Fun with chocolate

I am back in Prague, home from Toronto and jet lagged as ever. I had a wonderful time catching up with family and friends.  I think I had a total of 20 appointments packed into five business days, not including a two day dash to Troy, Michigan to the Somerset Collection to find a wedding dress (success- thank you to Kerri at Neiman Marcus who was super helpful).

I have lots of fun pictures to share with you from the 10 day trip that I will post throughout the week including a new food hall at the Bay, shots from the new David’s Tea at Bayview Village, our cake/cupcake tasting at Flour Studio and a ridiculously delicious breakfast at my favourite diner in Ferndale, Michigan.

In the mean time, while I catch up on a bit of “school work”, I thought I would share some pictures that I took at home the day before I got on the plane.

I tested another batch of cookies and brought them to school.

Since I had no chocolate chips on hand, I had fun cutting up a bar of chocolate.

I tried to chop methodically and neatly working my way through each line of the bar and then cutting the pieces into smaller slivers. I think the dough turned out well. I didn’t have a chocolate chip cookie left from the batch.

Dried Cherry Corn Muffins

Good morning!!  I have a guest lecturer visiting my digital marketing class today and thought it would be nice to provide some breakfast-esque snacks to the bunch, so I made two types of corn muffins: Dried cherry corn muffins and a dried apricot lemon corn muffin.

I had a big bag of cornmeal sitting in my baking drawer and every time I look at the yellow grains, I ask what can I make with that?  I am returning to Toronto in just over a week and I am trying to use up some supplies so I can replenish at home and bring some missed baking items back.

While searching for a cornmeal recipe online, nothing was jumping at me so  I turned to an older, favourite cookbook of mine called Baking by Flavour (originally published in 2002 in hardcover and recently re-release in softcover).  Perhaps you’ve heard of it??  It is an excellent encyclopedia for baking recipes, tips and tricks.  Lisa Yockelson, the author of the book and graduate of the London Cordon Bleu, offers readers 260 baking recipes which are easy to follow and you learn something about combining flavours and what goes well with what.  The book is divided into flavours such as baking with blueberries, baking with almond, baking with cinnamon.  In Baking by Flavour the recipe below is called Baby Blueberry Corn Muffins and they are supposed to be baked in teacake size miniature muffin cups.  I had neither blueberries nor miniature muffin cups so I made larger muffins out of the dried fruit I had in my cupboard and the recipe turned out great.

I altered the flour in the original recipe.  The first batch I made with one cup all purpose flour and one cup whole wheat flour.  In the second batch I used two cups of whole wheat flour and added a generous splash of almond extract.

Dried Cherry Corn Muffins (Adapted from Baking By Flavor p 180.)

Use any muffin tin- In a 12 muffin tin, this recipe made 15 muffins.  I ended up making a batch and a half to get the yield I was looking for.

2 cups unsifted bleached all-purpose flour
1 cup fine yellow cornmeal
3 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cup dried cherries (she called for fresh blueberries here)
4 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 cup of melted butter (cooled)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract

Heat the oven to 400 C and butter or spray the inside of your muffin tin to prevent sticking and easy removal of the muffins.

Sift the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and granulated sugar into a large bowl.  Add the dried fruit and toss lightly.  In a new bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk.  blend in the cooled, melted butter plus the vanilla and almond extracts whisking thoroughly.  Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir to form a batter using a wooden spoon.  For puffy muffins, mix the batter lightly, making sure you mix in all the little flour pockets.  Here I used an ice cream scoop to transfer the batter from the bowl to the individual muffin tins which worked great.  Bake the muffins for 13-15 minutes or until they have risen and turn a golden colour on top.  Cool the muffins on a rack and then serve and enjoy!

Let me know if you try this recipe by leaving me a comment below or if you have another good corn muffin recipe in your repertoire.  I love to receive new recipe recommendations.

Sprinkles Ice Cream

For all you Sprinkles cupcake fans out there around the world, here is some exciting news.  You may already know this, I did not, which is why I am excitedly sharing this tidbit of information today: Next month Sprinkles is launching its first ice cream shop in Beverly Hills.  Just look at that shiny, new, white building with a brown ice cream logo just screaming for attention next to their cupcake shop. It’s saying, pay attention to me.  We are coming and it’s going to be amazing.

Photo Source: Sprinkles Facebook Page

If you haven’t heard of Sprinkles cupcakes, you must be living in a cave (I mean that in the nicest way possible).  Sprinkles was one of the pioneers that made cupcakes into a serious, big business for a lot of bakeshops and cupcake entrepreneurs.  If you are interested in learning more about the Sprinkles story, there is a great interview about Candace Nelson (the owner) here and a New York Time article on cupcakes + the Sprinkles story here.  Both very inspiring.

Just look at all the delectable flavours Sprinkles has (see below).  I can’t wait to see what they come up with for their ice cream shop.  Stay tuned!  I wish I could fly to Beverly Hills for the opening.

Photo Source: Sprinkles Facebook Page

Caramel Sweets

I am getting married in August and the “real” countdown to the event seems to be setting in these days.  The closer I get to the event, the faster I have to turn my ideas into reality.  One of the most incredible sources of inspiration for me has been the handmade items on Etsy.com.  I am purposely trying to purchase goods and services from smaller, less mainstream designers and vendors for decor and event details.  My secret goal is to create an environment entirely furnished by the hard work and amazing products of Etsy designers so I know my money is going to support small business enterprises.  Keep checking back throughout the summer as I reveal what I’ve chosen.

On a Skype call with my mother, who had just returned from a bridal lunch for her ex-colleague’s daughter-in-law to be, she excitedly showed me the bridal lunch favour she received: Two macarons bundled in a cellophane bag and tied with a ribbon.  Seeing how much I love macarons, if  macarons did not have to be eaten fresh, I think she would have saved them for me for a month until I returned for a visit to Toronto in May.

Our conversation got me thinking further on the topic of appropriate  favours and gifts to thank the people who have put in so much effort and time helping us plan from abroad.  How do you choose?  What is the protocol?  What is appropriate?  I’ve seen gifts and favours across the spectrum from “nothing” to “over the top” and it can be a confusing process narrowing down what to buy.  I have made some inroads on this topic and I a’m not about to go publicly disclose the gifts I have chosen and spoil the surprise for my bridal party, as some of them follow this blog however, I am happy to share some neat and interesting things that I have seen while browsing the web, that might also be of interest or inspiring for you!

First off- I love caramel anything. I tried making caramel once for a chocolate caramel tart a few years back which  I think I have to try again, but hats off to those talented caramel makers who are showcasing their goods on Etsy.

I am particularly fond of the caramels from Cheri’s Calabasas Candy Co.  Cheri, from Calabasas, California, is both an artist and a chef which is quite obvious from her amazing looking caramels below!!

Photo: Uncut Dark Chocolate Caramel

Photo: Fleur de Sel Caramel made with Madagascar vanilla

Photo: Uncut Vanilla Pecan Caramel

Photo: Lavender Fleur de Sel Caramel

Hans im Gluck

From a food perspective, I consider myself an omnivore who flirts with a vegetarian and vegan lifestyle.  Maybe that means I am a flextarian.  I have also heard that term tossed around in the food circles.  Labels aside, I eat meat.  Not a lot and not often but I do eat it every now and then when I get a craving for iron or whatever the reason my body is prompting me to choose meat.  One of the pleasures I have when travelling is eating at local burger joints.  The specialty burger shop is overdone (don’t mind the pun) in North America.  Please note this is not a complaint.  The ubiquity of the burger that has been reinvented, re-topped, grilled, cooked, spiced, and rolled is wonderfully creative and as a off-and-on again consumer, I appreciate the efforts of these new burger warriors.

However, in Europe, the specialty or niche burger market is more of an anomaly; more the exception than the rule.  So when I find a place that looks like it might have good burgers, or perhaps I’ve read a review guiding my search of good burgers, I often pop in an check it out.  This past year, I have dined on burgers at Burgermeester in Amsterdam (goat cheese and apple burger to die for), Yes Burger in Prague (a solid chicken burger) and Die Burgermacher in Vienna (Oriental Lamb burger).  The newest addition to my list Hans im Gluck in Munich.  I expect this list to continue to grow, so if you live or will be travelling to Europe and want to jump on the European burger bandwagon, do check back for new recommendations.

As a restaurant, or burger grill, Hans im Gluck has a neat and unique interior with floor to ceiling real birch trees mirrored by birch tree wallpaper that looks like it could come from the Copenhagen based design company, Ferm Living. The restaurant also has wood panels on the walls, mixed high top and regular height tables, wooden tabletop accessories holding toppings in amazing Weck jars, and most importantly, an extensive menu of meat-non meat burgers that are messy, but quite satisfying.

I tried a beef burger with hummus, olives and arugula that literally went all over the place and required two trips to the washroom to get the sauce off my fingers.  Given the interior design, I felt like I was sitting in a modern camp site or cool looking forest while eating a burger.  I expected the waitress to come over and ask whether I wanted a side of roasted marshmallows with my meal.  That was a joke.  I will be honest with you my dear readers, Hans im Gluck was not the best tasting beef burger that I have ever eaten, but it was a solid contender on innovative flavour combinations and all in all, I was satisfied with my late afternoon lunch.

To appreciate the beauty of the restaurant’s interior, I’ve included a couple other day time shots with better lighting.  Unfortunately when I snapped the pictures above, it was quite dark in the restaurant.  Any other cool European burger recommendations out there?  I’m always eager to learn about new spots.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3

I had too many carrots…

I opened my vegetable drawer to find out that I had too many carrots.  In my efforts to reduce my carrot supply, I set out to make a carrot cake.  Nothing like a carrot cake recipe that typically calls for 4 to 6 cups of grated carrots to burn through my stash.

I have had a page ticked down for a carrot bran brunch bunt cake from the LCBO‘s Food and Drink magazine (old issue) for weeks now and decided to do something about it.  I already went grocery shopping today and when I was assembling the ingredients, I realized I was short an egg (I had three out of four eggs).  After debating the potential baking repercussions of being short an egg in a cake, and not wanting to go back out and buy a dozen more eggs, I decided to regroup my baking initiative and look for a new recipe.  The problem is, when you look for a new recipe, you never have all the ingredients in your deviation plan, so you end up in the same spot you started out.  One egg short of a cake.

Carrots were on the brain.  Determined not to give up, I found a carrot cake recipe in the Rose Bakery (Paris) cookbook, Breakfast, Lunch, Tea,  that seemed a bit too decadent for what I was intending to bake (more healthy-brunchy-less rich carrot cake for dessert), but it was usable as a base.  I modified the recipe’s 2 cups of flour with a mixture of 1/2 cup white flour, 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup wheat bran and added a handful of golden raisins, 1/2 a can of pineapple chunks and another handful of crushed walnuts. I also skipped the frosting and tested it out with some blueberry jam.

I think it turned out well. It is a carrot cake mutt; a hybrid of several carrot cake-bread-loaf recipes which was transformed into something that turned out moist, crumbly and delicious.  (Thankfully- the baking gods do not always smile down on me when I get creative and mix different recipes!)

If you are looking for something a little more decadent, there is a great recipe here.