Dessert By Candy

The Mighty Duck Egg

I’ve known for a long time the extra oomph duck eggs add to baking. Cakes are loftier and custard is richer. Why did I not consider using duck eggs when baking bread too? I needed to find out after coming across a discussion thread which pretty much concluded “best challah you ever had”. Of course challah is a great candidate. Along with brioche, they fall into the category of enriched bread that depends on eggs, fat, or milk to tenderize the texture and enhance the flavour. Lucky for me, spring is the perfect time to spot duck eggs at farmers markets. I bought a half dozen with dreams of the eggiest of all eggy challah loaves.

I turned to smitten kitchen’s tried-and-true recipe for Fig, Olive Oil And Sea Salt Challah. I made it once before with great success. The non-traditional combination won me over immediately. The decision was made extra easy with my family-size opened bag of organic dried figs from Costco too. My previous success gave me confidence to make a double batch of this recipe even with my duck egg experiment. One ginormous braided boule for me, one ginormous braided boule for a friend.

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.

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.

Beer For Breakfast

It’s always sad when the party’s over. With yesterday’s conclusion of Sochi Winter Olympics, life returns to normal. I no longer check the TV schedule and set my alarm clocks at strange hours. But what a party! Our national pride swelled to an all time high when the Canadian men’s hockey team captured gold medal and successfully defended Olympics champion title. Canadians across the globe put our lives on hold and glued to the action on ice. Chants of “We Are Winter” “Hockey = Canada” “Go Canada Go” were heard at the stadium, in bars, at homes, in a church, in a mosque, and on social media. Cheers erupted with every goal. Hockey is a key part our national identity and I am proud to be Canadian. Congratulations to all our athletes who represented Canada!

Aside from our love for hockey, Canadians also care deeply about beer. The two just go hand in hand. Due to time zone differences, the gold medal game was broadcast live at 7am in eastern standard time. Yes, our government made a one day exception to the liquor laws to allow bars to serve alcohol at early morning hours! Just because I can doesn’t mean I should. I am not much of a beer drinker so guzzling down a cold one first thing in the morning does not appeal. However, beer is versatile so I made a beer-centric breakfast to cheer on Team Canada.

Breaking The Fast

Brunch is usually a weekend luxury at home. During my brief stay in Sydney, I got into the strange habit of eating my biggest meal of the day well before noon. With a hearty breakfast, brunch, or early lunch in my belly, I was free to spend the remainder of the day sightseeing. Stopping for lunch or dinner became secondary concern because I felt so satisfied from breakfast. And what marvellous breakfasts I got to enjoy!

Cornersmith in Marrickville is a restaurant after my heart. With a guiding philosophy of locally-sourced ingredients, preserving, fermenting, and everything made from scratch, I felt like I dined among kindred spirits. I ordered their Ploughman’s Plate featuring pasture-raised ham, maffra cheddar, kohlrabi, fennel pickle, house-made thyme mustard, Pepe Saya butter, pear, and toast. The food was honest and simple but the amount of care that went into the ingredients was loud and clear. I loved the anise seed fennel pickles so much that I bought a whole jar to bring home along with a bag of naturally dried sugar plums from their adjacent picklery.

For Your Cuppa

I wish I am more excited. The countdown is on before my long flight to Sydney Australia but I haven’t even started packing yet. My fridge is mostly empty, as is my laundry basket. I exchanged some currency and my passport is at the ready. I have a wish list of e-books to purchase so I will be reasonably entertained when I’m not sleeping on the plane. I have a reservation at Tetsuya’s and I want to eat lots of lamingtons. I got in touch with some skaters in Sydney and will join them for Wednesday night skate. Beyond that, I made no plans at all and will play it by ear. I’m happy to relax instead of filling my schedule to the brim.

These lemon poppy seed muffins are probably the last thing I bake in a while. The recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home To Yours was one of the few muffin recipes I had not tried from that cookbook. It was predictably good and I was particularly happy with the good balance of flavours. One of my pet peeves with muffin recipes is butter overload. It bothers me when I lift the baked muffins and see a pool of butter left behind in the pan. Thankfully, this was not an issue at all with Greenspan’s recipe.

My Favourite Baking Plum

Italian prune plum is one of the last plums to dot the farmers market before we immerse ourselves among apples, pumpkins, and brussel sprouts. It always makes me a little wistful for the summer gone by yet excited for the arrival of my favourite season. Similar to last year, 2013 racing season has been a total wash out for me. I am restless and a little panicky that I have to rebuild my fitness from the grounds up yet again. I am *thisclose* to being completely clear of my knee infection. I can’t wait to resume my workouts (ouch) but certainly do not look forward to weeks of soreness thanks to being couch potato for a month. Oh boy.

Back to the plums. Yes, Italian prune plum is a thing of beauty with addition of sugar and heat. The flavour deepens and the colour turns to a majestic shade of ruby. Every week I return from the market with a small basket even when I am too busy to bake. I just cannot help myself. Thankfully, plums are less fussy than many other stone fruits. They can sit patiently on the counter for a few days without getting overripe. Last Saturday I spent a lazy rainy afternoon turning them into luscious treats.

As I discover, one of the many joys of staycation is the relax pace of life. I am not trying to check off as many to-do items on my list as humanly possible. I can take the time to savour the minutes, focusing on one thing at a time. I am so used to living in a constant state of stress that I don’t even recognize those physical stress symptoms anymore. I thought it is the norm. No wonder my body takes such a long time to heal from any injuries, major or minor. Last Saturday, I slept in, went to the spa, decided not to brave the downpour for an outdoor food truck event, baked a plum kuchen, baked plum poppy seed muffins, and watched X-Men on television. Definitely not one of my more productive days.

Perfect Swirl and Unexpected Staycation

Meticulously casual is an oxymoron. They are the first words that come to mind when I think of hipsters. Every imperfection is a carefully calculated arrangement. I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, it screams pretentious in a I-try-very-hard-but-please-think-it’s-all-effortless sort of way. On the other hand, the aesthetics appeal to me on some levels and I occasionally emulate it. The perfect swirl you see in my Pumpkin Almond Cake with Almond Butter Frosting is a fine example. At first glance, the cake possesses such casual charm. You do not see any perfectly levelled and smooth coat of frosting. Behind the scene, it took some very deliberate effort to create this pretty swirl. Meticulously casual, precisely.

Despite my grumpy rant, this cake was a joy to bake. The recipe from BAKED Elements gave us a tender single layer pumpkin cake made extra delicate with ground almond. The frosting was a winner. Mixing roasted almond butter into icing sugar and softened butter gave us a taste of something more wholesome, more substantial, yet still decadent. This is a trick that I will remember going forward.

PSL. Seriously?

I appreciate changing of the seasons and the flavours we associate with different times of the year. With shorter days and chilly evenings, autumn has sneaked up on us. We collectively begin to crave the harvest tastes of apple and pumpkin accented with warming spices. I love a good piece of pumpkin bread or apple pie. They make my kitchen smell heavenly.

A few years ago, pumpkin spice jumped the shark. Starting in September, it floods our grocery store shelves and restaurant menus. The sensory attack doesn’t stop until last week of November with the conclusion of American Thanksgiving. Some products I look forward to every year while others are so bad that I cringe with dismay. Pumpkin Spice Latte continues to puzzle me with its popularity. Why would you want your cup of coffee to taste nothing like coffee? If I want whipped cream, pumpkin, and spices in a calories-laden bite, I would most certainly reach for a slice of pumpkin pie instead. This year, the frenzy has reached a new high. Pumpkin spice latte is now officially, affectionately known as PSL. Feel free to imagine my best eye roll. And I do a really good eye roll.