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

Ripening and serving pineapple

A good pineapple is truly amazing. In this post I'll explain what I consider to be the good and bad of pineapple, how to choose the best ones and how to ripen them. 

Living in Canada, I'm a bit geographically challenged when it comes to pineapples because they are typically shipped in from South and Central America (don't even get me started on the sustainability issues). So while I'll try to be general, I am speaking very much from a (northern) North American perspective.

To me, the ideal pineapple (see below) is one that is very ripe (but not overripened) with a very sweet scent and taste. A ripened pineapple typically looks a very deep bright golden yellow on the outside with a hint of orange or purple and a bit of green mixed in around the edges of the eyes. 

When buying a pineapple, I have found that the best ones are typically a little bit colourful, showing signs of ripening (orange and yellow) peaking through an otherwise green pineapple. It's important that the pineapple be as evenly coloured from one end to the other as possible. This is because the pineapple will ripen more evenly and consequently less of the pineapple will be pale, bland and acidic. The typical pineapple, when ripened, tends to be the most golden yellow in colour and sweetest in flavour near the base, gradually becoming more pale and bland towards the leaves. Don't worry if you don't have a perfectly even pineapple. They tend to be hard to come by and once you slice the pineapple into chunks and mix them all together, the sweet pineapples pieces and their juices will tend to balance out the less sweet ones.

Ripening a pineapple is fairly straightforward. I like to leave it on a countertop lying on its side to prevent mold and rot from developing around the base. Then you ripen it until it's a deep golden yellow like the one above. Some people say that the leaves should be dry and easily plucked out. Be careful not to overripen it as it can start to take on a fermented flavour or worse it can develop dark spots that might might need to be cut out or ruin the pineapple altogether. You can usually see the signs of overripening if you notice the uncut pineapple going from a golden yellow to an almost brownish maroon colour.

That's basically all there is to it. To slice a whole pineapple (see example below), lie it on its side and use a bread knife to cut off the top and the bottom. Then stand it upright and and cut the outer hull off from top to bottom in roughly eight even strips so as to not cut away too much of the pineapple meat. Cut the pineapple in half down the length of the pineapple. Take each of the halved pieces and cut them again in half lengthwise. With these quartered lengths of pineapple, carefully cut out the tough core by cutting down on a 45 degree angle from about an inch up the cut side of the pineapple. Finally, slice the pineapple to desired sized chunks and enjoy.

Some interesting ways to serve pineapple that I enjoy include with strawberries, plain yogourt, cinnamon, shredded coconut and even sea salt and cracked pepper (seriously, try it!).

How do you like to eat pineapple?

Food and Cooking Workshop at the Brick Works (Toronto) - Feb 9

For anyone living in Toronto, a friend of mine is putting on a cocktail party cooking workshop at the Brick Works on February 9th where she will demonstrating how to prepare small Persian- and Pakistani-spice plates using ingredients from the Brickworks farmers market. The workshop runs on Thursday February 9 in the evening from 7-9pm and costs $55 per person (less if you buy a multi-class pack). For more information and to register for the workshop, visit Evergreen Brick Works "Green Bites Workshops".

From the Spice Spoon:

MY COOKERY WORKSHOP- FOOD IS LOVE: 

For my Canadian readers- I will be teaching a ‘cocktail party workshop’ at Evergreen Brickworks on February 9th, entitled: FOOD IS LOVE- based on my childhood memories. I’ll be teaching you how to create small Persian- and Pakistani-spiced plates, (a mix of vegetarian and non-vegetarian) influenced by the recipes I have inherited from the women in my family, while giving them a modern twist. Preparing Persian or Pakistani dishes can seem time-consuming and challenging, but they are not. Come and join us to prepare small plates using ingredients from our farmer’s market. I will also be preparing a fancy-coloured cocktail to pair with the treats. 

On the cocktail menu, there will be the following, for example: 

Pomegranate & Rosewater Essence Sparkling Wine Cocktail 

Saffron Chicken and Roasted Red Bell Pepper Brochette with a Cucumber Yoghurt Dip 

Farmer’s Cheese, Dried Cranberry, Walnut and Tarragon Tartine 

This is the link to sign up for my workshop.

Variations of the Garden Vegetable Sandwich

This is the second post about our day trip to Buffalo and our visit to a US Tim Horton's. The other item we tried was the US Tim Horton's spin on the Garden Vegetable Sandwich. This is an item available at Tim Horton's in both Canada and the US (unlike the prized Peanut Crunch Donut) however, in my opinion, the Canadian version very clearly wins over the American one.

Total cream cheese overload...

The American version was rather disappointing for me. First of all, it had way too much cream cheese on it. I'm not sure exactly how much, but you'll see in the photo above that I managed to scrape off at least 2 full tablespoons of cream cheese (the bagels were huge) and there was still a more than reasonable amount left on the bagel. Also, the vegetables consisted of just shredded lettuce and a couple tomato slices--not even a cucumber! It was bit like a Burger King Whopper on a bagel without any meat and with cream cheese instead of Whopper Sauce. A Whopper might just have been better.

The Canadian version of the Garden Vegetable Sandwich, on the other hand, has full lettuce leaves and fresh cucumbers in addition to tomatoes. My preference is to have them with a bit of ranch sauce and sliced cheddar cheese instead of cream cheese. But it's actually such a simple sandwich that you can make them yourself at least as well, if not better.

Garden Vegetable Sandwich Variations

Take your favourite bagel and toast it. Throw on a couple slices of good cheddar cheese (I use an old or extra old white cheddar). Pile on a few fresh sliced cucumbers and tomatoes (and lettuce, optionally), season it with sea salt, freshly ground pepper and a light splash of olive oil and you have a perfectly simple and delicious sandwich. For another variation, try it with freshly sliced avocados as well.

These sandwiches also travel very well (we take them to work quite regularly). Be sure to wrap the vegetables separately in plastic wrap and place it at the bottom of the sandwich bag with the bagels and cheese on top (to prevent the vegetables from making a mess of the bagel).

Another simple variation is to make it a bagel and egg sandwich. For an easy "fried" egg, take a small glass dish (the flatter the bottom the better), lightly spray it with an oil spray, beat in one whole egg, add a touch of salt and pepper and top with freshly shredded parmesan. Microwave for 60-80 seconds and top with tomatoes and season with olive oil, salt and pepper.