My nephew offered to pick up a bag of all purpose flour for me on his recent trip to Costco. I wasn’t sure if I should say yes, since I haven’t been doing as much baking as usual, lately. At least, that’s what I THOUGHT.
And then I realized that I’ve baked or used flour to make the following this month: ‘pizzaman’ steamed buns, a loaf of traditional white bread, Irish soda farls, banana-raisin oat muffins and a nectarine pie.
Oh well. Guess I should say yes. 🙂
When you’re clearing out your pantry, and have just over a cup of rolled oats left, make these delicious oat muffins.
During my search on line for a recipe, I found that bananas were often included in the recipes for moisture. This recipe seemed perfect as I had some peeled bananas frozen away for smoothies. The google results that suggested that two bananas would equal one cup, however, were inaccurate. At least once I thawed and mashed what ended up a soupy mixture. It was only about half a cup. So, I threw half a cup of raisins into the bowl and let the mixture sit for a while to plump up the raisins. The recipe seemed a bit bland so I increased the vanilla extract to one teaspoon and added half a teaspoon of cinnamon. Just because. I also used half a cup each of brown and white sugar.
I was very pleased with the result and would make this recipe again.
I can’t remember the last time I made these but I was reminded of them recently, when I visited a local European grocery store. They were charging $2.99 per piece for the large size. I was horrified, and since I had just restocked my supply of rum, I made a quick half batch today. The recipe was shared with me by my BFF, Ann, more than 50 years ago, from her family recipes.
I didn’t have much in the way of items to roll the rum balls in so I made do with scraps from my baking supplies. I had less than a tablespoon of two different kinds of candy shot so I rolled the rest of the balls in finely chopped walnuts and icing sugar.
  
Ann’s Rum Balls – makes 7 dozen 1″ balls**
2 x 7 oz (200 gm) pkgs chocolate wafers (1 box of Oreo baking crumbs)
1 cup walnuts or pecans, finely chopped
1 cup sifted icing sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup cocoa, sifted
1/2 cup rum, light or dark
Additional icing sugar for rolling.
Crush wafers to equal 4 1/2 cups. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Let stand at room temperature for 10 min. Coat hands in icing sugar and roll the mixture into small (~1″ diameter) balls.
Decorate balls by rolling in icing sugar or chocolate shot. Best if aged for a week before eating them so they become truffle like and the rum flavour mellows a bit.
May be frozen but also keep well in an air tight container in a cool place.
** Half batch made 16 balls. I used a 1 inch melon baller.
I’m planning on making these toffee bars again and while reviewing the recipe, I realized that I had never shared the pictures or the recipe link.I recommend making them if you need a fast recipe with little preparation. Sadly, they don’t last long especially when you only make a small 8×8 inch tray.
Haven’t made a pie in a while and since peaches were in season … and on sale, I bought some last week and finally got around to making a pie today. I used a recipe for the filling that I found on line here.
I was quite happy with the results. I’d probably make the pie earlier than I did as the peaches kept softening in the fridge.
I’ve enjoyed the rum baba (baba au rhum) bought at a local Italian bakery over the years and kept meaning to try making them myself, but the cost of the molds kept me from the attempt. And then I retired and decided to splurge.
This was my first attempt. I used a recipe I found on line which has now disappeared. It was fine EXCEPT for the fact that it called for a crazy amount of salt. But I followed the recipe – bought the bread flour called for too – even though my baking ‘sense’ was flashing RED. And I was right. The babas took forever to rise and, even after soaking in the rum syrup, they were salty. I ate a couple and then tossed the rest. Now that I have the molds, I’ll probably make them again. Someday. And use a lot less salt.
Soaked baba ready for the cut and a channel cut into the baba for the whipped cream
Prepared mold and risen batter
Baked babas and soaking in the rum syrup
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It’s been six seven months and I got bored so I thought I’d post a couple of pictures of things I made lately. I’ve made both dishes before and posted them on my LJ and my blog.
Japanese chicken curry using a boxed curry roux.
And some inarizushi (seasoned fried tofu pockets filled with sushi rice). One has pickled plum stirred into the rice and the other has green onion and rice seasoning in it.
PS: I also baked a Burnt Basque cheesecake a few days ago and am slowly making my way through it. This is a new dish in my cooking repertoire. I found the recipe here.
Cran-apple Pie for Pi Day
Yesterday, my SIL gave me a head’s up that my brother was stopping over with a treat today. I kind of forgot that tomorrow (Feb 16) is Paczki Day. Paczki are glorified filled donuts for those who are not in the know.
So, when I got up to snow, with more snow predicted through the day AND into tomorrow, well, I couldn’t be TOO cranky.
I’ve sent an email to the gentleman who shovels my snow to book a visit after it’s all done. I haven’t heard from him yet but he’s got three weeks off so I’m hoping for timely shovelling.
In the meantime, I’ve got coffee and donuts to make my day.
I’ll post a picture … whenever.
I ended up with six apple filled paczki.
The Castella cake is a light sponge cake popular in Japan and seems to be sold often as a plain bar cake. It is classified as a kind of ‘wagashi‘ or Japanese traditional confectionery, according to Wikipedia.
I found a recipe on Youtube that seemed simple enough and flavoured with orange juice and zest for a unique touch.
Of course, with such a simple palate to work with, adding garnishes like fruits and berries and sauces seems obvious. The cake itself is only slightly sweetened. This plating used fresh raspberries and raspberry coulis combining the tartness of the fresh berries with the sweet raspberry sauce.
The recipe was transcribed from the ingredients given in the Youtube video and the instructions described what I actually did to achieve the results above.
Orange Cotton Sponge Cake/Castella Cake – 18 cm x 18 cm x 6 cm/8 inch square glass pan, ended up 4 cm/1 1/4 inches tall after cooling and some shrinking
by LoveSweets
Egg Yolk Mixture
5 egg yolks
1 whole egg
50 ml/3 tbsp + 1 tsp vegetable oil
65 ml orange juice
2-3 tbsp orange zest
75 gm cake flour**
Egg White Mixture
5 egg whites
60 gm caster sugar (try increasing sugar to 90-100 gm)
1/4 tsp lemon juice
** I didn’t have any cake flour so I substituted it with 60 gm all purpose flour (Canadian Red Roses, 13% protein) and 15 gm cornstarch sifted together.
Oil the glass pan and line it carefully with two cross-wise strips of parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together the 5 egg yolks and the whole egg. Add the vegetable oil. Whisk in the orange juice. Add the zest.
Sift in the cake flour. Whisk in gently until you have a homogeneous mixture.
In a large bowl whisk the egg whites until foamy. Add the lemon juice and sugar and beat until you have stiff peaks. Fold in about 1/3 of the egg whites to lighten the egg yolk mixture. Add the rest of the whites and gently fold in.
Preheat the oven to 140 deg C/285 deg F.
Smooth the surface using an off-set spatula. Place the pan into a larger pan for a water bath and fill with water about 3 cm/1 inch deep.
Bake 70-80 min. Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean and dry, the cake is done.
Remove the pan from the oven and then the cake pan from water bath. Bang the pan firmly on the counter (to set the cake??).
Let the cake pan rest for 5-10 minutes on a cooling rack before removing the cake from the cake pan. Peel off the parchment paper. Let cool to room temperature before cutting.
  
Cooking is Fun ... Really!! 