May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads.

After this challenge, I can’t say “challah” without thinking “holla!”. I had so much fun with this one!

I made three different kinds of challah: plain honey white challah, whole wheat challah filled with apples, cinnamon, and maple syrup, and sourdough challah. Even more fun than all the different varieties were the different braiding techniques that Ruth, our host, encouraged us to try. I went for a six-strand braid, a five-strand braid, and a four-strand braided round. If you’ve never shaped bread like this before, challah is a great way to start: the dough was really easy to work with and good for braiding.

Honey white challah in a 6-strand braid

I enjoyed this challenge a lot. After it was announced, I was literally awake all night thinking about what kind of challah I would make (how much of a nerd am I?!). There is something SO satisfying and gratifying about taking a beautiful loaf of bread out of the oven, and challah, being as gorgeous as it is, is especially wonderful for boosting your ego . And not only does it look great, it tastes awesome! Light yet substantial and slightly sweet – wonderful for eating fresh but also perfect for french toast (try this baked version from Smitten Kitchen – awesome!).

Whole wheat challah filled with apples, cinnamon, and maple syrup in a 4-strand braided round

I usually make bread using my KitchenAid and the dough hook, but I decided to make all of these by hand to start getting a better idea of the way dough is supposed to feel (I often think I add too much flour when I use the mixer). Making bread by hand is easy, and kneading the dough (the “hard” part) is enjoyable in a sort of hypnotic, cathartic way – especially challah dough, which is quite soft and elastic.

Sourdough challah in a 5-strand braid

A few tips I picked up along the way:

1) If your challah splits or cracks in the oven, it’s a sign of underproofing (purely cosmetic – I actually thought it looked pretty awesome!). To avoid this, proof the loaf until you can poke it with you finger and the indent remains.

2) The challah dough is much easier to roll into logs for braiding if it is just a little bit sticky. I used a spray bottle of water to very lightly mist my rolling surface, which gave the dough something to grab onto as I rolled it (I discovered this on my third challah – I wish I’d figured it out earlier!).

Thank you Ruth for this AWESOME AWESOME challenge! I loved it and I hope to make many more challot (did you know that the plural of challah is challot? See, you learn something new everyday!) in the future! Check out the Daring Kitchen for this month’s challot

Here’s the recipes… (hold onto your hats, this is a long one!)

Honey White Challah

Adapted from Tammy’s Recipes. Makes 1 giant loaf.

In a measuring cup, mix together:

1/4 cup warm water

1 1/2 tsp granulated white sugar

1 tbsp yeast

Proof for about 5 minutes until foamy, then pour it into a large bowl along with:

1/2 cup warm water

1/4 cup honey

1 1/2 tsp vegetable oil

2 beaten eggs

3/4 tsp salt

Stir to mix, then stir in:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Mix to create a cohesive, kneadable dough. You may need to add a little more flour if the dough is too sticky.

Knead the dough on a floured surface for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic, adding a light dusting of flour only when the dough starts to stick to your hands or the surface. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic, and let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours or until doubled.

Punch down the dough and divide it into six equal portions. Roll each portion out flat, then roll it up tightly like a jelly-roll to form six snakes of dough about 18″ long. If you want a tapered, football shaped loaf, taper the ends of each snake (I left mine un-tapered).

Braid according to the instructions in this post. Place the loaf on a greased or lined baking sheet, cover lightly, and proof for 30 minutes or longer, until your finger leaves an indent when you poke it. Brush thoroughly with an egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 tbsp water).

Bake at 325˚F for 30 – 40 minutes, until well-browned and hollow-sounding when tapped on the bottom. Cool on a rack.

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Whole Wheat Challah with Maple, Apples, and Cinnamon

Adapted from Ruth’s “Go-To” Whole Wheat Challah, which is adapted from D’s Whole Wheat Challah. The maple flavour in the dough was pretty subtle so I’ve increased the amount – if you are lucky enough to have maple extract, a little bit added here would be great. Brown sugar or honey would be good substitutes for the maple syrup. This is a filled challah meaning that every strand is rolled up with a filling of apples, cinnamon, and maple syrup. Makes 1 large loaf.

Dough

In a measuring cup, mix together:

1/2 cup warm water

2 1/4 tsp yeast

Proof for about 5 minutes until foamy.

In a large bowl, combine:

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

1/4 cup melted butter, cooled

1 tsp salt

Add the proofed yeast mixture and stir in:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup rolled oats (any kind)

Stir to create a cohesive, kneadable dough, adding more all purpose flour as needed if the dough is too sticky. Knead the dough on a floured surface for about 10 – 12 minutes until smooth and elastic, adding a light dusting of flour only when the dough starts to stick to your hands or the surface.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic, and let rise in a warm place for 2 hours or until doubled. Punch the dough down and let rise again for 30 minutes to an hour.

Filling

Peel and core:

2 tart apples

Cut them into a 1/2″ dice and mix with:

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tbsp maple syrup

Set aside.

Assembly

Punch down the dough again and divide into four equal portions. Roll each one out into a 16″ – 18″ oval. Place 1/4 of the apple filling along one long edge of the dough, then roll it up to enclose the apples, pressing gently to squeeze out any air.

For the four-strand braided round, place the four strands as shown (notice the under-over pattern). To braid, move in one direction to place all the “under” strands on top of the “over” strands (moving counter-clockwise here):

Repeat, this time moving in the other direction (clockwise here). Keep going until you run out of dough:

Tuck the ends of dough in towards the middle, and very bravely and confidently flip the whole thing over, tucking the sides underneath to make it neat and compact:

Place on a greased or lined baking sheet, cover lightly with plastic, and proof for an hour or so, until you can poke it with your finger and the indent remains. Brush thoroughly with an egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 tbsp water).

Bake at 350˚F for 30 – 50 minutes (the round shape may take a bit longer), until well-browned and hollow-sounding when tapped on the bottom. Cool on a rack.

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Sourdough Challah

Adapted from Maggie Glezer’s “A Blessing of Bread”, via zolablue at The Fresh Loaf. This recipe requires a firm starter, which can be made by converting a 100% hydration “batter-style” starter (this takes at least a few days – instructions can be found here). There is some planning that goes into making this bread: the day before you want to bake, refresh your starter in the morning, then that night mix up the levain. Let it ferment overnight and then proceed with the recipe, which takes about 8 1/2 hours start to finish on baking day, most of which is resting time. It’s well worth it though – the flavour in this challah is awesome! Makes 1 large loaf (can be divided into smaller loaves or rolls as well).

Levain

The night before baking day, make the levain. In a bowl, mix together:

35 grams active firm starter, refreshed 8 – 12 hours earlier

80 grams warm water

Stir or knead to somewhat dissolve the starter in the water, then stir in:

135 grams bread flour

Knead this dough (it will be firm) until it is smooth. Weigh out 200 grams for use in this recipe and place it in a sealed container at least four times its volume (the remaining starter can be saved for the next time you bake). Let the levain ferment for 8 – 12 hours (overnight), until it has tripled in volume and is starting to flatten out and deflate.

Final Dough

In a large bowl, whisk together:

3 large eggs

55 grams vegetable oil

65 grams honey

5 grams salt

60 grams warm water

With a wooden spoon, mix in:

400 grams bread flour

Stir until a shaggy, sticky dough forms.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, flatten it out a bit and put the fermented levain in the middle. Fold the dough around the levain to enclose it, then knead until the dough is smooth (no more than 10 minutes), adding more flour as needed if it is too sticky. The dough should feel smooth and firm yet still easy to knead.

Place the dough in a warm bowl (soak your mixing bowl in hot water while you are kneading – a glass or ceramic bowl will hold the heat better than metal) and cover it with plastic. Let it ferment in a warm place for 2 hours. It probably won’t rise much, if at all.

For a 5-strand braid, divide the fermented dough into 5 equal pieces (just under 190 grams each) and roll them out into logs about 16″ long. Gather them together at one end and hold them with one hand. To braid, repeat these three moves:

1) Take the far right strand and move it left over top of 3 strands.

2) Take the far left strand and move it right over top of 2 strands.

3) Move the strand that is second from the left over top of the middle strand.

Keep going until you run out of dough, then tuck the ends under securely. Right now it looks like a regular 3-strand braid, but tip it to one side and you will see the twisted rope effect on top of the loaf (down each side looks like a 3-strand braid).

Place the braid, twisted rope up, on a silicon or parchment-lined baking sheet and cover it lightly with plastic. Proof in a warm place for about 5 hours, until about tripled in size (I think mine only doubled and it was fine) and an indent remains in the dough when you poke it with your finger. Brush thoroughly with an egg wash (1 egg and 1 tbsp water) and bake in a preheated 350˚F oven for 35 – 45 minutes, until deep brown and hollow-sounding when tapped on the bottom.

Cool on a rack before slicing.

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Submitted to YeastSpotting.

I got really excited about the different Danish shapes I was going to make, so I tried a whole bunch of them. They were all pretty successful so I’m confident that I can pass along my skillz . I only used half the batch of dough to make these (I couldn’t justify making sixteen Danishes for only two of us) so I will be experimenting with the rest of the dough sometime soon… stay tuned for Part III!

Danish Pastry Shapes

You will need:

1 batch of Sourdough Danish Pastry dough, rolled out and cut into 4″ squares as outlined in the recipe

1 batch of Cream Cheese Filling (see below)

jam, fruit, and/or berries of your choice, fresh or frozen

After shaping the Danishes, place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet and let them proof, covered in plastic, in a warm area until they are puffy and the butter layers are visible (at least a few hours). Fill each Danish with about 1 tbsp of Cream Cheese Filling and top with jam, fruit, or berries. Brush with egg wash (1 egg and 1 tbsp water) and bake as directed in this post.

The Square

Take a square of pastry and fold each point into the middle. Press lightly to seal. Proof, fill, egg wash, and bake as directed.

The Pinwheel

Take a square of pastry and make a cut from each corner into the middle (don’t cut all the way through the middle though). Fold every other point into the middle and press lightly. Proof, fill, egg wash, and bake as directed.

The Vol-au-Vent

Fold a square of pastry in half on  the diagonal to make a triangle, but do not seal it. Make two cuts parallel to the sides of the triangle, about 1/2″ from the edge of the pastry. Unfold the pastry  – you will have two v-shaped cuts. Fold both sides over the middle, tucking one under the other. Proof, fill, egg wash, and bake as directed.

The Braid

Cut 5 slits (giving 6 strands) down two edges of a pastry square, leaving about 1/2″ uncut pastry in the middle. Spread 2 – 3 tsp of filling down the center (don’t overfill it or it will fall apart). Stretch each strand gently and then cross one over the other on top of the filling. Repeat, tucking the very last strand under the bottom of the Danish to secure. Proof, egg wash, and bake as directed.

Cream Cheese Filling

Adapted from Wild Yeast. Makes about 1 1/3 cups, which is plenty for one batch of 16 Danishes.

In a mixer bowl, combine:

250 g soft cream cheese

113 g granulated white sugar

19 g soft butter

28 g flour

21 g beaten egg (about 1/2 an egg – remember that leftover 1/2 egg from the pastry dough?)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat it all together with the whisk attachment until smooth and fluffy. Spoon or pipe onto the Danishes as required.

At the end of April, I wrote a list of stuff I wanted to make for this blog over the summer, and Danish pastries was on it. I had my first taste of making laminated dough when the Daring Bakers made croissants a while back, and I wanted to try it again. But I was kind of putting it off because it’s a lot of butter and a lot of work: all that rolling and folding and rolling and folding and resting and waiting. Then, during the Daring Bakers reveal last month, I came across Sourdough Surprises, which is another baking group that a few Daring Bakers members have created to bake together once a month using their sourdough starters. And their recipe for May was sourdough Danishes! Well, it seemed like fate. I was in.

The recipe is from txfarmer on The Fresh Loaf. txfarmer is a laminated dough expert and has turned out some of the most gorgeous croissants and Danishes I’ve ever seen (and check out these laminated sandwich loaves: are they not exquisite?!). For this recipe, sourdough starter is used to make a levain (a sourdough preferment, for those of you with bread baking lingo) that is mixed into an enriched dough, which then encases a square of butter and gets rolled and folded three times before being shaped into Danishes. Apparently this dough is a little drier and richer and has more roll-in butter than croissant dough, which makes it flakier and crispier and perfect for Danishes. This is the first time I’ve used my sourdough starter for anything other than no-knead bread and pancakes, but I beefed it up with proper feedings for a few days beforehand and it performed very well .

I am incredibly proud of how these turned out! I think they look awesome, and they taste amazing – crispy, flaky, and very rich and flavourful, which I’m going to say comes from the sourdough. I filled them with a cream cheese filling and fruit or jam, and they are probably the best Danishes I’ve ever had. (Granted, the only Danishes I usually come across are of the stale, mass-produced, breakfast meeting variety. These are definitely better than those ones!) I had trouble not eating them all in one sitting!

Making the laminated Danish dough is a lengthy process and I have a billion photos and comments to make about it all, so I’m going to cover that in this post, and then cover shaping the Danishes and the cream cheese filling recipe in another post in a few days (here it is!). So here we go!

My blog won’t let me include the code for the link-up widget, so please check out the Sourdough Surprises blog to see the other Danish pastries that were made this month .

Sourdough Danish Pastry Dough

From txfarmer on The Fresh Loaf: recipe here, method here. This recipe is in grams, so if you want to try it out yourself and you don’t already have a kitchen scale, now would be the perfect time to go shopping. I finally bit the bullet and bought a proper digital kitchen scale a little while ago and it’s been really useful. Makes 16 Danishes.

Levain

The night before making the dough, combine:

44 g sourdough starter (100% hydration, ie: equal parts water and flour)

75 g water

134 g bread flour

Mix it all together and knead with your hands until it comes together into a dryish ball. Cover with plastic and leave at room temperature for 12 hours or overnight, after which time it should have expanded and gotten bubbly inside.

Final Dough

In a mixer bowl, combine:

361 g bread flour

135 g milk

77 g beaten egg (about 1 1/2 eggs – save the leftover 1/2 egg for making the filling or for the egg wash before baking)

60 g sugar

5 g salt

7 g instant yeast

41 g softened butter

Add the levain and knead with a dough hook just until gluten formation starts, about 3 minutes on low speed and 3 more minutes on medium speed. The gluten will be further developed with all the rolling and folding that comes later, so don’t over-work the dough now. Stop the mixer a few times to pull the dough off of the hook and make sure the levain is incorporating. The dough should be slightly elastic, tacky to the touch, and fairly smooth. Flatten it out, wrap it in plastic, and refrigerate for 2 hours or longer (or overnight).

While the dough chills, prepare your butter block. Between two pieces of parchment paper, place:

361 g unsalted cold butter, cubed

(I used waxed paper and had major problems with it disintegrating and sticking to the butter, which I then had to painstakingly pick out. Parchment is stronger and will be much easier to deal with!)

Tap and roll the butter with a rolling pin to soften it and shape it into a 7.5″ square.

Take the chilled dough out of the fridge and roll it on a lightly floured surface into an 11″ square. At this point you want the butter and the dough to be about the same consistency, so chill/rest at room temperature one or the other as needed. Place the butter in the middle of the dough and fold up the dough so that it completely encloses the butter.

Roll it out evenly into an 8″ x 24″ rectangle. When rolling, start from the middle and roll in one direction so that the butter gets evenly dispersed between the layers of dough.

Make your first fold: trim the short edges of the dough to expose the butter layer within, then fold the bottom third up and the top third down, like a letter. The neater and more precise your cuts and folds, the better the layers in your final dough will be. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for about an hour, which allows the gluten in the dough to relax and keeps the butter firm so that it doesn’t melt and squish out between the layers (my kitchen wasn’t very warm so the dough didn’t need the full hour to chill).

Repeat the trimming, rolling, folding, and chilling twice more, for total of three folds. When you roll out the dough, orient it so that the “closed”/folded edge of the dough rectangle is facing the same way each time (in my case, it faced left) and that one of the short ends is facing you. Roll it out so that the long sides of the rectangle get even longer. This will ensure your folds and butter layers are even. Try to aim for an 8″ x 24″ inch rectangle each time you roll it out.

(After the third and final fold, I left the dough overnight in the fridge and continued the next morning. Feel free to do this at any point during the process that calls for chilling.)

Roll the chilled dough out on a lightly floured surface into an 8″ x 24″ inch rectangle and cut it in half lengthwise. Continue rolling each half into a 9″ x 18″ inch rectangle. Trim all the edges neatly to expose the butter layers, then cut each half of the dough into 8 pieces as pictured, each about 4″ square.

Shape the dough as desired and place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover lightly with plastic and proof somewhere warm for at least a few hours, until puffy and the butter layers are visible. Place about 1 tbsp of filling in each Danish and brush the dough with an egg wash (1 egg and 1 tbsp water), trying to avoid the cut edges if possible. Click here for a tutorial on shaping the Danishes and for the Cream Cheese Filling recipe. Bake in a preheated 425˚F oven for 10 minutes, then at 375˚F for 10-15 minutes more (10 minutes was perfect for me). Cool on a rack.

Submitted to YeastSpotting.

Just after I heard about Food Revolution Day, I came across the Food Matters Project, which is a group of bloggers who are cooking their way through Mark Bittman’s Food Matters Cookbook, the philosophy of which is “eating more plants and fewer animal products and processed foods — and the positive impact this has on our health and the environment.” This ties into the whole Food Revolution idea: cooking and eating real food and reaping the benefits physically and environmentally. As I read more about the Food Matters Project, the incredibly simple recipe for Mark Bittman’s no-knead Real Whole Wheat Bread gave me an idea of what I wanted to do for Food Revolution Day.

I decided that I would share three things made from scratch; three things that are so everyday mundane that many might not even think to make them: bread, butter, and jam. Bread is, at its simplest, flour, water, yeast, time, and heat. Jam is fruit, sugar, and heat.

Butter, the easiest of all, is cream and mechanical action. Granted, if you are a regular reader here and share my interests in cooking and eating, you may have made or contemplated making bread or jam, but when was the last time you made your own butter?

On May 19, I invite you to give it a try. Make something totally from scratch and share it with someone. I think that’s a pretty great way to spread a Food Revolution!

If you join in, please leave a comment (and a link if possible) to let me know what you made!

Real Whole Wheat Bread

Recipe adapted from the Food Matters Cookbook by Mark Bittman, via The Faux Martha. This bread was made by the Food Matters Project group and after reading some of their comments, I made a few changes – reduced the salt and added some honey. The result is a dense, chewy, flavourful loaf, the perfect vehicle for butter, jam, and a whole host of other things. It also makes great toast.

In a bowl, combine:

3 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp instant dry yeast

1 tsp coarse salt

In a measuring cup, mix together:

1 1/2 cups warm water

2 tbsp honey

Pour the water mixture into the flour mixture and stir to create a wet, batter-like dough (you may need a little bit more water – it should be stiff to stir but you won’t have to knead it). Cover the bowl with plastic and let it rest/rise for 12 – 24 hours (the longer it rests, the more the flavour will develop). It is ready when the surface is flat and dotted with bubbles.

Line a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan with parchment paper and grease it well with olive oil. With a spatula, very gently scrape the dough into the prepared pan, trying not to deflate the dough. Settle the dough in evenly and drizzle a scant 2 tbsp olive oil over the top. Brush or spread the olive oil over the dough, then cover the pan with a towel and let the bread rise somewhere warm for up to 2 hours, until it is about doubled in size (it won’t reach the top of the pan).

Bake the loaf in a preheated 350˚F oven for 45 – 50 minutes, until deeply browned and it sounds hollow when tapped (and the inside reads 200˚F on an instant read thermometer). Immediately remove the loaf from the pan (you may need to run a knife around the edge) and cool completely on a rack before cutting.

Homemade Butter

Method from Eating from the Ground Up. You can use any kind of cream you want – raw, pasteurized, organic, whatever – as long as it’s heavy cream. I used 1 cup of pasteurized heavy whipping cream and got about 1/3 cup of butter. For this reason, I’m not suggesting that anyone start making their own butter for regular consumption (unless maybe you have your own cow!) but it was pretty fun to make in a, “hey, I just made butter!” kind of way. And if you don’t have a mixer, you can just put some cream in a jar and shake the bejeezus out of it!

Pour some heavy whipping cream into a mixer bowl with the paddle attachment (if you want salted butter, add a pinch of salt to the cream). Cover the mixer with a tea towel to protect from splatters, turn it on to high speed, and let the cream whip. Take a peek every few minutes – you will see it go from softly whipped, to over-whipped, to curdled looking, and finally to separated into butter and watery buttermilk. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula a few times during this process.

Once you’ve got butter and buttermilk, gather up the butter with clean, cold hands and squeeze out the buttermilk. Keep doing this until there is almost no liquid coming out of the butter. Save the buttermilk for baking or pancakes (this is not like the cultured buttermilk you get from the store!). Rinse the butter under cold water and keep squeezing it to remove any remaining buttermilk – you’re done when the liquid coming out of the butter is clear rather than milky white. Put your butter in a container and store it at room temperature for up to 5 days, or up to a week in the fridge.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Adapted from Food in Jars and The Complete Canadian Living Cookbook. Makes about 2 pints plus a bit extra. I made a double batch and didn’t have the heat turned up high enough so my jam took far longer than it should have and ended up tasting a lot more cooked that I was expecting, but it’s still delicious! You can freeze or can this jam. If you are canning, be sure to follow proper canning procedures. Botulism is nobody’s friend!

In a large heavy pot, combine:

2 cups chopped rhubarb, fresh or frozen

4 cups chopped strawberries, fresh or frozen

3 cups sugar

Mix the fruit and sugar together and let it sit for a few hours or overnight until the sugar starts to dissolve.

Bring the mixture to a boil on the stove over high heat. Add:

juice and zest of 1 lemon

Continue to boil vigorously for about 10 minutes, stirring often. Crush the fruit against the side of the pan if you prefer a smoother finished jam.

To test the setting point of the jam, place a plate in the freezer. When it is very cold, put a little dollop of jam on it. If the jam sets – ie, firms up to a consistency you could spread on toast and is not runny – it is ready. If not, put the plate back in the freezer and repeat the test every few minutes. To can the jam, pour it into hot, sterilized jars and process in a water bath for 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely and store any jars that don’t seal properly in the fridge. I followed Canadian Living’s canning procedure (see here for pictures of the process). OR you can pour the jam into small airtight containers and freeze it.

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I came across this “smoothie pack” tip on Budget Bytes via Pinterest, and wanted to share it here because I think it’s such a great idea (I wish I could take credit for it, but I definitely can’t). When I make a smoothie, inevitably I’m either missing something (berries, bananas) or I get the proportions of fruit all out of whack and then end up having to add more of everything else, and then my “smoothie for one” ends up becoming “the smoothie that ate New York”. Assembling all the necessary ingredients (ie, the fruit part) in little bags (reusable freezer bags, of course!) that you can just pull out of the freezer and dump in the blender solves both those problems, and it’s a time saver. This is important for busy mornings! Plus, these little bags are individually sealed, which cuts down on freezer burn.

Because there is an abundance of fresh fruit in the store at the moment, I took advantage of the “clearance” rack (that sounds so unappealing, but what else do you call it?) and bought a bunch of berries that were on the verge of being too ripe and needed to be used RIGHTNOW. I washed them and cut them up and froze them overnight on cookie sheets, and for my efforts I saved a few bucks. But these smoothie packs could be made even more easily with bags of frozen fruit, especially if it’s on sale.

And then, all you do is portion out your frozen fruit and bananas into little freezer bags.

For each smoothie pack, you will need:

3/4 – 1 cup of frozen fruit (I used strawberries, blueberries, and three-quarters of a peeled orange)

1/2 a peeled banana (which I did not add to these ones because I am currently working through my giant stash of overripe, already frozen bananas that I keep for baking, which require a quick thaw in the microwave to get the peel off before being smoothie’d)

When you have a hankering for a smoothie, you just chuck the contents of one bag into the blender along with some kind of liquid and whatever else you want, and you’re good to go! My current favorite smoothie formula looks like this:

Strawberry-Blueberry-Orange Smoothie

Adapted from Budget Bytes

In a blender jar, blend until smooth:

1 smoothie pack containing strawberries, blueberries, orange, and banana

a large dollop of plain yogurt

a spoonful of ground flax seeds

a few kale leaves, de-stemmed

(half an avocado, optional)

enough water/unsweetened almond milk (vanilla or plain) to make it blendable (~1/2 cup)

Once it’s all blended, add:

a pinch of cinnamon

a little maple syrup or honey (optional, to taste)

Blend again. Makes enough to fill one large glass.

(As an aside, Julie has my dream life: she is a Canadian food writer who works with CBC, she is constantly baking for bake sales and things, and she seems to feel the same way I do about Canadian Living, which has been my inspiration since like forever. Since before Martha, if you can believe it! I actually started university with the intent of going into journalism and cooking school to become a food writer and one day work for Canadian Living, but somehow I ended up with a degree in psychology and a career in sport education…)

Anyway. Quite a while ago now, I made this simple pasta dish that Julie posted because it had all the right things in it: tortellini, mushrooms, spinach, Italian sausage, pesto, and little bit of cream, and cheese.

The only thing I changed was to use sour cream instead of heavy cream, because that’s what I had in the fridge. It was good. Really good, really simple, and infinitely variable – swap the sausage for chicken or shrimp, the spinach for asparagus or peas or kale, the pesto for olive tapenade or puréed sundried tomatoes, etcetera, etcetera. This is perfect for a weeknight dinner (only one pot and one pan to wash!) and I am now reminded to make it again very soon. Yum.

Tortellini with Mushrooms, Spinach and Italian Sausage

Adapted very slightly from Dinner with Julie. Serves 4 – 6 (I scaled the amounts down when I made it for just the two of us).

Remove the casing from:

1 lb Italian sausage (sweet or hot, your choice)

Sauté the sausage in a large heavy skillet over medium heat with a drizzle of olive oil until about halfway cooked, breaking up the sausage as it cooks. Add:

a couple handfuls of sliced mushrooms

a few minced garlic cloves

Cook until the sausage is browned and cooed through and any liquid has cooked off. Add:

1/2 cup chicken stock or water

Stir, scraping the bottom to get any browned bits, then add:

1/2 – 1 cup of sour cream (or heavy cream or half and half)

Meanwhile, in a large pot of salted boiling water, cook according to the package directions:

1 lb fresh cheese tortellini

When it is just done, toss it with:

a few big spoonfuls of pesto

Add the tortellini to the sausage mixture in the pan, along with:

a few big handfuls of spinach leaves, torn or roughly chopped

Cook, stirring gently, until the spinach wilts and everything is heated through.

Serve topped with grated parmesan cheese. Dig in.

As with last year’s cake, this one looked great but still wasn’t quite what I was going for. I either need to find a new theme (ie, not lemon!) or just pick one recipe that someone else has already perfected rather than fussing around so much. The end result was tasty but very sweet, and the cake part wasn’t quite right, which I don’t think is due to the recipe but rather my own fault by not baking it as directed. I halved the recipe and did my regular trick of wrapping the pans in strips of damp towel and reducing the oven temperature by twenty-five degrees to help the cakes bake evenly, and they came out a bit dense and raw-tasting, even though they were baked through. The buttery lemon cream and caramel would have paired better with a lighter, fluffier cake, which this may well have been if I’d baked it properly and which is probably why the Tartine cake includes a chiffon cake. (See? Someone else already figured that out!)

The lemon cream and caramel fillings were delicious though, and fun to make, and I really liked the black tea Italian meringue frosting – it’s quite sweet but the tea is subtle and goes with the lemon really well – and all together it was a pretty awesome flavour profile. I wanted to torch the meringue because it looks really impressive and tastes like toasted marshmallow, and I remembered from a past Daring Bakers challenge that someone had used a barbeque lighter to brulée meringue. Turns out it’s not so effective…

A trip to Canadian Tire and $17 later, I had a blow torch… that didn’t work! So I made do with the barbeque lighter for some “torched tips”, lit a candle, and then we dug in. And while it might not have been the exact cake I was hoping for, it was still pretty darn good!

Happy birthday Nate! Next year I’ll just follow one dang recipe

Lemon Meringue Birthday Cake

Adapted from Honey and Jam and The Way the Cookie Crumbles. Makes one 9- or 10-inch round cake (I halved the recipes to make a 6-inch cake).

Cake

Because the cake part of my attempt was not super successful, I’m going to direct you to the original post for the recipe for Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake. Or you could try the Tartine chiffon cake. (The Perfect Party cake is two 9-inch round cakes; the Tartine chiffon cake is one 10-inch round cake baked in a springform pan. If you go the 9-inch cake route, you will have a little bit of the lemon cream and caramel filling left over – but I wanted to eat them with a spoon on their own, so I don’t see extras being a problem.)

Caramel

Heat in the microwave:

2/3 cup heavy/whipping cream

Keep the cream warm while you prepare the caramel.

In a heavy pot over medium heat, combine:

1 1/4 cup granulated white sugar

1/4 cup water

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp corn syrup

Stir to dissolve the sugar, then when it comes to a boil let it cook without stirring until the caramel syrup turns amber, anywhere from 5 – 10 minutes or more (this will happen all of a sudden so don’t walk away from it! If you smell burning sugar, it’s too late ). Remove the caramel from the heat and slowly pour in the warm cream. It will bubble like crazy. As the bubbles die down, stir it with a whisk to combine. Add:

3/4 tsp lemon juice

Let the caramel cool for about 10 minutes, then whisk in:

4 tbsp unsalted butter, cubed

Add the butter cubes one at a time and whisk well after each. Let the caramel cool completely.

Lemon Cream

In a double boiler over simmering water, whisk together:

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp lemon juice

3 large eggs

1 egg yolk

3/4 cup granulated white sugar

pinch of salt

Continue whisking until the mixture is very thick and/or reaches 180˚F. Remove from the heat and let cool until warm. Place the lemon mixture in a blender and blend in:

1 cup unsalted butter, cubed

Add the butter one cube at a time and blend well after each. You should end up with a luscious, creamy lemon curd. Let it cool completely (you can chill it but bring it back to room temperature to assemble the cake).

Lemon Syrup

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine:

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup water

1/3 cup granulated white sugar

Boil until the sugar dissolves, then pour into a bowl and cool.

To Assemble the Cake

Cut the cooled cake(s) into 4 even layers. Place one layer on a serving plate (protect the edges with wax paper), cut side up. Brush with the lemon syrup. Spread with about 1/3 of the caramel, then 1/3 of the lemon cream. Repeat twice more, then top with the last layer and brush the top of the cake with lemon syrup. Wrap it in plastic wrap and chill at least 4 hours or overnight.

Black Tea Meringue Frosting

This frosting was originally billed as a 7-minute frosting, but it’s actually an Italian meringue. They have similar ingredients (water, sugar, cream of tartar, egg whites), the difference being that for a 7-minute frosting, all the ingredients are cooked together in a double boiler and then whipped, whereas for an Italian meringue, a boiling sugar syrup is poured over beaten egg whites and whipped. Just in case you were wondering.

In a mixer bowl, beat:

2 egg whites

Beat until foamy and thick, but not stiff peaks.

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine:

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/3 cup very strongly brewed black tea (double strength or more)

dash of salt

Stir to dissolve the sugar, then when it comes to a boil cook without stirring until it comes to 235-240˚F on a candy thermometer (soft ball stage). While the mixer is going, pour the hot syrup in a thin steam into the egg whites. Continue to beat for 5 – 7 minutes until stiff peaks form. If you wish, you can beat in up to 1/4 cup extra tea (1 tbsp at a time) for a stronger tea flavour. Once the meringue has formed stiff peaks, reduce the speed and continue stirring gently until the frosting is cool to the touch.

Remove the plastic wrap from the cake, clean up the sides with a spatula, and frost it with the meringue frosting. Use a knife or spatula to create lots of peaks and swirls, and if desired torch it all over with a blow torch (or a barbeque lighter if you’re feeling up to a challenge!).

I knew I wanted to make something special with these berries but I couldn’t decide what until I remembered the strawberry banana bread I’d seen on Joy the Baker a while ago. I wanted to jazz it up even more so I added a cream cheese swirl. The result is an incredibly moist, decadent, not-to-sweet bread with a pleasant strawberry flavour and cheesecake-y tang. The banana is not overpowering at all and mostly just contributes sweetness, and the hint of cinnamon in the batter goes really well with the strawberries.

The only thing I’m not sure about is the browned butter that Joy’s original recipe contains – I couldn’t taste it in the final product, and I don’t think I’d go to the trouble of browning it next time. But all in all, this recipe is a winner: it looks beautiful when sliced (look at that cheesecake swirl!), tastes great fresh, and is even better after a few days if you pop it in the toaster and slather it in butter (yes, I’d like some butter with my cake, please).

I would urge you to make this if you have some gorgeous strawberries that you just don’t know what to do with – this might not seem very likely, but it happened to me!

(PS – I keep a Ziplock bag of over-ripe, frozen bananas in my freezer at all times specifically for making banana bread. They turn kind of black and scary-looking in the freezer, but when thawed they are awesome for baking!)

(PS again – Happy birthday to my Mum! Sorry this is neither wheat- nor dairy-free )

Strawberry Banana Cheesecake Bread

Adapted from Joy the Baker’s Brown Butter Strawberry Banana Bread. Cheesecake swirl adapted from Marcy Goldman’s A Passion for Baking.

Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Line a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan with parchment paper and butter the pan and paper well. Set aside.

Cheesecake Batter

In a food processor, combine:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 large egg

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Blend until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary. Set aside.

Strawberry-Banana Batter

In a large bowl, whisk together:

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp cinnamon

dash salt

In a smaller bowl, whisk together:

3 mashed (very ripe) bananas

2 eggs

1/4 cup plain yogurt

To the banana mixture, stir in:

1/2 cup melted butter, cooled to room temperature

If you want, you can brown the butter: melt about 2/3 cup of butter over medium heat until it turns brown and smells nutty. It will crackle and foam as it melts. Transfer the browned butter to a bowl to stop the cooking and let it cool before adding to the banana mixture.

Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and fold with a spatula until just combined (there should still be some flecks of flour).

Gently fold in:

1 cup diced strawberries

Spread half the strawberry-banana batter in the bottom of the prepared pan. Top with half the cheesecake batter. Repeat. With a blunt knife, swirl the two batters together.

Top the batter with 1 – 2 thinly sliced strawberries. Bake in the preheated 350˚F oven for 1 hour and 25 – 35 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool the loaf on the pan for a few minutes, then remove, peel off the parchment paper, and cool completely on a rack. Keeps best wrapped-up in the refrigerator.

That is really the essence of this book: food that is for sharing with people. Many of the recipes come from Shelley’s friends, which is why they all evoke a casual “company for dinner” feeling.

The recipe contributors

While there are recipes for comforting, cozy-sounding, hearty dishes – such as Jane’s Beef Bourguinon, Moroccon Lemon Chicken Tagine with Saffron Couscous, and White Bean, Spicy Italian Sausage and Kale Soup – the ones that stand out to me are the ones that say, “I taste best with fresh air, sunlight, and good company.” Such as:

Pacific Sashimi Towers – shown on the cover, they are a layered appetizer of crispy wonton pieces, tuna sashimi and tartare, smoked salmon lox, and avocado, topped with tobiko (flying fish roe) and a creamy wasabi dressing. Definitely a showstopper for a dinner party!

Gazpacho in a Glass with Dungeness Crab and Avocado Salsa – the name pretty much says it all. I don’t usually love raw tomatoes all that much, but this recipe has me salivating.

Orchid Lime Salad – a glorious mess of rice noodles and julienned vegetables in a peanutty dressing, finished off with toasted almonds, sesame seeds and Chinese 5 spice powder. I could see myself eating a lot of this.

Pescado Blanco Fish Tacos – grilled white fish in corn tortillas with red cabbage, orange avocado salsa, and chipotle crema. Uh, YUM!

Linguini with Prawns, Chilis and Preserved Black Beans – this just sounds so interesting! Prawns, pasta, fresh tomatoes, basil and arugula tossed together with chili flakes, Chinese preserved black beans and romano cheese. Asian-Italian fusion!

And then there’s dessert – my favorite:

Peppi’s Biscotti Tortoni – I’ve never heard of a tortoni before, but this creamy frozen concoction with toasted almonds and coconut macaroon crumbs has me intrigued.

Rolled Pavlova with Lots of Fresh Fruit – a cool twist (get it?) on one of my favorite things.

Lovely’s Fall Apple Almond Torte – pastry crust, almond paste, apples with cream and toasted almonds. Reading the recipe makes me look forward to long late summer/early fall afternoons.

The recipes themselves are straight-forward, fairly simple, and use common ingredients. Because they are mostly recipes for entertaining, some of them contain fancy or specialty items, but nothing too extravagant or impossible to find, and they are prepared in a way that is not fussy or pretentious. Just delicious and good for sharing. There are lots of colourful pictures, too – not quite one for each recipe (which is how I like my cookbooks!) but definitely enough to keep my photograph-happy brain engaged.

What I like most about Whitewater Cooks with Friends is that the recipes all seem sort of familiar to me. Shelley is a long-time resident of Nelson, British Columbia, and the former proprietor of Whitewater Ski Resort and the Fresh Tracks Café. I’ve never been to Nelson, but I grew up on Salt Spring Island, a small island off the West Coast of BC, and I’ve been told that Salt Spring and Nelson are very similar. They attract the same kind of people – artists, creative types, those wanting to escape the city and pursue alternative lifestyles – and have the same community feel. The food in Shelley’s book reminds me of the food I was lucky enough to grow up with, the food my parents cooked, the food we had at potlucks and ate with friends. If you grew up in a small community in BC, there’s a good chance you might feel the same.

So far I’ve made one recipe out of the book and I am seriously impressed. I ate a lot of rhubarb crisps as a kid, so I chose to make the Heddle Road Rhubarb Cobbler for nostalgic reasons (and because I still have last year’s rhubarb in my freezer). Appropriately, I took it to a barbeque to share with friends, and as a testament to how good it was, after I served it the conversation died down to complete silence for a solid five minutes as everyone forgot about talking and became totally engrossed in their dessert. It was really, really tasty, and I can’t wait to make it again. You can tell that this was an oft-requested recipe that was passed between friends – the rhubarb cobbler that was anticipated at every potluck and family gathering. This is the vibe I get from Whitewater Cooks with Friends: recipes that have been curated over years of sharing meals with friends. You know they’re going to be good.

Heddle Road Rhubarb Cobbler

This is so good. SO good. The middle is moist and custardy, the tart rhubarb cuts the sweetness just enough, and the base and topping provide crunchy texture. It smells amazing while baking. From Whitewater Cooks with Friends by Shelley Adams. Serves 12.

Base and Topping

In a large bowl, combine:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated white sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed

1 egg, lightly beaten

With a pastry cutter or your fingers, blend the mixture until it is crumbly and looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Reserve 1 cup for the topping. Lightly press the rest into the bottom of a greased 9″ x 13″ pan. Set aside.

Filling

In a large bowl, whisk together:

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup melted butter

In a smaller bowl, toss together:

4 cups fresh or frozen rhubarb, chopped into 1″ pieces

1/2 cup all purpose flour

Add the rhubarb mixture to the egg mixture and stir to combine. Pour it over the unbaked base and spread it evenly. Sprinkle with the reserved base mixture and bake at 350˚ for 45 minutes (mine took 75 minutes) until golden brown.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Disclaimer: Other than a copy of the cookbook, I received no compensation for this review. My opinions are my own.