Archive of posts from March 2006

    Cakes-CtoM 4: Tangy Berry Torte

    2006-03-31

    I guess I don’t really know what torte means because it seemes to be used to describe decorated layer cakes especially ones with a lot of ground nuts. The cake layers we made contained no nuts but part of the “tang” came from buttermilk and lemon zest in the batter. No one not...

    Grapefruit Sorbet

    2006-03-31

    The recipe gives the juice measurement in terms of a number of grapefruits and oranges which can vary in size, yield and sweetness. Since the base has about 2 cups of syrup, I aimed for around 4.5 cups of juice. I couldn’t find white grapefruit so I used bottled juice instead,...

    Tangerine Meltaways

    2006-03-28

    I had such high hopes for this cookie, but several things went wrong. I overworked the dough so the cookies weren’t light and I sliced them too thick. After baking for the prescribed time, they were still wet in the centre so I flipped them and put them back into the oven. The...

    Cakes-CtoM 3: Gateau St. Honoré

    2006-03-25

    The history of this cake is quite interesting, some saying it is named after the patron saint of bakers. After reading the description, I’m a little disappointed that what we made last night only vaguely resembles the original (I found one other recipe that uses puff pastry an...

    Bread 10: Raisin Bread and Bread Basket

    2006-03-20

    Yesterday, we started out by mixing the dough for the bread baskets. The pair at the bench next to my partner and I arrived much earlier than we did, so we teamed up with them, as the instructor asked us to work in teams of four. All of the Hobarts groaned under the strain of ...

    Cakes-CtoM 2: Sachertorte

    2006-03-18

    Class started with some advance prep work for the following week: puff pastry. Having already taken the Art of Pastry class, both my partner and I were comfortable with the technique. After making the dough, we rolled it into a large square, then rolled the corners a little th...

    Bread 9: Paska Easter Bread

    2006-03-12

    Chef announced that the bread we were making would be a complicated recipe with lots of steps. She described paska as a cross between a hot cross bun and panettone, but the Internet says it’s a traditional Ukrainian bread. In any case, we begin with a sponge made from warm mil...

    Cakes-CtoM 1: Crunchy Caramel Cake

    2006-03-10

    There weren’t as many students in this weeknight class as ones I’ve taken in the past, about 12 people. The instructor is the same one I had for Art of Cakes so I was very pleased. We started the class by making

    SHF #17: Blackberry Buttermilk Panna Cottas

    2006-03-10

    Andy is hosting this month’s Sugar High Friday with a theme of dairy (roundup here). My contribution for the 17th installment of this food blogging event is a blackberry buttermilk panna cotta. The original recipe includes a compote as well but I skipped making that.

    Oat Bran Muffins with Dried Pears

    2006-03-08

    I made a few subs: pineapple juice for cider, and yogurt (Danone Activia pear) for buttermilk. Most oat bran muffins tend to be really crumbly and dry. Sadly, this one was no exception. It’s made with egg whites and only a few tablespoons of oil, so the low fat content makes t...

    Bread 8: Italian Bread and Focaccia

    2006-03-05

    First up this morning was Italian bread. The only notable differences from our standard recipe was mixing up the slurry with cold water, then adding flour, lukewarm water, malt and salt. After kneading, this dough was incredibly easy to work with, very soft but not tacky at al...

    Vanilla Bread Pudding with Spiced Poached Pears

    2006-03-04

    The pudding recipe is from Caprial’s Desserts and includes 4 cups of half-and-half and a lot of eggs: 5 whole ones plus 6 yolks! I used the idea given in the Apple variation and poached some Forelle pears in a spiced red wine syrup from Schneider’s book. Her recipe for the poa...