixer except for the eggs. We added the eggs at the end, on low speed, being careful not to over whip. You want a mixture that’s dense and not too fluffy. Beating too much air into the mixture won’t give your baked product the same dense consistency that you expect in a pecan pie or butter tarts.

We baked our pies in standard 9-inch pans but for the butter tarts, we used individual foil tartlet pans, which I loved. I’ve always made butter tarts in muffin tins, but I found that using the tartlet pans allowed me to make larger butter tarts and also to play with the crust decoration. That’s not easy to do when your tarts are in a muffin tin.

While I felt the instructor over baked our pecan pies slightly (unfortunately I don’t have a picture), the butter tarts were incredible. I especially enjoyed the flavour imparted by the pure maple syrup. I’ve never used maple syrup in my butter tart filling and I think I’m definitely going to give it a try at home. The flavourful crust was the perfect compliment to the sweet, gooey filling.

At six weeks, this was a relatively short course compared to some of the others that I’ve taken. While I wasn’t impressed with every pie we made, I did enjoy the time we spent focusing on making dough. I picked up some great variations for pie dough recipes and I’m looking forward to trying them at home. And once again the work in class showed that good pie dough does not have to be an elusive accomplishment. It’s very easy to make excellent pie dough at home with your own two hands!

The course also helped to encourage our creativity when it comes to pie fillings. Don’t get me wrong, I love me my fruit pies. But there are so many things you can do to fill a pie that I’m looking forward to experimenting a bit.

My personal favourite was the Boston Cream Pie (which I don’t even think is a pie at all). I’d have to say the Butter Tarts came in a close second. Our instructor was fantastic and overall, the class environment was a calm one where everyone worked well together. As I’ve mentioned in past posts on baking class, I’ve been in some courses where I felt I was competing in Gordon Ramsey’s kitchen! It was a pleasure to go to class and be able to focus on baking, rather than staking my claim to the flour bin.

I have a month off before I begin my next course, but stay tuned. Cream Puff’s school adventures will continue!

Ciao!

I miss my blog.

It seems that I’ve been at work more than I’ve been anywhere else lately. In the midst of it all, time and time again I find find my thoughts turning to my blog and to blogging in general. What have my favourite bloggers been writing about? What’s new in blog world? Has anyone been eating cream puffs in Venice?

It’s at these times that I realize what an integral part of my life this blog has become. And no matter how long I’ve been blogging, I’m always a bit taken aback by that. It’s always a bit of a surprise that this little bit of web space has come to mean so much to me.

Whenever I find myself away from the kitchen for an extended period of time, the urge to bake becomes almost unbearable. And it’s at these times that I want to do nothing more than bake cookies. More than any other product of the kitchen, cookies own me. There’s something about a cookie that’s so perfect. A cookie is a story all unto itself.

No surprise then that for two nights last week I stole away to the kitchen and baked cookies into the wee hours of the morning. The reason for this labour of love was a fundraiser held by my cousin for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. I prepared a cookie tray that was part of the silent auction (and I’d like to thank my dear friends M and M for submitting the highest bid!) so I used the opportunity to bask in the kitchen’s glow.

My cookie friends were all there. The Brandied Eggnog Cookies that never fail to disappoint. I made some new friends with the Lemon Pistachio Cookies and the Rum Raisin Sandwich Cookies that I met. But the friends that I especially enjoyed making were the Walnut-Apricot Jam Thumbprint Cookies. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I adore thumbprint cookies. I love sinking my thumb into a soft, buttery dough and feeling it yield. Bliss!

I won’t lie to you. Last week’s late night adventures in cookie-booking exhausted me. And I’m still tired. But it was so worth it! Those little cookies will sustain me until I can return to the kitchen … and to my home away from home … this blog!

Ciao!

Walnut-Apricot Jam Thumbprint Cookies

Adapted from Baking:  From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Note:  Another winner from the brilliant book by Dorie Greenspan. I swear everything in this book is so impressive. The original recipe for these jam thumbprint cookies uses hazelnuts in the dough and raspberry jam for the filling. I chose to try one of the variations with walnuts and apricots. I experimented and added more walnuts and just loved the texture of the cookie. I also added some ginger to the apricot jam for a bit of a kick. But be careful no to use too much! You should get between 40 and 50 cookies (depending on how big you make them).

• 2 cups walnuts, finely ground
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup + 1 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• icing sugar for dusting
• apricot jam (about a cup)
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and place a rack in the centre of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Mix the ground walnuts and the flour; set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for about 30 seconds until creamy. Add the sugar and beat on medium speed until fluffy (3 to 4 minutes).
4. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine.
5. With the mixer on low speed, add the walnut/flour mixture, a tablespoon at a time, until it is all incorporated.
6. Refrigerate the dough for 10 minutes.
7. After 10 minutes, remove the dough and begin forming balls using about a teaspoonful of dough. Place the balls of dough on a baking sheet and using your thumb (or any finger you like!) make a deep indentation in each ball of dough. Don’t break through the bottom of the dough.
8. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for about 16 minutes. The cookies will be slightly golden around the edges and on the bottom.
9. Remove the cookies and let them sit on the tray for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
10. Once cool, dust the cookies liberally with icing sugar.
11. In a small pot, heat the apricot jam and ginger (if using) until it starts to bubble. Remove from the heat and using a teaspoon to fill each cookie with the jam.
12. Let the jam cool completely before serving the cookies.
13. Enjoy!

Technorati tags:  thumbprint cookies, dorie greenspan, cookies, jam

If you’ve been wondering where the Cream Puff has been for the last week, she has been in the thick of battle with Workasaurus, the beast that has reared its ugly head once again. Long days and long nights have resulted in not much time for food blogging.

The. Horror.

But Mother Nature smiled upon me today with the most unbelievably beautiful snowstorm. Well … beautiful if you didn’t have to drive in it as I did. But I made it home and I have settled down for the evening and am finally ready to talk to you about the final days of my trip to Berlin, Prague and Vienna.

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been more than two months since I returned. I tried many times to write about the last four days that I spent in Vienna, but every time I sat down to do so, the words wouldn’t come. I don’t think I was quite ready to share those memories. I think I wanted to keep them to myself for just a bit longer.

Very selfish, I know.

We left Prague on a rainy Friday morning, bound for the city that I’d dreamed of visiting for so long. Our little group was uncharacteristically quiet on the bus as people caught up on some much-needed rest. I spent a lot of time just watching the Czech landscape as it went by, wondering when I would have the next opportunity to visit that beautiful country.

By early evening, we found ourselves pulling up to a hotel just outside of Vienna’s city centre. After a short rest, we hopped back on the bus for the drive downtown for our very first glimpse of the heart of Vienna.

In all my days, I don’t think I could have ever imagined a more breathtaking site.

Imagine a city by night, lit by millions of tiny lights, filled with people strolling from one bustling Christmas market to another. Imagine a pianist at a grand piano, in the middle of a wide boulevard, surrounded by Christmas decorations and people. Imagine more pastry shops than you’ve ever seen in your life, all decked out to the nines, with some of the most elaborate Christmas displays anywhere.

If you can imagine this, you can begin to understand what we experienced that first night.

We took an unbelievable ride around the Ringstrasse, the track that runs all the way around Vienna’s city centre, enclosing it the way a ring encloses a precious jewel. It was almost impossible to focus as to our right and left there were so many incredible sights to see:  the Christmas markets, the twin museums, the statues, the Parliament building, the Royal Palace … I could go on and on and on.

Returning to the hotel that evening, I found it difficult to sleep as I tried to let it all sink in. I was actually in Vienna! I had finally had my first glimpse of the city’s treasures. And very soon, Vienna’s pastries would be mine!

The following morning, we began our first full day in Vienna by visiting the Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral). Interestingly, I never imagined that Vienna was graced with so many beautiful churches but it is. St. Stephen’s Cathedral is truly a majestic site. It is the most recognized church in Austria and to walk inside is to be immediately surrounded my a deep sense of history and importance. It is not to be missed if you are ever in Vienna.

From St. Stephen’s we walked by a number of the city’s greatest landmarks. The Viennese are a people of music and it shows in their opera house, the Wiener Staatsoper. As with so many European landmarks, it sustained damage during the second world war, but it has been beautifully restored. The opera company is one of the most famous in the world and tickets are hard to come by. I didn’t have the time (nor did I plan in advance) to see an opera, but should I ever return to Vienna, that will be high on my list of things to do!

We walked by what became one of my favourite sites in Vienna, the twin museums, both of which opened in 1889. The Naturhistorisches Museum (Museum of Natural History) and the Kunsthistoriches Museum (Museum of Art History) are mirrors of each other. On the outside, the buildings are stunning, especially when you realize that they are exact copies of each other. Think of the work that such a feat would require! Would we ever see anything like that today in our "modern" cities? I can’t imagine that we would.

And however incredible they are on the outside, they are even more so on the inside. Both museums are world-renowned. While I did not have the chance to visit both of them, I did visit the Kunsthistoriches Museum. I spent several hours marveling at the stunning collections! Unbelievably, a large part of the museum’s pieces came from the personal collection of the Habsburgs, Austria’s royal family.

In between the two museums sits what was perhaps my favourite landmark in all of Austria, a majestic statue of Maria Theresa, Austria’s grand empress. Mother of 16 children, she is a beloved figure in Austrian history and the statue dedicated to her in the Maria-Theresien-Platz is incredible. Completed in 1888, the monument features Maria Theresa atop a throne, flanked on all sides by her children. The monument became my favourite landmark and whenever I felt myself a bit lost, I always looked for Maria Theresa and immediately knew where I was.

After Maria Theresa, there’s no question that the monument most people wanted to see was the statue of Mozart. Vienna celebrated Mozart’s 250th birthday in 2006 in grand fashion. The Viennese organized a year of festivities to mark the occasion. While I’d obviously heard of Mozart and was familiar with his music, I was surprised to learn that he was not truly embraced as a brilliant talent until after his death in 1791. The statue of Mozart is hard to miss. There’s an enormous treble clef designed in the lawn in front of the statue, not to mention constant crowds of people!

Our free time was spent shopping and trying to cram in as many sites as possible. If you’ve got the Euros to spend, Vienna is the place to spend them. The shopping is incredible and I was particularly impressed by the number of shops that sold local items. My favourite store had to be Babette’s, a charming little cafe/bookstore named after the title character of the movie Babette’s Feast. While I only had an hour or so to spend in there, I could have stayed there for days looking at all the lovely volumes of cookbooks and sipping some glorious Viennese coffee.

Very close to Babette’s is perhaps Vienna’s greatest shopping attraction (if you’re a food blogger), the Naschmarkt. It’s like being in foodie heaven! You can find everything from the most beautiful fresh vegetables and produce, herbs, spices, alcohol, specialty food products … the list goes on. Walking through the Naschmarkt, I couldn’t help but think that if I were one of the people that lived nearby, I’d be there all the time!

As you might have suspected, though, the sites that I was most interested in were those of the pastry variety. Is there any place on earth with more pastry shops? It seemed like every street corner had another cozy little place just calling out to me. I was especially impressed by the quality of pastries available at all of them. I made sure to stop into several locations of the popular chain, Aida. This "chain" of pastry shops put what we refer to as chain shops or franchises here in North America to absolute shame. The quality of the  pastries and coffee available were beyond belief!

I had it on good authority that the pastry shop currently favoured by the Viennese is Kurkonditorei Oberlaa Wein. Also a chain of pastry shops with at least five or six locations, this was my favourite place to breakfast. The coffee was incredible and the pastries made me weep. Literally. Plus it was such a pleasure to see all of the lovely Christmas treats for sale.

Of course, I also had to visit what are likely the two most famous pastry destinations in Vienna:  the Hotel Sacher and Demel. While I didn’t try the pastries at the Hotel Sacher, I did stop in to buy some of the famous Sachertorte (to bring home as a treat) as well as the cookbook, The New Sacher Cookbook. I almost fainted when I saw the bill for these two items. The hotel is very expensive, but still worth a visit.

I also made sure to take time to visit the beautiful Demel. Like the Hotel Sacher, it was very expensive and I didn’t really feel that the sweets that I bought there were any superior to those at Oberlaa. But there’s no question that Demel is a place of beauty. And the glassed in kitchen where you can watch the pastry chefs working their magic is a definite treat!

This is how I spent my time in Vienna, wandering from pastry shop to pastry shop, making sure to visit as many of the historical sites as I could in between. On my final day in Vienna, I decided to visit the Schonbrunn Palace, the summer residence of Austria’s royal family. A few members of our tour group who had stayed behind in Vienna and myself made our way to the outskirts of the city to visit this stunning site. The palace has been beautifully preserved and the grounds are a sight to behold. I can only imagine how beautiful they are in summer.

As we stood on a hill in the gardens, overlooking the palace, we stayed silent as dusk slowly began to settle. It was a fitting way to look back on my time in Vienna and the fulfillment of one of my dreams.

I have so many people to thank for their advice. First among them is my dearest Angelika of The Flying Apple. On my second last night in Vienna, Angelika met me at my hotel and we had a lovely time strolling around before heading to dinner at a restaurant called Plachutta, which is famous for its Tafelspitz, a traditional Austrian dish of boiled beef served with various side dishes including potatoes. Besides the fact that I was in heaven thanks to the incredible meal Angelika treated me to, I was doubly in heaven because I finally got to meet in person someone whom I have come to know and respect immensely. I got to hear firsthand about her plans to open a cozy restaurant in her own home. In fact, I even got hired to be her special helper next time I’m in Vienna! How about that!!! I have a very special thank you coming for Angelika, which I’ll share with you in the next few weeks, but until then, I just had to take this opportunity to thank her friendship and incredible generosity.

I’d also like to thank Karen of the blog Bake My Day. Having visited Vienna, she sent me a number of useful tips including a link to Chubby Hubby’s incredible guide to Vienna. If you’re planning a trip there, I highly recommend that you print out the information in his guide. It’s invaluable.

And finally, I owe a huge thank you to a gentleman by the name of Franz. As I mentioned to him in several e-mails, he should be writing guide books to Vienna as he singlehandedly provided me with all sorts of information ranging from transportation to food to entertainment. Danke, Franz!

To everyone that left me comments about Berlin, Prague and Vienna with suggestions of places to see (and eat), I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

For those of you interested, you can take a look at the album of photos that I put together.

As a token of my appreciation and as a way to fight off the cold on this raging winter night, I’ve prepared a dish from one of the cookbooks that I purchased at Babette’s. Called Culinary Austria, it’s a book that covers many of Austria’s most famous dishes. This particular dessert is a sort of baked pudding with crepes filled with cheese. It seems that the original recipe would have called for curd cheese, but not having that at my disposal, I used ricotta. In German it’s called Topfenpalatschinken.

Like Vienna, it’s divine and delicious!

Ciao!

Baked Crepe Pudding

Adapted from Culinary Austria.

Note:  The recipe may seem long and complicated but it’s really not. The "hardest" part is making the crepes and that’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. This is the perfect dish for a cold winter night. You can make this the day before serving and simply reheat it in a 325 degree F. oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until it’s warmed through. Leftovers should be refrigerated. 

For the crepes:

• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• pinch of salt
• 250 ml. whole milk
• melted butter for the pan

1. Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl with a whisk. Mix until you have a smooth batter with no lumps. Set the batter aside to rest for 30 minutes.
2. Brush a bit of melted butter in your crepe pan (I use a small frying pan) and place over high heat. Once the pan is very hot, pour a bit of batter into the pan and swirl it around so that it forms a crepe in the pan. Depending on the size of your pan you’ll have to adjust the amount of batter you pour in.
3. Cook the crepe for a minute or two, until golden and then with a fork or spatula, gently flip the crepe over to cook on the other side. Once cooked, transfer the crepe to a platter. I like to place a piece of wax paper in between each crepe so that they don’t stick together, but you don’t have to do that.
4. Let the crepes cool while you prepare the filling.

Crepe Filling:

• 4 tbsp. butter, at room temperature
• 2 tbsp. icing sugar
• grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 1/2 cup sour cream (full fat)
• 1 cup ricotta
• 1/4 cup raisins

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch baking dish or pie plate.
2. With a fork or a whisk, combine the butter and sugar in a bowl until you have a creamy mixture. Add the lemon zest and the vanilla extract and mix well.
3. Add the egg yolks and mix until the yolks have been completely incorporated.
4. With a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer (with the whisk attachment), beat the egg whites until stiff.
5. Fold the egg whites into the cheese mixture.
6. Spread two to three tablespoons of the filling onto each crepe. Roll the crepes up and then cut them in half. Place them in your prepared dish by layering them to create a fan effect.
7. Bake for 10 minutes. While the crepes are baking, prepare the final part of the pudding.

For the Pudding:

• 125 ml. whole milk
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
• 3 tbsp. sugar
• 3 tbsp. sour cream (full fat)
• icing sugar for dusting

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl. Once the crepes have baked for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and pour the pudding mixture over the crepes. Return to the oven for 15 minutes.
2. The pudding should be set and cooked through. If it still jiggly, cook for a bit longer.
3. Remove the crepe pudding from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes. Dust with icing sugar. Serve warm.
4. Enjoy!

Technorati tags:  crepes, vienna, austria, pudding