Dessert By Candy

Legitimate Cramming

Some trends come and go while others have staying power. For me, the whole dessert in a jar trend was cute the first few times but by now it’s already a little tired. I am just as guilty for jumping onto this bandwagon with my take on Cherry Almond Cobbler (in a jar!), Rhubarb Big Crumb Coffee Cake (in a jar!), and Rice Pudding with Roasted Rhubarb (in a jar!). Well, you get the idea.

Last weekend, I finally have a legitimate reason to cram a dessert into canning jars. I treated Boyfriend to a special Birthday Bento which I lovingly prepared (more about that in coming days but here is a preview). He’s a meat-and-potato kind of guy so I created an appropriately meat-and-potato kind of bento for him. For dessert, I took inspiration from a childhood favourite. Once upon a time, KFC used to sell single-serving cheesecakes in little plastic cup containers. Cherry or blueberry? Cherry of course.

I created this no-bake cheesecake with the standard 125mL/4oz canning jars in mind (Ball and Jarden and Bernardin all makes them). It is the perfect treat size for lunch on the go. Most cheesecake recipes would yield way too many servings. My recipe is scaled down specifically to create only four servings with the least hassles. It is a dessert that I can easily whip up in between attending to other tasks in the kitchen. That’s the way a weeknight dessert ought to be.

Whole & Raw Meet Short & Sweet

One highlight of my weekends is reading Dan Lepard’s How To Bake column in The Guardian. His recipes are written in his signature no-nonsense style with an even simpler list of ingredients yet never fail to deliver on taste. That’s good value to me. Last weekend’s article on bare banana cake caught my attention effortlessly. When Lepard posted the shopping list midweek calling for lots of bananas, I subconsciously stocked up before I even realized what I was putting in my basket. Needless to say, the fruit bowl was overtaken by spotty bananas this week and I knew just what to do about them.

The ingredient list for Dark Banana Ginger Cake is as bare as can be: muscovado sugar, bananas, sunflower oil, eggs, candied ginger, whole wheat bread flour, and baking powder. Problem is that I am running low on pantry staples after my week-long baking bender. Among this list, I only had enough bananas, candied ginger, and baking powder I needed for the recipe. I don’t even have a baking pan of the right size! Improvisation was in order.

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.

Opportunity Missed

When I learned of this week’s Grapefruit Crab Salad for French Fridays with Dorie, I banged my head on the desk. I just came back on Wednesday from South Florida, the land of citrus and stone crab. I can’t believe I managed to miss a golden opportunity to create this ingredient-driven salad when the best that money can buy was just around the corner! My disappointment was quickly set aside though because Greenspan’s recipe inspired something equally delicious yet much friendlier to the wallet. I want to share with you my recipe for Pomelo Mango Shrimp Salad.

Lump crabmeat is a luxury item and spending oodles of money on pasteurized crabmeat in a can up here in Ontario makes no sense to me. Poached shrimp is a great seafood alternative without breaking the bank. Pomelo is my trusty standby for citrus salad. If you read Greenspan’s direction for segmenting and drying grapefruit, I’m sure you’ll agree with me on my choice of citrus. Pomelo tastes like a sweeter version of grapefruit yet the pulp is sturdy enough to be broken into chunks without spilling juice all over the place. I also prefer its crunch. This native southeast Asian fruit is commonly used in Vietnamese and Thai cuisine. I decided to take my salad down that culinary direction with addition of sweet champagne mango, cilantro, scallion, and basil tossed in an oil-free dressing made with fish sauce, lime juice, rice vinegar, and Sriracha. It’s a refreshing combination.

Transition From Winter To Spring

The nutty taste of wheat berries is a characteristic I associate with winter. Stew, braises, and soup are obviously comfort food in cold weather but chewy toothsome wheat berries salad also qualifies as comfort food to me. However, given the right accompaniment, this whole grain salad can easily transition from hearty winter fare to light refreshing spring meal. I present you Mango Shrimp Wheat Berries Salad!

Basking in the balmy warm weather of South Florida has me craving for quick and light meals. Ideally, it is something I can eat directly out of the fridge as soon as I return to the apartment from working out. The beauty of grain salad is that they can be dressed and stored in fridge with no worries of wilting. In fact, the flavour improves when grains and dressing mingle with each other for longer time. My latest creation pairs wheat berries with shrimps, mangoes, red onion, cilantro, and mint in a blood orange marmalade sherry vinaigrette. Optional mix-in of arugula and coconut chips add a nice crunchy contrast.

From Words To Table

I like to keep track of how quickly a recipe transforms from words I read to food I can taste. There are some recipes that remain in my to-cook pile for years. I would re-read them over and over but the motivation to cook from them is never quite strong enough. On the other hand, there are recipes that jump from words to table in the blink of an eye. Last Thursday I experienced it with a recipe that BAKED posted on their newsfeed. It was a recipe for banana chocolate chip cookies made with olive oil which the author cutely named The Booodseees. It inspired me to make cookies with banana, oil, oats, and whole wheat pastry flour but that was pretty much where the similarity ended between my version and The Booodseees. Within 5 minutes of scanning the directions, I was already in my kitchen scaling out ingredients. I was ready to create my own twist of Caramel Banana Peanut Cookies.

These soft chewy cookies tastes of caramelized banana and loads of peanut flavour from using peanut oil, roasted peanuts, and mini Reese’s peanut butter cups. Coincidentally, these cookies are made with 100% whole grain thanks to oat flour, rolled oats, and whole wheat pastry flour. A touch of crunchy toffee pieces studded the cookies to echo the caramel taste. I could not stop at just one. Thank you BAKED for a link to the original recipes! Had I not seen the recipe, I wouldn’t be inspired to create my own version.

Nutella Banoffee Cream Pie

When it comes to Nutella-inspired dessert, restraint is the last thing on my mind. My contribution to last year’s Nutella Day was fun and whimsical in the form of icebox cake and buckeyes. This year, I want a rich and totally over-the-top cream pie. I took inspiration from the ever popular Nutella and banana crepe. Add in a bit of British influence from banoffee pie, my Nutella Banoffee Cream Pie is born.

Thanks to Ms Adventures in Italy, Bleeding Espresso for hosting another edition of World Nutella Day, I have an excuse to feed my Nutella obsession. This Nutella Banoffee Cream Pie starts with a buttery pie crust with a hint of crunchy graham cracker crumbs. It is filled with a thick layer of Nutella and a smooth layer of caramel banana cream cheese filling. It is crowned with billowy Chantilly cream and studded with banana slices and hazelnuts. The sweetness of Nutella is offset by the mildly tangy cream cheese. At the same time, the complex caramel undertone highlights a taste more sophisticated than plain sugary sweetness. I especially love the change in texture from crunchy to sticky to creamy to airy. This dessert is not for the faint of heart.

Celebration Continues

Celebrating lunar new year the Chinese way is a multi-day ordeal. Last night I tried explaining to American Boyfriend how we used to visit family and friends with a scheduling algorithm that assigns priority based on seniority in the family, how close we are, geographical location, and whether we can optimize one visit to meet with as many people as possible. The goal is to meet everyone on the (very long) list within the three statutory holidays though there is some leeway since the new year celebration officially lasts for ten consecutive days. Boyfriend’s head just about to explode before I even got around to explain the etiquette of red pockets.

With all the visiting back and forth, of course the house needs to be stocked with treats for the guests. On Monday I wrote about Split Pea Coconut Pudding 椰汁馬荳糕 and last year I shared with you my recipe for Steamed Turnip Cake 臘味蘿蔔糕. Both are very traditional recipes. Another popular choice is steamed glutinous rice cake, nian gao 年糕. I absolutely love the soft chewy texture reminiscent of Japanese mochi. Unfortunately, the cake hardens up once cooled. My favourite way to enjoy nian gao is pan fry the slices with a thin coating of eggs. It’s totally awesome but can be a greasy treat, not to mention a lot of work. Enter the baked glutinous rice cake. This is a fusion dessert that combines the traditional taste and texture of steamed rice cake with the richness and ease of butter cake. You can simply slice and serve the cake at room temperature yet still enjoy the soft chewy texture of rice cake. I can’t get enough of this!

Go! Go! Go! Lunar New Year

I’m very impressionable when it comes to traditional holidays and festivities. Even though my family has never been too enthusiastic about lunar new year celebrations, traditions and cultures taught me a few mandatory things for this auspicious time of year. Even though I was rather busy last weekend, I did manage to squeeze in enough time to make a couple of new year cakes.

“Cake” is a loose translation of all the savoury and sweet round puddings we eat for new year celebration. In Cantonese, such puddings are called Go which share the same pronunciation as tall or height. They are enjoyed as much for taste as the implied well wishes of promotion in career or children growing taller. Cake is a rather generic term to describe all these round puck puddings. They can be made with rice flour, starch, grated vegetable, agar agar, tapioca, or beans for a range of various texture. Soft, sticky, starchy, delicate, creamy…you can take your pick. I always make a batch of steamed daikon cake 臘味蘿蔔糕 since it is a family favourite. As for the sweet selection, there are quite a few that I like. This year, I went for something less labour intensive. Enter my personal favourite Coconut Pudding with Yellow Split Peas 椰汁馬荳糕.

Sticky Chewy Rye & Date Bars

My to-bake wish list swells and shrinks depending on the seasons. The frenzy leading up to Christmas always leaves me with regret of not baking all the tempting recipes I bookmark. After the holidays, a virtuous healthy eating attitude typically takes hold and baking has no space in my definition of wholesome eating. When the weather warms up, so does the myriad colour in the market. All that fruit and vegetable signal the beginning of canning season and the heat of oven seems a bit harsh for their natural beauty. Harvest in autumn is really the only time I get to indulge in my to-bake wish list. In season ingredients are plentiful but the cooler temperature also suits such warmer flavour as chocolate, caramel, and spices.

One item that never leaves my to-bake wish list despite the change of season is date square. This homely bar cookie did not catch my attention for years with its lack of visual appeal and the starring role of dates. That all changed in 2006 when I visited the now-defunct Vienna Home Bakery in the West Queen West neighbourhood of Toronto. Around that time, the neighbourhood became more hipster by the day and stalwart businesses such as Vienna were closing shop by choice or not. I was lucky to visit the bakery with its long counter, stools, humble display cases, and intimate atmosphere created by long-time employees. I ordered a piece of their famous date square upon recommendation of the owner and was immediately won over. The date square was like a portable fruit crumble except the saucy apple pieces were replaced by an layer of more intense date puree scented with orange. The texture of a pleasantly chewy bottom crust contrasted well with the crunchy crumbly topping and silky fruit filling. I was hooked.