Making use of my Cookbook Collection

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!

Zucchini Bread

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.

Chocolate zucchini cake

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.

Matcha Honey Castella

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!

Old and new...

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. 

Comfort snacks

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!

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!!!

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.

New Purchases...

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.

Recent treats...

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.

Chocolate Valentino

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!

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...

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...

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...

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!

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!

Sweet Caramel

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

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

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.

Simple Recipes

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.