When I looked through the chosen recipes for January for Tuesdays with Dorie I saw that the Bakewell Tart was on the list. After looking through the recipe I realized it sounded familiar. In fact, I had seen this once before, on the CBC Great Canadian Baking Show (Season 4, pastry) for one of the technical bakes!

But, what is a Bakewell Tart? The Bakewell tart is a British classic dessert and usually has a short crust pastry, frangipane and jam (typically raspberry). From what I have read, there can actually be different variations. 

To me, it feels like you you are mixing the essence of a pie and cake together. Perhaps that simplifies it a bit, but let’s go into how it went for me. 

To make the recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking with Dorie you first make a pie crust. Hers is a pate sucree (mixture of cold butter, flour, egg and sugar).  The dough is then rolled out into an 11inch circle, then partially blind baked (where you add pie weights onto the crust – to keep it from bubbling up in the oven). 

Blind baked pie crust cooling

At this point, you can decorate with just a drizzle of icing (icing sugar mixed with water). However the first time I decorated my Bakewell Tart it turned out terrible. So in an effort to make it more aesthetically pleasing (for myself) I added icing all over the tart and then attempted to make some pink lines for a feathering effect. That didn’t go nearly as well as I had hoped but it looks decent! 

In all honesty, if this was a real technical bake in a real baking challenge I would have failed on the presentation alone. My feathering (for the lines) did not go very well as I was trying to work fast as the icing was starting to set! 

I love how tasty this Bakewell Tart is. It isn’t too sweet, despite the icing on top and the haskap jam went very well with the rest of the tart. The cake part of the tart has a nice almond flavour from the almond extract as well as the addition of almond meal and flour. I personally also love the nice crispy pate sucree crust at the bottom as it is my favourite part about pies. So, there you have it, my experience of baking up my first Bakewell Tart! 

You can get the recipe for Steph’s Bakewell Tart on pg.298 of Baking with Dorie or here.

All right everyone! We are back with another recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking with Dorie. Of the two options for those month I chose to do the Apple Pandowdy first. We were going over to a friends’ place so bringing a warm dessert seemed to fit the occasion nicely. We happened to just have enough ambrosia apples in the fridge to make the dessert so it was meant to be. The main difference for this dessert is that usually when you see a dessert with apples you think of cinnamon. Dorie Greenspan highly suggests keeping it simple and just having a lemon forward dessert for this apple pandowdy. The apples are simply dressed with sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. The reason why its called a “Pandowdy” is because typically this dessert is made with the scrap pieces of dough you may have around after baking a pie. It isn’t about perfection but just random scraps of dough.

The top of the apple pandowdy is topped with ample amounts of sugar

Would we make this again? Most definitely. The lemon forwardness of the dessert didn’t make us miss the cinnamon at all. Dorie Greenspan also gives ideas on how to change up the dessert; more spice for a warmer dessert and/or adding in different fruits depending on the season.

Clearly it must have smelled amazing as Luna (our own pup) made an attempt to hop up onto the bench at our friend’s place to get a taste. Don’t worry, she wasn’t able to. But you can definitely see in the picture how much she wanted to while Lovey (her sister from another litter) looks on.

You can find the recipe for this Apple Pandowdy on page 257 of Baking with Dorie or here. 

Feel free to check out the Tuesdays with Dorie page to see what everyone else ended up cooking up (you had the choice to make either Apple Pandowdy or English Muffins). 

It’s no surprise that milk bread (shokupan) gets rediscovered every few years. Compared to western style sandwich loafs, the insides are light, soft and fluffy. It’s hard to resist tearing the bread apart just to see the elastic inside. Milk bread not only derives its name from the using milk but also the bright white milk-like colour of the inner crumb. Some people may only associate this bread with Hokkaido (Japanese) milk bread but the bread actually has Chinese origins.

One of the key steps to making milk bread is a Chinese technique called TangZhong (湯種法). Chinese bakers have been using this technique since the early 1900s to make soft buns. TangZhong is like a roux, it’s made by cooking a small amount of flour in a liquid (milk). The resulting gel releases more steam during the baking process resulting in higher loaves.

In terms of shaping, milk bread often comes in two or three lobes in the span of a single loaf pan. The instructions show how to make a three-lobed loaf but you can adapt this to any style.

This recipe makes 1 loaf.

Equipment

• Buttered loaf pan
• Small pot to make tangzhong
• Small bowl to hold tang zhong
• Small bowl to hold milk and yeast
• Large bowl (to hold dough as it doubles)
• Scale (optional)
• Baking tray (optional)
• Rolling pin (optional)
• Silicone or bristle Brush (optional)

Ingredients for the loaf

• 330 g all Purpose flour (1.5 Cups of flour)
• 24 g sugar (approximately 1.5 tablespoons)
• 7g salt (approximately 1 tsp)
• 4g dried active yeast (about 1/2 teaspoon)
• 95g warm milk (26C-32C/ 78F-89F)
• 1 egg
• 20g unsalted softened butter (1 tablespoon)
• 2 tablespoons of milk (for brushing the loafs)

Ingredients for Tangzhong

• 100g of boiling milk (1/2 Cup less 1 tablespoon)
• 40g of flour (2 tablespoons)

Instructions

1. Make the tangzhong in a small bowl, mix the boiling milk with the of flour. Keep stirring until all the flour is cooked. It should smell a bit like almond. Set aside and allow to cool.
2. Using a microwave to warm the milk to (30-35°C); this should take approximately 20 seconds. The milk should be warm, not scalding. Mix the yeast into the warm milk and let sit for 5 minutes.
   

3. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, salt, and sugar) together in a large bowl.
4. Add in the yeast-milk solution (should be slightly foamy by now) and mix.
5. Add egg, butter, and tangzhong.
6. Using a stand mixer with a dough hook, mix for about 8 minutes or until the dough comes together and it doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl. Alternatively, you can knead by hand for about 12-15 minutes.
7. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise until doubled (about 90 minutes based on room temperature). At this point, if you need more time you can punch down the dough and keep it in the fridge overnight.
8. Divide the dough into 3 portions.
9. You are now going to shape each of the portions into a small loaf. Do the following: 
1. On a lightly floured surface flatten out into a long rectangle so that the short end is facing you.
   
2. Taking the top edge fold it over the middle and take the bottom fold it over the top like a letter (letter fold).
   
3. Rotate the dough so that the short end is facing you.
4. Flatten out into another long rectangle with the width about the same width as your loaf pan.
5. From the short end facing you, firmly roll the rectangle up into a smooth cylinder.
   
10. Place each of the rolls with the spiral facing the long sides of the loaf pan into a well-buttered loaf pan with some space in between. The rolls will rise and expand one last time so they need room to grow.
    
11. Brush the top of each of the rolls with milk.
    
12. Cover the loaf pan and wait 30-45 minutes for it to rise (rolls should expand above the height of the loaf pan).
13. Preheat oven to 375F.
14. Carefully brush the top of the rolls with milk one last time before placing the loaf into the oven.
    
15. Bake for 35 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and it sounds hollow.
16. Remove from the oven and let it cool down before removing from the loaf pan.

Milk bread has this interesting property where the outside will harden but the inside remains very soft.  This means you should only slice as you need it so each slice is nice and soft. You can eat it plain, or toast it and spread it with your favourite jam or some condensed milk. If there are any leftovers after a few days, it makes a great french toast.

While this bread is not as simple as a “no-knead” style bread, it only takes a few tries before you get the hang of it and add your own twists and modifications.

We realized that the inside of the cake was not pictured so we could make it whatever flavour we wanted (especially if we were going to eat it). I LOVE chocolate so I decided to go with a chocolate cake as the main cake, with strawberry frosting. To make the chocolate cake, we split our batter into two 9 inch round chocolate cake pans (9inch by 2 inch). 

Chocolate Cake Recipe

Ingredients

• 240g (1 cup) a double shot of espresso diluted with hot water until it fills one cup
• 60g (6 Tbsp) dark chocolate (chopped)
• 388g (1 3/4 cup) sugar
• 236g (1 1/2 cup) cake flour
• 180g (1 cup) dutch processed cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 120g (1/2 cup) olive oil
• 240g (1 cup) buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions for Chocolate Cake

1. Preheat oven to 325F (160C). Line the bottom of both cake pans with parchment paper (cut out approximately 9inch circles so they fit exactly) and butter the sides of the pan. 
2. Pull a double shot of espresso and dilute with hot water until you get 1 cup. In a large bowl pour the hot coffee over the dark chocolate. Wait one minute and then start to whisk the chocolate so that it has melts completely.
3. In another bowl, mix together sugar, cake flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
4. In the bowl of a stand-up mixer whisk together the egg, olive oil, buttermilk and vanilla together.
5. While the mixer is still mixing at medium speed, slowly add the chocolate coffee mixture.
6. Slowly add in all the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Mix until the batter just comes together. The batter may appear lumpy but try not to over mix.
7. Split the batter into the two cake pans. Bake both pans for approximately 40 minutes. Check that the cakes are done by inserting a toothpick into the middle of the cake. When it comes out clean the cakes are done.
8. Allow the cakes to cool completely.
9. After they have cooled for an hour, run a knife around the edge of each pan. Then gently flip each cake out. Set the cakes aside to cool completely. 

Ingredients

• 188g (1 1/4 cup) white chocolate
• 150g (2/3 cup) whipping cream
• 2 Tbsp water
• 84g (1/3 cup) sugar
• 1 Tbsp white corn syrup
• 188g (3/4 cup) unsalted room temperature butter
• 2.5 Tbsp ground freeze dried strawberries

Red Chocolate Dripping

Ingredients

• 70g (1/2 cup) white chocolate
• 95g (1/4 cup) whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon of water
• 30g (1 1/2 tablespoons) white corn syrup
• 1/8 of teaspoon of red powdered color food dye

Directions

1. Melt white chocolate in large bowl over boiling water.
2. In a separate small pot, heat whipping cream, water, and corn syrup until near boiling.
3. Slowly pour the hot cream over the white chocolate while mixing with a spatula.
4. Keep stirring with a spatula until smooth.
5. Add the red food dye in parts so that the colour is even.
6. Take out a large baking pan and put a cookie cooling rack on top of the pan. This is to catch any drippings.
7. Take the cake out of the freezer and place it on the cookie cooling rack.
8. Transfer the chocolate mixture into a large measuring cup so that it is easier to pour.
9. Slowly add more melted chocolate so that it starts to drip over the edges of the cake.

Lemon meringue cake with “Happy Birthday” cake topper from Justine Ma

Join me in celebrating hubby’s birthday today!  I am impressed myself that I baked this cake! I decided that this year I would bake Dan a cake (last year I made profiteroles-by hand)! Now, not just any cake, but a cake from Duchess Bake Shop’s Cookbook. At some point in my food resolutions (Food Resolutions 2016) I had set out to cook through Duchess’ cookbook! Well, it has been a few years now and while I have made plenty of items from the cookbook I have yet to blog them all. About 2 years ago I made the Duke (chocolate) cake from Duchess’ cookbook for Dan’s birthday, so I felt that I would be able to tackle their lemon meringue cake.

ingredients for lemon cream – in my wheel thrown bowls

The making of the lemon meringue cake – meringue being added to the cake base

Monday morning I made the lemon cream. Instead of using the double boiler method listed in the book, I used the Vitamix on the hot soup function. This helped to speed up cooking and waiting time. Just make sure to cook the mixture to at least 170F before adding in the butter. You can use the same method I used here in my Vitamix Blender Lemon Cream Pie.

I found prepping everything first worked best (salted caramel, lemon cream, lemon syrup). That way, once the cakes are cooled, assembly is a breeze.

Lemon cake out of the oven. You only need to put a parchment paper circle on the bottom. No need to oil or butter pan. One thing to note about my cake. I actually ended up using two 9″ pans as I could not for the life of me find the 8″ pans that was needed. As I had purchased two pans already last time when I was making the Duke cake, I did the same procedure here and baked two lemon cakes. The upside in doing this is that I don’t have to worry about how to cut the cake perfectly in half – horizontally!  Once the cakes were cooled, I brushed on the lemon syrup. Because I used two cakes, I used the bottom of the cakes as the insides of my cake.

Then a little more than half a cup of salted caramel was poured onto the cake – the half that you have determined to be the bottom of the cake.

Since I had made my salted caramel the day before, I heated it up in the microwave for about 20 seconds. This ensured that the salted caramel was still spreadable but not so hot that it would leak everywhere. An inch or so was left around the edges so that no spillage would occur.

Lastly, the lemon cream was layered onto the cake. Then I popped on the top part of the cake, wrapped the entire thing in saran wrap and set it in the freezer.

The next day – which was this morning (Tuesday), I iced the cake with meringue. This has to be done fresh and it is important to work quickly as the meringue has to be caramelized to be set. This was the part where I think I got a bit nervous! Even though I work with meringue often, I don’t often use it for icing a cake. Trying to make the meringue go on straight on the cake while being worried about being too fussy with the meringue was a real concern! You can’t fiddle with the meringue too long, otherwise it starts to lose its shape and fall.

Another view of the lemon meringue cake. This time with the cake topper lower & catching the afternoon light.

Will I make this Duchess cake again? For sure. It was certainly easier to put together compared to my experience with the Duke. I do eventually want to find an 8′ cake pan, but for now it works fine using the two cake pans. There are also more than enough ingredients to fill the cake and meringue to cover the cake. I just need to work more on my meringue “icing” skills.

A 4 Tier of Blueberry macarons

Originally for these macaron shells, I was aiming for more of a pastel purple shell. Instead, they came out slightly on the dark purple side. Looks like I was a bit heavy handed on the purple gel food colouring. I had just bought it and was super excited to use it.

If you have been following along with me on my macaron journey, the recipe for these is pretty much the same one I have been using for the past 7 years! Wow, can you believe it? I have been baking macarons & blogging about them for so long already! Despite moving 3 times in the past 7 years, including across several provinces, the recipe has stood the test of finicky ovens and humidity! There are some tweaks here and there, but ultimately it is the same exact recipe. Oven baking times may differ slightly but that is because of aforementioned finicky oven.

almond meal and icing sugar mixed together.

Ingredients for Purple Murple Macaron Shells

225g icing sugar

125g almond meal

5g albumen

28g berry sugar (extra fine sugar)

100g aged egg whites

2 drops Wilton purple gel food colouring 

Notes:

• Make your own berry sugar by processing regular sugar in a food processor until the sugar crystals are super fine. Keep any extra sugar in an air tight container for future baking. 
• Keep almond meal in the fridge when you are not using it to prevent it from going rancid. A few hours before baking, take the almond meal out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature. 
• Egg whites need to be aged for 2 days in an airtight container.  I place my egg whites in a draft free place on the kitchen counter. Keep the egg yolks in the fridge for the buttercream.
• Pre-measure all ingredients before starting. In fact, do this for ALL recipes!  
• Kitchen tools: 
• kitchen scale (approx. $20 on amazon or Canadian tire)
• food processor (helpful to grind the almond meal and icing sugar together)
• sifter
• spatula (at least 2)
• hand mixer or stand mixer
• piping bag and tip
• large upright cup (helps to hold up piping bag)
• silicon mats or parchment paper
• heavy duty baking sheets (or stack two baking sheets together; this prevents macarons from burning). 

Directions for Purple Murple Macaron Shells

1. Measure all ingredients. Set up the piping bag for the macarons with a round piping tip (I use a Wilton 2A or Ateco 804 piping tip). Line baking sheets with silicon mats or parchment paper. If you are worried about piping macarons too large, use a smaller piping tip. 
   

   ingredients for making the macaron shell

2. Process the almond meal and icing sugar in a food processor until it is well mixed together. Use a spoon to occasionally move the ingredients around before processing again. I have mine set on the finest setting. 
   

   processing of almond meal and icing sugar

3. Sift the icing sugar-almond meal mixture through a sifter to ensure there are no clumps. Place a bowl underneath.
   

   Sifting of the icing sugar and almond meal after processing.

4. Measure out 100g of egg whites and place in the bowl of the stand-up mixer with the whisk attachment.  Slowly whisk at low speed until little bubbles form. Once the bubbles form, add in the mixture of berry sugar and albumen. Then turn the mixer to medium speed (e.g. 4 on the Kitchen Aid).
   

   adding in the albumen and extra fine sugar to the whipping egg whites.

5. Continue to whisk the egg whites until “soft peaks” form. To check, stop and tilt the head of the Kitchen Aid back or stop and lift the tip of the whisk into the mixture to see if a small “bird’s peak forms”. If you see a peak form, then you are done whisking the egg whites. If it looks drippy/wet as you lift up, keep whisking until the “soft peaks” form – off the whisk.  Add in the two drops of Wilton Leaf purple food colouring with a toothpick.
6. Slowly incorporate the almond meal sugar mixture by sifting 2 tablespoons at a time into the meringue. Mix in a clockwise direction. This step is probably one of the most crucial steps in making macarons – also known as the macaronage process. Sift 2 tablespoons of the almond -sugar mixture into the whipped egg whites after each step. Mix in a clockwise direction.
   1st part= 16 turns
   2nd part = 11 turns
   3rd part = 14 turns
   4th part = 11 turns
   5th part = 11 turns
   6th part = 23 turns
7. Give a few more turns to the batter scooping through it with your spatula. Once the macaron batter feels and looks like magma (flows slowly) you are ready to transfer it to the prepared piping bag. When you transfer the macaron batter to the piping bag you are also “mixing it”.
8. Pipe out small circles. Hold the piping bag vertically. Pipe straight down and then do a quick circular movement to the right to finish piping one shell. I pipe across the length of my tray. I typically pipe 18-20 macaron shells per tray. How many shells you pipe on a tray will depend on how big you make each shell. Before piping the next sheet, firmly rap the tray on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles inside the shells. This is called “tamping”. Use a toothpick to gently poke any bubbles.
   
   here’s an example of me piping & tamping. These were for chocolate macarons but the idea is the same.  
   
   Continue to pipe the rest of the trays. 5 shells on the first row, then 4, then 5, then 4. For this particular video above, I ended up piping smaller macarons for each row.

   Let the piped macarons sit for at least 60 minutes until a skin forms and is dry to the touch (this is an important step).

9. Preheat the oven to 280-290F. Allow the oven to come to the correct temperature. This may take 30 minutes. Using an oven thermometer will be helpful. Depending on your oven you may be baking anywhere from 280F to 290F. Currently I am baking each tray of my macarons at 290F for 20 minutes. Once the macarons are done baking allow the shells to cool on their tray before you gently peel them off. Lift under the mat and then push up to gently release each macaron shell. The bottoms should be nice and smooth.
   
10. At this point you can choose to place the macaron shells in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer to be filled with buttercream for another day. Otherwise, continue on with matching shells together in order to fill them with the chocolate buttercream.

Blueberry Buttercream Recipe

• 80g castor (caster) sugar (superfine sugar)
• 25g water
• 1 whole egg (~60g)
• 1 egg yolk
• 180g soft unsalted butter (cut into cubes)
• 2 tablespoons of finely processed freeze dried blueberries

1. Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small pot.  Place candy thermometer on the side of the pot. Heat the sugar to 250F(120C. Do not touch the solution, but allow the sugar solution to slowly bubble on its own.
   
2. In another bowl or the bowl of your stand up mixer whisk the eggs and egg yolks until it lightens in colour.
   
3. Once the hot sugar mixture reaches 250F slow down the whisking speed of the eggs, and immediately pour the hot sugar mixture into the egg mixture. Increase to a higher whisking speed (8 on my KitchenAid). Continue whisking until the mixture has cooled down completely (approximately 10-15 minutes). It will look glossy, white and meringue like (see video below). 

   

4. Keep whisking the meringue until it has cooled (10-15 minutes). Meanwhile in a separate bowl, whisk the butter until it has thickened. It will lighten a bit in colour. Once the meringue has cooled, slowly add in the whisked butter a tablespoon at a time. Continue whisking until the buttercream is smooth. If it looks like it is curdling, that is okay! Keep whisking and the buttercream will come back together. 
5. Place the freeze dried blueberries into a food processor. Blitz until you have a fine powder. You can find freeze dried fruits in the snack aisle of most health food stores, in camping stores or online.
   
6. Add the freeze dried blueberries into the buttercream mixture. Whisk until combined. Using a spatula stir the blueberry buttercream a few times to deflate air pockets. Then, transfer the blueberry buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a tip.
   
7. Set up your macaron shells so each shell has a partner shell that matches it in size.
   
8. Pipe a small mound of blueberry buttercream onto each half macaron shell. Assemble the macarons by placing the tops on the macaron and gently push together until the buttercream mound flattens.
   
9. Store the macarons in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 days. 2 hours before serving, bring them out of the fridge as they are best enjoyed at room temperature.
   

Well, there you have it! My complete recipe for purple murple macarons filled with a blueberry buttercream. You can certainly use fruit jams instead of freeze dried blueberries but I find that this often results in a wet buttercream. So use caution and just had a touch. 

Oatmeal Cookies. For me, cookies aren’t the same unless they have chocolate – thus oatmeal must always be followed with chocolate! Looking back at the blog I do have an oatmeal, chocolate chip & raisin recipe from 2010(!) and a recipe for Oatmeal & Raisin Cookies using canola oil from 2012. However, the recipe that I have been testing and creating over the past year(s) I realize is not even on the blog. This never even occurred to me until a friend asked me for my recipe recently!

So, without further ado here is my latest oatmeal and chocolate cookie recipe.

Crispy Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies

Directions for Crispy Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies

I love how these cookies, eaten while still warm from the oven are crispy and still have a nice chew to them. Feel free to play with different variations of chocolate additions. I can assure you that each one tastes perfectly amazing. Try a mixture of chocolate chip with dark chocolate chocolate chunks, chocolate wafers and skor or even a mixture of chocolate chip, dark chocolate squares and a chopped skor bar! Hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

Homemade Lemon Macarons for Macaron Mashup

Ingredients needed for Macaron Making

Ingredients for Lemon Macarons

• 225g icing sugar
• 125g almond meal
• 5g albumen
• 28g berry sugar (extra fine sugar)
• 100g aged egg whites
• 1/2 tsp yellow powder

To get started with macaron making, I highly recommend pre-measuring all of your ingredients first. This will make it easier for yourself as you move through all the steps. For equipment/items you will need: a kitchen scale, a food processor will be helpful to grind the almond meal and icing sugar together, a sifter, spatula, hand blender or stand-up blender, piping bag and tip, silicon mats or parchment paper and heavy duty baking sheets.

I use a kitchen scale as macarons are somewhat finicky and the ingredients need to be measured by weight. The proportions of each ingredient need to be just right in order to support you in making the best macarons.

Directions for Making Lemon Macarons

1. Process the almond meal and icing sugar in a food processor until it is well mixed together. Use a spoon to occasionally move the ingredients around before processing again.
   
2. Sift the icing sugar-almond meal mixture through a sifter to ensure there are no clumps. Place a bowl underneath.
   
3. Measure out 100g of egg whites and place in the bowl of the stand-up mixer with the whisk attachment.
   
4. Slowly whisk at low speed until little bubbles form. Once the bubbles form, add in the mixture of berry sugar and albumen. Then turn the mixer to medium speed (4 on the kitchen aid). Add in the yellow powder.
   
   
5. Continue to whisk the egg whites until “soft peaks” form. To check, stop and tilt the head of the Kitchen Aid back or stop and lift the tip of the whisk into the mixture to see if a small “bird’s peak forms”. If you see a peak form, then you are done whisking the egg whites. If it looks drippy/wet as you lift up, keep whisking for a touch longer.
   
6. Slowly incorporate the almond meal sugar mixture by sifting 2 tablespoons at a time into the meringue. Mix in a clockwise direction. This step is probably one of the most crucial steps in making macarons – also known as the macaronage process.
   
   
7. Mixing in a clockwise direction do the following:1st part= 16 turns
   2nd part = 11 turns
   3rd part = 14 turns
   4th part = 11 turns
   5th part = 11 turns
   6th part = 23 turns.
   
8. Give a few more turns to the batter scooping through it with your spatula. Once the macaron batter feels and looks like magma (flows slowly) you are ready to transfer it to the prepared piping bag. When you transfer the macaron batter to the piping bag you are also “mixing it”.
   
9. Pipe out small circles. Hold the piping bag vertically. Pipe straight down and then do a quick circular movement to the right to finish piping one shell. I pipe across the length of my tray. I typically pipe 18-20 macaron shells per tray. How many shells you pipe on a tray will depend on how big you make each shell. Before piping the next sheet, firmly rap the tray on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles inside the shells. This is called “tamping”. Use a toothpick to gently poke any bubbles. 

   Let macarons sit for at least 60 minutes until a skin forms and is dry to the touch (this is an important step).
   Continue to pipe the rest of the trays. I typically pipe about 4 trays of macarons with 18-20 macarons on each one.  5 shells on the first row, then 4, then 5, then 4. 

   
10. Preheat the oven to 280-290F. Allow the oven to come to the correct temperature. This may take 30 minutes. Using an oven thermometer will be helpful. Depending on your oven you may be baking anywhere from 280F to 290F. Bake each tray one at a time for 19-20 minutes. Take the macarons out of oven and allow the shells to cool on their tray before you gently peel them off. Lift under the mat and then push up to gently release each macaron shell.

    At this point you can choose to place the macaron shells in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer to be filled with buttercream for another day. Otherwise, continue on with matching shells together in order to fill them with the lemon buttercream.
    
    

Recipe for Lemon Buttercream 

• 80g berry sugar/superfine sugar
• 25g water
• 1 whole egg (~60g)
• 1 egg yolk
• 160g soft unsalted butter (cut into cubes)
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1.5 tablespoons lemon juice

1. Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small pot. Heat the sugar to 250F(120C) using a candy thermometer. If it boils, clean the sides of the pan with a damp pastry brush. Try not to mix the solution, but allow the sugar solution to heat on its own.
   
2. In another bowl or the bowl of your stand up mixer whisk the eggs and egg yolks until it lightens in colour.
   
3. Once the hot sugar mixture reaches 250F slow down the whisking speed of the eggs, and immediately pour the hot sugar mixture into the egg mixture (do this part quickly). Increase to a higher whisking speed (8 on my KitchenAid). Continue whisking until the mixture has cooled down completely (approximately 15 minutes). It will look glossy, white and meringue like.
   
4. Keep whisking the meringue until it has cooled (10-15 minutes). Meanwhile in a separate bowl, whisk the butter until it has thickened. It will lighten a bit in colour. Once the meringue has cooled (temperature drops down to 50F), slowly add in the whisked butter a tablespoon at a time. Continue whisking until the buttercream is smooth.
   
5. Add in the lemon juice and zest to the buttercream.
   
6. Once the lemon juice and zest has incorporated into the butter mixture, smooth out the buttercream with a turns of the spatula. Then transfer the lemon buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a tip.
   
7. Set up your macaron shells so that each shell has a partner shell that matches it in size. Pipe a a small mound of lemon buttercream into the middle of each bottom shell.
   
8. Assemble the macarons by placing the tops on the macaron and gently push together until the buttercream mound flattens. Store the macarons in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 days. 2 hours before serving, bring them out of the fridge as they are best enjoyed at room temperature.

A recipe for making Mochi Matcha Cake – not too sweet and is a gluten free cake!

Recently I have a craving for mochi. The best way to describe mochi, is that it is a rice flour cake. It is made from glutinous rice flour. Glutinous rice flour is made from grinding a type of sticky rice into a fine powder and the word “glutinous” describes the texture (sticky) versus the content of it.  So these mochi cakes are naturally gluten free (no wheat ingredients) and the rice flour gives the mochi cakes a nice bounce to it. In fact, glutinous rice flour is a good flour to mix with other gluten free recipes as it adds chewiness to your recipe where other gluten free flours often lack.

I received some matcha powder from Natur’el Tea and decided that I wanted to give their matcha a spin and try making mochi cake with them. As you can see the mochi cake looks like a brownie on the outside but on the inside is green (due to the matcha) and has a gooey centre.

Ingredients for Matcha Mochi Cake

• 1 1/4 cups of sugar
• 2 1/4 cups of glutinous rice flour (one in the green bag; not sweet rice flour)
• 1/2 tablespoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons of matcha powder
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1 can of evaporated milk
• 1/4 cup of canola oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

Yukon Sourdough Starter

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup organic, unbleached all purpose flour 
• 1/4 cup lukewarm water 

Directions:

1. Mix both the flour and water together in a bowl. Loosely cover with plastic warp and let sit at room temperature (ensure that there is no sunlight) 
2. After a day, check on the starter. 
3. When bubbles appear (this occurs after 1-3 days), mix in 1/2 cup more of organic, unbleached all purpose flour and 1/2 cup of warm water. 
4. Every 24 hours for the next 4 days, feed your starter. Do this by discarding half the starter and adding in 1/2 cup of unbleached all purpose flour and 1/3 cup of lukewarm water. 

* it takes about a week to get your starter going, so if you are going to make this recipe give yourself time to prep your starter. Dan advises that you actually have two containers so that you can transfer the starter to a fresh container and clean out the old one to avoid growing mold.

Yukon Sourdough Cinnamon Buns

1. In a small bowl, stir honey into warm water. Sprinkle in the yeast. Stir and let it sit for 5 minutes until foamy. After 5 minutes, in the bowl of a stand-up mixer (with the dough hook attached) or in a bowl mix the starter, egg, butter and salt together. Slowly stir in the flour, 1 cup at a time.
   
2. Knead the dough at low to medium speed until it is smooth, soft and elastic (approximately 5-6 minutes).
   
3. Place the dough in an oiled bowl. Cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap and place in a draft free spot. Let the dough rise for about 1 hour until it has doubled in size. While the dough is rising, make the filling and the goo.
   
4. Make the filling by mixing together the softened unsalted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and set aside.
   
5. Grease/butter a 9×13 inch rectangular pan. In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter over low heat. Add in cinnamon, maple syrup and salt. Heat until the mixture is bubbling. Stir often.
   
6.  Remove the goo from heat and pour it into the greased 9×13 inch pan. Set aside.
   
7. Once the dough has risen (doubled in size), press it down gently to remove any air. Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface. Roll the dough into a 12×18 inch (30 x 45 cm) rectangle. Add flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking to the rolling pin.
   
8. Spread the filling out on the dough; spread it to the edges.
   
9. Starting from the long side of the rectangle, roll the dough into a log. End with the seam (the end of the dough) at the bottom of your log in order to secure it in place.
10. Using a serrated knife, cut the dough into 12 even pieces. We measured ours to be out the thickness of 2 fingers (or approximately 1.5 inches).
    
11. Arrange the pieces into the prepared dish. Cover with a clean towel and allow to rise in a draft free spot for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350F.
    
12. Bake at 350F for 35-45 minutes until the cinnamon buns are golden brown. Allow them to rest for 15-20 minutes.
    
13. To turn out the cinnamon buns, run a knife along the edges of the buns in order to loosen them. The recipe tells you to flip them over onto a baking sheet with parchment paper, preferably one with a raised edge. We used a heavy metal spatula to lift and flip each bun individually. Then we scraped off any remaining goo onto the cinnamon buns and allowed them to cool for a few minutes longer before eating.
    

Now, for the exciting part! You can win a copy of this cookbook yourself! Thanks to the ladies of FEAST and Penguin Random House.

THANKS to Everyone who entered. The winner is @Dishnthkitchen!

1. Comment on this blog post (by telling me about your favourite Canadian dish/road trip experience). (mandatory)
2. Join my mailing list 
3. Visit my Facebook page and comment on the link to this post.
4. Follow me on Instagram (@beyondumami) and comment on the photo I’ve put up about this cookbook.
5. Tag a friend on the Instagram post about this giveaway (more friends = more chances).
6. Follow me on Twitter and tweet at me (@beyondumami) and FEAST (@feast_on). 

Excerpts from Feast: Recipes and Stories from a Canadian Roadtrip by Lindsay Anderson and Dana VanVeller. Copyright © 2017 Lindsay Anderson and Dana VanVeller. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.