I wanted dessert. I didn't want anything that require too much effort. Or an overnight chill. And I wanted to be able to make it with ingredients on hand. And to be tasty without being too rich.

This banana cake fit the bill. Although it looked overly sweet recipe-as-written. So I halved the sugar and honey. I also reduced the butter by 20% and replaced half of the remaining butter with unsweetened applesauce. Mostly because butter is very expensive here and I was trying not to use too much. And then, just for fun, I decided to replace 140g of the flour with whole wheat flour.

I'm happy with how it came out in the end. It's tasty without being decadent. Having tasted it, I think it probably would've been fine if made according to the original recipe, you'd just want to be prepared for a quite rich, sweet cake.

I do think that either version would benefit from some additional banana. Two bananas makes for a subtle banana flavour, but I think I'd appreciate a more intensely banana-y cake. I might up it to three or four bananas next time. It might also be nice to try replacing the brown sugar with additional honey just to double down on the primary flavours.

Banana-Honey Cake

Adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. butter, softened
• 1/2 c. honey (or 1/4 c. brown sugar + 1/4 c. honey)
• 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 3-4 bananas
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 315g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour (or 140g whole wheat flour + 175g plain flour)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 20cm square cake tin.
2. Cream the butter with the honey.
3. Mix in the applesauce.
4. Beat in the bananas, followed by the eggs, yogurt, and vanilla.
5. Sift in the flour(s), baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon and stir to combine.
6. Pour batter into preapared tin and smooth top.
7. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30-35 minutes.
8. Let cool in tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack to cool.

We had to clear some things out of the freezer when we swapped the fridge over and that left me with a batch of sourdough pastry that needed using. In theory this pie is meant to have a spiced almond-spelt pastry, but I figured the sourdough pastry would work just fine. And I took the spices that were meant to go into the pastry and added them to the filling instead.

The result was okay, but not great. That said, it was the filling, not the pastry that was the issue. The recipe called for "apple purée". I had a can of unsweetened applesauce on hand, so I used that and then added a sliced apple to make up the missing volume. I don't like how mushy the filling came out though. I think next time I'd just use sliced apples rather than sauce or purée. The recipe also didn't make enough filling, so I ended up having to chop up a couple of extra feijoas to add to the mix. I also feel like it could've done with more spices and a little extra sweetener as well. So, all-in-all, probably not one that I'd bother making again. At least not in this form. But I'm glad that I tried it.

Apple-Feijoa Pie

Adapted from NZ Women's Weekly

Ingredients

Pastry

• sourdough pastry
OR
• 125g butter
• 1 1/2 c. ground almonds
• 1 1/2 c. spelt flour
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 large eggs

Filling

• 2 c. chopped feijoa flesh
• 2 c. sliced apples
• 1/3 c. honey
• 1/4 c. brown sugar (optional)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract (if using sourdough crust)
• 1/2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon (if using sourdough crust)

Topping

• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 Tbsp. sesame seeds or sugar

Directions

1. For spelt pastry, add butter, almonds, flour, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and baking soda to a food processor and pulse until mixture looks sandy. Then, with processor running, add eggs, one at a time, and process until mixture comes together. For sourdough pastry, follow instructions for that recipe.
2. For either pastry, chill for ~30 minutes before continuing.
3. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
4. Roll out 1/2 to 2/3 of the pastry and use it to line a 23cm (9") pie plate.
5. Combine the feijoas, apples, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon (if using) and dump into the pie shell.
6. Roll out the remaining pastry and use it to make either a plain or a lattice top for your pie, then crimp the edges.
7. Brush with egg and sprinkle with your choice of sesame seeds or sugar.
8. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 35-40 minutes.
9. Serve with cream or ice cream.

Sauerbraten (German Sweet and Sour Beef)

When I was in NZ last year, I found an excellent deal on beef brisket and came home with a nice piece. It went in the freezer to be cooked later... But then I never quite got to it before I left. So it was still waiting for me in the freezer when I returned this year.

Another time I might've tried to smoke and/or barbecue it. But we're kind of out of grilling season in this hemisphere now and, after a year in the freezer, it was a bit freezer-burnt, so I decided to go for a slow cooker option instead.

After giving it a bit of thought and tossing around a few different ideas, I settled on taking a crack at turning it into sauerbraten. I have fond memories of the sauerbraten that my dad made. And, while I don't have his recipe, I figured I could at least ask the internet and try to come up with something similar. And it seemed like the ideal thing to do with a big chunk of slightly freezer-burnt beef.

The recipe that I used recommends using a bottom round or rump roast for this, but I figured the brisket would also work quite well. And it did! I really enjoyed how it came out. That said, I'm sure it would be good with other cuts too.

Sauerbraten

Slightly adapted from Daring Gourmet

Ingredients

• 2 onions, chopped
• 2-3 carrots, cut into large chunks
• 1 leek, white parts only, thoroughly rinsed and chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. dried rosemary
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 juniper berries
• 6 whole cloves
• 10-12 black peppercorns
• 2 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 2 1/2 c. red wine
• 1 c. red wine vinegar¹
• 1 1/2 c. water
• 1.5-2kg beef roast (brisket, bottom round, rump, etc.)
• 1-2 Tbsp. oil or lard
• 4 slices bacon, chopped (optional)
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1/4 c. raisins
• 75-85g gingersnaps/gingernuts (6-7 gingernuts), crushed
• 1 Tbsp. honey

Directions

1. Combine the onion, carrot, leek, garlic, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, juniper berries, cloves, peppercorns, salt, sugar, wine, vinegar, and water and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
4. Nestle the roast into the marinade, cover, and refrigerate for 4-7 days, turning each day if the marinade does not completely cover the meat.
5. When ready to cook, remove the meat from the marinade and set aside.
6. Strain the marinade and reserve both the solids and the liquids.
7. Heat the oil over medium-high heat.
8. Add the beef and sear on all sides. Set aside.
9. Add the bacon (if using) to the now-empty pot and cook.
10. Add the vegetables and sauté for ~5 minutes.
11. Add the flour and cook until no longer raw (3-4 minutes).
12. Pour in the reserved marinade, raisins, gingersnaps/gingernuts, and honey and bring to a boil.
13. Add beef, cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 2-4 hours if cooking on the stovetop. Otherwise, transfer everything to a slow cooker and cook on "high" for ~6 hours. (Or use an InstantPot-style multi-cooker to do the whole thing in place.)
14. Once beef is cooked through and tender, remove from the pot and set aside.
15. If desired, remove the bay leaves, juniper berries, and cloves from the liquid and purée the veggies into it to make a thick gravy. Otherwise, adjust consistency by mixing in a cornstarch or flour slurry and boiling until gravy thickens to desired consistency.
16. Adjust seasoning to taste.
17. Slice beef and serve with the gravy (and veggies if you chose not to purée them).
18. Serve with a starch (potatoes, bread, etc.) and rotkohl (sweet-and-sour red cabbage) or another vegetable dish of your choice.

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¹ I couldn't find any red wine vinegar, so I just used white wine vinegar. Either is fine. I think that cider vinegar would also be good in a pinch. ^Back

High-Fibre Bran Loaf

I made a fresh batch of granola yesterday, so I decided to incorporate some of it into this bread. But since the granola was relatively sweet, I only used half the amount and then added pumpkin seeds to fill in the rest of the amount. I would have also liked to have put in some flax seeds, but I couldn't find them, so they didn't make it into this rendition, but I've recommended them so I remember to try to include them next time.

High-Fibre Bread

Slightly adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Ingredients

• 280g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour
• 2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 c. warm water
• 250g sourdough discard (optional)
• 1/4 c. butter
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 1/2 c. granola (or 1/4 c. granola + 1/4 c. pumpkin seeds)
• 2 Tbsp. flax seeds (optional)
• 1/2 c. wheat germ
• 1 Tbsp. wheat bran
• grated zest of 1 orange
• 400-500g hard (strong/high grade/bread) flour

Directions

1. Combine the whole wheat flour, yeast, salt, warm water, and sourdough discard (if using) and mix well.
2. Add the butter, honey, granola, flax seeds (if using), wheat germ, wheat bran, and orange zest and mix thoroughly.
3. Gradually work in the white flour until a soft dough forms.
4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead, working in more flour as needed, for 20-30 minutes.
5. Shape into a ball and place in a covered bowl to rise (60-90 minutes).
6. Knock the dough back, divide into two equal portions, and round each one.
7. Cover and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, grease two 20x10cm (8x4") loaf pans.
9. Shape the dough balls into loaves and place, seam-side-down, into the prepared loaf pans.
10. Cover and allow to rise for 30-45 minutes.
11. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
12. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 15-20 minutes.
13. Reduce temperature to 180°C (350°F) and bake until done (5-15 minutes longer).
14. Allow to cool in pans for 5-10 minutes, then turn onto wire racks to cool.

This is meant to be made with raw greens, but I decided that I'd prefer them lightly wilted. We also ended up forgetting to add the dressing to the salad... whoops! It was still delicious, but I definitely think it would've been better with the dressing.

The pork belly that I had was very fatty, so I actually used only ~450g of pork belly and filled in the rest with pieces of pork chops as I felt like this gave a better fat-to-lean ratio. I also swapped out the tamari that the original recipe called for for a mixture of dark and light soy sauce.

Salad of Asian Greens with Soy-Glazed Pork Belly

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

Salad

• 3 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 900g pork belly, skin removed
• 3 heads bok choy, thoroughly washed and thinly sliced
• 1/2 small head cabbage, shredded
• 2-4 ribs celery, finely chopped
• 1-2 green onion tops, sliced (optional)

Dressing

• 2 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp. honey
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. rice wine vinegar

Directions

1. Combine the dark soy, light soy, honey, and sesame oil and mix well.
2. Add the pork belly, turn to coat, cover, and chill for 4-12 hours.
3. Meanwhile, combine the soy sauce, honey, sesame, and vinegar for the dressing and mix well.
4. Heat a pan over medium to medium-high heat.
5. Add the pork belly and sear on all sides, basting as it cooks.
6. Keep cooking, reducing heat if necessary, until meat is cooked through.
7. Transfer to a cutting board and slice.
8. Pour off any fat in the pan.
9. If the pork belly still seems excessively fatty, return the slices to the pan and cook until more of the fat has rendered off. Remove the pork from the pan and set aside.
10. Pour any residual marinade into the pan and cook for a few seconds.
11. Add the bok choy, cabbage, and celery and cook until slightly wilted.
12. Transfer the greens to a bowl and toss with the dressing.
13. Top with the pork belly and green onions (if using) and serve.

Cauliflower was on sale at the grocery store last week and it's been a while since we've had any, so I picked one up. I then consistently failed to cook it for the entire week. Luckily, I am finally getting back into the swing of meal planning now and hit upon this simple recipe to use it up. It's definitely not the most healthful vegetable side. Too much butter and oil for that. But it was very tasty!

Caramelized Cauliflower with Honey and Smoked Paprika

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
• 1 head caulflower, cut into florets
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp. sweet smoked paprika
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 2 Tbsp. water
• juice of 1/2 a lemon

Directions

1. Melt the butter with 1 Tbsp. of the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the cauliflower and sear for 3-4 minutes without disturbing.
3. Flip and sear for another 3-4 minutes. Repeat once or twice more.
4. Add the remaining Tbsp. of oil along with the onion, and garlic and cook until onion begins to brown (~5 minutes longer).
5. Add the chile flakes, paprika, honey, and water and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
6. Add the lemon juice and cook for ~30 seconds longer.
7. Remove from heat and serve.

I needed a vegetable to go with my chicken stir-fry the other day and bok choy was on sale at the grocery store. The fact that this is an incredibly simple recipe didn't hurt either!

Bok Choy with Lemon and Soy

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1kg baby bok choy, thoroughly rinsed and quartered
• 3 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• juice of 1 lemon

Directions

1. Heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the bok choy and stir-fry for a minute or so.
3. Add the soy sauces, honey, and lemon and stir-fry until bok choy is wilted and glazed with sauce.

This bread uses a generous quantity of sesame oil in the dough, has walnuts folded in, and is topped with toasted sesame seeds. Unfortunately, I was a bit out of it when making it, so I forgot to add the walnuts before doing the preshaping like I was supposed to. Given that the dough was already divided, I decided to just add half the quantity of walnuts to half of the dough and leave the other one with just the sesame seeds. And, I have to admit, the one without the walnuts rose better and came out with a nicer shape. I think, if I were doing it again, I'd like to try a pure sesame loaf: sesame oil, sesame seeds folded into the dough, and sesame seeds on top.

Sesame-Nut Bread

Slightly adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1/4 c. honey
• 250g sourdough discard (optional)
• 450g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour, divided
• 1 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. dry milk powder
• 4 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 2 large eggs
• 150g hard (strong/high grade/bread) flour
• 1 c. chopped walnuts (or 1/2 c. toasted sesame seeds)
• 1 small egg
• 1 Tbsp. milk
• 2 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

Directions

1. Combine water, sesame oil, canola oil, and honey and heat to ~50°C (120°F).
2. Add the sourdough discard (if using) and 300g of the whole wheat flour and stir vigorously for ~100 strokes.
3. Add the remaining whole wheat flour, salt, milk powder and stir for another 100 strokes.
4. Cover and set aside for 30-60 minutes.
5. Add the yeast and mix in the 2 large eggs.
6. Work in the white flour, a little at a time.
7. Turn out onto a well-floured surface and knead for at least 20 minutes, working in small amounts of extra flour as needed to stop dough from being excessively sticky.
8. Round the dough and place in a covered bowl to rise (60-90 minutes).
9. Knock the dough back and work in the walnuts (or sesame seeds).
10. Divide the dough into two equal portions and round each one.
11. Cover and rest for ~10 minutes.
12. Grease two 20x10cm (8x4") loaf pans.
13. Shape each dough portion into a loaf and place into pans.
14. Cover and allow to rise for 45-60 minutes.
15. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
16. Beat the small egg with the milk and brush the tops of the loaves with the mixture.
17. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
18. Bake at 190°C (375°F) until done (~30 minutes).
19. Run a knife or a spatula around edges of pans and carefully turn loaves out.
20. Return to hot (but turned off) oven for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool.

My square pan is dead! I didn't know it was dead. TF had literally just used it to make brownies. I cleaned the brownie crumbs out of it and put it to use for this crumble. And everything seemed fine until we went to dish it up and found that the fruit had turned strange colours and had a funny aftertaste to them. I think the pan must have reacted with the fruit. Which has me feeling incredibly bummed. I managed to bring fresh feijoas home all the way from NZ and make a crumble immediately while they were still at their peak. To have it ruined by a faulty pan is just heartbreaking! I'm so mad at myself.

I mean, I'm still going to eat the crumble anyway. It's still decent. It's just not nearly as good as it should be. Because my pan failed me!

As far as the recipe itself goes... I found this one very interesting. It is a crumble without oats! The topping is composed almost entirely of ground hazelnuts! With just a bit of flour, honey, and butter to hold it together. It's a tasty combo. And there's enough ginger in it that it actually comes through quite nicely. And I enjoy the sweetened topping with the unsweetened fruit. (Although it would've been even better if the fruit hadn't picked up that slightly nasty pan aftertaste, but... oh well. Not much I can do about that now!)

I'm not sure I'd bother too much with this recipe in the future when the basic crumble is so good. But it was definitely an interesting experiment. And it was fun to try something a bit different.

ETA: So, my feijoa failure is even weirder and more complicated than I'd originally realized. It looks like it's not just that the pan was a little old and scuffed up. It was a reaction between the nuts, the acid in the fruit, and the metal in the pan. If the pan had been in better shape (or I'd used a non-metalic pan), then this wouldn't have happened. Or if I'd made a nut-free crumble, it also would've been just fine. Or even if we'd simply eaten the crumble right away rather than letting it sit all day. But nope! The combination of those three factors caused a chemical reaction -- basically forming iron gall ink in the pan -- and caused my fruit to turn a disturbing purplish-blue and taste funny. Whoops! Oh well... at least it was an interesting failure mode!

Photo goes here.

Feijoa, Apple, and Hazelnut Crumble

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 1 c. hazelnuts¹, ground
• 1/2 c. flour
• 1 Tbsp. ground ginger
• 50g butter
• 1/4 c. honey
• 2-3 apples, peeled and sliced
• 400g feijoa pulp, chopped
• ice cream and/or whipped cream, to serve

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 23cm (9") square pan. (Preferably a glass or stoneware baking dish and not a metal one.)
2. Combine the hazelnuts, flour, and ginger and mix well.
3. Cut in the butter and mix the honey through.
4. Bring the apples to a gentle simmer with a little water and stew until just softened.
5. Drain the apples and mix them with the feijoa pulp.
6. Pour the fruit mixture into the prepared pan and spread in an even layer.
7. Sprinkle the crumble on top.
8. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30 minutes.
9. Serve topped with ice cream and/or whipped cream.

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¹ The recipe didn't specify skin-on or skin-off for the hazelnuts. Mine were skin-on and peeling them is always a huge pain, so I just used them that way. This was fine, but I do think they probably would've been slightly better peeled. I recommend using skin-off if you can find them. ^Back

I was planning on doing carrot-zucchini latkes for breakfast this morning. But the zucchini wasn't a great price this week, so I decided to save it for another time. Which is all well and good, except it left me with a hole in my meal plan.

After some frantic rifling through cookbooks, I eventually settled on this pancake recipe. It's not super substantial, but it was tasty and we had all the bits readily to hand. And that was the important bit this morning!

I ended up using some horopito-infused honey as the honey component of this recipe and I think it worked quite nicely. That said, regular honey will work just fine too. I just used the horopito honey because we had it and I thought it would complement the other spices well. (Which it did.) The slight peppery taste worked well with the coriander and cinnamon in the batter.

Spiced Whole Wheat Pancakes with Nuts

Slightly adapted from The Big Book of Breakfast by Maryana Vollstedt

Ingredients

Pancakes

• 300g whole wheat flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. coriander seeds, ground
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 2 c. milk
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 c. oil
• 3 Tbsp. honey
• 1/2 c. chopped walnuts, divided

Cinnamon Honey

• 1/4 c. honey
• 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp. butter

Directions

1. Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, and salt and mix well.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the milk and mix in the oil and honey.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir to combine.
4. Mix in half of the walnuts.
5. Heat the pan over medium-low heat.
6. Add a little butter if necessary.
7. Scoop a few portions of batter into the pan, using ~1/4 c. for each pancake.
8. Cook until bubbles form and edges look dry.
9. Flip and continue cooking until browned on both sides and cooked through.
10. Transfer cooked pancakes to a plate and repeat with remaining batter.
11. Meanwhile, gently heat the remaining honey and mix in the cinnamon and butter. Stir to combine.
12. Serve pancakes topped with cinnamon honey and reserved walnuts.

This is a nice vegetable side. It's fast, easy, and surprisingly tasty. I quite liked it!

Honey-Lemon Carrot Salad

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1/2 Tbsp. honey
• 2 Tbsp. white wine or sherry vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 500g carrots, grated
• 1/3 c. sultanas or golden raisins
• 1/4 c. sliced almonds¹
• 1 Tbps. chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions

1. Combine the honey, vinegar, and lemon juice and mix well.
2. Whisk in the olive oil and salt.
3. Add the carrots, sultanas, almonds, and parsley and toss to combine.

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¹ I was all out of sliced almonds, so I used sliced hazelnuts for my salad instead. ^Back

A 100% whole wheat bread filled with walnuts and enriched with milk and honey. What's not to love?

I also decided to add a bit of sourdough discard to mine. Mostly to use it up. It's completely optional. Although you may find you need slightly less flour if omitting the starter since it increases the hydration by a small amount.

And I will admit that I got a bit impatient while kneading this bread and didn't get as much gluten development as I probalby should have. So the loaves tore themselves apart during proofing rather than puffing up into nice, smooth-topped loaves like I had hoped. They were still tasty! Just not as pretty or high-rising as I would have liked.

Walnut Wheat Bread

Slightly adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Ingredients

• ~800g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour, divided¹
• 3 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. skim milk powder
• 2 1/4 c. hot water (~50°C)
• 1/4 c. honey
• ~125g sourdough discard (optional)
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 c. walnuts, chopped

Directions

1. Combine ~400g of the flour with the yeast, salt, and milk powder and mix well.
2. Add the water, honey, and sourdough discard (if using) and beat vigorously by hand or with a flat beater on a stand mixer for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add ~100g of the remaining flour and mix very well.
4. Add the butter and continue working in the remaining flour ~30g at a time until a soft, sticky dough forms.
5. Cover the dough and allow it to rest for 5-10 minutes.
6. Replace the flat beater with a dough hook or turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and work in as much of the remaining flour as needed to form a supple, workable dough.
7. Knead for at least half an hour by hand or 8-10 minutes by hook.
8. Round the dough and place it in a covered bowl to rise at room temperature. First rise should take ~1 hour (give or take, depending on the temperature of your room.)
9. Once the dough is fully risen, knock it back and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.
10. Press it flat and add the walnuts to the middle.
11. Fold the edges over so that the walnuts are enclosed in the centre.
12. Knead for a few minutes until the walnuts are fully incorporated and distributed throughout.
13. Divide the dough into two equal portions, round each one, cover, and rest for ~10 minutes.
14. Meanwhile, grease two 22x11cm (8.5x4.5") loaf pans.
15. Working with one portion at a time, press the dough flat, letter fold, roll up like a jelly roll, and place, seam-side-down into one of the prepared loaf pans. Repeat with remaining dough.
16. Cover and proof at room temperature. (This rise should take ~45 minutes, give or take.)
17. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
18. Uncover loaves and bake at 190°C (375°F) until done (30-40 minutes).
19. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

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¹ Clayton has you mix half of the flour with the wet ingredients first to make a batter. Beat that to get a bit of gluten development. And then gradually add in the rest of the flour. I did that this time and that's how I've written up the instructions here. But I would be tempted to try it with the Laurel's Kitchen method of combining all of the dry ingredients first, making a well in the centre, pour in the wet ingredients, and then gradually incorporating the wet into the dry, working from the centre outward. That seems to work very well for most of their breads and it would be interesting to see if it made any difference with this one. Both approaches should have a similar effect. But... I'd still be curious to compare and contrast. ^Back

One of TM's friends ended up with a bumper crop of quince this year, so they've been sharing the bounty. And we got extra bonus pears along with our quince!
I have plans for the quince that should hopefully appear on the blog shortly. I actually debated doing up a simple poached quince dessert after dinner tonight. But the pears needed to be used more urgently, so I decided to start there.

I have a lot of pear recipes awaiting testing. But this one had the virtue of being very quick and easy to put together and only needing three pears, which, conveniently, was the exact number we were given. It is also delicious!

The original recipe acutally went for an almond theme. The pears were drizzled with amaretto and topped with toasted sliced almonds after roasting. I didn't have any amaretto, but I did have a bottle of Frangelico in the pantry. And I figured that pear and hazelnut is also a good combo. So I just swapped out the liqueur and replaced the almonds with chopped toasted hazelnuts. It worked very well, if I do say so myself!

Roasted Pears with Honey, Hazelnuts, and Greek Yogurt

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 3 pears¹
• 1/3 c. honey
• 4 bay leaves
• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
• 2 Tbsp. Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur)
• 1 1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 1/4 c. hazelnuts, toasted and chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
2. Peel, halve, and core the pears.
3. Bring the honey and bay leaves to a boil over medium heat.
4. Reduce heat slightly and simmer for 3-4 minutes.
5. Place the butter pieces evenly spaced in the pan and place a pear half, cut-side-down, on top of each one.
6. Cover and bake at 190°C (375°F) for 12 minutes.
7. Carefully flip pears over and baste with sauce.
8. Drizzle with Frangelico and return to oven.
9. Roast, uncovered, at 190°C (375°F) until pears are tender (~10 minutes).
10. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly (10-15 minutes).
11. Place two pear halves in a bowl and drizzle with a little sauce.
12. Top with ~1/2 c. of yogurt, ~1 Tbsp. of hazelnuts, and a bit more sauce and serve.

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¹ The original recipe called for 3 "ripe but firm" bosc pears. I'm not sure what variety we were given, but they definitely weren't bosc. They looked a bit like anjou, but I don't know my pears well enough to say for sure. Specifics aside, they were excellent in this application! So, personally, I wouldn't worry too much about what specific type of pears you have as long as they're good ones. ^Back

Honeycakes (Game of Thrones)

The story behind this recipe is somewhat convoluted. It is based on a recipe posted on the C&C Cakery blog, who got it from Inn at the Crossroads, who, in turn, based their recipe on an early modern recipe they found for honeycakes, which they modified to be closer to a dish described in the Game of Thrones books.

The quote they were riffing on mentioned cakes that had been "soaked in honey". So they made these Elizabethan-era honeycakes and then cut little holes in the tops and poured a generous quantity of honey into the centre of each one.

I'm not sure how close this comes to the treats the author had been imagining. Based on the description, I was imagining more of a small quick bread/chemically leavened cake that then gets soaked in a (possibly mildly spiced) honey syrup. But, I guess they wanted to use an old timey recipe as the basis for their cakes. I think there was a sense that this would fit the vibe of the setting a bit better. And, as written, the recipe does make delightful little rolls! (Although I think they'd be even better with a little butter added to the dough.) And, to be fair, it looks like the folks at Inn at the Crossroads did post a recipe for "modern honeycakes" that does use a chemically leavened batter baked in muffin tins to produce something more similar to what I'd originally been envisioning. (Although I have yet to try that recipe.)

I think it could be interesting to experiment with different takes on this idea. For example, I might be inclined to try making the little yeasted buns again, but try steaming them rather than baking them. Or try adding some butter and extra anise to the dough. Or try poaching them in honey syrup either before or after baking. There are all sorts of possibilities!

Honeycakes

Slightly adapted from C&C Cakery

Ingredients

• 480mL brown ale
• 6 Tbsp. honey, divided
• 4 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast (or 1 Tbsp. instant yeast)
• 800g all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 6 Tbsp. almond flour
• 1 Tbsp. anise seeds, ground
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 1/4 c. unsalted butter¹, softened (optional)
• extra honey

Directions

1. Combine the ale with 2 Tbsp. of the honey and gently warm to ~40°C (100°F).
2. Remove from heat and sprinkle in the yeast and let stand for 5 minutes. (If using instant yeast you may add the yeast directly to the dry ingredients instead. No need to bloom it in the ale first.)
3. Meanwhile, combine the flour, sugar, almond flour, anise, and salt and mix well. (If using instant yeast, add it along with the other dry ingredients.)
4. Pour the yeast mixture into a mixing bowl along with the almond extract and the remaining honey.
5. Mix in the dry ingredients a little at a time to form a soft dough.
6. Work in the butter (if using).
7. Cover and rest at room temperature for 30-60 minutes.
8. Knock dough back and divide into 20-24 equal portions.
9. Round each portion and place on a greased baking sheet or in a greased 23x33cm (9x13") baking tin.
10. Cover and allow to rise for another hour or so.²
11. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
12. Uncover rolls and bake at 190°C (375°F) for 15-20 minutes.
13. Cut a small hole in the top of each roll and carefully spoon in a generous quantity of honey. (The original recipe suggested ~1 Tbsp. per roll, but I went for a somewhat more modest 1 tsp..)

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¹ The original recipe did not call for any butter and I didn't use any this time, but I would like to try adding a bit of butter next time. The rolls were certainly plenty good as-is, but I think a bit of butter might make them even better. ^Back
2 I let my rolls rise for about an hour after shaping, but, in retrospect, I wish I'd given them another 15-20 minutes. They're perfectly good as-is, but they do seem a bit underproofed. The exact timing, of course, will depend on the temperature of your room. My house is a bit on the cool side right now, so the yeast were a bit sluggish. ^Back

This was a very simple and tasty recipe that I suspect would come together very quickly under normal circumstances. Unfortunately I was not, and also instead of 1kg of large carrots we had 1kg of many extremely small carrots, which made cutting them take a while. Still, everyone liked it and it's a good way to use up a lot of carrots without needing many other ingredients.

Glazed Carrots with Coriander

Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan (p. 266)

Ingredients

• 1 kg carrots, peeled and bias-cut into 5mm slices
• 1 tsp whole coriander
• 4 tbsp butter
• juice of ½ lemon
• 3 tbsp honey
• ⅔ C water
• ⅛ tsp peppercorns, ground
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Lightly toast the coriander seeds in a small pan.
2. Let cool, then grind.
3. In a large pan, melt the butter over medium heat.
4. Add the ground toasted coriander and cook until fragrant, ~1 minute.
5. Stir in the water, lemon juice, and honey and cook for another minute.
6. Add the carrots, salt, and pepper. Stir to coat and raise the heat to medium-high.
7. Cook until the carrots are tender and the sauce has reduced to a thick glaze, ~15 minutes. If the carrots are not at the desired tenderness by the time the sauce has reduced, add a bit more water and continue.
8. Remove from heat, stir in the cilantro, and serve.

After making a large batch of stew, we needed more vegetables to go with the leftovers. Symbol located this in Vegetable of the Day and it was delicious! Prep was a bit tedious simply because we had a huge number of tiny carrots, so peeling them took forever, but I think it would go a lot faster with regular-sized carrots, and there's no arguing with the results - everyone loved them.

Photo goes here.

Honey-Ginger Roasted Carrots

From Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan (p. 66)

Ingredients

• 500g carrots or "baby carrots"
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp finely chopped candied ginger
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh mint
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice

Directions

1. Peel the carrots and cut them into ~5cm lengths. Halve or quarter the thicker segments to produce a roughly uniform carrot size. If using pre-peeled "baby carrots", you can ues them as-is.
2. Melt the butter in a large bowl.
3. Whisk in the honey, ginger, salt and pepper, and mint.
4. Add the carrots and toss until well coated.
5. Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet and cook at 400°F until fork-tender, 40-45 minutes.
6. Stir in lemon juice, optionally garnish with additional mint, and serve.

I finally got around to making the last parfait recipe in the Breakfast Bible. It's pretty simple, but I don't often keep nectarines on hand, so this is the first time I've actually had the ingredeints available.

I liked the citrus notes with the nectarines in this parfait. Unfortunately I think my nectarines were a little underripe, so it came out a bit bland and tart overall. Adding a bit of maple syrup helped, but having properly ripened fruit would obviously have been better. But I was worried that if I waited I'd never get around to it. So I fiugred I'd give it a go with the slightly firm nectarines and just adjust as needed to compensate. Not ideal maybe, but it got the job done.

Honey-Lime Nectarine Parfaits

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 4 nectarines, halved and sliced
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• zest of 2 limes
• 3 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 1/4 c. granola
• maple syrup or extra honey, to taste (optional)

Directions

1. Combine the nectarines, honey, and limes and mix well. Set aside.
2. Get out four jars or glasses and put 6 Tbsp. of yogurt in the bottom of each.
3. Add ~1/8 of the nectarines to each jar.
4. Repeat the layers with another 6 Tbsp. of the yogurt and 1/8 of the nectarines in each jar.
5. Top each portion with 1 Tbsp. of granola.
6. Drizzle with maple syrup/honey (if using) and serve.

I wanted to make some smoothie bowls for breakfast, but the recipe called for granola. I considered buying some ready-made granola, but home-made granola is always so tasty and it's not that hard to make, so I opted to go that route instead. There were even a bunch of granola recipes in the same book as I was using for the smoothie bowl recipe. Convenient!

Since the smoothie bowls called for both (chia) granola and toasted almonds, I opted to make this almond granola and just use a bit more of it rather than preparing toasted almonds separately. The recipe also calls for flax seeds (which is what I used this time around), but those could easily be swapped out for chia seeds if you wanted "chia granola" as the smoothie bowl recipe calls for. That said, I think I'd be inclinde to swap out the flax for sesame seeds next time. Sesame and apricots make a great combo!

Almond Granola with Apricots

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
• 3/4 c. slivered almonds
• 2 Tbsp. flax or sesame seeds
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/3 c. honey
• 1/4 c. coconut oil
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 c. dried apricots, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F) and very lightly grease a rimmed baking sheet.
2. Combine the oats, almonds, flax/sesame seeds, cinnamon, and salt and mix well.
3. In a small pot, warm the brown sugar, honey, coconut oil, and vanilla and heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth (3-4 minutes).
4. Pour the sugar mixture over the oats and stir to combine.
5. Dump the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet and spread into an even layer.
6. Bake at 150°C (300°F) for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
8. Break granola into small pieces and mix in apricots.

Honey-Orange Compound Butter

I've been wanting to try some of the various toppings from the waffle cookbook, but I never seem to have the wherewithal to put toppings and waffles together at the same time. But I woke up early this morning and had already made a batch of waffles yesterday, so I was able to quickly mix up this complementary compound butter to go with them this morning.

I did have a bit of trouble with this butter. While the honey and orange zest incorporated very well, I could not seem to get the orange juice to mix in. First the butter looked sort of clumpy and curdled. More mixing caused it to smooth out, but also seemed to make the juice fall out of the mixture and stay stubbornly separate. It was still tasty, but I wish that I could have gotten the juice to mix in fully.

Honey-Orange Counpound Butter

From Waffles: Sweet, Savory, Simple by Dawn Yanagihara

Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 1 Tbsp. orange juice
• 1/4 tsp. orange zest

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients and mix well.
2. Serve on waffles, toast, and/or pancakes.
3. Store in the fridge for up to 1 week. Bring to room temperature before using.

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Variations

Molasses-Orange Compound Butter

Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
• 2 Tbsp. molasses
• 1/2 tsp. orange zest

This dessert is given as the recipe for December 30th in my Dish of the Day cookbook. the idea is that it's meant to be something light and refreshing to offset all the rich, heavy foods that tend to get eaten over the holidays. I lightened it up slightly more by swapping out the whole milk ricotta for low-fat ricotta. I also halved the pistachios. The original recipe called for equal parts ricotta and nuts! I think next time I might double the ricotta and orange as well. I like the idea of having those two elements making up the bulk of the dish with the pistachios, honey, and pomegranate acting as highlights.

This was a pleasant dessert. It's definitely not going to become a go-to favourite or anything, but it was easy and it did taste nice, just not amazing. And it also let me use up most of the leftover pomegranate I had sitting in the fridge plus some of the blood oranges from the freezer. (Although I accidentally grabbed one blood orange and one navel orange, so only half of my little ricotta pots had actual blood orange in. Whoops! Oh well...) So, overall, glad I tried it and I might make it again sometime, but it probably won't be a regular occurance.

Ricotta with Blood Orange, Pistachios, and Honey

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 c. ricotta
• 4 blood oranges
• 1/4 c. pistachios, chopped
• 1/4 c. pomegranate arils
• 1/4 c. honey

Directions

1. Place 1/4 c. of ricotta in each dish/jar/cup.
2. Use a knife to remove the peel and pith from the oranges. Segment or slice as desired.
3. Place 1/4 of the orange pieces (1 orange worth) on top of each portion of ricotta.
4. Top each with 1 Tbsp. of pistachios, 1 Tbsp. of pomegranate, and 1 Tbsp. of honey.