Maple Apple Pecan Crumble

Happy Thanksgiving!!!! Wow it is Thanksgiving already! Summer vanished in a blink. All the sunny days and warm weather have left and lingering are the dreary rainy cold days of Fall. There is certainly a crispy clean air feeling in the mornings as I walk briskly to work. Vancouver has turned into a landscape of bright oranges and reds.

With the roast in the oven, I am catching up on my blog. Unlike the traditional turkey dinner, we are having prime rib. Yummm!!!! Savour the aromas!!!! On top of that I made Apple Pecan Crumble. Apples to me represent the fall and with that in mind I went searching for a good recipe with apples incorporated in it. Apple Crumble popped up!!!Nothing is more satisfying than the scent of warm apples and cinnamon and sugar baking. MMMMMMM…..Apple crisp has always been a staple of my family;however this time I am adding in maple syrup into the mix. Ahhhh…the flavours. Off I went to make it!!!

Voila!!!

Maple Apple Crisp adapted from here

Ingredients

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup regular oats
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chilled butter or stick margarine, cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons chopped walnuts (I used pecans)
7 cups sliced peeled Rome apple (about 3 pounds) (I used honey crisp)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Results: Amazing, apple crisps never fail the tastebuds.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Holidays Baking-Cinnamon Morning Buns w/Orange Zest and Pecans

Happy New Year!!!!! What a way to ring it in. Dim sum with family. Actually today was rather quiet. New Year’s Eve was better. Why? I spent the last day of the year snow shoeing on Cypress Mountain. It would be my first time and I enjoyed it. There was something about the glistening snow covered trees and the crunching of snow underneath my feet that brought me smiles. Perhaps it was the serenity and peacefulness that only nature could bring. I didn’t even mind the cold. All that was missing was a cabin in this winter wonderland.

The night before the actual adventure, I was all in a tizzy. Being a beginner, my mind was racing in all directions. Would I cramp up and have an accident? My nerves were a bit calmer on the day of. I was excited as my friends and I started up the trail. It was absolutely spectacular being on the mountain. The air was crisp, clean and cold and I marveled at the beautiful surrounding. Up and down we went admiring nature’s wonder. When we reached the look out point, the view was breathtaking

Nothing could be complete than something to nibble on the way to re-energize. In this case, it was my favourite bread of all time, the cinnamon bun. I had remembered a recipe that captured my attention before and decided to make it. Unlike most cinnamon buns whose components were fresh brioche, cinnamon and sugar and cream cheese frosting. This recipe added a warmth to it. It called for orange zest and honey. The orange zest added complexity to the brioche’s flavor profile and honey made the brioche less sweet. One bite and I was in love.

Cinnamon Morning Buns w/ Orange Zest and Pecans (adapted from here)

2 1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 1/4 cup warm milk
1 teaspoon plus 1/4 cup honey
4 large eggs and 1 egg yolk
4 cups flour (I used all purpose flour)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup unsalted butter

Filling
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamon
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 sticks butter
find sanding sugar for sprinkling

Notes: I had used a mug to measure the milk thus had a softer liquidy dough. As a result I increased the flour to approx 7 cups and by doing so, I approx. doubled the other ingredients with the exception of the eggs. For the filling, the butter was only softened and mixed with the honey, cinnamon, cardamon and sugar to make a creamy mixture in order spread onto the dough. Proofing required approx 3 hours. Results were fabulous. ***Make sure the dough is pliable and not sticky. A keeper of a recipe!

Apple Crumble Pie

Fall is finally here and what a spectacular scenery it is with its vibrant hues of orange, reds and yellows and gold. The mornings are a bit chillier and damp in Vancouver otherwise it is still a beautiful city to live in. I have not posted for a while and decided to do some catching up. Thanksgiving was just this past weekend and what a event it was as the city was decked out with pumpkin pies and turkeys. I am not a fan of pumpkin pies thus for Thanksgiving decided to make a apple crumble pie.

To make the pie, I first started out with a tart shell. Good old Christophe Felder, his tart recipe never fails. I baked the tart shells for approx 20 minutes at 350 degree oven.

Next I peeled some apples and added some cinnamon and brown sugar, flour to the mixture. Unlike most recipes that allow the apples to bake the in tart shell, I did the unconventional. I sauteed the apples in brown sugar first cooking them. I found the juices of the apples during cooking made a gooey mess thus decided to do this route.

Next I made the crumble. I combined the flour with the butter, sugar oatmeal and pecans together until it was fine. The tart was then topped out with the crumble. Baked it at 350 for approx 20 minutes.

Voila.

Apple Crumble Pie.

Filling
3 1/4 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Topping
1 cup walnuts or pecans, roughly chopped
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch fine salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold butter, cut into small pieces

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!!

Cinnamon Buns II

Happy Long Weekend. Hmmmmm….what to make this weekend. Cinnamon Buns it is. This time I added more butter to the dough for a moister texture. It would be delicious for breakfast. Cinnamon Buns

Dough 1 teasp. yeast ( I used active yeast)

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups warm milk

2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk

1 teasp. vanilla extract

4 cups flour plus extra for flouring work surface

1 teasp. salt

1 1/2 stick unsalted butter

Filling

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

3 tablespoons cinnamon ( I used 1 tbsp)

1 stick unsalted butter softened

Happy Baking!!!

Sicilian-Frederic Bau

I have always wanted to make truffles again. Christmas would be the best excuse as everyone enjoys little box of chocolates right :). For me, my favorites were the European kind, in particular french pastries and chocolates. European chocolates contained a higher percentage of cocoa mass contributing to a higher quality chocolate. Naturally when I decided to make some chocolates, I gravitated towards French chocolate recipes. I came across a recipe book at VCC a while ago and was blown away by the mouthing watering photographs and recipes. Ironically, the book also included recipes from Valhrona. Valhrona have established themselves to be a high end quality chocolate. Imagine my surprise when the book called Au Coeur des Saveurs was written by Frederic Bau. Bau apparently is one of the best pastry chefs in the world and one of the founders of Valhrona Pastry School. While my skills are far in comparison to Bau, I am paying homage to his talent by making his Sicilian. Hopefully he approves 🙂

Method:
First boil the cream and then add the pistachio paste into the hot cream. Add in the cinnamon stick and let the mixture of cream, paste, and cinnamon infuse a few minutes and then pour the hot mixture onto the white chocolate. Add the butter and whip the mixture until fulling emulsified and creamy. Once cool, scoop into balls and coat with milk chocolate.

Sicilian Ingredients:

Pistachio Paste
Cinnamon
Whipping Cream
White Chocolate
Unsalted Butter

As an option to this marvelous tasting recipe of Bau’s, I opted to toast some pistachios and ground them for topping. Happy Chocolate Making.

Chocolate Pecan Cinnamon Rolls-Yum!!

Wow another beautiful weekend, summer is finally here and what a way to start it with a bang. 🙂 Since my family loved bread, especially chinese sausage rolls, I decided to make some bread again. I saw a recipe from another blogger and found it interesting. The recipe had chunks of chocolate in the rolls. So off I went recreating the recipe.

I first made the dough, proofed it until the dough doubled in size. The warm weather always helped the dough beautifully, think temperature. Once the dough doubled in size, I punched down the dough and proceeded to roll it out. Pecans were toasted and chocolate was chopped next. Butter, cinnamon, sugar, pecans and chocolate were spread on as toppings. As a tip, I used a piece of string for easier cutting. Proof for about another 1/2 hour and bake the rolls at 350 F for about 20 minutes. Honey was then drizzled on top of each bun.

The recipe for Cinnamon Buns can be found here. Mmmmmmm…warm bread with chocolate and toasted pecans. Nothing tastes better than that. This recipe would be a keeper for me. Next time, I might add in some maple sugar and walnuts that way you get a nice maple walnut flavour to the buns as well. Enjoy!!!

Mmmm Mmmm Bread: Cinnamon Bun and Coconut Buns

It finally snowed this week.  Yes!!! Some fluffy white stuff for once…boooo weeks after Christmas and New Years.   It had been rather cold and crisp in Vancouver lately as I waken to see the frost covered grass and pavement glistening.  The sight and sound of neighbours scrapping away at the icy sheet of white crystals off their car while huffing and puffing out clouds of steam, was enough to send shivers down my spine.  In light of the cold weather, I decided to make something warm today….bread.   Nothing smells as good as freshly baked bread right out of the oven…ahhh the wonderful aromas of coconut, cinnamon and sugar.  I have been craving cinnamon and sugar recently thus decided to make cinnamon buns.  In addition, I loved roasted coconut thus made coconut buns as well.  Unbelievably it took a few hours to proof, knead and shape the buns but the end result was well worth it.  Lovely and moist, the freshly baked warm aromatic buns were now in my tummy.

I started of the day proofing the bread dough using a recipe I found in an Intermezzo magazine.  It’s actually a pretty good recipe I must say.  Anyways…I made the dough, proofed it and split the dough into 2 portions for two different buns, Cinnamon Pecan and Coconut.

I rolled the dough out into a rectangle, spread on the filling, rolled it up and proof it  till 1 1/2 size in the oven.  As a tip, I placed a small bowl of hot water to encourage the proofing of the buns.  Once they were ready, I baked them at 350F for about 25 minutes until golden brown on top.  I then glazed the buns with blueberry honey.

Here was the recipe I use always as a base for sweet buns and for Cinnamon Buns.

Cinnamon Bun Recipe (This recipe could be used as basis for other sweet buns)

For Dough

1 teasp. dry yeast

1/2 cup plus 1 teasp. sugar

1 1/4 cups warm milk

2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk

1 teasp. vanilla extract

4 cups all purpose flour ( I used 5 cups)

1 teasp. salt

1 1/2 sticks butter

For Filling

1/2 cup dark brown sugar ( I used demera sugar)

1 tablesp.cinnamon

1 stick unsalted butter (I used 1/2 stick)

3/4 cup toasted pecans

(For Coconut buns, take out cinnamon, and add approx. 1 cup roasted coconut instead.  Subst. white sugar for brown sugar-I used 1/2 cup white sugar)

Note:  The buns came out really nice and soft.  They had a very pleasing aroma and taste.  I opted not to use a cream cheese glaze or icing as I felt the sweetness was enough with honey.