I bought a can of Kesar mango pulp to make this ice cream. It’s quick because it doesn’t involve boiling milk, instead, using a mix of evaporated milk and whipping cream. There’s way too much sugar, this is tooth-achingly sweet. However, the texture is soft and the mango stand...
Our first cookie last night was chocolate chip, the quintessential cookie. The recipe was for a soft, chewy cookie, so to that end, pastry flour was used for tenderness. After mixing up the dough with a paddle, we used a #24 ice cream scoop to make uniform balls of dough. I li...
I wasn’t too pleased with these chocolates. There isn’t a very strong orange flavour, only alcohol. Steeping some orange peel with the cream would have helped. I found it best to freeze the filling for at least two hours before cutting squares. Otherwise, the ganache tends to ...
I’ve made biscotti many times in the past, but this class held some surprises for me. First, we made espresso biscotti. A lot of traditional versions don’t contain any fat, save for that from eggs, but this one involved creaming butter and sugar. Flavourings included orange ze...
Just a simple combination of some leftover components
To make the cognac-soaked raisins, the recipe calls for setting the alcohol aflame, which I lit using a strand of dry capellini (thanks to Cook’s Illustrated for this unorthodox tip). The brownie base calls for nuts but I left them out for the sake of a taster’s allergies. On ...
For the shell, I used Cacao Barry Cuba Pure Origin 70%, a dark chocolate with a noticeably fruity taste, almost like extra-virgin olive oil. The caramel centre is made with white chocolate, and tastes like butterscotch. Tempering is getting better, as you can see from the shin...
This cake began on Sunday April 1st when I mixed up the batter which included spices (star anise, cinnamon, ginger, mace, cloves and white pepper), rye flour, candied orange zest and rum; there is no fat, dairy or eggs. One of the key components of this cake/bread hybrid is ho...
After a brief hiatus from classes, I decided to take another course needed for the Bakery Arts Diploma. Wednesday night’s class is being taught by a woman who’s been a pastry chef at the Metropolitan Hotel for over a dozen years. She seemed to know the large majority of all th...
A very time-consuming (>6 h) but ultimately satisfying bread. This recipe starts with a sponge, then a long first rise (3 h) then a 2 h proof. Lots of lemon zest, milk, butter and a few eggs make this an enriched dough full of flavour. And the filling, oh the filling: four ...
The spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, white pepper) and honey (Dutchman’s Gold Summer Blossom) are the flavourings for this classic French cookie. I bought the madeleine tins from Design & Realisation. I noticed this recipe calls for a hot oven (425°F) while all the othe...
One look at the ingredient list shows this to be a rich full-fat ice cream: 2 cups each of 10% and 35% cream plus 6 egg yolks! The orange flavour comes from both zest — steeped in the cream plus more added afterwards — and fresh juice. Medjool dates are incredible (I’ve never ...
I made this bread dairy-free by substituting almond milk. This is another recipe from this book that doesn’t use the plain GF flour mix, but a different proportion of brown rice flour, potato starch and tapioca starch. So much for premixing a big container. I used Medjool date...
My ingredient choices: mix of low fat cow and soy milk; 1 cup cake and pastry flour plus ½ cup hard whole wheat flour; Granny Smith apples. The yeasted batter (with raw egg and milk) needs to rest for 6 to 8 hours, so I put it near an open window where it wasn’t too warm. The ...