C is for Cranberries

Baking with cranberries is a great way to celebrate fall. Cranberries are synonymous with harvests, cooler weather and . . . .turkey. Mmmmmm, home made cranberry sauce.

I keep a bag or two of cranberries in the freezer at all times. They are a healthy and great addition to a batch of muffins. Try tossing a cup or so into your favorite banana bread recipe.

Cranberry sauce is a snap to make, and once you have tried making your own without all the added sugars and preservatives, it will replace store bought cranberry sauces on your holiday dinner table.

Cranberry Sauce

3 cups (one bag) fresh or frozen cranberries
¼ cup water
½ cup sugar
¼ cup orange juice
2 whole cinnamon sticks
8 whole cloves

In a large heavy bottomed saucepan, combine cranberries, water and sugar. Cook uncovered over medium heat until cranberries begin to pop. With a potato masher, crush cranberries. Continue cooking until cranberries can be easily mashed. Add cinnamon sticks and whole cloves. Cover and reduce heat to low. Allow to simmer until mixture reaches a thick chutney consistency. If you prefer a sauce that is less thick, add more water to thin sauce.

Remove saucepan from heat. Remove and discard cinnamon sticks and whole cloves. Transfer sauce to a clean serving bowl. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before covering and chilling until ready to serve. Cranberry sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for a week’s time or frozen for later use.

This recipe will make about 3 cups of chutney style sauce. You can opt to remove the seeds and skins from the sauce by pushing the sauce through a fine mesh strainer while still warm and before chilling, but be prepared that this will give you a lot less sauce.

I sometimes double this recipe, which gives enough leftover to make a family favourite:

Cranberry Oatmeal Squares

1 cup flour
1 cup oats
½ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
¼ tsp baking soda
½ cup butter or margarine
1 ½ cup whole berry cranberry sauce
½ cup slivered almonds

In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar and baking soda. Using a pastry blender, cut butter into oat mixture. Press half of the oat mixture into a parchment lined 8” square baking pan. Spread pressed mixture with cranberry sauce. Stir slivered almonds into remaining oat mixture. Sprinkle evenly over top of cranberry sauce and lightly pat in place. Bake @ 350 F/ 180 C for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan completely. Cut into squares.

These easy to make squares are perfect for lunch boxes, after school snacks or with tea & coffee. Or try them served warm with vanilla ice cream. Reminiscent of a fruit crisp, these squares don’t last too long each time I make them . . .especially when “Papa” comes to visit.

Happy Baking . . .

B is for Brioche

Buttery, warm, melt in the mouth brioche. There are two places I know to get really good brioche. One is at a bakery around the corner from the bed & breakfast I stayed at just outside of Paris. The other is if I am lucky enough to be in the pastry kitchen at Cin Cin Ristorante in Vancouver when Thierry Busset is baking his brioche(yes, a true Frenchman in an Italian kitchen !) Note: Thierry will be opening his own atelier style pastry and chocolate shop called simply "Thierry" on Alberni Street in Vancouver soon . . very soon.

Brioche is a highly enriched French bread, whose high egg and butter content give it a rich and tender crumb. It has a dark, golden, and flaky crust from an egg wash applied after proofing (rising). Brioche à tête is perhaps the most classically recognized form. This style of brioche is formed and baked in a fluted round, flared tin; a large ball of dough is placed on the bottom, topped with a smaller ball of dough to form the head (tête).

Brioche dough contains flour, eggs, butter, milk, yeast, salt, and sometimes some sugar. Usual recipes have a flour:butter ratio of about 2:1; when the flour:butter ratio is closer to 5:4, it may be called La Pâte à brioche mousseline or Brioche Mousseline or Rich Man's Brioche because the higher butter ratio results in a richer brioche.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his autobiography Confessions (completed in 1769 but published after his death in 1782), relates that "a great princess" is said to have advised with regard to peasants who had no bread, "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche". This saying is commonly (and inaccurately) translated as "Let them eat cake" and attributed to Queen Marie-Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI.

Brioche à Tête
(from Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques, 2001)
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 c. lukewarm water
1 pkg. dry active yeast
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 tsp. salt

In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, water, and yeast. Let stand undisturbed for 5 minutes to froth and double in size.

In a large bowl, cream butter with salt. Add eggs. Stir in flour Place the remaining ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the paddle attachment, start mixing on low, adding the yeast mixture slowly. When all the ingredients hold together, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Mix at medium speed for 5 minutes. The dough should be well blended, and elastic, velvety, and hold into a lump around the beater.

Remove the dough from the mixer bowl and place the dough in a large greased bowl. Cover with a towel and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size(about 2 hours).

Gently punch down dough. Generously butter large brioche mold or several smaller individual molds (which I enjoy making, they are so pretty piled in a basket on the breakfast table). For the large mold, separate a piece of the dough about the size of an orange. Place the remaining dough in the mold so that no seams are showing and you have a nice smooth surface. Using your fist, make an indentation in the center of the dough. Shape reserved dough into a smoothball and place in the indentation to form the “tête”. Press down gently to secure pieces of dough together. For smaller molds, divide dough into portions equal to number of pans, remembering to also form smaller balls to make the top knobs or “tête”.

Let the brioches rise in a warm, draft-free place for another 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Preheat your oven to 400 F, and brush tops of brioches with an egg wash (1 egg, beaten). Bake for approximately 25 minutes for a large, single brioche and adjust the baking time to less for the smaller portions. They should be golden brown on the outside. Allow to cool ten minutes before removing from molds.

These are best the day of, when still warm. They are already very buttery, so a little jam or marmalade is all that is needed. They will also keep in an air-tight container for 3-4 days.

Mmmm, so buttery, melt-in-your-mouth good, and comforting on a cold October day like today.

A is for Apples

In this case . . . Apple Pie. The other day my family and I were planning an upcoming meal and we got to talking about comfort foods; those foods that either remind you of your home or the foods that seem to wrap you in a warm embrace and chase away any hint of a bad day. One of the first dishes mentioned was Apple Pie; warm apple pie spiced with cinnamon and a pinch of cloves and nutmeg and made perfect with a generous scoop of vanilla bean ice cream or a large dollop of fresh whipped cream.

My mom taught me to make apple pie. Or rather, she taught me the science part of making apple pie, which is in the crust. She taught me the secret to a great apple pie is not actually in the apples (though these are important . . . more about these later), but in the pastry crust. Specifically, it’s about proportions; too much fat and the crust will be too heavy, too little and it will fall apart. In our family we have routinely used the recipe from the back of the Crisco package. It is easily and successfully doubled if needed - perfect for double crusts or for freezing half the recipe for another day. Here is a video on how to make the perfect pie crust.

Back to those apples. From experience, it is best to use a firmer baking apple else the apples will cook down too much and you will end up with an apple “sauce” pie. For this reason, I choose either Braeburn, Granny Smith or Gala apples. These are best used when they are fresh and firm, as this is when their pectin will lend to a more successful filling as the pie cools; too little pectin and the filling remains runny. For a more interesting taste, you could try mixing more than one type of apple, as long as their firmness is the same so that all the apple pieces will cook evenly.

Apples and cheese are a great combination and often I will include slices of sharp cheddar in my apple pie. This is common in a number of American recipes, and my Canadian friends look puzzled when I describe this addition. That is, until they try it and then . . ah hah! . . . they understand.

Below is my family recipe for Apple Cheddar Pie:

8 cups peeled, cored and sliced baking apples, preferably Braeburn, Granny Smith or Gala
½ cup all purpose flour
½ cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves
½ cup raisins (optional)
8 slices sharp cheddar cheese (not processed slices)
1 egg yolk, beaten
1 double crust for 10” pie, rolled out and ready to use

Place one layer of pastry dough into 10” pie plate. Cover with moist tea towel so that it won’t dry out. Set second pastry layer aside. This will be the top.

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, spices and raisins. Add sliced apples and toss to coat. Arrange apples with spice mixture in unbaked pie shell. Place slices of cheddar cheese in a single layer over apples. Cover with second pastry layer. Trim, seal and crimp edges as shown in the above photo. With a sharp knife, cut decorative slits into the top pastry to allow for steam to rise. Brush pastry with beaten egg yolk.

Fold lengths of aluminum foil into strips about 3 inches wide. Gently wrap crimped edges of pastry dough with foil strips. This will prevent the pastry edges from burning.

Place pie in center of a 425F / 220C oven and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350F/175C and continue baking for 30 more minutes. Remove aluminum strips and bake a final 10 minutes.

Remove hot pie from oven and allow to stand and cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. This will allow for the pie to start to set; cut too soon and the filling will still be runny and escape out of the crust. Serve warm with vanilla bean ice cream or fresh whipped cream.

Warm apple pie with hot tea on a cold day or just when you are feeling a little out of sorts is a great way to give yourself a little comfort and lift your spirits.(it is also a perfect way to cheer up a grumpy spouse or to earn a “Get Out of Jail Free” pass).

Turkey and Stuffing and Pumpkin Pie, oh my !

I love turkey dinner. I love the busy day spent preparing all the dishes, and in our house we do the whole works. Turkey with giblet gravy, sausage stuffing with dried plums (both inside the bird and an extra baked dish), mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes with orange juice and brown sugar, brussel sprouts with pancetta, steamed carrots with dill, fresh butter rolls, homemade cranberry sauce and apple sauce. Usually there is champagne (champagne really does go with everything and in fact pairs quite nicely with turkey).

Dessert involves at least two types of pie: pumpkin and either apple or a chocolate Bourbon tart. I either make a traditional pumpkin pie or my mother’s pumpkin chiffon pie, which involves a ½ cup (yes, that’s one half cup) of Triple Sec or Cointreau. I find after the large turkey event, the lighter chiffon pie is much welcomed. Just don’t try to pass a breathalyzer test.

Perfect Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Tart

8 oz semisweet chocolate
dough for a 9” single pie crust
2 tbsp butter or margarine
3 eggs, slightly beaten
¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup light or dark corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup high quality bourbon (our house prefers Marker’s Mark)
1 ½ cup pecan halves

Roll out the pie crust into a 9” straight sided tart tin with removable bottom. Refrigerate tart shell until ready to fill.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and salt. Add corn syrup, butter, bourbon and vanilla. Whisk until well blended and frothy. Spread pecans in a layer on the bottom of the chilled tart crust. Pour in egg mixture. Bake @ 350 degrees for one hour. Serve warm with ice cream (optional – but not really!)

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

9” single pie crust, baked and cooled
1 envelope unflavoured gelatin
2/3 cup suger, divided in half
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ cup water
3 eggs, separated
½ cup Triple Sec or Cointreau (though I’ve used Brandy in a pinch)
1 ¼ cup canned pumpkin
½ cup heavy cream, whipped

In the top part of a double boiler, combine the gelatin, half of the sugar, the salt and ginger. Add water. Beat in egg yolk one at a time. Add Triple Sec / Cointreau and cook over simmering water, stirring occasionally until gelatin has dissolved and mixture is slightly thickened. Remove from heat and still in the pumpkin. Allow to cool.

Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Gradually add the remaining sugar and continue beating until very stiff. Fold in pumpkin mixture and whipped cream. Pile into baked pie crust and chill until firm (about 3 hours). Decorate with more whipped cream and candied ginger if desired.

This pie is also wonderful with a ginger snap crumb crust instead of a traditional pastry crust. Alternatively, I use a pastry crust, but add a bit of sugar and some cinnamon to the dough to give it added flavour.

tickled pink . . .

In honour of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, here are a few things pink that have caught my eye. All these items are available for purchase on Etsy; and some feature partial proceeds being donated to Canadian Breast Cancer Society.
Shown left is a brooch of beautiful frothy pink blooms titled LETITIA. They are made to order by RiRiFisch. This brooch is very soft and romantic, and can be worn as shown on the shoulder, or at the waist of a sweater dress or on the brim of a hat.
To the right is a vibrant and sassy pleated hot pink clutch by letsglamup. The textured pleats add glamour while the color adds a bit of zing to your wardrobe. Perfect on a drab day.
It's no secret that I love shoes. These vintage Calvin Klein pale pink pumps available from TwirlVintageCo are gorgeous and reconfirm why classic Calvin Klein is well, in a word . . .classic. If you do purchase these (or any item with ribbons such as these), I suggest lightly searing the ends with a flame to prevent fraying.
I also have an affinity for pretty beads. This set of seemingly random hand made beads titled 31Pink Experiments by paulinabeads do in fact look gorgeous when strung as a group. Space them out with some pale pink Austrian or Swarovski crystals for a super elegant look.
And with all your pink garb in honour of Breast Cancer Awareness, what better was to show your support than by hosting a Breast Cancer Awareness Party. A party where women (and men) come together and through donations and pink-themed beverages, nibbles and decor, raise money to help fight this terrible disease. These pompoms by (who else) PartyPom are a great decorating idea for such a party. Like big balls of cotton candy hanging from the ceiling, they are sure to bring delight and are also available in other colours and a variety of sizes. Afterwards, they would be perfect for a little girl's room to to reuse for a gender reveal or baby shower.
To women everywhere fighting the battle against breast cancer each and every day . . .keep fighting. We support you.

October is for Opals

Opal is the birthstone for October and the anniversary gemstone for the 13th year of marriage. The irony is that during the 19th century, opals were believed to be bad luck. This superstition is thought to have started with the writer Sir Walter Scott. In 1829, the heroine of his novel Anne of Geierestein owned an opal that burned fiery red when she was angry and turned ashen gray upon her death. This stigmatism prevailed, almost destroying the opal market until Queen Victoria finally dispelled the curse by giving opal jewelry as gifts at a royal wedding. The opal’s popularity grew, and in the early 1900’s the Diamond Commission resurrected this rumor because now opals were preferred over diamonds for engagement rings.

Opal is mainly from Australia, but it also comes from Mexico, Peru, Brazil and Indonesia. Australian opal comes in three varieties: Crystal Opal, Boulder Opal and Black Opal.

Black Opal is only found at Lightning Ridge in New South Wales, Australia. This magnificent gemstone is the most valuable form of opal. Its dark background color, usually black or gray, sets the spectral colors ablaze much like a storm cloud behind a rainbow. Black Opal is so valuable that even wafer thin slices are made into doublets or triplets to give them enough strength and depth to set into gold rings and other jewelry items.

Boulder Opal is found in several mines throughout Australia.The main ones are Coober Pedy, Andamooka and Mintabe. It’s very easy to distinguish Boulder Opal from other varieties; it always has ironstone on the back of it. Boulder opals are usually a blue/green color with sparks of red, yellow, orange or purple.

The third type of Australian Opal is crystal opal. It has a white body with a rainbow of complementary colors throughout. Crystal Opal is transparent and is pure opal (hydrated silica.) It typically has sharp clarity of diffracted color visible from within and on the surfaces of the stonel. When held out of the direct light, Crystal Opal displays some of the most intense color. This is the type of opal used in inlay jewelry, which has the base of the setting blackened before the precision cut crystal opal is set into it.

Opal is a fragile stone because all opals contain water. The content varies but it can be as much as 30%. Over the course of time, the stone loses water, cracks and the opalescence diminishes. This also makes the stones sensitive to pressure and knocks. Opal jewelry (and all other jewelry for that matter) should be put on AFTER using hairspray or perfumes, as the chemicals will break down the stone and cause it to lose its luster.

Opal's internal structure makes it diffract light; depending on the conditions in which it formed it can take on many colors. Opal ranges from clear through white, gray, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, magenta, rose, pink, slate, olive, brown, and black. Of these hues, the reds against black are the most rare, whereas white and greens are the most common. Stones vary in optical density from opaque to semi-transparent. For gemstone use, a stone’s natural color is often enhanced by placing thin layers of opal on a darker underlying stone, like basalt.

Regardless of which type of opal you prefer, there is no other gemstone that displays such an intense array of colors and spectrums.

it's all in the details . . . .

I adore beautiful packaging. (and for the purpose of this post I’m talking about gift wrapping and presents, not men . . .in which beautiful packaging is de rigueur). To this end, I save ribbons and bows to use again. I confess to ironing tissue paper to re-use. My closet is full boxes for decorating and using to give gifts in. I cringe a little when I see perfectly good gift bags being crumpled up and tossed away. Re-use people, re-use!

I believe attention to the details in a gift's presentation speak volumes to the extra care and thought a person wishes to express to the gift's recipient. Here are a few examples that I have found and enjoy - many of which use re-purposed or recycled paper products:

These Damask paper take-out boxes (shown right) from a download template by ThePoshEvent make a great impression. Order the download, print out the pdf file on your computer's printer and follow the simple directions to create beautiful gift boxes. Print on different colored stiff cardstock to fit your theme.

The Red Christmas with Snowflake (left) and Vintage Luggage Style (top of post) gift tags from ozzyandfelix are two examples of how a simple addition to the top of a gift can give it that little extra something.

While a beautiful bakery box won't technically make what's inside taste better, thoughtful pretty packaging can often indicate the quality of the yummy treats hidden within.

Better quality bakeshops and pastry chefs take pride in their craft and want to ensure their creations arrive in the best possible condition to be enjoyed. These Kraft Tote Bakery Boxes (shown right) and Transparent Macaron Cases (below)are just a couple of packaging offerings by fromsoul .






So take the time to create some lovely and distinctive packaging out of old Christmas cards, second-hand wrapping paper and scrap paper punch outs. You'll have fun being creative and be doing something nice for the earth while showing the recipients of your gifts your extra care.