I was surprised to see that Edmonds' vegetarian lasagne recipe didn't involve any tomato sauce. It also called for a huge amount of cheese but hardly any spinach or walnuts! Only 130g and 50g respectively. I upped the spinach to 300g and the walnuts to 100g. I think that gave a decent amount of spinach, but I still felt like it could've done with more walnuts. Especially since the walnuts are apparently meant to be one of the key components going by the title.

Spinach and Walnut Lasagne

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 1 recipe cheese sauce
• 300g frozen chopped spinach
• 225g ricotta
• 150g chopped walnuts
• 300g grated mozzarella, divided
• salt and pepper
• 50-100g blue cheese¹
• up to 250g lasagne noodles, ready to use²
• 1 (370g) jar roasted red bell peppers
• 2-3 Tbsp. roasted garlic purée

Directions

1. Make the cheese sauce and set aside.
2. Thaw the spinach and press out as much liquid as possible.
3. Combine the spinach, ricotta, walnuts, 200g of mozzarella, and blue cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Place a layer of lasagne noodles in the bottom of a greased lasagne pan.
5. Spread a thin layer of roasted garlic over the noodles.
6. Spread a layer of spinach mixture over the garlic.
7. Pour some of the cheese sauce over the spinach.
8. Put a layer of roasted red peppers over the cheese sauce.
9. Repeat the layers as many times as possible ending with a cheese sauce layer.
10. Sprinkle with the remaining 100g of mozzarella.
11. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 1 hour.

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¹ The recipe calls for an optional 100g blue cheese so I added 100g Rosenberg Danish blue to my spinach mixture. It was delicious. That said the blue cheese overpowered basically everything else in the dish. And some things that weren't! (The container of whipped cream that sat next to the lasagne in the fridge ended up tasting very faintly of blue cheese after a couple days.) Next time I think I'd either scale the blue cheese back to 50g or use a milder blue if going with the full 100g. I really like Danish blue, but it might be nice to try it with Gorgonzola dolce or saint agur at some point. ^Back
2 I must've made my layers a lot thicker than they did because I was only able to get two repetitions of each thing in before I ran out of spinach mixture and cheese sauce. This meant that I didn't use nearly the full 250g of pasta. ^Back

Edmonds "white sauce" recipe is extremely versatile. Aside from the basic roux-based dairy sauce it can be turned into half a dozen other variants using the same base. The cheese sauce simply involves adding a bit of grated Cheddar to the finished sauce.

Cheese Sauce

From Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. salted butter
• 2 Tbsp. flour (any type)
• 1 c. milk, warmed
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 c. grated Cheddar

Directions

1. Melt the butter over medium heat.
2. Stir in the flour and cook until frothy.
3. Remove from heat and gradually stir in the milk.
4. Return to heat and cook until sauce boils and thickens.
5. Cook for another 2 minutes.
6. Stir in cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste.

I've made this bread before, but I never got around to writing the recipe up. We were all out of bread, so I decided to try it again today. I am quite pleased with how it came out! It rose very well and even got a decent little spring in the oven. Historically my 100% whole wheat breads have had good flavour but have been a bit denser than I would've liked. I haven't sliced this one yet, but based on how it looks and the feel of the loaf, I definitely think this is one of my best ones yet.

This is the very first recipe in the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book. It has an entire chapter to itself. All the tools, ingredients, and techniques are covered in detail. This is a single-loaf recipe meant to be practiced to get used to the techniques involved and the textures and timings required. I'm not going to try to duplicate that level of detail here as I don't want to plagiarize (and, honestly, I'm not really interested in doing that much typing for this anyway).

I wanted two loaves today, so I doubled all the quantities from the Laurel's Kitchen recipe. Obviously, if you only want one loaf, just halve the amounts listed here to get back to the original. (You can also probably cut the kneading time down by about half as well.)

A Loaf for Learning

Slightly adapted from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

• 3/4 c. warm water
• 2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 850g whole wheat flour
• 50g gluten flour (optional)¹
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 1/3 c. hot tap water
• 2/3 c. plain yogurt
• 3 Tbsp. honey
• 1/4 c. canola (or other neutral) oil

Directions

1. Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and set aside for 10 minutes.
2. Combine the flour(s) and salt and make a well in the centre.
3. Combine the yogurt and warm water to make a lukewarm mixture.
4. Stir the honey into the yogurt mixture.
5. Pour the honey mixture and the yeast mixture into the well in the centre of the flour.
6. Gradually stir the flour into the wet ingredients, working from the centre outward.
7. The Laurel's Kitchen folks recommend evaluating the dough at this point to see if it needs more flour or water. I prefer to knead it for 5-10 minutes first and then make adjustments as needed. Don't worry if all the flour hasn't been incorporated into the dough when you first turn it out. It will get worked in as you knead. Avoid adding any more flour if at all possible. It's much better if the dough is a bit too slack than a too tight. The dough may seem very wet, sticky, and/or fragile at first, but it will become smoother, stronger, and less sticky as it's worked. If the dough is too stiff, work in more water a couple teaspoons at a time.
8. After kneading for a while and making any adjustments, start working in the oil². (Pour a couple tablespoons of oil over the dough and/or work surface and knead until fully incorporated. Then add the next portion of oil and repeat.)
9. Once the dough is well-kneaded and has taken on a smooth, silky texture (20-40 minutes depending on your technique), place it in a clean (ungreased) bowl covered with plastic wrap and/or a damp cloth to rise. This should take 1-2 hours depending on the temperature of the room.
10. The rise is done when the dough holds the impression of a finger poked ~1cm in. If it fills in, it's under-proved and needs to rise a bit longer. If it sighs and sinks back a bit around the fingerprint, it's over-proved and should've been knocked back a little earlier.
11. Turn the dough out (I prefer an unfloured surface for this as I try to avoid adding any extra flour after kneading). Press out the accumulated bubbles and deflate the dough.
12. Shape into a ball and return to the bowl, cover, and leave to rise again. (The second rise is supposed to go a bit faster, but I actually found all my rises needed about an hour today.)
13. Turn the dough out and press the gas out again.
14. Divide into two equal portions and shape into balls, smoothing the tops to create a smooth sheet of gluten.
15. Leave to rest for 10 minutes to allow gluten to relax.
16. Shape your loaves by pressing each ball into a round, folding it in thirds, and rolling it up.
17. Place into greased loaf tins and cover with a damp cloth to rise.
18. If the bread has risen particularly well, slash the tops to give it room to spring in the oven.
19. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for ~1 hour.

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¹ If you have good hard bread flour, you probably won't need the extra gluten -- just use a full 900g of whole wheat bread flour. I was using all-purpose flour, so I replaced a little of the whole wheat flour with gluten flour. If your flour is very soft, you'll probably want to use even more gluten flour. ^Back
2 The original recipe actually has you add the oil with the rest of the wet ingredients, but for the rest of the book it says to make sure you develop the gluten a bit and then work any oil or butter in about halfway through the kneading, so that's what I did for this one. ^Back

Fettucini al Pesto di Noci (Fettucini with Walnut Pesto)

From The Classic Pasta Cookbook, this recipe comes together very quickly. It's worth noting that since the sauce is uncooked, the garlic has much more of an edge to it than usual; I habitually go heavy on the garlic, but in this recipe symbol found that excessive. Thus, I've recorded the garlic as originally written in the recipe and not the 3-4x as much that I actually put in.

It calls for using a "blender or food processor" to prepare the pesto. It did not work particularly well with our blender, so if you have a food processor instead I recommend using that. It was still better than not using the blender at all, although to get any meaningful blending I had to add the cream while it was in the blender rather than folding it in later.

Ingredients, for 450g dry, store-bought pasta

• 250g shelled walnuts
• 5mL finely chopped garlic
• 30mL extra virgin olive oil
• 64mL ricotta
• 64mL heavy cream
• 64mL freshly grated parmesan

Procedure

1. In the background, boil the water for the pasta and cook the pasta al dente; reserve the water.
2. Put the walnuts and garlic in a food processor or blender and blend/chop finely.
3. Add the olive oil and blend in.
4. Add the ricotta and blend in. Season with salt to taste.
5. Transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in the cream.
6. When the pasta is cooked al dente, transfer 64mL of the pasta water to the pesto and stir it in. Drain the pasta.
7. Toss the pasta with the pesto, top with cheese, and serve immediately.

This is the first thing I've made where I've felt a little like I was trying to do a Great British Bake Off technical challenge. I had a recipe, but I had no idea what it was supposed to come out like. And the recipe seemed very odd to me. The description made it sound like a sort of lemon self-saucing sponge pudding. But the recipe only contained 2 Tbsp. of sugar and looked a bit more souflé-like.

In the end, it came out very light, pale, and almost meringue-like with -- as promised by Edmonds -- a layer of lemon custard at the bottom. I think it probably could've used a couple tablespoons more sugar, but that could just be down to the size of my lemon.

Lemon Delicious

From Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 1 c. full fat milk¹
• 1/2 c. sugar
• juice and zest of one lemon
• 2 Tbsp. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1 Tbsp. salted butter, melted
• 2 eggs, separated

Directions

1. Whisk together milk, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, flour, butter, and egg yolks until smooth and well-blended.
2. Preheat oven to 325°F (160°C) and grease a small casserole dish and set it inside a larger ovenproof dish or pot filled with enough water to come about halfway up the sides of the casserole.
3. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
4. Gently fold egg whites into lemon mixture being careful not to knock too much air out.
5. Pour mixture into prepared casserole.
6. Bake at 325°F (160°C) for 40 minutes.

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¹ I ended up using 2 Tbsp. of heavy (35%) cream and then adding 1% milk to make a cup. That seems to have done a reasonable job of approximating whole/full fat milk. ^Back

I had a bunch of ganache left over after making the Chocolate Cream Biscuits, so I figured it was time to make truffles. The ganache is lovely, but the hazelnut flavour didn't come through as much as I would've hoped. Ideally the hazelnuts on the outside would've been chopped, rather than ground, but I overshot the mark a bit and ended up with more of a hazelnut meal.

Hazelnut Truffles

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. chopped hazelnuts
• 24 whole hazelnuts
• 1/4 c. ground hazelnuts
• 2 Tbsp. Frangelico
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 recipe chocolate ganache

Directions

• Toast the hazelnuts.
• Mix the ground hazelnuts, Frangelico, and vanilla into the ganache.
• Scoop up a whole toasted hazelnut and a scant tablespoon of ganache and roll into a ball, aiming to get the hazelnut completely encased in ganache.
• Roll in chopped hazelnuts.
• Repeat with remaining ganache and hazelnuts.
• Chill for at least and hour before serving.

I've never had a Chelsea bun before, but TF and catalyst both love them, so I decided to try a batch. I had to improvise a bit on the fruit since we were out of raisins. I ended up using a mix of dried cranberries and glacé cherries. That mix seems to have worked out well, although I think I'd like to try it with some raisins (and maybe a few chopped pecans) in next time. I also think it'd be fun to try the dried cranberries with an orange-flavoured dough and glaze.

Chelsea Buns

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

Dough

• 225g hard (bread/"high grade") flour
• 1 tsp. sugar¹
• 100mL warm milk
• 1/2 Tbsp. active dry yeast
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 75g salted butter
• 1 egg

Filling

• 50g salted butter, softened
• 100g mixed dried fruit
• 25g mixed peel
• 50g brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. mixed spice
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Toppings

• 1/4 c. sugar, divided
• 2 Tbsp. milk

Directions

Dough

• Mix 2 Tbsp. of the flour with the sugar and milk.
• Sprinkle the yeast over the warm milk mixture. Set aside for 10 minutes.
• Sift the remaining flour and salt together and cut in the butter.
• Pour in the egg and the yeast mixture.
• Mix well to form a soft dough.
• Knead (as best you can) for 5 minutes. The dough will be quite wet, so it probably work best to knead with one hand while wielding a bench scraper with the other hand. I found that the dough became even slacker after the first minute or two as the butter began to melt from the heat of my hands. I recommend working quickly.
• Shape into a ball and place in a lightly buttered bowl.
• Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill and rise overnight.²
• On a lightly floured surface, turn out the dough and roll it into a 23x30cm rectangle.
• Spread evenly with the softened butter. (I found a long off-set spatula helpful for this.
• Combine the dried fruit, mixed peel, brown sugar, and spices.
• Sprinkle the filling mixture evenly over the buttered dough.
• Roll up from a long edge to form a cylinder.
• Cut into nine pieces and place cut side down in a greased 7" (18cm) square tin³.
• Cover with a damp cloth and set to rise for 30 minutes.
• Sprinkle with 2 Tbsp. of sugar.
• Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.
• Dissolve the sugar in the milk and heat to form a glaze.
• Brush the glaze over the buns while hot.
• Pull apart and serve warm.

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¹ Edmonds calls for caster sugar here, but I just used regular granulated sugar. ^Back
2 The original recipe has you setting the dough to rise for 90 minutes at room temperature, but with the butter melting and the dough being so soft, I decided that it might benefit from some time in the fridge. My understanding is that a long slow prove is often quite beneficial as well, so I figured why not! ^Back
3 I only have an 8" square tin, so I just used that. They didn't quite rise enough to fill the tin during the second prove, but they had closed the gaps by the time they came out of the oven. I think a 7" tin would've been better but, in a pinch, you can get away with an 8" tin. ^Back

I covered making ganache in a chocolate truffle post a while ago. I felt like it was worth writing up a basic, unflavoured ganache recipe as well though. This can be flavoured and used for making truffles. It could be whipped into an almost mousse-like consistency and used as a spreadable icing or filling. Or poured over cakes for a shiny, chocolate-y finish.

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients

• 1 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 225g semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Directions

1. Heat the cream until steaming and very hot, but not quite boiling.
2. Pour cream over chocolate, cover, and set aside for 5 minutes.
3. Uncover and stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth and homogeneous.

If Using for Truffles:

1. Mix in any desired flavourings.
2. Chill for at least two hours.

If Using as an Icing:

1. Chill until cool and slightly firm (~1 hour).
2. Beat hard for 2 minutes to produce a lighter, more mousse-like texture.

I wanted something to do while waiting for the cracked wheat to soak for my bread, so I decided to make cookies. Edmonds recommends filling these sandwich cookies with either chocolate buttercream or ganache. I'm sure they'd be fine with the buttercream, but between the two, it's really no contest: Ganache is far and away the winner for me!

Edmonds ganache recipe calls for butter whereas I'm used to making ganache with just chocolate and heavy cream. I decided to go the two-ingredient route and try whipping it as suggested by America's Test Kitchen when using ganache as a filling or frosting. I had to run out to pick up the kidlet from school after preparing it and it got a bit colder and stiffer than I would've liked, but overall I think the whipped ganache worked well.

The mixed spice in the cookie dough was really nice. I think it'd be fun to try adding different flavours to the ganache as well. Or maybe swapping out the mixed spice in the dough for other flavours. It might be fun to experiment with ground almonds and/or almond extract in the dough or amaretto in the ganache. Mint, ginger, cherry, hazelnut, or orange would also be interesting.

Chocolate Cream Biscuits

From Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 75g salted butter, softened
• 125g sugar
• 1 egg
• 175g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. mixed spice
• 2 Tbsp. cocoa
• 1/2 recipe chocolate ganache

Directions

1. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in egg.
3. Sift in flour, baking powder, mixed spice, and cocoa.
4. Mix to form a stiff dough.
5. Wrap in parchment paper or plastic wrap and chill for at least 10 minutes.
6. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to 4mm thickness.
7. Cut out circles¹, re-rolling as needed.
8. Place biscuits on a greased (or parchment-lined) baking tray and bake at 375°F (190°C) for 10-12 minutes.
9. Remove from oven, but leave on tray for 2 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool.
10. Cool completely before filling.
11. Spread (or pipe) ganache onto half the biscuits.
12. Place another biscuit on top to make a sandwich.

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¹ Use whatever size circles you prefer. I went with a 4.75cm cutter and ended up with 48 biscuits (24 once they were sandwiched together with the ganache). ^Back

This recipe is lifted straight from the Great British Bake Off. I made it about half size and had to substitute sweet bell peppers for sweet Romano peppers and kale for the spinach, but other than that did it to spec. I do think that spinach (or a kale-spinach mix) would've been nicer than straight kale. The kale ended up being a little tough.

The flavour was good, but I think it could've done with a little more seasoning. Some of that is down to me just not having a good handle on how much salt to add. But I also think that a few more herbs, some onion, and a bit more garlic wouldn't've gone amiss. I think next time I'd add roasted garlic purée to the potatoes and an onion and some savoury to the greens. I think I'd probably also add a mushroom layer.

Kale, Caramelized Garlic, Red Pepper, and Potato Pithivier

Adapted from Brendan Lynch

Ingredients

Potato Layer

• 450g new potatoes
• 1 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• black pepper
• 1 Tbsp. roasted garlic purée

Mushroom Layer (Optional)

• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 250g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• black pepper

Pepper Layer

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 3 large red bell peppers, sliced
• 1 fresh red Thai chile pepper, minced
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 Tbsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1 Tbsp. sugar

Caramelized Garlic

• 15 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
• 2 Tbsp. fresh tarragon
• 1 tsp. dried savoury (optional)
• 1/2 Tbsp. sugar

Kale/Spinach Layer

• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 onions, chopped
• 500g spinach (or 350g kale), chopped
• 1 egg
• 250g soft goat cheese

Everything Else

• 150g shredded Cheddar
• 900g puff pastry
• 1 egg white
• 1 Tbsp. water

Directions

Potato Layer

1. Boil potatoes in salted water until fork tender.
2. Drain and cut into 5mm (1/2") slices.
3. Toss with pepper and garlic purée and set aside.

Mushroom Layer

1. Heat butter over medium heat.
2. Add mushrooms and cook until they release their liquid and most of the liquid has cooked off.
3. Season with black pepper to taste.

Pepper Layer

1. Heat oil and butter over medium heat.
2. Add bell pepper and chile and season with salt. Cook until peppers have softened.
3. Add cumin and sugar and cook for another minute or two. Remove from heat and set aside.

Caramelized Garlic

1. Boil garlic for 3 minutes. Drain, reserving the cooking liquid.
2. Heat oil over medium heat.
3. Add drained garlic and cook for 4 minutes.
4. Add balsamic vinegar and 1 c. of the reserved cooking water. Cook for an additional 10 minutes.
5. Add herbs and sugar and cook until liquid is mostly gone and sauce resembles a runny caramel. Remove from heat and set aside.

Spinach/Kale Layer

1. Melt butter over medium heat.
2. Add onion and cook until it has softened and begun to brown.
3. Add greens and a little more of the reserved garlic cooking water. Cover and cook until greens have wilted. Remove from heat.
4. Press out as much liquid as possible. (If you're using kale, there won't be much.)
5. Stir in caramelized garlic mixture.
6. Beat egg.
7. Add goat cheese to egg and mix well.
8. Stir goat cheese mixture into spinach/kale mixture. Set aside.

Assembly

1. Roll out your pastry. You will need either one 13" and one 14" round or two 9" round and two 10" rounds.
2. Place the smaller round(s) on a parchment lined baking sheet and preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C).
3. Beat the egg white with the water.
4. Brush the edges of the smaller round(s) with egg wash.
5. Layer potato over the pastry, leaving a 1-1.5" (2.5-3.5cm) border.
6. Sprinkle a little shredded cheese over the potato.
7. Layer mushrooms on top of cheese.
8. Layer the peppers over the mushrooms.
9. Add the spinach/kale mixture on top of the peppers.
10. Put the rest of the shredded cheese on top of the greens.
11. Shape the filling stack into a rounded mound.
12. Place the larger pastry round(s) over everything and crimp the edges of top and bottom rounds together. Trim into classic scalloped shape around the edge if desired.
13. Brush pastry all over with egg wash.
14. Cut a hole in the top of the pithivier to let steam escape.
15. Cut four small slits around the top.
16. Score the sides of the pastry, being careful not to cut all the way through.
17. Chill in the freezer for 5 minutes (or in the fridge for 15).
18. Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 25-30 minutes until pastry is well-browned and cooked through.

This tagine came out quite well. And it seems like it should be reasonably flexible as well. I ended up using tinned cherry tomatoes rather than fresh. Because the recipe was expecting fresh tomatoes, I only put the exact number called for and held back the juice. Next time I think I'd just put the whole tin in, juice and all. I think I'd also up the feta next time and sprinkle it over the whole tagine, rather than just the portobello caps. And while I have no objection to the cannellini/white kidney beans, they didn't have much presence. I think, if you want a mild, unassuming bean that isn't going to stand out, stick with the cannellini beans. If you want something that's going to have a little more chew and be more noticeable, swap them out for some chickpeas.

Mushroom Tagine with Eggplant and Squash

Slightly adapted from 150 Best Tagine Recipes by Pat Crocker

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 6-8 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 1 Tbsp. ras el hanout
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 227g cremini mushrooms, chopped
• 2 Asian eggplants (long, skinny, and pale purple), peeled and diced
• 1 c. diced squash or pumpkin
• 1 dried cayenne or arbol chile, crumbled (optional)
• 18 fresh cherry tomatoes, halved or 1 (400mL) tin of cherry tomatoes
• 1 (400mL) tin cannellini/white kidney beans or chickpeas/garbanzo beans
• 1 c. chopped kale, Swiss chard, cabbage, or bok choy
• 2 portobello mushroom caps
• 1/4 to 1/2 c. feta cheese, crumbled

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium heat.
2. Add onion, garlic, and ras el hanout and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.
3. Add butter, cremini mushrooms, eggplant, and squash and cook for another 5 minutes.
4. Add cayenne, tomatoes, and beans.
5. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes.
6. Stir in kale.
7. Nestle portobello caps into vegetables, gill-side-up.
8. Sprinkle with feta.
9. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
10. Cut portobello caps in half to serve.
11. Serve over rice or couscous with condiments of choice: chermoula, tamarind-date chutney, cilantro-mint chutney, fried onions, etc.

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Variations

Vegan

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 6-8 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 1 Tbsp. ras el hanout
• 2 Tbsp. margarine
• 227g cremini mushrooms, chopped
• 2 Asian eggplants (long, skinny, and pale purple), peeled and diced
• 1 c. diced squash or pumpkin
• 1 dried cayenne or arbol chile, crumbled (optional)
• 18 fresh cherry tomatoes, halved or 1 (400mL) tin of cherry tomatoes
• 1 (400mL) tin cannellini/white kidney beans or chickpeas/garbanzo beans
• 1 c. chopped kale, Swiss chard, cabbage, or bok choy
• 2 portobello mushroom caps
• 1/4 to 1/2 c. vegan feta

I really wanted to make grapefruit curd to go with my cake. Historically I've generally had some sort of fresh fruit or fruit compote on my angel food cake along with a dollop of whipped cream. I suddenly got the idea of grapefruit curd in my head and haven't been able to shake it.

I was reasonably pleased with the result... eventually. Recipe as written, it came out very bitter. Sour/tart would've been fine, but it was almost inedibly bitter. Adding an extra 1/4 c. of sugar helped balance things out a bit. I still noticed a slight bitter aftertaste, but TF couldn't taste it when he tried it the next day.

I'm not sure if the bitterness came from the large quantity of grapefruit zest called for in the recipe or the pulp or what. (The recipe didn't specify whether the juice should be strained or not and I thought the little pink bits of pulp looked pretty so I left them in.) I think next time I'd try reducing the zest and straining the juice to see if that gives a less bitter result that doesn't need quite so much extra sugar.

Grapefruit Curd

Slightly adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

• 2 c. strained, freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
• 2 Tbsp. grapefruit zest
• 3 large eggs
• 3 large egg yolks
• 3/8 c. (6 Tbsp.) to 3/4 c. sugar, depending on how sweet your grapefruit are and how sweet/tart you like your curd
• pinch of coarse sea salt
• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into small chunks and softened

Directions

1. Bring juice to a boil over medium heat and cook until reduced by half. Set aside and allow to cool.
2. Combine zest, eggs, yolks, sugar, and salt in a heatproof bowl and mix well.
3. Slowly whisk in the juice reduction.
4. Place bowl over boiling water (double boiler set-up) and cook until thickened, whisking constantly.
5. Remove from heat and whisk in butter.
6. Chill and serve cold.

I bought myself an angel food cake pan recently and I've been dying to try it out. I've eaten my fair share of store-bought angel food cakes, but I've never attempted to make one from scratch before. I think my first experiment with them was quite successful! It had about the same texture as the store-bought cakes. (It might have been ever so slightly firmer, but not by much.) The main difference was that it seemed to be much less sticky on the surface. I think this is probably just down to having less sugar in the batter. I don't think it tasted quite as sweet as the commercial cakes either. I quite like it.

Vanilla Bean Angel Food Cake

Slightly adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients

Cake

• 200mL egg whites (~6 or 7 large eggs)¹
• 1/2 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 3/4 c. sugar, divided
• 1 vanilla bean/pod²
• 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar (optional)³
• 1/8 tsp. salt

Icing (optional)

• 400mL heavy (35%) cream
• 3 Tbsp. icing sugar

Directions

1. Place egg whites in a bowl and set aside at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 325°F (160°C).
3. Sift together flour and 3/8 c. (6 Tbsp.) sugar.
4. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add them to the egg whites.
5. Add cream of tartar and salt to egg whites.
6. Beat whites on medium speed until soft peaks form.
7. Gradually add remaining sugar, 1-2 Tbsp. at a time, beating on high after each addition.
8. Continue beating until soft, glossy peaks form.
9. Gently fold in flour mixture, a little at a time.
10. Carefully pour batter into an ungreased 7" (18cm) tube/angel food cake pan.
11. Bake at 325°F (160°C) for 35-45 minutes.
12. Remove from oven and immediately invert.
13. Allow to cool completely in the pan (upside down).
14. Once cake is completely cool, run a blunt knife around the edges of the pan to loosen it.
15. Press to pop the loose bottom out.
16. Run a blunt knife along the bottom of the pan now that the sides are off.
17. It should now be possible to remove the cake and transfer it to a serving plate.
18. If desired, combine cream and icing sugar in a blender and blend on high speed until cream is stiff and spreadable.
19. Spread whipped cream over top and sides of cake and serve.

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¹ Fresh egg whites will whip up best and give the most volume. In a pinch liquid whites out of a carton will work, but the volume will be noticeably less than if fresh whites were used. Previously frozen whites also will not whip up as well, sadly. ^Back
2 Whoops! Just realized that I completely forgot to halve the vanilla when I was halving everything else! The original recipe called for a whole vanilla bean for twice this amount of batter. No wonder my cake came out so vanilla-y! I mean, I quite like it. It's very nice. But if you're not looking for a very intense and in-your-face vanilla flavour, then I'd recommend only using half a vanilla bean for this recipe. ^Back
3 The cream of tartar was not listed as an optional ingredient in the original recipe. I didn't have any on hand when making this though, so I just left it out and my cake came out fine. I imagine that adding the cream of tartar would have resulted in an even more stable meringue, but I'm happy with the results anyway. ^Back

Photo is bad, pie was good!

I've been baking a lot of bread lately and really enjoying that. I'm looking forward to making more, but in the meantime I'd like to keep baking other things. I'm a bit burnt out on sweets at this point, so I've been thinking more along the lines of savoury baked goods. We ended up watching pie week on the Great British Bake Off and that was enough to get me set on doing pies.

Initially I was thinking that I'd do some sort of of... I guess pub-style meat pie. I briefly contemplated doing a basic mince pie, but... I just wasn't feeling it this week. And I've been trying to avoid buying meat lately. (I have a bunch of beef stashed in the freezer, so I've still been cooking with that from time to time.) Eventually, it came down to a choice between a potato, spinach, and bell pepper pithivier or a kale, lemon, and cheese phyllo pie. TF cast his vote for phyllo, so phyllo it was! (I'll probably still make the pithivier at some point.

Kale, Lemon, and Cheese Phyllo Pie

Slightly adapted from BBC Good Food

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 leek, sliced (white parts only)
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-2 green Thai chiles, minced
• 1 small preserved lemon, flesh and pith removed
• 1/4 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1/8 tsp. fennel seeds
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 500g frozen kale (or kale-spinach blend), thawed
• 100g fresh green herb of choice¹
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 3 eggs
• 300g ricotta
• 300g feta, crumbled
• 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 227g phyllo pastry
• canola (or other neutral oil) for brushing

Directions

1. Head olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add leek, onion, garlic, chile, preserved lemon, cumin, fennel seeds, and salt and cook until soft and fragrant (~10 minutes).
3. Add kale, herbs, and lemon juice and cook until heated through. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
4. Beat the eggs until smooth and slightly frothy.
5. Mix in ricotta and feta.
6. Press as much liquid as possible out of the kale mixture and stir it into the cheese blend.
7. Stir in nutmeg and set filling aside.
8. Oil an 8 or 9" (20-23cm) springform pan.
9. Lay a sheet of phyllo over the pan, gently pressing it into the corners and up the sides, letting the extra hang over the edge.
10. Brush the pastry with oil and lay another sheet on top at a slight angle to the first. (I tried to place mine so that the corners were offset by ~1cm from the previous layer.)
11. Continue adding more layers, brushing each one with oil, until the tin is well-lined.
12. Spoon the filling into the pastry and fold the excess pastry over the top, brushing each bit with oil as it's folded in.
13. Once all the overhanging bits have been brought into the center and the pie is completely enclosed, brush the top with more oil.
14. Bake at 375°F (190°C) for 50 minutes.
15. Cool for at least 20 minutes before removing from tin.
16. Release the sides and carefully transfer the pie off of the tin base and onto a serving platter.
17. In theory the pie should now be chilled before serving, but I cut it while it was still warm and quite enjoyed it that way.

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¹ I used a mix of cilantro and flat-leaf parsley. ^Back

Caramelized Onion and Balsamic Glazed Mushroom Brie en Croûte

I have a backlog of about half a dozen recipes that I've made in the last week or so and haven't gotten around to writing up yet. I was doing them more-or-less in order. I think I have to jump the queue with this one though. I ended up improvising a bit and I'm afraid that I'll forget what I did if I don't write it down right away.

This recipe ended up being a hybrid of two other recipes I came across online. I wasn't intending to do this. The plan had been to just make the brie en croûte recipe I found on Food52. I didn't realize until I was already mostly done cooking the onions that I'd somehow managed to get the wrong tab open and had actually been following a completely different baked brie recipe on Eipcurious. So, from there I just kind of improvised to merge the two recipes into something delicious.

Onion and Mushroom Brie en Croûte

Ingredients

Onions

• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 4 onions, sliced
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• few grinds black pepper
• 1 Tbsp. dry white wine
• 1/2 Tbsp. sugar

Mushrooms

• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 227g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 4-6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp. dry white wine
• 1 tsp. light soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

Everything Else

• 454g puff pastry, divided
• 2 small (4-5"/10-13cm) wheels of brie
• 1 egg white
• 1 Tbsp. water

Directions

1. Melt 2 Tbsp. butter over medium heat.
2. Add onions and cook until softened.
3. Add thyme and salt, reduce heat to medium low, and cook, stirring often, until nicely brown and caramelized. This will take about half an hour.
4. Add pepper and cook for another minute or so.
5. Add wine, stir and cook for another minute.
6. Stir in sugar and cook for a further 2 minutes.
7. Remove onions from pan and set aside.
8. Increase heat to medium and add remaining butter to pan.
9. Add mushrooms and garlic and cook until mushrooms release their liquid.
10. Pour wine, soy, and vinegar over mushrooms and cook until liquid has evaporated and mushrooms are nicely glazed.
11. Preheat oven to 425°F (210°C).
12. My puff pastry came in 2 squares, each one pretty much the perfect size for wrapping one of my wheels of brie. If yours are packaged/portioned differently or if you're making your pastry from scratch, you'll have to roll it out to an appropriate size.
13. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
14. Place a square of pastry on the lined baking sheet.
15. Bisect each wheel of brie horizontally.
16. Place the bottom half of the brie in the centre of the pastry.
17. Spread half the mushrooms over the brie.
18. Spread about a quarter of the onions on top of the mushrooms.
19. Place the top half of the brie over this.
20. Spread another portion (about 1/3 of the remaining onions) on top of the brie.
21. Mix the water with the egg white.
22. Gently pull the pastry up over the brie stack. Brush a little of the egg wash over the corners to help them stick. Press gently to seal.
23. Entire assembly can be frozen at this point for later baking.
24. Brush the outside liberally with more egg wash.
25. Repeat procedure with second portion of pastry and brie, using up the remaining mushrooms and onions.
26. Bake at 425°F (210°C) for 25 minutes.
27. Serve warm on its own or with baguette and/or crackers.

Full disclosure: I haven't had a chance to test this recipe yet. But it definitely sounds promising! Although I'd be tempted to up the salt a bit. One of the things I really enjoy about feta is its saltiness. Hopefully I can try it out sometime in the near future and report back on whether or not it makes the grade and whether the salt needs to be adjusted.

Vegan Feta

From Dreena Burton

Ingredients

• 340g extra-firm tofu, cubed
• 1 c. water
• 1/4 c. red wine vinegar + 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar, divided
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. mild miso
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. maple syrup
• 1/3 c. minced green or kalamata olives

Directions

1. Combine tofu, water, 1/4 c. red wine vinegar, salt, and garlic and bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, combine miso, oregano, lemon juice, and maple syrup and mix well.
4. Add olives to miso mixture and stir to combine.
5. Once tofu has simmered for 20 minutes, drain and add to miso mixture. Stir to coat.
6. Cover and refrigerate for up to a week.

I've been wanting to try out this cinnamon scroll recipe for ages. It's a fairly basic, yeasted, enriched dough cinnamon roll. But it's been a really long time since I've worked with an enriched dough and I was intrigued by the use of soft flour in this recipe. It seemed like a fun thing to try. And I liked the idea of keeping my first foray (back) into enriched dough fairy simple.

There are actually instructions for making sticky cinnamon scrolls (aka schnecken) after the main recipe. They sound amazing! But I wanted to stick to the basic recipe for my first go 'round. I'll definitely be trying the schnecken next time though. The basic cinnamon scrolls were nice, but slightly lacking in both sweetness and cinnamon flavour. Adding a sweet, sticky topping to them would certainly address the lack of sweetness. And I think I'd just double the cinnamon in the filling next time for an extra cinnamon-y kick.

Cinnamon Scrolls

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

Dough

• 1 c. warm water
• 4 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 115g salted butter, melted
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 tsp. salt¹
• 4 1/2 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom² (optional)

Filling

• 115g salted butter, softened
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon³

Glaze⁴

• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 Tbsp. milk

Directions

1. Dissolve 1 tsp. of sugar in the warm water and sprinkle with yeast. Set aside for 15 minutes.
2. Stir in remaining sugar, melted butter, eggs, and salt and mix well.
3. Add flour and cardamom (if using) and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth. The mixture will be fairly loose. Almost more like a thick batter than a dough.
4. Cover and chill (in the fridge) for at least 2 hours or as long as overnight.
5. After dough has chilled, turn out onto floured surface and divide in half.
6. Roll each half out to a 30-35cm square.
7. Spread half of the softened butter onto each square.
8. Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon and mix well.
9. Sprinkle half of the sugar mixture over each square.
10. Firmly roll squares up and press edges to seal.
11. Cut each log into 9 even pieces and arrange into two greased 8" (20cm) round tins.
12. Cover with a cloth and leave to rise at room temperature for 1 hour.
13. Combine beaten egg with milk and mix well.
14. When rolls have risen, brush tops with egg mixture.
15. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 30 minutes.
16. Let cool in tins for 5 minutes before turning out.
17. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm.

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¹ The original recipe calls for 1/2 tsp. salt, but I halved it since there was already quite a bit of salt coming from the butter. ^Back
2 I didn't add any cardamom to mine. ^Back
3 The original recipe calls for 3 tsp. (1 Tbsp.) cinnamon. I didn't find that amount of cinnamon to have much impact though, so I'll definitely put a bit more in next time. ^Back
4 Full disclosure: I completely forgot to glaze my buns. They were still tasty, but I'm sure they would've had a much nicer finish with the glaze. ^Back

I needed something to use up the rest of the sweet shortcrust pastry I made for the pear tart the other day, so I turned to Edmonds to see what I had the ingredients for. What I really wanted to make was the lemon tart (tarte au citron), but I was all out of cream. So I decided I'd try Edmonds' take on the classic American pecan pie. (Which they've dubbed "pecan tart" presumably because "pie" generally refers to a savoury meat and/or vegetable-filled pastry in NZ while "tarts" are a sweet dessert pastry.)

I enjoyed Edmonds pecan tart. That said it's nothing like the American classic pecan pie that I know. This was much heavier on the nuts and lighter on the sugar than the American version. It was also much shallower with a darker, sweeter crust. Edmonds only calls for about 1/4 the amount of sugar I'd expect based on the number of pecans they call for. And they also have you blind bake the pastry shell before filling it. Which does result in a well-browned, crisp crust. That said, I'm used to pecan pie having a lighter, slightly softer crust that comes from pouring the filling straight into the unbaked pie shell. Both versions are good but, all-in-all, I think I prefer the sweet, deep dish, American version. (Possibly just because that's what I'm used to.) However, if you're ever looking for a less sweet take on a pecan pie that puts more of a focus on the nuts and cuts back on the sweet, buttery filling, this recipe is probably for you!

Edmonds calls for baking this pie in a shallow 8" tin. I tried that. I filled my tin right up to the brim and still had enough filling left over to make a dozen 2" tarts. Given that, I'd actually recommend baking this in a shallow 10" tin. (Or, if you're going for the classic American size and shape, a 9" deep dish pie plate.)

Pecan Tart

From Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 1/2 recipe sweet shortcrust pastry
• 100g salted butter, softened
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 Tbsp. honey¹
• 200g pecans²

Directions

1. Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface and line a shallow 10" (25cm) tart tin. Chill for at least 10 minutes³.
2. Put a sheet of parchment/grease-proof paper or tin foil over the pastry and fill it with pie weights, dried beans, rice, or sugar.
3. Bake at 375°F (190°C) for 15 minutes.
4. Remove pie weights and paper/foil and return to oven for 5 minutes to dry out the bottom.
5. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
6. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F (180°C).
7. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
8. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
9. Stir in honey and pecans and mix well.
10. Pour filling into baked pie shell.
11. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 30 minutes.

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¹ Edmonds calls for honey and that's what I used. Many (possibly most) American recipes use corn syrup. Maple syrup is also sometimes used, especially in Canadian butter tart recipes. Feel free to experiment with substituting corn syrup, maple syrup, or golden syrup for the honey. Or try mixing two or more of the above! ^Back
2 Traditionally pecan pie is made with pecan halves. I didn't have any on hand, so I just used chopped pecans. Flavour is the same, just doesn't look as fancy. Does make it easier to pour though. If you are working with pecan halves, I'd actually recommend putting them in the bottom of your pie shell first and then pouring the filling over them rather than trying to mix them into the filling and then pour everything in together. Either method should bake up fine, but you'll probably get a nicer look if you lay the pecans out first and then pour the filling over them. (They should sort of rise to the top during baking.) ^Back
3 If the pastry is too warm when it goes in the oven the butter will melt before the rest of the pastry has a chance to begin to cook/set and the sides will fall down. It'll look like the pastry has melted and sort of fallen down the sides of the tin. Which, basically, it has. If it's good and cold when it goes in, the butter will hold up long enough for everything to start to cook and the pastry will keep its shape. ^Back

This recipe had some issues. The amount of water called for wasn't nearly enough. But once I'd added an extra 500mL, it made a very nice dough indeed. And TF says that this is his favourite of all the homemade breads so far!

Wholegrain Brown Bread

Adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 155g kiddled/cracked wheat
• 700mL boiling water
• 5g (1 tsp.) sugar
• 15g active dry yeast
• 465g hard (high grade/bread) flour¹
• 280g wholemeal/whole wheat flour
• 50g gluten flour (optional)
• 10g salt
• 35mL canola oil

Directions

1. Pour boiling water over cracked wheat, stir, and set aside for at least 30 minutes.
2. Stir in sugar.
3. Check that water isn't too hot. It should be about body temperature. Too hot will kill the yeast.
4. Once water is cool enough, sprinkle yeast over. Set aside for 15 minutes.
5. Add flours and salt and mix until it comes together into a dough.
6. Turn it out and knead for 5 minutes.
7. Add oil 1 Tbsp. at a time, kneading for 5 minutes after each addition.
8. Depending on your technique, dough may need another 5-15 minutes of working. Kneading should require little to no extra flour.
9. Place dough in a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside to rise for 60-90 minutes.
10. Turn risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface and press out any bubbles or trapped gas.
11. Divide dough into two equal portions and shape each one into a ball.
12. Smooth the tops, stretching to form a smooth sheet of gluten across the top. Let rest for 10 minutes.
13. Press each ball into a large, flat round, being careful not to rip the gluten sheet on top.
14. Keeping the smooth gluten sheet on the outside, fold each flat into thirds to make rectangles. Press flat and press out any air bubbles.
15. Starting with a short side, roll up the rectangles into cylinders (with the smooth gluten sheet still on the outside).
16. Press each cylinder into a greased loaf tin.
17. Cover with a damp cloth and set aside to rise for 30-45 minutes.
18. Bake at 375°F (190°C) for 30 minutes.
19. Let cool in tins for 10 minutes before turning out.

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¹ I just used all-purpose flour for this. It's not quite as hard as bread flour, but it's close. ^Back

I'll start out by saying that I really loved the flavour of this loaf. It made a very nice quick bread. That said, I feel like the structure left something to be desired. I was a little surprised when the recipe said to cut the butter into the flour as for a pastry or a scone. I know that tends to inhibit gluten formation and lead to a more tender result, but I haven't really seen it used in quick breads before.

The result was very tender. Perhaps too much so. The loaf was very crumbly and quite difficult to cut and eat. I think next time I'd try a more familiar quick bread technique. Honestly, the date loaf recipe from the same page produced a lovely result that cut beautifully. I'd be tempted to just adapt that method to the fruit loaf recipe and see how it comes out. Barring that, I think I'd go with creaming the butter and sugar together, mixing in the egg, and then stirring in the rest of the wet and dry ingredients.

The fruit loaf also didn't rise nearly as much as the date loaf. I'd be curious to try adding a little bit of baking soda to the batter to see if that would improve matters any.

Fruit Loaf

Adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 2 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda (optional)
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 50g salted butter
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 c. dried fruit¹
• 1 large egg
• 1 c. milk

Directions

Edmonds' Method (Produces tender, but crumbly results)

1. Sift together flour, salt and baking powder.
2. Cut in butter until mixture resembles bread crumbs.
3. Add sugar and dried fruit.
4. Add the egg and the milk.
5. Mix to form a soft dough.
6. Scoop mixture into greased floured loaf tin.
7. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 1 hour.
8. Cool in tin for 10 minutes before turning out.

Date Loaf Method (Not yet tested with this recipe, but produces a very slice-able date loaf)

1. Warm milk over medium heat until very hot and steaming.
2. Add butter, dried fruit, and baking soda and stir to combine. Set aside for 10-15 minutes.
3. Add sugar, salt, and egg to fruit mixture.
4. Sift in flour and baking powder and stir to combine.
5. Pour into greased floured loaf tin.
6. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 1 hour.
7. Cool in tin for 10 minutes before turning out.

Creamed Method (Not yet tested with this recipe, but produces good results with other quick breads)

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in egg.
3. In a separate bowl sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
4. Mix in dry ingredients alternately with milk, adding the dried fruit along with the last portion of dry ingredients.
5. Pour into greased floured loaf tin.
6. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 1 hour.
7. Cool in tin for 10 minutes before turning out.

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¹ Use whatever you have on hand. I used a mix of dried cherries, cranberries, sultanas, and chopped dates. Raisins, golden raisins, apricots, and/or currants would also work well.

This is just the basic scone recipe out of Edmonds. Very simple and easy to put together and I really like the results. Nice and tender and buttery. They remind me of a slightly less flaky buttermilk biscuit.

The recipe calls for "butter" which, in NZ, generally means salted butter as far as I can tell. It also calls for an additional 1/4 tsp. of salt. I contemplated leaving the salt out since I was already using salted butter, but decided to do it recipe as written for now to see how they came out. The salt was definitely noticeable, but I actually quite liked it. That said, if I were to do one of the sweet variations in the future -- date scones, sultana scones, or ginger scones -- I definitely think I'd skip the extra salt. I might even leave it out for the cheese scone variation since the cheese itself will add extra salt. And, although I like the saltiness of the basic scones, I think that it would've been too much had I also been putting salted butter on them. Given that, I'd probably leave the salt out in future and just put a bit of salted butter on them if I wanted that extra hit of sodium.

Scones

From Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 3 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 5 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt (optional)
• 75g salted butter
• 1 1/4 c. milk
• extra milk, for glazing

Directions

1. Grease and flour a baking sheet.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt (if using).
3. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.
4. Pour in milk and quickly mix with a spatula or round-bladed knife until mixture is just wet. Do not over-mix or gluten will start to develop and make the scones tough.
5. Scrape dough onto baking sheet, flour top, and pat into a large rectangle about 2cm high.
6. Cut into 12 equal portions¹.
7. Separate the scones so that they each have a couple cm of space between them.
8. Brush the tops with milk.
9. Bake at 450°F (220°C) for 10 minutes.
10. Any scones that are not eaten immediately should be wrapped in a clean cloth to keep them soft.

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¹ I accidentally cut mine into 24 portions. They still baked up well and tasted great. They were just mini scones. ^Back

This recipe didn't work out so well for me. I think there are things that could be done to make it work better. But I'm still not sure I'd really like it. Which is a shame, because it looks and smells wonderful. I'm just not a big fan of the flavour or the texture.

First off, the cardamom was completely overpowering. The recipe called for 1/4 tsp. of ground cardamom, so I ground 1/4 tsp. of cardamom seeds. It completely overwhelmed all the other flavours. I couldn't really taste the vanilla or the pear, just cardamom. And, much like ginger, I don't generally like cardamom when it's front and centre. I don't mind it as a component, but I dislike it as the primary flavour. So that already has this recipe off to a bad start. I'd cut the cardamom down to 1/8 tsp. next time.

The pears also seemed to have dried out a bit on top during baking. The very top layer was a bit leathery. The original recipe was for a galette, so that would've covered some of the filling, but the middle still would've been open and prone to drying out. I think I might try it with a lattice top if I did it again. Don't know if that'd still be too open to protect it from drying or not.

And I feel like the fruit could've done with more cooking too. The filling didn't get as soft and easy-to-cut as I would've liked. I sliced them nice and thin. And I wouldn't've wanted to have left it in the oven any longer as the pastry would've started to burn. But the pears were still a bit firm for my taste. Not sure what to do there. I guess I could try pre-cooking the filling, but I'm not sure how that would work out with an uncooked crust. Maybe the answer is to start the oven high and then turn it down after the first 10 minutes or so? That way the high temp crisps the crust and gives it that kick-start while the lower temperature allows it to stay in the oven for longer without burning, giving the pears time to cook through. That's the theory anyway. If I end up making this again, I'll give it a try and see how it works out.

I'm not going to bother trying to reproduce what I did below since I wasn't happy with the results. Instead I'll write up what I would do if I was going to make this again. (Caveat emptor and all that jazz: I haven't actually tested these modifications yet.)

Pear Pie

Adapted from Serious Eats

Ingredients

• 1 recipe sweet shortcrust pastry
• 1 vanilla bean
• 40g-50g (vanilla) sugar
• 20g tapioca starch
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. 5-spice powder
• 1/8 tsp. cardamom seeds (from green pods), ground
• 735g sliced pears
• 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 Tbsp. cream (anywhere from 10-35% should be fine)
• 1 Tbsp. (vanilla) sugar

Directions

1. Scrape seeds from vanilla pod and add to bowl. (Save empty pod for another use.)
2. Add sugar, tapioca starch, salt, 5-spice, and cardamom to vanilla and mix well.
3. Add pears and vinegar and toss to coat.
4. Place an empty baking sheet on middle oven rack and preheat to 425°F (220°C).
5. Roll out ~2/3 of the pastry to ~12-13" circle.
6. Transfer pastry to a 10" loose-bottom pie/tart tin. (Do not trim edges yet.)
7. Dust pastry shell with a small amount of flour.
8. Roll out remaining pastry ensuring that it is at least 10" in at least one dimension.
9. Cut strips from pastry to make a lattice. You'll probably need 10-12 strips of varying lengths depending on how wide you make them and how much space you leave in the lattice.
10. Weave your lattice leaving a slight overhang at the edge of the tin. (I find it easiest to work from the middle out.)
11. Press down all around the edge of the tin. This should work to both trim the pastry and seal the top lattice to the bottom crust.
12. Combine egg, egg yolk, and cream and mix well.
13. Brush top of pie with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.
14. Place on hot baking sheet on middle oven rack.
15. Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350°F (180°C) and bake for an additional 40 minutes or until crust is desired done-ness and pears have softened.
16. Let cool in tin for 10 minutes before transferring to serving plate.

So, I did this wrong. I haven't made pastry for a while and it didn't seem like it was coming together very well and I just kept adding water and I overshot and made it much, much too wet and soft. Even after chilling for an hour or so, it was still extremely soft! I was still able to roll it out and use it. And it does seem to have baked up reasonably well. But I definitely wouldn't add quite so much water next time.

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

From Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 2 c. soft (cake/plain/standard) flour
• 150g butter¹
• 1/2 c. (caster) sugar²
• 2 large egg yolks³
• 2-4 Tbsp. cold water⁴

Directions

1. Sift flour into bowl.
2. Cut butter into flour until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Stir in sugar.
4. Add egg yolks.
5. Add water, 1 Tbsp. at a time, until mixture comes together. Err on the side of too crumbly/dry over too sticky/wet.
6. If pastry seems difficult to work with, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 15 minutes.
7. Roll out on floured surface. Shape, fill, and bake as desired.

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¹ Edmonds didn't specify that it should be unsalted butter, so I assume they're intending that salted butter be used. That said, I was all out of salted butter, so I ended up going with unsalted anyway. I could see a tiny bit of salt being nice as it might actually accentuate the sweetness. But I worry that using that much salted butter would make it too salty. I might try it with salted next time just to test it an see. ^Back
2 I just used regular granulated sugar here. The Edmonds recipe does call for caster sugar though, so I'd suggest using that if you have it. Technically I probably should've increased the volume of sugar slightly (or just done it by weight), but I thought the pastry tasted pretty sweet anyway, so I didn't worry about the couple grams of sugar I might've missed by using a coarser type. ^Back
3 I tossed in a third yolk because my eggs were a bit small. ^Back
4 Edmonds actually only calls for 1-2 Tbsp. of water, but there's no way that was going to be enough. I ended up putting 5 Tbsp. (plus an extra egg yolk) and yes, that was too much. But 1 Tbsp. was definitely way too dry. I think 4 Tbsp. (1/4 c.) would've been just about right. I'll try that the next time I'm making this recipe and see how it goes. ^Back

Back to Edmonds for another quick bread. This seemed pleasingly simple to make and sounded appealing, so I figured I'd give it a go. I think it'd be really interesting to try the apricot variant at some point too. I feel like I might want to swap out some of the other ingredients if using apricots though. Hmm... maybe I'll make a few notes on that below. This date version came out pretty nice. I think I'd probably double the vanilla next time though and bring it up to 1/2 tsp. rather than 1/4 tsp. Adding some other spices might not go amiss either. I might try tossing in 1/2 tsp. of mixed spice next time as well. Not that it's not tasty as is. It just feels like it's missing something.

Date Loaf

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 1 c. chopped dates
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 Tbsp. salted butter
• 1 c. boiling water
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 c. chopped walnuts
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. mixed spice (optional)

Directions

1. Combine dates, baking soda, butter, and boiling water. Stir until well-combined and butter has melted. Set aside for an hour.
2. Add sugar, walnuts, egg, and vanilla to date mixture and beat well.
3. Sift in flour, baking powder, and mixed spice (if using). Stir until just blended.
4. Pour into greased and floured loaf tin.
5. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 45-60 minutes.
6. Cool in tin for 10 minutes before turning out.

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Variations

Apricot Loaf

Edmonds just suggests making apricot loaf by substituting apricots for the dates in the date loaf recipe. I think that would be fine, but I feel like dates go much better with brown sugar than apricots. Initially I was thinking of just using granulated sugar, but then it occurred to me that honey might go particularly well. Honey is sweeter than granulated sugar though and I think granulated sugar already tastes sweeter than brown sugar, so I think considerably less honey should be used in this recipe. Honey also browns faster, so it may need to be cooked for longer at a lower temperature.

Ingredients

• 1 c. slivered dried apricots
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 Tbsp. salted butter
• 1 c. scalded milk
• 1/2 c. honey
• 1 c. slivered almonds
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder

Bake at 325°F (160°C) for 60-75 minutes.

Vegan

Ingredients

• 1 c. chopped dates
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 Tbsp. oil or margerine
• 1 c. boiling water
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 c. chopped walnuts
• 1 flax egg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. mixed spice (optional)

We still have a lot of beef left in the freezer, so I though it'd be nice to try out one of the beef tagine recipes to use up the next bit of squash. I was just planning on doing the two squash tagines, but I may have gone slightly overboard with the squash purchases, so I think there may be a third squash tagine appearing in the near future. Hopefully they're all different enough that we won't get completely sick of squash before we eat it all. Worst case, I guess I parboil and freeze some of it. But, in the meantime... Tagines!

Beef Tagine with Squash and Beets

Slightly adapted from 150 Best Tagine Recipes

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 Tbsp. ras el hanout
• 500g stewing beef, cubed or sliced
• 4 tsp. garlic paste
• 1 fresh Thai chile, chopped¹
• 1-2 slices crystallized ginger², chopped
• 4 medium beets, quartered³
• 2 c. diced squash
• 1 c. beef broth
• 2 oranges, cut into segments⁴
• 2 c. chopped kale or Swiss chard
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro or (flat-leaf) parsley

Directions

1. Add oil to tagine and heat over medium heat.
2. Add onion and ras el hanout and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add beef, garlic paste, chile, and ginger. Stir to coat beef and cook for 10 minutes.
4. Add beets, squash, and broth. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 45 minutes.
5. Add oranges and kale/chard, cover, and cook for 15 minutes.
6. Check beef for tenderness. If too tough, continue to cook for another few minutes.
7. Garnish with cilantro and serve over couscous.

NB: catalyst didn't care for the orange in this one. TF didn't object to the orange specifically, but felt that it had too much pith which ended up sort of tough and bitter. Personally, I quite liked the orange. But it appears not to have been a hit overall. I'd say I'd leave it out next time but, realistically, I'll probably just pick a different tagine entirely. So, I guess... caveat emptor orange is not for everyone.

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¹ This tagine was tasty, but I didn't find the chile came through at all. Next time I think I'll try to alternative suggested in the cookbook and use 1 dried, crushed cayenne instead. ^Back
2 The original only calls for a single slice of candied ginger. I used two slices because, historically, I have not noticed a very strong ginger presence when using candied ginger in tagines. Even with two slices, I still couldn't really taste the ginger -- and that's with extra gingery ras el hanout! I do find myself wondering if I'm using the right kind of candied ginger. I suppose next time I could try using some stem ginger (the kind the comes in thick syrup). I think the flavour of that ginger tends to be much stronger than that of crystallized ginger. But stem ginger doesn't normally come in slices (at least not that I've seen). It comes as large chunks or knobs. Since the recipes specifies "slices" of candied ginger, I figured it must want crystallized ginger. The tagine still comes out tasty, even without a strong ginger presence. If you really want to be able to taste it though I'd probably suggest either using candied stem ginger or using 1-2 slices of crystallized ginger and a tsp. or so of ginger paste. ^Back
3 I used sliced frozen beets for this. I cut them in half to make them easier to eat. So, rather than having beet quarters, I had halved beet slices. I'm sure quarters would've been fine too, but I actually quite liked the slices. ^Back
4 I decided to slice my oranges (crosswise) and then divide the slices into segments. (I liked the idea of having lots of small pieces of food rather than a few larger ones.) ^Back

Much like garam masala, there's no one canonical version of ras el hanout. It's meant to be a mix of all the best spices the seller has to offer and each merchant will generally have their own blend. This version includes a bit of sea salt, but I think next time I'd leave it out and add salt to the dish separately. That way I know how much salt is going in.

Ras el Hanout

From 150 Best Tagine Recipes

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. allspice berries
• 1 Tbsp. coriander seeds
• 1 Tbsp. fennel seeds
• 1 (2-3") cinnamon stick, smashed
• 2 tsp. cardamom seeds (from green pods)
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp. fenugreek seeds
• 2 tsp. black peppercorns
• 3 cloves
• 1 star anise
• 1 Tbsp. coarse sea salt¹ (optional)
• 1 Tbsp. ground turmeric
• 1 tsp. ground ginger²

Directions

1. Combine allspice, coriander, fennel, cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, fenugreek, cloves, and star anise and toast over medium heat, stirring often.
2. When spices are lightly toasted and fragrant, remove from heat immediately and transfer to plate to cool.
3. Once cool, grind to a fine powder.
4. Add salt, turmeric, and ginger and mix well.

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¹ The first time I made this, I made it with the salt. I generally prefer to add the salt separately though. These days I make it without salt and just add in extra salt elsewhere if the recipe is expecting the spice mix to have salt in it. ^Back
2 I totally misread this the first time I made it and put 1 Tbsp. of ground ginger into my mix. Still tasty, and I didn't find the ginger overwhelming, despite having 3x the recommended amount. Perhaps some of the other spices might have come through more if I'd put less ginger though. ^Back

I made this couscous to go with the sweet potato and squash tagine I made the other day. I think it complemented the dish fairly well. The couscous did seem a little dry though. I might add an extra quarter cup of liquid next time. I don't want to make it soggy, but I do enjoy relatively moist couscous. I'm hoping the extra quarter cup of water will be enough to give it a bit of extra moisture without weighing it down too much.

Spiced Almond Couscous

From 150 Best Tagine Recipes

Ingredients

• 1-1 1/4 c. vegetable broth
• 1 c. (whole wheat) couscous
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1/4 slivered almonds
• 2 tsp. bin bhuna hua garam masala

Directions

1. Bring broth to a boil.
2. Remove from heat and add couscous. Stir and cover. Set aside for 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, melt butter over medium heat.
4. Add almonds and garam masala and cook until almonds are lightly browned.
5. Fluff couscous with a fork and stir in almond mixture.

I've mostly been turning to my ATK Complete Vegetarian Cookbook for dinner recipes lately. And I've been pretty happy with that. I suddenly got a craving for Moroccan though, so I figured maybe it was time to bust out the tagine cookbook. Squash is in season and on sale right now and I have sweet potatoes left from the gratin that never got made, so a squash and sweet potato tagine made for a natural choice.

Sweet Potato & Squash Tagine

From 150 Best Tagine Recipes

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. ras el hanout
• 2 c. cubed sweet potato
• 1 c. cubed squash¹
• 1/2 c. orange juice
• 2 c. cooked chickpeas
• 1 c. dried apricots, slivered

Directions

1. Melt butter with oil over medium heat.
2. Add onion, garlic, and ras el hanout. Cook until onion has softened.
3. Add sweet potato, squash, and orange juice.
4. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 45 minutes, adding more liquid as necessary.
5. Add chickpeas and apricots, cover, and simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes.
6. Serve over couscous with condiment of choice. (I recommend chermoula, harissa, tamarind-date chutney, or cilantro-mint chutney.)

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Variations

Vegan

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. ras el hanout
• 2 c. cubed sweet potato
• 1 c. cubed squash¹
• 1/2 c. orange juice
• 2 c. cooked chickpeas
• 1 c. dried apricots, slivered

¹ I used a white swan squash for this. I'm sure butternut or delicata would also work well. The recipe also recommends turnip in place of squash. ^Back

I've made the Edmonds wholemeal bread recipe a few times now. I feel like I've gotten the hang of that one reasonably well. I've been getting a nice rise and excellent texture/crumb. And I think I've got a decent feel for the water:flour ratio at this point as well. It's a good bread. It seems pretty forgiving as well. And easy to throw together. Definitely a recipe worth having around.

With that said... Now that I do feel like I've got the hang of that particular recipe, I thought it would be nice to try something else. I get bored of doing the same recipe over and over again. Plus I figured the rest of the household might appreciate a little variety too. It'd also be good to get into making 100% whole grain breads. The Edmonds recipe is nice, but it uses a mix of whole wheat and white flour. Having that white flour in there is great for making a nice light loaf with a great rise. And I think it does contribute to how forgiving the dough is. But I have been trying to use whole grains as much as possible lately and being able to make a good whole wheat bread that doesn't need any white flour to support it would be great. For this I turn to my Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book.

There are loads of bread books out there. I've seen a few wonderful ones that go into detail on all sorts of wonderful recipes and techniques. You've got everything from basic primers to advanced breadmaking tomes. I've owned a few and been tempted by several others. In the end though, the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book is the one I've kept. I've been trying to limit myself to one cookbook per topic/cuisine and Laurel's Kitchen is it for bread for me. It's detailed and approachable and, most importantly for me, deals specifically with using whole grains. No white flour to supplement or support here! It's also got a friendly hippie sort of vibe that I quite enjoy. So, Laurel's Kitchen has been the bread book that sticks with me as others make their way to book sales and donation bins.

The first recipe in the book, A Loaf for Learning, is actually an entire chapter. Everything is laid out in detail, with diagrams and drawings. There are detailed explanations for everything. And there's even a Q&A section after the main recipe. Their recommendation is to make the Loaf for Learning over and over again until you've mastered it. Which, despite my distaste for repetition, I'd actually planned to do. The only problem is -- well, two problems actually -- I'm all out of yogurt and the Loaf for Learning recipe only makes one loaf. We've been going through bread so fast lately that I definitely wanted to be making two at a time. And I suppose I could've just doubled the Learning recipe, but that at least partially defeats the point. The Learning recipe only makes one loaf because that means having a smaller more manageable amount of dough that you can more easily work and see changing. So, between not wanting to subvert the intentionally small batch recipe and not wanting to go out and get more yogurt, I decided to move on to the next recipe in the book instead and try their Basic Whole Wheat Bread.

This recipe may not be the Loaf for Learning, but it still certainly taught me a lot. I didn't realize how much that little bit of white flour in the Edmonds recipe changed everything. This recipe doesn't seem that much different from the Edmonds recipe and yet the dough and resulting bread were completely different! I also learned that I need a lot more practice working with 100% whole wheat dough. I didn't get nearly the rise I was hoping for out of this batch. The dough was a bit too wet and I don't think I kneaded it nearly enough. I also go a bit discombobulated when reading the recipe and accidentally mixed the oil in too soon, which probably didn't help.

All-in-all my loaves came out of the oven looking a little sad and disappointing. They ended up flatter and denser than I'd hoped. And I was in a hurry and didn't do a great job of pressing all the bubbles out of the dough after it had risen so the loaves ended up with some awkward bubbles and brittle bits of crust at the surface. Even with all that though, the flavour was amazing! These loaves were far from perfect and I definitely want to try to do better next time, but wow! Dat flavour! It completely blew the previous whole wheat-white blend out of the water. No contest. I don't know if it was the lack of white flour or the extra rise or a combination of both but this recipe turns out delicious bread even if you don't get the kneading/rising quite right!

Basic Whole Wheat Bread

Slightly adapted from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

• 120mL warm water
• 2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 900g whole wheat bread flour
• 14g salt
• 535mL cold water
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 2 Tbsp. butter or oil

Directions

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Set aside.
2. Combine flour and salt.
3. Dissolve honey in cold water.
4. Make a well in the flour and pour in both measures of water (along with dissolved yeast and honey).
5. Stir contents of the well (leaving flour at the sides of the bowl) to make a smooth batter.
6. Gradually incorporate more flour, stirring to keep a smooth batter, incrementally transitioning toward dough.
7. Work in the last of the flour to form your dough.
8. Stir and/or knead for a few minutes to get a feel for the dough and to allow the flour to fully hydrate.
9. If dough seems to wet and sticky¹, add a bit more flour. (Start with just a Tbsp. or so. Don't add too much at once. If dough seems too dry, work in a bit more water.
10. Knead the dough for at least 20 minutes. This may be done on a floured or unfloured surface. If flouring your surface, be very careful not to introduce too much extra flour or your dough will become very tight and dry.
11. After 10-15 minutes of kneading, start working in the fat. (Pour a little oil or smear a little butter over your kneading surface then continue kneading on top of it to allow the fat to be worked in gradually after the gluten has begun to form.
12. Place dough in a clean (unoiled) bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside for 1.5-2.5 hours (depending on temperature of room).
13. Knock dough back, turn out onto lightly floured surface, press to remove CO₂ bubbles that have formed, then shape back into a ball and place back in bowl.
14. Second rise should take 45-75 minutes.
15. Knock dough back, turn out onto lightly flour surface and, once again, press out any bubbles present.
16. Divide dough in half.
17. Shape each half into a ball. Stretch the top (pulling slack underneath) to create a smooth, continuous gluten sheet across the surface of each ball. Set aside for at least 10 minutes.
18. Press each ball into a round. Fold the round into thirds to make a rectangle. Roll each rectangle into a cylinder and press (seam-side-down) into a greased loaf tin.
19. Cover with a damp cloth and set aside for 30-45 minutes.
20. Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 325°F (160°C) and bake for another 30-45 minutes.

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¹ My dough was definitely too wet. I have historically had a bad tendency to work in way too much extra flour during kneading though. And the book has dire warnings against this. So I decided to try kneading it for the full 20 minutes without adding any extra flour. This was a sticky, messy, and tiring process. The dough did get slightly less sticky and more manageable as I worked it. But it was still pretty unruly at the end of 20 minutes. (Due to the difficulties of working with such a wet dough it definitely didn't get a full 20 minutes worth of kneading in that time.) Since it was still pretty wet and sticky, I did end up adding a bit more flour. I think I worked in ~an extra 2 Tbsp. over the course of 15 minutes or so. Given how sticky it was after proofing and how difficult it was to work with, I'm thinking I probably should've added just a touch more flour. I think 1-2 more Tbsp. of flour and another 10 minutes of kneading probably would've given me much better results in the oven. ^Back

Last year we made some sweet cinnamon roasted pumpkin seeds after turning the rest of the pumpkin into delicious pie. This year we hit up the same set of recipes and tried out the ranch recipe for a savoury twist. And, once again, I was very pleased with the results. Although I think I'd cut back on the salt a little next time. Other than that, they were great though.

Ranch Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Slightly adapted from Wholefully

Ingredients

• 1 c. raw pumpkin seeds
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. fresh parsley, minced
• 1/2-1 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground (depending on how salty you like things)
• 1/2 tsp. onion powder
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. dill¹
• 1/4 tsp. mustard powder
• 1/4 tsp. celery seed, ground
• 1/4 tsp. paprika
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground

Directions

1. Rinse and dry your pumpkin seeds.
2. Add olive oil and toss to coat.
3. Combine remaining ingredients and mix well.
4. Sprinkle ranch mixture over oiled pumpkin seeds and toss to coat.
5. Spread seeds onto baking sheet and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes.

I think it might be interesting to try adding just a touch of buttermilk powder to the mix as well. I'd probably start with 1/4 tsp. or so just to see how it goes.

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¹ I was all out of dill, so I ended up grinding up 1/2 tsp. of dill seeds and using that instead. The flavour isn't quite the same, but it was close enough for this application. ^Back

Now that I've discovered trifle, I've been having fun dreaming up all sorts of different flavour combinations. I haven't had a chance to try most of them yet, but I did make some gingerbread on the weekend, so I figured I'd give my gingerbread trifle idea a whirl. So, instead of sponge filled with raspberry jam, I had gingerbread filled with chopped stem ginger and ginger syrup. The raspberries got swapped out for sweet cherries. The plain vanilla custard became eggnog custard. I stuck to the standard whipped cream on top. Although I did add vanilla and icing sugar, so I guess it was technically "cream chantilly". And, to top it all off, a few glacé cherries and some chopped crystallized ginger. All-in-all, I'd say it was a pretty pleasing effect!

Gingerbread Trifle

Ingredients

• 1/2 recipe sticky gingerbread
• 3-4 knobs stem ginger, chopped + 1-2 Tbsp. ginger syrup
• 3 c. fresh or frozen sweet cherries, pitted and halved
• 1/2 c. custard powder
• 6 Tbsp. vanilla sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 4 c. milk
• 2 Tbsp. rum
• 500mL heavy (35%) cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 c. icing sugar
• Glacé cherries, to garnish
• Crystallized ginger, chopped, to garnish

Directions

1. Split the gingerbread and fill it with stem ginger and ginger syrup.
2. Cut into cubes.
3. Cover the bottom of the serving dish with cake cubes.
4. Top the cake with half the cherries.
5. Combine the custard powder, sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a pot.
6. Add a small amount of milk and whisk until smooth.
7. Whisk in rum and remaining milk.
8. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring, until thickened.
9. Pour half of custard over cake and cherries.
10. Layer remaining cake into bowl on top of custard and top with remaining cherries.
11. Pour remaining custard over, cover, and place in fridge until chilled.
12. Combine cream, vanilla, and icing sugar in a blender.
13. Blend on high setting until cream is stiff and spreadable.
14. Spread cream over top of trifle.
15. Garnish with glacé cherries and crystallized ginger as desired.