Trying to make butter-rich icebox cookies in a warm lab was an interesting exercise this week. We started with the pinwheel dough. After it came together in the mixer, we took half out and kneaded in some orange oil which Chef brought in herself. The original recipe called for...
A friend of mine found a delicious cherry compote from France at a grocery in North York and kindly bought me a jar. I used some to make these bars; since they weren’t tart cherries, I added a few tablespoons of strained raspberry purée to add acidity and keep with the colour ...
Our first cookie this week, Lemon Blossoms, is better known as a thumbprint cookie. We made the simple shortbread-like dough (butter, icing sugar, lemon juice, pastry flour) and kept it in the fridge. While that dough was firming up, we started on the next cookie, Peanut Butte...
My freezer had something like 30 egg whites, so I took one of the containers out a while ago to make financiers. This thick batter contains pumpkin puree, browned butter and spices, surefire ingredients that would deliver flavour. After mixing it all together, I let it sit in ...
For Cinco de Mayo, I decided to make an unusual truffle from this book. It calls for pineapple puree, Mojito-flavoured liqueur, dried pineapple and chile powder. While I didn’t follow the recipe to the letter, I tried to keep the spirit of the chocolates intact. I briefly infu...
We started off this class by mixing up the spritz dough. It was very tender, due to both shortening and butter in the mix, and was flavoured nicely with orange zest. The cocoa powder gave it a nice dark colour. Using a #6 star tip, we piped out rosettes, fingers and shells. Th...
A Google search found a post I made to a bread mailing list back in 2003 when I first tried this bread. This time around, I used canned pumpkin (less moisture then fresh squash) and I have a stand mixer, so no problems with kneading the soft dough. Alterations: all-purpose flo...
