Clockwork Lemon

Birthdays

March was *the* birthday month and I had a birthday party to go to (including my own!) almost every weekend. The lovely (headless) girl in the photo here is my birthday twin Rachele and we decided to have a joint birthday party at the end of the month.

And birthday party means birthday baking which meant a baking date to get some treats together. If there is one thing I love it's baking dates with hilarious ladies and adorable aprons.

 

Rachele got some busy making lime curd for our strawberry and lime mini tarts. It's just as delicious as lemon curd but a very very pale green instead of bright yellow.

 

Raspberry Ice Cream

It might be a little bit early in the season for me to be pulling out my ice cream maker considering there was still snow on the ground a couple of days ago. However, I'm going to argue that every season is ice cream season especially when it comes to delicious home made ice cream.

 

I've had these raspberries in my freezer since I picked them last summer. Every time I opened the freezer I could practically hear them begging me to stop making them into healthy breakfast shakes and use them in a batch of sweet and tart creamy raspberry ice cream instead.

Who am I to ignore the cries of my freezer raspberries?

 

Coconut Swirl Bread

This bread is my new favorite loaf to make. It surpassed all of my coconut expectations and is the perfect combination of soft sweet white bread and buttery coconut filling. It's delicious fresh from the oven, toasts up perfectly with a sugary coco-nutty crust, and stays soft and delicious for a few days afterwards as well.

 

I wanted to make sure there was as much coconut flavor packed into the loaf as possible so the regular milk was replaced with creamy coconut milk.

 

Snickerdoodle Cookie Sandwiches & The Globe and Mail

 

 

It was my friend's birthday recently and I decided to make her a batch of cookie sandwiches because who doesn't love getting cookies?

I went back and forth between which cookies and which filling I was going to use before I finally settled on basic snickerdoodles and nutella cloud icing from Sweetapolita's blog.

 

 

I had been reading Sweetapolita's blog and when she described the nutella frosting like a chocolate cloud I knew that I had to make it right away and try it for myself. Plus you can't go wrong with ingredients like nutella, chocolate, butter, and sugar.

 

Adventures in Bread Baking

 

 

Over a year and a half ago I decided that I wanted to bake all of my own bread. Before that I had been eating a combination of store bought bread, bread maker bread, and the occasional loaf of bread from the oven. I was armed with two of Peter Rienhart's bread books and felt that I could fit fresh homemade bread into my weekly routine without too much hassle.

Since then I have baked a good portion of the recipes from both The Bread Baker's Apprentice (BBA) and Artisan Breads Everyday (ABE) . The breads in ABE fit seamlessly into my schedule because most of the doughs are mixed up the day before and rise in the fridge overnight. I would get home from work, shape the loaves, let them rise, and bake them in the evening.

The more bread you bake the more you start understanding how the dough should feel and how it will react to substitutions and adjustments. Now I usually play around with recipes to add more whole grains or change the flavor.

 

 

 

 

I go through phases with the types of bread I like to bake and lately I've only been interested in whole grains or breads that I can turn into multigrain loaves. However this loaf that I've been baking lately is delicious (and beautiful) enough to lure me away from whole grains for a week or two.

It's 100% semolina bread that bakes up soft and golden and delicious. I had never used semolina before and I couldn't be more pleased with how this loaf turned out.

 

Jam-Striped Lemon Cookies

 

These little cookies have a lot going for them: a crisp buttery lemon base, tart berry jam topping, and just the right size for snacking.

It's still snowing here in Alberta and I was using the bright citrus and berry flavors to remind me that soon spring will be here, then summer, and then it will be time to can jams and jellies again! I really look forward to canning season. In fact, when I saw a container of strawberries in my fridge that was on its last legs I decided to make it into a small batch of jam just for these cookies

 

I rarely use a recipe when I'm just making a small batch of jam. I threw in the container of strawberries, a handful of frozen raspberries leftover from the summer and then grated in some lemon zest. To set the jam I chopped up pieces of apple core (which is full of pectin) and then starting simmering the fruit with some sugar on the stove.

 

Pinwheel Cake Tutorial

 Spring is supposedly on its way but when I look out my window all I see is little flurries of snow and a grey sky. Its probably a bit unrealistic to expect green grass and flowers in Alberta in February. I won't be vacationing somewhere warm any time soon so I've been staring at spring inspired photos and fabrics online to get my fill of pinks and greens and yellows. 

I have been reading the fabric and quilting blog Nana Company even though I don't sew or quilt. Her fabric choices are so pretty that I love checking out what sort of cute stuff she is working on. When I decided that I wanted to make a spring themed cake with pinwheels I used her creations as my inspiration for the colours and patterns.

 

 

 

Bread and Other Bake-Sale Treats

 

This past weekend I baked up some goodies for the Calgary Food Blogger Bake Sale which was benefiting Brown Bagging for Calgary’s Kids Society. I had gone back and forth over what I should bake because I knew that if I brought sugar cookies or cupcakes I'd go overboard and turn it into some huge decorating session that would keep me up all night painting tiny pieces of sugar paste. Don't get me wrong, I love making fiddly little decorations but designing and executing them the night before is just a terrible idea.

 

 

 

 

Instead I mixed up enough wild rice and onion dough to make six loaves of bread and put it in the fridge to rise overnight. I love this bread because it's soft and onion-y and makes excellent toast. Plus the more I bake the more I find that many people prefer savory baked goods over the sweet ones. Given the choice between a cheese bun or a brownie I'd choose the cheese bun every time (but really I'd be happiest if I could just have both). 

 

Calgary Food Blogger Bake Sale

 

 

There have been so many times when I've been reading a food blog and wished that the blogger would just make (insert delicious item here) for me so I could eat it ASAP. 

If you are in the Calgary area you have to opportunity to have that exact thing happen! Vincci from Ceci n’est pas un food blog has organized a food blogger bake sale and the proceeds from the sale will be going to Brown Bagging for Calgary’s Kids Society which is a really worthy charity.

Whole Wheat and Rye Swirl Bread

 

Sometimes bread baked with 100% whole wheat or whole grains turns out dense and a slightly bitter. I wanted a sandwich loaf that would be light, soft, easily sliceable, and delicious.

The starting point for this recipe was King Arthur Flour's whole wheat sandwich loaf. When I first tried their recipe I was very happy with the soft texture but not really sold on the flavor. I started trying different flours and doughs until (after many bakes) I came up with this loaf which has become a weekly staple. Its 100% whole wheat swirled with dark rye and caraway seed dough that bakes up soft and flavorful thanks to the addition of potato flakes and buttermilk.

 

 

I like to test my bread recipes over and over to make sure that the dough behaves relatively consistently. I recently had a fun fun baking date with Jacinthe and Rachele which I used as an opportunity to try out this recipe in another kitchen.

The rye dough is a mix of whole wheat and dark rye with caraway seeds and coco powder. The coco doesn't make the break chocolatey, it just adds extra flavor to the loaf and some extra colour to the rye. Both doughs have potato flakes, orange juice, and buttermilk in them. Potato flakes are just the stuff that you make instant mashed potatoes out of. Make sure you buy the plain ones though and not the ones with added fake flavors like sour cream and chive!