Marmalade Muffins

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It’s been mentioned a couple times recently by a certain somebody who lives in this apartment that it’s beginning to look a little like a candy shop. That maybe we eat too much cake. That perhaps I should blog about some bread or breakfast foods, or maybe make something out of something in the fridge because there is actually no space left to put vegetables. That maybe vegetables wouldn’t be such a bad idea, would they?

To which I say rubbish.

Except that there really is no room in the fridge and I would actually like to put things in the fridge, even though they are more of jam or chocolate variety.

So I’m being oh so generous and making muffins (breakfast!) with marmalade (stuff in the fridge!) but really, I’m making them because that sounds delicious to me.

These are beyond simple to make, but the glaze is really what makes them extra special. Just yogurt and marmalade in it but it elevates the muffins into fancy tea food. In fact, I made some in my mini Bundt pans to use as teacakes, because they are so delicious I don’t think I will have any trouble at all eating them once in the morning and once in the afternoon. No trouble at all.

Yogurt Muffins with Marmalade Glaze

1 ½ cup All Purpose Flour

½ tsp Salt

2 tsp Baking Powder

1cup Sugar

1 cup Yogurt

3 Eggs

1 tbsp Vanilla Extract

½ cup Butter

Zest of 1 lemon

Glaze

½ cup Marmalade

¼ cup Yogurt

Preheat oven to 350F

Butter and flour 12 muffin cups or mini bundt pans, or a loaf pan if you’re feeling crazy

Melt butter

Whisk together dry ingredients in a bowl to remove any lumps

Whisk together all wet ingredients until combined, I mix it all in my measuring cup so I don’t have to dirty another dish.

Mix together until just combined, a couple lumps never hurt anyone so don’t worry if there are a few.

Fill muffin cups ¾ full

Bake until an inserted skewer comes out clean, about 25 minutes

 

Glaze:

Melt marmalade over the stove

Take off heat and stir in yogurt.

 

Bread and Butter

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Sometimes all you need is this life is some fresh bread. Good homemade hot out of the oven fresh bread. You need your house to smell like browning flour and you need to watch it grow in the oven into something magical. You need to slather it with butter and jam and you need to not feel guilty about that because you made the bread and your eating the fruits of your labor. You need homemade bread.

But sometimes you don’t have 2 days to make good bread, or 2 weeks to make sourdough. Sometimes you need instant gratification. Or at least, 2 hour gratification. Sometimes you need Irish Soda Bread.

Irish soda bread is the denser, more rustic but very charming cousin to French or Italian bread, and maybe a sibling to cornbread.It is usually made with brown flour, although I did some research and found that white bread would be special occasion bread. It’s leavened with baking soda (hence the name) and it’s delicious. Seriously delicious. It’s also seriously easy to make. You simply mix the wet, mix the dry and mix it together. Like making cornbread. But this is a recipe where the whole is greater then the sum of it’s parts because out of this simple mix comes nuttier, moist, completely wonderful brown bread that begs for butter.

I think this is the sort of bread not to over complicate. There’s a great article in Epicurious about the origins of soda bread and it says that there should only be buttermilk, soda, flour and salt in it, but this recipe has some brown sugar and some oats as well, mostly because I like oats and brown sugar. So there.

@font-face { font-family: “ＭＳ 明朝”; }@font-face { font-family: “ＭＳ 明朝”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }.MsoChpDefault { font-size: 10pt; }div.WordSection1 { page: WordSection1; }1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons old-fashioned oats plus more for coating

2 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups (about) buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425F

Combine the dry ingredients

Combine the wet ingredients

Mix together until just combined

Roll into a ball and place on a parchment lined baking tray

Wet your hands with water and pat the dough gently then sprinkle oats ontop

Bake for about 40 minutes or until it’s nicely browned and an inserted skewer comes out with only a couple moist crumbs.

Let it cool off the pans for about 10 minutes before slicing and eating!

A good Drink.

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The man of the house loves bourbon, scotch and cognac. He likes drinks like sazzaracs and manhattans. He likes his drinks strong, classic, and often bitter. Having spent several years in his youth tending bar, the man makes a mean drink. And, despite his love for drinks I can imagine Don Draper sipping, he is also very creative and, not infrequently, appeases me and makes something a little girlier.

One of my favourite summer drinks is a capraina, the national drink of brazil made with lime, sugar cane, and cachaca, a liquor somewhere in between rum and vodka but much much smoother. We had some friends over for dinner last night, and I always like to start the night with a cocktail and so Jordan went above and beyond with a rhubarb and rose caprainia.

Isn’t it pretty? And girly? And delicious? The curly red things are just strips of rhubarb put into ice water and they curl up like ribbons. I realize this is a bit of a time commitment and you might not ever make this, but I really think you should. It’s not hard. I promise, and its so good!

Rose and Rhubarb Capraina

Rhubarb Simple Syrup

1 cup Sugar

1 cup Water

1 cup Rhubarb, sliced

1/4 tsp Rose Water or 1 tbsp Rose Petals

Bring sugar and water up to a boil.

Add in rhubarb and bring back to a boil.

Take off the heat and let sit for 2 hours.

Strain.

 Rhubarb Garnish

Peel the bright outsides of one 3 inch piece of rhubarb. The rhubarb is very fibrous to put the peeler up to the very top of the rhubarb to so that the peeler starts on the cut flesh of the stalk, and pull it all the way through.

Cut into thinner strips and put in a glass with ice water for at least half an hour.

 1/2 Lime

1oz Rose and Rhubarb Simple Syrup

2oz Cachaca

1/2 cup Mineral Water

Squeeze the lime and mix with syrup and cachaca.

Top with mineral water and pour over ice.

The Show Off

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This is not a cake for the faint of heart. This is not a cake to throw together after work, or a cake to make for a kids birthday. Oh no. It will take several hours to make, and multiple steps and some patience. This cake is a labour of love. But, this isn’t a hard dessert to make, just a time consuming one I promise. And if you time yourself well, and make a few things the night before you won’t hate yourself for saying you’ll make it. And when your friends see the cake you’ve made, they will be intensely impressed. This is a show off cake. This is the cake to make if your boss is coming over for dinner, or for an anniversary. Or if your me, with to much time on your hands it’s what you make when you have friends coming for dinner on Friday night.

Crepe Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache and Poached Pears

This is a long process, you will want to make the ganache first, because it takes several hours to firm up. Then make the crepe batter, because it will take at least an hour to cool. The poach the pears, then make the crepes. Then assemble it all!

Ganache:

500g Heavy Cream

250g Dark Chocolate, finely chopped

1tsp Vanilla Extract

Bring the cream and vanilla up to a boil

Pour over chocolate.

Let is sit for a couple of minutes, then stir. It may seem to take a while but it will get smooth!

Crepes

6 eggs

7 tbsp Sugar

1tsp Salt

1 1/2 cups Flour

1/3 cup Butter

3 cups Milk

In a pot bring melt the butter. Keep it on the heat until it is very frothy, stirring regularly. In a couple of minutes the milk solids will start to get brown and it will smell nutty.

Immediately pour the milk in and bring it to just belove a simmer.

Meanwhile mix the eggs and the sugar in a mixer with the whisk attachment.

Add in the flour and then slowly pour in the milk and butter mixture.

Whisk until you have nearly no lumps.

Cover and set to cool in the fridge.

Bring a small frying pan, not stick if you have it to medium heat.

Put a small nub of butter into the pan and tilt the pan to either side until the whole pan is covered.

Pour about a quarter cup of batter into the pan. It should spread pretty thin.

Let it start to bubble up a bit the tilt the pan to let excess from the middle spread to the sides.

Carefully, with a rubber spatula, push the edges gently and shake the pan until the whole crepe is moving.

Flip the crepe, with a spatula if your new to this, or with a flick of the wrist if your an old pro, and let it cook another minute on the second side.

 Slide it onto a plate and go for the next! Repeat until the batter is finished, this will take a while.

Poached Pears

5 medium sized firm pears, I used Anjou.

1 cup sugar

1tbsp Vanilla Extract

Zest of an orange, peeled with a vegetable peeler into thick strips

Peel pears.

Cut them into quarters and core them.

Put them into a pot with sugar, vanilla and zest. Cover with water.

Bring to a simmer and gently cook for about 10 minutes or until just becoming translucent and are soft enough to cut with a spoon. Take off the heat and let cool.

Assemble

Slice the pears into thin strips.

Put a dollop of ganache on your plate

Lay a crepe down, spread it with ganache, then layer some pears on top.

Put a small dop of ganache onto the next crepe and place it face down on the crepe before, the ganache will work as glue to keep the layers from separating.

Repeat, repeat repeat.

 I used about 17 layers of crepes, and now I’m writing this while eating the left overs.

I then used some pear slices on top to decorate it and sprinkled some icing sugar on top too.

I hope you make this cake,and I hope you like it as much as we did!

I Have A Kitchen Table Again!

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I smashed my dining room table a couple months ago. I feel compelled to say that it wasn’t very dramatic in fashion, I just put something hot on it forgetting it was glass and it shattered.

I also feel compelled to say that I loved that table.

Everything I own is second hand. Most of it came from the “free section” of my building where people leave things to nice to throw out but that they don’t want (my couch, my rug, my bookcase) a few things came from my best friend who used to live upstairs when she moved across the country (a bookshelf, a bedside table) and a few things came from my mom and sister when they visisted and realized how shabby my place was (my desk, my kitchen island). The one thing I actually bought was my kitchen table and chairs. I got some Christmas money and pooled it together and bought it. It’s an awesome mid century modern chrome and glass table with low round chairs. It wasn’t in the best of conditions- the steel was a little rusty and the upholstery was definitely pilling, but it was mine. When I broke that table I cried.

Mostly I cried because Jordan hates that table and I figured if he would make a big push for us to get rid of it, but I didn’t give him enough credit. We kept the table and chairs with the agreement that I would reupholster the chairs and he would get us a new glass table top. So I found me some gorgeous vintage curtains and voila! Well, not entirely voila, I had never reupholstered anything in my life but I took out a book, read a few blogs and I’m feeling like an old pro now (although I bought fabric to redo my couch and I am now terrified all over again.) It took a little longer for him to find a proper sized glass table top but he did and now we have a kitchen table again!

So to celebrate we are having friends over for dinner tomorrow night and I will let you know all about the desserts I made but in the mean time, here’s my DIY reupholster.

My chairs just unscrewed in the backs, so I took off the cushion-y parts. Then i painstakingly took them apart (and by me, I mean me and Jordan who was very bribed with cookies to help) You will need to use them as a pattern so be patient. This involved using a flat-ended screw driver to pull out the staples and needle nose pliers to pull out nails. We learnt that we weren’t the first to reupholster these chairs, they were a terrible brown corduroy before!

Lay out your fabric and pin the old pieces on top like a pattern.

 Lay out your fabric and pin the old pieces on top like a pattern.

Cut them out! Then pin them to the original cushions.

Staple staple staple. This will take time. Start at the back to get used to it. You need to get the tension right so that it’s very stable but won’t buckle. That very important.

For the tops of the chairs I just sewed the sides together and stapled the bottom again.

Then I scrubbed the hell out of the chairs. That was a lot of work.

And then I screwed them back together, and look! I have a new kitchen table set! and It really only took me one night to do it. So you can do it too!

Spring Time!

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In Italy they have festivals celebrating asparagus. In the land of slow food and local food, its arrival in the spring means the end to root vegetables. It means soon there will be lettuce and then berries and then fruit. It means good things for the kitchen my friends. We can eat asparagus year round now, it comes from Peru, or Mexico or sometimes Argentina. If I`m lucky I can find some from California but thats as good as it gets here I`m afraid. There aren’t of winter farmers markets here so I don’t get the change to dance about asparagus but let me tell you, what I miss out on with asparagus I make up for with rhubarb.

Rhubarb is glorious. Its one of the first things to pop out of the ground in the spring time and it is the most amazing vibrant pink. It is so sour you can hardly eat it but it is wonderful mounded with sugar. And, perhaps most importantly, it’s not a root vegetable. It hasn’t been sitting in a cellar since October, it doesn’t taste like the rich fall vegetables that met their sweetness from months ripening in the sun. No, it tastes like spring. It tastes like it’s fighting it’s way into the garden eager to be the first. It tastes like new beginnings and it tastes wonderful.

Friends, you are going to get so sick of this blog if you don’t like rhubarb because man oh man am I that rhubarb is around. I wanted to bake with it, and I will, very soon, but first I wanted rhubarb jam.

I love rhubarb jam and it is painfully simple to make, so simple I almost feel bad giving a recipe to it. I didn’t have any pectin so I used half an apple. Apples are chalk full of pectin so it’s an easy way to add a little extra sweetness and get your jam to thicken up. I do to spice it up a little by add the tiniest bit of rose water to it. You want just the tiniest bit because to much will start to taste perfume-y. You just a hint of floral. I had some in my cupboard but you can find it at middle eastern stores, and if you can’t find it, then just go without. I promise, no one will complain.

Rhubarb and Rose Jam

Wash the rhubarb very carefully

Put in in a thick bottom pot with the apple on medium-low heat

Let it slowly simmer

It will start to fall apart

Keep going, it will fall apart more

Once its totally fallen apart add in the sugar.

Turn the heat down to low and stir regularly until the the apple is comlete mush and the jam becomes quite thick.

Add in the rose water. Just a couple drops, taste it, then you can add in more. The rose should be very subtle.

Pour into a jar and think of spring!

An Easy Way To Make Friends

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When I was in high school I fell hopelessly in love with a boy. He was handsome and charming and I was smitten from the start. And then I was inconsolably devastated when he suddenly moved across the province leaving me all alone. We ran into each other a couple of years later at a party in and I was once again head over heels. I went to visit him the next weekend in Montreal with my cutest outfits, overwhelmingly high expectations, and a tray of proofing cinnamon buns. I brought the dough and the cinnamon sugar mix on the side and woke up early the next morning to roll and bake them. The whole apartment smelled of fresh bread and cinnamon. Needless to say they were a serious hit.

I learnt 3 things that weekend:

  1. There is a big difference between being mysterious and being emotionally unavailable.

  2. Montreal is an unbelievably great city.

  3. There is no easier way to get in the good books of a guys friends then to bake cinnamon buns in their house.

The boy I was into was not into me. I would be lying if I said there weren’t tears shed on the train ride home, but man oh man, his room mates loved me.

Now, I like to think I am not quite so desperate these days. I have a wonderful man who I’ve been with for nearly 4 years and I am far past the point of trying that hard to make people like me. And yet… This weekend we have one of Jordan’s friends who I don’t know very well staying with us for the weekend and I made cinnamon buns. I guess some things never change.

6 1/2 tablespoons (3.25 ounces) granulated sugar

1 teaspoon lemon extract or zest

1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (2.75 ounces) shortening or unsalted butter, room temperature

2 large egg, slightly beaten

3 1/2 cups (16 ounces) unbleached bread or all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons (.22 ounce) instant yeast

1 to 1 1/4 cups (9 to 10 ounces) whole milk or buttermilk, room temperature

3/4 cup Light Brown Sugar

1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

Fit a standard mixer with a dough hook attachment

Cream butter and sugar together, this will be a little hard with the dough hook so you can get in there with a spatula if you need to.

Mix in your eggs. It will be split and not pretty. Don`t panic!

Just add in all your dry ingredients except the sugar and the cinnamon.

Slowly add in the milk, first 1 cup, then more if you need to.

Work the dough until it comes together and follows the dough hook around. It should still feel a little tacky but if you break a piece off and stretch it should  become transparent. If it doesn`t keep mixing for a while until it does.

Cover the bowl with a cloth. If you plan on baking them today put them in a warm spot to proof. It will take about 2 hours for them to double in size. If you want to bake them tomorrow put the bowl in the fridge.

Roll out the dough. It should be a square about a foot and a half each way. I didn’t roll mine thin enough, I prefer lots of thin cinnamon-y pieces on mine generally. Then cut them into pieces and put into a buttered pan!

Let it proof until doubled in size. If you chilled it overnight it will take about 2 hours, if it`s room temp it should only take about an hour.

Preheat oven to 375F

Bake for about 20 minutes or until just starting to brown on top and your house smells absolutly heavenly.

Spread lightly with Cream Cheese Glaze:

Beat 2 tbsp Cream Cheese with 3/4 cup Icing Sugar. Thin with a tablespoon or two or whipping cream.

Chalkboards and Children

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I have two obsessions right now. Chalkboard paint and Jordan’s nephew Jackson. Obsessed. So, when I decided to make Jackson a Congratulations-on-your-new-baby-sister present I didn’t really have to think about it. Chalkboards. BUT my local home hardware doesn’t sell wood! I was terribly disappointed, especially because I wanted them to use a mechanical sander to make the edges round, and if I found scrap wood I would have to do it myself. And that didn’t sound fun at all. So I went to the discount kitchen store next door and bought a cutting board. It already has rounded edges and a hole for hanging it. Perfect! This would also work really well in the kitchen with a “Things We Need From the Store” or a “Don’t Forget” by the front door. I have a beautiful chalkboard by the wonderful Regional Assembly of Text by my front door that says “Matters Of Importance” in much more elaborate scroll then I have the patience to cut out! So this is a slightly simpler version, and here’s the how to:

Take your chalkboard and wash and dry it very carefully

Paint it with chalkboard pain, let it dry and then paint it again. The paint is really thick so I had to sand it at the end and wipe it down again, to make it as smooth as possible.

 

On your computer decide on a font and type the name or words your want on your board. I would suggest a simple font, because you will have to cut it out!. I changed the O in Jackson to a soccer ball using a template I found online.

Use spray adhesive or plain old tape to stick a piece of wax paper on top of your template.

Carefully use an exacto to cut out the letters,

Use that spray adhesive or tape again to very carefully stick down the letters. I used a lot of tape here, and its better to have to much then to little I think.

Take your paint (I used white to make it pop but you could use any colour!) and brush it onto your template.

Let your paint dry completely then peel back the stencil.

I had a few smudged parts so I just did a little fix up with some more chalkboard paint, but if you are more careful then me then you won’t have to!

Allow to dry completely and then hang it up and start using it!

Pioneer Woman and Me

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The Pioneer Woman and I are two very different people. She’s married, has 2 kids, 3 books, a ranch, and clearly an amazing career built on her ability to relate to people. People like me even. Me, who has a lovely, but crappy apartment, lives in a city, no kids to speak of yet and certainly no book deal. What, you might ask can we relate about?

I’ll tell you friends. Salsa.

The Pioneer Woman has some strong feelings about salsa. Feelings I didn’t even realize I had until I read her recipe and realized she was completely right. I like my salsa diced up finely. Very finely in fact. So fine that its best to use a food processor. I’m not being lazy, I like that consistency. I also hate vinegar in my salsa. When you need some acidity, use lime juice! Lime juice is delicious. And I usually want more cilantro then anyone I know in most things and this is true of salsa too. Bring it on cilantro. 

I did change a couple things, it’s true. Mostly because I couldn’t find the canned tomato/jalapeno stuff she uses.  I used less jalapeno, Jordan wishes it was spicier but I don’t. I used a little more cumin, but maybe my cumin is just old, and that’s why I needed more. And I added more lime juice. Just because I like more lime juice. So there you have it. The Pioneer Woman knows whats up.

Really Really Good Salsa

1/2 White Onion, Roughly Chopped

1 clove Garlic, Cut a Couple Times

1 Jalapeno Pepper, Roughly Chopped

2 Ripe Tomatoes, Diced up

1 can Plum Tomatoes, (try to find a brand with no citric acid!)

A BIG handful of cilantro

1 Big Lime, or 2 little ones

2 tsp Ground Cumin

Put the onion, tomatoes, garlic, and jalapeno in your food processor.

Pulse a couple times

Add in the canned tomatoes, the cumin and the cilantro.

Pulse that a couple times too.

Add in the lime and a couple good pinches of salt. Pulse it until you get a nice consistency. Taste it and add more salt if you need. Then serve it up! That’s it!

Almost a Martha Casserole

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When we were kids we always used to play vet. I was the vet, and my sister Nina was the secretary. That’s what she wanted to be when she grew up. A few years ago my mom was moving and we stumbled across a recipe box filled with index cards. All of our stuffed animals names were alphabetized and behind each name were 3 index cards, white for check-up, red for emergency, blue for surgery. It was almost creepy how organized it was.

All of which to say it should come as no surprise that by the age of ten she was in love with everything Martha Stewart. She might have been Martha’s youngest ever subscriber, saving all her babysitting money every January to buy the magazine. So if my sister was 10, I was 6. And while Nina was trying to be Martha Stewart I was trying to be Nina, so Martha rubbed off on me as well.

I know Martha has had her weak moments, (my boyfriend, a former stock broker, and I have decided it’s just best for our relationship if we don’t talk about Martha) but I love her. I really do. Everything she makes I want to make. What, you might ask, would I do with a silk thread covered carrot? Well I’m not totally sure but I know I want to make one none the less, because Martha told me to. Along with silk covered carrots and fabric silhouette bunnies, she also had a feature on casseroles. So at 10 this morning I decided I needed one.

But I had nearly no ingredients and it is (surprise surprise) pouring rain in Vancouver so there was so improvisation. But it worked. It totally worked.

A good glug of Olive Oil

1 large Onion, diced

2 cloves Garlic, diced

half a pound of Mushrooms, (whatever you have kicking around or is at your local market. I used enoki and oyster but creminis, buttons, portobello, anything really would work here, except maybe shiitake?) cut them into slices.

2 cans of plum tomatos, look for the kind without citric acid added!

3 sprigs of Thyme, picked

1 lb Shell Pasta

100g Cheese, I had some asiago which is grated and some sliced cheddar that i just laid across the whole thing. But if you had provolone, or parm, or even goat cheese use it! Whatever you have kicking around I think is great!

Preheat oven to 375F

Get a big pot of water on the stove on high heat.

Get another pot on the stove on medium heat.

Add in that glug of oil and saute the onion until it starts to get soft and translucent. Add a good pinch of salt.

Add in the garlic, mushrooms, and thyme and stir until the garlic gets aromatic and mushrooms are soft.

Add in your tomatoes and a little more salt. It will look soupy.

But don’t worry, it will get beautiful and thick, see?

Get your pasta in your boiling water. Add a healthy pinch of salt. Simmer then for 2 minutes less then it says on on the package, you’ll be cooking it more in the oven!

Once the pasta is cooked and strained mix it with the sauce until it all combined.

Now pour the whole thing into a casserole dish

Sprinkle it with cheese. If you have sliced cheese layer it on.

Put it in the oven for about 30 minutes.

 It will be bubbly and starting to get brown and your whole house will smell delicious.

Let it cook for about 10 minutes and then eat eat eat!!

Something Warm

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I had big dreams when I got off work today friends. Big dreams. I was going to make one of those cakes that are made of layers and layers of crepes, ganache, and poached pears. I had it all planned out. Then as I left work I realized it was pouring rain. And I had a flat tire. And I couldn’t find the bike repair place. And then I walked home without an umbrella. It’s a half hour walk. I was cold. Very very cold, the kind of cold that makes your spine hurt because your hunching over so much. And then, I really didn’t want to make 25 crepes. I didn’t want to peel a dozen pears and poach them. What I wanted was to drink hot chocolate and watch season 2 of “Bored To Death” Jason Schwartmans clincically funny television show. So, heres a wonderful recipe for hot chocolate.

You could easily use all milk chocolate or dark chocolate, but I usually have both on hand, so I usually use both. It’s very chocolaty hot chocolate, but using some cocoa powder I find helps thin it slightly, so it’s not just a drinkable ganache. And it’s exactly what you need on a freezing cold rainey day. I’ll make marshmellows soon, I promise. But not today. Today was for whip cream. And it was glorious.

Hot Chocolate

1 1/4 cup Milk

1tsp Cocoa Powder

1tsp Sugar

1oz Milk Chocolate

1 oz Dark Chocolate

  • Whisk milk, sugar and cocoa powder together and bring to a simmer over medium heat
  • Meanwhile finely chop both chocolates
  • Once milk mixture is barely boiling take it off the heat and mix chocolate in until completely disolved.
  • Pour into your favourite mug and top with whip cream!

Almost Healthy

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I’ve been feeling for nearly 2 months now that I’m about to get a cold. You know, my nose is just the tiniest bit runny, I’m not quite as full of energy as usual, and I just generally feel a little run down. So I decided about a week ago to not drink for the rest of the month, to drastically increase my vegetable intake and really work on getting my 8 hours of sleep every night. So imagine my surprise when in the middle of this mini health kick not one but TWO of my favourite baking blogs have written in the last week about whole wheat cookies.

Now I feel compelled to say that I am not a fan of standard “healthy” cookies. I eat granola for breakfast nearly every morning, and quinoa is a regular part of my diet, so I don’t feel the need to put these things in cookies. Cookies are for butter and sugar and things that are good for your soul, if not your arteries. Healthy cookies almost always have terrible texture, because the butter and the sugar lay the ground work for crispy exteriors and moist interiors. I’m a firm believer in that. BUT I like whole wheat flour sometimes. It adds a certain nuttiness and a depth to certain baked goods, a sense of substance which is nice. Especially when it’s in the form of a chocolate sugar cookie and your eating it alongside a cup of earl grey tea.

This in my adaptation of the whole wheat chocolate sugar cookies on Joy the Baker. I substituted molasses instead of brown sugar because Jordan puts brown sugar in his coffee and didn’t tell me we ran out. And thats all molasses is anyways, the brown stuff refined out of brown sugar to make it white sugar. But it also adds a little moisture. I also increased the baking powder a little because I tend to like my sugar cookies a little fluffier. But I did take her advice on sprinkling granulated sugar on the tops to make them crispier. I like crispy.

Oh! The other baking blog that I love that had whole wheat cookies this week was Orangette, and while those did look really good, I felt like chocolate today.

 Chocolate Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies

Sift together the dry ingredients.

Cream butter and sugar until fully combined.

Add in egg and beat for a minute or two.

Add in molasses

Beat in dry ingredients until just combined.

Chill for 2 hours. ( I have a lot of fridge space as you can see!)

Preheat oven to 350F

Lightly flour a flat surface and roll out dough to about a quarter inch thick

Cut into whatever shapes you want and chill the dough for another 10 minutes

Sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Bake for about 15 minutes depending on the size of your cookies.

Let cool and enjoy with a cup of earl grey tea!

Life is Rough

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It’s really hard being me guys. I do not get to sample amazing chocolates all day. I do not have a boss that compliments my decoupaging skills. I definitely don’t spend days making macaron topiaries Nope. I didn’t get to spend the day at the Waldorf Hotel at a Valentines Day themed pop-shop called The Love Hotel.

I also do not have the most wonderful friends who drink tea (and never ever any bourbon) and we certainly don’t make the cutest Valentines for the men in our lives.

Nope. Life is rough friends. Really rough.

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I like to think I have a reasonably sophisticated palate. I like very dark chocolate with whiskey, I like aged cheeses and I am probably unreasonably picky about salami. But I’ll confess that I love me a bad chocolate bar. Mars bars? Check. Snickers. You betcha. Bounty bars? Couldn’t live without them. So last October when Martha Stewart Living Magazine did an article on making chocolate bars into elegant desserts you know she had me. I am still wanting to try her peanut butter chocolate mousse tart but the one dessert I kept coming back to was her 100 Grande Bar Cake. Dark Chocolate cake with layers of caramel and crispy popped rice covered in milk chocolate. I know. How good does that sound.

So after months of lusting after this picture I finally got around to making it for my wonderful friend Andrew’s birthday. There are a couple changes I’ve made to the original recipe. I use a different cake batter, which is also a Martha recipe though, because I find it to be a darker and better textured cake. I also caramelize the sugar more then Martha does, and I think that that’s just a better idea. So there.

Now, I know this cake looks like alot of work, and I’d be lying if I said I said I didn’t spend the afternoon in the kitchen for this one. But this cake was amazing. Everyone at the table said it was the best cake they’d ever had. Not one of the best, THE best. So make it. Oh, I’ve also upped the amount of Chocolate covered rice, because I absolutely could not stop eating it while I was baking.

Dark Chocolate Cake

    12 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for pans

    2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans

    1 1/2 cups sugar

    3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

    1/2 teaspoon salt

    1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

    3/4 teaspoon baking soda

    1 large whole egg, room temperature

    1 large egg white, room temperature

    1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

    1 1/3 cups strong, hot coffee

  •  Preheat oven to 350F
  • Butter and Flour two 8 inch round pans
  • Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  • In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
  • Add in cocoa powder, mix until combined.
  • Add in eggs and mix on medium-high speed for another 2 minutes.
  • With the mixer on slow add in a third of the dry ingredients. Add in the half the coffee and vanilla.
  • Continue alternating dry and wet ingredients. It may look like somethings gone terribly wrong when the hot liquid hits but I promise it’s fine, the cake will be delicious.
  • Pour into prepared pans and bake until an inserted skewer comes out with only a couple moist crumbs, about 30-40 minutes.

Crisped-rice

1 1/2 cups crisped-rice

9 oz. Milk chocolate

  • melt milk chocolate in a double boiler.
  • Pour over rice.
  • Pour onto a a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  • Freeze for the first 45 minutes,
  • Cut into rough chunks about a half inch in size, but basically small pieces. Store in the fridge until ready to assemble cake.

Caramel Sauce

1/4 cup water

1 cup Sugar

1 cup Cream

1/2 cup Corn Syrup/Golden Syrup

3 tbsp Butter

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

  • Combine sugar, water, and syrup in a sauce pan over medium heat until disolved.
  • Turn heat up to high until sugar becomes a nice dark amber colour.
  • Immediately pour in cream. It will bubble up so be careful.
  • Add in butter and salt.
  • With a candy thermometer bring heat to 236F
  • Carefully pour into a metal bowl or other heat proof dish. Keep in a warm place, if it gets to cold it will be hard to pour.

Assemble Cake

  • Put one layer of cake on cake stand
  • Crumble on pieces of chocolate covered crisped rice
  • Pour over half of caramel sauce
  • Put on next piece of cake and allow to set in fridge for about 10 minutes.
  • Use about a third of the frosting to make your crumb coat- Thinly coat the cake with icing not worrying if crumbs get into it. This seals the crumbs in.
  • Allow to set for about 20 minutes in the fridge.
  • Use the rest of the icing around the cake making it as smooth as possible.
  • Pour remaining caramel on top of cake, carefully spreading it out to drip over the edges.
  • Press crisped rice around edges of cake.
  • Eat much to much! Oh my goodness this cake is good.

Paper Cuts (The Good Kind)

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Here’s the thing. I love paper cutting. I wish I owned/knew how to use a laser cutter. I just think they can be so beautiful. I love the silhouettes, I love the bold colours, I love the slightly home made feel to them. I always aim for my cuts to be perfect and then when I get close I’m disappointed. I like the lines that aren’t quite perfect. Here’s the other thing. Paper is cheap. So are exacto knives. It makes a double whammy for paper cutting.

It’s not nearly as hard as it looks, I swear, but it does take patience. The trick is to press hard so you don’t have to go back over lines. And start with something simple. I remember being surprised at how easy and quick it goes. And if you hate it you wasted a piece of paper, and not that I am condoning paper wasting, but in my books it’s better then wasting a wooden frame, canvas, oil paints, and the turpentine you need to wash your brushes. Just saying.

Now if you have no time or absolutely no artistic talent (although I really think you do!) Here are my favourite fellow paper cutters.

Firstly is Rob Ryan, I originally bought a couple of his cards and thought they were lovely and then by complete fluke I went into his store in London and then I really fell in love. Everything in there is beautiful. And they not only do paper cuts but also screen prints, printed tape, engraved keys, everything. And they are all beautiful.

If your having trouble finding Rob Ryan things around your town (if you live in Vancouver They sell some of his cards as Dream Design on Commercial Drive) then no one is better then Paper Cuts By Joe. His papercuts are so romantic. I will admit being inspired by his bicycles, and he is, obviously, much more technical then I am.

Valentine's Day Gift Papercut Couple on Bikes- 8x10

So, there are some cute valentines! Hope you feel inspired!