Category Archives: Baking and Sweets

Not back yet, but here is some tasty filler. Coconut Cream Pie, by request from Not Crocker’s padre (recipe for Gingersnaps included)

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Dad’s doing fairly well, as well as he can. He’s certainly got his sense of humour. He has a steady flow of visitors each day, and more importantly, a steady flow of scotch. Today, his son-in-law brought him a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label and we all enjoyed the smooth delicious blend of ridiculously expensiveness. I am looking forward to another paper cup with a scotch rock (granite frozen to cool the scotch without watering it down) and a splash of the good stuff tomorrow.

Dad asked the other day, for some pie, specifically apple… and then pumpkin…and finally coconut cream. So coconut cream pie it is! Kel and I got to making it that night and we had it the next day, the longer the flavours mellow, the better. And wow, super delicious. I really can’t think of a time when I’ve had coconut cream pie, and I’ve stayed clear of banana cream pie for the most part because it seems like one too many smooth textures, I need some textural variation. Well, coconut cream pie has some chewy bits of toasted coconut, a nice gingersnap crust and two different layers of creamy goodness. The pictures aren’t great because I am still in the midst of the Great Camera Fiasco of 2012. I left my battery charger up here in the Yukon in July. Mom and Dad were supposed to head south mid-August, so I made-do with the cord. Then all of this madness happened and I had to come north, a month after I left it here. Well, I get off the plane and tell mom how excited I am to charge my camera battery (it’s the small things, clearly) and she tells me that she mailed it the day before. Curses! Anyway, the iPhone photos can’t take away from the scrumptious pie. Make it. Love it. Tell me all about it.

Coconut Cream Pie

Lightly adapted from Anna Ols0n. 

INGREDIENTS 

Gingersnap Crust

  • 3/4 cup + 1/3 cup butter, room temperature
  • 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1/4 cup molasses
  • 1 egg
  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsps baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/2 tsp cardamon
  • sugar, for coating

Coconut Filling

  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 1/4 cups coconut milk
  • 2 whole eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 cup shredded coconut, lightly toasted**

Cream Topping

  • 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp skim milk powder
  • 1/4 cup coconut, lightly toasted **

DIRECTIONS

  1. The first step is to bake your gingersnaps.
  2. Heat oven to 350 °F.
  3. Cream 3/4 cup butter (reserve the 1/3 for later) and sugar together until light and fluffy. Stir in molasses and beat in egg.
  4. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and spices and stir just until blended.
  5. Roll spoonfuls of dough into balls and roll in a shallow dish of white sugar. Place 2 inches apart on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet and press flat with the palm of your hand, or a fork. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until edges are lightly browned. Remove from baking sheet to cool. If you just want gingersnaps, stop here. Eat cookies.
  6. To form the crust: grind cooled cookies in a food processor, or by hand (good luck!) and measure out 2 1/2 cups of crumbs (we used all but 6 cookies, which we munched on the next day). Melt the 1/3 cup butter and mix into crumbs. Press into a 9-inch pie pan (we also put some into a 4-inch tart pan so Dad could have his individual pie at the hospital) and chill until ready to fill.
  7. For filling: stir sugar, cornstarch, and salt together in a heavy-bottomed saucepot. Whisk in coconut milk, whole eggs, and egg yolks. Heat custard on low while whisking constantly for 5 minutes.
  8. **Turn oven to 400°F, spread coconut in a thin layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 5 minutes, stir on pan and toast for another 3-5 minutes until light brown. Some darker toasted shreds are totally ok. Reserve 1/4 cup for sprinkling on top.
  9. Back to the custard! Increase heat to medium and continue whisking until custard thickens and becomes glossy, about 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and strain. Stir in vanilla, butter, and toasted coconut. Stir until butter has melted. Pour immediately into chilled pie shell, let cool on the counter for 15 minutes, then chill completely before topping with cream, at least 4 hours.
  10. For cream topping: whip cream to a medium peak, and whisk in sugar and skim milk powder. Top coconut custard with whipped cream, and sprinkle remaining toasted coconut on top as garnish.

Coconut custard.

Icebox Cookies. Or, how to use your egg yolks after making meringues

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These are made with a rich dough that can be rolled in or topped with whatever you like. I just baked up a small batch plain so I could easily dip them in some hot chocolate and coffee. They are a beautiful cross between a sugar cookie and shortbread… more on the sugar cookie side of things. This is a great way to use up excess egg yolks after making meringues, or chocolate mousse. But, if you want to make these first, at least you also know what to do with your whites! I like icebox cookies because they are essentially cookies anytime, whip up a recipe throw the cookie log in the freezer, slice and bake and you’ve got fresh cookies in 15 minutes. If you think ahead… I didn’t… you can roll them in coconut, chocolate, nuts, etc. and have fancier versions ready for when guests surprize you!

Icebox Cookies

This recipe makes about 2 large logs of dough… I am not a log-forming master, so you can probably make many more small logs.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 cups butter, room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • tasty flavour additions: 1/2 tsp cardamon or 1 tbsp orange zest or swap 1/4 tsp of vanilla for a flavoured extract like almond or roll the log immediately after forming it, in chocolate shavings, crushed walnuts, shredded coconut, or sprinkles.

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, and salt until pale and fluffy.
  2. Add yolks and beat well, scraping down the sides. Add vanilla.
  3. Add flour (and flavours if wanted) and mix until just combined.
  4. Separate in two and roll into logs. Roll the logs in desired toppings. Wrap the logs in plastic and freeze for at least two hours, but feel free to leave them longer, until you want them! Slice off one, or two, or twenty cookies and bake!
  5. Heat oven to 350°F. Cover a baking sheet in parchment paper.
  6. Unwrap log, and place on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, slice off 1/4 inch cookies.
  7. Arrange cookies on your baking sheet, 1 inch apart and bake until pale golden, 13 to 15 minutes.
  8. Serve with coffee, milk, hot chocolate, or just a smile.

Poorly shaped, expertly sliced cookies.

Delicious

From the cover photo, because its such a lovely shot.

 

Fresh Fig and Frangipane Torte

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I have always wondered about fresh figs. My only experience with figs at all has been in Newtons, and while I liked those, I couldn’t imagine the fresh fruit being particularly special. Finally, when cruising through the grocery story for other ingredients I decided to pick up some fresh figs. When I got home I cut one open and gave it a taste. I get it, they are yummy, though nothing in their flavour really stands out for me. The skin has a bit of a tart punch, but I wish it was more, and the flesh is slightly sweet but really muted. Overall I enjoyed it, but I really did want to make something special. So here we go, a torte with almonds and figs. I made a fairly standard almond torte, then whipped up a small batch of frangipane, an almond cream (of sorts) that elevated the figs and the almonds in the torte to a whole new level. Now, I did slightly burn the outside of my torte, sigh, but that is a product a poor pan, the centre is crumbly, buttery, perfection.

Fresh Fig and Frangipane Torte

Inspired by Orangette.

INGREDIENTS

Frangipane

  • 1/2 cup whole almonds
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp butter, room temperature
  • 1 egg

Torte

  • 2/3 cup almond meal (make your own by pulsing whole almonds in a coffee grinder until they are fine, not too long though or you will make almond butter)
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp dark rum (I went with The Kraken, no surprize, but you can use any liquor you like here, or vanilla)
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 to 5 ripe figs, quartered

DIRECTIONS

  1. Frangipane: Heat the oven to 350°F.  Spread the almonds evenly on a baking sheet and roast for about 10 minutes, or until fragrant.  Transfer to a plate and let cool to room temperature.Put the almonds and the sugar into a food processor and process until fine.  Add the butter and the egg and pulse until well-combined. Set aside.
  2. Turn the oven to 375 F. Butter and flour a 9-inch cake pan.
  3. Take 1 cup of whole almonds  and in small batches, grind in a coffee grinder until you have a fine powder. Be careful not to over process. Empty into a measuring cup until you have 2/3 cup of almond meal. Remove and reprocess the large chunks of almonds.
  4. Whisk together the almond meal, flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
  5. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until pale yellow and fluffy.
  6. Add the rum, the dry ingredients, and the eggs. Beat well until everything is incorporated.
  7. Scrape the batter into your prepared pan and spread it out until even across the base of the pan.
  8. Dollop your frangipane in 5 parts on top of the cake batter and gently smooth in an even circle across the centre, leaving 1/4 inch at the edges.
  9. Arrange the fig pieces on top and bake for 40 minutes or until the top of the cake turns golden brown. A toothpick test should also come out clean.
  10. Run a knife along the edge of the pan and allow it to cool for 10 minutes. Flip the cake onto a plate, allowing it to come out of the pan. Then, place a rack on the bottom and flip it back over to cool for another 10 minutes.
  11. Serve alone or with a dollop of mascarpone whipped cream.

Homemade almond meal

A little dark, but super tender inside.

Black Bottom Meringues— Chocolate meringues with dark chocolate and espresso bottoms

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Alright, alright, the bottoms are less black than brown but brown bottom sounded questionable, so I went with it. These are easy meringues with a dark chocolate and espresso ganache for the bottoms. The ganache mellows out the sweetness of the meringue, it is a lovely pairing. I mentioned my friend Angela in the last post, and I will mention her again! These meringues were made in celebration… in mourning… of her imminent departure. Angela is leaving us Vancouver folk for the wilds of the Sunshine Coast, she is moving on to bigger and better things, though we think she’ll come back to us, we’ve got all the beer here!

Black Bottom Meringues

INGREDIENTS

Meringues

  • 6 large egg whites (save your yolks for icebox cookies: to be posted this weekend)
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar
  • pinch cream of tartar
  • 2/3 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Ganache

  • 2 squares of dark bakers chocolate (or 2 oz of dark chocolate of your choice)
  • 2 tbsp of room-temperature espresso or very strong coffee
  • 3 tbsp of whipping cream

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat your oven to 175°F.
  2. Cover two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  3. Combine the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar in a large metal bowl set over a pan of simmering water, not touching the water, and not boiling water.
  4. Whisk the mixture constantly until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is smooth and warm to the touch (roughly 3-4 minutes). Remove from heat and beat the whites until stiff, glossy peaks form (this is most easily and quickly done with a mixer, but I am sure it could be accomplished by hand).
  5. Add the vanilla and stir to combine.
  6. Using a sifter (or a mesh strainer in my case) sift the cocoa over the meringue and stir until no streaks remain. I am not usually this particular about sifting stuff, but my cocoa was lumpy as all hell, so I did it and it worked beautifully.
  7. Scoop the meringue into a pastry bag or a large ziploc with a corner snipped off. Squeeze out quarter-sized dollops onto your parchment paper.
  8. Bake for 2 hours, until they lift from the pan easily, mine took a little extra time because I wanted them quite dry. If you want them a little chewy, check after 1.5 hours. Allow to cool completely.
  9. While the meringues are cooling make the ganache.
  10. In a small pan over simmering water, melt the chocolate taking care not to scorch it.
  11. Add espresso and cream and stir to combine, it will come together… trust me.
  12. Once meringues have cooled smooth a layer of ganache across the bottom, place meringues bottom-up on a baking sheet as you go. Refrigerate for at least an hour to allow the ganache to set.
  13. Serve.

The meringues are starting to stiffen.

Folding in the cocoa powder.

Chocolate & Nut Date Balls- chocolate cravings killer

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These sticky treats are not your grandma’s date balls. They are fudgy and packed with chocolate flavour. I added a lot of nuts, probably more than you might want, but they are tasty. And they are easy to adjust to what you have on hand or what your tastes are. I am often finding myself pining for chocolate and these have successfully satisfied those cravings time and again. They keep wonderfully in the fridge and travel well. While I happily used my food processor that I got from my friend Kim, these could be made without it by chopping things up very small by hand and mixing well, though they will be less fudge-like. They are pretty darn healthy, there is no butter or sugar added as the dates act as both.

Chocolate & Nut Date Balls

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 1/2 cups of pitted medjool dates (can be whole, chopped, whatever. You are processing them)
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 cup walnuts
  • 1/4 cup sliced almonds
  • 1/2 cup salted cashews (I just had these on hand and they were awesome, the saltiness added a new dimension)
  • 1/2 cup shredded coconut
  • 2-4 tbsp cocoa powder (start with two and work up to your desired fudginess)
  • 1/3 cup dried oats (whole oats if you are using a food processor; quick oats if not, as they are already chopped up)
  • 2 tbsps of semi-sweet chocolate chips are optional (totally not necessary but will further amp the chocolate factor)

DIRECTIONS

  1. Chuck everything into the food processor and blend. Start with only 2 tbsp of cocoa powder and add more as needed. If the texture isn’t coming together more dates will add the necessary stickiness. Add more nuts, coconut, dried fruit, etc. as desired.
  2. Once things have been chopped down to your taste, roll into balls, place in a tupperware and refrigerate to firm them up. Feel free to roll these in some additional cocoa powder or coconut.
  3. If you are making these by hand, which is definitely possible, chop all the ingredients that need it, as well as you can. Pop everything into a bowl and stir aggressively (that’s right, aggressively!) to combine. You are looking for the ingredients to stick together and distribute evenly.
  4. Eat morning, noon, and night.

All the good stuff, ready to mingle.