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!!!

Pecan Tart An Old Fashioned Favorite

I had a pecan tart at Giovani Cafe at the Pacific Rim Hotel the other day. Loving the sweet and crunchy combination of the tart and crust, I decided to see if I could recreate it.

The key to making the Pecan tart was actually the filling. I have seen recipes using corn syrup, cream, sugar and maple syrup. Favoring a chewier consistency, I opted for a recipe which called for maple syrup.

Keys in making a Pecan Tart:

1. Do not dock the pie/tart crust as the filling will seep out when cooking. You would get a mess of cooked eggs/sugar syrup and the end

Method:
a) To make the tart, I first made the crust first. Having repeated success with Felder’s Pate Sucre recipe, I choose to make it again this time using a Tahitian Vanilla Bean. The vanilla bean gave a floral after taste which complimented the light tart crust when baked. Instead of removal bottom tart pans, I chose to use ring molds. Once the pate sucre was finished, I placed the dough into the fridge before rolling it out into the tart rings.

b) While the pate sucre was chilling, I made the filling. The filling consisted of maple syrup, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, butter and lemon juice. Unlike conventional recipes, this recipe called for a dry caramel from the brown sugar. The caramel was done, de-glaze it by adding the maple syrup and brought back to a boil again and then cooled. Once cooled pour the mixture over the beaten eggs and butter, vanilla and lemon juice.

c) To assemble, place the pecans on the bottom of the uncooked tart crust and pour in the filling. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes until golden brown and done.

Pecan Tart(recipe found here)

3/4 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup (I used maple syrup)
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 3/4 cups pecan halves

Enjoy!!!

Images of Fall, Festivities and Food

Fall is season full of colours stemming from golden yellows to vivid oranges and finally to stunning red. I always got a fiendish delight I visit Langley and its farms and nature. Admiration…doesn’t do much justice when it came to fresh air, food and nature. Because it was gobble gobble weekend, there were a number of festivities running. The Cranberry Festival would be one. Hundreds gathered in Fort Langley to see paddlers paddle down the Fraser River while others enjoyed a warm walk in the main hub, the festival. What was the theme of this festival? Well, kind of a no brainer since the title says it all. Up and down the main strip, one could see the little pinkish red berries show up everywhere. Yummmm..they were sweet.

I first hit Krause Berry Farms to bask in nature’s bounties….well…let the photographs show Fall in its finest form!!! 🙂

The Long Weekend wasn’t complete without baking so here we go…..Molten Lava Cake. Enamored by its rich, dense and chocolatey texture, I itched and scratched until I finally succumbed to making the deliciously rich cake. A typical question may be, “Why did it take so long?” Answer: Family not chocoholics. The molten lava cake in actuality is slightly under baked thus the oozing batter. While attending pastry school, we were taught an alternative method. Instead of underbaking the cake, a truffle was inserted into the cake. Emphasis was placed on leaving the batter overnight for the flavour to mature.

To make the cake, I first measured the ingredients and then whipped up the sugar and eggs until very light in colour. Next I melted the dark chocolate and butter together and then folded the chocolate mixture into the egg/sugar mixture. The final step was folding in the sifted flour. Leave overnight and spoon the batter into ramkins the next day. Bake at 360F for 15 mins.

Note: The cakes will puff up during baking but will come back down when cooled. For decoration, a scoop of raspberry and strawberry sorbet was placed on top of the cake. Pistachios were also used as garnish. Serve Warm.

There were virtually lots of recipes found on the internet. These were the ingredients I used to make mine.

Molten Lava Cake
Eggs
Sugar
Dark Chocolate
Butter
Flour

Happy Fall Baking.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Wow…its been so hot lately, that I was forbidden to bake in this heat wave for fear of suffocating from rising mercury. Bonus, since family was out of town, I can see the little horns and tail surfacing in me again 🙂 Craving cookies lately, especially after tasting the Valhrona cookie from Bel Cafe, I decided to make some to satisfy my cravings. Like a caped crusader, Pecan and Chocolate chips to the rescue, as I found some sitting in my freezer and chocolate treasure box. Loving the scent of browned butter, as it imparts a nutty caramelized flavour to the baked product, I decided to make some browned butter cookies.

First things first, I browned some butter and toasted some pecans at the same time. Next I creamed the remainder of the butter with the sugar,eggs and added the vanilla. Instead of buying vanilla extract, I found an easy way to make homemade vanilla extract. The results were far more superior than store bought ones. Keep the used beans and place them in alcohol, Vodka for me. The extract will turn from a light amber to a beautiful dark brown amber. When you smell the wonderful sweet aroma of the vanilla, the extract is ready for use. Back to cookie making, once the mixture is light and creamy, add the flour and baking soda, toasted pecans, chocolate chips and mix. When the cookie was fully mixed, it was wrapped in parchment paper and placed in the fridge for 30 minutes. I then scooped out the cookie onto baking sheets and baked them till golden brown at 350F for about 15-20 minutes.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies (found here as well)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon molasses

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Enjoy, these crispy, soft cookies!!!

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.

Christmas Cookie Project 1

I guess you all know by now, that I am busy baking away for the holidays so I am not going to blab away. I had a whole bunch of pecans sitting in the freezer and then some thus decided to make pecan cookies. I was recently scouring Christmas baking magazines and came across one from Saveur. It caught my eye as they resembled sables.
Perhaps a precursor to me helping out the SFU Recital Club in preparation of the Bake Sale in order to generate funds for subsidized Opera attending for SFU students.  Hey I was a student before and still taking courses (good grief), thus know how it feels when times are tight.  Every penny counts.  Well I know what I am doing is something positive and that’s all that counts.

Pecan Shortbread Cookies 

Ingredients

¾ cup pecans (I toasted it prior to grinding them)
¾ cup sugar (will try icing sugar next)
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon, preferably canela
½ tsp. kosher salt
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract ( I used Madagascar Vanilla Bean)
1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1. Combine pecans and ¼ cup sugar in food processor, and process until very finely ground, about 30 seconds. Add remaining sugar along with flour, cinnamon, and salt, and pulse until evenly incorporated. Add butter and vanilla, and process until dough just comes together and forms a ball. Transfer ball to lightly floured work surface, and form into a disk; wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour. Meanwhile, place confectioners’ sugar in a large bowl; set aside.

2. Heat oven to 350°. Transfer dough to work surface, and using a rolling pin, roll dough until ½” thick. Using a 1 ¼” round cutter, cut out cookies and transfer to parchment paper—lined baking sheets, spacing them 2″ apart. Reroll dough scraps and cut out more cookies; transfer to the baking sheet. Chill cookies for 30 minutes. Bake, rotating baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through baking, until lightly browned and set, about 14 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, and then place in bowl of confectioners’ sugar; toss to coat evenly in sugar and serve.

Note:  The dough is quite crumbly since there is no egg, which acts as a glue towards the mixture, thus when rolling out the dough and cutting the cookies, use a spatula to lift the cookies.  They will break if not handled gently.  The dough when baked was quite light and crunchy.