Gingerbread

Bouchon bakery is a beautifully simple bakery owned by Thomas Keller. The very same Thomas Keller who owns the famous restaurants The French Laundry, Per Se and Bouchon.

I had my first Bouchon bakery experience this past fall when I went to New York City. Lunch there consisted of a delicious salad, brioche and hot chocolate. I was so obviously enamoured with the experience, that my mom bought me the Bouchon Bakery cookbook for Christmas. It is now my baking bible. It is the best cookbook I own, and definitely my favourite. It’s beautiful!

Since I’m a big fan of gingerbread, I got pretty excited when I saw in the table contents that there was a gingerbread recipe.  However after having baked it, I wouldn’t call it a gingerbread. I would call it a spice bread.

Although a lot of ginger was put into the better, you can’t really taste it. There is no predominant taste-it is a very mild bread. My entire family decided that it was just an average bread. Let’s just say that the angels weren’t dancing on our tongues.

The bread itself is very moist, so it has a lot of potential. If it had more flavour, I would definitely make this bread again. All that being said, I found baking this bread extremely enjoyable. I can’t exactly remember why, maybe it was the intricacies of it. I honestly can’t remember why, but I wrote down next to the recipe that it was fun to bake. So I guess that counts for something. 🙂

In the introduction, Thomas Keller says that it is better to measure your ingredients out on a scale than it is measure them by cups. Now I don’t usually question Mr. Keller, but I didn’t think that it was practical to measure out each ingredient. So in the recipe below I have included both the weight of the ingredient required and the cup measurements.

Recipe 

Ingredients

• (340 grams) 2 1/4 cups and 2 teaspoons of flour 
• (8 grams) 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
• (7 grams) 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
• (4 grams) 1 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• (1 gram) 3/8 teaspoons of ground cloves
• (2 grams) 1/2 and 1/8 teaspoons of kosher salt
• (220 grams) 1 cup and 2 1/4 teaspoons of lightly packed dark brown sugar
• (340 grams) 1 cup and 2 1/4 teaspoons  of unsulfured blackstrap molasses
• (3/4 cup and 3 1/2 tablespoons of canola oil
• 1/4 cup and 2 1/2 tablespoons of boiling water
• 1/4 cup and 2 1/2 tablespoons of eggs
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of grated lemon zest

Instructions

You will need two 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 by 2 3/4 inch loaf pans.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray the loaf pans with nonstick spray. Line the bottom of each pan with parchment paper, then spray the parchment.
2. Place the flour in a medium bowl. Sift in the baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Add the salt and whisk together.
3. Place the brown sugar in the bowl of a standard mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed to break up any lumps. Add the molasses and mix for about a minute, or until smooth. With the mixer running, add the oil in a slow, steady stream and continue to mix for about 1 1/2 minutes, until completely combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs and mix for 1 minute, or until the mixture is smooth.
4. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the dry mixture in 2 additions, mixing on low speed for 15 to 30 seconds after each. With the mixer running add the water a 1/4 cup at a time, incorporating each addition before adding the next. Scrape down the bowl again. Fold in the lemon zest.
5. Divide the batter between the two pans. Bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Set the pans on a cooling rack and cool for 10 minutes. Turn the cakes out onto the rack, remove the pans, and cool completely upside down.
6. The cakes are best if made 1 day ahead; wrap uniced in plastic wrap and store at room temperature.
7. The cakes can be wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen for up to a week. Defrost in the refrigerator and rewarm if desired.

 

 

 

The ingredients look way more complicated then I intended them to be. Sorry about that, completely unintentional. Good luck and thanks for reading! 🙂

Tea Storage Solution

This post is for all the obsessive tea drinkers out there. If you are like me, and have 10 DavidsTea tins taking up unnecessary space, then this DIY project is perfect for you. This solution was posted on the DavidsTea Facebook page, and it looked like an optimal solution for anyone living in a small space, like an apartment or university dorm room.  I myself have yet to try it, but I`ll try and make it this upcoming weekend. It looks like a pretty easy thing to do!  Just click here to get to the website with the tutorial.  Below are some photos that I got from the tutorial, by a blogger named Moxylady. Thanks Moxylady for this fab storage solution! 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! 

Julia Child Crepes

Crepes are the french version of a pancake. Very thin, they are can be filled with savoury foods or with chocolate, therefore making them a dessert. The crepe is a very versatile food.  I had been having quite a bit of difficulty mastering the crepe, so this past Christmas I made it my goal to make the perfect one. In the past I had been using buckwheat flour, and each time I failed. With this in mind, I searched the internet for a white all-purpose flour crepe recipe. I also included Julia Child‘s name in my google search, since I knew that she would have a recipe. And just like that, I had found the recipe that would help me achieve the perfect crepe. Maybe it was the flour, the non-stick pan that I used, or the recipe. Who knows what happened that chilly Tuesday morning. All I know is that I achieved a light and delicious crepe. 🙂

This is the video that has her recipe for crepes. Click the image to see it, for some reason WordPress won’t let me embed the video in the post. Julia Child also makes crepe suzette, and has a cool way to use a blowtorch near the end.

I also found the recipe in her cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”, so if you have it you can just look it up there.

Here are some photos that I took while making them. One batch of the batter makes about 20 crepes, so it was a fruitful endeavor.

Thanks for reading!

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. I found it pretty interesting, I hope you do to! Thank you so much for all of your support! My new year’s resolution for 2013 is to blog more, which I will do my best to fulfill.

Happy New Year! 🙂

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 4,400 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 7 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Food Videos #4

The first video in today’s post is a cooking diary. This woman takes videos of everything that she cooks, and I thnk that it’s a brilliant idea. Plus, the lasagna that she cooks in this video looks scrumptious. 🙂

 

 

Now this video is a little bit creepy. A ball of pizza dough is turned into multiple sculptures through stop-motion animation. It’s kind of hard to describe, so without further ado, here’s the video.

 

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Everyone likes to play with their food at some point in their lives. This cute little video was created by Elements/Creacion, which is a spanish movie company. They’ve turned their food into cars, boats and bikes, which I think is pretty cool.

 

 

PESTO!!! I love pesto, so I was quite elated when I found this video on how to make classic pesto. I’m definitely trying this–it looks so good!! 🙂

 

 

Finally, here’s a video that is extremely creative. I don’t really know how to describe, so you should just watch it. I hope you find it as interesting as I did!

 

 

Thanks for watching!

Food Videos #3

I hereby declare that SAVEUR magazine’s Executive Food Editor, Todd Coleman has saved me hours of irritation. Okay, maybe not hours. But definitely a lot of time. I hate peeling garlic so much, but now I want to do it using the technique that Mr. Coleman showcases in this video. He can peel a head of garlic in less than 10 seconds. How awesome is that?

 

 

You shouldn’t play with your food. Unless you make an amazing video like this one by Alexandre Dubosc.

 

 

Michael Pollan is an author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism. He has been featured in the movie Food inc. and is most famous for his book the omnivore’s dilemna. If you have not read that book then I strongly suggest that you do, since it is extremely eye-opening regarding where our society gets it’s food, and how it is processed. If you don’t know who Michael Pollan is, read about him on this website. Below is a good video summarizing Michael Pollan’s food rules. Extremely interesting and well done.

 

 

“Meet Tipsy, a puppeteered wine bottle character enhanced with photo real animation that sings about the film festival in Sonoma. He loves film. He loves good food. And he loves to drink – a little too much.” The description for the video couldn’t say it better. I thought this video was hilarious, so I hope you find it funny too.

 

 

Last but not least for today, here is a video of gravity defying food. So messy, yet so beautiful.

 

 

Thanks for watching!

Food Videos #2

This first video today is one that I expect you will be skeptical of. Jell-o falling onto a hard surface in slow motion was captured by the artists behind Modernist Cuisine. Trust me when I say that this video may be a little long, but that it is completely mesmerizing.

Vending machines are a common sight in our society. What is not such a common sight is to see live crabs in vending machines. And yet, that is exactly what a vending machine in China is offering–live crabs as an alternative healthy snack to chips and sweets. In my opinion, live animals should not be put into a small container. Can you imagine how traumatized those poor crabs are? These vending machines have to be violating at least 10 animal rights.

Exploding food. Need I type more?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58OskQdHOvE

3 guys travelled around 11 countries in 44 days. During their trip they filmed everything they ate and drank, turning the terabyte of footage into 3 short films about learning and food. This one is my favourite of the three. 🙂

https://vimeo.com/27243869

This video is extremely imformative on the current ressource crisis facing our ever growing population. If you have 9 minutes to spare, I strongly suggest that you watch it. It is very well done.

https://vimeo.com/8812686

Another post is coming your way tomorrow!

Food Videos #1

Hello! I have been keeping a list of food videos to share with you since September. People cooking food, food being destroyed, food being thrown…Whenever I cam across a cool video involving food on Youtube, Vimeo, Pinterest or Facebook, I added it to my list. And I swore to myself that I’d share my list on myblog someday. Well, the day has come, but I have too many videos for just one blog post. So I’ll be spreading the food “porn” videos out over the course of the week. I’ll feature 4-5 videos every day this week. I hope you enjoy watching them as much I did!

I was on Pinterest, oogling at all the photos of beautiful cupcakes and cakes. As I scrolled farther and farther down my pinterest newsfeed,  I found this video. At first I didn’t believe it-how could a dragon lollipop be made entirely out of caramel? But that is exactly what this guy did. This video is definitely worth watching. I kind of feel like trying it. I’d start with something simple of course, like a butterfly or a flower. I’ll add it to my Christmas break to-do list. 🙂

This is an artsy video that I found on Vimeo. I’ve always been rather skeptical of beet cakes. I mean, a cake is a cake. You eat one expecting 100%, not health benefits. However after watching this video, I feel like I should but my skepticism aside. This cake looks so good by the end of the video! I also really like the baker’s shirt. 🙂

Breakfast is the most important video of the day. The makers of this video seem to think so too. They also seem to think that it would be a good idea to set a beautiful breakfast table, and then mess it all up. Regardless, this video is beautifully done and I very much enjoyed watching it.

Les macarons croquants is the title of this video. Although a little long, the videography is superb. And the end result doesn’t look too bad either.

School has been rather intense, as I’m sure you’ve been able to tell from the lack of blog posts. As soon as I get over these last 2 weeks, I’ll write all about all the food that I’ve been making these past weeks.

Thanks for reading!

All-Bran Cranberry Apple Muffins

Time seems to be flying by. In the blink of an eye, it’s been a whole month since my last blog post. How’d that happen? I suppose that getting an education can put blogging on the back burner. I’ll try to balance it better for the rest of the school year!  To end this unintended hiatus, here’s a post on full of fiber muffins. From the cereal makers of All Bran, a recipe for Cranberry Apple muffins.

 

The only thing that I would suggest regarding this recipe is that the cranberries aren’t necessary. There were no cranberries in the house (and my mom asked me to bake the muffins without any cranberries) so I stuck with the apples. They turned out great all the same! Other than that these muffins gain my usual adjectives: fast and tasty. 🙂

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups All-Bran Original Cereal
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon each, ground nutmeg and salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup chopped, frozen cranberries (do not thaw)
• 3/4 cup unpeeled, diced McIntosh apples.

Instructions

1. In medium bowl, combine cereal and milk. Let stand for 2 minutes or until cereal softens.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, caking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
3. Beat eggs and oil into cereal mixture. Add to dry ingredients, stirring only until just combined. Fold in cranberries and apples.
4. Portion batter evenly into 12 non-stick muffin pan cups.
5. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Yields 12 muffins, each a source of fiber.

Thanks for reading!

 

Super Sweet Blogger Award

I would like to thank the amazing baker and blogger Geli (visit her blog here!) for giving me the super sweet blogger award. The super sweet blogger award is kind of like a warm fuzzy between bloggers. You let a fellow blogger know that you enjoy reading their blog posts, and that you hope they continue writing. It’s like a you-re-doing-great award. 🙂

The rules are below, all of which I am very happy to comply with. This is a very happy award, and since I’ve never received any award before for my writing or ideas, this is particularly special. It’s also rather nice to know that people other than family read my blog. 🙂

1. The nominee has to thank the person that nominated them  ~ Done
2. Answer the 5 Super Sweet Questions ~ See below
3. Nominate a bakers dozen of other Super Sweet Bloggers and let them know. ~ See below

Cookies or Cake?  Cookies. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, so I tend to find that a slice of cake is too much sweet for me after a meal. Especially a large, delicious meal.

Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla! While visiting Stratford a few years ago, me and my friends went into a Rocky Road Ice Cream parlor. There were literally hundreds of different types of ice cream in the store. I was only in the mood for pure vanilla bean, and so when I ordered 1 scoop of vanilla ice cream, all of my friends thought I was crazy. We were surrounded by a multitude of ice cream flavours, and I chose the most boring one. But to me, pure vanilla ice cream is the best ice cream around. 🙂

What is your favourite sweet treat?   Fudge. Maple fudge, chocolate fudge or vanilla fudge. If any type of fudge is a short distance away from me, it’s a goner.

When do you crave sweet things the most? While studying for a test or exams, or while doing homework. Since this happens often, I a sweet flavoured tea instead. Here are some of my staples for just such an occasion. All of them come from David’s Tea (surprise surprise).

• Oh Canada
• Crème Brulée
• Read my Lips
• Pumpkin Chai

If you had a sweet nickname what would it be? I like the classic “Sweetie”.

Amazing and Inspirational Bloggers! 

Here’s my list of top 12 blogs. They’re not in any particular order–they’re simply blogs that I have bookmarked and that I enjoy reading from time to time. I hope that you enjoy reading them as well. 🙂

1. Smitten Kitchen
2. Simple Speedy Snacks
3. Thrifty Kitchen
4. La Tartine Gourmande
5. Gluten-free Girl and the Chef
6. Gluten-free Diva
7. David Lebovitz
8. Butter me up Brooklyn
9. Lottie and Doof
10. Istanbul Eats
11. Two Tiny Kitchens
12. A Peek inside the Fishbowl

To finish off this post, here’s a cute photo of some Sesame Street cupcakes. Really pretty, but I can only imagine how much time it must have taken.

Thanks for reading!