Tag: bread

baking

For those who like their mornings hot and spicy

wittychild

Back in what was autumn according to the calendar but undeniably the holiday season (to be fair, this encompasses almost 3/4 of December), I was idly flipping through my mother’s issue of Woman’s Day magazine when I hit a pocket of holiday gingerbread recipes. My first question to myself is always “Can I see myself making that?”, and the answer is usually “Nope.” It saves a lot of time and angst, truly.

When I flipped the page to see a pan of gingerbread rolls staring back at me, something snapped. What a fine thing that would be, to create a warmly-spiced, yeasty breakfast from scratch! I could just about hear the songbirds tweetling (muffled somewhat by their chattering beaks; this may have been a fantasy, but it was still almost-winter) and see my pretty dress flare out around my legs as I spun from the oven to the counter.

And then I remembered that the birds had all flown south, that it was too cold for dresses (also, they’re impractical), and that there was no way this was going to happen before Christmas.

I did, however, have a few days off before New Year’s, and so the great culinary experiment of 2025 came to pass. The behemoth that is Hearst Publications has thoughtfully not provided the recipe on their website for me to link to; suffice it to say it proceeded much like regular cinnamon rolls would, but with a few extra additions.

You start with your dry ingredients…

Note the addition of ginger and a little bit of ground cloves to the mix. Also, this might have been my first time not proofing my yeast beforehand, and the whole thing stressed me out.

Next up: wet ingredients. Butter in milk, essentially.

Combine the two and work until your dough is suitably elastic. I added some molasses into the dough mixture to help amp up the whole gingerbread experience.

Get your filling ingredients together…

…again with the ginger and ground cloves to help out the cinnamon and brown sugar.

Then quick-quick-quick, stretch your dough out into a rectangle, coat it with butter and your filling, then roll that puppy up.

I cut mine into nine pieces because I was using a 20 cm pan, but probably would have done twelve slices for a larger pan.

And then…I covered the pan with plastic wrap and stuck it in the fridge overnight. The next morning I pulled it out and let them rise a bit in a very low oven before taking them out to preheat it for baking.

They got a cream cheese icing…

…and a molasses drizzle to finish.

Should I have let them cool a bit more before spreading the icing on? Probably. But also, everyone was beyond hungry at that point and bordering on hangry territory.

They had more kick to them, spice-wise, than I had anticipated, so I was grateful for the cream cheese to temper that a bit. Overall they were…OK. Not inedible or unpleasant, but a good reminder of why I’m happy just getting up and grabbing breakfast rather than making a whole production out of it. But the house smelled wonderful, and that’s something you just don’t get with toast.

Thanks for looking! 🙂

cooking

Or is that “pain grillé aux amandes”?

wittychild

My latest kitchen experiment was borne out of wanting to avoid the restaurants on Mother’s Day. It’s right up there with Valentine’s Day as far as overcrowding and the antithesis of a relaxing, enjoyable meal. Luckily, I had recently borrowed The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook from my local library, and had tons of inspiration.

I opted for almond-crusted French toast, and although “crusted” isn’t a super-appetizing word (it makes me think of the top of the ketchup bottle), this was delicious! It’s not my recipe to reprint, but it’s similar to this – only vegan, so coconut milk for thickening instead of eggs – although there’s no cinnamon in the mixture. Instead, add in some orange zest: the recipe called for a teaspoon, but I chose to zest until my orange was zest-less, because a little extra flavour never hurt anybody.

Speaking of unappetizing: there was something a little off-putting about soggy bread with almond slices stuck to it. I got all of my bread dipped and almond-ed while I waited for my pan to heat up, and seriously had my doubts before the first side turned golden brown.

But before long, we were cooking (ha! In more ways than one).

In a moment of inspiration, I peeled the orange who had so bravely given its zest to the cause and served it on the side as a juicy little amuse-bouche. Who knew that citrus could be so tasty outside of the usual season?

This couldn’t have turned out better. The orange flavour really came though in the toast, and the almonds provided a wonderful crunch. The best part? It takes less than half and hour to make, so this is a lot of impressiveness for such a short amount of time. I made some for a friend for lunch the following weekend, and it tastes just as good when you’re not trying to avoid crowds.

Thanks for looking! 🙂

baking, cooking

Shchi whiz!!

wittychild

Or is that “щi виз”?

Although I’m not thrilled about the cold autumn mornings, I love that the cooler weather means I can break out the soup pot again.  Honestly, I could quite happily eat soup every day, all year round, but (sigh) not everyone shares my obsession with the stuff, so the cooler weather means that the rest of my audience will be equally enthusiastic about a steaming bowl of goodness.

Much to my chagrin, I had never heard of shchi before, but when I found a recipe for it on the Post Punk Kitchen, I knew I had found my next undertaking.

Mmm…soup!  I used parsnips instead of potato or a potato/parsnip combo, and between that and the black pepper found the end result to be quite, well, peppery despite its unassuming appearance.  The dollop of Sour Supreme on top helped immensely to temper it.

But man, er, domestic goddess cannot live by soup alone, right?  Enter Garlic-Dill Bread from Julie Hasson’s Vegan Diner.  As a non-yeasted  bread it comes together quickly, using baking powder and beer as leaveners.  Sending me to the store for beer is a little like sending a nun to an adult novelty shop (Not.  A.  Clue.), but I think I did all right for myself.  I used Fort Garry Dark Ale, but can’t say I noticed either an overwhelmingly positive or negative taste.  (So, yay me!)

The very best part of it all: I have an almost-full pot of shchi in the fridge, ready to be warmed up again for supper tonight.