To use up some ground almonds and lemons, I turned to this recipe in one of Lawson’s older books. It’s a cinch to put together. Definitely do watch the timer and cover the partially baked cake with foil, as it will brown easily. My tasters at the office enjoyed it a lot, as di...
An unexpected drop-off of chestnut flour got me searching for recipes that used this ingredient. I settled on this Italian cake, typically made during the fall. The variations and regional differences are numerous and some include savory ingredients like rosemary. Gina DiPalma...
The recipe for Momofuku Milk Bar’s corn cookies is pretty widespread (countless websites, in the Milk Bar cookbook, in the Lucky Peach magazine) so there’s lots of recipe bloggers who have made it. And while it’s been on my to-do list for some time, it wasn’t until a trip to M...
For a dinner we were hosting on Sunday, I decided to go all out and make a fancy cheesecake, one involving multiple components. This book was a recent Value Village purchase ($5!) and complemented my treasured copy of Celebrate With Chocolate. There
I made a similar bread from this book previously, and wanted something to eat as breakfast toast. This is a loaf that was a favourite at our house and one I’d make again!I was able to make it one day as follows: 08:00 make soaker using milk, cornmeal, large-flake rolled oats, ...
After almost two weeks in New York City, and a week in Ottawa, it was good to be back at home, and back into my own kitchen. To start my first day off in a new office with a gesture of tasty goodwill, I decided to make some chocolates with feuilletine. These are thin, crispy w...
We went apple picking a few weeks ago, and basically just picked Honeycrisp. Since these apples are twice the cost of other varieties, it seems a waste to bake with them, but they are apparently a good variety for pies, cakes, etc. So with a vegetable drawer full of Honeycrisp...
I had my doubts about this recipe: 4 cups of flour, 2 eggs and a whole lot of sugar. But the combination of plum and marzipan sounded good, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. I purchased the marzipan in bulk from Domino’s; a staff member told me it had 66% almonds, and is...
The astute reader would notice that these photos were taken towards the end of August, a full month before this post is being published. Why the delay? Because I made them for the first of five interviews I had, and had to keep mum until I knew the outcome!To make these owls, ...
This bread promised a wheaty, chewy and full-flavored bread, but was a bit of a disappointment. It didn’t turn out as delicious as this other whole wheat loaf. The recipe isn’t as accurately specified as current CI recipes are, and doesn’t have weight measurements, nor did it ...
Just before we left for our mini-vacation and trip to Montreal, I made a batch of ice cream, following this Cook’s Illustrated recipe. Let’s just say, it is very, VERY, VERY gingery. Too much, even for me. I want a bold flavour, but this was just too much. I would greatly redu...
In the pursuit of the “perfect” recipe, CI will often go to great lengths to achieve their desired result. Sometimes it’s worth it, sometimes, it’s not. For this fruit pie, I would have to say that it’s not worth it. Here are the major steps:Make special pie dough (not the foo...
We’ve been buying a lot of fruit from the Leslieville Farmers’ Market on Sundays, mostly from Bizjak Farms and the vendor selling blueberries. Much of it has been turned into peach crumble or a peach cake (which we froze), but on one evening last week, we decided to make two b...
On paper, with its 100% whole wheat flour content, this sounds like a healthy bread. But it is also enriched with milk, honey, butter and oil. No wonder it tastes so delicious! A full two tablespoons of yeast ensures that the bread isn’t dense, and an overnight biga and grain ...
While it had all the makings of a wonderful bread (sponge made with rye, whole-grain soaker, high hydration), this bread just didn’t turn out for me. Note how flat and pale it is. The dough was really hard to work with, and never formed a ball. I was hesitant to add too much f...
Instead of making the same old, same old, I always look for new recipes to try whenever I have ripe bananas on hand. This recipe featured grated chocolate, which sounded interesting to me, and it didn’t disappoint. Pulverizing the chocolate in the food processor meant a lot of...
Recipe from Cook’s Illustrated Notes:For Gabriel’s (second) 2nd birthday celebration in Toronto, Dr. S and I decided to make a cake featuring his favourite Sesame Street character, Elmo. Ideas for themed parties featuring this furry red monster abound, but we wanted something ...
While technically a repeat, I wanted to include the photos and a few notes about this cupcake recipe again, as I made these cupcakes this week to celebrate my son’s birthday on two separate occasions.I don’t recall making the ganache filling three years ago, but decided to for...
I bought a copy of The Italian Baker, used, a long time ago and its pages were already yellowed, its full-colour dust jacket faded from exposure to the sun. A little while ago, my mother-in-law bought me… The Italian Baker, but it was the new, revised edition. The most obvious...
For Mother’s Day, we had my parents over for dinner (slow-roasted lamb, asparagus, Greek-style lemon potatoes). Instead of my go-to cheesecake, a recipe of my Mom’s, I tried out this lower-fat cheesecake. I like the crust idea: using amaretti crumbs. But depending on the brand...
I couldn’t find a sweet potato challah recipe that I liked. Many used way too much honey (½ cup), didn’t use enough sweet potato or had a wide variation in flour. As an experienced baker, I should be able to compensate and adjust recipes, but I also want things to turn out the...
During our recent mini-vacation to San Francisco, I got a chance to visit the Berkeley Bowl, an independent grocer similar to Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. I was absolutely floored by the selection of produce: three kinds of blood oranges! Etrog in April! Several varieties of s...
I’ve made the focaccia recipe in The Bread Baker’s Apprentice before, in the raisin variation, and enjoyed it immensely. However, it’s been 6 or 7 years (I know this, since I brought a slice to a date), so I felt it was time to try it again. This time ‘round, I made the “trans...
Continuing the pound cake theme (but failing at our goal of reducing dessert consumption), I dug out Flo Braker’s book and finally made this apricot cake that I’ve looked at many times, and seen wonderful photos of, online. This project actually took longer than expected, beca...
There are two kinds of pound cake that I really love: the walnut kind at Chinese bakeries, and any lemon pound cake. The latter is usually flavoured with lemon zest or oil in the batter, and covered with a lemon glaze or syrup after baking.I started this project out by soaking...
We’re trying to increase our whole grain consumption, and cut back on rich desserts, so I turned to my collection of bread baking books for this project. This recipe uses a poolish starter, and is pretty simple to make. The flavourings come from the zest of a whole lemon, a ¼ ...
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé by Dorie Greenspan I dusted this book off the shelf, looking for a moderate challenge over a few weeknights. I can’t recall how I arrived at this recipe, but I do know that I had two, neglected Seville oranges in a bowl on the kit...
You may wonder why I am making panettone in March, given that it’s a traditional bread for Christmas, and I am not Italian. Well, keep wondering. This book is all about whole grain breads, and reducing or replacing white flour completely in standard recipes. Some of the formul...
CI tackles bread from time to time, and I generally like their approach, e.g. here’s my version of their ciabatta, their almost no-knead bread, etc. So for the Family Day holiday, I decided to make a loaf of fresh bread as part of a casual brunch we hosted. On Sunday morning, ...
My inspiration for this Valentine’s chocolate came from those little cinnamon hearts that you see this time of year. They’re brightly coloured and spicy with a cinnamon-peppermint flavour. The plan was to take the cinnamon hazelnut ganache recipe, omit the hazelnut praline, ad...
In classic CI tradition, this recipe for biscotti is unlike any other I’ve made before, but it produces close to a perfect biscotti: crunchy but not too hard, crumbly but not too buttery. If I were to summarize the key takeaways from this recipe, they would be:Whip eggs to aer...
We were introduced to Ottolenghi by a friend who had a copy of his Plenty. Since then, we’ve made many delicious things like the Ultimate Winter Couscous, Caramelised Garlic Tart and Green Gazpacho. Anyway, when flipping through Jerusalem in Florida over the holidays, I spott...
