Category Archives: Sweets

Other Pastries, Pie and Pastry, Sweets

Doughnut Revival

11 Comments

Homemade doughnuts: jelly-filled, cinnamon sugar, and a doughnut holeThe doughnut: an important food that for most of my life I have known only in its commercial form.  Other examples of such food include hot dogs, ketchup, and potato chips.

Until recently, every doughnut I had eaten was commercially produced.  On top of that, the only freshly-fried doughnuts I had eaten were the mini-donuts at the Calgary Stampede, and a few Krispy Kremes.

As you might expect, the homemade version is vastly superior, especially when consumed within ninety seconds of being removed from the oil.

What would a Button Soup post be without some mention of spelling or etymology?  For the longest time I assumed these pastries were originally called “doughnaughts,” as in naughts (zeroes) made out of dough, … Continue reading.

Maple/Birch Sugaring

Edmonton Maple Tap 2012

3 Comments

My copper-pipe method of tapping maplesLast year I tapped two maple trees in my backyard.  I got more than 40 L of sap, most of which was reduced to make about 1.5 L of syrup.  There’s a complete summary of the adventure here.

Last year my first day of sap collection was April 2.

Yesterday, March 7, I was in my backyard.  It was warm and sunny.  I had to squint because of the sunlight coming off the snow.  There was a steady stream of water rolling through my eavestroughs.  It felt exactly like April of last year, and it crossed my mind that the sap could be running at that very moment.

This morning I tapped my two trees, as well as a … Continue reading.

Maple/Birch Sugaring, Other Doughs and Batters, Seasonal, Starch

Pancakes

2 Comments

Frying pancakes in bacon fatLast night was Pancake Tuesday, the appropriately subdued Canadian version of Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday.

I want to tell you about my pancakes.

 

The Recipe

Pancake styles occupy one point on a continuum between slack batters and stiff batters.  Slack, or high-liquid, batters make thin, soft, limp pancakes the size of dinner plates.  Stiff, or low-liquid, batters, yield thicker, cakey pancakes the size of tea saucers or smaller.  For home-cooking I favour the stiff variety, making a batter that is barely, barely pourable.  The resulting cakes are more dense, but still soft and moist.  They develop a delicate, crisp exterior during frying, something that the slack batters can’t do because of their high liquid content.

In the … Continue reading.

Christmas, Sweets, Whole Grains and Legumes

Wild Rice and Barley Pudding

1 Comment

A variation on a Christmas classic, using some local pantry items.

I had some cooked barley in my fridge, remnants of a barley-broth.  I decided to employ the rice pudding method to save the left-overs.  (Rice Pudding Method: a lengthy secondary cooking in sugar and milk.)  The barley sucks up a lot of the milk and releases some starch into the pot.

Once a porridge has formed, cooked wild rice and dried cherries are added, and the whole lot is thickened with butter, egg yolk, and a touch of cream.

Since the wild rice and cherries are added at the end, they stay firm for textural contrast.

Wild Rice and Barley Pudding

Ingredients

  • 235 g cooked pearled barley
  • 300
… Continue reading.
Bread, Christmas, Sweets

Bread Pudding as God Intended It

Leave a comment

Bread pudding with raisinsWhen I say bread pudding “as God intended it,” I mean using actual, stale, left-over bread heels.  Buying fresh bread just to tear it up and dry it out is like using striploin to make sausage, or rolling a torchon of foie gras just to melt it into cooking fat.

To make bread pudding stale bread is soaked in milk, cream, eggs, and sugar, then pressed into a casserole and baked.

There is a continuum of bread pudding textures, ranging from the dense and eggy (the well-known Jack’s Grill (RIP) bread pudding was a good example) to the light and ethereal.

I want to take a paragraph to describe an interesting style of bread pudding that chef Nigel Weber taught … Continue reading.

Game, Pie and Pastry, Poultry

Pheasant Pot Pie

4 Comments

Hanging pheasantsLast November we started getting game birds, chiefly grouse and pheasant, from Mr. McLarney, who hunts them with his English pointer.  In exchange for the wild poultry, I provide Mrs. McLarney with a recipe for their preparation.

Cooking grouse and pheasant is fairly new to me, and I’m still figuring out the whole hanging-plucking-gutting-cooking thing.

From the cook’s perspective, the ideal game bird (or rabbit) is shot cleanly in the head.  That way there’s no shot hidden in the meat.  You get a higher yield, and diners won’t unwittingly bite down on a piece of lead.  I have very little experience with guns, but apparently getting that head shot is relatively easy when the slow-witted bird is standing on the … Continue reading.

Candy and Confection, Fruit, Preserves, Sweets

Glacé Sour Cherries

Leave a comment

A jar of glacé sour cherries“Glacé” is a confusing term because it can refer to ice cream, cake frosting, fruit candied in “hard crack” syrup, or simply fruit preserved in syrup. It’s that last definition that applies here. Most sources I consulted had a similar procedure for making glacé cherries:

Make a simple syrup of one part water and one part sugar.  Bring to a simmer, add pitted cherries, remove pot from heat, cover and let stand over night.  This is simply to infuse the syrup with cherry, and the cherries with syrup. The next day, remove the cherries and reduce the syrup until a candy thermometer reads 230°F.  This gives a good thick-but-runny consistency.   Reintroduce the cherries, simmer briefly, then store in a sanitized … Continue reading.

Fruit, Pie and Pastry, Sweets

Sour Cherry Pie

2 Comments

A slice of sour cherry pie with ice creamThis is what God intended us to do with sour cherries like Evans and Carmine Jewel: bake them in pastry.

While I have put a full recipe below, I need to stress that I don’t use a recipe for sour cherry pie. Different cherries have different levels of moisture, sugar, and acidity, and additions of cornstarch and sugar should be varied accordingly.

Put the cherries in a pot and bring to a simmer.  They will release quite a lot of liquid, especially if they had been frozen.  Add the sugar and stir to combine.  Taste and adjust sweetness as necessary.

Prepare a cornstarch slurry of one part starch and one part water by volume.  Stir the slurry into the cherries.  … Continue reading.

Sweets

Rose Water

4 Comments

Today I tried a nifty trick I saw on Alton Brown’s masterpiece show, Good Eats: making rose water at home.

The idea of eating my provincial flower excites me.  Unfortunately, our true wild roses have already lost their petals and developed hips.  There are, however, several late-blooming domestic varieties still flowering.

Wherever you get your roses from, make sure that they haven’t been treated with any chemicals.

Rose Water
adapted from Good Eats

Ingredients

  • 1 L rose petals, chemical free
  • 2 L water>

The set-up is simple.  Start with a very large pot.  I used my canning pot.  Put a clean brick or heavy ceramic dish in the middle of the bottom.  Scatter the rose petals around the brick.  … Continue reading.

Candy and Confection, Foraging, Sweets

Candied Lilac

5 Comments

A special report from Button Soup’s Senior Backyard Correspondent, Lisa Zieminek

With Allan in Austria, I have been tasked with keeping him informed of what’s happening in our new yard, and documenting developments with copious photographs and notes.

A couple weeks ago, the several lilac trees scattered throughout our yard burst into full bloom, filling the air with sweet perfume.  Last year we learned that these flowers are edible.  The tiny flowers can be added to salads for a splash of color.  They can also be made into beautiful, delicate candies that last long after the blossoms have fallen from the trees and their sweet smell has left the air.  Rather than keeping the memories of spring with mere photographs, … Continue reading.