Dessert By Candy

Bar cookies are easy and streamlined solution to holiday baking. Brownies are obviously one very successful example of bar cookies but then there is also its less well-known cousin, blondies. I have yet to figure out exactly what qualifies as a blondie but in most cases, it is a soft chewy bar cookie based on butter and brown sugar. Just like brownies, you can literally throw in the kithen sink to make the cookie as over-the-top as possible. The Rocky Ledge Bars from Martha Stewart’s Cookies is one fine example.

Packed with marshmallow, dark chocolate, white chocolate, butterscotch chips, and caramel, this cookie seems more like a candy bar to me. The butterscotch flavour is quite overpowering which does make this cookie special (I like butterscotch). Cost-wise, it is not a cheap cookie to make with all these add-on ingredients. Personally, I think the richness of this cookie means it is best served in smaller portions with a strong cup of coffee. However, with so many chunks of toppings, a very sharp knife is the must-have tool to get very clean cuts. I’m not sure I really like this treat as a cookie though because the cookie really take a backseat to everything else. I think it makes a nice little addition to my holiday baking for the sake of variety.

My annual Christmas cookies baking is typically one of the largest baking project I take on every year. During those couple of weeks, my house fills with the fragrance of butter and sugar and spice. However, the planning begins much earlier than that. Throughout the calendar year, I test out different recipes looking for the gems that yield tasty and pretty cookies. By the time November rolls around, I know exactly what I want to make based on earlier experimentation.

Since I purchased Martha Stewart’s Cookies, I’ve been in a baking mood because there are plenty of recipes that entice me. I tried making the Banana Walnut Chocolate Cookies (p. 170) last night. I was intrigued by the recipe’s use of mashed banana because instinct told me the cookie dough would be too wet. The use of old-fashioned rolled oats gives this cookie the structure that it needs to offset the moisture in the dough. However, that is also where the problem lies. When I scoop out the balls of dough, the oatmeal could not be evenly distributed in every piece obviously. As a result, the cookies all had different degrees of spread once baked. The cookies tasted moist and full of banana flavour, reminiscent of a cross between banana bread and oatmeal chocolate chips cookies. Unfortunately, the non-uniform appearance makes this recipe a less-than-ideal candidate for Christmas baking. 

As a teenager, I used to have a lot of clothes with stripes. I love the geometry of the pattern, the constrast of colours, and the imagery associated with stripes fashion (think stereotypical Parisian women with their striped boat-neck shirts and a scarve). Well, that love affair ended abruptly when I looked in the mirror one day and noticed how unflattering (aka fat) I looked in my striped shirt.

It’s been years since I last purchased any tops or bottoms with stripes though I found different ways to incorporate this pattern in my wardrobe. My sock drawer, for example, is filled with stripes knee-high socks and arm warmers of many colours. I wandered into American Eagle Outfitter yesterday, a store that I have not visited for a few seasons. I guess it must be the anticipation of summer…when I saw all those shorts and t-shirts, they really brightened up my mood. Sensibility told me that I’m too old to dress in such "spring-break appropriate" attire but I figure I will likely need some casual clothes to play in the warmer weather anyway. So I picked out this striped wide-neck hooded t-shirt and striped shorts just for kicks.

In the fitting room, I was surprised to see that neither of them add any visual poundage. I think the fitted but not sausage-tight shape has much to do with it. In addition, the t-shirt has a longer bodice than normal which goes well with the low-waist shorts. In general, patterns are best used as an accent piece in the entire outfit. So for example, if I wear a striped shirts, it would be best to keep the rest of my outfit in solid colour. However, mixing this striped shirt, shorts, and knee-high socks seem to work in an unexpected way. All I’m missing now is a pair of classic red Converse and I’ll be all set for summer!

In the last few months, I’ve slowly regained composure in my life…enjoying activities that I engage in and savouring the little things that bring a smile to my face. Those are undeniable improvements. My mood is less affected by what he does nowadays. As for those unavoidable interactions? Well, they are few and far between so I don’t have to keep my poker face for long.

However, I have not yet let go of the animosity. I cannot make sense of the rejection and it still leaves me feeling like there is something disgusting about my personality that I have to hide, to correct. It really messes me up because I try so hard to be a fabulous girl in every way possible, every day of my life. It feels like someone is whispering in my ears that I am a phony…I can try all I want but I cannot fool anyone when they inevitably find out the truth.

I am still waiting for my turn to fall out of love. I still care a lot about his well-being and that totally sucks, for lack of a better choice of words. Perhaps it’s my imagination but I think I am hearing some snickering. Affections that are unreturned are simply wasteful energy. Besides, caring about a person who causes me so much pain is yet another thing that I cannot make sense of. I need to be smarter than that.

So I’ve been living in this state of confusion for quite some time. I know what I want but they contradict each other. Strictly speaking, I’m on the right track and eventually these confused feelings will fade into the background so I no longer pay attention to them. Things are not exactly peachy but hey, it’s been worse so what is there to complain about?

I wrote about my love for financiers long ago. This cookie is definitely something I enjoy making just as much as devouring. For anyone who makes dessert regularly, you probably run into the problem of having leftover egg whites from egg yolks-only recipes. My favourite recipes for creme anglaise, pastry cream, ice-cream, buttercream, even butter cake coincidentally all use six egg yolks. This six egg whites recipe for financier conveniently uses up all the leftover so I don’t end up wasting anything.

Financiers are very versatile when it comes to food pairing. They are wonderful companion to strong tea or coffee. Though I would just as readily serve them with a creamy dessert.

Ingredients

• 180g unsalted butter
• 200g granulated sugar
• 100g ground almond
• 6 large egg whites
• 90g all-purpose flour

Method

1. Make beurre noisette: put butter in a small heavy bottom sauce pan. Cook at medium high heat until butter is golden brown and smelling like hazelnut. Strain immediately into a small bowl and let cool.
2. In a clean small heavy bottom sauce pan, stir together almond, sugar, and egg whites. Cook over medium high heat until mixture is runny and hot to the touch. Remove from heat.
3. Mix flour into the almond batter. Work in the beurre noisette until batter is homogenous. Pour into a container and press a plastic food wrap directly on top of the batter. Store in refridgerator for at least 8 hours, up to three days.
4. Preheat oven to 400F. Divide batter to financier or barquette molds. My personal favourite is the silicone barquette pan in multiples of 9. Depending on the size of your molds, bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. Serve on the same day.

Variations

• Earl Grey Financier: empty the content of two Earl Grey tea bags into the flour. Stir to combine. Earl Grey is a rather refreshing counterpoint to the richness of this cookie.
• Hazelnut Financier: replace ground almond with ground hazelnut
• Pecan Financier: replace ground almond with ground pecan
• Espresso Financier: stir two tbsp freshly ground espresso with the flour. I originally thought the coffee flavour would overpower the delicate buttery nutty flavour of this cookie but turns out it complements very nicely.
• Chestnut Financier: to be experimented…though I think i would reduce ground almond to 50g and use 50g of chestnut flour. Put a glob of creme de marron in each mold before baking for a little surprise perhaps?

I have a penchant of declaring arbitrary celebration days (remember March Muffin Madness?). Last week, I wanted a reason to celebrate something so I declared April 29 The Official Dessert By Candy Strawberry Shortcake Day.

Happy Strawberry Shortcake Day Everyone!!

Okay, now that the greeting is out of the way, of course the only way to celebrate is by making and munching some delicious strawberry shortcake. Strawberry shortcake has always been a bit of a deceiving name to me because it is the furthest thing away from "cake". In fact, it’s really a tea biscuit filled with macerated strawberries and cream. The basic premise is simple so it opens up lots of opportunities for interpretation.

When I see all those containers of strawberries on sale at the supermarket, how can I resist bringing them home? However, I personally prefer to use a mixture of fresh and individually frozen berries. Nothing compares in flavour when the fruit is picked ripe at the height of the season but that is not always possible. Therefore, frozen berries offer a bit of consistency in terms of quality. A squeeze of lemon juice works wonders to brighten up the flavour. To fancy things up a bit, I added Grand Marnier.

If classic is what you have in mind, chantilly cream is what you’re after. It certainly is good but I adore the richness of creme anglaise (i.e. custard sauce). For my version of strawberry shortcake, I made a vanilla creme anglaise and dispensed it using an iSi Pro. The result is the lightness of a loose whipped cream combined with the yumminess of custard.

The biscuit part is the most challenging. Though deceptively simple, there is also nowhere to hide so technique is everything (kinda like my love-hate relationship with pie dough). A tender biscuit requires a very gentle touch. However! If you do end up overworking the dough just a smidge, serving the biscuit warm can somewhat mask the toughness. Oh yeah, and drenching it with cream and syrup doesn’t hurt either. I used the butter biscuit recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Bread Bible. It’s an interesting recipe because it uses hardboiled egg yolks in the dough. The last time I worked with hardboiled egg yolks was in a linzer cookie dough. I have a long way to go to perfect my biscuit technique, sigh.

Just before serving, sandwich some strawberries and cream between a biscuit sliced in half. With a sprinkling of icing sugar and some fresh strawberries halves to garnish, this is one gorgeous dessert to kick off the beginning of summer!

(psst: serving the shortcakes at 5C plus windchill is a bad idea. Everything hardens except for the cream which loves the cold temperature.)

I had a rare day of leisure today because I somehow managed to squeeze in my two hour workout before my facial appointment. As soon as my appointment was done, I felt so thrilled to have a whole day ahead of me with nothing planned in particular. My first stop was J-Town in Markham for some Japanese treats and I saw this gorgeous shrub blooming with pale pink flowers. Spring is here at last! I saw some bottled pure yuzu juice on sale for $12 and I was very tempted to get a bottle. I wonder if it has enough acidity to make a yuzu curd?

My next stop was Metro Square, a place that I have not returned in years. I used to shop there very often because of the Taiwanese grocery store. Since that store was gone, I don’t really have a reason to visit. I don’t know what came over me today but I decided to drop by just because. I’m sure glad I did! There is a bookstore which specializes in books published in Taiwan. Taiwanese publishers have, for many years, done a great job of translating many Japanese-authored cookbooks to Chinese. With such a vibrant pastry scene, the dessert cookbooks from Japan range anywhere from intricate to innovative, but always very attractive. These cookbooks are characterized by the colourful step-by-step pictures as well as the marriage of Japanese flavour/ingredients with French pastry.

My two new acquisitions are "I Love Maracons" and "Dessert In A Glass". Macarons used to be some mysterious French treat that appeared impossible to attempt in my own kitchen. Of course the mystery ceased to exist once I figured out how to duplicate them with my own two hands. However, macarons continue to be a finicky thing to make. This cookbook devotes entirely to macarons wtih step-by-step instruction, tips for troubleshooting, flavour variation, filling variation, packaging idea, and even recipes to use up the leftover egg yolks. It makes me happy just flipping through the pages.

"Dessert In A Glass" is a topic dear to my heart. Ever since my introduction to Pierre Herme’s Emotion series of dessert, I’ve fallen in love with creating dessert in a glass filled with layers of constrasting taste, texture, and colour. This cookbook offer many inspiration such as the snowman in honey yogurt gelee on the left. I picked up some cool technique including making homemade "tofu" by shaping a gelatinous mixture with a piece of Saran wrap and setting it in an ice bath. There are also discussion of different setting agents that introduced me to all the different root starches used in traditional Japanese dessert. I am very excited to try every one of the recipes in this book!

I’ve been very worry about EG. However, since we are not even on speaking terms, I did what I thought was appropriate in this situation. I baked him a batch of cookies attached with a heartfelt note and left it at the mailbox of his house. Unfortunately, stupid little me forgot one very important fact. If the cookies did not get picked up yesterday and was left outside all night, chances are they would get hijacked by racoons and squirels in the area. Sigh.

A rum cake is one of those omiyagi (roughly translated as souvenirs for friends and coworkers) that my coworkers favour after a work trip to the Caribbeans. Coincidentally, I am a huge fan of this treat but since I do have some good manners, I know better than to take a huge slice every time a rum cake is passed around in the office. In my mind, having a big rum cake all to myself definitely ranks right up there on my wish list. On second thought, I am quite competent in the sweet kitchen so why not make my own? It’s not like I can’t get my hands on the ingredients easily.

If you search for rum cake recipes on the internet, one very typical version that turns up in the search actually involves making use of packages of instant vanilla pudding mix. However, the basic premise is simply a rich butter cake soaked with rum syrup. The alcoholic syrup obviously serves as a preservative because these type of cakes are better after aging for a period of time. The flavour slowly matures and mellows out. The following recipe is my version of rum cake. It is moist, tender, and oh-so rum-my! Now I don’t have to wait for the next omiyagi at the office to get my rum cake fix.

Ingredients

Cake:

• 3 large eggs
• 242g sour cream
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 250g cake flour, sifted
• 60g ground almond
• 200g granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 227g unsalted butter, softened
• 80g rum-soaked raisins

Rum syrup:

• 100g granulated sugar
• 140g dark rum

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 9-cup Bundt pan.
2. In a medium bowl, combine eggs, a quarter of the sour cream, and vanilla extract.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine flour, almond, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix on low using the paddle attachment for 30 sec until thoroughly combined.
4. Add butter and remaining sour cream to the flour mixture. Mix on low until all the ingredients are moistened. Turn up to medium speed and mix for 1 1/2 min. Add the egg mixture in three batches, mixing on medium for 20 sec in between to ensure ingredients are incorporated.
5. Gently fold raisins into the batter. Fill the prepared cake pan with batter and bake for 55 to 65 min until a cake tester comes out clean.
6. While the cake is baking, stir together sugar and rum to make rum syrup until sugar is dissolved. I prefer not to heat this syrup to dissolve the sugar because I do not want to evaporate any of the alcohol.
7. Once the cake is out of the oven, poke holes all over and brush with half of the syrup. Let stand on wire rack for 10min before unmolding to serving plate. Brush the top of the cake with remaining syrup. Cool completely before storing in airtight container. Wait at least 12hr before eating to allow the flavour to mature.

As much as I enjoy making sweet treats, I’ve never been a fan of confections in the kitchen. Baking is all about precision but candy-making is obsessively more so because of the high importance placed on temperature. Whether you’re turning sugar to caramel or tempering chocolate to a shiny sheen, a few degrees off the target can be the difference between success and a gooey mess.

I always welcome the addition of simple recipes to my collection and my recent purchase of The Best Of America’s Test Kitchen: Best Recipes And Reviews 2008 contains one perfect example. This fudge recipes does not require any confectionary-specific skills…the ability to scale out the ingredients is already half way to success! To cut down on preparation time, I keep boxes of finely chopped chocolate in my pantry. When I need them for any recipes, it’s only a simple matter of scoop and scale.

Ingredients

• 454g bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 60g unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 (14oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 115g walnut, coasely chopped

Method

1. Bring half a pot of water to simmer using a medium size pot. It will be used to set up a bain marie. Line a 8×8 square cake pan with parchment.
2. In a medium mixing bowl (completely dry), mix together chocolates, baking soda, and salt. Pour in condensed milk and vanilla. Set the bowl over the pot of simmering water to melt the ingredients by the steam, stirring occasionally for even melting.
3. Remove bowl from heat when the content is melted. Stir in chopped walnuts. Pour into prepared pan and smooth with an offset spatula.
4. Chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours. Unmold the fudge to a cutting board and cut into bite-size pieces. Store in a cool place between sheets of parchment paper.