Category: Food

Reading Week is about to start.

This semester has been a bit of a mixed bag. I ended up dropping my calculus class, putting me at four classes this semester. I did this because I calculated my ass-in-seat-time™ to be at around 45 hours. That was the time I spent at school in lectures and labs, as well as at work. It did not include the time required to do the four assignments per week I had. It was too much.

This was a great move. While I’m still ultra-busy, I no longer have stretches where I’d sleep for 3 hours a night, three nights in a row. As my calculus class is a prerequesite for most courses next semester, I’ll take it over the summer.

Apart from that, things have been good. I’ve been getting more involved in campus life. My family welcomed a new member, and I was made privy to some absolutely great news happening to close friends. I was able to be creative, and push out a small project. Things are really on a high.

I’ll be spending Reading Week at work, but it does mean I’ll have this weekend to myself! With Family Day, that’s three days of freedom (usually I did work-work on Saturdays, homework on Sundays.) I celebrated the start of this break by baking some caramel apple scones.

Making croissants has been on my to-do list for months. Months. But working six days a week and spending the seventh on chores/homework, I just didn’t have the day that’s required to make these.

These holidays have been so great to me. With a bit of a break from both work and school, I was finally able to explore baking this delicious item. I used a recipe from Fine Cooking and got busy. The end product had over 6,500 folds.

Unfortunately, they did not turn out well at all. The outsides looked great, but inside it was still dough. They had called for putting the croissants in at 400F for 20 minutes; I had them in for 60 minutes and the insides still hadn’t risen. I’m not sure what I should have done differently to prevent this outcome.

Eh well. I won’t dwell too much on it now, though I am open to suggestions. Instead, I’ll go do something else I haven’t been able to do since starting school: read for pleasure (a book called Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy.)

I made caramel filled snickerdoodle cookies today. It got on my to-do list as soon as I saw these little beauties. Most appealingly, it was a simple recipe where the only exotic ingredient was a dollar’s worth of soft caramels that we picked up at the Bulk Barn.

I was able to replicate the striking visuals, at least with a few of the cookies. That said, the taste wasn’t all that grand. I don’t think I’ll be making these again, favouring instead the simpler but more sumptuous snickerdoodle recipe from Betty Crocker. Sometimes, simpler is better.

I’ve been baking a fair amount lately, and that means some experimentation. Some works, more doesn’t.

Well, count this as a success: tea bread. Infuse bread with the aroma of your favourite loose leaf tea for a smooth flavour that isn’t overpowering.

The bread recipe I use calls for a cup of water. I replaced that with a cup of Green Chai tea. I made sure that it had cooled before mixing it in, as I didn’t want to kill the yeast. I then added the soaked tea leaves and a dash (1/3 tsp) of baking soda to disarm the tea’s bitterness. Amorphous blob shape aside, it turned out real nice.

The tea infusion worked well with pizza dough as well. I used it in a folded pizza that was stuffed with ground beef, grilled peppers, onions, mushrooms and topped with BBQ sauce and cheese.

I also made chocolate baked doughnuts over the weekend using a recipe from Mama’s Gotta Bake. I screwed up the glaze portion (too much milk), so I threw in icing sugar and cocoa powder to make up for it. It worked. It tasted like miniature chocolate cake, and there’s nothing wrong with that!

I also got together with a friend last week for some de-stressing pie making. Blueberry.

I made more doughnuts today using two vegan recipes. The outcome of one recipe was underwhelming, but the other was… godly. It was a variation of the tried and true baked cinnamon roll doughnut recipe I blogged about earlier, and are without question the best ringed creations I have made to date. Superior to the non-vegan version.

In a luck of the draw, the loaf of garlic basil bread that I improvised turned out perfect and fluffy. The pasta turned out swell too. I’ve included the recipes here. The doughnut recipe requires a doughnut pan, as the batter is too runny to hold its shape without assistance.

Baked Vegan Cinnamon Roll Maple Doughnuts Recipe

Stage One: The Cinnamon Topping

• 2 Tbsp Butter (Earth Balance Spread)
• 5 Tbsp Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Molasses
• 2 Tsp Cinnamon
• 1 Tsp Milk (Unsweetened Almond Milk)
• 1 Tsp Corn Starch (aka. Corn Flour)
• 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

1. In a bowl, mix the sugar and the molasses to make brown sugar.
2. In a sauce pan, melt the butter. Once melted, add the sugar and all the other ingredients. Wait for it to bubble.
3. Once it bubbles, take it off the heat. Pour a teaspoon or two in the bottom of each doughnut mould.

Stage Two: The Doughnut Batter

• 1½ Cup All Purpose Flour
• ½ Cup Sugar
• ½ Cup Milk (Unsweetened Almond Milk)
• ¼ Cup Butter (Earth Balance Spread)
• ¼ Cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce
• 3 Tsp Baking Powder
• ¼ Tsp Salt
• ¼ Tsp Nutmeg

1. Melt the butter. In a small bowl, mix the melted butter with the apple sauce and milk.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.
3. Add the contents of the small (wet ingredients) bowl into the larger (dry ingredients) bowl. Fold until just combined – you don’t want to overdo it.
4. Pour the batter into the doughnut moulds.
5. Bake at 350F. The doughnuts are ready when you push down on them and they inflate back to their old shape. Around 10-15 minutes.
6. Pull out the doughnuts and cool.

Stage Three: The Maple Frosting

• 2 Cup Icing Sugar
• ⅓ Cup Butter (Earth Balance Spread)
• ⅔ Cup Cream Cheese (Tofutti)
• 2 Tbsp Maple Syrup

1. Mix the ingredients until uniform.
2. I use wax paper to make a piping bag, then pipe it on top of the doughnuts.

Gluten-Free Version: Substitute the flour for all-purpose gluten-free flour. Also add 1 tsp of xantham gum to the dry mixture from stage two. I found that these needed to be left in the oven a few minutes longer as well.

Garlic Basil Bread (With Bread Machine)

• 3 Cup All Purpose Unbleached Flour
• 1 Cup Water
• ¼ Cup Vegetable Oil
• 1 Tbsp Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Salt
• 1 Tbsp Basil
• 1 Tbsp Garlic
• 2½ Tsp Yeast
• 1 Tsp Vinegar

1. Place ingredients in bread machine.
2. Set on the white bread mode and go.

Eggless Pasta (With Pasta Maker)

• ⅔ Cup Semolina Flour
• ⅓ Cup All Purpose Flour
• 1 Tbsp Oil
• 3+ Tbsp Water

1. Mix the flours.
2. Add the oil. Add water and knead until the pasta holds together. Split into two or three pieces and pass through the pasta maker.