Crazy For Sweets

Summer Update

2011-08-21T12:22:00.004-04:00

Apricot Jam

I have been making jam but not as much as I had hoped to make. I missed out on the raspberries at the market. Have to wait until next year! Sigh...

Hiking Albion Falls trail

I have been taking advantages of the amazing weather we've had this summer by going hiking, biking and relaxing at the beach!

Hard Work

2011-08-04T23:38:00.000-04:00

Yes, its hard work eating freshly picked blueberries…so hard I only managed to pick 5lbs! J I think it was because I ate most of them before they landed in the bucket! Hopefully August will bring us more sunny weekends and I’ll get to go berry picking again.

Farmers Market

2011-07-17T09:49:00.000-04:00

Strawberry Season

2011-07-03T10:56:00.000-04:00

Although I’m not a huge strawberry fan, I’ve been waiting anxiously to go berry picking this season. I wanted to make some jam with freshly picked Ontario strawberries; what is better than picking it myself?

I guess everyone is on the lookout for organic PYO fruits; when we got there the parking lot was full and everyone was parked on the street. It was a huge change from last summer. They also moved the strawberry patch to another area of the farm. We had to walk through a muddy trail to get to the large strawberry patch. Thankfully it was worth the walk and the mud had dried up for the walk out from the patch.

The type of strawberries that were available this year is a little different. Last year, they were small but extremely sweet. This year, they’re big and pretty but not exceptionally sweet. Instead, they taste very fresh, very strawberry flavoured. I didn’t pick as much as last summer but have enough for a few jars of jam. I might go pick up some different varieties from the market and freeze them to make jam later this year. Hopefully, dad doesn’t fly through his jam so quickly.

My Edible Garden

2011-06-26T10:23:00.000-04:00

Viola TriColor

Viola Tri Color - perfect as an edible garnish or in salads.

Alpine Strawberry plant

Russian blue potato plant

Atomic Red carrots

I've been busy with my edible garden lately. I'm crossing my fingers for my carrots and potato! Hopefully I'll be able to harvest something this year! :)

My not so swirly raisin bread

2011-05-29T09:32:00.002-04:00

I started out using the tangzhong method for making bread. With my so-called success, I wanted to branch out a little bit. I turned to the trusted Baking: From my home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I had success with most of her recipes and felt her bread recipes would not disappoint. I decided on her Raisin Swirl Bread recipe as it allowed me to make the bread over the course of two nights. I have to say it was very easy to make, easier than the tangzhong method. My loaf didn’t turn as as swirly as I used a different size loaf pan and didn’t roll out my dough to match it. Nevertheless, I was happy it turned out almost like the picture in the book, just less swirly.

Now, one cannot make raisin bread and not make French toast. As a side to my French toast, I knew I wanted bacon as for once, there was some in my fridge. In a discussion we had at work about bacon (yes, we’re always discussing food), my friend show me how I can make maple bacon. I don’t know why I never thought of that before and it’s super easy to make! I paired it with some fruit to make it a little healthier.

I been looking and waiting and was finally able to get my hands on some duck eggs. Although I had brunch plans, I couldn’t resist making fried duck egg on raisin toast. It's definitely more tasty then regular chicken eggs. I didn’t feel like sunny side up, so I made it overeasy…which didn’t make it look as appealing presentation-wise. It was good and the greek yogurt with fruit was a perfect side. I still managed to eat at brunch and even had lunch!

Raisin Swirl Bread – Makes 1 loaf in 9x5” loaf pan

For the bread

1 packet active dry yeast

¼ cup sugar, plus a pinch

1 ¼ cup just-warm-to-the-touch whole milk

½ stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

¾ tsp salt

1 large egg

3 ¾ to 4 cups all-purpose flour

For the swirl

1 tbsp sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup moist, plump raisins (dark or golden)

3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened to a spreadable consistency

1. Put the yeast in a small bowl, toss in the pinch of sugar and stir in ¼ cup of the warm milk. Let rest for 3 minutes, then stir – the yeast may not have dissolved completely and may not have bubbled, but it should be soft

2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, combine remaining 1 cup of milk, the butter and the remaining ¼ cup sugar and mix on low speed for a minute or two. Add the salt, and egg and mix for a minute. The mixture will look unpleasantly curdly. Add the yeast mixture and beat on medium-low speed for 1 minute.

3. Turn off the mixer and add 2 ¾ cups of the flour. Mix on low speed just until you work the flour into the liquids – you’ll have a sticky mix. If you’ve got a dough hook, switch to it now. Add another 1 cup of flour, increase mixer speed to medium and beat the dough for a couple of minutes. If the dough does not come together and almost clean up the sides of the bowl, add up to ¼ cup more flour, 1 tbsp at a time. Keep the mixer speed at medium and knead the doubh for about 3 minutes, or until it is smooth and has a lovely buttery sheen. The dough will be very soft, much too soft to knead by hand.

4. Butter a large bowl, turn the dough into the bowl and cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Put the bowl in a warm place and let the dough rise until it is double in size, about 1 ½ hours.

5. Scrape dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap, wrap it and put it in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm enough to be rolled easily. At this point, you can instead refrigerate the dough overnight.

6. To make the swirl, whisk together the sugar, and cinnamon. Check that the raisins are nice and moist, if not, steam them for a minute, and then dry well.

7. Put the dough on a large work surface lightly dusted with flour and lightly dust the top of the dough and roll the dough into a rectangle about 12 x 18 inches.

8. Gently smear 2 tbsp of butter over the surface of the dough – this is most easily done with your fingers.

9. Sprinkle over the sugar mixture and scatter over the raisin. Starting from a short side of the dough, roll the dough up jelly-roll fashion, making sure to roll the dough snugly. Fit the dough into the buttered pan, seam side down, and tuck the ends under the loaf.

10. Cover pan loosely with wax paper and set in a warm place; let dough rise until it comes just a little above the edge of the pan, about 45 minutes.

11. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment or silicone mat.

12. Melt the remaining 1 tbsp of butter, and brush the top of the loaf with the butter.

13. Put the pan on the baking sheet and bake the bread for about 20 minutes. Cover loosely with f a foil tent and bake for another 25 minutes or so.

14. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes, then unmold. Inver the bread and cool to room temperature ride side up on the rack.

Wrapped in plastic, the loaf will keep at room temperature for about 3 days; wrapped airtight, it will keep in freezer for up to 2 months.

Soft, Fluffy Bread

2011-05-16T22:31:00.000-04:00

I have forayed into the world of making bread. So far the journey has been a sweet one – I’ve only tried making tangzhong bread. Using Christine’s recipe, I made Hong Kong sweet bread – it’s definitely as soft and fluffy as she said it would be. I’m excited to try my hand at making Chinese buns and eventually into non-tangzhong bread.

Fresh from the market

2011-05-15T01:43:00.001-04:00

Pasta with smoked whitefish, asparagus and spinach

There was so much to see this morning at the market. Since I was short on time, I didn’t get a chance to stroll around and look at all the heirloom seedlings they had for sale. However, I did get what I was looking for and more. On my list this morning was fresh asparagus – I ended up buying slim ones from Wooler Dale Farm. I also picked up some smoked whitefish from Akiwenzie's Fish, kale and daisies – so pretty!

I’m looking forward to going back to the market next week to get some seedlings for my mom’s garden. I have given up hope on growing tomatoes on my balcony…there just isn’t enough sunlight during the day.

Summer is coming!

2011-05-09T23:39:00.000-04:00

Summer is slowly creeping up on us. We got lucky and were blessed with some amazing weather on our first “fun run” on Saturday. It was to up to cottage country, Muskoka. I can see how beautiful it would be in the fall. Still trying to figure out my camera…I think the pictures are improving slowly!

Making use of my Cookbook Collection

2011-04-30T08:21:00.001-04:00

I love buying cookbooks so when a favourite cookbook author has a new book, I almost always have to buy them. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t normally pre-order. I go through the process of whether I need it, will use it but in the end always reward myself with it. In the end, it normally just sits on the shelf with all my other books waiting to be used. However, I have now decided that if I don’t use more of the books I currently own, I won’t allow myself to buy more. I’ve owned a few of Dorie Greenspan’s baking books and jumped on the chance to buy her current cookbook – Around My French Table. I’m happy to say I’ve used one of her chicken recipes and it was delicious and easy to make.

After realizing I had four apples way past its prime but still edible, I remember seeing this Apple cake recipe in Dorie’s book. I took it out and love that it had very few ingredients. I think preparing the apples took the longest for me. I agree with Dorie that the appeal of this cake is that it’s simple but satisfying. So if you have four extra apples lying around, please make this cake. I’m sure you’ll love it!

Marie-Helene’s apple cake – makes one 8inch cake
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Around my French Table

Ingredients
¾ cup all purpose flour
¾ tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
4 large apples (if you can, choose 4 different kinds)
2 large eggs
¾ cup sugar
3 tbsp dark rum (I omitted this as I didn’t have any)
½ tsp pure vanilla extra (also omitted as I don’t like using it)
8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Center a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 350F. Butter the springform cake pan and place on baking sheet.
1. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together
2. Peel , core and cut apples into 1 to 2” chunks
3. In a medium bowl, beat eggs with whisk until foamy. Pour in sugar and whisk for a minute or so to blend. Whisk in rum and vanilla extract. Whisk in half of flour mixture, when incorporated, add half of melted butter, followed by rest of the flour and the remaining butter. Mix gently after each addition so you have a smooth, rather thick batter.
4. Switch to a rubber spatula and fold in apples. Turn fruit so it’s coasted with batter and scrape evenly into prepared pan.
5. Bake cake for 50-60 minutes or until top of the cake is golden brown and a knife inserted in comes out. Cake also pulls away from sides of the pan. Transfer to a cooling rack and rest for 5 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. This cake keeps at room temperate for about 2 days.

Enjoy!

Bittersweet Visit to Hong Kong

2011-04-03T05:18:00.004-04:00

An unfortunate event brought us back to HK end of March. Since it’ll be a while before we visit again, we decided to pig out. We just had to stuff our faces with the amazingly cheap and yummy food that HK offers. We visited old favourites and found new loves.

Polo Bun from Kam Wah Cafe - a new discovery from last year

Crispy BBQ pork buns from Tim Ho Wan

We didn`t plan on eating at Tim Ho Wan as on the day of our arrival to HK, Tomy`s brother had tried going to their Mong Kok location with no luck. Since we would only be free to explore HK for two full days, we decided to pass on it. However on our last day there, we walked by the Sham Shui Po location and surprisingly no lineups. Since we were already full but didn`t want to pass on the chance to try something, we went for the popular crispy bbq pork bun. We fell in love…however it`ll be awhile before we can have dim sum at the world`s cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant.

I'm so jet-lagged right now...couldn't sleep all night. It must be age, don't recall it being so hard to get over jetlag.

Spaghetti alla Bolognese

2011-02-19T20:02:00.000-05:00

For 4 servings:

1lb of extra lean ground beef

½ medium onion diced

5 cloves of garlic (can be reduced to 2 cloves – I like it garlicky)

1 cup of red wine

1 can of tomatoes

1 tbsp of tomato paste

2 dried bay leaves

Seasoning of salt and pepper

1. Heat oil still simmering, add onions and garlic and cook till onions soft and translucent. Stir frequently to avoid garlic from burning.

2. Add ground beef and stir to break down to small pieces

3. When ground beef browned, add the wine and simmer until evaporates.

4. Add the can of tomatoes and tomato paste, bay leaf and simmer for about one hour or until sauce is thick.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-15T19:42:00.005-05:00

My first post of 2011 is a little late but it’s been so crazy at work; I’ve had no time to do much of anything. My New Year’s resolution this year was to not be so lazy. I definitely haven’t been lazy; I even went into work on New Year’s Day! Yet, the work seems to be never-ending. I think work has slowly taking over my life. I need to work harder to balance it out again. Even though I worked some crazy hours this week, I somehow managed to make bake twice, and all in one night! I made banana loaf for Tomy and bittersweet brownies for myself. I’ve experimented with various brownie recipes and still think this one is the best…8ozs of 70% bittersweet chocolate. How can you beat that? The recipe comes from Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert.

Bittersweet Brownies Adapted from Alice Medrich's Pure Dessert

Ingredients (makes sixteen 2” brownies):

8oz 70% bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped – I used Lindt
3oz unsalted butter, cut into several pieces
3 large eggs
150g sugar
Scant ¼ tsp salt
1.2oz all purpose flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F and line 8” square baking pan with parchment
1. Place chocolate and butter in heatproof bowl and set over a pan of almost simmering water. Stir frequently until mixture is melted, smooth and quite warm. Remove and set aside.
2. In medium bowl, beat eggs, sugar and salt until eggs are thick and light coloured.
3. Whisk in warm chocolate and fold in flour.
4. Scrape batter into lined pan and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Enjoy!

Pretty things...

2010-11-28T14:10:00.007-05:00

Wait - there's an explanation for my absence! An unexpected event resulted in us flying back to HK for a few weeks. When I got home, I was totally jetlagged and exhausted from work...I barely cooked, let alone baked. When I did back, I was too lazy to take pictures. Ok, enough with the excuses, let me share some pretty things I bought yesterday.

I was looking to get some more delicata squash at the farmer's market yesterday when I spotted this squash. Yes... it's the kuri squash or as the French call it, potimarron.

Besides scoring this squash, they finally had oxtail from Green Gate Farms; ok, I basically asked them to save me some as I've been getting to the market too late to get some before they sell out. Apparently, they only get oxtail every two weeks. Right now, the oxtail is simmering on the stove for tomorrow night's dinner! :)

Some more pretty things purchased this weekend:

from Coco's Closet

from Lemon Park

It's been years since I've gone to the One of A Kind Show and it's much bigger than I remember and with more food products for sale. I guess that's what attracts the crowds as there was much more people than I remember.

I was debating between the two pieces but decided to get both as they would go with different outfits. I'm pretty excited and happy about my purchases.

Menaggio

2010-10-09T01:16:00.000-04:00

It’s been a hectic quarter end that’s not quite over. I wish I could wake up tomorrow to this amazing view.

My Pefect Weekend

2010-09-26T11:13:00.002-04:00

My perfect weekend starts off with going to the farmers market for fresh produce. This is what I got yesterday along with some naturally raised meats.

Although we've been lazy, we should be enjoying this nice weather by being outdoors. We drove out to Niagara for some hiking and much needed exercise. The leaves have started to change colours but I think it'll be at its peak in two weeks. Have to go back to take some more pictures.

Sunday is my lazy day!

Summer 2010

2010-08-29T21:57:00.000-04:00

It’s been busy summer this year with the discovery of many pick your own berry farms, and local organic farmer markets. With the abundance of fresh local produce, I have been trying to cook more and eat healthier. Hence, less baking, although I think the main reason is that I have too many distractions. With all this fresh fruits, I already made a few batches of jam this summer. I already finished two jars of strawberry, a jar of raspberry and currently enjoying my blackberry jam. I have stocked my freezer with freshly picked berries for more jamming over the winter, and have just finished making italian plum jam this morning. Hmmm, plum jam, that brings me back to the reason I started jamming this summer. My plum jam doesn’t taste like the one from Italy (I know as I licked the spoon), but I’m happy as this may be my best batch of jam I made. My previous jams were either too watery or overcooked but somehow I feel this jam is perfect…I guess I’ll find out when I dig into it after I finish my blackberry jam.

Baking wise, I did manage to make a successful batch of sesame macarons,. Well not 100% successful as not the whole batch turned out, but successful as it was full of sesame flavour and not insanely sweet. The humidity really affected the drying of the macarons. I think I’ll have to wait until it’s less humid before churning out another batch.

Besides getting fresh fruits, I have been enjoying many fresh veggies from the market. Just the other day, I snagged some fresh edamame beans! They even had stalks of them for sale so of course I had to get some.

Blueberries!!

2010-08-05T00:17:00.000-04:00

Highbush blueberries

After eating my friend’s freshly picked blueberries last summer, I knew I had to go this year. We lucked out over the weekend as it was overcast when we got to the farm. The first thing I thought of when I got to the farm was that highbush blueberry plants are so pretty. Different shades of red, purple and blue. I have to say, out of all the berries I picked this summer, blueberries are the easiest and the least effort. I didn’t get too much, just under 7lbs but ate lots of berries while picking away.

Fresh berry tart

I really didn’t mean to make tarts but my mom requested it as we had relatives in town for dinner. It was yummy but I rather eat the berries fresh. I’ll save the store-bought berries for cakes and tarts.

Zucchini Bread

2010-07-25T10:14:00.001-04:00

It’s zucchinis take two. I still had a few zucchinis leftover so I decided to try Smitten Kitchen’s zucchini bread recipe. It wasn’t as moist as I would like it but I suspect I overbaked it. The addition of golden raisins and walnuts works really well. If I manage to find more zucchinis at the market this week, I’ll probably make the chocolate cake again with the addition of raisins.
I love farmers markets but haven’t been able to make any of the Saturday markets in the last few weeks. I made it down to City hall this past Wednesday but found it paled in comparison to the organic markets. I guess I have to hike down to Dufferin Grove again on Thursday. Evergreen has a downtown market on Thursday during lunch hours but there are only a handful of vendors. Looking forward to going to Brickworks on Saturday mornings again.

First Harvest

2010-07-20T00:07:00.001-04:00

First harvest of my red currant tomato plant. I ate one right after taking this shot...was delicious, very sweet.

Chocolate zucchini cake

2010-07-18T11:45:00.004-04:00

Assortment of zucchinis from Dufferin Grove Farmers Market

It’s been a hot summer this year so I’ve been trying to avoid using my oven. I’ve kept busy making jam, sorbets and just eating fresh local fruits.

In effort to purchase fresh locally grown organic fruits and vegetables, I’ve been visiting various farmer markets around the city. I was able to get myself down to Dufferin Grove Farmers Market on Thursday. Almost every vendor had zucchinis for sale. Of course I had to pick up some fresh zucchinis for dinner and saved some for cake.

I settled on this recipe by Simply Recipes which was as moist as she described it. I love the addition of the walnuts although I felt it was missing one thing – raisins. I found the flavours of the cake intensified after storing for a few days. I will definitely try this recipe again and throw in some raisins to see if it’s the “something” that’s missing.

Hard Work

2010-07-16T00:33:00.000-04:00

Homemade raspberry jam - those were store bought raspberries. All my berries went into the jam. :)

I didn’t realize raspberry picking would be such hard work. I was there for over 2.5 hours and only got a quart of blackcurrants and a just over a quart of raspberries. I ended up using all the raspberry to make jam and froze the blackcurrants until I decide what to do with them.

Unfortunately, the purple raspberries weren’t ready the day I went to the farm – I guess I will have to go back next year.

Framboise Kit Kat

2010-06-21T00:34:00.002-04:00

I love the combination of raspberry with chocolate so of course I had to buy this Framboise kit kat when I spotted it at the Chinese confectionery store. Don't you love the packaging. :)

Strawberry Jam

2010-06-17T23:06:00.001-04:00

Since tasting the delicious homemade jam from the B&B, I’ve been looking forward to summer for local fruits to try my hand at making jam. Being relatively new to the whole process, I picked up The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving. Their recipe for the Favorite Strawberry Jam was perfect as the yield was small at 2.5 cups. I’ll have to say making the jam wasn’t hard but the whole sterilization process was a bit unnerving. Perhaps I didn’t have all the right tools but I had a difficult time removing the hot water from the jars. Nevertheless, it was music to my ears on hearing the “ping” of the lids once I removed the filled jars from the water bath. One thing puzzled me though – I only yield 1.5 cups of jam…perhaps I measured the wrong amount of strawberries? Who knows…anyhow, I tasted the jam and it’s good. Ok, perhaps a little too sweet for my taste but I’ve never been a major fan of strawberry jam. I can’t wait until raspberry season. I love raspberry jam!

Local strawberry season begins!

2010-06-14T01:02:00.001-04:00

It’s been a long time since I last gone strawberry picking. I like strawberries but I can’t say they’re my favourite fruit. The last time I went to PYO strawberries was to Whittamore Farms. I think I was allergic to the spray they used on the strawberries so I never went back.
Having enjoyed some homemade jam at a B&B in the Italian Riviera, I was curious to try making my own jam. The lovely couple at the La Casa dei nonni graciously shared a jar of their plum jam with me but the jar is slowly disappearing so it’s time to make my own.

I was excited to learn that there was an Organics PYO farm close by. I was even more exciting to learn that the PYO strawberry season started this weekend at the Organics Family Farm. I always thought PYO for strawberries started at end of June. So off I went to the farm to pick some fresh organic berries for jam. After two hours, I had an overflowing basket of fresh strawberries. Of course with the huge basket I picked, there will definitely be other uses besides jam.

Obsession

2010-06-12T17:51:00.000-04:00

I’m obsessed. I stare at my tomatoes before I leave for work and I’m right there when I get home from work.
I nearly flipped out when I saw two tiny red bugs on one of the plants yesterday. I was told it could be red aphids but after closer inspection today, I’m thankful there hasn’t been an infestation. I think I have to continue to monitor the plants closely for any pests as my plants are beginning to flower and I see more tiny fruits!

My new hobby

2010-06-06T18:30:00.000-04:00

A few weeks back, I went to the market to buy some heirloom tomato seedlings for my mom. I ended up talking to the people and Uharvest and was inspired to grow my own cherry tomatoes on my balcony. A trip to their retail store resulted in two black cherry tomatoes plants, two red currant cherry tomatoes plant and two basil plants. I planted them a little over a week ago and finally got my first fruit.

I’m contemplating growing baby carrots and lettuce but figure I should start small. Who knows, maybe I do have a green thumb and can expand to more veggies on my balcony garden next year. First-off, I just hope the weather co-operates so I can yield a harvest of fresh cherry tomatoes

Mango Verrines with Crème Fraîche

2010-05-30T11:44:00.004-04:00

We were invited to a BBQ this weekend so I wanted to make something light to bring. I still had some mangoes leftover so I knew it would be something with mangoes. I decided to try out the mango verrine recipe from Vi- L'Atelier Vi. I was excited to try this recipe as it gave me the opportunity to make homemade crème fraiche. It was so easy that I wondered why I waited so long to make it. To be honest, I’ve never worked with or tried store-bought crème fraiche so I’m not sure how closely this homemade version resembles the real thing. It’s hard to find crème fraiche at the stores here and when they carry it, I find it too expensive. In Europe, crème fraiche is so much more affordable. I wish I could have shipped some home with me.

Unfortunately, I caught a something last week so had to pass on the BBQ. I guess I will have to wait until next time to share this delicious recipe with my friends!

Laziness...

2010-05-29T11:45:00.002-04:00

Since I got back from Europe, and had a disastrous attempt at making chocolate macarons, I haven’t been motivated to bake. I finally got back into the swing of things last weekend when I bought a case of mangoes. I had so many ideas on how to use the mangoes but have only managed to make mango tarts. Honestly, it was too hot to do anything this week with the mini heat wave we experience in Toronto. And somehow, I managed to catch a cold…so a valid excuse to be lazy!

Bonjour Paris!

2010-04-15T06:50:00.000-04:00

On day 1, besides the Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élysées I hit these two shops! :)

King of Mangoes

2010-04-05T01:01:00.001-04:00

Having missed the season last year, I’ve been keeping an eye on local blogs for this year’s crop of Alphonso mangoes. I came across this blog and concluded that they’ve arrived. A call to Kohinoor Foods confirmed they had them in stock. After enjoying the nice weather by biking down the DVP trail, we headed down to Little India in search for mangoes. It was an interesting exchange at the store, nevertheless, I got what I was looking for. I left the store happily with my box of mangoes, excited to eat the King of mangoes.

I’ll have to say, I’m not sure what the hype is all about. It was ok, not what I was expecting. The mangoes which I had in Thailand are way sweeter. It’s probably the difference with having something fresh versus shipping overseas.

My Obsessions

2010-04-04T13:51:00.002-04:00

I’m obsessed with Swiss Rolls and tarts, partly because I really like eating them. Plus I’m still trying to perfect my swiss roll making skills. Last time, I made the most delicious sponge but was able to roll it nicely into a tight roll. This time, it looked perfect but the sponge lacked the texture I desired. I guess more trial and error until I made the perfect roll.

Tarts on the other had is much easier. One of my faves is the apricot tart, made with an almond filling. Tarts on the other had is much easier. One of my faves is the apricot tart, made with an almond filling.

Gotta go enjoy the last little bit of the long weekend, and hopefully pick up some alphonso mangos which I confirmed are on sale in Torono.

Cleaning out the fridge.

2010-03-28T23:59:00.000-04:00

I needed some new recipes to use up my carton of buttermilk and cornmeal that has been in the cupboard for too long. Freshly out of the oven, it was delicious and ridiculously easy to make. It’s the cornmeal and fruit loaf from Dorie; there are still many wonderful recipes I need to test out from her book.

Matcha Honey Castella

2010-03-14T15:25:00.001-04:00

I’ve been lazy lately, so haven’t been inspired to bake. The eggs in the fridge have been sitting there a little longer than usual. I decided to make honey castella to use up some egg yolks from dessert last night and the remaining eggs in my fridge. Just for fun, I added in some matcha into the batter, not enough as I can’t really taste the green tea in the cake. Need to tweak it a little as the cake was on the dry side. I’m also still figuring out my camera, the cake is greener than it looks! I guess I should really read the manual. Haha!

Double Happiness!!!

2010-02-14T13:04:00.000-05:00

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and Happy Valentines Day! If I could, I would love to share my fave chocolates with everyone! :)

Soft spot for these treats....

2010-02-01T00:16:00.001-05:00

In the last few years my palate for chocolate has changed considerably. Chocolate bars from my adolescent days no longer satisfy me. I have grown fondly of Valrhona chocolate bars and unable to find pleasure in the simple chocolate bar. However, I do have a soft spot for Japanese chocolates. I am unable to past on Japanese kit kats upon discovering newly flavours at the Chinese confectionary store. I’m just amazed at the different flavours they concoct over in Japan and take advantage of any opportunity to test them out. I recently bought three new flavours from the store....unfortunately I been sick the last few weeks so haven’t had the chance to try them out. Yes, it’s been an unhealthy start to 2010 for me. I left 2009 with a cough that only got worse as I entered into 2010.

Also I finally found Meji’s Meiji’s Kinoko no Yama for sale in Toronto. I’ve been looking for them at the store ever since I read about them here. I can't wait to test them out!

Old and new...

2010-01-03T00:05:00.001-05:00

What was the first thing I baked in 2010? The marbled bundt cake from Rose’s Heavenly Cakes as I wanted to use up the egg yolks in my fridge. So I got to use up some egg yolks and make use of my new bundt. I really like that the cake falls out effortlessly from the pan. It was a great investment.

Besides the marbled bundt cake, I also made mango mousse to use up some leftover mango puree. It’s an old recipe but easy to make.

Happy New Year!!!

2010-01-01T11:28:00.007-05:00

All the best to everyone in 2010! I’m not one to make resolutions but there are a few baking related items I hope make and perfect in 2010. There are still too many recipes I have been unwilling to try for fear of failure but hopefully I would have the courage to try in 2010.

I also hope to perfect my macaron recipe as it’s still giving me mixed results. The lemon macarons which I thought turned out well did not end up with the right texture. The texture I want is like the strawberry macaron pictured here. It should be delicate; thin enough so biting through is effortless. I was pleased with this result but decided it was a little too high, so I figured I had to fold it a little more the next time.

So when I made the batch of lemon macarons, I folded it a little more until the batter was a little flowier. Appearance-wise I was pleased with this macaron but the shell wasn’t delicate enough. It took a lot of effort to bite in and was too chewy.

I guess I need to tweak this recipe a little more to get the right texture and right appearance. I’ll probably take a break from macarons as I don’t need more egg yolks in the freezer.

Goodbye 2009...

2009-12-31T17:27:00.002-05:00

2009 was full of ups and downs. Even my last baked good of the year was with mixed results! The macarons turned out but the buttercream gave me tons of trouble. As 2010 approaches, I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone all the best for 2010.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T23:03:00.002-05:00

Macarons with strawberry buttercream is one of the flavours I made for my x-mas goodies for friends.

strawberry macs

2009-12-12T18:39:00.003-05:00

I made these strawberry macarons a few weeks ago but never got around to posting. I was a little disappointed as there wasn’t any strawberry flavour in the shells. I also got lazy and made white chocolate ganache filling instead of making strawberry buttercream. With the white chocolate filling the macs were way too sweet for me. I’m hoping to move onto lemon macs next. I decided to make lemon curd to use up the leftover egg yolks as I already have too many in the freezer.
One happy note, I was able to order Desserts by Pierre Herme. I was a little surprised to find it in stock as it has been unavailable for quite awhile. Of course I ordered it immediately!

Little things to brighten our day...

2009-11-22T12:19:00.001-05:00

Sometimes it’s the little things that brighten our day. I’ve been looking for freezed dried fruit ever since I read Aran’s raspberry macarons. I unsucessfully tried Helen’s instructions to prepare strawberry powder . I had just about given up when I saw them at the supermarket yesterday morning. I picked up a bag, yes only a bag although I am planning to go back for some more. Some egg whites are aging in the fridge...hopefully my macs would turn out as nicely as theirs.

Project: Plums

2009-09-14T23:24:00.012-04:00

I was quite upset at myself for missing out on apricot season at the Farmers Market so I've decided to move my focus towards apple season. I want to make apple pie. The only time I made apple pie was when I took a baking course at George Brown. My sister loves apple pies, so I normally just eat the pies she bakes; although she hasn’t made it in awhile and she’s now out in Quebec City.

When I came across Aran’s blog, I realized I’ve been ignoring all the end of summer fruits at the market – plums! Since I couldn’t wait until Wednesday, I picked up my box of black plums from Costco…I know, I feel bad they’re from California and not Ontario. I’m hoping to go to the market on Wednesday to get a different assortment of plums to try out various recipes. Hopefully I didn’t miss the plum season as well. In the end, I couldn’t work with her recipe since the Muscovado sugar I bought had harden.

I ended up making the plum and almond tart from Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert. I couldn’t locate my fluted tart tin so baked them up in 4” tart rings. They were delicious but I overbaked them by 5mins so they were very crispy when they came out of the oven. I had a tart this morning and it softened overnight.
I found my 9½: tart ring last night so I decided to bake another tart tonight. It puffed up nicer than the smaller tarts; next time I’ll have to use four instead of six rings. I still have a more plums and bookmarked a few more recipes to try as project plum continues.

Comfort snacks

2009-09-07T11:34:00.006-04:00

It’s time to test out new recipes from the stacks of cookbooks on the shelf but before all that I’ve decided to make some old favourites.

Mango Tart

Mango and coconut cake

Carrot muffin

I'm back!

2009-08-11T11:45:00.003-04:00

I’ve been MIA for a little while as I haven’t been baking. I have been trying to enjoy the so-called summer here in Toronto by being outdoors whenever it’s not raining.
I’ve been craving Chocolate Swiss Roll for a long time so on the weekend while it was thundering outside, I whipped it up. Perhaps a little break is good as my swiss roll turned out perfectly and didn’t crack. I’m quite pleased with it!

I LOVE cherries!!!

2009-06-16T22:37:00.006-04:00

I LOVE cherries! I look forward to July every year so I can drive down to Beamsville to go cherry picking. I didn’t get the chance to go the last few years, but hopefully I’ll make it there this summer. So of course when I saw cherries on sale at the supermarket, I had to pick up some. Unfortunately they weren’t that great. There’s this recipe from Tartlette I’ve been meaning to try out but had been unwilling to part with my fresh cherries. Since I had no desire to eat the “not so great cherries", I thought it’ll be the perfect opportunity to try out this recipe. It’s her take on Dorie’s Blueberry Crumb Cake, which I love. In effort to be “healthy” I left out the crumb portion of the cake although I’m sure it’ll taste way better with the crumb. I have to try it next time I have cherries I can spare for baking.

Pain au chocolat

2009-06-14T19:27:00.008-04:00

Although I enjoy the occasional pain au chocolat and croissants, I haven't attempted to make them at home. I don't think I love them enough to go through all that work of making them.
While searching for all butter puff pastry at Longos today, I saw this package of frozen pain au chocolat. Of course I had to try it. The best thing is the package is small enough to keep in our overflowing freezer.
No preparing the dough, just take out the frozen pain au chocolat, bake it for 15 mins and voila...! I wouldn't say it's amazing but it's not bad. I think i'll try the butter croissants next time.

Old favourites

2009-05-31T13:58:00.006-04:00

Of course I had to test out my new tart rings. I’ve been craving apricot tarts, so whipped some up using my tart rings. I didn’t really do a good job with lining the dough in the ring. While the tarts were baking in the oven, I found this demo of how to line the tart ring. I guess I have to bake some more tarts.

I also decided to try to recreate my fave version of egg sandwich. I guess there’s still a long way to go before I perfect it.

What makes me happy...

2009-05-30T15:41:00.004-04:00

New 3" high square pan and tart rings

When I bake, I forget everything around me, no stress or worries. I just hope that my creation turns out!
May has been a bad month for me, so I went downtown today to pick up something that would make me really happy...tart rings. I’ve wanted to buy them for the longest time but have been too cheap; however I decided to splurge a bit today.

New Purchases...

2009-05-25T19:38:00.012-04:00

Instead of a Japanese inspired recipe book, I picked up two French pastry books...I figured with my basic knowledge of French , a dictionary and a co-worker who’s fluent in French I shouldn’t have any problems with the recipes.

I also bought a silicone mold which I had been eyeing online and was hoping to purchase in Asia; I’m happy as it actually costs around the same here so I bought one after finding it on Queen St. West. Now I think I should have bought two, I guess I’ll have to go back.

It looks a big ice cream mochi

I knew I wanted to fill the molds with a mousse or Bavarian cream but I didn’t know how I would glaze the cakes after. After researching online, I found that some bloggers/bakers tempered chocolate to brush the molds prior to piping in the mousse. I decided to try this method too since I had no idea where to start. Since I didn’t want to temper, I decided white chocolate would be the route to go as I was worried about streaking. Brushing the molds with the chocolate was a little of a struggle for me, it was hard to ensure I got the chocolate evenly onto the mold..thank goodness after unmolding, it looked ok.

oops the genoise was a little thick.

Initially I wanted to make raspberry mousse with raspberry jelly as the tartness of the raspberries would work well with white chocolate. However I ran out of raspberries after making the jelly. Since I was too lazy to go to the store, I used mango puree which I had on hand to make the mousse. I’m pleased with my first try but think I would use dark chocolate as a glaze next time or go without one. I also need to work on my plating. I guess I have to head to the store this weekend for some new props!

Since I’ve been snacking a lot more at work, I also made blueberry muffins using Dessert By Candy’s recipe...they look good but I have yet to try them.

It's not Asia...

2009-05-17T13:54:00.011-04:00

So no ramen, sashimi, PH keychains or macarons, Hidemi Sugino desserts or his book (the one I’ve been trying to get my hands on for ages). No cheap shopping, street food, nor new cookbooks.
Instead I was in Quebec City for a few days last week relaxing (if you could call walking all day relaxing) and gaining a few pounds. It’s been years since I’ve been to Quebec City. I don’t remember much about it except having this really good dinner in Old Quebec City.
Prior to my trip, I tried researching places to eat but wasn’t too successful. Although we didn’t have specific places to eat, I knew I wanted poutine, meat pie and some pastries. I lucked out and overall got some nice weather while I was there. Here’s the highlight of the meals I ate!

Chilean Sea Bass with white truffle foam and shaved black truffle from Utopie. The sea bass was really good.

Pea Soup from Buffet de L'Antiquaire on a local's recommendation for having the best meat pie in town

Cipaille from Buffet de L'Antiquaire

Meat Pie from Buffet de L'Antiquaire

Chicken Burger with side of fries and garden salad from Chez Victor. I loved the garlic curry mayo dip for the fries

I'll have to save desserts for another post!

Recent treats...

2009-05-10T15:07:00.008-04:00

banana loaf
It's good but it uses a whole pound of bananas

Box of cupcakes for a friend

Chocolate cupcake

Chocolate, mango and coconut cream cake

Recipe from Tarlette...my square baking pan wasn’t high enough so I only ended up with one layer of vanilla genoise. Instead of using lemon glaze as Tarlette, did, I made a mango glaze to finish the cake. I love the combination of mangoes and coconut, reminds me of Chinese desserts. Of course it looks nothing like her wonderful creations but I am happy with the result.

Pierre Herme

2009-04-10T09:43:00.003-04:00

Will they still be there when I go? I’ve been dying to get my hands on one of them since I saw the Lipton tea giveaways last year. Now they’ll be at his store. I wonder how much I need to spend to get the one I want!

Sunday breakfast

2009-03-22T10:27:00.002-04:00

It seems I only bake when we have people over. Still, I was lazy and settled on making something simple – fruit tart. I had extra pastry cream and tart shells so I made mango tart for breakfast. I love mangoes and especially mango tart.

Chocolate Valentino

2009-02-28T22:19:00.003-05:00

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.
I wasn’t on planning to participate in this month’s challenge but I decided tonight to go ahead with it. Although I work with lots of recipes that use chocolate, I’ve never made flourless chocolate cake. This one doesn’t even have any sugar in it...just 3 ingredients – chocolate, butter and eggs. I used a combination of 70% and 52% lindt chocolate and added some raspberry puree into the batter. How can anyone resist chocolate with raspberries?
Although I made the cake component of the challenge, I didn’t make the ice cream part. I’m not a major fan of ice cream and I don’t feel like ice cream in the winter so I decided to skip that part of the challenge.

I ♥ brownies!

2009-02-23T23:55:00.004-05:00

Yup, I love brownies. Back in my high school days, I craved brownies with ice cream at the local Kelseys and two bite brownies from the supermarket. I don’t know if I’ll be able to enjoy any of those anymore...I can only imagine how sweet it would taste.
When I came across 5 Type of Sugar’s recipe for Bittersweet brownies, I knew I had to try it. Over the weekend, I bought two large bags of Lindt Ecuador couverture chocolate from the Lindt outlet. It was perfect for this recipe that calls for 70% chocolate.
It definitely looks delicious although I haven’t tried it yet. That’s the thing with baking at night...I have a rule for not eating after 10pm so my I don’t get to try it until the next day.

Raspberry dreams...

2009-02-18T20:41:00.003-05:00

Since I had whipping cream and in the fridge and raspberry puree leftover from the batch of macarons I made last week, I decided to make a raspberry mousse cake. I been meaning to try but have been too lazy to puree the raspberry. I know what an excuse! Again, I experimented with a new recipe for genoise or sponge layer for the cake. It was unsuccessful; it was too sweet and too cakey. The sweetness of the sponge wasn’t noticeable since the mousse was tangy. I ‘ve decided that raspberry mousse is way better than mango mousse...I love the tangy taste of the raspberries and the seeds in the mousse. Although next time, I will take out the seeds from the glaze...I thought it was a little too much and the cake didn’t look that pretty with the seeds in the glaze. I didn’t get to garnish the cake as I had no fruits in the house. My next project would be durian mousse...not sure if Tomy will be able to handle the smell though. I’m actually not a fan of durian, I can tolerate it but I don’t love it. However my mom and a few others I know will definitely enjoy it.

Distractions...

2009-02-16T12:31:00.010-05:00

It’s been a while since I blogged and there’s really no excuse but laziness. Work has been busy but I’ve been distracted with other things so I didn't bake much. Shopping, movies, massages, reading other food blogs, reading Twilight and other books...so I just didn’t feel the motivation to bake. I finally finished the Twilight Saga, yup, I jumped onto the bandwagon. How could I resist, it’s really good.
Anyhow, although I haven’t been blogging, I did make a few things over the last month.
Hazelnut Macarons

Assorted Macarons with raspberry ganache filling

Japanese souffle cheesecake - it was unsuccessful

Mango chocolate

Malted Mousse...

2009-01-19T22:17:00.003-05:00

With the craziness of year-end at work, I haven`t baked as much as I intended to. Hopefully as the craziness at work dies down, I`ll have time to tackle some new recipes. I did manage to try out a new recipe over the weekend. Pichet Ong`s Malted chocolate Mousse. I previously paired his chocolate cake recipe with an egg white based chocolate mousse recipe. His version uses egg yolks instead and resulted in a creamy, silky chocolate mousse. Since I used Ovaltine instead of Horlicks, the mousse was on the sweeter side. I served it at a gathering on the weekend and forgot to take a picture.
I had enough cake to make 3 individual cakes, so I whipped up half portion of his mousse again this time decreasing the amount of sugar. I`ll find out tomorrow if it tastes better less sugar.
I find it harder to layer mousse in a smaller ring as I can`t use my palette knife. I guess I should try piping it in next time to get more even layers. I was just being lazy.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T23:56:00.003-05:00

My New Year's resolution is not to procrastinate. As a result of waiting until the last minute to complete my December DB Challenge, I didn’t end up finishing. I did start and baked/prepared all the parts up to the ganache and icing for the French Yule log but never got around to finishing it. When the posting date arrived, I was too tired to complete the challenge.

Instead of finishing my Yule log, I revised some old recipes. I have to say my Chocolate Swiss Roll is beginning to look like one. I picked up some pointers from a Japanese food blog to lightly cut into the sponge before rolling to “release muscle” as translated on Babelfish. I was a little heavy handed and cut too deep but it still look pretty good. I’m happy with the result and when I burn off the calories from the whipped cream, I look forward to making it again.

I also prepared a berry tart to share with friends for a potluck. I love making pastry cream and the pairing of it with berries and chocolate is delicious!

Happy Holidays...

2008-12-24T16:07:00.011-05:00

Happy Holidays...I keep hearing this song at the mall. Although I’ve been superlazy and didn’t bake as much as I had planned, I did manage to bake a little to share with friends. Here’s what I did manage to whip up...

Espresso Chocolate chip cookies with pecans – I made seven batches of these cookies as I received an order for 30 boxes of these. After so many batches, I know I perfected them. However I think I had enough of them with all the testing and all.

Peanut Butter cookies – My sis made this one when we met up at my place for holiday baking session. We didn’t get too much done with lunch out in the big snowstorm and the power outage.

Ruelach – I’ve always wanted to make it but never got around to it. They’re tasty although not very pretty. I had some trouble rolling it up tightly.

Chocolate Macs with Nutella Ganache – I finally attempted the Italian meringue method of working with the egg whites. It was pretty simple, but my macs didn’t turn out that well. It looks really nice but there’s a big air pocket when you bit in.

Pink Macs with dark chocolate raspberry ganache – I used French meringue method for making the batter. I think it was a little runny so I ended up with an assortment of sizes of pink macarons. Although it’s not a puffy as the chocolate macs, they were chewy although a little sweet. For the ganache, I mixed in raspberry puree to dark chocolate and cream. Half the batch was unstrained puree while I strained the other half. I think I prefer the texture of the raspberry seeds in the ganache.

Chocolate black pepper icebox – I wanted to add some sort of spice into my cookie assortment and didn’t want to run to the store so I made this. It was very easy to make...I would add a little more pepper next time as I couldn’t really taste it.

Cranberry Pistachio Icebox – it’s the perfect Christmas cookie as it’s speckled red cranberries and green pistachios.

Packed up and ready to go.

More chocolate goodies...

2008-11-30T21:24:00.005-05:00

Last weekend I attempted to make raspberry buttercream to try with another batch of chocolate macarons. Unfortunately the macarons it didn’t turn out as well as my previous batch. The batter was runnier, so I ended up with larger macarons. I will have to try out the Italian meringue method as I’ve read it’s more stable, resulting in more consistent results.
The buttercream also failed, so I ended up freezing the macarons since I didn’t have time to whip up another batch of buttercream. After thawing the macarons this weekend, I whipped up some peanut butter ganache. It’s a wonderful combination but I’m not a fan of PB and chocolate.

Sweet Caramel

2008-11-29T17:39:00.004-05:00

My 2nd challenge for Daring Bakers is Caramel Cake with Caramelized butter frosting. This month's challenge is hosted by Dolores of Culinary Curiosity and co-hosted by Alex of Blondie and Brownie, and Jenny of Foray into Food. The alternative version of recipe is provided by Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go. The recipe is from Shauna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater.

I’ve previously worked with caramel once in baking class. We made butterscotch caramel for crunchy caramel cake. I remember using a pastry brush to continuously brush down sugar crystals to prevent the sugar from crystallizing. This time I was going to do the same but couldn’t find my pastry brush. Luckily my caramel didn’t crystallize. Thank goodness for the warning about the sputtering sugar...I poured in the water slowly and stepped back.

I thought the cake would be way too sweet for me but it wasn’t. The cake itself was very moist from the addition of caramel syrup into the batter yet not too sweet. The caramelized butter frosting on the other hand was too sweet. Even my co-workers who love caramel found the frosting too sweet for their tastes.
I was lazy with the decorations on this cake as I finished this cake really late and I just wanted to get to bed.

Although I didn’t really enjoy this cake, I had fun making it. I got to try making caramel syrup again and got the chance to make brown butter. I have several recipes that use brown butter but it’s something I never tried. The reason for joining Daring Bakers is to try recipes I wouldn’t on my own and this challenge gives me the opportunity to do just that.

Addicted to Chocolate

2008-11-25T19:10:00.006-05:00

Yes, it’s another posting on something chocolate. I can’t help it but I love chocolate...at least good quality chocolate. After using Pichet Ong’s Chocolate cake recipe as a base for my failed black forest cake, I fell in love with it. The cocoa-based cake is light, moist and delicious. I also had the perfect excuse to make this cake again since we were headed to a friend’s condo. I jumped at the chance to make the genoise to pair with my handy chocolate mousse recipe. This chocolate cake recipe is definitely a keeper in my kitchen. I had leftover sponge and mousse so I made individual mousse cakes. It doesn’t look that great as I was lazy and just pushed the cake out of the ring. Recipe for the sponge will be posted soon.

Brownies

2008-11-19T22:35:00.004-05:00

Chewy, fudgy, cakey are different textures of brownies. I occasionally craze for the fudgy texture since you can’t overindulge. One bite and you’re full. At times, I enjoy it being more cake-like; somehow, it seems healthier although I doubt it.

I originally wanted to make Sherry Yard’s Out of this world Brownie…the picture was exactly the type of brownie I was craving. Unfortunately I did not have any unsweetened chocolate and I wanted to follow the recipe to the T, my first time making it.

I reverted to Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: My Home to Yours to find a suitable brownie recipe. Having tried out many of her recipes, I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed with the results. I went with Bittersweet Brownies, as it was the first recipe I saw and I had all the ingredients. It’s definitely a fudgy brownie, not the texture I was craving but it’s a really good brownie. She gave an option to add in instant espresso, so I put in ½ tbsp. I think it kept me up a bit that night. I forgot about the espresso as I was munching on it while unmolding and cutting. Per the recipes, the yield is 32 slender rectangles. I cut it to bite size portions to share with co-workers. Tomy and I definitely can’t finish the tray on our own.

Red bean ice cream

2008-11-18T00:04:00.005-05:00

The freezer container of my new ice cream maker has been sitting untouched in my freezer the last three months. Last weekend, I finally got around to using it to make red bean ice cream. The recipe is from Pichet Ong’s The Sweet Spot. The ice cream turned out well , my only complaint would be the red bean was too hard even though I cooked it an hour longer than he recommended. If I ever make it again, I’ll definitely soak the red bean overnight prior to cooking it. As well, I might make only ½ the recipe since I only had one scoop out of the whole quart. I made poor Tomy eat the rest of it.

Red Bean Ice Cream
Adapted from Pichet Ong’s The Sweet Spot

Red Bean
½ cup (3½ ounces/107g) dried adzuki beans, picked over and rinsed
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt

Custard
3 large egg yolks
1 cup (8 ounces/227g) whole milk
¾ cup (5 ounces/141g) sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 cup (8 ounces/227g) heavy whipping cream
2 tsp vanilla extract

1. To cook the red bean: Put the red beans, lemon juice, sugar, and salt into a small saucepan and cover with 1¾ cups water. Bring to a boil over high heat and boil vigorously for 3 minutes. Turn the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the beans are tender, about 2 hours. If the mixture starts to look dry at any point, add ½ cup water. Set aside to cool completely.

2. To make the custard: Whisk the egg yolks in a medium mixing bowl until broker; set aside. Put the milk, sugar, salt, and ½ cup of the cream in a medium saucepan and warm over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until bubbles begin to form around the edges. Remove from the heat and pour ½ cup of the warm milk mixture onto the egg yolks in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly. Transfer the yolk mixture back to the saucepan, set over low heat, and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon and registers 165F, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and cooled red beans.

3. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the remaining cream. Set over a larger bowl of ice and water and stir occasionally until cool to the touch, about 40F. Alternatively, cover and refrigerate until cold.

4. Transfer the mixture to your ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer’s instructions. Enjoy immediately, or freezer for a firmer ice cream. The ice cream is best enjoyed fresh, but it will keep in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 days.

Chocolate Macarons

2008-11-09T23:57:00.004-05:00

I heard chocolate macarons are quite tricky to make. I'm planning to test out various recipes and see which one works for me. This weekend it's recipe #1. It was pretty successful except I didn’t dry out the last pan of macarons long enough so they ended up cracking. The best batch was the second tray that went in as it was out the longest. Since the raspberries were quite tart, I paired it with milk chocolate. However, I found it too sweet – I think i’ll stick with dark chocolate next time since the macaron itself is quite sweet. Overall I’m happy with the results of recipe #1.

Simple Recipes

2008-11-04T19:24:00.005-05:00

I stumbled across Dessert Magazine and found this recipe to try since I have close to a whole carton of buttermilk in the fridge. It’s Emily Luchetti's recipe for Chocolate Pound Cake – I’ve seen her books but do not own any of them. I was excited to try making it since it’s such a simple recipe to make. My first bite, the only word I could think of to describe it is “soft”. I took time to slowly eat devour it today and yes, it’s soft but it’s also fudgy. Not like the normal pound cake texture I've tried - perhaps I've only eaten plain ones in the past.

Another simple recipe I whipped up last night was Rose Reisman's low fat carrot cake. I love that it’s a two-pot recipe that you can hand whisk and get in the oven within 30 minutes. For me it’s getting the ingredients that takes time, whisking it all together is a matter of minutes. Instead of baking it in my bundt pan, I decided to make carrot muffins. Sometimes I think I need to make something that is a tad healthier. This uses only 1/3 cup of oil so it’s better than a cake with loads of butter.

Daring Bakers - First Challenge

2008-10-29T19:01:00.003-04:00

I am extremely excited to take part in my first Daring Baker’s Challenge. I was a little weary upon seeing that our challenge this month would be pizza. I’m not a huge fan of pizza and not comfortable in making anything with yeast. However, I definitely can’t miss out on my first challenge so I decided to step up to the challenge. I knew I wanted to make chicken pizza so when we made roast chicken, I used the leftovers on the pizza.

Apparently tossing the dough makes the crust much better – I did manage to toss it but we didn’t manage to get a good picture. As we were starving, we gave up at getting a good shot and put together the pizza to bake it off and full our tummies.

Several smoke alarms later, the pizzas were done – here’s my sad attempt at a pizza. Tomy gave it a try too, here's his pizza. He has an edge as he used to work at Pizza Pizza. The pictures are deceiving as they look better than they taste. Tomy & I didn’t find the crust edible… I’m not sure if it’s my error in making the dough or it’s suppose to be like this but I didn’t like the crust at all. I suppose it’s my error in making the dough since everyone else’s pizzas turned out fantastic. I toyed around with the idea of trying the recipe out again but decided against it. The recipe is “Pizza Napoletana” from Peter Reinhart's “The Bread Baker's Apprentice”.

I just want to say I’m happy to be part of Daring Bakers and look forward to our next challenge. Please refer to attached link to see how everyone else’s pizzas came out. Be warned though – if you haven’t eaten, it’ll make you really hungry.

Success and failure...

2008-10-29T00:02:00.002-04:00

I don’t know why but I can’t seem to figure out Swiss rolls. I managed making a decent looking one earlier this year. This time around, it wouldn’t roll up nicely and cracked. It definitely doesn’t look like a roll but it’s quite delicious. I have to figure out why it’s not rolling up...perhaps I need to try a new pan.

I did make a wonderful dinner. After picking up some pointers from a Chinese cooking show last week, my Chinese style beef has improved in appearance and taste. I also bought a package of soup ingredients from the Chinese supermarket. I just threw everything into the pot, brought it up to a boil and into the thermo pot it went. A day later, we had a pot of yummy soup.

Weekend baking

2008-10-25T09:56:00.015-04:00

I haven’t have been baking as much as I would like as I’ve been learning to cook. I had thought I would have more time to bake during the week but after making dinner I’m pretty much beat. So baking is left for the weekend.
Last weekend I did try out a few recipes. I’ve been craving apple tart from this store by work but thought since I had apples in the fridge, why not make my own. I found a quick puff pastry recipe on line, whipped up some pastry cream then assembled the tarts. Somehow it didn’t turn out as I planned. I didn’t have any apricot glaze or jam of any type so there was no glaze. I don’t think I had enough pastry cream either...I guess it’s back to the drawing board. Maybe I won’t be lazy next time and put in the effort and make puff pastry. The quick puff pastry just doesn't taste the same.

Boy do I love making pastry cream...and I love eating it. Instead of using my tried and true recipe, I tried the recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours. The difference is this one uses egg yolks. My recipe uses whole eggs and whipping cream so it’s richer.

Pastry Cream – Makes about 2 cups
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours

2 cups whole milk
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted
1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
3½ tbsp

1. Bring milk to boil in saucepan. Meanwhile, in medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the yolks together with the sugar and cornstarch until thick and well blended. Still whisking, drizzle in about ¼ cup of the hot milk – this will temper, or warm, the egg yolks so they won’t curdle. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remainder of the milk. Put the pan over medium heat and, whisking vigorously, constantly and making sure to get to edges of pot, bring mixture to a boil. Keep at a boil, still whisking, for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove from the heat.
2. Whisk in the vanilla extract. Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk in butter a little at a time, stirring until fully incorporated and the pastry cream is smooth and silky. Scrape pastry cream into a bowl. Press a piece of plastic wrap on top of cream to create airtight seal. You can store in fridge or to cool it quickly put in bowl of ice.

Of course I didn’t only make apple tarts.

My cousin came over and we made gluten free banana loaves, we misread the recipe and put in a tad too much salt, so it was salty banana bread. I think the recipe also needs more banana to give it more moisture...it was a bit dry the next day.

To cap off the weekend, I whipped up a batch of chocolate crackle cookies to send off to a friend in HK via her husband who was in town. I hope she and her daughter enjoys it. Of course this was all last weekend and being Saturday again – I have to decide what to make this weekend. I do need to get to the grocery store though as I’m all out of sugar!

Back to Baking

2008-10-12T11:15:00.012-04:00

I finally started baking again last week as our kitchen is now completely reno free. Tomy put in the finishing touches by putting up the backsplash.

I love pistachios so when I saw the recipe for White Peach and Raspberry tart with pistachio frangipane in Regan Daly’s "In the Sweet Kitchen", I was excited to try it out. I was even more excited to take a pic of the tart that I forgot to serve it with the raspberries – oops. My mom called to tell me she loved the tart but I found it so-so. The pistachios didn't wow me in the tart. I prefer basic frangipane with almonds.

I also tried Rei’s recipe for banana chiffon with great success. I was excited when the cake didn’t sink this time. It was fluffy and light - just how chiffon should be. Thank you Rei for sharing her recipe.

Since we had our first official guests over at the condo this weekend, I decided to make something different for them to try – macarons. I was worried it wouldn’t turn out, but thankfully it did. I just need to work on my piping skills to pipe out more uniform macarons. The first tray was good then it went downhill. I guess I’ll just have to make more macarons for practice. Another thing I need to work on is piping out the buttercream. I can’t figure out how much to pipe on in order for the buttercream to properly fill out between the two shells. I guess practice makes perfect.

Edit Note: My friends are too kind. After trying the macarons I realize it's too hard from storing in the fridge. I hope I had it out at room temperature long enough when I served it last night. I will have to revert back to my more sable buttercream recipe that keeps at room temperature.

More cooking than baking

2008-09-28T09:47:00.005-04:00

I haven't been baking as much as I hoped. Rather I’ve been learning to cook. Here’s a sampling of what I made for dinner the last few weeks. It’s not the tastiest but hopefully my skills are improving! I definitely have to work on my photography skills though. My pictures are still a hit and miss.
Chicken with potatoes

Beef stirfry with green pepper and chives

Eggs with chives

Sweet and sour chicken

Chiffon Cakes

2008-09-24T22:22:00.005-04:00

This is my unsuccessful attempt at banana chiffon. The cake was a little wet and it sunk after the cake cooled down.

I had better success with this chocolate chiffon cake. It’s a recipe off blogger Rei. What a difference between the two cakes!

Macarons

2008-09-21T17:06:00.003-04:00

When I was at La Bamboche, I picked up ½ dozen of macarons. This is only the 2nd time I tried macarons in Toronto and 3rd time ever. As I’m still an amateur in the world of macarons, I played it safe and got basic flavors. They had an assortment on Sat – with flavors such as red wine and Japanese sake. Shown here are blueberry, chocolate and lemon. I also got pistachio, sesame and green tea – I forgot to take a picture before we ate them. My favourite was pistachio – the pistachio flavored buttercream was so yummy. Second comes the chocolate – I guess you can’t go wrong with chocolate although from what I’ve read online, it’s the trickiest one to make. Lemon flavour was all right but I didn’t like the blueberry one. It was the prettiest one with the blue shell and purple buttercream but I didn’t like the taste.

I can’t wait to start recreating my own…I don’t know where to start though as I am surrounded by recipes – I guess I’ll just have to try each one.

Sesame Cake

2008-09-17T20:53:00.006-04:00

This cake was on my “to-try” list for ages. Of course, I didn’t get around to it until now. Last night was the perfect chance to try it; I had buttermilk, sesame oil and toasted black sesame on hand. I baked the cake about 10 minutes more than recommended since the recipe I got from the net didn’t mention putting the tray on the lower third of the oven. I was hesitant about the taste of the cake but it was good. You can smell the fragrant sesame oil but it’s not overpowering when you bite into the cake. I can't wait to try making it again and see the difference when it's not overbaked.

Fluffy pancakes on a lazy Sunday morning

2008-09-14T13:18:00.004-04:00

What tastes better than blueberry pancakes? Wild blueberry pancakes! I picked up a pint of fresh wild blueberries from the Farmers market the other day. I thought it would be perfect to make blueberry pancakes. It’s very easy to make, even on a lazy Sunday morning.

Weekend down on West Queen West

2008-09-11T19:53:00.009-04:00

I used to love heading down to Queen West and Spadina for shopping but over the last couple of years, many big box stores have taken up shop there. Now I have to head further west along Queen before there are some nice little boutiques. Besides nice boutiques, there are many restaurants and cafes I’ve wanted to try.

My sister and I decided to check out Drake hotel for Saturday brunch. Their menu was small for brunch so I settled on Eggs Benedict. I think it is the safest item on a brunch menu for me. I found it rather heavy, as they were generous with the amount of smoked pork loin. The meal came with bbq fries and one slice of grapefruit. The service was attentive but the food was only average in my opinion. We were too full for dessert right after brunch so we went shopping to burn off some calories. After shopping, we went up to La Bambouche for dessert.

On Sunday, Tomy and I went down to Golden Turtle on Ossington for Vietnamese. We have been craving for their Pho as it was good the first time we went. Of course, it was better the first time we had it. This time it was smaller and the broth was not as tasty. We walked by their rival restaurant which was busier than Golden Turtle. That is next on our list to try!

Fresh Berry tarts

2008-09-01T15:39:00.002-04:00

I have been baking yet not posting since we since don’t have internet at the condo. It’s really my own fault as I couldn’t decide which company I wanted to go with. After weeks of going back and forth, we...well "I" finally decided. So we’ll be getting it by the end of the week! Being the first day of September, let’s reflect on something summery.

I had lots of sweet fresh berries this summer but didn’t have a chance to bake with them with all the craziness of moving and planning. With the extra dough remaining from the apricot tarts, I decided to use it to make berry tarts. I picked up some blueberries, raspberries and strawberries from the supermarket. Being this late in the summer, they weren’t that sweet yet it’s perfect with the combination of pastry cream on the tarts. I had some cherries in the fridge which I dipped into milk chocolate to make them prettier. I love making tarts – I think my favourite is still mango tarts. I must not overdose on tarts.

Thank You!!!

2008-08-11T21:36:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Crazy for Sweets, a journal to share my sweet adventures from my new kitchen and daily life here in Toronto.

I would like use my first post to thank my Aunt Nancy and Aunt Cindy & family. They flew into Toronto to attend my wedding. With all the last minute details for the wedding, I did not have a chance to spend time with them. I did manage to whip up some Apricot tarts before they left. I know they both enjoyed the tarts.

The recipe I used is from the Pie class I took George Brown. Using the full recipe, I can make enough dough to freeze for other uses.

Here’s the recipe:

Sweet Dough (yields 4 - 7” tarts and more)

Unsalted Butter 454g
Sugar 230g
Eggs 2
All Purpose Flour 230g
Pastry Flour 454g

1. Cream sugar and butter with a paddle until lightly fluffy.
2. Add eggs and mix for 30 seconds and scrape sides of mixing bowl.
3. Sift all purpose flour and pastry flour together.
4. Add to mixing bowl on 1st speed until well incorporated.
5. Let pastry dough rest for 2 hours in fridge. This can be kept in freezer for about one month. Freeze the dough flat so it thaws easily.

Filling (enough to fill 10 – 3” tarts)

Almond Paste 170 g
Unsalted Butter (soften) 135g
White Sugar 70g
Whole Eggs 120g (about 2 extra large eggs)
Pastry Flour 30g

1. Place the almond paste, butter and sugar into a small mixing bowl with a paddle. Mix on 1st speed until blended. Scrape bowl.
2. Turn mixer to 2nd speed until light and fluffy. Scrape bowl.
3. Turn mixer to 1st speed and add the eggs slowly until incorporated. Scrape bowl.
4. Add the flour on 1st speed and mix until just incorporated. Scrape bowl,
5. Turn mixer on to 3rd speed and mix for 30 seconds. This is to ensure all the ingredients are fully incorporated. Remove from mixer and scrape bowl.

Assembly

1. Use piping bag or spread in filling into each tart shell.
2. Arrange fresh or canned apricots on top of filling.
3. Bake the tarts at 400F for approximately 25 minutes are until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.