Dessert By Candy

Elusive Hokkaido Milk Bread

Enriched bread is my guilty pleasure. Made with white flour and enriched with eggs, milk, and butter, it is the dessert of bread family. It doesn’t necessarily have the complexity of sourdough or the depth of crusty country bread. But I love its unpretentious appeal. Challah and brioche are equally tempting. I can never say no to a slice of coffee braid or chocolate babka. However, I always have a soft spot for soft pillowy Asian-style sandwich bread.

I love the perfectly square slices thanks to baking in a pullman loaf pan. I love the whisper thin crust that yields to fine white crumb I can tear into threads. I love the subtle taste of fresh dairy from the famous Hokkaido milk bread variation. Although it is perfect for sandwiches, I enjoy eating it unadorned more than anything.

One of the keys to Asian-style sandwich bread success is the use of roux as part of the starter. When the cooked flour swells to gel-like substance, it lends an incomparably soft texture to the finished loaf that stays fresh for days. Thanks to food52 and Two Red Bowls, I finally was able to make this favourite treat at home.

Nasi Lemak: Malaysian Breakfast

I am far from an expert on Malaysian cuisine but I enjoy it since I was a child in Hong Kong. A cosmopolitan city at heart, Malaysian restaurants are common and a popular choice for dining out in my family. After I moved to Toronto, I was disappointed that authentic Malaysian restaurants were few and far between. I missed my favourite dish nasi lemak dearly.

Lucky for me, it is not all that difficult to make nasi lemak at home. The comforting coconut steamed rice dish is often accompanied by an assortment of sides that complement and contrast. The spicy sambal with fiery chillies and crunchy anchovies is my favourite. The heat is tamed by cooling slices of cucumbers and rich coconut steamed rice fragrant with pandan. Wedges of hardboiled egg nudge the dish firmly in the breakfast territory. Crunchy salted peanuts keep up the textural interest. And don’t forget the meaty pieces of beef rendang!

Bumpy Road To Korvapuusti

Many of us experienced Pinterest Disappointment before. You come across an enticing pin. You carefully follow the recipe. What you end up making looks nothing like the exquisite original that caught your attention in the first place. You question your own ability and you doubt the integrity of the recipe. In the end, you feel like you wasted precious time, effort, and ingredients. Do you let out a deep sigh and move on or do you try to figure out what went wrong?

I experienced all of the above when I tried to make Finnish cinnamon roll korvapuusti last week. Full disclosure: I did not follow the recipes exactly. Combining the recipe from The Kinfolk Table , My Blue And White Kitchen, and my own bread baking experience, I thought it would be a straight-forward treat for Sunday brunch. I was wrong.

The Fanciest Bait: Chocolate Babka

I believe in eating chocolate for breakfast if the opportunity presents itself. Last time I made smitten kitchen’s Chocolate Swirl Buns it was a temporary farewell to gluten as I experimented with anti-inflammatory diet. It was a haunting reminder during those few weeks of what I missed out in the name of healthy eating. The diet experiment didn’t make me feel better or worse so I saw no reason to continue. However, the sweet memory of those chocolate swirl buns, a twist on the more decadent chocolate babka, remains and I have to fight the urge to make them again.

A couple weekends ago my friends and I had a girls weekend sleepover and I decided it would be the perfect excuse to revisit chocolate babka. This is the kind of decadence that is best to share among good friends. Coincidentally, smitten kitchen also revisited this classic and declared Yotam Ottolenghi’s supremacy over Martha Stewart’s version. Obviously I could not just take her words and had to decide for myself.

Montreal 24h Relay Catering 2014

I did not plan on taking up the role of team chef again for Montreal 24h Relay in 2014. It is a lot of hard work, sleepless nights, and logistical challenges. Although my experience in 2011, 2012, and 2013 were all positive, turmoil in my personal life sucked all motivation to do anything ambitious like feeding 25 people over the course of 24 hours in a city 5 hours away from home. However, when I found out that my friend would race with our team on condition that I take on the role of team chef once more, I said yes. Thus began three weeks of frantic preparation to feed members of Toronto Inline Skating Club.

Planning is key to success but staring down my spreadsheet to lock down the menu, compile the shopping list, and inventory my supplies are not glamorous work. I decided to go easy on myself and stuck to my greatest hits. I chose dishes that I served in previous years and were well-received. That took care of the hot main courses as well as numerous salads and breakfast items on the menu. Lunch and dessert selection was weak last year so I was determined to improve in 2014.

Saturday Lunch

Roast Chicken Wrap with Pesto, Spinach, Green Peppers, Swiss Cheese
Kinako Chocolate Chip Cookies

Snack

Fresh Fruit: Bananas, Pears, Nectarines
Trail Mix Bar: Dried Apricots, Dried Figs, Prunes, Dried Cranberries, Peanut M&Ms, Yogurt Raisins, Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, Roasted Almonds
Hummus
Smoky Eggplant Dip
Pretzels
Lavash
Pita Chips

Saturday Supper

Barbecue Pulled Chicken Sandwiches with Pickles
Vegan Tempeh Chilli
Northern Cornbread
Lentil Chickpea Salad with Tahini
Green Papaya Salad
Dried Fruit Almond Quinoa Salad
Sweet Summer Corn, Edamame, Smoked Tofu Salad with Walnut Miso Dressing
Japchae: Korean Stir Fried Noodles
Herb & Ginger Sweet Potato Salad
Peach Cherry Crumble 
Vegan Rice Pudding

Beverage

Instant Coffee
Tea
Almond Milk
Hot Chocolate

Sunday Breakfast

Spiced Steel-Cut Oats with Dried Fruit
Olive Oil and Maple Granola
Yogurt
Bread
Homemade Mirabelle Plum Almond Conserve, Peanut Butter, Almond Butter, Nutella

Sunday Lunch

Beef Empanada
Coconut Chickpea Stuffed Naan

Post-Race Celebration Dessert

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Chocolate Date Layer Cake with Peanut Butter Ganache

Cake For Breakfast

Blueberry. Buckwheat. Buttermilk. Maple syrup. I don’t read minds but I bet you’re thinking about pancakes. I love weekend pancake breakfasts as much as everyone else but it is not practical on weekdays. I am gingerly stepping back inside my kitchen and want easy recipes that do not test my culinary limits. Luckily, I came across Orangette’s pancake-inspired recipe yesterday and it was just what I needed to fire up the oven once more.

At its heart, this Blueberry Maple Buckwheat Bundt is a quick bread. From the ingredients to the mixing method, it is no different than mixing up a batch of pancake batter. Instead of frying up each pancake individually, you pour every drop into a Bundt cake pan and let the oven take care of the rest. There is much to love about that. As the designated pancake maker of my family, I can’t say I am a huge fan of all that waiting and flipping. On an empty stomach, no less.

Another plus of this handsome cake is the satisfaction of eating cake for breakfast. It feels just a little indulgent, a little reckless. I can use a little bit of both in my life right now.

Bread In A Box And An Update

Race season will officially kick off for me in less than two weeks with the first major marathon road race in Wisconsin. After all the ups and downs for the last two years, I am thankful to be able to race once more. In May 2012, after returning from 5th place at World Master Championship in Damp and stepping on the podium for a race in Nordsee, I began a string of crashes which ultimately culminated with my first concussion. It was a harsh test in my personal life and athletic career. Two years later, I am far from being back in my top racing form but things are slowly coming together. I am making small progress at every training session. I am sure there will be more setbacks in my future, that is just a fact of life. However, in order to give myself the best chance of succeeding a goal which I hold dear for years, I think the time has come to make some changes.

For years, I have been posting three times a week regularly at Dessert By Candy. I appreciate the opportunity to expand my horizon. Your support inspires me to keep cooking and writing. Unfortunately, the time demand is competing for my attention in training. I do not want to lose my passion in either by letting them become chores. Cooking will always be a big part of my life and the joy I get from sharing delicious meals with loved ones is incomparable to anything I do on skates. However, for the time being, the best course of action is to keep regular blog updates on a less frequent basis. I hope you understand.

Today I want to share with you a little something I bought at IKEA, emporium of some-assembly-required. I am always fascinated by the small grocery section just beyond the checkout lines with the exotic Scandinavian sundries. This is where you’ll likely find the best price in town for blocks of marzipan. For Swedish expats, the traditional multigrain bread hold special appeal. Of course keeping supply of fresh bread in a furniture store is unrealistic. Thankfully, IKEA has an elegant answer that comes neatly packaged in a carton.

Matzo Granola

I used to think oats and granola go hand in hand, you can’t have one without the other. Oh how narrow minded I was! Striped down to the very basics, granola is toasted grains mixed in with nuts, seeds, and/or dried fruit. The toasting part can be taken one step further to become caramelizing. That involves fat and sugar. My favourite granola recipe, for example, glazes the grains and nuts with olive oil, maple syrup, and brown sugar to create the most addictive caramelized cereal. As for grains, rolled oat is the most common choice but certainly not mandatory. I used a mixture of millet, rolled rye, rolled spelt, and quinoa before. But what if I take a step back from whole grains? That was when matzo granola caught my attention.

A few weeks ago I made my first batch of matzo toffee and could not keep them around long enough. The crunchy (yet bland) unleavened bread was the blank canvas to support decadence like toffee, chocolate, and toasted nuts. Along the same vein, it can also serve as the blank canvas for granola. Just as long as you take the time to smash the matzo to smithereens. Oh what fun!

Those Flaky Layers!

Since I took a Strudel 101 workshop last December, I cannot get laminated dough out of my mind. What is laminated dough? That’s just fancy speak for flaky pastry like puff pastry, croissant, and danish with hundreds layers of alternating butter and dough. I attempted kouign amann a few weeks ago with mixed result and I feel that I cannot lay my obsession to rest yet. Over the Victoria Day long weekend, I took advantage of the time off and followed Cook’s Illustrated 10-hours recipe for croissant (the step-by-step photos are pretty helpful too if you’re new to laminated dough). I figured I should troubleshoot my kouign amann by first taking out the complexity of caramelizing the pastry. That would mean I was left with croissant master dough.

Since I was not short on time, I could allow my dough to chill and rest according to the recipe’s recommended schedule. I quickly finished my breakfast first thing in the morning, rolled up my sleeves, and made the lean yeast dough.

Unbeatable Combo

When you combine high butterfat butter, duck eggs, pastry cream, and dark chocolate, only good things can happen. One of my tasters just asked me “are these good for you?” while holding a brioche au chocolat in one hand.  I recited the list of ingredients in sing song voice and said “nothing that you cannot pronounce, right?”. As far as treats go, these buttery buns filled with pastry cream and dark chocolate are worthy candidates. They may not be wholesome like fruit and vegetable. But I would pick homemade brioche au chocolat over potato chips any day.

I had the urge to make brioche since last week but the warming weather suggested my craving was misdirected. Although the kitchen remained cool enough to work with copious amount of butter, it felt wrong to turn on the oven. I distracted myself briefly by looking at no-bake dessert recipes but I could not get brioche out of my mind. Last night I finally came up with a justification. I wanted my house to smell nice when the insurance agent arrived for home inspection. Freshly baked bread ranks right up there along with apple pie as my choice of home fragrance.