Image courtesy of www.joanne-eatswellwithothers.com

The internet is a great source for all things foodie, and we’re constantly bookmarking, starring, and emailing intriguing recipes, food porn, and inspiration. Here’s a selection of clippings we think are worth checking out.

Happy American Thanksgiving!  Means even MORE pumpkin… biscuits, savoury scones, a chiffon pie, and what looks to be a clear winner: baked pumpkin puddings.

Citrus isn’t my favourite, but something about this lemon vanilla cake makes me want it. Right now.

Raisins aren’t my favourite either, but I can only imagine how great these toasted raisin biscuits smell when they’re in the pan.

These little fig-anise swirls are listed as fall cookies, but I think they should grace every Christmas cookie plate.

Dan Dan noodles can be found at an array of restaurants here in Vancouver, from your traditional Chinese place to hip Japanese izakayas. Enjoying them as I do, I was happy to see my friend Sara shared her recipe.

Images courtesy of www.thekitchn.com

The internet is a great source for all things foodie, and we’re constantly bookmarking, starring, and emailing intriguing recipes, food porn, and inspiration. Here’s a selection of clippings we think are worth checking out.

Um. Braised french onion chicken with gruyere. Enough said.

It’s as good a time as any to start using up those berries you froze. To honour my love of Friday Night Lights, I suggest you make this Texas-style blueberry cobbler. Clear eyes, full hearts…

Did the whipped cream you brought for your pumpkin pie to the potluck deflate? Try this method next time.

Post-Thanksgiving is not a time for giving things up. That’s what January is for. Keep your engine revving with this out of control dark chocolate and salted caramel layer cake.

Dim sum at home—pork or veggie steamed buns.

Image courtesy of traceysculinaryadventures.blogspot.com

The internet is a great source for all things foodie, and we’re constantly bookmarking, starring, and emailing intriguing recipes, food porn, and inspiration. Here’s a selection of clippings we think are worth checking out.

I know I’m not one for kid-friendly cakes, but something about this root beer bundt cake makes me very happy.

Feeling more myself, I’d gravitate toward a slice of this fig yogurt bundt cake. Get the fresh figs while they’re still around…

I would love to impress some dinner guests with this goat cheese panna cotta appetizer.

I would love to eat a whole pan of these gooey cinnamon biscuits. Especially because they remove the fuss required for proper cinnamon buns.

And, this is the kind of lunch that makes me loathe my brown bag.

When I returned to Vancouver after a quick trip back to Edmonton recently, summer had finally arrived. The skies have been blue, the sun warm and the living easy. Clearly time to eat summer fruit every moment you can. And when you’re not eating it, you need to be freezing it, cooking with it, turning it into x, y and z. They are ice cream’s natural mate and a much better way to fulfill 3 o’clock sugar cravings.

As you know, I’m not really one for cake. But I am a big fan of Deb and know that this buttermilk cake recipe (originally from Gourmet) is esteemed by many. With some buttermilk in my fridge and the need to make a quick and pretty dessert, I put my preferences aside for the greater good of the dinner party. And as my buckle was essentially a cake, and I loved it, I knew that my anti-cake stance had relaxed a bit.

I don’t really know what makes a good cake good because I stay away so much. But for me, this was good. Moist, light and full of flavour, it didn’t take me long to decide on having a second piece. It went well with vanilla ice cream, of course, but I don’t see how whipped cream would hurt it, or just eating it as is. I should also say it’s dead easy, comes together in no time and is pretty enough for a picture.

Buttermilk Cake

I followed the recipe at Smitten Kitchen, substituting blueberries and chopped nectarine for the raspberries. For the sugar top, I remembered at the last minute and the closest thing within reach was a larger grain sugar. I don’t think it did any harm.

Here out west, we had a late spring, which has translated into a late/non-existent summer, which has then translated into favourite summer berries being late out of the gate. They are starting to trickle in now, so it’s the perfect time to eat bowls and bowls of them as well as to make all manners of crisps, crumbles, betties and pandowdies.  And how about buckles? I’m not really sure what distinguishes a buckle, and I don’t really care to know.  All that matters is that a buckle is a delicious way to turn pristine summer berries into a sexy mess of a dessert.   With strawberry juice on your chin and cream in the corners of your mouth, cooked-down fruit, fluffy cake, a sugary crumb and something creamy on top turn you into a sexy mess at the table. It’s the best.

Strawberry Buckle
Adapted from Lottie & Doof

Lottie & Doof used rhubarb, but I couldn’t resist using some fresh local strawberries. I reduced the amount of sugar and lemon juice the strawberries macerate in. It’s still a bit of juicy (perfect for the cake to soak up), so I think it would be best to serve it once it’s cooled down quite a bit.

4 cups sliced strawberries
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tbsp cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tbsp water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp oats
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp whole wheat flour
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tbsp honey
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Make the filling: In a large bowl, toss the strawberries with the sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch slurry and vanilla. Let it macerate for about 30 minutes.

Make the crumb topping: In a medium bowl, work the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers until combined. You’ll have small to medium crumbs. Refrigerate until needed.

Make the cake: In a medium bowl, whisk the flours with the baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions. Beat in the vanilla extract and honey. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the batter in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk.

Assemble the buckle: Pour the fruit filling into a 8-by-8-inch glass or ceramic square baking dish. Spoon the batter over the fruit filling, spreading it to the edge. Sprinkle with the crumb topping. Bake in the center of the oven for about one hour, until the filling is bubbling and the crumb topping is golden.  Serve warm or at room temperature with ice cream or whipped cream.  Whipped cream flavoured with lemon zest was a hit at my house…

Serves 6 generously.

My heart breaks when time and time again my dear friend is left with few options when dining.  No bread, pasta, pie crusts, cakes… the things most of us require in large quantities.  On a regular basis.  Yes, yes, there are gluten-free varieties of all of those.  But have you ever had corn pasta?  Or rice bread?  They are sad substitutions.  Hence, my heartbreak.

Tasked at making a dessert for a dinner party chez Celiac bestie, I scoured the internet for something that would not be crumbly or too dense.  I wanted to find something that could fool us flour lovers.  No mousses or puddings or custards to avoid the issue.  She deserved a cake and I was going to try and make it.

The magic ingredient I would try was quinoa.  I found a recipe that would result in a cake without having to search for things like gums (xantham and guar) or strange flours (sorghum).  The original recipe called for sautéed apples, but with summer’s bounty still available, I switched gears and went with B.C. peaches and plums.

It all came together well.  It looked like a cake (sort of), smelled like a cake while baking and when pulled out of the oven, it even had a spring in its step like a cake does.

But did it taste like a cake?

Well, dear reader, it tasted very good.  Especially with a good dollop of freshly whipped cream.  Moist like a good brownie and cobbler-like with its fruit filling, the dinner party guests gave it rave reviews.  But… it was no cake.  (Obviously) another way to describe its flavour would be “gluten free.”  No breaks in my heart, but some fractures, for sure.  The quinoa gave it depth and body (no crumbles) but it also made it grainy.

Would I make it again?  Absolutely — if a gluten-free dessert was required.

Would I make it for a dinner party for flour lovers?  Perhaps not.

In any case, I made it for someone who has to manoeuvre menus and grocery aisles with creativity and great care.  This was for her to enjoy having what everyone else was having.  No substitutions, no omissions.  Extra cream, however, just for her.

Gluten-Free Quinoa Cake with Peaches and Plums

Adapted from Lucullian Delights

2-2.5 cups chopped peaches (peeled*) and plums
0.25 cup sugar**
1 teaspoon cinnamon
0.5 cup water

4 eggs
0.5 cup salted butter, melted
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 cup sugar**
1 1/3 cup cooked quinoa
1 3/4 cup cup rice flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Simmer the peaches and plums with the water, 0.25 cup sugar and cinnamon until the fruit is cooked and almost all the liquid has evaporated.

Whisk egg, vanilla and sugar. Add the melted butter. Stir well.

Add the quinoa , mix well and then add flour and baking powder, always stirring well.

Pour half of the batter into a greased cake tin. I used a 10-inch springform pan.  Flatten out the batter and spread the peaches and plums evenly over it. Then cover with the rest of the batter.

Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for about 30 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

*How to peel a peach:  Score the bottom of a fresh peach with an X.  Drop in boiling water for about 1 minute (you don’t want to cook the peach), ensuring the whole peach gets exposed.  Move peach to an ice bath.  When cool to the touch, simply peel, starting at the X for ease.

** I had no white sugar and used golden.  This added a more caramel flavour to the cake.

both my mother and father grew up eating this easy to make treat, and thus i imagined that it was a staple in most households. as an adult, I have found this to be far from the truth. many, if not most of my fellow dessert-lovers have not even heard of this delicacy.

the traditional icebox is made with chocolate wafers and whipped cream. i found more or less traditional instructions here. (though i personally don’t add vanilla to my whipped cream, and certainly would never never include m&m’s.)

my father’s very new england side of the family were purists — simple heavy cream, whipped and then sandwiched between wafers. my mother’s slightly less traditional clan showed their brash new york ways by following the same traditional recipe as my father’s family…. and then smothering the final product with a healthy dose of chocolate sauce.

many a summer’s evening meal has ended with family debatiing the pros & cons of this condimental addition. personally, i am not a subscriber to the theory that “there’s no such thing as too much chocolate,” and will admit to falling on the side of my paternal ancestors on at least this issue. despite having made new york city my home, i retain this vestige of good old w.a.s.p.-y restraint.

today was a perfect day to revisit summer memories with a little easy assembly and looking forward to a delicious dessert after a great bbq dinner…

not finding the traditional nabisco famous chocolate wafers in the grocery store of my decidedly non-w.a.s.p.-y brooklyn neighborhood, i made an interesting discovery… ginger flavored wafer cookies!

i decided to take the plunge, and for the first time in my life, make a non-chocolate icebox cake.

my husband was skeptical. i wouldn’t dream of calling home to let my parents know what i was up to…

but in the end… I believe that i have started a new offshoot in the family icebox cake making tree. The ginger and cream combo is perfection, and take an already light dessert to a place that is hard to resist, no matter how many burgers have preceded it.

i don’t keep chocolate sauce in the house, so i can’t say for sure, but i am quite confident that in this case, the addition would be quite welcome. since it wouldn’t be an overdose of chocolate, i think the richness would be a great companion to the spiciness of the ginger. next time, we’ll know for sure.

so, there you go… innovation sometimes trumps tradition, and in so doing, may even solve a meal ending family debate.

and it couldn’t be easier… make one yourself! and let me know if there are any other new flavors on your horizon.

Thanks to our friend Jessica for Cream & Sugar’s very first guest blog post.
Please visit her blog, is it the first, for fun musings on fashion and style.

Post-baking, post-poking, pre-milk

My first taste of the mysterious three milk (WHY THREE?!) cake was at El Rancho in Edmonton.  In their early days, the dessert menu usually only consisted of flan and tres leches.  Both coming dressed with a small swirl of canned whipped cream and a maraschino.  Having had one burnt syrup flans too many in my Central American restaurant journeys had me lean to tres leches one night.  Like, but not love.  I’m not a cake girl, so my attachment was very tentative.  But the bread pudding/custard-like texture made me return to it now and again.

Post-milk, pre-soak

For a casual dinner party chez moi, I needed to think of a casual Mexican dessert to accompany my quesadillas and tortilla soup.  Nothing says casual like cans, right?
My aversion to cake made me nervous as I started baking.  The toothpick test is sound, but I still always get thrown off by the browning.  What came out of the oven was a lovely sponge.  Extra golden from those crazy eggs.    As I soaked the sponge with the milks, I anticipated some magic.  The eggy aroma of the cake surely meant custard action would ensue overnight as it married with the milks.  Please, oh please.  That would move like to love.

Now I know that seems like an extraordinarily large dollop, but they don’t call me Cream for nothing.  As you can see, the cake indeed is a sponge.  With every depression of your fork tines, there is some weeping that reminds you of its namesake, but no giant pool.  My soup was pretty tasty, but this was the star of the meal.  As a dessert in the style of other soaked cakes like trifle or tiramisu, you often go back digging with a spoon for just one more bite.

Or piece.  Which I did shortly after my guests left.
If I hadn’t given them some to take home, it definitely would have been a tres tres leches night. Wuh-wuh.

Tres Leches Cake
adapted from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food

Serves 6

Unsalted butter, room temperature, for baking dish
3 large eggs, separated
0.5 cup sugar
0.5 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
0.5 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
0.5 can(12 ounces) evaporated milk
0.5 cup whole milk
0.75 cup heavy cream
0.5 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
0.5 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 8-by-8-inch glass baking dish. In a mixing bowl, beat egg yolks and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy. In another bowl, beat egg whites to soft peaks. Using a rubber spatula, fold whites into yolks until almost combined. Gently fold in flour (do not overmix).
Spread batter in prepared dish. Bake until golden and pulling away from sides of dish, 20 to 25 minutes. Poke many, many holes in cake with a toothpick. Cool cake 20 minutes.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the three milks; pour evenly over cake. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate overnight.
To serve, prepare topping: In a mixing bowl, whip heavy cream with sugar and vanilla to soft peaks. Chill cake and cut into squares; serve topped with whipped cream.

Having just told you that I wanted to avoid oil in my banana bread, I made an about face turn and made a loaf cake whose star player is olive oil.  From the famous olive oil gelato at Otto to an increased association with cakes, I’ve been wanting to try making a sweet with this traditional savoury.  I’ve said before that I like baking with Dorie Greenspan.  So when I came across her olive oil recipe, I was definitely intrigued and had a feeling that she wouldn’t let me down.

It’s definitely a cake and could be nicely accompanied by a citrus sorbet or quick glaze like Sugar’s Tartine loaf.  What’s nice is that the flavour of the olive oil balances out the sugar, so you don’t get a too-sweet cake.  And the lightness of the lime offsets the cake’s more dense texture.  It went over well in the office as a belated St. Paddy’s Day treat, so I heartily encourage you to try it this spring.  The colour (from the oil and my omega 3 eggs) clearly evokes a warm sunny day.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Yogurt Loaf Cake
c/o Dorie Greenspan

1.5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 lime
0.5 cup plain whole milk yogurt
3 large eggs
0.25 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
0.5 cup extra virgin olive oil

Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a loaf pan, place the pan on a lined baking sheet and set aside. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and keep near by.

Put the sugar and zest in a medium bowl and rub the ingredients together until the sugar is fragrant. Whisk in the yogurt, eggs and vanilla. When the mixture is well blended, gently whisk in the dry ingredients. Switch to a spatula and fold in the oil. The batter will be thick and shiny. Scrape it into the pan and smooth the top.

Bake the cake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until it is golden and starts to come away from the sides of the pan; a knife inserted into the center of the cake will come out clean. Cool on a rack for 5 minutes, then run a knife between the cake and the sides of the pan. Unmold and cool to room temperature right-side up.

Dorie says you can keep the cake at room temperature for at least 4 days or freeze it for up to 2 months.

P.S.  It’s not oily.

So when an opportunity arises for me to somehow connect back to it, I grab on.

At the last book club meeting I hosted, we were discussing a book that took place partly in Cambodia.  And for my purposes, Cambodia is close enough to Vietnam to make a culinary cheat leap when deciding what to make for snacks.  The book does mention a character often eating a baguette sandwich… which of course is Vietnamese banh mi by any other name.  So really, I wasn’t cheating all that much.  And when I found the perfect recipe for a banh mi mise en place, the menu was shaping up perfectly.

While the chicken was well flavoured from the marinade, the standout ingredients were the pickled carrots and fresh bread.  I kept to the recipe closely with the exception of the onions, daikon, lime (a member’s allergy caused me to use lemon), and the salad.  I marinated the carrots for about 6 hours and everyone raved about them.  I placed a special order at Cobs for the small baguettes.  They were all chewy, golden goodness.

Unexpectedly, banh (loosely, bread/cake) became another theme of the evening.  While walking aimlessly one night in Hue, I decided to try a sweet I had seen a few times in display cases.  Simply labelled “banana cake,” it had the look of an upside-down cake; caramelized bananas atop a moist, white cake.  The flavour, however, was more like a bread pudding.  When I started searching for a recipe, I found that the cake I had tasted and had wanted to make for book club was called banh chuoi nuong.

Like any good bread pudding recipe, eggs and milk make over stale bread.  And like many good dessert recipes from tropical climates, coconut and banana have leading roles.

After a few bites, you immediately understand why banh is such a widely used prefix in Vietnamese cooking.  Everything it touches turns delicious.

Banh Chuoi Nuong

8 bananas

2 day-old/stale French loaves (not baguettes)

2 eggs

1.25 cups sugar

2 cups milk

2 cups coconut milk

4 tablespoons melted butter

1 tablespoon vanilla

0.5 teaspoon cinnamon

Slice bananas and mix with flour, 0.25 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons of the butter, and cinnamon.  Beat eggs with the remaining cup of sugar.  Then add coconut milk, milk, vanilla, and remaining butter.  Remove crusts from bread.  Slice into 0.5-inch slices.  Grease a 9-inch glass pie plate.  Quickly dip the bread slices in the egg mixture and lay the slices into the bottom of pan to create the first layer.  Squish bread down as much as you can.  Add half of the banana slices.  Repeat bread layer, squishing down again.  Finish off with the rest of the banana slices.  You may have leftover bread and banana slices.  Bake at 350 degrees F until golden, about 45 minutes.

Let cool completely.  Serve at room temperature.  A scoop of vanilla ice cream wouldn’t hurt it.