Sandie of the lovely blog, Crumbs of Love, was our November Daring Bakers hostess. Sandie challenged us to make a traditional Italian dessert, along with its American version – Sfogliatelle (or better known in the US – lobster tails!) The flakey, 1000 layers of super thin dough, shaped into a horn and filled with a scrumptious filling. Così buono!
Archives for November 2013
Sourdough Kolaches
I’d never heard of a kolache until I saw a recipe posted on the Homesick Texan blog for strawberry cream cheese kolaches (written in response to the awful explosion in West, Texas) with an interesting back story of how this Czech pastry got so popular there. Apparently lots of Czech immigrants settled in the “Czech Belt” of central and south-central Texas, and now the kolache – a yeasted pastry usually with a fruit filling, sort of like a danish but without the laminated dough – has become widely available at bakeries, gas stations, and truck stops and is synonymous with road trips for many Texans. Like the doughnut and the cupcake, it is gaining popularity outside of Texas as well with unique, artisan interpretations both sweet and savoury.
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Whole Grain Triticale Waffles with Pomegranate and Orange
After a successful first milling experience with my WonderMill grain mill, I went on a bit of a whole grain shopping spree at the local bulk health food store and came home with bags of hard white wheat berries (for bread), soft white wheat berries (for pastries), and some triticale berries (for experimenting). Triticale (pronounced trit-uh-KAY-lee) is a cross between rye and wheat and apparently can be used mostly interchangeably for either of those two grains, however because it’s part rye, it does contain less gluten than wheat. Here you can see the difference in appearance between triticale (left) and hard white wheat (right) – if I’d had some rye berries, you would see that triticale falls right in the middle of wheat and rye:
I’ve only ever used triticale in its flaked form (like rolled oats) to make granola, so I wanted to branch out a bit. I decided to stick to breakfast and make some waffles. This is a twist on my favorite 100% whole wheat waffle recipe, which always comes out light and fluffy and crisp. My favorite trick is to stack any leftovers between waxed paper and freeze them, then chuck them in the toaster for a decent breakfast on rushed mornings. Best toaster waffles ever, let me tell you!
I used a mix of triticale and whole wheat flours because 100% triticale waffles would be too crumbly. If you can’t find triticale, feel free to use all whole wheat flour, or perhaps a little bit of rye. I was inspired to do something with pomegranate after seeing the miraculous de-seeding technique in this video (seriously, it’s miraculous, especially if you’ve ever gone to the trouble of digging the arils, one by one, out of a juicy red pomegranate), so I added some to the batter along with some orange zest, which I thought would pair well with the stronger, nuttier flavour of triticale.
These waffles are deliciously nutty from the triticale, substantial but still remarkably fluffy for 100% whole grain, and the orange and pomegranate give them a nice tart sweetness. Topped with fresh pomegranate arils, some orange segments, and just a bit of maple syrup, they are delicious! Head over to the Grain Mill Wagon Challenge blog for the full recipe. 🙂
Hugs, Lis xoxo
When I started my blog back on January 2011, one of my main reasons for doing so was to join the Daring Bakers. It took me a few months to work up the courage to actually join the group, and I completed my first challenge in April 2011: maple mousse in an edible container, pictured above. I remember logging on to the forum for the first time and reading the introduction to the challenge recipe, posted by someone named Lis, whose message included such effusive, effervescent positivity, quirky humour, and lots of smiley faces. I soon learned that Lis was the co-founder of the Daring Bakers and the driving force behind the Daring Kitchen (which encompasses both the Daring Bakers and the Daring Cooks), the one who maintained the website, who organized the hosts for each challenge, who basically kept the lights on in the kitchen, as it were.
I also discovered that many of my favorite and inspirational food bloggers, including Julie Van Rosendaal of Dinner with Julie, Helene Dujardin of Tartelette, and Zoë François of Zoë Bakes, had themselves been Daring Bakers at one point. I got to know Lis a little bit better through emailing back and forth with her this summer when I hosted a Daring Bakers challenge, and more recently a few weeks ago when she invited me to write product and recipe reviews for the Daring Kitchen website.
I am so, so sad to learn that Lis passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday. This woman who I never met in person and most likely never would, who I only knew via email, but who provided a huge opportunity for personal growth, confidence, and inspiration to me and countless other food bloggers, home cooks and bakers – literally, I bet there are thousands of us who owe some of our kitchen chops to Lis and the Daring Kitchen, not to mention the network of blogging friends that I have met through the Daring Bakers.
Kelly of Sass & Veracity suggested that we all celebrate Lis with a tribute post today, sharing something we’ll remember about her. I will remember how Lis always ended her emails and messages on the Daring Kitchen forums with, “Hugs, Lis xoxo”, sending support and love as if she was your closest friend. For the past three years of my life, each month has started with a message on the Daring Bakers forum from Lis with her cheerful sign-off, kicking off the month with humour and the chance to challenge myself. Lis, you leave a giant hole in our hearts, but you also leave the Daring Kitchen as your legacy, and for that I will always thank and remember you.
#tributetolis #daringbakers
Harvest Apple and Almond Tart
The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7, 2013. As we share our collective stories through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity. Visit Valerie’s blog, A Canadian Foodie, on the 15th for a round-up of this month’s posts.
As usual, I’m a few days late with this month’s Canadian Food Experience Project post… but it’s because I wanted to get this recipe right before sharing it. This month, Valerie has asked us to talk about the Canadian harvest and what it means in our lives. For me, the harvest means apples. For as long as I can remember, autumn has brought with it falling leaves and a large box of apples sitting in one corner of the kitchen, perfuming the house with their sweet-tart scent, until either my Mum finally got around to making apple sauce or apple crisps, or I baked them into pies. When I was young, the apples came from my grandparents’ trees, and in more recent years they came from friends of my parents. This year, I scored some truly gigantic Bramley apples from a co-worker’s trees.
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Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies and my new grain mill!
Back in the summer when I wasn’t working full time and was actively looking for ways to fill my time, I applied to join the Grain Mill Wagon challenge. Basically, the WonderMill Grain Mill company sends you a grain mill (for free!) and in return you write three recipe posts for their blog within two months, and the grain mill is yours to keep. This is a pretty sweet deal and I was definitely interested in getting my hands on a grain mill ever since reading about Kate of Venison for Dinner milling her own flour. Talk about “from scratch”!
I didn’t hear back from the company for a few months and figured that I didn’t get chosen – but after I’d gone back to work in September, I got an email inviting me to the challenge. I was no longer in the market for a new hobby, but I also wasn’t going to turn down a free appliance! I got the grain mill at the beginning of October, and since then it’s been sitting in its box in a corner of the dining room, waiting for me to get around to reading the instructions. Seeing as it’s now November and I’m half-way to my two-month deadline, I figured I should get my butt in gear. So I made cookies. Whole wheat chocolate chip cookies made with freshly milled flour, to be exact. Head over to my post on the Grain Mill Wagon blog to hear all about them. 🙂
Full disclosure: I was compensated for my time and provided with a WonderMill Grain Mill free of charge in exchange for this post, but my thoughts and opinions are my own. 🙂
A Trio of Chocolate Cakes
The past few months have contained a lot of cakes – chocolate cakes, to be specific. And not for me, but for other people, which is almost more fun because I get to bake my heart out without worrying about who will eat it all. 😉
Back in August, my lovely friend Tanya asked me to make some chocolate cupcakes for a baby shower, the theme for which was the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, so I did what I could to turn the cupcakes into teacups without resorting to fiddly fondant or store-bought teacup paper liners.
I baked the Cook’s Illustrated Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes in some pretty floral cupcake papers to simulate china cups, filled the cakes with chocolate ganache, and frosted them with the rebar chocolate cream cheese frosting.
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