Sugar, (maple) sugar

In the spirit of Canada Day (and summer pot lucks) I present to you a different and creative offering: maple shortbread.

You 'll need:
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup maple suyrup (the real stuff, not pancake syrup!)
2 cups all-purpose flour

Line a 9x13 inch metal pan with parchment paper or foil (or a large springform pan like I used) and preheat the oven to 350F.

Cream together the sugar, butter and syrup until fluffy.

Add in the flour, 1/2 cups at a time by hand. Stir together until everything is just combined.
Press the soft dough into yiour prepared pan. Prick the top of the shortbread all over with a fork. Bake at 350 degress 25 minutes until golden. Let it cool on a wire rack.
You can leave the shortbread just like this, or you can gild the lilly a tad with a maple candy glaze (!) by combining in a saucepan on the stove on medium heat:
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tbs whipping cream
2 cups peanuts (optional).

Pour the melted mixture over the prepared shortbread and smooth to cover. Put the whole thing back into the oven for 20 minutes more until the topping is caramalized and golden. Cut into wedgest (or squares/bars depending on the size pan you use). This should make about 40 decent-sized bars if you use a 9x13 inch pan. They're rich cookies with a hint of maple flavour. Just enough to

Snow Day Pizza

So it's a snow day here where I live. Blizzard conditions outside with blowing snow and cold temps. I'm off work for the day and had little else to do but conjure up something in the kitchen. I also don't have much in my fridge. But I seem to always have the necessities for baking: flour, yeast, salt, sugar, etc. So after scouring my pantry I decided to make pizza. From scratch.

It's not that difficult and here's my go-to pizza dough recipe:

1 1/2 tsb dry yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water

Mix these together gently and let sit 10 mins until it starts to bubble.

Then, in a large bowl, mix together
3 1/2 cups flour (all purpose)
1 1/2 tsp salt

Pour the yeast mixture into the centre of the flour mixture. Start pulling in flour into the centre with a fork gently mixing as you go. Then add 1 egg, beaten, and continue to combine the mixture into a loose dough.
Once the mixture starts to just come together, dump it out onto a floured surface and knead it.

Kneading is simple enough and the best way is to press the dough, pull one side towards you and then double that onto the middle mass of dough. Turn the whole thing a 1/4 turn and repeat. Keep doing this for a couple minutes until the dough becomes smooth and can form a ball.

Put the ball of dough into a lightly oiled bowl and turn it around until it is lightly coated with oil. Cover with a dish towel or plastic wrap. You need to let this rise for about 45 minutes in a warm place. Once that's done, unwrap it, punch the dough down, knead it once more for a few minutes and it's ready to go.

You can stretch this dough with your hands or knuckles, flavour it with herbs, shape it into bread sticks or whatever you'd like. On this snowy day, I opted for one basic tomato sauce/peperoni/cheese pizza and one smaller basil pesto and tomato flat bread.

Making your own pizza dough is a little time consuming but you can take pride in it. It's relaxing and helps you take out your frustrations. Plus you can experiment with it: use whole wheat flour, flavour it, make it into different shapes, choose whatever toppings you like or have on hand, etc.

Not a bad way to spend time, or eat, on a snowy day.

Monkey bread

Halloween is upon us and usually I go all out testing my creativity and dishing out all sorts of spooky-themed food. This year though, things are a little different and I won't be having my usual table of horror. But I will need a great dish for a pot luck so I'm making monkey bread. This one has been a favorite of my group of friends for a while and a couple of us make it regularly. It's so gooey and sinfully good it's also known as orgasm cake! Here's how to do it (the recipe that is):

2 cans (340 g each) refrigerated cinnamon roll biscuits

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 cup butter, melted

125 g (1/2 of 250-g pkg.) brick cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup icing sugar

1 Tbsp. milk

Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a fluted or tube cake pan.

Unroll the biscuits and cut them into small pieces. Place the pieces into a bowl and toss with the sugar and cinnamon. You can do this recipe with plain biscuits but you might as well go whole hog on this one!

Start layering the biscuit pieces into the cake pan and sprinkle with the leftover sugar mixture from the bottom of the bowl. Drizzle the whole thing with the butter (hello yumminess). Bake 30-45 mins until puffed up and golden brown. Let cool in pan 5 mins and then invert onto cake plate (one with sides is good to catch any oozy sugary goodness).

To make the dipping icing, mix the cream cheese, sugar and milt together. Put in a small bowl or glass and you can insert the dip right in to the hole in the middle of the cake. This dessert works well for parties because it's interactive and decadent. Caramel-y goodness!

And if you don't have a sweet tooth I just found this idea for a savory monkey bread from Serious Eats.

Happy Halloween!

photo: bakingbites.com

Pretzels!

Flipping through a few cookbooks one day I found a picture of homemade pretzels and a pint of beer. The recipe for soft pretzels just seemed intriguing and promised to be yummy. It takes some time to make but a lot of that time is waiting, rising and baking. And the process of forming the dough is fantastic. Here it is:

2 1/4 tsp dry yeast (1 package)

1 1/2 tsp sugar

1 cup warm water

3 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp salt

6 cups water

cooking spray

2 tbs baking soda

1 large egg

2 tsp salt (kosher or sea - or replace this with sesame seeds)

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water in a large bowl and let stand 5 mins.

Spoon 3 cups flour and 1 tsp salt into yeast mixture. Stir together until soft dough forms. This is the beginning of your basic bread mixture. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface (counter top) and knead until smooth and elastic (about 8 mins). Kneading involves working with the dough in a push and pull method. You'll find the dough changing under your fingers and the feel of the dough is wonderfully tactile. Add some flour (about 1tbs at a time) if the dough starts sticking to your hands but it should feel slightly sticky.

Place the dough into a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning the ball of dough to coat it. Cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 40mins. The dough should double in size in this time.

Preheat oven to 425 F and divide dough into 12 equal portions. Working with one portion at a time, roll each into a long rope (about 18"). Cross one end of rope over the other to form a circle, leaving about 4" at end of each rope. Twist the rope at the base of the circle and fold the ends over and into the traditional pretzel shape. Alternatively, you can make smaller pretzel sticks or whatever other shape you would like!

Place your pretzels on a greased baking sheet and let rise again for about 10mins.

Combine 6 cups water and the baking soda in a pan or dutch oven (not aluminum). Bring this to a boil, reduce heat and simmer. Gently lower one pretzel at a time into the simmering water for 15 seconds, turn and simmer for 15 more seconds. Do this to all the pretzels returning each one to the creased pan. When they are all finished with the boiling process, beat the egg with 1tsp water and brush this over the pretzels. Sprinkle the salt or seeds on top of the pretzels. Bake at 425F for 12 mins until they are deep golden brown. Transfer them to a wire rack to cool and enjoy! These are great for a party or a nice light snack.

They will last about a day but then they'll get chewy and stale so keep this in mind. They're impressive for guests but do them the day of your event or party to keep freshness. And they're excellent with mustard!

Though they're satisfying in their doughiness, the pretzels only cost you 140 calories and about 2 grams of fat each.