Pineapple Loaf with Lime Glaze

I had some left over fresh pineapple and needed to whip up something for my son's Father Day Tea. But what? Luckily, my Mom's Pineapple Loaf recipe was the perfect solution. It has a subtle sweetness thanks to the pineapple and if you add cherries (I didn't this time) it is also very...well... cheery!

I added a lime glaze for an even brighter taste. I was worried is might have too much citrus taste for the kids but they loved it!

Ingredients
4 tbsp vegetable shortening
1 c sugar
2 eggs
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup crushed pineapple
3/4 cup cherries (fresh or old school marashino) - optional
1 tsp vanilla

What to do
Preheat oven - 350 degrees.
Cream shortening and sugar until light approx 3 minutes.
Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix well about 1 minute.
Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
Mix dry ingredients alternately with crushed pineapple.
Stir in vanilla and cherries (if using) until just combined.
Pour batter into 8x4 loaf pan.

Bake for approximately 50 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 20 minutes and then prepare glaze.

Glaze

Juice of one lime.
1 cup of powdered sugar.
Extra water if needed.

Mix juice and sugar. You want a consistency that will pour off a spoon in a nice steady stream. If it's too thick add a teaspoon of water at a time until desired consistency is reached,

Poke loaf with toothpick all over. Drizzle glaze over loaf.

Blueberry Apple peach Muffins

These delicious blueberry apple peach muffins were made with the same basic recipe as this recipe but I added a golden delicious apple and blueberries to go with the peaches. I also added 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract to go with the vanilla and took out the cinnamon. Finally, I didn't use the glaze. Instead I sprinkled some coarse sugar to the tops for a great crunch. Enjoy!

Tomato Chocolate Cake

Rose Levy Beranbaum's Heavenly Cakes is easily one of my favorite books - the photos are mouth watering and the recipes are straight forward and very detailed. So, of course, I was going to choose one of the delicious recipes to celebrate my husband's birthday.

My husband's favorite cake is chocolate with raspberry filling and covered in chocolate icing. He is not a huge fan of tomatoes. So when I read her "Tomato Chocolate Cake with Mystery Ganache" I turned the page almost immediately - seriously tomatoes and chocolate?? Sounded almost healthy and I am NOT a believer in healthy birthday cakes!

The thing that made me turn back was the picture. It looked delicious and fun and, oh did I mention, delicious. I decided to take a chance (of course, I wasn't going to tell anyone that I was putting tomato soup in it).

It is easy to prepare, easy to decorate and yes, delicious. It is very chocolatey, light yet deep in flavour and the presentation is whimsical yet sophisticated.

Notes:
I used a combo of semi sweet, dark and milk chocolate in the ganache and it was great. I also mixed some vanilla pudding and raspberry jam into 1/3 cup of the ganache for the middle filling.

My suggestion is to put the "cookie" candles on JUST BEFORE serving as they do go soft fairly quickly (still ate them the next day soft or not).

I think piping gel works best for the candle "flame".

Make the ganache in the morning as it needs time to cool and thicken.

Everyone including the birthday boy loved the cake and NO ONE could guess there was a tomato in it!

Chocolate Tomato Cake with Mystery Ganache

- serves 16 to 20 -
Adapted from Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

Ingredients

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 can Campbell's tomato soup

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

3 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour, sifted into the cup and leveled off

2 cups berry or castor sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 1/2 sticks (1-3/4 cups) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Mystery Ganache (recipe follows)
Pans: Two 9 by 2-inch round cake pans coated with baking spray and flour.

What to do:
Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C.

1. In a medium bowl, whisk the cocoa, tomato soup, eggs, and vanilla until smooth.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda on low speed for 30 seconds. Add the butter and half the cocoa mixture. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Raise the speed to medium and beat for 1 1/2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Starting on medium-low speed, with the mixer off between additions, add the remaining cocoa mixture in two parts. Beat on medium speed for 30 seconds after each addition to incorporate the ingredients and strengthen the structure. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Using a spatula, scrape the batter into the prepared pans, being sure to press the batter against the sides of the pans, and smooth the surfaces evenly with a small offset spatula.

3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a wire cake tester inserted into the centers comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the centers.

4. Let the cakes cool in the pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Run a small metal spatula between the sides of the pans and the cakes, pressing firmly against the pans, and invert the cakes onto wire racks. Reinvert the cakes so that the top sides are up. Cool completely.

Mystery Ganache

Ingredients

12 ounces dark chocolate, 60% to 62% cocoa, chopped

1 1/2 cups heavy or whipping cream

1/4 cup tomato soup

About 59 4-inch Pirouette Wafer Cookies (2 cans, optional) - I like LU brand

Store bought red piping gel - I like the gel because it is more translucent and "flame" like.

What to do:
In a food processor, process the chocolate until very fine. In a medium saucepan whisk together the cream and tomato soup and scald it (heat it to the boiling point; small bubbles will form around the side of pan). With the motor running, carefully poured the scalded cream into the spout of the processor and mix for a minute until smooth.

Cool for one hour on counter. Place plastic wrap on the top of ganache and cool till thick and spreadable ( a few hours).

Final Elements:
When the cakes are completely cool, spread a little of the ganache on a serving plate and set the first layer on top. Slide a few wide strips of wax paper or parchment under the cake to keep the rim of the plate clean.

Spread about 1 cup of the ganache over the layer. Place the second layer on top and use the remainder to frost the top and sides. With the tip of a 1/4-inch-wide metal spatula, make lines through the ganache on top of the cake. Remove the paper strips from under the cake. If storing the cake under a cake dome, allow the ganache to set for a minimum of 3 hours or overnight before applying the Pirouettes or the moisture from the ganache will soften them (seemed to get soft regardless).

To surround the cake with the Pirouettes, you may want to trim them to to varying lengths as in pictures, using a small serrated knife. Repair any broken ones using ganache and press them gently against the sides of the cake. The ganache will hold them in place. If the ganache becomes too firm, heat it by applying a spatula run under hot tap water and dried.

Pipe little flames of red gel on top of each Pirouette.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Mango Peach Rocket Smoothsicles (Popsicles)

Our family loves yogourt smoothies - usually for breakfast or ocassionally as a snack. We also love frozen popsicles on a hot summer day. This easy recipe combines both of these treats into one - the "Smoothsicle". The ones we made today incorparated the fruit on hand - mangos, peaches and strawberries and vanilla yogourt but use whatever you have in your kitchen.

We also used these cute rocketship shaped popsicle molds. They come in a set of six and are easy to use as they come with an easy to use base. This recipe easily makes 12 rocket smoothsicles but ultimately yield will depend on the size of your moulds. But any left overs make a great smoothie!

Ingredients
2 cups vanilla yogourt
1 cup frozen peaches
1 cup frozen mangos
1/2 cup fresh strawberries, roughly chopped
Method
1. Place yogourt, peaches and mangos in blender and puree till smooth.
2. Add strawberries and pulse until incorporated but still chunky.
3. Pour mixture into moulds and freeze till solid.
Enjoy!

Peachy-Keen Cinnamon Muffins

Peachy-Keen Cinnamon Muffins
I have to say I love muffins but I view them more of a dessert than a breakfast food. And that is certainly the case for this delcious recipe. It's based on a Fine Cooking recipe (Fine Cooking 77 , pp. 48-51) that I have used over and over again. This version accentuates the fantastic combination of peaches, cinnamon and vanilla! Together these flavours remind me of a warm night by a fire. The glaze is a nice touch that ties everything together.

Ingredients3.5 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1-1/3 cups sugar
10 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 cup sour cream (at room temperature)
2 large eggs (at room temperature)
1 large egg yolk (at room temperature)
1-1/2 cups chopped peaches (fresh or frozen)
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla


Glaze
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Squeeze of lemon juice

What to do:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line 12 cup muffin tin with liners – I prefer silicon liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl whisk together butter, sugar, sour cream, eggs, and yolk.

Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients gently, until just moistened (there will be streaks of flour and will be lumpy – that’s ok).

Add peaches, cinnamon, zest, and vanilla. Mix gently and keep it lumpy! Less is more otherwise your muffins will be tough!

Divide batter amongst muffin cups. The batter should mound over the cups by about ¾- 1 inch.

Bake 30-35 minutes until golden brown. These are big & delicious muffins!



Glaze
Place powdered sugar in bowl and add water, cinnamon and lemon juice (I find the lemon juice brightens up the sugar considerably). Mix until lump free. The consistency of the glaze should pour with a medium speed off a spoon.

While muffins are warm (not hot) spoon glaze over muffins – or glaze just before you eat one. It will keep for a couple of days at room temp or in the fridge. Enjoy!

Bacon, Avocado and Tomato Panini

From bat sandwich

Sandwiches are highly underrated. From the time we are kids sandwiches are apart of North American kids lives - peanut butter and jam, butter and sugar, cucumber and mayo, peanut butter and mustard, and the ever popular processed cheese on white bread are just a few classic and strange creations that I grew up with!

But now that I'm all grown up, my tastes occasionally move on to more adult classics like the BLT! I was craving one tonight but decided to substitute avocados for the lettuce when I decided to grill it on the panini press (the lettuce would go soggy in the press). I also added a bit of herbed cream cheese to make it even creamier. I used soursough bread because of the added bite in flavour and the nice crisp texture it has once pressed.


Ingredients
1/3 of an avocado
1 vine ripeded tomato, sliced
3-5 strips of bacon (I use precooked to save time)
2 tbsp herbed cream cheese
2 thick pieces sour dough bread

What to do

• Spread avocado one one side of bread.
• Layer bacon and tomatos on top of avocado.
• Spread other side of bread with cream cheese.
• Place bread cheese side down on tomato slices.
• If desired, spread a bit of butter or oil on both sides of sandwixh.
• Place in panini press for approximately 4-6 minutes dependingon how toasted you like your bread.
• Carefully remove from press and cut on diagonal.  Add pickle if desired and enjoy!

Croquembouche

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri. Her instructions follow (with notes from me) as they are very easy to follow!


You'll be surprised at how quick and easy this pastry is to make.. definitely not as intimidating as it looks! I very much enjoyed this month's challenge - it's something I would have never thought to make on my own, but will now make it whenever I want to impress someone visually or gastronomically!



This recipe has 3 main components: the pate a choux, the crème patissiere, and the glaze used to mount/decorate it. While you can purchase or make a cardboard conical structure to build your piece montée or use toothpicks as an aid, it is relatively easy to assemble using just the baked pate a choux as the main building blocks and the glaze as the "glue".

While a piece montée may be a bit time-consuming to assemble, the various components are relatively easy to make and don’t require any special ingredients. The best part about them is that once you have mastered them, you will be able to go on and make many beloved French French pastries such as éclairs, and profiteroles which are made with this pate a choux recipe, a filling and glaze.

Preparation time: You will want to use your puff pastry batter and chocolate glaze or caramel as soon as it has been prepared and as close to serving time as possible. This is not a dessert that stores well and it may be a bit temperamental in humid areas as the glaze needs to harden to hold the choux together. The crème patissiere can be made a couple of days in advance and stored in the fridge until ready to use (I am told it also freezes well once baked but have not tested this myself).

You will need approximately 10 minutes to prepare the puff pastry, 10 minutes to pipe and about 30 minutes to bake each batch. The crème patissiere should take about 10 minutes to cook and then will need to be cooled for at least 6 hours or overnight. The glazes take about 10 minutes to prepare.

Equipment required:
• several baking sheets
• parchment paper
• a whisk
• a pastry brush (for the egg wash)
• a pastry bag and tip (a plain tip or no tip is best for piping the puff pastry; you can use a plain or star tip to fill the puff pastry with the cream)
• a flat surface such as a baking sheet or cake board/stand on which to assemble your piece montée

Ingredients:

For the Vanilla Crème Patissiere1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla

What to do:
Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.

Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.

Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.

Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

Note: Although easy to make you can replace the patissiere with Bird's Custard - Just make the "dessert" version on the can. When I take this short cut I just add the contents of a vanilla bean and sometimes a bit of rum or kahlua!


Ingredients for Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Preparing batter:
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.

Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.

As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.

Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.

It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs. You really must stir it with quite a bit of force to incorporate the eggs, but you can do it!

Piping:
Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip) or a ziploc bag with one end cut. Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide. I recommend trying to do this without "twirling the dough (like a DQ ice cream) as it can produce funny looking pastries. Try to make a nice "blob" instead.

Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top

Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt). Note: I forgot the salt and it was fine.

Baking:
Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool. They don't take long to cool!

Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.


Filling:
When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. You'll be surprised at just how much filling one of these little things can hold! Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

Use one of these glazes to top your choux and assemble your piece montée. I recommend the chocolate as the caramel is very hard and very sharp! At the very least I suggest using the chocolate as glue if possible and the spun sugar caramel as decoration.

Chocolate Glaze:
8 ounces/200 g. finely chopped chocolate (use the finest quality you can afford as the taste will be quite pronounced; I recommend semi-sweet)

Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning. Use the best quality chocolate you can afford. Use immediately.

Hard Caramel Glaze:
1 cup (225 g.) sugar
½ teaspoon lemon or lime juice

Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand. Place on medium heat; heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and the center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber color. Remove from heat immediately; place bottom of pan in ice water to stop the cooking. Use immediately. Note: BE CAREFUL AS YOU CAN EASILY BURN YOURSELF.

Assembly of your Piece Montée:
You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best.

Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up.

When you have finished the design of your piece montée, you may drizzle with remaining glaze or use ribbons, sugar cookie cut-outs, almonds, flowers, etc. to decorate. Enjoy!