Marbled Peanut Butter Biscotti

Marbled Peanut Butter Biscotti is the perfect melding of two vegan doughs: one made with @pbfit and one with the rich flavours of @nakednutrition Hot Cocoa Naked Shake. Great on their own, or dipped in dark chocolate for an extra layer of decadence!

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Whew, what a December! Now that things are relatively settled (I hope) and exams are done, I've had time to bake for the holidays! Like last year, I kept things really scaled back since we aren't having the gaggle we normally do here (and without me working, my coworker gift list is non-existent). I did, of course, have to make at least one batch of biscotti and after receiving a tub of Naked Nutrition's Naked Shake in Hot Cocoa flavour I knew I had to use it somehow.

For me there is no better flavour combination than peanut butter and chocolate, so that was an easy pick! I don't often have a jar of peanut butter around, but I did have some powdered peanut butter from PBFit and used that. When I opened the lid on the Naked Shake, I was blown away by how good it smelled - think the richest brownie batter with a hint of milk (a feat for a vegan powder, but then again every single product I've received from Naked Nutrition has been beyond delicious). A serving is only 130 calories, but it packs 20g of protein - and let me tell you, mixing the powder with a bit of cold water before adding some boiling water makes a pretty rich hot cocoa!

The dough for this biscotti requires two separate preparations and some finessing to shape the logs (wet hands really help) but boy is it worth it! While most of the finished biscotti were wrapped for gifts, the ends of the logs became snacks that were a welcome addition to the holiday bustle here at home!

Spiced Shredded Apple Loaf for #WorldBreadDay

It's fall - and that means warming spices and apples! This loaf is packed with shredded apples and laced with stong-brewed @adagioteas Masala Chai and Vanilla Roobois teas. It is a perfect pairing for strong cheeses or apple butter!

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 It's the middle of October, and I for one love this time of year. Despite needing a light jacket (or a sweatshirt if, unlike me, you don't feel the cold), the aromas and colours of the season are by far some of the best of the year. 

On Thanksgiving weekend, my sister and I spent an hour or so at the orchard picking local apples, and when I came home and brewed myself a mug of apple-chai tea I was inspired to try and make a loaf of bread encapsulating all the spices and fruit of the season. A few hours (and a lot of flour) later I had some delicious low-rising loaves cooling on the rack waiting to be sampled. Had I thought more ahead I would have broken out my makeshift French bread moulds to keep them a little taller, but the flavour was perfect regardless!

I have to say I am spoiled for choice with teas this Autumn - the lovely folks at Aadagio Teas sent me a decadent selection of Autumn and Chai teas, each filled with warming flavors and spices. A mug (or two) is a perfect addition to the colder, rainy days of October and November here. To achieve the perfect brew for one, the company also has an adorable line of porcelain infuser mugs which are perfect (especially when working from home).
You can find the Autumn Tea Ssampler, Chai Sampler and infuser mugs all on adagio's site, and stay tuned since I've caught wind of an exclusive release tea for Black Friday!

Today is also World Bread Day and I am so glad to be able to submit my entry into the roundup at kochtopf.me this year. Zorra has been compiling World Bread Day roundups since 2006 (longer than this little project of mine has been around!) and I love seeing the entries from around the world.

 

Plum Yogurt Cake

This delicious yogurt cake is topped with plums and a sprinkle of sugar, while the batter gets a hint of fall flavour from @nakednutrition Pumpkin Spice Naked Shake. Moist and beautiful to look at, it's a perfect dessert for any fall table.

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Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians! For the first time in what feels like forever, we are actually hosting dinner on the holiday Monday and not the Sunday (the joys of retired and student life here, I suppose), and while there isn't as many people over this year we do have quite the spread of food! 

One of the things I love to do over the holidays is making the dessert. This year I made two - a batch of chocolate chip cinnamon cookies (for the littles) and this delicious cake topped with sparkling plums. Luckily, I got the chance to add a bit of pep and nutrition by adding some of the brand new protein shake powder the folks at Naked Shake sent to me - pumpkin spice! Like the other Naked Shake products, the new flavour combines pea protein, adds MCT oil, fermented cane sugar, and natural plant-based flavours and adds a dash of cinnamon for that irresistible flavour profile. A serving contains 20g of protein and 4g of sugar, and paired with a scoop of their other new product, baobab-sourced Naked Fiber, it's a great addition to your day when you're running non-stop or working out.

The flavour was subtle but a perfect accent to the roasted fruit, and since the tester batch I made (albeit in muffin form) was a hit here, I can only imagine what it's like in full scale glory!

Peanut Butter Blueberry Cookies

These cookies are boosted with Naked Shake Peanut Butter Blueberry powder and made with peanut flour - lightly sweet and melt in your mouth with a hint of fruit!

I'm a peanut butter fan (as if you couldn't tell!) and my mom and grandma used to make those standard three ingredient, cross-hatched cookies on the regular when I was a kid. They're a classic for a reason - perfectly sweet and the right size for little (or big) hands! Looking at my pantry staples the other day, I wondered if I could use the powdered peanut butter and peanut butter blueberry shake powders I had to recreate my childhood favourites, and I have to say it worked out perfectly!

Because these are powders and not a creamy spread we're dealing with, you do need to add some moisture in the form of oil and a good binder like flaxseed (you can use an egg, however I would toggle the dry mix to account for the extra liquid). Otherwise it is a simple mix, wait, bake technique! The blueberry powder in the Naked Shake lets the baked cookies taste a little bit like a peanut butter and jam sandwich, though I would absolutely up the ante and make these sandwich cookies with jam if I was serving to company (and not transporting - like your normal PB cookies, these are tender and crumbly!). I gave a bag of these to TurkeyBoots who was passing through town on a road trip, and they apparently disappeared before they left the province! 

Bella Luna Spritzer with Adagio Teas' #bellalunablue

It's Friday! Why not kick off the weekend with this Bella Luna Spritzer - a blend of limoncello, lemon lime soda and Adagio Teas Bella Luna Blue loose leaf tea is irresistibly summery and a perfect beverage on the porch or at the cottage.

 

Now that the rules about gatherings are somewhat less stringent around here, people are beginning to gather on patios and each other's backyards. While it's easy to haul out a cooler with canned or bottled beverages when company is over, it's always fun to bring out something a little more fun when it's a close group of friends or a special occasion! When Adagio Teas sent me a pouch of their loose leaf tea sold exclusively on the blue moon - aptly named Bella Luna Blue - I couldn't wait to taste it and experience the colour change (made by the butterfly pea flowers) myself by adding just a hint of acid. Check out the video here.

The tea itself has a lovely mix of blueberry and lemongrass flavours, and the lemon juice accents both perfectly. A squeeze of honey adds a good balance, but it isn't super necessary unless you like sweet tea! I knew I wanted to try making something with this when it was cold, and then the idea for a bubbly cocktail popped into my head. Why not? 

I started by brewing a small measuring cup of the Butterfly Pea Flower Tea following their instructions (1 tsp tea leaves in a tea ball, steeped at 212°F for 10 minutes). Once brewed, I popped it in the fridge along with the bottle of Limoncello and the Sprite and let them chill overnight. The next afternoon it was a simple mix and enjoy. I made a quadruple batch since I had company that day and everyone loved the flavour and hint of sparkle it had!

I highly recommend you get your hands on some Bella Luna Blue when it goes on sale on August 22, 2021. It's only available on that day, so don't wait!

Fruit & Nut Muffins

Fruit & Nut Muffins are packed with trail mix and cranberries while the whole wheat batter gets a protein boost from @nakednutrition Naked Rice. Easy to pack and eat, they're perfect any time of the day!

 

Muffins are a food that has so much memory attached to it for me. When I would take swimming lessons as a child, every so often my dad would spring for a giant (think Costco-sized) muffin as a morning treat. Somehow, they made the endless laps and 7AM start worthwhile! Over the years, muffins were always my go-to snack over things like doughnuts or cookies, because who doesn't like a individual cake in the middle of the day?

These days the muffins I make tend to be more manageable in size, and lean away from the super sweet "cake" ones of my youth. Because they're such a handy snack or breakfast and you can add almost anything to them, I decided to whip up a batch of trail-mix packed, protein infused muffins for my sister's boyfriend. The whole grains and protein keep you full for longer while the yogurt adds a hint of tang that offsets the sweetness of the batter and dried fruit.

 

Sweet Potato Cranberry Spice Cookies

These little Sweet Potato Cranberry Spice Cookies are gluten free and vegan but full of flavour from homemade pumpkin pie spice! The recipe makes a big batch of dough which is perfect for freezing ahead - thaw and bake whenever the craving strikes!

 

 

 

I'm going to start this off by saying... I know. It's not fall, its 30C and sunny outside, people are lounging around eating watermelon and ice cream. Most people are not cranking up their oven for anything.

But I'm not most people! I love the flavours of spice and fall, and baking is something I will do no matter the weather (unless out AC goes out in the middle of summer, which has happened!). So when I was playing around last summer to come up with holiday cookies, I came across some pumpkin cookies that looked like a hit for me and a few of my gluten free friends. However, because it was the middle of summer, canned pumpkin wasn't overly available. Sweet potatoes, on the other hand, were - and I actually much prefer the flavour over pumpkin. With the spices, the bit of richness from the brown sugar blend and the dash of maple extract, the dough smelled amazing, and the craisins I tossed in added the tiniest bit of tang and fruity flavour. Being gluten free, nut free and vegan, they were also a hit with the kids I taught and safe for the school environment (they would be great for camp too!).

 

Cinnamon-Honey Raisin Bagels

Cinnamon-Honey Raisin Bagels are all the best parts of childhood in a chewy, perfectly toastable whole grain package. Smeared with cream cheese, butter or your favorite jam, you can't go wrong!

 

 

My family used to have a ritual when us kids were in school: at least once a month, the four of us would pile into the car and head to the bagel shop for a baker's dozen of goodies: my sister and I would each choose four of our favourites, and mom and dad would pick the other five. When it came to my sister, she rotated between three favourites: chocolate chip, plain, and cinnamon raisin. I have to admit, the cinnamon raisin bagels were incredible toasted with butter, and if they were out of sourdough (my fave), they were second on my list!

 

 

So it made me smile when my sister came to me asking for a whole grain version of her old favourites to take with her to work. I added in a squeeze of honey to accent the whole wheat and raisin flavour, and (as all bagels should be) I boiled them in honey water for an extra bump of flavour and shine. While I don't have a wood burning oven a la the Montreal style bagels I love, I did bake these on a baking stone which gave them an awesome, blistery texture.

 

Cooled and sliced, they were frozen on a tray for a quick grab in the morning - they would thaw by lunch and be ready for margarine or peanut butter!

The Bread Bakers Event for July 2021 is Favorite Breads, be sure to check out all the favorites baked this week!

• Blueberry Pistachio Chocolate Sourdough from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
  
• Cinnamon-Honey Raisin Bagels from What Smells So Good?
  
• Cranberry Yeast Bread from A Messy Kitchen
• Garlic Rolls from Passion Kneaded 
• Hemp and Honey Whole Wheat Bread from Ambrosia
  
• Lemon Zucchini Loaf from A Day in the Life on the Farm
  
• No Knead Sourdough Sandwich Bread from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Twists from Food Lust People Love
• Sourdough Boule from Sneha's Recipe
  

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Rhubarb Snacking Cake

A simple, yet delicious snack cake is packed with homegrown rhubarb and topped with a sprinkling of sugar for extra sparkle! 

 

My stepdad harvested a huge bunch of rhubarb from his garden the other day and gave it to me to cook with. Normally my rhubarb goes into either pie or preserves, but since I had no patience for pastry and I was not about to haul out the canner I started browsing around for a different option that would still fit the summer vibe. I came across a great looking cake recipe from A Veg Taste from A to Z and with a few substitutions I had everything on hand, so I set to it!

 

What I love about this cake is that it's a perfect mix of scone and cake, slightly muffiny and just the right amount of sweetness. The small amount of oats lent a nutty flavour to the batter and a tiny sprinkle of sugar on top added a delicate crunch and sparkle. The best part is that it is fast to whip up, the slowest part is chopping the rhubarb. The speed is especially quick if you're using weight to measure, since there are no measuring cups needed! 

 

Once the cake is cool, it can be wrapped in foil and frozen for later or kept wrapped in the fridge for up to 5 days. We served it with vanilla ice cream at a barbeque and it was a hit! 

Chocolate Centred Wowbutter Wafers

These rich and nutty cookies are completely #peanutfree - surprise! They get their flavour from a dose of @wow_butter and the sweetness is offset by a bittersweet chocolate centre.

I'm going to admit it, I made these cookies ages ago - like 2019 ages ago. 2020 was a total writeoff year, as was most of this year - so I'm getting around to my ye olde posts!

At any rate, these cookies are the quintessential combination of perfection for me - nuttiness, sweetness and chocolate all in a chewy bite. Because these are so simple though, the quality of ingredients - particularly the chocolate - is paramount! I used WowButter to make these nut free for guests, but you can use any nut or seed spread you wish! Store in an airtight container up to a week (if they last that long, that is!).

Nostalgic Strawberry Rhubarb Jam - Toast Topper #92

Can you capture nostalgia in a jar? This Strawberry Rhubarb Jam tastes exactly how I remember my grandma's to be - and it should since its only 3 ingredients, time and heat! Simple is often the best!

 

For once, our rhubarb and the local strawberries managed to peak at the same time! I love this time of year when everything is fresh and bright - and nothing reminds me more of one particular childhood summer than strawberry rhubarb jam. I'm sure my paternal grandmother made it more than once, but there is a definite memory of a summer when I was about 10 or so where we visited a community garden and farm stall prior to me helping her make dill pickles and strawberry rhubarb freezer jam. I used to swear I hated rhubarb too - what kid would like this sour / bitter vegetable of all things? But her jam convinced me that it was possible to make it taste good with enough sugar and strawberries added in!

I came across a recipe similar to my grandma's on Food52 and decided to give it a go with a few other tricks I had from an old church cookbook, namely freezing the strawberries, rhubarb and a tiny bit of sugar first before completing the maceration. I'm not entirely sure what this does to be honest, except draw out extra liquid and leaving the berries and rhubarb a bit more chunky. Whatever it did or didn't do, this recipe is a keeper - it's perfect for a small glut of strawberries or when you only have a few jam lovers in the house (shocker, I know).

Cereal Date Muffins

These Cereal Date Muffins are moist, sweet and full of @naturespathorganic Flax Plus Multibran Flakes. Snag one while it's still warm for a mid morning snack - it's an excellent and nutritious pick me up!

Happy weekend! It still feels weird to be saying that, since for the last year and a half it's felt like time has no meaning. Then again, Saturdays still hold a little bit of magic even if we are still in this weird limbo of time and space! One of the things I love to do in my spare time is making muffins - they are like little promises for the future since they can be frozen, packed for lunches, grabbed mid morning or on the way home and always appreciated. 

Of course, if I'm baking muffins, I am always experimenting! I had a box of Nature's Path Flax Plus Multibran Flakes in my pantry that they had graciously sent me, and thumbing through one of my cookbooks I came across a muffin recipe using bran flakes instead of my usual "twig" or raw bran addition. Using that as a base, I set about adding flavour - namely with maple products (hey, I have to keep my Canadian card 😀) but also sweet, candy-like dates. The mixture comes together easily and while the resulting muffins aren't giant bakery-like superstars in appearance, they are absolutely what I think of when I think of muffins. The amount of fibre in these also helps keep you full for hours which is a bonus if, like me, you're always doing something! 

Thanks again to Nature's Path for the opportunity to create these treats!

Honey Graham Oatmeal Cookies (Baked or Not!)

These oatmeal cookies are chewy, sweet and full of "bits" accented by @nakednutrition Naked Shake Peanut Butter Blueberry powder. The best part? You can eat the dough raw by the spoonful if you want - Graham crumbs replace flour in the eggless recipe so there is little e.coli risk!

I love my home ec classes. Even on Zoom, the kids love being able to watch me cook or create treats (and sometimes they even mix along!). I altered my curriculum this year to incorporate more "no bake" items, partially due to the unpredictable format of lessons and partially due to the limitations on lifting and carrying my car accident placed on me. These oatmeal based "cookies" were one such invention - filled with safe-to-eat graham cracker crumbs, oats and optionally a few scoops of protein powder in place of flour, sweetened with honey and packed with tasty mix-ins, what more could a kid want? 

One of my favourite discoveries with this recipe is that it is absolutely bake-friendly, if standard cookies are more your speed. I baked off some of the extra dough that didn't get consumed raw, and when eaten in a day or so they're a great chewy-crisp texture. After that, they do get really soft and fall-aparty (yes, that's a word now) so I tossed a tray of them in the freezer for future ice cream sandwich making. I'm very tempted to make a honey-vanilla frozen yogurt to nestle in between these cookies, since the flavours would mesh really well!

Multigrain Blueberry Bread #BreadBakers

This Multigrain Blueberry Bread is full of nutty flavour from whole grain cereal while a hearty addition of @croftersorganic Wild Blueberry Spread adds a touch of sweetness and authentic fruit flavour. Baked in loaf pans, a slice or two are perfect for breakfast - I suggest toasted and topped with cream cheese and more blueberry spread, but they apparently also work with bacon and eggs!

Toast and jam used to be the absolute best part of a school day morning for me. Quick, easy and as variable as the available toppings in the fridge and pantry, it was a great way to get something in before the 45 minute car ride to school. When we had homemade bread on hand, breakfast was even better - you could not beat the heartiness of a slice toasted golden and topped. 

Now that I'm the principal bread maker in the house, I love playing around with ideas from my childhood as well as flavour combos that just taste awesome. I still had a large amount of blueberry jam left over after making the Butter Pecan Thumbprints and wondered if I could swap it in place of honey in a standard whole wheat bread recipe. The results were even better than I thought - the perfect blend of sweet, fruity and nutty with the multigrain and flax mix, a beautiful toastable crumb and the most delicate purple hue. Thankfully the recipe makes two large loaves because the first one disappeared in a few days!

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.
This month’s event is Breakfast Bread hosted by Zesty South Indian Kitchen

• Breakfast Garbage Bread Making Miracles
• Danish Crisps A Messy Kitchen
• English Muffins Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Flax Meal Breakfast Bread Ambrosia 
• Fresh Cherry Chocolate Sourdough Bread Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Multigrain Blueberry Bread What Smells So Good? Montreal-Style Bagels Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Rhubarb Strawberry Spiced Sourdough Bread Cook with Renu
• Sausage Stuffed Sourdough Crescent Rolls Food Lust People Love
• Spicy Masala Veggie Paratha Magical Ingredients
• Sourdough Angel BiscuitsPalatable Pastime
• Sourdough Crepes A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Sourdough Discard Pancakes Sneha’s Recipe
  
  

Honey-Oat Granola Bars

Who doesn't love a chewy granola bar? These are made with a mixture of oats, local honey, coconut oil and a couple scoops of @nakednutrition Naked Shake Peanut Butter Blueberry powder. Baked in a loaf pan, the bars are the perfect snack size - chocolate drizzle is optional (I guess!).

 Summer is (almost) here, and with the end of school comes the hordes of kids (and adults) who are seemingly always starving. When I worked summer camp, we knew that aside from frequent water and shade breaks, the campers would be craving energy boosts to keep up with all the activities they were doing. Apart from fruit (which is great, but needs to be kept cool), we went through a lot of granola bars. It's easy to see why - they're convenient, portable, individually wrapped, high energy and kid-sized. Field trip purchasing runs involved an embarrassing amount of boxes of the snacks!

 

That said, buying all those boxes is expensive - not to mention some bars are essentially candy with a health halo attached. Luckily, not only are home-made granola bars easy to make, you can get the kids involved with mixing and you can add anything your heart desires to the mixture - my Home Economics students decided that dried apples, cherries, chocolate chips and banana chips were top contenders, while I opted to keep the base "bit" free and instead added flavour and nutrition with a healthy dose of Naked Shake Peanut Butter Blueberry powder and Naked Rice protein powder. I drizzled each bar with dark chocolate for no other reason than I could, so why not? 

 

Once the bars are cooled, you can wrap them individually for travel and keep them on the counter for a week or so, or freeze them. Of course, if you're just enjoying them at home you can keep them in a covered container for the same amount of time, or freeze. Here's to a summer of beginning adventures!

Veggie Pesto Pizza

Veggie Pesto Pizza is all homemade and vegan, from the Sweet Potato Pizza Crust to the spinach and lentil pesto and mozzarella cheese. Leftovers (if any!) Freeze well and are perfect for snacks, lunches or next-day dinners.

 

 
Pizza and I used to be best friends when I was growing up. There was a small pizza place around the corner from my house growing up, and the owner Kerry was always there with a smile, asking us kids about our weekends and occasionally throwing us a double slice for the price of a single. School pizza days were okay, but the mass produced stuff couldn't hold a candle to Kerry's hand tossed crust and generous toppings.

As I got older and developed my host of dietary issues, pizza generally fell off the menu for me. I loved making it - I just couldn't eat it! When N (who also eschews pizza due to his sensitivity to tomatoes) was musing about missing his pizza, the two of us put our heads together and came up with an alternative that was healthy, tomato free and still delicious! A quick shop later and we had all the fixings for a new, vegan but equally delicious pizza on hand, using one of his favourite veggies - sweet potato!

I added the sweet potato to the crust in lieu of some of the water and oil traditionally present. I added a decent portion of whole wheat flour to the mix for flavour and nutrition, keeping enough all purpose to keep the dough smooth and elastic. Instead of tomato sauce, I whipped up a spinach and lentil pesto with lots of garlic and (vegan) Parmesan which added a great bright flavour that accented the sweetness of both the crust and the onion / pepper topping. A quick blast in the oven on my pizza stone later and we had two pies ready to go - one disappeared between dinner and breakfast (cold pizza is amazing, am I right?) and the other was packed for his work meals the next day. 

Mocha Cappuccino Bread

This hearty Mocha Cappuccino Bread is full of coffee and chocolate flavour, accented by the nutty notes of whole grain flour and @naturespathorganic Flax Plus Multigrain Flakes and studded with dark chocolate chips. A slice with peanut (or our favourite - cashew) butter makes for a decadent breakfast or anytime snack!

I have always loved the combination of coffee and chocolate. As a kid, my parents would make cafe au lait with a squeeze of chocolate syrup for me while they had their morning brews, and when I was introduced to cafe mochas as a young teen a good portion of my babysitting money found it's way into the coffers of the local coffee shop. Today, I always treat myself to a scaled-down, yet still delicious mocha as I'm winding down for the night - it may seem counterintuitive to have a late night coffee but it helps me sleep! While I love coffee itself too, I will fight tooth and nail for the chocolate and caffeine fix!

 

The only other person I know who shares the fierceness of my die hard love of coffee and chocolate is my mom. When I made chocolate-covered spoons in Home Economics class, all of a sudden they would "disappear" and a pot of coffee would be made. Even today, when I'm given chocolates from my students for Christmas or Easter, I'm guaranteed to find all the coffee-flavoured bon bons gone within a day or two! So, when I came across this coffee-infused loaf on Kneady Girl I was inspired to give it a twist, especially when it came to playing with one of my mom's new favourite cereals - Nature's Path's Flax Plus Flakes. She loves them because they stay crisp in milk and have a really deep, nutty and complex flavour when compared to other bran flake cereals as well as having fibre, protein and iron - all nutrients that she (and many people I know) struggle to get enough of in their daily diets. 

The crushed cereal wove its way throughout the loaves, staying slightly distinct even when saturated with the coffee and chocolate milk. For even more chocolate flavour, I rolled chocolate chips into the dough before coiling everything up and letting it proof in springform pans to help it maintain form. This bread baking smelled like the coffee shop I used to have by my university campus in Ottawa - a combination of pastry, yeast, chocolate and freshly brewed coffee wafting it's way around the kitchen. It was a good thing mom was out while I baked - when she came home she made a beeline for it right away!

Back to Basics Sourdough

What is more comforting than a back to basics, simple loaf of sourdough? If you have time on your hands (at least a few hours worth for active labour and a few days for resting) and a decent starter, this delicately tangy, chewy crust loaf can be yours with really very little effort! My sister hardly waited for it to cool before grabbing a big slice!

Well, happy May! I don't know if it's just me, but time seems to both crawl and fly by when lockdowns are involved - suddenly I have 10 times the work to do and almost none of the time to do it. Luckily, the school year is winding down and Summer is almost here, so while it may be crazy now I'm hoping good weather and more social opportunities will be around the bend.

Because I've been every so slightly busy these days, my breadmaking has transformed into low-effort, long rise affairs where I can simply mix, cover and rest, rest, rest until baking day. Luckily, sourdough is built for just that purpose - and you can mix up a few doughs and bake them throughout the week for always fresh bread with ever-tangier crumbs. This particular loaf arose from my sister's hankering for a sourdough boule while I was writing final exams. After promising her that everything would be baked off after the last test was in the books, I mixed up the levain and let it get to work. After the dough came together, it was pretty much hands off, save for the few stretch-and-folds along the way. A scorching hot Dutch oven was my baking vessel of choice and resulted in a blistered crust with a few open air pockets throughout. 

I say this a lot about bread, but if you have no self-control around carbs, the aroma of this one when it cools will tempt you beyond belief! I think this boule survived an hour on the cooling rack before the knives came out, leading to the round getting ever so slightly squashed. While the appearance may have suffered a bit, once the chunk was smeared with butter it didn't matter - the whole thing was gone within a week and the next batch already resting. The recipe is basic for a reason, and is a keeper in this household - I would love to try it in a real banneton one day too.

Golden Miniature Panettones

These golden, pillowy Mini Panettones are studded with dark chocolate, Craisins and pistachios and full of orange zest for an irresistibly festive flavour. They're rich and sweet with a secret ingredient that makes them even more special! 

Well, it's Easter weekend - and for the second time, both the Easter Bunny's visit and my birthday are being spent in lockdown. I shouldn't complain though, it isn't like I'm one for parties or bar-hopping, but it would be nice to actually grocery shop without the 45 minute lines again! This birthday is also being spent with limited baking potential, since I'm still relatively useless when it comes to hauling buckets of flour and bowls of dough here and there thanks to the car accident. So, rather than showcase a spiffy cake this year (though one may be forthcoming...) I'm going to share a festive bread that I made last Christmas and forgot to post about! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten the experience, or the reactions from the family I shared it with. Besides, panettone seems to crop up at our household on the Easter weekend as well, so let's say it's still seasonal!

I will admit, I've always wanted to make this form of bread to see just what is so special about it - having a vast Italian stepfamily and working with a few others who love the stuff, its ubiquitous every holiday. One year we had 4 large ones in our pantry thanks to gifts from family and friends! Because we had far fewer people dropping by last year, I decided to try out a recipe that could be made rather easily in miniature form using jumbo muffin tins and a few ramekins, and just so happened to be vegan, but that would be no less decadent. My inspiration came from a carton of Coconut Nog that I picked up at the discount grocery, which seemed like it would add not only flavour but richness to the dough. To make up for the missing "eggy" colour, a pinch of turmeric sufficed. The dough came together like a dream and was satiny and soft like my mom's Brioche dough is. Then I debated fillings.

Given that my mom was one of my taste testers, I knew there had to be chocolate in there somewhere. I mean, how can you go wrong? After that, I looked to my stash and after finding my bag of shelled pistachios in the freezer it hit me - holiday colours could be had by adding Craisins too! I will admit that I measured these rather loosely, so my amounts below are a guide, but each little loaf had a generous amount of each component.

Now, sometimes little loaves are not what you need, but I have you covered with this nutty, citrusy, sweet bread recipe - it's absolutely translated into a large loaf pan and I give baking times below. Either way, I don't think it's fair to keep this as a holiday only affair - who's to say a Saturday morning isn't cause for celebration?

Shingled Taco Pie

When the wind is blowing and the thermometer is still up and down like a yo-yo, why not turn up the heat with these vegetarian taco pies? A simple spiced lentil and vegetable filling hides under a shingled blanket of thinly sliced potatoes and (of course) cheese! The recipe makes two, so have one tonight and freeze one for later.

Well guys - it's almost Spring! That said, around here, Spring is more fits and starts than a season of it's own, and the nights are still plenty chilly! I've also been sidelined from cooking (mostly) for the last month and a half since a lovely car accident and final exams, so my silence is not intentional! 

However, before all that went down I was dabbling a fair bit in the kitchen, and one of my favourites so far has been this Shingled Taco Pie. It (like a lot of things during the school year) was born out of leftovers - in my case, it was leftover taco filling that the kids and I made. N loves my shepherd's pie made with lentils, and with potatoes always in our pantry I figured why not take that idea and twist it into a meal he could enjoy for a week before his night shifts?

That said, I have a wee secret. I loathe making mashed potatoes. The water, the waiting, the splashing, the dicey-at-best draining... yeah, that's a two-to-three times a year thing (probably good too, cause we like these guys). So instead of baking / nuking the spuds and mashing like I do for the shepherd's pies, I decided to let my knife work and create a neat little shingled "roof" over the taco filling, held together by the highlight of any taco - cheese.

 Did it work? Yes - and way better than I anticipated it working. Not to mention how gorgeous it looked sitting in the pan! Of course, since this isn't a pie with a crust or anything, a slice won't hold the same photogenic quality. However, I am the last person to complain about how a delicious meal looks while I'm savouring every last mouthful! I made two pies and N froze one for a later stretch of work, which apparently came in handy!