Dessert By Candy

Let The Buns Give Me Light

I made semlor at the wrong time of the year and they inspired me to continue baking out of season Swedish treats. I bookmarked Joe Pastry’s recipe and step-by-step pictorial for lussekatter (St Lucia buns) for a very long time. What better time to try it out than May when they traditionally ought to be eaten at the darkest time of the year (that would be December)? Lussekatter is part of the St Lucia Day celebration. The saffron buns in their bright yellow hue indeed make me think of light.

Daylight is not in short supply now that we stepped into May. On a good day, it is still bright outside at 8pm! According to the weather forecast, the official sunset time is actually 8:25pm as of May 5. In fact, my skating club kicked off our summer practicing schedule with training beginning at 6:30pm. That’s a good thing because I can avoid some after-work traffic to get to practice on time. Spring 2014 looks to be a bust. We are more than 6 weeks into the season but everywhere I look is still various shades of brown and gray. No buds on the trees yet. Only a few brave tulips and hyacinths poked out of the cold soil to remind us spring is here. Normally I would be very restless by now. However, the last two years of health issues have taught me an important lesson. I am thankful to have a body that allows me to be active. A bit of cold and wind may be unpleasant but it still beats sitting on the couch because I could not do anything else.

Smells Like IKEA

My exploration into Swedish baking continues today with a batch of kanelbullar, Swedish cinnamon rolls. I had my first kanelbulle during a whirlwind trip to Stockholm and dogsledding excursion in Kiruna back in 2007. The memory of gathering around an open fire in a tent sipping on coffee and nibbling on cinnamon roll is one which I treasure very much. A few years later, I revisited Sweden and was treated to an amazing prinsesstårta thanks to a generous friend. But my strongest association with Swedish baking is much less idyllic. When I think of Swedish baking, I immediately think of lining up at IKEA check out with my shopping cart piled high with purchases and the fragrance of cinnamon rolls wafting from the adjacent cafeteria to tempt me.

Last night I baked my first batch of kanelbullar and my kitchen smelled like the blue and yellow warehouse. What makes Swedish cinnamon rolls different from their North American counterpart? North American style cinnamon rolls define decadence with its caramel cinnamon filling saturated soft yeast bun and over-the-top cream cheese icing. Swedish cinnamon rolls embrace restraint with its smaller size, filling that doesn’t overwhelm, hint of cardamom in the bun, and crunchy pearl sugar topping. I like them both for different reasons.

Rebellious: Semlor After Easter

I am infatuated by Scandinavian dessert lately but learning about them outside of their native countries is not so easy. While there is an over abundance of recipes on French, North American, Italian, and to some extent, Austrian style dessert, the popularity of dessert from other culture hasn’t caught on in Toronto. That’s too bad because based on limited exposure in my travels, there are lots to admire. Especially if you love marzipan as much as I do!

I had the privilege to visit parts of Denmark and Sweden in the company of locals with the biggest sweet tooth. They introduced me to various dessert made famous in different parts of towns on our sugar-filled road trips. Unfortunately, I visited in the warmer time of year with plenty of sunlight and missed out on the annual semla craze. This Swedish treat is only available between new year and Easter. I invite you to find out more about semla in the Sweden Tourism website. It’s a really fun read on the dessert’s history and current popularity. Swedes take their semlor seriously.

My own search for semla began with an enticing photo in Saveur magazine. I love the haunting taste of cardamom in baked goods and it led me to that recipe. Upon a closer look, my enthusiasm dampened. The proportions and directions of that recipe just looked wonky. The scathing reviews did not help either but I learned one important thing. Aside from cardamom and cream, a semla is not a semla without marzipan.

Valiant Effort: My First Kouign Amann

What was I thinking when I decided to conquer kouign amann last weekend? It all started with a step-by-step photo essay (with recipe) on food52. They made it look so approachable. Easy, even. Although I made laminated dough a few times in baking classes, I only made it once at home a long time ago. I am just not a huge fan of all that waiting for the dough to relax before another envelop fold. Somehow, the promise of buttery caramelized treat trumped all my hesitation and I tackled the recipe like a champ.

What is kouign amann you ask? Think of a croissant with caramelized sugar built into the buttery layers. So instead of folds of butter-bread, you have stacks of butter-bread-caramelized sugar. It’s really awesome actually. It is a little messy to make but I can think of many more challenging baking projects. With the weather forecast calling for thunderstorm on Sunday, I thought I had a whole day to make kouign amann at a leisurely pace.

Snow Day Cooking

Many of us in the Northeast got slammed with more snow on Wednesday. Winter 2014 lives up to its promise of a good old fashioned Canadian winter with frigid temperature and more snow than we care for. I worked from home to avoid messy traffic. It was a bonus that I got to stay close to my kitchen all day long so I took the opportunity to bake bread. It doesn’t take up much time nor attention but I do need to stay close to the rising dough. That was my recess activity on Wednesday.

I surveyed my fridge and pantry. An opened jar of sundried tomato in olive oil, a small handful of black olives, a bit of thyme, and some grated cheddar cheese. I recalled a Dan Lepard recipe for sundried tomato loaf. He called it absolutely delicious but also loathed by artisanal bakers. I had to smile…absolutely true! And often overpriced to boot! Baking from home can be economical and it is the case here.

Steamed Barbecue Pork Buns 叉燒包

I had my heart set on making steamed buns for weeks. I was drawn to the ubiquitous dim sum item because it seemed like such a huge departure from my skill set. A true baker to the core, the oven in my kitchen gets lots of love. The bamboo steamer? It makes one appearance every year for steamed turnip cake because it doesn’t feel like Chinese New Year without a taste of this homemade treat. I really ought to learn more about steaming, one of the eight key cooking skills in Chinese cuisine.

There is much to love about traditional bamboo steamer aside from its rustic good looks (oh isn’t it photogenic?). It’s lightweight, cheap, and durable. Most importantly, it traps enough steam to create the perfect cooking environment and absorbs excess evaporation so your food don’t get soggy. Pretty amazing, really.

Most steamed bun recipes begin with the direction

Make a well with your pile of flour, pour water into the well, and gradually draw flour with your hands to the centre until dough is formed.

Okay, confession time. I run the other way as soon as I read this. No matter if your recipe promises me the world, I just cannot deal with such a tactile way of working. And the inevitable clean up! I shudder at the thought. Give me confines of mixing bowl and spatula please. Better yet, a stand mixer.

Baba

I meant to make baba au rhum for New Year’s Eve. What can be better than getting drunk on rum and cake in the same bite? Well, obviously, that did not happen and the missed opportunity hung over my head long after we ringed in the new year. Last weekend Mother Nature brought us more snow and more cold temperature. All I wanted to do was hibernate. So rather than listening to the instinctive call for comfort food, I made a batch of boozy baba au rhum. It was much less fussy than I initially anticipated.

If you made brioche or challah, you’ll be glad to know that baba is very similar, only easier. Plenty of enrichment from eggs and butter meaning you’re better off using a mixer. Unlike bread dough which requires kneading, baba resembles a yeast-raised batter. I followed Dan Lepard’s recipe from his book Short & Sweet (also available online).

Gluten Free Sandwich Bread Success

I have been curious about gluten free baking for some time. Some recipes are inherently gluten free, like macaroons. I consider them entry level items. A step up the difficulty meter is recipes that benefit from little gluten development, such as quick breads. You probably come across muffin or pancake recipes that urge you to stir gently or the baked good would turn tough. My personal favourite is using buckwheat flour for these kinds of application. The holy grail for gluten free baking is of course bread whose texture and structure depend on gluten development. Those lovely open crumb is the direct result of the elasticity of gluten.

More and more of my friends have chosen a gluten free diet for health reasons. Few are intolerant of digesting gluten but many confess that their overall physical wellness improve. Personally, I choose to maintain a balanced diet that does not exclude any particular food groups. However, the challenge of gluten free baking intrigues me. With the extra time of staying at home last week, I took the chance to experiment with gluten free sandwich bread.

Cute Overload Pumpkin Rolls

This week I settle into a relaxing routine that begins each day with mixing a batch of bread dough. I really love to bake bread but fitting the fermentation schedule around my daily activities is often challenging. With training currently taking a backseat and a simple daily agenda of leisurely catching up on chores, I am really enjoying the luxury of planning my day around a blob of dough. Wait, that sounded much more logical in my head.

I bookmarked King Arthur Flour’s Cranberry Pumpkin Roll recipe for a long time. There is something enticing about the combination of pumpkin dinner roll dotted with dried cranberries and crystalized ginger. I envision my Thanksgiving feast would begin with these warm spicy rolls and my family would ooh and aaah over the taste. The recipe suggests baking them in muffin pan to create pretty round domes. The picture in my head looked perfectly fine until I spent a little too much time on Pinterest.

Pinterest makes Martha Stewart look like a slob. Seriously, all the cutesy craft projects and party ideas are so inhumanly elaborate. Unless you have a team of dedicated minions, I doubt many of pins are realistically achievable. But it is certainly awesome for inspiration and aspiration. That’s where I got the idea to shape my pumpkin rolls into mini pumpkins. So unbearably cute.

Well Enough To Bake

I baked bread yesterday and I felt relieved and thankful. Relieved that the pain from the infected wound on my knee has subsided enough so I could stand for extended period of time. Thankful that the darkest hour is behind me. Contrarily to what I thought at the time, I will get healthy again (fingers crossed).  I am still not out of the woods yet. Follow up assessment from my family doctor put me on another round of oral antibiotics. Hopefully the pills will continue the battle where the IV left off and win this war for good.

Yesterday I took an easy day just puttering around at home. With a whole day of free time ahead of me, I immediate looked into my vault of to-bake recipes for ideas. Rosh Hashanah was already over and I am not even Jewish but smitten kitchen’s Fig, Olive Oil, Sea Salt Challah has long tempted me. How can it not? Glossy burnished round of knotty egg bread with swirls of dried fig filling inside, all nicely balanced with flaky Maldon sea salt and savoury olive oil! It looks just complicated enough to keep me occupy for a few hours yet still simple enough for guaranteed success. Sign me up!