Thanksgiving 2016

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving all!

This year I went super simple (I know I said that last year but really this time I mean it!) We picked up our turkey from the farm (Clement's Poultry in Courtice) as per our annual thanksgiving family tradition and with the addition of our little boy this year! Hooray!

 We ditched the stuffing and salad and went buffet style with the good old brined and roasted turkey with a couple of veg on the side (heirloom carrot and Brussels) mashed potato and gravy made from the turkey pan drippings. It all comes together really quickly because the veg is cooked stove top while the turkey is going in the oven, you can work on the veg as soon as the turkey comes out and is tented and resting. All the veg got a quick steam - I shocked the carrots with cold water to keep their colour - and then a toss in some butter with a drizzle of maple syrup, keepin' it healthy for the baby!
Potatoes were boiling too in salted water and got a quick mash with a splash of warm milk and a glob of yummy butter!
We had a small cheese platter and a couple of slices of country bread.  This year the cranberry sauce had a spicy aromatic twist of fresh ginger and a dash of cinnamon!

Dessert was made ahead of time, super simple and using a recipe that doesn't include any corn syrup! The yummy cream cheese pastry crust complimented the sweet filling. The addition of unsweetened hand whipped cream was a nice touch (I usually step out into the garden for a brisk whisking session, and what a gorgeous cool day it was this thanksgiving monday!)

Hope you had a good one :)

Maple Pecan Tart
Recipe adapted from Taste of Home 

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
6 ounces cream cheese, softened (3/4 cup)
2 cups all-purpose flour

FILLING:
4 large eggs
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup maple syrup
2/3 cup butter, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Dash salt
2-3 cups pecan halves

Whipped cream (unsweetened) optional


Directions:
In a large bowl, cream butter and cream cheese until smooth. Gradually beat flour into creamed mixture. Shape into a disk; wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm enough to handle.
Roll pastry into a circle; transfer to fluted tart pans with removable bottom. Trim pastry even with edges (leftovers enough to make one poptart!). Refrigerate 20 minutes or overnight.

When ready to bake Preheat oven to 375°.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk the first six filling ingredients. Pour into tart shell; arrange pecans over tops. Bake 25-30 minutes or until centers are just set (mixture will jiggle). Cool on wire racks. If desired, serve with unsweetened whipped cream. Refrigerate leftovers. Serves 8.

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October Girl

Chocolate Smartie Cake 

Hershey's Black Magic Cake
(I baked this recipe twice and it yielded 4 round 8" round pans and I used 3 cakes out of the 4)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegetable oil  (I used butter flavoured EVOO From Olive That!) 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk (Or mix yogurt with water to a nice thick liquid creamy consistency) 

1 cup strong black coffee OR 2 teaspoons powdered instant coffee plus 1 cup boiling water (or just plain boiling water) 

Dry ingredients:
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup Cocoa Powder 

2 cups sugar

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 12-cup fluted tube pan, two 9-inch round baking pans or one 13x9x2-inch baking pan.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes (Batter will be thin). Pour batter evenly into prepared pan.

3. Bake 50 to 55 minutes for fluted tube pan, 30 to 35 minutes for round pans, 35 to 40 minutes for rectangular pan or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen cake from side of pan and remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost as desired.

Filling: 
Any desired cream filling recipe of your choice (We went with a chocolate cream cheese as requested from my sister) 

From Nigella Lawson's chocolate fudge cake 

Made double the recipe to cover the 3 layer cake. Some will be leftover.

Fudge Icing:

175 grams dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)

250 grams unsalted butter (softened)

275 grams icing sugar (sifted)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

My favourite Autumn things..

Winter is around the corner but we got some great weather to still be able to go out and enjoy the outdoors without having to bundle up (too much!)

 Love to spend my time doing a little organizing and start cleaning up, getting ready for winter, clearing out my house, tidying up, taking out those winter blankets ... putting away summer clothing. 

I also have this urge to bake, and cook, and worst of all just eat!  I wonder if this must be some kind of natural instinct that we haven't been able to shake in modern times but if I'm not trying to keep it in check I could turn into a bear by time spring rolls around. 

Here are some photos that remind me of all things Autumn...  the changing leaves, tea (love my new cone strainer) cinnamon rolls, chicken soup!

Oh and if you haven't already checked out Poutini's then you gotta go, RIGHT NOW! Their layered poutine is just amazing, it's piping hot layers of fries and gravy (there is a hint of spice in there, curry? it's sure to warm you up out in the cold) and who could forget the tons of layers of ooey gooey cheese!    Just GO!

  

Colourful Cauliflower

Who could resist these beautiful colours?  To be honest I've never seen these in real life before, only on television so you can imagine how excited I was to see them at my local supermarket, they must have brought them in for thanksgiving.  First I debated which colour to choose and decided to go with the purple because it's just so gorgeous but I couldn't resist and made two trips back to my buggy to carry one of each colour, you only live once, right?

That's a lot of cauliflower for once person!! The next day I took them over to my family and we made a nice meal out of it. 

A few weeks earlier I found these interesting little lentils at my local bulk store, baluga lentils the sign said, I've never seen or heard about them before either and we just love lentils in our family. 

To preserve the beautiful colour of the cauliflower I roasted them with just salt, black pepper, olive oil and a dash of curry, I tossed in a few garlic cloves too. 

The lentils were washed and simmered in water and stock (for vegetarian/vegan use a veggie or mushroom stock) and once plated it was finished with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of lemon (just a tiny hit of acidity, this is not a salad but a warm side dish that would look gorgeous on any table)

Imagine this dish on your harvest or thanksgiving dinner table! 

Apple Pie Ice Cream

Here's a little something I made and it seems all the elements came together beautifully in one dessert.

The ice cream part is an apple pie ice cream using a vanilla custard base, if you have an ice cream maker I would highly recommend trying it, it's easy and you just forget about it!

You need to do this 12 hours in advance before the part where you use the ice cream maker.

Vanilla Ice Cream Base:

2 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1 large vanilla bean, scraped

1 cup sugar

10 yolks

Follow the photo sequence of instructions here just for the vanilla base, not the banana part (unless you want to make banana ice cream! :) )

Thanks to Zoe bakes for the great ice cream making instructions.

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Now for the Apple pie part, well it really is just a pie, a whole pie baked and then chopped up in big chunks and layered with the ice cream. I made it in a form of a galette, like this except without the almonds and marzipan.

I always seem to have some pate brisee in my freezer, one batch can be divided in 4 and frozen in disks so I took some out and rolled it out, topped with apple slices that were sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, knobs of butter and then before baking I sprinkled the entire exposed crust with sugar.

I don't know if the sugar did anything specific but my goal was to caramelize the crust so that it would avoid it going mushy and soaking up any liquid while layered inside the vanilla ice cream. I think the idea worked pretty good because the crust remained amazing! I also baked it on a lower temperature for longer to really get a delicious crispy crust.

When the galette cooled I chopped it using a knife into large pieces/chunks and set them on a plate in the freezer.

Once the vanilla base ice cream mixture was put through the machine and completely churned I layered the soft ice cream in a casserole with the pieces of pie and set it back in the freezer to firm up.

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Caramelized Apple

After visiting the farmers market last week I had more apples than to know what to do with so I set out to bake some. These soft caramelized baked apple pieces were perfect to serve with the apple pie ice cream!

Chop your apples into bite sized pieces, sprinkle with sugar and dollops of butter and bake on 375 in a single layer in a casserole dish until they are tender, plump delicious, sweet and sticky with brown bits here and there.

Set aside to cool before topping your ice cream.

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Apple slice wafers

This part was a bit of an experiment. It turned out really great though! Very concenetrated apple flavour in that chips and makes a nice presentation.

Set the oven on low, 250 F is good.

Slice your apples thinly with a knife or mandolin. Press each piece front and back in a plate of sugar and then on a tray lined with parchment.

Bake and keep an eye on them, remember they do firm up once they come out so if they're a little sticky and soft just remove one and set it on another cooled piece of parchment and if it sets up you'll know it's ready. The sugar on the slice caramelizes so make sure it doesn't go the other way and just burn either.

Once they are done and cooled on another piece of parchment you can garnish your desserts or just snack on them.

Autumn 2011

Changing leaves, pumpkins, starbucks, apple brie turnovers, farmer's markets, rainbows, apple pie tea and more...

A gorgeous season.