Butterscotch Ice Cream

Ice cream is so simple to make sometimes.. Hopefully I will have an ice cream maker soon and will be able to be more adventurous and make ice cream which is less ice crystally....


Anyways, my mum gave me a little recipe book she got in scotland of scottish tea time recipes..
There's lots of recipes for biscuits and scones and stuff, but also this Butterscotch ice cream recipe!
Very tasty! and wholesome! and Buttery!

Crunchy Celtic Coconut Pecan Cake

Nooooow.... I THINK the centre of this cake MAY have gone uncooked...
But, I also think it might have been the topping that just sunk it an moistened the cake..
Either way, it's very tasty and coconut makes everything so delicious! AND brown sugar.. mm



Besides, a little raw egg never killed anyone, right?

Challah!

I made more Challah, only this time, I used organic, stoneground wheat flour and it was a deeper, more flavourful result... Very nice for an egg salad sandwich as it turns out!



Challah Challah - and isn't white flour not good for you?

Red Velvet Cupcakes

This weekend, I was commissioned to make Red Velvet cupcakes for a wrap party!
The red batter is so much fun and the cream cheese frosting is so good. I'm realizing the best things are so simple - the frosting is just cream cheese, butter and some vanilla. AND icing sugar, of course..



I have lots of left over frosting so I'm going to make another velvet cake... although I'm out of red food colouring... I can't decided which coloured cake would be the most appetizing: blue, green or yellow.. Let me know what you think!

Caramel Apples

This Halloween I made Caramel apples for a party we were having.
I found a recipe which uses only equal parts honey and heavy cream and a pinch of salt!
Pas pire, non?


They were very chewy, a little difficult to eat, but quite yummy.
Also, caramel apples are festive and not something people have every day!

Brother's Birthday Cake!

Yesterday was my brothers birthday, and he is in the middle of exams and all that jazz, so I made him a cake - simple chocolate with a buttercream frosting and sprinkles

 of white chocolate..

He said it was the highlight of his day :)

Pumpkin Pie!

I made pumpkin pie for the dinner, because like apples, pumpkins are in season, its harvest, la la la.

Anyways, the crust is a paté brisée -- nice and flaky, and the detailing around the edge was made with a little pine cone cookie cutter.. 

I also used fresh pumpkin because no where near my house can you find canned pumpkin --

if you use frozen crust and canned pumpkin, it would take like two minutes to make the pie.. and probably also very tasty.. mmm

A little whipped cream on top is lovely --- I also made butterscotch ice cream from a scottish tea time recipe book my mum got me in scotland, incase anyone didn't like pie, but everyone just took a bit of everything :)

Dinner with Pals

This weekend I hosted a Dinner party where I invited a few girlfriends who have never met eachother. I thought it could be fun, maybe some of them would hit it off- if not, we all get a nice meal at the least. Throughout the night we drank a raspberry champagne punch (with sprite), usually made with Gin around the Holidays, but it was a school night so I held back.

And the first course was a butternut squash tart, which was soo good! There were some leftovers, and I need to make it again - All it is is puff pastry, with a little ricotta/onion mixture tucked inside and covered in a slice of squash and a slice of goat cheese and put in the oven for half and hour or so -- way better than I had anticipated.

The next course was a red wine, mushroom risotto, topped with thin slices of marinated steak, with a side of spinach salad with avocado. Yummy, but very filling, especially after the tarts.

The dessert will follow on the next post, as it will not let me post another picture for some reason -- 

Papas Apple Spice Birthday Cake!

For my Dad's birthday last weekend, I made an Apple spice layer cake, because you know, I thought it was the season.. 

It involved making apple sauce and mixing it into the cake batter, only I left the apple sauce on the other side of the kitchen to cool, and forgot about it -- pouring the appleless-cake batter into the pans and almost putting them in the oven when I remembered... only I couldn't clean and re-butter and flour the pans because I was completely out of flour - the cake itself had to include three kinds because I ran out of all-purpose - it was horrible.

(and no - I couldn't just run out and buy more flour, for that would be reasonable)

In any case, the cake with its creamy goat cheese frosting was delicious!

Apples are almost out of season, so you have to get these things in while you can 

--- Max and I pressed 200 lbs of apples to make cider, which may be drinkable by christmas, -- hopefully,  because I don't think we have the patience to wait years and years..

Madeleines!

Today I made Madeleines!


These lemony cakes are so scrumptious, I highly recommend them - And a friend recommended I cover the sides in dark chocolate, which I did, happily, because how could that go wrong?
She said she used to have them that way in Paris when she was a child.
Lovely. So I did that -


Anyways, they turned out perfectly, if I do say so myself.
All it is is: (a sort of modified Martha Stewart Recipe)
3/4 cup of Flour, 1/2 cup of almond flour and a heaping 1/2 cup sugar
added to:
3 medium eggs (I used organic) and a large pinch of salt --> whisked until fluffy
Then add to the mixture:
1/2 cup of melted butter (cooled), 1/4 cup of lemon zest, 1/4 teaspoon of lemon extract (pure, please).


Then you need to cool the whole mixture in the fridge for a few hours until you put it into the moulds and cook them at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, tops! until the edges begin to brown.

Then, if you want, you can melt some dark chocolate in a double boiler and dip one side, or paint one side of the madeleines with it... I did half of them with chocolate and half plain.

Nil Bleu

About a year ago, I first went to the ethiopian restaurant Nil Bleu on St. Denis, in Montreal.
It is now my favourite restaurant - the food is so good, at the atmosphere is so chill and the lights are dim.. There's also a good house beer and the bleu nil cocktail which is rum and mango nectar, so simple, so nice.


Here, this summer, we sat outside on the terrace -- you can see here spinach, chicken, lamb, beef, lentils!-- oh, the lentils. And it all served with injera bread, which is a flat, dour dough made from teff flour - which is gluten free, by the way - and you just unroll the bread and scoop up some food -

It's a great place to go with friends, and you all sit around, eating with your hands, from the same platter -- its very intimate and just so lovely..

Wedding Cupcakes!

Last Holiday season, I was asked to make a whole bunch of cupcakes for a small, intimate wedding we were having at our house, for one of my sisters oldest friends who was around throughout my childhood.

These would have to be beautiful, lovely but natural and whimsical.


So I got gold and silver muffin paper things and those little silver candy balls to sprinkle on top, just so.


Some cupcakes were vanilla, using real vanilla bean scrapings and some were chocolate, using real fancy chocolate - usually I just use bakers chocolate, but this was a wedding!


My mum made a big tree thing for all of them, and we stuck pretty pieces of greenery in between each cake. I think the results were pretty.. And the cupcakes were tastyyy!


My mum found them a little knife and they cut one of the cakes together. So sweet :)

Ice Cream Cake

For Max's Birthday this year, he requested an Ice Cream cake.
So I had to learn how to make ice cream, which I had never done before...
SO I had to find a recipe which did not require a machine, or running to stir the mixture every 20 minutes, which I was not willing to do at the time..


I found such a recipe - little did I know its the kind of ice cream which is really nice as like one small scoop.. not in two layers covered in Chocolate Ganache, which - like the ice cream- was full of booze so as not to let is freeze too hard.
Each bite was like taking a shot of liquor -- and SO rich..

Lesson learned.
Max ate all that remained the next day - so supportive.

I thought I was pretty clever mixing baileys with icing sugar for the writing-icing..

Hazel's Ginger Snaps

Last Christmas I made thousands of Ginger Snaps...
And, I am proud to say - It was the only solid food we could get hazel to eat!


The poor child might have starved if it weren't for my baking.

Bruschetta

I made Bruschetta to begin Max's birthday dinner a few weeks ago..


Tomatos, orange pepper, oil, parsley, oregano.. you can really put whatever the hell you want, its all good!

Hazel's Birthday Cake

Moist cake, custardy filling, creamy icing... white chocolate curls and a sprinkle of nuts.
Oh, Hazel's first birthday cake was one we will remember and certainly be making again.


She didn't touch it - we fed her brownies, but everyone else at the party loved it...
We maybe have one more birthday until she starts demanding that Ariel and princess Jasmine appear on her cake.

The Hulk, and Spiderman... and Batman

Shortly before visiting Xander, my favourite person in the whole world, in London this summer,
I spoke to him on the phone and I was like: "Hey Xander, what's up?" And the little freshly four year old says to me: "I know what kind of cake I want you to make me". I was unaware I was making him a cake, but who am I to deny him?


I am proud of their likenesses to the cartoons... but I don't think he noticed the rich and creamy chocolate ganache that coated the thing.. It doesn't look all that pretty.. but he liked it, and that's what matters... I guess..

Salmon Rolls

Here are some Smoked Salmon rolls I made for a baby shower --
Smoked salmon is so good, and these are nice and pretty and swirly.


Just tortillas with cream cheese and salmon, rolled and sliced! (garnished with Basil)
Mmm bagels.

Pie

My brother and I made a pie.
Apple raspberry - nothing special, we didn't even make the crust ourselves -
It was late, and we wanted pie.


But I cut out a Scottie shape and its damn cute!

Cinnamon Buns!

I made Cinnamon Buns a while back - Its fun, you know, rolling the sticky dough around -
And you can chose not to put raisins in them - eww raisins.


And the icing is easy and delicious -
C-C-C-Cinnamon lips and Candy kisses!

Giant Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Here are some Giant Chocolate Chunk Cookies.
You can't tell, but they're as big as your hand... with fingers -



Its just a fun change from regular cookies, and oh so chocolatey..

Yorkshire Pudding

To those of you who make roast beef and do not take the extra few minutes to make some puds, I say: shaaaaame.
Yorkshire pudding is sooo good - My family always used to make them in muffin tins, which is cute, and it ensures everyone gets equal portions (there are always quarrels over the pud)
--- but all you really need to do, and I believe what was always done traditionally is just pouring the mixture into the roasting pan - often times with the meat still in it -



Here, as you can see, the meat has been removed.. But look how lovely and fluffy and golden it is.
All I'm saying is its a delicious starch to add to the meal, and all it is is like egg, flour.. and some other stuff you definitely have in your cupboards - oh, and the roast drippings

Plum Cake

This is a Plum Cake I made -- It was pretty good.. plummy
Mostly, I liked how the plums left big pink splotches all over the yellow cake.

AND I always enjoy using the spring-form pan.

Dream Squares

Coconut, Walnuts, Oooey Gooey Goodness, Chocolate..
My mother has been making these my whole life and I would never eat them because I would never eat anything with nuts in them.. No peanut M&Ms, no Oh Henry Bars.... mmmm


- anyways, I was missing out, because these are the most delicious things on earth.
And so simple to make! I went through a phase where I was making them every weekend - for every possible occasion. All I have to say is yum! They're called Dream Squares!

Bundt Cake

When I first got my glass cake tray with the glass dome, my dad told me that he always had this fantasy of a perpetual cake... Its nice to imagine one of these domes in the middle of your table, always full of fresh, delicious cake, there for you, should it tickle your fancy.


So when I first got this dome, I made this decadent chocolate bundt cake - which was by no means perpetual.

Cheddar Scones

I always had trouble making scones, until I saw Marcy Goldman make them, and she signed a copy of her book: "Hadley, may you always have perfect scones!" And I went home, and I could do it - I don't know if it was the inscription or the tips she shared with the group, but either way, I got 'em down now. (Except when I accidentally used baking soda instead of powder -- blueberry hockey pucks it makes)


These here are cheddar scones, which were too cheesy for my liking.. I prefer raspberries!

The Past While - Challah

The next few posts are going to be some of the things that I have made in the past year or so.. Things that were special to me, or especially nice..

The first being Challah bread, one of the first breads I ever made..


I never really liked Challah before, and I was a surprised when the bread wasn't yellow, but it was delicious and moist and I should probably make it again, but I'm out of bread flour..
And braiding it was fun!