Chocolate Bloom in Pictures

A few months ago we went to make moulded chocolates and discovered that some of our chocolate wafers had bloomed. The effect of the chocolate bloom was mainly the cloudy appearance which caused a slightly waxy texture on the outside, but otherwise the chocolate tasted fine. Not sure what exactly caused it in this case, but I imagine it may have been a mix of lower quality chocolate and temperature changes in the kitchen.

Lightly-Salted and Roasted Almonds (No Oil)

I was looking for a simple recipe for very lightly roasted almonds. One of my favourite almonds for snacking are the dry-roasted, salted almonds from Bulk Barn. What makes these almonds so great is that they are only lightly salted, unlike a lot of the canned almonds out there which can be overwhelmingly salty.

To recreate this recipe, I wanted something really quick and simple, with no oil or butter. I also didn't see the point of blanching almonds, because I feel like the skin holds a lot of flavour and texture for snacking.

What I came up with was a method simple enough that it can be done entirely to taste.

Almonds after roasting

The soaked almonds on the baking sheet

Ingredients

• Raw almonds - as many as you want, though 4 cups will cover a standard baking sheet
• Water
• Fine sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Take the almonds and place them in an appropriately-sized bowl.
3. Add water to the almonds until the almonds are nearly, but not quite, covered.
4. Add salt and mix with a soup spoon for about 45 seconds until all of the salt is absorbed and you have a fairly salty brine (I use roughly 1 tablespoon or more for 4 cups of almonds). Because most of the salt will drain away with the brine, don't worry about adding too much salt; it's better to err on the side of too much when you do this.
5. Using a slotted spoon, scoop the almonds from the bowl and spread them evenly over a standard baking sheet.
6. Roast the almonds in the oven for 18-22 minutes until the almonds turn from off white to a light golden colour (or however dark you like) stirring the almonds about halfway through.
7. Take the almonds out of the oven and allow them to cool completely.

Recipe Review: Baked Cinnamon Bun Donuts

In this post I review a recipe for Baked Cinnamon Bun Donuts with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze from Averie Cooks (a.k.a. Loves Veggies and Yoga).

A few week ago I really had a craving for donuts and I was eager to try our recently-purchased Wilton Six Donut Pan. I recalled seeing a post on Averie Cooks for baked donuts, and I particularly liked the sounds of these ones, so I decided to give them a try. And the results were fantastic...

First off, they looked great. They took on an appealing golden colour on the outside, but keep in mind that the actual texture of the donuts are somewhat different from conventional fried donuts which have a crispier outside and a soft inside. These had a much more uniform texture throughout--not bad by any means, but just a noteworthy difference from fried donuts. Keep in mind these are substantially more healthy than the fried kind, especially in terms of fat content (see nutritional estimate further down).

They baked into very firm and dense, but also moist and cakey donuts that broke very nicely. 

Please ignore the horrible muffin top donut experiment in the background

The donuts had a decidedly subtle flavour. I used salt and I suggest using a touch more (3/4 teaspoon total) and I would also try a bit more cinnamon (3/4 teaspoon), as she suggested, for a bit more of a cinnamon spice punch. I would also consider adding nutmeg (about a 1/4 tsp) to give it a bit more of a familiar old-fashioned donut flavour.

The strong point for these donuts that really makes them outstanding is the icing. The icing is an amazingly smooth and sweet cream cheese icing with a fragrant cinnamon flavour and a hint of vanilla. The vanilla and cinnamon flavour and creamy texture of the icing compliments these donuts perfectly. If you're looking for something to do with any leftover icing, true using it in place of butter or cream cheese on a sweet cinnamon raisin bread or similar. Amazing!

I found that in making the icing you likely won't need both tablespoons of cream cheese (1.5 tbsps at most) and you'll need only a few drops of water/milk, if any. Try using a full teaspoon of vanilla instead of just 1/2 a teaspoon and you probably won't need to thin it anymore with water/milk or else it will be too runny. If the icing gets too runny, which it may, just add more icing sugar until you get the desired consistency.

Overall this is a great recipe for baked donuts. We also tried making the Baked Chocolate Peanut Butter Donuts with Vanilla Peanut Butter Glaze from Averie Cooks, which were good, but were trying to do a lot. Our preference is for the cinnamon version.

Nutrition and Calorie Breakdown

I was curious so I ran a quick estimate of the nutritional content of the donuts using Self Nutrition Data. All things considered, these are very healthy donuts. The donuts come in at slightly over 200 calories each with the icing, with only 3 grams of fat and 42 grams of carbs of which 26 are sugar. See nutrition facts below or click here to see the full nutritional profile. 

Using nutritional data from Tim Horton's, a comparable store-bought donut (I would use an old-fashioned glazed as a comparison) would be about 320 calories with 19 grams of fat. These "cake donuts" fall somewhere in the middle of the calorie range for donuts. The lowest calorie donuts are still the chocolate/maple/honey dip "yeast donuts" which each have 210 calories and only 8 grams of fat.

Nutrition Info for Baked Cinnamon Bun Donuts