Sticky Toffee Pudding aka STP

I am not the least bit British but since Canada is a Commonwealth country we tend to embrace many UK customs. That being said, very few people I have come in contact with have even heard of Sticky Toffee Pudding, let alone tried it.  A true English pudding is cake with sauce, not even close to the North American idea of the brand name box of sugar, corn starch and chemicals, to which milk is added.  

Sticky Toffee Pudding, STP for short in our home, is highly addictive so be warned. Some call it comfort food, others choose the nickname, "Crack in a Pan".  It is definitely a special occasion dessert, but I am sure one can find reasons to make any day a special occasion. 

If you are British, make a cup of the finest tea--if you are Nordic brew your favourite Paulig or Gevalia blend to accompany the dessert and take time to enjoy an extra long fika. So, if you want to buy Paulig coffee online visit FinnGoods where you will find their selection.

The recipe for Sticky Toffee Pudding is a bit involved but totally worth the time.  Usually, I freeze the cake and make the sauce on the day it is served. Oh yes, and speaking of serving, add a scoop of your best quality vanilla ice cream or Dairy Queen soft serve ice cream for the ultimate dessert.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

3/4 cup finely chopped pitted dates

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 1/4 cup boiling water

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup soft butter

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg

Toss dates with 1 tablespoon flour in a small bowl.  Sprinkle soda over dates. Boil water, add vanilla and pour over dates.  Allow to cool completely.

Heat oven to 350°.  Grease and lightly flour an 8x8 inch cake pan.

Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg.

Add a little of the flour mixture and beat for 1 minute. Beat in remaining flour mixture. Add cooled dates to batter, beating until well blended.  Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake until well browned on top, about 35-40 minutes.  Remove from oven to wire rack to cool.   Serve warm with toffee sauce.

Toffee Sauce

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup salted butter

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

Heat butter, sugars and the heavy cream in a glass measuring cup in microwave or in a pot on the stove.  Simmer until thickened, about 10-15 minutes.

When ready to serve, pour warm sauce over individual cake slices or pour over warm cake and set under broiler until just bubbling.  Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Succumbing to the Rye

After an image on a rye malt bag caught my eye, I had to satisfy my curiosity and  bake a batch of rye buns, because Finnish rye bread is my favourite.  To say they were delicious is a huge understatement!  I now make them almost every week and always have some on hand in the freezer so I may consume one every day.  Marmalade goes well to make an extra special treat.  Is this an addiction?  I'm not sure, but since the buns have such a high nutritional value, I won't worry about it.  

The recipe for Mallasleipäset or Rye Malt Buns can be found on the package back of Tuoppi Kaljamallas, which I purchased from FinnGoods.com.  It's not a difficult yeast dough and the whole process can be completed in about 2 hours.

Happy 147th Birthday, Canada!

Traditionally strawberries are the star of our annual dessert, but this year the season started early and the local ones are finished.  It didn't take too much to inspire a raspberry dessert.  What is lacking is inspiration for the name.  Fresh Raspberry Supreme? Oh Canada Raspberry Dessert?  Raspberry Créme de la Créme?  While I decide, enjoy the pics.

It's simple to make, I'll show you.

1.  Line up dessert dishes or custard cups.

2.  Fill with approximately 1/3 cup vanilla pudding and chill to set.  (I made mine from scratch because it tastes better and doesn't have chemicals.)

3.  Spread a heaping tablespoon of whipping cream over cold pudding and refrigerate.

4.  Wash raspberries gently, allow to dry on paper towels.

5.  Place raspberries on top of whipping cream layer.

6.  Make semi-thin glaze from raspberry juice, sugar and cornstarch and allow to cool slightly.

7.  Gently spoon glaze over berries.

8.  Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.

Any fresh fruit could be used for this dessert and chocolate pudding could be substituted for vanilla.

Plum Cake Season

September afternoons have felt more like July or August this year.  As the colour of leaves change from green to yellow, gold or red, the fruit on the plum tree slowly ripens and it becomes Plum Cake Season at my house.  Last year I made 13 cakes.  I gave a few away and froze the rest, mostly for my father.  It's his favourite and he savours every bite.  Much to my mother's chagrin, he often licks his plate clean.  Did I mention this is his favourite?  ;)  Dad is in the autumn season of his life and I find great pleasure in adding a bit more sunshine to his days, especially in the form of Plum Cake.  Here is the recipe if you like.  

  Plum Muffin Cake

Topping:

1/3 c. flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 c. brown sugar

2 tbsp. soft butter

In small bowl, combine all topping ingredients, blending in butter with fingertips.  Set aside.

Cake:

1/4 c. graham cracker crumbs

6 tbsp. soft butter or margarine

3/4 c. sugar

1 egg

1/2 c. milk

1 3/4 c. sifted flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. grated lemon rind

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. sliced fresh plums (about 1 1/2 lbs.)

Dust well-buttered 10-inch bundt pan with cookie crumbs.  Set aside.  In mixing bowl cream butter and sugar.  Beat in egg, lemon peel, and vanilla.  Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder; add to creamed mixture alternately with the milk.  Fold in sliced plums.  Spread batter in prepared pan; cover evenly with topping.  Bake at 350º for 45 to 50 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan.  Serve warm with whipped cream or whipped butter.

Super Healthy Spinach Salad

Are you looking for a salad packed with flavour and nutrients?  This one has it all, from iron rich spinach and blueberries, to low fat turkey bites and a tangy raspberry vinaigrette dressing.  The bread, dressing and dried blueberries were home made but good quality store bought items would work too.  Rye bread croutons are especially tasty. Although not shown above, I typically add chopped sweet red bell pepper for a punch of colour and vitamins.

For the dressing I combine 1/2 c. sweetened raspberry juice, 1-2 tbsp. raspberry vinegar, 5-8 tbsp. canola oil, freshly ground pepper. Shake well before serving.  

Biscotti Anyone?

Welcome to my latest baking interest--biscotti.  My goal is to improve on the break-your-teeth coffee shop variety and come up with a very crunchy, but not hard product.  These are Chocolate Tangerine Biscotti and the recipe needs some work yet.  I shall increase the tangerine or orange flavour and mellow the chocolate by adding more vanilla.  While I achieved the crunchy result, they were more crumbly than I'd like so I also plan to bake them 5 minutes less next time.  Stay tuned!  

F is for Finland

F is also for fika and Finnish coffee, which is all that's needed to go with these Lemon Anise Biscotti for a special treat.  To perfect these all I need to do is substitute anise extract for the ground anise seeds. Unfortunately, the anise seeds I used were a little stale and lacking in flavour intensity. I'm also planning to increase the nutritional value and add oat bran next time. Here's the recipe. 

Lemon Anise Biscotti

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 teaspoon anise seed extract

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons grated lemon rind

Beat eggs & sugar for 2 minutes.  Add oil, extracts, and lemon rind. Mix well. Sift flour, baking powder & salt. Add to liquid mixture and beat. Divide dough in half.  Shape each into 12 inch rectangle on parchment lined baking sheet and flatten to 1/2 inch thickness. Sprinkle with a little flour to prevent sticking to hands or rolling pin, if used. Bake at 350º for 35 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes. Using a serrated knife, cut into scant 3/4 inch slices. Place cut side down on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 5-7 minutes until firm and golden brown. Cool on wire racks.  Store in airtight container. 

Caramel Cravings Anyone?

Having mastered the molten chocolate cakes I decided to try variations so last night it was caramel.  The trick with this one is to cut down on the sugar, unless you like really sweet desserts.  Here is my version of the recipe.

Molten Caramel Cakes

112 g  caramel sauce including water if too thick

1/3 cup butter

2 eggs at room temperature

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/4 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 400°.  Generously butter 4 custard cups and dust the inside with sugar.  Set aside.

Melt butter into caramel. Set aside to cool.  Meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar with electric mixer unti
l it turns pale, and doubles in volume, about 6 minutes. On low speed, blend in the caramel mixture and vanilla.  Add the flour and mix for 1 minute.  Divide batter among the cups and place them on a baking sheet. 

Bake for about 14 minutes.  Immediately invert each cake onto a plate and unmold. The center should be slightly runny.  Serve with vanilla yogurt/coolwhip topping or vanilla whipped cream.

The Rise of Yorkshire

My first attempt at time lapse photography resulted in this little movie. While not the best quality images were produced, it was fun all the same.  At my house, Yorkshire Pudding is not just reserved for roast beef dinners.  I enjoy serving it with pork, chicken, turkey and sausage.  Did you notice their jumbo size?  For some reason I have a designated Yorkshire Pudding Pan, used only for baking these monsters.  

Happy New Year!

As promised, here is the revised version of Ricardo's Molten Heart Cakes from my November 23rd post.  I prefer to use chocolate with a higher cocoa content for a more bold and less sweet taste.  This dessert is light yet rich and satisfying for the discriminating palate of chocololics such as myself.  Note:  It is for 4 servings instead of the original 8.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

4 oz. (112 g)  chopped Callebaut 70% bittersweet chocolate

1/3 cup butter

2 eggs at room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/4 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 400°.  Generously butter 4 custard cups and dust the inside with sugar.  Set aside.

Melt chocolate and butter. Set aside to cool.  Meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar with electric mixer until it turns pale, and doubles in volume, about 6 minutes. On low speed, blend in the melted chocolate mixture and vanilla.  Add the flour and mix for 1 minute.  Divide batter among the cups and place them on a baking sheet. 

Bake for about 15 minutes.  Immediately invert each cake onto a plate and unmold. The center should be slightly runny.

Note: Cake batter can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for 2-3 days.  The cooking time for cakes with cold batter will be 3-5 minutes longer, directly from freezer 25-28 minutes.

Last Minute Decorating

It's Christmas Eve afternoon and I just added the finishing touches to my Christmas Fruit Bread gifts for family.  The tradition of giving bread began the year I couldn't afford Christmas gifts.  Now they count on it every year and of course I'm happy to oblige.  My tip to make the glaze more interesting is to add both vanilla and almond extract.  Merry Christmas, Hyvää Joulua and God Jul everyone!

Pulla: O Glorious, Heavenly, Delectable Pulla!

Showcased With My Finnish Dishes

I'm half Finnish but often I feel more like three-quarters. 1971 was the first year I visited Finland and although I was a only a child, I have many vivid memories of that experience.  It was new and exciting in so many ways, especially meeting family I had only heard about or seen in pictures.  There is nothing like Finnish coffee table adorned with fresh pulla.  If you like cardamom, this is the ultimate way to enjoy it, with a cup of coffee.  On extremely rare occasions when a loaf is becoming stale after a few days (usually it doesn't last that long), I make it into toast and savour each bite all over again.  

Cinnamon Bun Saturday

Today the sun was absent from the sky so it was a perfect opportunity to brighten the mood by stimulating the olfactory senses with a batch of cinnamon buns.  I add an extra special flavour boost by substituting vanilla sugar for the ordinary white sugar in the dough.  Yes, the aroma was intoxicating and I think it will linger for the next day or so.

The next time I bake these I plan to use Vietnamese cinnamon as I am told it is spectacular in comparison to the standard grocery store variety.  I'll keep you posted on the results.

Our Traditional Shortbread

Last year I purchased an electric cookie press, due to the fact that the one I usually borrow from my Mom has very undesirable qualities, being made of aluminum in the 60s.  My success with the electric model was far better this year having learned the trick of speed.  I think it must have taken only 15 seconds to form an entire cookie sheet full of shortbread!  This year I used Mexican white vanilla, given to me by my friend Pat.  The intoxicating aroma of floral tones baked into the butter and sugar filled the house for the rest of the day.  

After watching Ricardo on the Food Network, I had to try out the Molten Heart Cakes.  They were easy to make and light in texture, though the chocolate flavour was not nearly as intense as I had hoped.  Check back later for slight adjustments to the recipe.

If you use chocolate chips, use a kitchen scale which is more accurate than a measuring cup. You will find a huge selection on sale HERE.  Just type "kitchen scales" in the search bar on the Overstocks page.