Dessert By Candy

Pretender

You have to be living under a rock to think that muffins are the good-for-you breakfast food that we so desperately want them to be. They may be packed with fruits and nuts but there are also copious amount of butter and sugar. Diet food they are not. Exactly how did they earn the Healthy Breakfast Badge? A good PR?

Good for the body or not, I still love muffins. They are easy to put together using ingredients that do not require a special trip to the store. For the little effort that they require, they instantly add wow factor to any breakfast spread. A good friend of mine still rave about the time she woke up to a batch of blueberry muffins fresh out of the oven when we had a sleepover. I can easily take one on the road if a leisurely breakfast is not possible. This blank canvas can morph into any flavours, sweet or savoury, with or without toppings. The sky’s the limit.

Having said all that, nothing can stop me from pretending to make a healthy muffin. I disguised my Chocolate Chip Muffin with Streusels using whole wheat flour and oat bran. I doubt that it is a very good disguise though because the muffins still turned out tender and buttery thanks in no small part to melted butter, full-fat buttermilk, bittersweet chocolate chips, and crunchy almond oat streusels. Well, at least I tried.

Comfort Of Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

In exactly two weeks, I will be on my way to Denmark and Germany for World Masters Championship. The pressure of a big competition is mounting and I can feel it both mentally and physically. Comfort food is especially alluring right now but more importantly than ever, I have to eat healthy. How unfortunate. Because I’m experiencing the biggest craving for grilled cheese sandwiches right now.

Back in February when Race Day was merely a mark on the calendar, I indulged in a batch of homemade pimento cheese. I never even knew about this southern cheesy staple until a road trip last Christmas to South Carolina. Boyfriend and I took his parents out to Sesame Burgers & Beer and I discovered the deliciousness of sharp cheddar seasoned with pimento peppers, mayonnaise, garlic, and hot sauce. The cheese spread melted yieldingly onto the juicy burger patty and I was hooked.

Like most kids in North America, grilled cheese as I knew it is Kraft single between buttered slices of Wonder Bread. I loved the combination so much that I would even eat a non-grilled version happily. My taste has gotten a bit more discerning since but grilled cheese sandwich still tugs at my heartstring. Except now, I want good cheese and good bread and good butter.

Put An Egg On It

Asparagus signals the beginning of spring as much as the much-lauded wild leeks. How appropriate that French Fridays with Dorie is cooking Asparagus with Bits of Bacon this Easter weekend! I suppose it would actually help if the weather in Ontario is warm enough to harvest asparagus. Since it is not (brrr!), imports from our southern neighbour would have to do. My inner locavore chided my shopping decision but since I already broke the rule, I might as well go with Wellshire Farm bacon all the way from New Jersey.

In my attempt to balance out the “foreign percentage” of my breakfast plate, I paired the smoky savoury side with a fried duck egg from my CSA and a couple slices of Seeduction bread from the local Whole Foods. Bacon and egg with green vegetable and whole grain bread? This sounds like a wholesome breakfast to kick off the long weekend. Breakfast is by far my favourite meal of the day. Sure the asparagus would make a fine addition to any Easter feast (ham! lamb!), but I can’t think of anything but breakfast.

Ten Pounds Of Flour

I bought five pounds of all-purpose and five pounds of bread flour during the first week of my stay in Florida. That was end of February. My time here is quickly coming to a close and I’m in a frenzy to use up everything I bought for my little pantry. Believe it or not, I think there is good chance I’ll finish those two bags of flour. That’s ten pounds of flour in five weeks. I don’t think I go through flour so quickly except for bake sales or holiday baking.

Baking my daily bread obviously uses plenty of flour. Every loaf calls for a pound of bread flour. The batches of cookies, cakes, and pizza helped with depleting my all-purpose flour supply. I did not fully realize the scary amount of baking I did until I scanned through my Florida album. It is packed with so many photos of baked goods. No wonder Boyfriend wondered if I have been slacking off with training at all (no I haven’t).

Sharing Is Caring

There has been no shortage of goodies coming out of my borrowed sweet kitchen in Fort Lauderdale. Not only did the food curb the cravings of my sweet tooth (and a wee bit of homesickness), there are also enough to go around to share with friends old and new in Florida. Last weekend, I sent a little brown paper bag with some homemade granola and strawberry jam to a new friend so she too could enjoy this luscious breakfast parfait I love so much.

Breakfast is by far my favourite meal of the day. Egg dishes of any kind, dairy galore, and steaming cups of aromatic coffee, need I go on? Of course there are also special occasions calling for special breakfasts that are just dessert in disguise. Those are my absolute favourites though I don’t indulge too often. Gotta keep my girlish figure (well, no. Actually any extra weight just slows me down when I climb hills on skates. That’s the true and practical reason behind the weight obsession.). I’ve written more than once about my love for homemade granola and how dangerous it is for me to be home alone with a fresh batch. Considering all the tough training I’ve been through in recent weeks, I earned my granola. Not just any granola, mind you. This is a recipe lauded by many including the team at food52 and food writer Melissa Clark. Yup, I joined the bandwagon at last and I too want to rave about Nekisia Davis’ Early Bird Granola.

Allure Of Homemade

The resurgence of homesteading has many of us puttering around the kitchen canning, preserving, baking, and cooking many things from scratch. My parent’s generation rejoiced in the convenience of processed food and all the free time it afforded them to do so much more. It’s funny how things have come full circle and we’re now clamouring for all things homemade.

How far would you go to reach that elusive homemade label for what you put on the dining table? This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is Nutella Tartine. At its heart, we have a slice of butter toasted brioche topped with marmalade, Nutella, toasted hazelnut, and fleur de sel. It is so easy to put together that a kid can do it in less than five minutes for a quick afternoon snack. But we’re on the topic of making things from scratch, aren’t we? Do you bake your own loaf of bread? Grab a jar of marmalade from the larder that you lovingly canned at the height of citrus season? And that Nutella! Does it come from hazelnuts that you toasted and skinned and grinded with the best quality chocolate you can get your hands on? It’s amazing how a five-minute recipe can stretch into a multi-day cooking extravaganza.

Bring Out The Icing, Bring On The Decadence

There is stress eating but I much rather practice stress baking. When the pressure heats up, so does my oven. In fact, you can gauge the reading of my stress-o-meter by looking at what kind of decadent dessert I churn out. Yesterday I baked up a batch of Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls complete with Cream Cheese Icing. So how stressful am I? Take a look at this photo and judge for yourself.

Cinnamon roll has the power to dissolve self-control with its sweet aroma of butter and spice. If you’ve ever come into sniffing-distance of any cinnamon roll stands, you know what I mean. Worse yet, at an airport. Where there’s no decent food available within walking distance. It’s hard to walk away from such encounters without a roll or two that I’m sure go directly from mouth to waistline. That’s just a long way to say, yes I am pretty stress out.

When More Is More

People often preach the virtue of “less is more” but I think there is merit to the “more is more” approach. Homemade bread is a good example. How satisfying is it to bite into a slice generously studded with briny olives or to sink my knife into a loaf loaded with plump currants? I had the pleasure to experience both last weekend with just a bit of minimal effort. Bread baking does not need to be complicate. As long as you’re willing to invest in a bit of time and patience, you too can share this wonderful experience.

Baking bread at home means that I do not need to count my pennies when it comes to loading my bread with tasty add-ins. A whole jar of kalamata olives? Sure! Half a pound of currants? Why not? On top of that, I got to use fresh dried herbs and good quality spices. Such small indulgences are quite affordable in the home kitchen. It was small price to pay to indulge in Currants Cinnamon Bread or Black Olives Sesame Bread coated in oregano, thyme, sumac, and lemon zest.

Milk And Bread

I’ve been on a mission to use up gallons of raw milk. Boyfriend is part of a herdshare program and that comes with two gallons of milk every week. Just because we went on a road trip to South Carolina for a few days, that did not mean the cows took a break from milking. We had so much extra milk in the fridge that I was using milk in many of my cooking.

Aside from rice pudding and double batch of butter rum pudding, I also made a rustic loaf of bread loosely adapted from Dan Lepard’s Delicate Milk Loaf. I absolutely love his technique of starting with a sponge followed by brief 10 seconds kneading with 10 minutes rest in between for half an hour. The dough is entirely made by hand. The only equipment I really need is an accurate kitchen scale, something I do not expect to find in a bachelor’s abode. Apparently there is much I have yet to learn about my Boyfriend.

Steel Cut Oatmeal As Fast Food

If you’ve tried steel cut oatmeal, you would never go back to old-fashioned rolled, quick, or instant oats…except for one caveat. The taste is superior for sure but the amount of time it takes to cook the oats is absolutely unrealistic for busy mornings. Thanks to America’s Test Kitchen, I now know of a great way to cook steel cut oats in five minutes amidst routine of morning chaos. This is one of the best recipes I got to test for upcoming issues of Cook’s Illustrated.

As a member of Friends of Cook’s Illustrated, I receive recipes in my inbox from America’s Test Kitchen to test. Sometimes the recipes are not typically what I would cook and sometimes the cooking directions are a little unconventional. However, it is always exciting to see what’s coming up in future issues of the magazine. There were only a couple of occasions when time constraint or limitation of ingredients prevented me from trying out the recipes. As much as I love the more complicated recipes, I am most fond of new and improved ways of making old favourites.