Category Archives: Baking and Sweets

Almond Praline Cookies

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These buttery, crispy cookies are an incredible treat. The cookies have almonds in them and a praline-like topping, I drizzled half with dark chocolate because… why not! I’ve meant to make cookies for a week now but have just been too busy to get to it. I modified my frangipane recipe to make the topping, and it turned out perfectly. I’ve also decided that these would make wonderful Christmas cookies as they are lovely to look at, rich and buttery, and can take some dark chocolate like a champ. Sadly, I can’t use them for my Food Blogger Cookie Exchange cookies, as I am posting them too early! Hmm, now I have to think of a new recipe for the exchange!

Almond Praline Cookies

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup almonds, finely chopped (I threw whole almonds into my food processor and pulsed to the desired texture)

Praline:

  • 1/3 cup whole almonds
  • 1/3 cup plus 2 tbsp dark brown sugar
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 1 egg white

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Heat oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and vanilla.
  3. Stir in the flour and salt., mixing well to combine. It will come together in a sort of crumb-like fashion (see picture below). Chill the dough while you bring together the praline topping.
  4. Praline topping: In a food processor, pulse together the praline ingredients until you have a chunky paste. Don’t over pulse, otherwise you will almost have frangipane!
  5. Form dough into 1-inch balls and place them 1-inch apart on the baking sheet.
  6. Using a flat-bottomed glass, lightly press down the cookies to flatten slightly. Top with 1/4-1/2 tsp of the praline mixture.
  7. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown. They will not crisp up until cooled. So let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes before trying to move them to a wire rack to cool.
  8. If you want to drizzle with chocolate, simply melt 2oz of dark chocolate with 1 tsp of butter and drizzle over top once the cookies have cooled.

Crumb-like texture of the dough.

Dollop of praline mixture.

So delicious.

Chocolate Chai Cupcakes with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting — 100th post! HUZZAH! HURRAY!

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Well, time flies and so do posts! I can’t believe this is my hundredth post, and squashing 100 posts into a year filled with grad school, internships, and family devastation has been a bit of a whirlwind. I’ve loved almost every post, and am looking forward to 100 more! I was going to do a giveaway for this occasion but have to amass things to give away first, though I have some book-like ideas, but also I have NO activity in the comments, for all the lovely readers I have. Hmm. I must need to be more provocative in my posts, thought provoking rather. Still figuring out the engagement bit of all of this.

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Saskatoon and Fruit Pies… an experiment of sorts. A wonderful experiment.

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Living in berry country is great. Our friends, the Taylors have Saskatoon bushes out at their house on the lake and a couple weeks ago Natalie, their daughter, called to let us know that she had picked a batch of berries for us. Huzzah! Pies were to be made! We made these pies for Dad’s party, as they were another favourite of his. They were supposed to be straight Saskatoon berry pies but we realized that we didn’t have enough Saskatoons. So they were going to be Saskatoon and blueberry pies… but when Kellie and I got to baking we realized we didn’t even have enough of those two combined… so we frantically looked around the kitchen and assessed the fruit situation. We had oranges, bananas, five measly plums, and two apples. Huzzah! We quickly dismissed the bananas and oranges (whew) and started cutting up the rest of the fruit. We ended up with enough Saskatoon and blueberry filling to fill the first pie, I scooped out four scoop of that filling to round out the Saskatoon Blueberry Plum and Apple Pie. Both were huge successes and Mom really couldn’t tell the difference in them, the Saskatoons really took over the flavour profile perfectly. Enjoy!

Saskatoon Pie with variations

INGREDIENTS

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Klondike Pastry (makes enough for the crust and tops of two pies)

  • 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 3 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 lb (2 cups) shortening
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbsp vinegar
  • 3/4 cup cold water

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Saskatoon and Blueberry Pie (makes one 9-inch pie)

  • 7 cups fresh or frozen Saskatoon berries
  • 1 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

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Saskatoon, Blueberry, Apple, and Plum Pie (yes, it is many things) (makes one 9-inch pie)

  • 1 cup fresh or frozen Saskatoon berries
  • 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
  • 2 apples, sliced and chopped
  • 4-5 small plums, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1  cup white sugar
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS

  1. Heat oven to 425°F.
  2. Prepare your Klondike Pastry:
    •     In a large bowl, whisk together your flour, salt, baking powder, and brown sugar. Cut in your shortening until you have pea-sized bits throughout.
    • In a small bowl, whisk together your egg, vinegar, and cold water.
    • Pour your egg mixture into the flour mixture and mix only until a dough forms, don’t over mix. Split dough in half, roll out each half to desired thickness, lay into your pie plate, press lightly to fill and cut around the edges. Re-roll left over dough to form the top. Cut a shape out of the top layer before laying it onto the fruit mixture.
  3. Onto the fruit! In a large saucepan, simmer berries (and apple and plums, if doing that version) with the water for 15 minutes.
  4. Stir the lemon juice into the fruit mixture, allow to cook for another 5 minutes.
  5. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and sugar, stir into the berry mixture.
  6. Pour the filling into your pie crusts. Place the top layer over the pie, pinch to seal the edges. If desired, use a pastry brush to brush the top with some milk and sprinkle with sugar.
  7. Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F  and bake for an additional 35 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

Delicious berry filling (pre-realization that we needed WAY MORE FILLING)

The first pie, gloriously filled.

The second pie, the four-fruit filling pie.

This Saskatoon berry shape is old and well used.

Pre-baking.

Post-baking.

Carrot Cake

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I have to tell you something before you scroll down to the intro photo. There was not enough time for me to take a good photo of this cake. We made it Friday night and were so busy once the party got started that I didn’t have a chance to slip away and take nice shots of the cut cake. So… what you see below is all that is left, it is a broken, half-smooshed tiny piece. Also, I too have kitchen issues, I definitely grated my finger in the process (don’t worry, it didn’t get in with the carrots) and have been band-aided for two days. Sigh. In all, I hope you know that this means that this carrot cake was too good for photos. Don’t judge this delicious cake by the photo…

We made some of my dad’s favourite foods for his party and the desserts were no exception. Dad has always loved carrot cake, so of course it was on the menu. We also made Saskatoon Blueberry Pie and Saskatoon Blueberry Plum Apple Pie, so stay tuned for those on Thursday. This carrot cake was a big hit, I had many requests for it to be posted and rightfully so, it is moist, perfectly sweet and everything we’d hoped! Dad would’ve loved it, and that is exactly what we wanted.

Carrot Cake

Cake recipe adapted from here.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsps baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsps ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 3/4 tsp cardamon
  • 1 3/4 cups white sugar
  • 1 cup canola oil
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups shredded carrots
  • 1 cup shredded coconut
  • 1 (14 oz) can pineapple tidbits (or crushed), drained
  • 1 cup walnuts, crushed (optional)

Cream Cheese Icing

  • 1 (250 g) package cream cheese, softened
  • 1/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9 x 13-inch pan.
  2. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cardamon, and cinnamon.
  3. Add sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Stir well, mixing until smooth.
  4. Stir in carrots, coconut, and pineapple. (add walnuts now too)
  5. Pour into your prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes. The centre might sink a bit, it didn’t for me, but don’t fear!
  6. Cool completely before frosting.
  7. To make the frosting, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the confectioners sugar and vanilla, beat until creamy and fluffy, add more sugar as needed for the desired texture.
  8. Even better, frost with the mascarpone whipped cream frosting from the Guinness Cupcakes!

Rich Walnut Brownies

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Another brownie post, I know, I’ve made one before. These are delicious and they are on the road to a flourless cake that I keep meaning to get to. These only have 1/2 cup of flour, and really, could probably have done without any at all, with a few adjustments. We’ve been making a lot of brownies around Mom’s house lately, with a house full of women, chocolate is a necessity. I love walnuts in brownies, I feel they add some awesome texture, but also take away any overdose of sweetness, they balance them out. This recipe is Alton Brown’s. I love that man and his recipes are always great, this one is no exception. These are pretty dark-chocolate tasting, so if that’s not your cup of tea, try the other recipe.

Rich Walnut Brownies

Adapted from Alton Brown’s.

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup butter, melted
  • 1 1/4 cups cocoa
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3/4 cup broken walnuts

INGREDIENTS

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 13 x 9-inch pan.
  2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow.
  3. Add both sugars, beat well.
  4. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine, making sure to have a smooth batter (except for the walnuts).
  5. Pour the batter into your pan, smoothing the top.
  6. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Brownies are done when a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
  7. Let cool before eating.

Whisking by hand and butter for melting.

Two sugars worth of tastiness.