Canada's Favo(u)rite

I am shamefully late in posting this.  Sorry.  Life got in the way.

Since we’re in the second year of this here blog, I thought I would try something new. So, I am going to do a new series:  Around the World in Desserts!  Every month (sometimes more), I will bring you a recipe for a dessert from another country.  I am really excited about this. I have always been fascinated by the foods of other cultures, and especially the desserts (big surprise, right?).

This month, we go to Canada!  Ever since the last Winter Olympics, I have been seeing recipes for Nanaimo bars on the blogosphere.  They looked really really good, but I never made them.  Since I’ve been thinking about them for so long, I figured they were a good candidate for the first of the new series.

Nanaimo  bars originate out of Ladysmith, Vancouver Island, south of the city of Nanaimo.  A local housewife submitted the recipe for the bars in the early 1950s to a regional cookbook.  As with many popular desserts, they soon became very popular with locals and tourists, and the bars soon became known as “Nanaimo bars”. 

A Nanaimo bar consisted of three layers, none of which are baked (it’s not cheating when it’s this good).  The base is a chocolate, graham cracker, coconut and almond cookie layer.  The middle is a vanilla custard buttercream filling, and the top is chocolate.  These were so tasty.  Amazing, in fact.  Even coming from me, and my general dislike of buttercream.  And, they are pretty easy to make!  They just require a little time, as each layer has to set in the fridge before adding the next layer. 

One ingredient that is called for is not all that common in the US – custard powder.  I read a lot of blogs that said that they couldn’t find custard powder locally, so they substituted vanilla pudding mix instead.  I must be lucky, because I found custard powder in the small local grocery store near my house.  Actually, I wouldn’t have even looked at that store, but I discovered I had the wrong flavor pudding mix, so I had to go to the store anyway.  Lucky accident I guess. 

I have heard that these bars freeze nicely.  I would have tried that out, but I didn’t get the chance.  Every one of them was eaten by someone, and all but one person (who has a crazy aversion to coconut) loved them. 

Nanaimo Bars

Source: That Winsome Girl (who got the recipe from someone else)

Makes 16 bars

Bottom Layer

½ cup unsalted butter

¼ cup sugar

5 Tbsp cocoa

1 egg, beaten

1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs (that was 11 graham cracker sheets for me)

½ cup blanched almonds

1 cup coconut

Melt first 3 ingredients in top of double boiler. Add eggs and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, coconut, and nuts (works well if you grind up the graham crackers, and then add the coconut and nuts to the food processor and grind them all together to make an even mixture). Press firmly into a parchment-lined 8” x 8” pan. Refrigerate while making second layer.

Second Layer

½ cup unsalted butter

2 Tbsp and 2 tsp cream

2 Tbsp vanilla custard powder (or vanilla pudding mix)

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and powdered sugar together well.  Beat until light. Spread over bottom layer. Refrigerate while making third layer.

Third Layer

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate (chips are fine, or a bar that has been chopped up)

2 Tbsp unsalted butter *

*I ended up using 3 Tbsp butter.  I started with 2, but the chocolate was not melting to a nice pourable consistency.  I added the other tablespoon of butter and all was good.

Melt chocolate and butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, but still liquid, pour over second layer and chill in refrigerator. Slice with a warm knife when ready to serve.

A note about slicing: To get nice clean cuts, that make a minimum amount of chocolate smears on the cream layer, run the knife under hot water, wipe it dry, and do one slice. JUST ONE! Wipe the knife off, and repeat the whole process.  Yes, it’s kind of nit-picky, but it makes for clean cuts.



Cookies for (slight unhinged) Champions

Hi there!

So, after the race last Sunday, I spent a few days visiting April in Vegas, which is why I didn’t put this recipe up sooner. 

Since running 13.1 miles means that I would pretty much eat anything in sight afterward, I made some cookies, which I brought with me to our hotel.  I wanted something fun and different, and since April and I are both slightly unhinged, these cookies could be weird (not in taste, but in appearance).

I found this recipe on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.  I completely, 100% adore her blog.  Everything is so fun and different, and everything that I have made from her blog has been amazing.  Please check out her blog if you get a chance.  You won’t be sorry!  Anyway, as soon as I saw these, and how fun and pretty they were, I knew I had to make them for Disneyland.   Bonus points for the recipe because the dough can be made in advance. 

I did have some trouble with this one.  First off, I’m relatively certain that my dough was too soft.  Maybe I over processed it.   But, I chilled it for a few hours, thinking it would be okay.  Second, I had trouble with the spiraling part.  You’ll notice that my cookies do not look like pretty spirals.  When I tried to roll it, even though the dough was cold but pliable, it wouldn’t curl nicely.  It just sort of folded.   It was late on the night that I was making the dough, and I was really tired, so this was really frustrating.  But, I was too tired to mess with it further, so I just sort let it fold in on itself, and then made a half-hearted attempt at shaping it into a round log with my hands.  If my hands hadn’t been covered in hot pink cookie dough, I would have taken pictures.  Trust me when I say it was a mess.  But, I semi-prevailed.  I rolled the log in sprinkles, wrapped it up in wax paper, and stuck it in the fridge.  They seemed to bake up just fine in the end, so I guess its all okay. And they tasted great!

About the eyes.  I mentioned that April and I are both slightly unhinged.  While perusing the grocery store baking section, I came across this little package of candy eyeballs.  I think they are hilarious, so I bought a pack to use on the cookies.  Here’s the thing I learned: don’t put them on the cookies until the last few minutes of baking, or they will melt into the cookies.  For the first batch, I stuck them on in the beginning.  For the second batch, they went on when there were about 6 minutes left of the baking, and they still melted more than I would have liked.  Lesson learned.  But, they still look kind of crazy, and funny, so I accept my results. 

You can make these cookies whatever color combo you would like.  Peabody made hers purple.  I made mine pink.  You choose. 

Vanilla Cake Batter Swirl Cookies

Source: Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Makes about 30 cookies

1 ½ cups cake flour

2/3 cup cake batter (I used funfetti)

½ tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

10 ounces unsalted butter

2/3 cup powdered sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp cake flour

2 tbsp food coloring (you choose)

1 ½ cups sprinkles

Combine flour, cake batter, baking powder, salt and sugars in a food processor and process briefly to mix. Add the butter in pieces; process with on/off bursts until the mixture has the consistency of cornmeal.  Add the vanilla and process until the mixture just forms a ball. (fp note: mine didn’t really form a ball.  Perhaps my butter was too soft when it went it.  I don’t really know.)

Divide the dough into 2 equal parts and then return one of the portions to the food processor. Add the food coloring and the extra tbsp of flour to the processor and process until just incorporated.

Roll out each portion of dough between sheets of waxed paper. You want a rectangle about 11 x 8 1/2 inches.  Leave the dough between the sheets of waxed paper and slide onto a baking sheet. Refrigerate until firm, for at least 2 hours.

Remove dough pieces from refrigerator. Pour the sprinkles into a shallow rectangular dish.

Peel off the top sheet of waxed paper from both dough’s. Brush the vanilla dough very lightly with water. Using the waxed paper, lift the colored dough and flip it onto the vanilla dough so they are stacked. Press with your fingertips to seal the two doughs together. Remove the top sheet of waxed paper and trim the edges even.

When the dough is just pliable (but still cold), roll up the dough like a jelly roll. As you begin to roll, gently curl the edge with your fingertips so you don’t get any air pockets as you roll into a log. As you roll, the vanilla portion may want to tear (or totally break, like mine did), pinch it together as this happens and keep rolling.

After forming the dough into a log, throw away the waxed paper. Gently lift the log on top of the sprinkles and roll until the log is completely coated. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm enough to slice (about 4 hours, or overnight, or whatever). (fp note: I learned a nifty trick for keeping cookie logs from getting a flat spot while in the fridge – take a paper towel tube, and slice it down one side. Cuff this onto the cookie log, and your cookies will stay round!)

Heat oven to 325 degrees. To bake, slice the log in ¼ inch thick cookies and bake on parchment lined baking sheets for 15-17 minutes, until cookies are no longer shiny on top and the vanilla portion is golden.

I've got news!

This post isn't about baking.  It's not even about food.  There is no recipe here.  I know that this is a baking blog, but I am asking you to indulge me for a minute.

Yesterday, I completed a half marathon.  13.1 miles.  That's a lot.  In a moment of craziness, my bff of 20 years, April, convinced me to train for this thing.  I trained for months, and the race was yesterday.  I use the term "race" very liberally.  I had no intention of actually competing.  I just wanted to finish.  And I did!! I have to say, crossing that finish line might have been one of the proudest moments of my life.  I think I did some sort of laugh/cry/gasp for air thing.  I really hope no one caught that on camera.

But, as proof, I will give you one picture of April and I, post-race.  I promise you a cookie recipe in a little while, but first, I'm taking a little vacation.

Portable Goodness

I saw these cookies in my googly reader, and I immediately starred them.  I had originally planned to make them for a special occasion (more on that soon), but then I found something better.  I thought this recipe would languish in my “to be made” pile for a long time, but I was wrong.  I ended up making these cookies about a week after I saved the recipe, to send with the Hubster to a birthday party. 

These cookies were a snap to make!  Very simple and quick.  And boy, were they tasty!  They have the flavor and texture of red velvet cake, but in a more portable, easier-to-eat cookie form.  Although I didn’t get to go to the party, the Hubster said that every cookie was gobbled right up. 

I have a few notes about these.  First, I always seem to forget just how much red food coloring you need to make these look like red cookies. I used gel food coloring, because that’s what I keep around.  I don’t think it matters if you use gel or liquid, just know that you will need a lot.  I wanted mine to be brighter, but I think that the cocoa powder hinders that.  So whatever.  Second, I could have used more cream cheese.  The original recipe says to mix it in with the mixer, and only for a second.  I decided that I would have more control if I did it by hand with a spatula, which I did.  But I still feel like I didn’t get the swirls that I wanted.  So, be careful.  I used 4 tablespoons of cream cheese (original recipe calls for 3), and I wanted more when all was said and done. 

I highly recommend these cookies.  And, the original recipe has nutrition stats, saying that they are only 100 calories per cookie!  But, I dare you to eat just one….

Red Velvet Cookies with Cream Cheese Swirl
Source: Amy Bites

Makes about 22 small cookies.

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon red food coloring
1 ½ cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
4 tablespoons Neufchatel or reduced fat cream cheese, softened.
Preheat oven to 375ºF..

Cream butter and sugars together until fluffy and well-combined..

Beat in egg and vanilla, then beat in food coloring..

Add flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder and mix until just combined..

Add cream cheese in pieces to dough and fold in with a rubber spatula briefly until just swirled.

(fp note: I like to chill my cookie dough before baking, so I stuck mine in the fridge, and didn’t turn the oven on to preheat it until after I made the dough.  By the time the oven was ready, the dough was chilled enough for me.).

Portion out by tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheet and bake 10-12 minutes. Cool on cookie sheets..

Messing around in the kitchen



Here's a little factoid about the FP household: we LOVE Bailey's.  One of my favorite drinks is Bailey's and root beer.   Before you judge, you should try it.  It tastes like an adult root beer float.  It even gets that yummy foam on the top!  So good.  I want one right now. 

But I digress...

I was scanning through my googly reader, and I came across a recipe for a Bailey's bundt cake.  I was instantly interested.  But, the recipe called for a box of cake mix and a box of pudding mix.  I don't have any sort of moral objection to boxed mixes, but I don't normally have them the house.  I didn't feel like going out and buying them just for this, so I used the inspiration of that recipe to make my own. 

I went the simple way for this.  I started with a basic pound cake recipe, and added some Bailey's, and a couple of extra tablespoons of flour, to keep the liquid/flour balance.  The technique worked, but I am only half pleased with the results.  The cake itself tasted very good, and was soft and moist, but the Bailey's flavor wasn't as pronounced as I had hoped.  I will try to make this again, finding a new way to get more of the flavor that I want.  But, in the meantime, here is what I did this time:

Bailey's Pound Cake

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen "Family Baking Book"

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup Bailey's

16 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and hot

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch loaf pan (fp note: i used baking spray, because it was easier. worked just fine.). Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl.
2. Process the sugar, eggs, Bailey's and vanilla together in a food processor until combined, about 10 seconds. With the machine running, pour the hot melted butter through the feed tube in a steady stream until combined, about 30 seconds. Pour the mixture into a large bowl.
3. Sift one-third of the flour mixture over the egg mixture and whisk to combine until just a few streaks of flour remain. Repeat twice more with the remaining flour mixture, then continue to whisk the batter gently until most lumps are gone.
4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Wipe any drops of batter off the sides of the pan and gently tap the pan on the counter to settle the batter. Bake the cake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 50 to 60 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.
5. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Run a small knife around the edge of the cake to loosen, then flip it out onto a wire rack. Turn the cake right side up and let it cool completely, about 2 hours, before serving.



Happy Blogivesary to Us!

Happy Blogiversary!! That's right, one year ago today, I started this little blog.  I have honestly really enjoyed blogging, since it gives me an opportunity to share my love of baking with a few more people (though not that many), and it gives me an excuse to bake more.

Since this is a big occasion for me, I wanted to make something special.  Something I've wanted to make for a while but never had a reason.  And, something I could stick a candle in.  By the way, I would like to make a shout out to C for the super cute cupcake candle holder and the green and red cupcake kitchen towels you see in the above photo.  I considered many recipes for this post, but in the end, I remembered that there was something I had been wanting to make for a long time, so I chose that option.  So, what is that delectable thing in the photos?  Why, it's a crepe cake!!

A crepe cake is basically what the name implies.  It's a cake made by layering crepes with some sort of filling -- in this case, chocolate pudding.  I was reminded of my desire to make one of these when I was perusing my newest cookbook, "Sugar Baby" by Gesine Bullock-Prado.  It's an amazing book, with wonderful recipes and beautiful pictures, as well as fun and interesting comments thrown in.  I highly recommend it if you are a baking and candy making lover like I am.  I ended up adapting my recipe from hers, because hers is a very rich version, with mocha crepes and bittersweet chocolate pudding.  I wanted something a little lighter, so I made plain vanilla crepes, and regular chocolate pudding, which I further lightened with a small amount of fresh whipped cream, and then topped with a milk chocolate ganache.  The recipe I have here is what I made.  For the original version, check out the book!

This dessert does not disappoint.  The multitude of thin layers made for a delightful texture.  It sort of reminded me of a grown up version of chocolate chip pancakes.  I loved it so much.

A few notes: 

• Crepes are not difficult, but they take a little practice.  Even though the recipe says to melt a little butter in the pan before making crepes, and to melt more butter in the pan as needed between crepes, I actually found that mine came out better when I didn't add butter.  I guess that depends on the non-stickness of your pans.  I also found it easiest to spoon the two tablespoons of batter right into the middle of the pan, and swirl it around from there.  That gave me even and nice round crepes.  Use the thinnest non-metal spatula that you have to flip them, and remove them from the pan.  I ended up lifting it with a spatula, and then flipping it with my hands.  I don't recommend this because those babies are hot!
• For the assembly, I would layer a crepe with a couple tablespoons of pudding, spread it around, put on another crepe, and then stick it in the freezer for a couple of minutes.  Sometimes I would do 2 or 3 layers between freezings.  I found this trick on the Sugar Baby website, and it was very helpful in keeping the layers stable (as the pudding warms, it gets squishier).
• My pudding may have been a little too soft, because when I went to cut the cake, this is what happened:

Still tasty, just a little messy.  When I cut it the next day, after it had been in the fridge, I didn't have this problem. Oh well, I'll eat it anyway. 

Crepe Cake

Source: Adapted from "Sugar Baby" by Gesine Bullock-Prado

For the Crepes:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, plus more for the pan

1 cup whole milk, plus extra if needed

1/2 cup water

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

1/4 cup agave nectar*

*a note about agave nectar: yes, this is something a little more specialty than I would normally use, but I wanted to try it out.  It's not cheap, but I used it for both the crepes and the pudding, and I see myself using it in future.  It's a liquid, slightly thinner than honey.  I plan to try it in other recipes, and I'll let you know how it goes.

1. Melt the butter (I did this in the microwave).
2. Transfer the butter along with all the remaining ingredients into a blender of food processor and process until completely blended.
3. Cover and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour to dissipate any bubbles left over from the blitzing, and to hydrate the flour and relax the gluten (fp note: since I made mine in the blender, I just put the lid on the blender pitcher and stuck it in the fridge. worked just fine)
4. Pour the batter through a sieve and into a large container. If you find that the batter has thickened too much in the fridge to flow freely, stir in 1 tablespoon milk at a time until it reaches pourable consistency.
5. In a 6-inch nonstick frying pan over medium-low heat, melt a small pat of butter, swirling the pan to make sure it is evenly coated with butter but not with so much that it pools.
6. Remove the pan from the heat. Pour 2 tablespoons of the crepe batter into the pan, swirling it around to coat the pan and form an even circle. Cook over medium-low heat until the crepe releases, then flip and cook until it is cooked through. Remove from the pan to a plate. Put parchment between each crepe so that they don't stick together when you stack them up.
7. Repeat this process with the remaining batter.
8. The crepes need to be completely cool before you layer them with the pudding.  Since I made all of mine at once, I put them in the fridge to cool a little bit.

For the Chocolate Pudding:

1/2 cup agave nectar

1/2 cocoa powder

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup coffee

1 tablespoon cornstarch

3 egg yolks

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup heavy cream, whipped (optional)

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, whisk together the agave nectar, cocoa powder, heavy cream, and salt until the mixture comes to a simmer. Remove from the heat.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coffee and cornstarch. While whisking constantly, add the egg yolks one at a time and then add the vanilla extract.
3. Return the pan containing the cocoa mixture to the stove. Pour the egg mixture into the cocoa mixture, whisking constantly over medium heat. Clip on a candy thermometer and whisk for about 5 minutes, until the pudding thickens and the temperature reaches 200 F. 
4. Transfer the pudding to a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic wrap touches the entire surface of the pudding.  Refrigerate until chilled. 
5. When you are ready to use the pudding, gently fold in the whipped cream, if using. 

For the Milk Chocolate Ganache:

4 ounces milk chocolate (chopped or chips is fine)

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon butter

In a heatproof bowl set over a small pot of simmering water, melt the chocolate with the cream, stirring until completely smooth.  Remove from the heat and add the butter, stirring to melt and combine.  Set aside and let it cool at room temperature until you are ready to use it, and it has reached a pourable consistency.

Assembly:

1. Give the pudding a good stir to loosen up. 
2. Lay a crepe on a serving plate.  With a small offset spatula, spread 1 heaping tablespoon of the pudding evenly over the crepe. Lay another crepe on top of the pudding, and spread another heaping tablespoon over the second crepe.  Repeat this process until you've using all your crepes.  Any left over pudding can be licked out of the bowl when no one's looking.
3. Gently cover the crepe cake with plastic wrap and place it in the freezer to set for about 1 hour.  You don't want it frozen, just set enough to slice easily.  Right. That didn't work so well for me.

Enjoy!!

Not trying to be sneaky

Yes, those are green bits in those muffins.  No, they are not green sprinkles, or candied lime peels.  Yes, they are veggies.  Zucchini, actually.  There, I've said it.  These muffins have zucchini in them, and I'm not trying to hide it. 

I happen to really like zucchini, but sometimes I go a little overboard when purchasing it, and I end up with more that we can eat in Chez Flourpile.  Rather than letting it rot in my fridge, I decided to use up some of it in these muffins.  They do use some whole wheat flour, and veggies, and no butter, so I guess you could consider them healthy.  And, they are super tasty!!  To me, they tasted a lot like carrot cake, which leads me to believe that they would be really good with cream cheese frosting.  I did discover that if you spread a little cream cheese on the top of them, they make a great pre-run snack. 

When I made these, I totally thought I had a home run.  The Hubster enjoyed them, and I really like them.  But, I took them to work, and they were not as universally enjoyed.  Most of the time, I don't have any leftovers when I take stuff to work, but that was not the case this time.  There were people that wouldn't come near them, solely because they contained veggies.  Whatever.  Haters gonna hate.  Their loss.

The original recipe (which can be found here) calls for wheat germ.  I don't have that in the house, and I didn't feel like going out to buy it just for this, so I omitted it.  I'm sure it makes them healthier, but that wasn't really my goal, so I don't see it as a loss. 

Whole Wheat Zucchini Muffins
Makes 24 muffins
Source: In Erika's Kitchen

3 eggs
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
3/4 cup grapeseed or canola oil
2 3/4 cups grated zucchini (do not peel)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon (fp note: pumpkin pie spice would be nice here too!)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 24-cup muffin tin with paper liners and spray it lightly with cooking spray, just in case the muffins rise over the edges of the cups.
2. Whisk the eggs and sugar together until light and creamy. Add the oil and whisk until incorporated. Add the zucchini and vanilla and mix to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon until combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix just to combine. Stir in the wheat germ.
4. Divide the batter evenly among the 24 muffin cups. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick or tester comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the pan and cool on a rack.