Very soon, little ghosts and ghouls will be descending upon us. Mini witches and warlocks will be flitting from house to house in search of candy (and perhaps things more sinister).

It is All Hallows Eve and the winds are blowing, ready for an eerie evening of spooky things.

I am preparing to chain myself to the couch in a vain attempt to avoid the Halloween candy. It’s for the children, as I keep reminding myself (not so successfully thus far). I’ll be watching scary movies all the while hoping that the candy goes quickly, for the sake of my hips and dental bill.

Before I apply the chains, however, I wanted to share this lovely dish with you. To me, October is the month of pumpkin. This month, Mama Cream Puff tried this incredible dish for the first time. It is just the sort of thing to keep the October chills and other spooky things outside, all the while keeping the comfort and cosy inside.

It’s a pumpkin stuffed with onions, mushrooms, goat cheese and the last of our garden’s cherry tomatoes.

Have a truly terrifying Halloween!

Ciao!

Stuffed Pumpkin
Adapted from Pumpkin, Butternut & Squash by Elsa Petersen-Schepelern.

Note: The original recipe is for stuffed small pumpkins so we adapted the recipe based on the size of our pumpkin. We didn’t really measure anything, we just added what we liked.

1 small to medium-sized pumpkin (choose a fleshy pumpkin), with the top removed and the seeds scooped out.
1 large red onion, diced
1 cup chopped mushrooms (any mushroom you like)
goat cheese (we used a whole log of goat cheese), crumbled
2 to 3 cups of cherry tomatoes
fresh herbs (basil and parslety, etc), chopped
salt and pepper
olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large pan, heat some olive oil and add the onion and mushrooms. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until they have some colour.

Remove the heat and combine with the crumbled goat cheese, the tomatoes and the herbs. Season according to your tastes.

Stuff this mixture into the cavity of the pumpkin. Place the lid on the pumpkin and brush the exterior with olive oil.

Place the pumpkin on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes and test the pumpkin to see if it’s tender. (Do this by piercing the skin with a fork.) If it’s tender, the pumpkin is cooked. If not, continue cooking until done.

Serve the pumpkin by scooping out the filling and cooked flesh.

Enjoy!

Technorati tags: halloween, pumpkin

No. Don’t worry. It’s not a typo. Bostini (not Boston) is, in fact, the capital of Daring Bakersville.

As the month of October arrived, Mary of Alpineberry let us know that our challenge for the month would be our very first plated dessert, one called the Bostini Cream Pie. The dessert is a take on the infamous Boston Cream Pie and is one of Mary’s favourites. Considering she first had it more than 12 years ago, I would have to say it must have been a most memorable dessert indeed.

Because I bow to Mary both for her beautiful blog and her tireless (and I mean tireless) work as the main administrator for The Daring Bakers, I approached this challenge with gusto.

When describing the recipe, Mary indicated that it yields eight generous servings. Wisely, Mary gave us the option of halving the recipe, which I did. It wasn’t easy, mind you, especially when it came to the custard but I think I did a reasonable job.

I began with the first element of the dessert, which was the custard. Made of whole milk, cornstarch, egg, heavy cream, sugar and vanilla extract, the custard was easy to pull together. Surprisingly, my attempt at halving the recipe worked quite well and my custard thickened very nicely. After straining it, I poured some of it into regular-sized ramekins and some of it into very tiny ramekins (pictured above). I set the custard in the refrigerator to chill and firm overnight.

After having completed the custard, I prepared the second component of the dessert which is an orange-flavoured chiffon cake. Once again I had a bit of a challenge in dividing the recipe. I also challenged myself further by baking the cake in a sheet pan (as opposed to molds as the recipe indicated) so that I could cut out pieces of cake to fit the different sizes of ramekins that I’d used.

The cake baked beautifully and looked gorgeous. I would have happily eaten it on its own if not for the fact that I had to use it for the dessert!

When it came time to assemble the dessert, I was able to easily cut out rounds to fit the ramekins. I quickly melted chocolate and butter for the glaze and rather than drenching the tops, I thought it would be best to spread a smaller amount of glaze on each. I topped each little dessert with a piece of candied orange zest to mirror the orange flavours in the cake and to contrast the flavour of the dark chocolate.

The desserts looked very pretty and certainly everyone that tried them enjoyed them. I found the custard to be a bit bland but this may be due to the fact that I halved the recipe and perhaps went a little too lightly in the flavour department. I didn’t use a vanilla bean as originally directed and used vanilla extract instead so perhaps that affected the flavour a bit.

The cake portion of the dessert was by far the best. This chiffon cake is light and so tasty! I’m looking forward to making it again. The chocolate glaze was a nice final touch but I would caution against drenching the dessert in glaze as the chocolate would overpower everything.

It certainly was fun to try my hand at a plated dessert and while I can’t see myself making this exact recipe again, I did really love the chiffon cake. I also appreciated the fact that Mary gave us the opportunity for some creative room with this challenge, which hasn’t always been the case with past challenges.

Many thanks to Mary for inspiring Daring Bakers everywhere this October!

Ciao!

For Mary’s original recipe for the Bostini Cream Pie, please click here.

To see what beautiful desserts the other Daring Bakers created, please visit the official Daring Bakers’ Blogroll.

Because I fiddled with the recipe quite a bit, here’s my version of the Bostini Cream Pie.

For the custard:

1/2 cup whole milk, at room temperature
1-1/2 tbsp. cornstarch
1 large egg, lightly beaten
4 egg yolks (reserve the egg whites for the cake)
2 cups less 1 tbsp, heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup plus 2 tsp. sugar

Mix together the milk and cornstarch in a bowl. Make sure there are no lumps.

Add the beaten egg and the yolks. Whisk until well mixed.

In a saucepan, heat the cream, vanilla extract and sugar. As soon as it comes to the boil, remove from the heat.

Carefully add a ladleful of the cream mixture to the egg mixture, whisking while you add it. (This is called tempering.)

Once mixed, pour the egg mixture into the saucepan with the remainder of the cream and whisk. Return to the heat.

Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens so that it coats the back of a spoon (this means that when you drag your finger across the spoon, it leaves a trail).

Remove the custard from the heat and pour through a fine mesh sieve. Pour the custard into the molds or custard cups that you’re using. I used 4 6-inch ramekins and 4 2-inch ramekins.

For the chiffon cake:

3/4 cup cake and pastry flour
1/2 cup superfine sugar
3/4 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup less 1 tsp. canola oil
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1 tbsp. grated orange zest
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 egg whites (use the reserved egg whites from the custard)
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Grease a half sheet pan (mine is 13 x 9 inches) and line with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper and set the pan aside.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Add the oil, egg yolks, orange juice, orange zest and vanilla and stir until smooth.

Beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Bake for 18 minutes. The cake is done when it springs back lightly after being pressed with your finger.

Let cool on a wire rack before unmolding.

Flip the cake onto a large piece of waxed paper and peel off the parchment. Cut the cake into the appropriate sizes to fit your molds.

For the chocolate glaze:

2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 ounces unsalted butter

In a small pan, melt the butter.

Add the chopped chocolate and stir until melted. Use immediately.

To assemble the dessert:

Cut out cake rounds to fit your molds. Place the rounds on the custard in each mold.

Top with chocolate glaze and serve.

Technorati tags: daring bakers, bostini cream pie

I sometimes find myself looking at the calendar in astonishment after I realize how quickly the months slip by. Is it really two months until Christmas?

And is October really almost over (already) without my having written once about my Flavour of the Month, Father Giuseppe Orsini’s Italian Baking Secrets?

Of course I’ve mentioned this cookbook a few times already, but I have yet to actually tell you about it.

Who is Father Giuseppe Orsini? Based on what I can gather from the biographical information in the book, he’s a Roman Catholic priest who has an enormous passion for baking and in particular for Italian baking.

Italian Baking Secrets is a collection of all those handwritten recipes you find stashed away in tins or tucked into books. The book is straightforward and charming in its simplicity. While there are some bread recipes towards the beginning of the book that required multiple steps, most of the recipes are ones that I could imagine my grandmothers making. Just a few ingredients and there you go, the perfect cake or the perfect cookie to dunk in your coffee.

I bought the book after seeing it on a shelf at Toronto’s The Cookbook Store. I didn’t take any time to read through it I just picked it up and walked immediately to the cash register.

Had I actually spent some time looking through the book, I would have noticed a few inconsistencies. For some reason there are a few recipes that are repeated in different sections of the book. And the measurement units used for ingredients are not always consistent. But these minor peculiarities somehow add to the book’s overall effect. It really is like those handwritten recipes scribbled onto bits of paper!

One of the recipes in the book that caught my eye was a recipe for cookies called crumiri. If I close my eyes, I can almost see my little self sitting at a table at my aunt’s house in Italy having breakfast. Our breakfasts in Italy, especially as children, didn’t consist of oatmeal or cereal, but rather huge mugs of hot milk coloured with espresso. Those mugs were accompanied by cookies or bread onto which we would spread butter and homemade jam.

That was breakfast.

My favourite, of course, were the cookies. I remember they’d come in these colourful bags and I would love to read the story of the cookies printed on each package. For some reason, the ones I remember the most are the crumiri.

In my memory, they are golden and crumbly with a not-too-sweet flavour. They taste of vanilla too. But most of all, I remember their shape and texture. The adults around me would say that they are shaped like horseshoes but to me they look like little boomerangs with ridges on them.

In my memory, I wonder what would happen if I actually threw one across the room. Would it boomerang back? But of course I would never do this as I can just imagine the stern look on the face of my aunt …

Memory is an incredible thing. In the wake of my 34th birthday, I laugh at how often my friends and I will joke that our memories are “going”. I will forget grocery lists, what I told my brother yesterday, that 10:00 meeting and my keys.

And yet, I will see a recipe for a cookie and remember the exact texture of that very same cookie when I ate one years and years ago.

I can still remember the taste.

Hard on the heels of that memory, is the realization that I suppose it doesn’t really matter that I sometimes forget the grocery list.

But to forget the memory of my little self eating cookies and slurping warm milk under my aunt’s watchful eye, somehow, that would be unbearable.

Ciao!

Crumiri
From Italian Baking Secrets by Father Giuseppe Orsini.

1-3/4 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar (I like to use vanilla sugar)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. vanilla or almond extract (if you’re not using vanilla sugar)
2/3 cup fine yellow cornmeal

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, using a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes. The mixture should be very light in colour.

Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl after each addition.

Mix together the flour, salt and cornmeal and add slowly to the butter mixture, with the motor running on low speed. As soon as the flour mixture is added, add the extract (if using).

The cookie dough will be thick. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a star-shaped tip (3/4 of an inch to an inch in width).

Pipe the cookies onto the prepared baking sheets in whatever design you like. The cookies shouldn’t be longer than 3 or 4 inches and should be spaced 2 inches apart.

Bake until the cookies are golden around the edges, anywhere from 12 to 14 minutes.

Let cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Technorati tags: crumiri

Another year, another birthday!

I don’t care how old you are, your birthday is a day to celebrate. It’s a day to feel special and to count your blessings.

I am thankful for my family and my friends, all of whom make my birthday such a special day. Of course, as I get older, I can’t help but also be even more thankful and feel even more blessed for those who have had such a huge influence on me but who are also no longer with me.

I am thankful for Nonna Teresa and Nonna Pia. I am thankful for Nonno Domenico (Papu’) and Nonno Antonio.

I am thankful for my papa’.

This year I’m celebrating in grand style with this luscious Brownie Latte Cheesecake from Tish Boyle’s The Cake Book.

It was made especially for me by Mama Cream Puff, the best baker I know!

Won’t you all come and celebrate with me?

Ciao!

For the second edition of Magazine Mondays (oooh - this is so exciting!) I decided to finally put the November 2006 issue of Food & Wine magazine out of its misery. This particular issue has been languishing in my magazine basket for almost a year thanks to two recipes that I’ve wanted to try, but haven’t until now.

For starters, I give you one of the most delicious and satisfying soups I’ve had in a long time: Spicy Grain Soup.

While the soup took some time to make (and considerable effort), it was all worth it in the end as I had a filling, warming and completely comforting soup. I also had lots of leftovers, which is great for weekday lunches!

And because one must always end a comforting meal with dessert, I decided to finally make the Double-Chocolate Bundt Cake with Ganache Glaze.

Wow!

You’d think this cake would be very sweet but it’s actually quite subtle in the sweet department. It does, however, pack a big chocolate whollop. I’m glad I finally had the chance to try these recipes.

Here’s hoping you tried some bookmarked recipes of your own. If you did, let me know.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Ciao!

Technorati tag: magazine mondays

While I would never describe myself as being very organized, I do pride myself on doing a reasonably good job of keeping track of food blog events that I want to participate in.

Well, you know what they say … pride before the fall.

I was very disappointed to realize that I had missed the deadline for World Bread Day hosted by the talented and generous Zorra of Kochtopf. I’ve become very fond of Zorra and her blog and have also come to appreciate an event based on one of the staples of the human diet: bread.

For some reason I’d listed October 21st as the deadline in my calendar, but after seeing all these posts pop up, I thought I’d better double check. Here’s hoping that late is much better than never!

As some of you may have noticed, I’ve chosen Father Giuseppe Orsini’s book, Italian Baking Secrets, as the October 2007 Flavour of the Month. I bought this book about 5 seconds after having laid eyes on it for the first time. The cover of the book, featuring a plate of perfect cannoli, drew me in. And when I saw that it had been written by an Italian priest, how could I not buy it?!

I mean with cannoli and God on your side, you can’t possibly go wrong.

The book was a delightful surprise. I’ve made a few recipes from it already and as soon as I laid my eyes on the recipe for Walnut Bread, I knew that I’d have to make it. World Bread Day became the perfect opportunity.

At around this time last year, I was slowly discovering how much I loved to make bread. I was immersed in my Art of Bread course at George Brown College and was learning the technique of good bread baking. I was learning about yeast, that incredible living thing. I was learning about kneading, that incredible gesture. And I was loving it all.

Since that class, I’m happy to say that I’ve baked bread often. While I haven’t baked as much bread as I would like, the idea of baking bread comes to me often and I am happy for this. Bread is hugely important in our life. Virtually no meal takes place without bread. Growing up, we couldn’t begin dinner until the bread and wine were on the table. And even now to look at the table and not see bread suggests a feeling of incompleteness.

I’m especially happy that I’ve discovered a love of bread baking because there is something so satisfying about producing a loaf of the stuff. My love of baking runs deep. A cake, a pie or a sheet of cookies are all pleasing. But there is something deeply and intensely soothing about baking bread.

It’s a beautiful act.

I took part in the beautiful act with this walnut bread. It was very easy to make, taking about 4 hours from start to finish. I began with a simple dough made of yeast, water, honey, olive oil, flour, salt and finely chopped walnuts.

After an initial rise of 1 hour, I shaped the dough into a ring and crowned it with perfect walnut halves.

Another 1-hour rise and the ring was ready to be baked. After a little over an hour in the oven, I removed a beautifully browned walnut bread that had a crisp exterior and a very nutty interior. The beauty of this bread is that it could be enoyed as a savoury or as a sweet bread.

I’d like to thank Zorra for hosting World Bread Day, 2007!

Ciao!

Technorati tags: world bread day, bread

Before you start fretting that this is yet another food blog event, not to worry. Don’t get me wrong, I love food blog events but sometimes I have difficulty keeping track!

Magazine Mondays is more of a self-help tactic than anything else. A few months ago, I wrote about taking a huge step in letting go of so many recipes that I’d had for years and never tried. In my ongoing efforts to actually cook and bake rather than store recipes for all eternity, I came up with Magazine Mondays as a way to do that.

When possible, I’ll post a recipe (always on a Monday) from a magazine. I figure this will help me to actually get into the kitchen and try all those recipes that I’ve bookmarked.

If you’re interested in joining me, please do. This is a completely informal thing that I hope will help me to continue to manage all those magazine purchases!

For my inaugural Magazine Monday, I chose a recipe from the February 2007 issue of Gourmet Traveller. When I saw the cover of the magazine with a beautiful Zucchini and Feta Tart with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, I just had to buy it. And finally … I tried it! It was well worth it, too.

Welcome to Magazine Mondays! Have a great week everyone!

Ciao!

Zucchini and Feta Tart with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Recipe here.

Technorati tags: magazine mondays, tart, zucchini, feta, cherry tomatoes

One of my uncles likes to tease me with the story of how as a child, I would sneak into the refrigerator to take bites out of the butter.

My love affair with the stuff clearly started early!

While I won’t go so far as to say that I eat it on a daily basis, very few days go by where butter doesn’t pass my lips in some form or another.

It is my believe that a life with butter is simply better.

While Canadian Thanksgiving was almost a week ago and I’ve already shared two recipes that are Thanksgiving classics in my family, I thought I’d share one more.

I came up with this recipe a few years ago when I decided that I wanted to serve a dressed-up butter with the fresh rolls that I was making for Thanksgiving.

I’ve always loved roasted garlic spread on bread and it wasn’t too long before I did the simple math and added the roasted garlic to the butter to come up with a truly wondrous thing. Because I adore chives, I thought I’d throw in a few of those to add colour and bite. I experimented with salted butter but have always found that salted butter is overly salty. So instead I returned to sweet butter to which I add a bit of salt just to give the faintest hint of saltiness. It compliments the sweetness of the roasted garlic so well.

This butter couldn’t be easier to make. It stores well in the freezer so you can have it on hand for guests or simply for yourself. Slather it on some warm bread and know the beauty of butter.

I say we all get buttered up!

Ciao!

Roasted Garlic Butter with Chives

Note: I make this in one cup portions (1 cup of butter is the equivalent of 2 sticks of butter). I roll the butter up in parchment paper and then wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze it for up to a month. Trust me. It won’t even last that long.

For the roasted garlic, follow a recipe such as this one or you can make it the way I do. Take 2 heads of garlic and cut off about one-third of the top of each head. Place them on a piece of aluminum foil and drizzle each with a bit of olive oil. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and then wrap loosely in the foil. Place them on a rack in the centre of the oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees F. Bake the garlic for about 40 minutes. Check the garlic. It’s done once the cloves become soft and the head of garlic can be easily squeezed. Don’t burn the garlic. Let it sit overnight wrapped in the foil and use the following day.

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
roasted garlic (I use two heads of garlic but you can use how ever much you like)
1 tablespoon chopped chives
1/2 tsp. salt

In a bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix well.

Take a large piece of parchment paper and pile the butter at one end of the paper, forming it into a log as best as you can.

Begin rolling the paper and the butter up, jelly-roll style, rolling tightly as you go and smoothing the log.

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

Take the butter out about 30 minutes before using so that it has a chance to soften.

Enjoy!

Technorati tags: butter

To be sure, one of the highlights of the fall are apples. I could go on and on about the beauty of this fruit (and yes … of course … the temptation of it all), but I’m sure you all know that there’s not much better than a juicy, crisp apple.

While we enjoyed our mini pumpkin cheesecakes for Thanksgiving dessert, we also enjoyed one of the best and easiest apple pies that I’ve ever made. It’s a favourite of mine and what would dessert be if you didn’t make your own personal favourites … especially when you’re the baker!

This is a pie that can showcase the beauty of any apple you choose, although my personal favourite is the Royal Gala. The crust is a cinch to make. While I prefer all butter crusts this one is a bit sturdier thanks to a mixture of butter and vegetable shortening. There’s a hint of orange, a sweet crumb topping and a surprise.

What’s a bite of apple without a surprise?!

Ciao!

Cream Puff’s Apple Pie

Note: This is a very forgiving pie so feel free to use any crust you like, including a favourite one if you have it. I usually make this with Royal Gala apples but you can use whatever apples you wish.

For the crust:

3 cups all-purpose flour (plus extra for dusting)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into very small pieces
1 cup vegetable shortening, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup to 1 cup ice water

In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt.

Add the butter and shortening and with your fingers, gently begin working the fat into the flour mixture. Rub the butter and shortening into the flour until you have a mixture that is very coarse and looks like large flakes of oatmeal.

Begin adding the ice water by adding 1/2 a cup. Start gathering the dough into a ball. If it comes together, you can turn it out onto a well-floured surface. If not, add a bit more water (a tablespoon at a time) until it comes together.

Turn it out onto a well-floured surface and knead lightly 2 or 3 times, until it comes together into a ball. (Do not knead the dough for too long or it will be tough!). Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, but you can refrigerate it for up to 2 or 3 days.

This one recipe will yield two single 9-inch pies or one double 9-inch pie.

For the filling:

6 or 7 apples, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch slices
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tbsp. finely grated orange zest
2 tbsp. Grand Marnier
1/4 cup butter, cut into small pieces

Combine all the filling ingredients (except the butter) in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide in half. Put half in the refrigerator for another pie.

Flour a work surface and gently roll the dough into an 11-inch round (it should be about 1/8th to a 1/4-inch thick). Use a light touch with the dough as you don’t want to overwork it.

Transfer the dough to a 9-inch pie plate or pie tin. Trim the excess dough and crimp the edges decoratively or simply roll them under so that you have an even edge.

Take the prepared filling and pack it into crust. Dot the filling with the butter and then put the pie in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

For the crumb topping:

1 cup flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

While the pie is in the refrigerator, mix all of the topping ingredients together, rubbing the butter into the flour/sugar mixture until you have a very crumbly topping.

Once the pie has chilled, sprinkle the topping evenly over the pie.

Bake the pie in the centre of the oven on a baking sheet to avoid any spills. The pie usually takes about an hour and ten minutes to an hour and fifteen minutes. It’s done when the crust and topping are golden and the apple filling begins to bubble through the topping.

Let cool for at least 30 minutes for slicing and serving.

Enjoy!

Ciao!

Technorati tags: apples, apple pie

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada and it is without question, one of my favourite holidays. In fact, sometimes I will have little debates with myself (usually while baking) about which holiday I prefer: Christmas or Thanksgiving.

Nothing can match the light and magic of Christmas. However, Thanksgiving brings such joy and ease. It’s almost like Christmas without the pressure of buying gifts.

Mostly I love Thanksgiving for the turkey and the trimmings. I’m not complaining about my Italian background, I mean the food that I grew up with has been the basis for my love of food. But there has always been something so intriguing about turkey and cranberry sauce and gravy and squash. Yes. Even brussel sprouts fascinate me!

Happily, there is a huge chestnut-stuffed turkey in our oven right now! My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

To celebrate the breadth of the harvest, I like to make a variety of small desserts so that people can sample a little bit of everything. One of the items I’ve made are these mini pumpkin cheesecakes. A few years ago I came across the best pumpkin cheesecake recipe (ever!) in The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion.

The feast is going to begin soon so I want to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Ciao!

Technorati tags: thanksgiving, pumpkin, cheesecake

I can’t believe I’m already two-thirds of the way through my Art of Pastry course! In Week 3, we completed our look at puff pastry by using the second half of our dough (first batch was used in Week 2) to make what is called a “Napoleon slice”. It’s basically a dessert that consists of layers of baked puff pastry covered in cream and fruit. Often, you’ll see this dessert in pastry shops with the top layer of pastry covered in fondant that has a design on it.

As I mentioned in my Weeks 1 & 2 write-up, I somehow made a mistake while laminating my puff pastry dough. I can’t remember if I either forgot a turn or perhaps completed one turn too many, but my puff pastry did not have the lift and layering that it should have. While it tasted alright, it was far more compact than it should have been.

Our instructor recommended that prior to rolling out the pastry to bake for the Napoleon, I do an additional “book fold”. A book fold means that you roll your puff pastry out to a certain size and then fold each end into the middle. You then take the folded puff pastry and fold it again in half, as though you were closing a book. I completed this step at the beginning of close, all the while hoping it would help my pastry perform better.

The first step in preparing for the Napoleon was to make a pastry cream. We made a very basic cream of eggs, sugar, milk, cornstarch, vanilla extract and butter. Our instructor taught us a very interesting trick in terms of the butter. Whenever I’ve made pastry cream at home, I’ve always incorporated the butter after the cream has thickened and is off the heat. To cool the cream, I’ve put a layer of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the cream before refrigerating it. The plastic wrap prevents a skin from forming on the cream.

Our instructor taught us that you can avoid using plastic wrap by using the butter as a tool against formation of a skin. Instead of mixing the hot butter into the cream, you let it melt on the surface of the cream, swirling it around to form a layer of melted butter. You then let your cream cool and prior to using it, you simply mix the butter in.

To make the Napoleon slice, we rolled our pastry out into large sheets and then trimmed it to fit a parchment-line baking sheet. We carefully scored the puff pastry to allow steam to escape while it was baking. By scoring the puff pastry, you’re helping it not to puff up too much in the oven. While that may seem strange as usually you want lots of puffiness out of your pastry, in this case you don’t want too much puffiness because you’re going to use the pastry in a layered dessert that will hopefully be somewhat even!

Unfortunately, my pastry didn’t perform very well. It rose a bit and turned a nice golden colour in the oven, but it didn’t rise as much as it should have. However, as our instructor pointed out, slightly imperfect puff pastry is easily camouflaged by lots of pastry cream!

Once our pastry had cooled, we divided it into three pieces and began building our Napoleon by covering one piece of puff pastry with cream and sliced strawberries, and then topping it with a second piece of puff pastry. We repeated the cream and strawberries before topping the Napoleon with the final piece of puff pastry. Instead of finishing off with fondant, we sprinkled our Napoleons with icing sugar that had a bit of pink in it (the pink was added by mixing the icing sugar with food colouring and then sifting it through a fine-mesh sieve). A bit of whipped cream and some fresh strawberries and there you go!

The Napoleon slice certainly looked nice and it tasted alright. The pastry cream was very good but I thought my puff pastry tasted quite tough. I suspect this was due to the additional turn that I gave it, which really didn’t help out at all.

As well, the pastry left a lingering oily taste in your mouth that I know comes from the roll-in fat that we used. Pastry made with butter would have tasted much better.

Still, though, I enjoyed the experience of building my very first Napoleon and look forward to trying it at home.

I was very excited to tell you about my Week 4 class, which was dedicated to chocolate tarts and chocolate pastry, unfortunately I didn’t make it to class. I was feeling under the weather and knew that there was no way I would make it through a four-hour baking seession. I look forward to hearing from my classmates next week about how the tarts turned out.

Ciao!

For the past three years, the wonderful people that I work with and I have been holding a potluck in honour of Canadian Thanksgiving. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I work with some incredible cooks and bakers.

Last year, for the first time, I took photos of all the dishes and I decided to do the same thing this year.

Enjoy the bounty that was our Thanksgiving potluck!

Twice-baked Sweet Potatoes with Sage and Pecans. These were delicious! They were colourful, healthy and pretty to look at.

Green Salad with Vinaigrette. What’s a potluck without a lovely salad!

Couscous Salad. The more I eat couscous, the more I love it. This salad was refreshing and nutritious.

Roast Chicken. While it wasn’t homemade and my picture certainly doesn’t help matters, it was delicious!

Vegetable Lasagna.

This was so good! Filled with roast vegetables and ricotta, it was comforting just as lasagna should be.

Chicken Wings. These were a huge hit. We’re trying to get a recipe out of the cook so stay tuned.

Chocolate Cookies. I think we’ve decided to adopt these as our “official cookie” at work. They appear often and they’re delicious. They’re basically peanuts mixed with Rice Krispies and then covered in chocolate. But I warn you. They’re addictive!

Ratatouille Pasta. I think ratatouille has to be the dish of 2007. This pasta was comfort food at its best!

Green Beans and Tofu. For me, this was the dish of the potluck! While I can’t say I eat a lot of tofu, this dish used tofu in sheets, which is something I’ve never seen before. It was finished off with walnuts and red peppers. Delicious!

Veggie Chili. We have a number of vegetarians on staff so it’s nice that we always have lots of vegetarian options at our potlucks. This chili would, however, satisfy the heartiest of carnivores. It was fantastic!

White Bean and Barley Stew. Yum! I could curl under a blanket with a bowl of this stew!

Pecan Pie. What’s a Thanksgiving potluck without a delicious pecan pie. This one was like a huge, creamy butter tart!

Sour Cream Coffee Cake. We love our dessert and this cake was right up our alley. There’s nothing like a moist and sweet coffee cake!

Baklava. With all due respect to the other desserts, this was THE DESSERT at the potluck. Made by our resident Greek Goddess (you know who you are), we were fighting for the last piece.

Banana Bread with Skor Bits. As I mentioned above we like to eat so we actually kicked off the potluck first thing in the morning with this incredible banana bread, which was nice and warm. Slathered in butter, it was a great breakfast!

Grilled Vegetable and Goat Cheese Sandwiches. This was my contribution to the potluck. I bought some lovely focaccia and slathered it in homemade pesto. I then layered on grilled vegetables and hunks of goat cheese.

Unbelievably, I forgot to take a photograph of one of my favourite dishes at the party: Bacon-wrapped Water Chestnuts. I think I was so intent on eating one that I just forgot to take the picture. Fortunately, the chef who prepared these sent along the recipe for me to share with all of you.

Talk about being a lucky Cream Puff! Look at the amazing cooks that I work with!

Ciao!

Bacon-wrapped Water Chestnuts
Recipe courtesy of one awesome co-worker!

1 can of whole water chestnuts, drained
1 package of bacon
1/4 cup chili sauce (or ketchup)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Hot sauce to taste

Trim the larger pieces of fat from the bacon. You should be left with around 3/4 of a rasher of bacon per water chestnut. You could use 1/2 a rasher or less, but the more bacon the better.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Roll the bacon around the water chestnuts and place each roll, seam down, into the baking dish.

Bake for 40 minutes.

Remove from oven and drain fat from the pan.

Mix the remaining ingredients together to form a sauce and pour it over the rolls.

Bake for another 30 minutes

Stick a toothpick into each roll before serving.

Enjoy!

Technorati tags: thanksgiving

As much as I love the fall, I inevitably find myself shaking my head at this time of year as I find it harder and harder to believe that it actually is the fall.

True, the leaves are slowly changing colour and the nights are noticeably cooler, but the days are still warm and for the most part sunny. Where it’s hardest to believe that fall is here is the garden.

There are still tomatoes ripening on the vine and we still have peppers waiting to be picked. The herbs are going strong and our celery plants are a sight to behold!

Are you sure it’s still not summer???

I think part of the reason why it’s still so hard to believe that it’s fall is that I seem to have fallen in love with a little cookbook that just happened to be the Flavour of the Month for August and September 2007: Viana La Place’s My Italian Garden.

There are a few authors whose cookbooks I will buy simply because their names appear on the cover. Tish Boyle and Dorie Greenspan are probably foremeost among this group. But I would have to say that Viana La Place is now also a member of that club. Her cookbooks are lovely and I’m happy to say that I own many others: La Bella Cucina, Unplugged Kitchen, and Desserts and Sweet Snacks.

Her latest cookbook continues in the tradition of her previous books in that the emphasis is on simple ingredients of the highest quality prepared in ways that highlight the beauty of the ingredients. If you don’t have a food processor or any of the other electronic gadgets that seem to accompany the modern kitchen, that’s not a problem.

This book is the story of La Place’s garden from a barren piece of earth in her yard to a well-organized piece of cultivated land that is a constant source of inspiration. What I especially love is that La Place built the garden herself. She learned from her mistakes and wasn’t afraid to document some of them in her book.

And while there are no photographs, the book is filled with pretty sketches that give it an almost romantic feel. La Place very clearly evokes how much peace the garden gives her and how much she loves it.

Of course, the recipes are the centrepiece. The book is divided into four chapters based on the four seasons beginning with summer and ending with spring. The organization of the book is a reminder that gardens can produce in many different ways regardless of the season. It helps,
mind you, that La Place lives in San Francisco where the climate is milder. We certainly don’t get very much from our garden in the middle of winter. However, many of the ingredients used in the recipes for the fall or winter are readily available in colder climates so that shouldn’t be a deterrent to trying those recipes.

In the end, I just loved how this book felt. It was like reading a novel about a very personal mission to build something beautiful. And it had the added bonus of recipes and lots of them.

I tried several recipes from the book but the one I want to highlight is this very simple, yet satisfying pasta. The original recipe from the book calls for the zest of Meyer lemons but I substituted regular lemon zest and the dish was wonderful.

Whether you have a garden already or are dreaming of having one day, I cannot recommend Viana La Place’s My Italian Garden more highly. It’s what garden dreams are made of!

Ciao!

Pasta with Basil and Lemon
Adapted from My Italian Garden by Viana La Place.

Note: This recipe will serve 2 to 3 people quite generously.

6 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil (you may need some extra olive oil if the pasta appears too dry)
2 cloves garlic, minced
a handful of basil leaves, cleaned and torn into pieces
freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp. lemon zest, finely grated
1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
salt to taste
spaghettini pasta for 2 to 3 people (or whatever pasta you like)

Cook the pasta according to package directions.

While the pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil and garlic over a very low flame.

After 2 to 3 minutes, you should begin to smell the garlic but be very careful not to burn it. Add the basil leaves and lemon zest and stir for a few minutes.

Add freshly ground pepper to taste.

As soon as the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the pan with the basil and lemon.

Sprinkle on the Parmigiano and toss to coat. Taste the pasta for seasoning and adjust accordingly. If the pasta is too dry for your liking, add some olive oil.

Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Technorati tags: pasta, viana la place