Every Easter I see these pretty speckled robin’s egg cakes pop up all over the food internet, and I’ve been wanting to make one myself for a while. I’ve also been wanting to make a coconut layer cake, so I combined the two and here we are!
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Rum Raisin Sourdough Hot Cross Buns
I first got into sourdough baking back in 2011 after making my own starter as part of a Daring Bakers Challenge. I loved baking with it and maintained it faithfully for almost four years, but then my schedule started getting busier and my poor little sourdough starter eventually died from neglect in the back of my fridge đ I was pretty sad about it (and kind of embarrassed too – you’ll notice that I never mentioned it here until now!), but I didn’t have the time or energy to put into cultivating or acquiring and maintaining a new starter. Recently though, I’d been wanting to get back into the sourdough game (have you SEEN all the gorgeous sourdough bread on Instagram?!), so last week when a friend offered me some of her 100 year old rye starter, I jumped at the chance. I have been nursing a little glass jar of bubbling flour and water on my kitchen counter ever since and I couldn’t be happier about it! I’ve noticed that this well-established starter is more reliable and predictable than the one I made myself, which probably never quite achieved its full strength as a starter, and I’m very excited to experiment with it.
See all those happy little bubbles?
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Stella Parks’ Spiced Vanilla Hot Cross Buns
Guys, I’m having a serious moment with Stella Parks, aka BraveTart. By which I mean, I want to bake all her stuff. Luckily, “her stuff” includes a killer recipe for hot cross buns, so I’m back this year (after a brief hiatus last year) with HCB take seven on the blog. In the past I’ve dabbled in various combinations of chocolate, sourdough, cider, porter, honey, and tea infused HCBs, and this year’s version comes with a hit of vanilla and the unexpected addition of Greek yogurt. One of the things I love best about Parks’ recipes is the way she explains the science behind certain ingredients. In this case, the Greek yogurt adds softness and moisture to the dough, and its acidity also helps with gluten development (and now I understand what “The Lemon Juice Secret” is from the back of the Rogers Flour bag!).
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Crescia al Formaggio {Italian Easter Cheese Bread}
Every Easter for the past six years, I’ve posted a recipe for hot cross buns, so rather than post version number seven this year, I decided to branch out and explore another kind of Easter bread: the Italian Crescia al Formaggio, an egg-rich bread loaded with parmigiano reggiano and spiced with cracked black pepper.
I’ve been on a bit of a bread baking kick lately (by which I mean I’ve made bread twice this month, but that’s twice more than I have any other month in the past year) and I’m reminded of why I love it so much. Homemade bread rocks. Taking flour, yeast, and water (and in the case of Crescia al Formaggio, some butter, eggs, and about $10-worth of imported Italian parmesan cheese – it’s a special occasion bread for sure) and turning it from raw ingredients into a gorgeous loaf of delicious bread is like having a super power. And no, I’m not hyperbolizing (much).
Crescia al Formaggio in particular is pretty spectacular: instead of kneading the high hydration dough with a dough hook, you beat it with the paddle attachment of an electric mixer until it is shiny and stretchy, giving it an amazing light and fluffy yet chewy and shreddable texture. Combined with the savoury, umami-rich parmesan, the end result is a loaf of bread that slices like a dream and makes the best toast imaginable. And though I’m still going to make a batch of hot cross buns this year (I have my eye on Aimee’s maple version), if you were to present this bread at your Easter breakfast table instead, I am quite sure that no one would be complaining….
Hot Cross Buns V6.0
On the Saturday of Easter weekend, we painted our living room. Painting a room doesn’t seem like a big job until you start, and then it becomes apparent just exactly how huge of an undertaking it really is – or rather, just how much prep work there is, what with all the buying of tools and prep and sanding and taping and cutting-in of edges before you even get to the actual painting. All this to say that by Saturday night, I was so exhausted I could barely see straight – yet somehow I still managed to be shaping spicy, citrusy, dried fruit-laden dough into hot cross buns at 11:30 at night, as one does when one doesn’t think Easter is Easter without hot cross buns. So yes, like last year, we are talking about hot cross buns two weeks after the fact.
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Honeyed Hot Cross Buns
I know, I know, Easter was so two weeks ago. But seeing as I’ve posted about hot cross buns every year since I started this blog, I couldn’t NOT post about this year’s version. Just bookmark this recipe for next year and call it advance preparation. ; )
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Petite Strawberry Frangipane Tart
While local strawberries are still at least a month off, I admit to thoroughly enjoying the juicy red California-grown gems that have been showing up at the green grocer lately. I can’t help myself – this winter felt SO LONG and strawberries are like the breath of fresh air and ray of sunlight that I’m craving right now. And while they might not be local, they are at least in season, and for that I am grateful!
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Daring Bakers: Ukrainian Easter Paska
The April Daring Bakerâs Challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolfâs Den. She challenged us to Spring into our kitchens and make Easter breads reflecting cultures around the world.
While I don’t personally celebrate Easter in a religious sense, I do look forward to any holiday that has a food tradition to go with it (see: Christmas baking). Paska, a special Eastern European Easter bread, is one such food tradition, and the egg-rich Ukrainian version with its intricately decorated top is one that I’ve been wanting to try for a while now. This month’s challenge was the perfect opportunity to do it.
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Sourdough Cider Hot Cross Buns with Chocolate Chunks
As I pointed out last month, Christmas cookies and hot cross buns are about the only seasonal things I manage to post about with any punctuality… and seeing as today is Easter Sunday, hot cross buns are most definitely on the menu. This month’s Sourdough Surprises project was sourdough hot cross buns, which I also tackled last year with a chocolate porter version. I decided to go a similar route this time around, adapting a recipe that used hard apple cider to make an overnight sourdough levain. And, because for me, Easter is all about chocolate, I added a generous amount of dark chocolate chunks to the dough.
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Lemon Caper Cream Cheese with Smoked Salmon
Some of you may remember that I did a few few guest posts a while back for SeaChange Seafoods, featuring their delicious smoked salmon (my personal favorites include recipes for fettuccine alfredo with smoked salmon, smoked salmon and corn chowder, and smoked salmon and roasted tomato quiche). Over the last six or so months, SeaChange has completely re-launched their brand, which includes all new packaging and a whole new website, and I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in the process as their food stylist on several photoshoots, one of which took place in my dining room!
It’s been a blast working with a professional photographer (John Cameron) and taking cues from a real design company (Carter Hales Design Lab) to try to evoke a certain feeling or story with something as simple as a beautiful piece of smoked salmon, and I feel totally privileged that I’ve been getting paid to do something I love so much. Here are just a few of the images we’ve created so far:
(these four photos by John Cameron for SeaChange Seafoods)
Back in November, I also had the opportunity to cater SeaChange’s re-launch party. I traveled to Salt Spring Island, cooked my butt off all day, and served up a whole bunch of “small bites” featuring smoked salmon to about thirty people (and of course, wildly over-estimated how much food I’d need to make – but it’s better to have too much than not enough when it comes to feeding people, right?). I was so busy all day that the only thing I managed to take a picture of myself was this gigantic veggie platter – but it’s pretty, right?
For the party, I made a few of the dishes that already appear on the SeaChange website (the aforementioned quiche, roast potato canapĂ©s with smoked salmon, and smoked salmon devilled eggs), along with a few new ones, including a delicious lemon caper cream cheese you can easily whip up to serve with smoked salmon – a perfect addition to an Easter brunch. I’m sharing the recipe today on SeaChange’s blog, so head on over to read it there. đ (And watch this space for another guest post coming up in mid-June!)
