Category — Baking

An activity I love to do in the Kootenays during the summer is to forage for huckleberries. This past week while visiting my parents I had the opportunity to go out to our favorite spot in the Monashee Mountains and pick. The berries are abundant this year and within an hour I already had half a pale picked. Since I had left after work for picking, I decided after a half hour more it was time to head home.

A huckleberry is similar to a blueberry except that it is a little smaller, and tastes more tart, with a very intense flavor. Personally I prefer them to blueberries. I wanted to make something easy with the huckleberries (eating them on my granola was a little too easy) as I was spending most of my time on the lake at my parents camp, so I decided some huckleberry waffles were in order.

Here is the recipe I used:

2 eggs (yolks and whites separated)
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons honey
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh huckleberries

Start by mixing the yolks and the whites in separate bowls until they are light and fluffy. Then mix in the remaining wet ingredients into the yolks until well mixed. In another bowl combine the dry ingredients until well mixed. Then slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold in the egg whites until just mixed in. Finally add the huckleberries.

That is it, pretty simple. You can keep the batter in the fridge or use it right away. If you are to keep the batter in the fridge make sure not to mix in the huckleberries. To cook you simply just want to put the batter in your preheated waffle maker and away you go. My family all agreed, huckleberry waffles were a great way to start the day.

One of the things that I always love about visiting my parents in the summer is getting to eat my mother’s fresh fruit flans. When I went back to my parents place recently, strawberries were just starting to get ripe so my mom put together her patented German Erdeertorte for us.

The basic recipe for a torte or flan is to make the flan base, then fill it up with fresh fruit, and optionally cover the fruit with a glaze. My mom used a pear juice cornstarch glaze on her particular flan which turned out quite nicely.

What I love most about my mother’s torte is eating them a few days after they are made, after the juices from the fruit has seeped into the flan a bit, and made it a bit mushy. I know most people hate this, but for me this is heaven.

On my way home from my parents I picked up 2 flats of strawberries from my favorite farm in the valley, Zelaney Farms. I had to crank my air conditioning the whole drive home just to make sure the strawberries stayed cool. The day after getting home I went to work on putting together my own version of my mother’s erdbeertorte.

The flan I created was a bit different than my mothers. It turned out a little more solid, and a bit skinnier. Here is my flan recipe:

5 eggs
3/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cups soft butter
pinch of salt
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Start by mixing the eggs in a stand mixer until they become frothy. Then slowly mix in the sugar and vanilla. When the sugar is fully mixed in, add the butter and mix until creamed. Finally sift in the flour, salt and baking powder and fold into the mixture and fully mixed. Grease an 11″ flan pan, and sprinkle with white breadcrumbs. Pour the batter into the plan plan and bake for 12-15 minutes until the flan is a nice golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack.

Once the flan has cooled you can load it up with fruit. I went a little overboard with the number of strawberries I put on my flan, mainly because I had so many. Finally you will want to cover your fruit with a glaze. I made a lychee/strawberry glaze. Basically I mixed 1/2 cup lychee juice, with 1/2 cup strawberry juice from my cut strawberries. Added 3 tablespoons of cornstarch and 3 tablespoons of gelatin. Heated the mixture until it became nice and thick. I let the mixture cool briefly before carefully spooning it over the strawberries. The glaze turned out really nice. It had hints of lychee, yet was not too overpowering of the strawberries.

Of course no German Erdbeertorte should be eating without lots of Schlagsahne (whipping cream). Overall I am happy with the results of my flan. Probably not as good as my Mom’s, but still pretty delicious.

Every summer my nephew Mateo comes out for about a month to visit my parents and the rest of the family out west. I used his arrival as an excuse to make it out to my parents place in the Kootenays for a visit. Simply put, the Kootenays are absolutely glorious in the summer. Loads of fresh fruit and vegetables from the garden, hot days and cool nights, and a big lake to jump into for a swim.

I wanted to bake something fun with my nephew while I was back home. Since we had so much fresh fruit around I fell back on old habits and decided a pie would be best. However to make things more fun, I figured we could try our luck at mini pies, or pielettes. We had fresh strawberries, huckleberries, gooseberries and a few apples. A good variety of fruits to make some fun treats.

Mateo really enjoyed filling the pie crusts and making special tops for each pielette. We did a few lattice tops, a couple regular tops, and even a special top we made by making one big sheet of crust.

With all the remaining crust dough and fruit I put it all together into one big pie. As I was arranging the apples in the pie I realized they were starting to look like the vintage CBC logo from the 60′s. So I had fun with it. The pie itself wasn’t the best tasting I have to admit, as the gooseberries really tend to overpower all the other fruit, but it was still fun to make and try.

As far as recipes go I just made a simple butter pie dough for the crust in a food processor. For the fillings I did a variety of things. Brown sugar/cinnamon/butter for the apple, white sugar for the huckleberry, ginger/honey for the gooseberries, and a simple glaze for the strawberries. Of all the pielettes I think the apple turned out best, however the strawberry was also really good.

It was a really fun activity to do with Mateo, and I think he really enjoyed it. Next time I will be sure however to keep the gooseberries separate!

Still on my rhubarb kick, with a few stalks left in my fridge I decided to make a rhubarb pie on Monday. So off to my book of 300 Pie’s I go to find a good recipe.

I found what looked like a recipe that would taste great and got to preparing. Since I wanted to use my Emile Henry pie plate Kasie so awesomely gave to me, I had to bump up most of the ingredients a little more. What I quickly realized was that I didn’t have enough Rhubarb to fill my pie plate. So rather than going out to buy more I just filled the remainder with strawberries. I mean who doesn’t love strawberries and rhubarb anyway?

Since the colors of the strawberry and rhubarb filling would be a distinct red I decided a lattice top to the pie would make for a better presentation. If you have never done a lattice before you will find it is pretty easy once you get the braiding technique. I could explain it to you, but I think it would be easier just to show in pictures. So find below how to make a lattice-top for a pie.

Pretty easy right? I like to use wider strips personally. I find skinnier strips look a bit funny on a pie, and are also harder to cut later. Plus it is more working doing the lattice!

I enjoyed this pie, as did my number one taste tester Oliver. However I quickly realized with this recipe and the rhubarb berry crumble I made the other day, that I don’t like citrus in my rhubarb desserts. Oliver quiet enjoyed the orange tang this pie had, but I found it detracted too much from the rhubarb flavor too much, which for me is the main reason to bake with rhubarb. Regardless the pie still tasted good.

Recipe

3 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold butter
1/2 cup cold lard
1/2 cup cold water

5 cups rhubarb
2 cups strawberries
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
zeset of 1/2 orange
pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold butter

First step with most pies is to prepare the pie crust. You will want to do this at least 1 hour (if not longer) before you start to bake your pie. I have come to find the best and easiest way to make pie crust is in a food processor.

To use your food processor, put the flour sugar and salt into the bowl, and pulse a few times to mix. Then scatter the cold butter throughout the bowl and pulse 5-6 times. Fluff with a fork, then sprinkle the lard throughout the bowl, and pulse again 5-6 times. Fluff once more, then drizzle in 1/2 the cold water and pulse again another 5-6 times. Fluff, add remaining water, and finish with a final 5-6 pulses. The pie pastry should be crumbly at this point. Dump the pastry into a bowl and work into two balls, one a little larger than the other. Then flatten each ball into a disc about 3/4″ thick. Cover each with plastic wrap and place in the fridge.

Once the pastry has spent at least an hour in the fridge take larger disc out and put on a floured surface and roll out to be a good 12 inches. Gentle fold the pastry twice and place into the pie plate. Once in the plate you can unfold the pastry to fill the plate. Tuck the pastry into the pan by lifting around the outside so it slides in. You do not want to stretch the pastry. Let any remaining pastry overhang the plate. Put the plate and pastry back into the fridge while you prepare the rest of the pie.

Cut the rhubarb and combine with strawberries in a large bowl. Add the sugar, orange juice, zest, salt and nutmeg. mix well then set aside for 10-20 minutes. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

In a small bowl combine your corn starch and an additional 2 tablespoons of sugar, then mix into your bowl of fruit. By this time there should be a lot of juices from the rhubarb to mix into. Take the pie plate out of the fridge, and pour the fruit into the pie shell. Dot the top of the filling with butter.

Now it is time to do the lattice. Take the second disc out of the fridge and roll it out on a floured surface to be about 10 inches. Cut the rolled pastry into 8 wide strips. Now apply the lattice to the top of the pie as per the photos above. Use a pastry brush and some water to attach the lattice to the sides of the pie. Then cut off any extra overhanging pastry around the pie plate. Lastly brush the top of the lattice with milk or water, then sprinkle sugar on top. Now we are ready to bake.

Put the pie into the oven and bake for about 25-30 minutes. It should start to be getting a nice golden color. After this time rotate the pie 180 degrees. At this point you may want to put a pan under the pie plate on a lower rack to catch any bubbled over juices. Finally bake for an additional 25 minutes or so. You will want to see the filling and juices starting to bubble up. Remove the pie from the oven and let stand for a good 2-3 hours before eating. That is it, Rhubarb Strawberry Pie.

Notes: In the future I would not add the orange juice or zest out of personal preference. Also I find that rhubarb has enough juice on it’s own, that adding the orange juice just made the pie a bit runny. If you decide to keep the OJ in, I would suggest adding a bit more corn starch to counter act the additional liquid in the pie.

I am definitely going to give this recipe a second try. Next time without the orange juice and zest, perhaps with a bit more cornstarch. I would also like to try this recipe without the strawberries, and have the filling be all rhubarb. If you try this recipe post a comment and let me know if you liked it or not.

I love this time of year. Not only is it getting warming outside, the weather getting nicer and the days longer, but also some of my favorite fruits and berries are getting ripe. Specifically rhubarb. I remember when I was a kid; my brother and me would go to the garden, pick out big stalks of rhubarb, dip the ends in sugar then chew on them for the rest of the day.

So after finding some fresh rhubarb in the grocery store I knew I had to make something. Inspired by Helen and her wonderful blog Tartlette I decided to make a rhubarb crumble. Helen recently had a recipe for Rhubarb Crumble in which she made it in personal sized ramekins. I thought it looked really cute that way and decided to do the same!

I have to say I am very happy with the way it turned out. They look great, but more so they tasted amazing. The only thing I would change next time is to use a little less lemon juice and zest. The still tasted amazing though. So much so that when I started eating one to get a few shots of how they looked inside, I couldn’t stop eating it until it was done. I just love that rhubarb tartness!

Recipe

Crumble:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup honey

Filling:
3-4 Large stalks of rhubarb
2 cups of mixed berries (strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Juice and zest of a small lemon
2 tablespoons honey

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

For the crumble I just put all the ingredients in a large bowl then used a pastry cutter to cut the butter up until it was small and pea sized, and the ingredients were … well crumbly.

For the filling I also just mixed them all together. I then spooned the filling into buttered 3″ ramekins. Finally I spread the crumble on top of the ramekins to cover.

All that is left to do is bake for about 25-35 minutes, or until the crumble is a nice golden brown and the filling is bubbling through. It is best to put a pan on a lower oven rack to catch any boiling over juices.

That is it, an easy delicious rhubarb berry crumble!

Last Thanksgiving I helped out my parents by gathering all the walnuts from their walnut tree. I did a pretty extensive job of it, and was able to collect a giant basket full of nuts. I made the deal with them that I would be able to keep half the nuts I collected, as I love to use walnuts (especially fresh ones) in my baking.

Over the past few months I had made quiet a few different treats with the walnuts, however still had a large amount of nuts left, and really wanted to find a very walnut heavy recipe to use them on. From the recommendation of a blog I read, I picked up the cookbook “Maida Heatter’s New Book of Great Desserts”. What did I find as one of the recipes in the book? A walnut tart recipe!

Basically the way the tart is constructed, was to make a shortbread style crust that you would fold around a caramelized walnut filling. You basically roll out the crust and lay half of it into a flan/tort pan. Then you fill crust with the caramelized filling, and finally add the second half of the crust on top to seal it all together. Once you have baked the tart, and it has cooled, you spread it with chocolate.

Now I wish I could tell you this tart turned out perfectly, but I can’t. The day I decided to make the tart, I was a little bit tired and hung over, not to mention I had to meet some friends for a concert. So basically I had no concentration and was in a big hurry. Not the best time to try a new recipe you have never done before.

Basically the biggest problem I had was with my pastry. My biggest problem was that after I had mixed it, I didn’t knead it enough so that the pastry balls were fully mixed. This became problematic when I went to roll out the pastry as it started to break apart and cause holes. For the most part I was able to fix things with water and left over pastry dough, but it was still a depressing looking. Luckily after covering the tart with chocolate a lot of the mistakes were hidden.

As far as taste goes, the tart was very delicious. I served it up the day after I made it with whip cream and fresh strawberries. This added an extra layer of decadence to the already decadent tart. Unfortunately now I am fully out of walnuts, so I will have to wait until the fall to try this recipe again. Definitely is worth a second crack.

Recipe

Filling:

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
200 ml butter
1 cup milk
1/3 cup honey
3 1/2 cups walnuts

In a saucepan bring sugar and water to a boil. Stir until the sugar is fully mixed into the water. Let the mixture slow boil for a good 7-8 minutes until the syrup starts to caramelize and turns a rich brown color.

Remove from heat and stir in the milk and butter. Watch out for the steam this will produce. Stir the mixture until fully mixed together. Return to the heat and let simmer for a good 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. After the 15 minutes stir in the honey and the nuts, then pour into a large bowl. Let stand until cooled to room temperature.

Crust

4 cups sifted flour
1/4 cup suger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold butter
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup ice water

Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl and the water and egg yolks in another bowl. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until pea size. Slowly pour the egg yolk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until dry and crumbly.

Knead the dough with your hands until it holds together. Be careful not to overwork the dough and melt the butter. Separate the dough into 1/3 and 2/3 parts and roll each into a ball. Place in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 475 degrees.

On a floured working surface roll the larger portion of the dough until it fills a 11″ x 1″ removable bottom tart pan. Make sure you roll it wide enough to have about an inch of overlap on all sides. Place the dough into the tart pan with the excess overhanging the pan. Spoon the filling into crust.

Roll out the second dough to be the size of the pan. Fold the overhang onto the filling then wet the top of it. Place the second dough piece on top of the crust and filling. Where the pieces connect squeeze them until pasted together.

Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown. Make sure not to over bake. Let cool until room temperature.

Icing

9 ounces dark chocolate
100 ml butter
16 perfect walnut halves

Heat the chocolate (chopped) and butter in a double boiler over moderate heat. When it begins to melt whisk until smooth and silky. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes. Pour the chocolate over the tart. Using a large chef knife or a skinny metal spatula spread the chocolate around the top of the tart until perfectly smooth. With a regular spatula spread the remaining chocolate around the outside of the tart. Finally place the walnut pieces around the tart to decorate.

Not as difficult as it sounds. Just make sure you take your time. If you make this let me know how it turns out!

Having made another Tiramisu for my parents a few weeks ago, I had another glut of egg whites. This presented the perfect opportunity for me to try my hand at making macarons for the third time.

I wanted to switch things up this time and do a chocolate shell. I found a chocolate macaron recipe from from David Lebovitz that looked promising.

The recipe was pretty standard. Beat your eggs until they are nice and stiff, fold in the flour/almond mixture, then pipe the mixture onto parchment paper. In my last few attempts I found my macarons I made were way too huge, so I did my best to pipe smaller macarons this go round.

David claimed that in his experience letting your piped macarons sit to build up a skin didn’t help with creating feet, so I decided to skip that step and bake the macarons after piping them. The big result? No feet. Third attempt, no feet. I really don’t know what I am doing wrong. The only thing I can think of is that I am not putting in enough dry ingredients into the batter, as I have found the batter to be a little runny.

Well enough about feet, everything else about the macarons turned out great! For flavors I went with a vanilla butter cream recipe I found online. I altered the recipe slightly by scraping the seeds of a raw vanilla bean into cream.

In addition to the vanilla butter cream I wanted to make some macarons with a chocolate ganache filling. Making chocolate ganache is really easy. Basically chop up your best chocolate (12oz) and place in a heat resistant bowl. Heat up your cream (1 cup) until it starts to boil. Once it begins to boil quickly pour the cream over the chocolate and whisk until the two are blended together. Once the ganache is creamy and smooth you can add in some vanilla extract and rum for some added flavor.

All in all I am happy with my latest macarons. I definitely prefer the chocolate ganache ones to the vanilla butter cream, but both are pretty delicious. I just wish I was able to create them with feet. Next time I will try to add a bit more of the dry ingredients and go back to letting them sit before baking. Some day I will master the art of the macaron.

Back in November I made Italian tiramisu. However when I did I bought way too much mascarpone cheese. In my fridge since then I have had a big tub of Mascarpone, justing sitting there. For anyone who has ever bought mascarpone, you will know it is not cheap. On Friday I decided to use it up. Half the mascarpone I used on making another tiramisu, as I absolutely love it. After doing some searching online I found a great carrot cake cupcake recipe that used mascarpone in the icing that I had to try.

I followed most of the recipe mostly as is, however I used brown sugar rather than white sugar. As well I decided to roast almond slivers and sprinkle them on top of the cupcakes. Finally I didn’t really measure the orange juice, just squeezed a full fresh orange into the batter.

Cupcake Recipe

• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups grated carrots
• 1 freshly squeezed orange
• zest of a full lemon
• 1/2 cup walnuts – toasted
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixer beat the eggs, while slowly adding in the sugar. Mix until the sugar and eggs are nicely creamed together. Add oil, carrots, lemon zest and orange juice. Mix until combined.

In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Fold into the wet ingredients until fully mixed. Finally stir in roasted walnuts.

Line a muffin pan with liners and top up each with the batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Icing Recipe

• 3 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1/3 cup mascarpone at room temperature
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons confectionery sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons sliced almond – toasted

Combine the cream cheese, butter, mascarpone cheese, honey, sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl and mix well. Frost your cupcakes after they have fully cooled. Sprinkle almonds onto the cupcakes to finish them off.

A pretty easy recipe to follow, and well worth making, as these cupcakes are delicious. I will definitely be making them again in the future!