Peach Fritters

My dad is a great story-teller.   It’s something that I love about him and a bond that we share.  I love to hear the stories of his childhood in a small fishing village.  I love to hear stories about my ancestors and my heritage.  And I appreciate every one of them because they make the generations past seem real to me.

This year for my birthday he gave me the best gift.

He gave me an old cookbook that was my great-grandfathers.  My father is named after him and he died in 1927 in an accident.  He was a cook on a tug boat and my grandmother got this book when they went to retrieve his body and belongings.   It just made me feel so much more that cooking must be in my genes.   That I’m doing the right thing.

I decided to try the recipe for Fruit Fritters that was in there.  I love how some of the pages are marked with pencil and some have drops of  whatever on them.

I wonder, did he make the Fruit Fritters?

On my card my dad said that my great-grandfather would have been proud of the work I have done in the kitchen.

Gosh, that is just the best gift isn’t it?

For my fritters I used peaches.  It’s peach season around here and they are big and juicy and so sweet.  Apples would be good too.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp grated nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 4-5 medium peaches, peeled and sliced into 1 inch slices
• powdered sugar for dusting

1.  Sift dry ingredients together.  Add milk and eggs and mix until smooth.

2.  Heat canola oil to 350° in a deep pan or fryer.  Batter peach slices and gently drop into oil.  Fry for 3-5 minutes.  Dust with powdered sugar.  Best eaten warm.

Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Sugared Cranberries

I am not a huge beet fan.

This week I asked a lady I work with whether she ate beets.  She rattled off a few ways that she likes to cook them and  proclaimed that she loved them.  The only thing that kept circling through my tiny brain was “Ewwwwww….”

But this week-end beets and I have had a new beginning.   A re-awakening!  A moist, chocolatey, gloriously decadent new beginning.  Are you with me??

I simply could not get over how amazing this cake tasted.  I was pretty skeptical last night as I was boiling the beets in preparation for this morning.  I mean, how can a cake that tastes this awesome be chalk full of antioxidants and nutrients?   And, not even a hint that there are beets in here.  Just a deep chocolatey, moist, earthy cake.   If I didn’t have beet stained fingertips, no one would believe me.

A simple ganache and some sugared cranberries is all that is needed for garnish.  Even a slight dusting of powdered sugar would do.  It’s so elegant and so simple.  Very impressive.  I’m not kidding.  Put beets on your grocery list.  You will not be disappointed!

I think my husband did a wonderful job on these photos.  I stood there watching with my finger in the ganache bowl.  Afterwards, we shared this piece.  We’re a good team.  A good food blogging, photo taking, cake eating team.

Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake

*recipe adapted from Always Order Dessert

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons extra dark cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
3/4 cup + 1/4 cup butter, softened and divided
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup quality Belgian semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups beet puree (about 6-7 small-medium beets roasted, peeled, and processed until smooth)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

For the ganache:
1 cup quality Belgian bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup heavy cream

Grease and flour your bundt pan.

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and sift until evenly distributed. Set aside.

2. Cream 3/4 cup butter and the sugar in a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Add the eggs in one at a time and beat until well incorporated.

3. Combine the chocolate with the remaining butter and microwave 20 seconds at a time, stirring each time, until melted. Stir in espresso powder and set aside.

4.  Add the vanilla extract to the eggs, followed by the chocolate, and the beet puree and mix until well combined.

5.  Add the flour mixture to the beet mixture and mix just until completely and evenly combined. Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake at 375 degrees F for about 50 minutes or until a tester inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before inverting on a wire rack.

6. While the cake is cooling, make the ganache by combining the chocolate and butter in a medium bowl. Heat the cream through gently just until it starts to bubble and pour over the chocolate. Stir slowly until the chocolate melts and the ganache becomes smooth and glossy.

7. Pour the ganache over the cooled cake and let set 15-20 minutes before serving.

Garnish with sugared cranberries.

Note:  If you taste the cake while warm you will taste the beets.  Strange, I know, but if you wait until the cake is completely cool, you will taste nothing but rich chocolate!

Glazed Apple Cinnamon Buns with Toasted Pecans and Raisins

A little over a year ago I started making a lot of our bread from scratch.  There is nothing more delicious with a meal than a warm loaf of bread right out of the oven.  See?  My repertoire is more than just dessert!  And, I know exactly what is in it and I can add whole wheat and other healthy goodies to suit everyone’s needs.   I actually have a recipe for a killer loaf of honey and oatmeal bread, but that is another post!

This morning I made some white bread dough and used it for these….

This is one of the few things that propels me to mommy greatness.  A warm batch of Glazed Apple Cinnamon Buns.  All of my kids love cinnamon buns and this recipe is so easy to prepare.  I like to make a double batch and freeze them so I can bake them as a treat before school sometimes.  What a great way to wake up and start the day!

You know how the middle piece is the gooey-est, sweetest part?  Full of cinnamon and brown sugar syrup.  Finger lickin, sticky, sweet….amazing.

Some people are really intimidated by the yeast thing.  Honestly, once you’ve done it, you’ll be surprised at how easy it is.  This recipe uses instant yeast, which makes things even more simple.  This does take some time however, so give yourself 4 hours from start to finish.   You can use this dough to make a plain white bread, cinnamon swirl bread and dinner rolls too.  It’s very versatile.

This recipe is adapted from Cooking With Candra’s Homemade White Bread.  She has a great site and her tutorials are fantastic for newbie bread makers.

*yield is 2 batches of dough, approx 12 rolls in each

• 5 1/2 - 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 tbsp instant yeast, quick rise
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 2 cups warm water, 110 degrees

Apple Filling

*this is enough for one batch of cinnamon buns

• 2 tart cooking apples, peeled and thinly chopped
• 1 tbsp flour
•  1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1/4 cup chopped toasted pecans
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter (use this to spread on dough before adding filling in step 5)

Glaze

• 1 1/2 cups of icing sugar
• 1 tsp milk, more as needed
• a few drops of vanilla

1.  First, make the glaze:  add milk and vanilla to sugar only a few drops at a time until you reach desired consistency.  It should just be thin enough to drizzle, almost syrup consistency.  Keep at room temperature until buns are baked.

2. Next make the apple filling: combine all apple filling ingredients, except pecans and raisins, in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook for about 5 minutes on low, just until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and add pecans and raisins. Cool to room temperature.

3.  For the bread dough: in a stand mixer, with the dough hook, add 3 cups of the flour, honey, butter and yeast.  Mix for about 1 minute, until combined.

4.  Add the water, salt and 1 more cup of flour.  Mix until incorporated.  Add the egg and one more cup of flour.  Mix until incorporated.  Add the last cup of flour a little at a time.  The dough should be forming a ball and sticking to your dough hook.  It will begin to come away from the sides of the mixing bowl.  Add just enough flour so that your ball of dough is no longer sticky.

5.  Place dough in a large bowl that has been greased with some shortening or olive oil.  Turn the dough around in the bowl for a few seconds so that the top of it is slightly greased as well.  Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap and place a tea towel on top.  I usually stick my bowl in the oven with the light on while it rises.  Let it rise for 1 1/2 hours.

6.  Punch down the dough in the bowl and cut it in half.  This will give you enough for two batches of rolls.  One for now and one to freeze!  Roll out one half, on a lightly floured surface.  Make a rectangle, about 10 x 8 inches, with the long end facing you.   Spread rectangle with butter and top with the cooled apple filling.  Start at the long end farthest from you, and begin to roll the dough into one long tube.  Cut the tube into 12 even portions and place side by side in a greased 13 x 9 pan.  Note:  I like to sprinkle some brown sugar and cinnamon on the bottom of my greased pan before I place the cinnamon rolls on top (about 2 tbsp sugar and a generous pinch of cinnamon).   The creates a yummy gooey sauce on the bottom of the rolls.  Cover again with plastic wrap and allow to rise for another hour.

7.  Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 25-30 minutes.  Remove from oven, invert on a plate if you wish, and drizzle glaze on top.

8.  Repeat with second ball of dough.  This time, you can prepare the rolls and freeze them in a greased pan , covered well with plastic wrap.  Remove from the freezer the night before you want to bake them.  They will do their second rise in the fridge over night.  Just pop them in the oven in the morning.  Or, make dinner rolls!  Roll bread dough into small balls (about 2 inches in diameter) and place side by side in a greased 9 x 13 pan.   Cover and allow to rise for an hour.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes.  Remove immediately from pan once done in the oven and allow to cool.

Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Fig Sauce

The best thing about a cupcake is that it is the perfect little portable dessert.  Generally no utensil required!  However, I recently saw an episode of Cupcake Wars (remember this one?), and really wanted to try the recipe for Brown Sugar Fig Sauce.   These were oooey gooey, lick your fingers, use a spoon kind of cupcakes.  On the show, they were presented upside down with the sauce spooned on top, but I didn’t get that fancy.

I love figs.  Dried figs are a great little snack and full of fibre and calcium….  (These are the things I repeatedly tell myself when I eat 3 cupcakes in a sitting)

Oh, and I think they symbolize peace too.

Hmmm, I always thought chocolate was the symbol for peace?  Weird.

The fig sauce was amazing.  I was sadly eating it by the spoonful.  The cake itself had a lovely hint of orange flavour and they were so moist!  Even a few days later, still very moist!   The icing is a simple cream cheese icing.  The actual recipe calls for a similar frosting made with goat cheese which looks just as yummy.

The left over fig sauce (if you have some) would be delish on some vanilla ice cream.

The Absurdist Cupcake

*Cupcake Wars 

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• Brown Sugar Fig Sauce, recipe follows

 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 muffin pans with 18 to 19 cupcake liners.

1.  Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and orange zest in a medium bowl.  In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, mix the eggs, orange juice, butter, and vegetable oil on medium speed until incorporated, about 2 minutes. Turn the mixer to medium-low speed, and add the dry ingredients a little bit at a time, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary. Finish mixing by hand just until combined.

2.  Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full, and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 minutes. Cool the cupcakes completely.

Brown Sugar Fig Sauce:

• 1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 8 black figs, trimmed and roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon orange zest

1.  In a medium saucepan, bring the brown sugar and water to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium, stir in the figs, butter, and orange zest, and heat until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat and allow to cool.

Cream Cheese Icing

• 3/4 cup softened butter
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 250 g cream cheese – cold
• 1 tsp vanilla

1.  Cream the butter and powdered sugar.  Add the vanilla and cream cheese in large pieces and beat just until combined (do not over beat).

Note: adding the cream cheese cold makes the icing thicker and easier to pipe onto cakes.