Author Archives: saltandserenity

Celebrating Blog Post #500 – Apple Cinnamon Ginger Crunch Cake

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On May 19 2009, I wrote my first blog post . Today marks my 500th! I never set out to write a blog. It happened accidentally. I joined an online group who were baking their way through Peter Reinhart’s tome, “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice”. I was hoping to increase my bread baking skills beyond the simple challah I baked each Friday.

The premise of the group was that we would work our way through the book, alphabetically, from Anadama Bread to Whole Wheat , one loaf each week, for 43 weeks. Group members would share their experiences in a Google group. I noticed that some members were chronicling their journey via blogging. It seemed like a cool idea, so I stayed up all night and figured out, with the help of wordpress.com, how to do it.

Here is a shot from that first post. My bread turned out perfectly, but clearly my photography skills needed work.
There were 212 of us, from all over the world, who started the challenge together. Only 12 of us actually finished! I loved the whole process! At heart, I think I am a born storyteller, so blogging really spoke to my soul. I love to create, so baking, taking photos of the process and telling stories about it really fed my creative needs.

After I finished my final loaf, I just kept on blogging. Along the way, I bought a better camera, took some online classes in food writing, and photography and attended several workshops on food styling and photography. One of the best investments I ever made was purchasing this online course from Rachel Korinek, of Two Loves Studio. She is an amazing teacher and extremely generous with her time. I have also been inspired by the effervescent Bea Lubas. Her ability to tell stories is unparalleled.

Another outstanding teacher is Joanie Simon of The Bite Shop. Her youtube videos on food photography, released every Thursday, are the highlight of my week. I have learned so many tips and techniques from her. All of these mentors have helped me along my journey, but the most important tip I have learned is practice and perseverance. Nothing replaces these.

With 500 blog posts under my belt, I am excited to see where the next 500 take me. I have a loyal group of followers who encourage me by leaving me questions and comments. Thanks from the bottom of my heart. It’s so nice to know someone is out there reading what I’m writing!

I am so grateful for the community of food bloggers and photographers. For the most part, they are people who are generous of spirit. I adore the trait of generosity. My fellow food bloggers and photographers share knowledge and offer gentle and constructive criticism as well as heaps of praise. I feel like I have found my tribe.

To celebrate this milestone I decided that a special cake was in order. This cake is quite spectacular. It starts with three layers of moist apple spice cake. Each layer is covered in silky cinnamon Swiss meringue buttercream. To finish this gorgeous cake, I added a drizzle of apple cider caramel.
The cake batter is crammed full of diced apples. I used three huge Honeycrisp for mine. When you mix the batter together you will think you made a mistake because it is so thick. It basically looks like bits of diced apples, barely held together by batter. Don’t worry. As the cake bakes, the apples release their moisture and your cake will be perfect.

This cake recipe is barely adapted from John’s recipe on The Preppy Kitchen. His knowledge of  cake baking is mind-boggling. He taught me about cake strips. They help prevent domed and cracked tops and over-cooked edges.

 I went with a silky Swiss meringue buttercream, accented with cinnamon. While admittedly a bit more work than a simple American buttercream, I just adore the light and velvety texture of a Swiss meringue buttercream. If you are curious, here is everything you ever wanted to know about buttercream from the über-talented Stella Parks.

For the shiny caramel drizzle recipe, I went straight to Tessa Huff’s gorgeous book, Layered, for inspiration. In a traditional caramel sauce, you use water and white sugar. Tessa suggests reduced apple cider and brown sugar instead. The tang of apple cider is perfectly balanced by the toasty notes of brown sugar in the cooked caramel. It really helps to offset the sweetness of the buttercream.

I added a little surprise of crunch between each layer with a ginger-pecan crumble, because texture is important in everything.

Truthfully, we didn’t drink the Prosecco (in the first photo of this post) with this cake. My first slice I had with some ice cold milk, and the second (and third, if we’re being honest), I had with tea. My fourth slice I just ate standing in front of the fridge. I ended up making this cake three times, before I got it exactly where I wanted it, so we had lots of cake. Even the mistakes were delicious. The first cake was served at our Rosh Hashanah dinner, with a birthday candle for my cousin Barbara. The second and third cakes were sliced, photographed and then wrapped and sent off to my husband’s office, where most of my baked goods go to have a happy ending.

Click here to print recipe for Apple-Cinnamon Crunch Cake with Caramel Drizzle.

Apple Maple Pecan Tart

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I am struggling with the transition from summer into fall. This is nothing new for me. Transitions have always made me anxious, no matter what the season. Part of the problem this year is that Rosh Hashanah is so early this year (first night is Sunday September 9) and this is forcing me to abandon peaches and start thinking apples!

It is traditional for the Jewish New Year to dip apples into honey, symbolizing our desire for a sweet new year. Ever the proud Canadian, I decided to add maple syrup and maple sugar to my tart.

This inspiration for this gorgeous tart comes from Zoe Bakes. Her version was a galette. She spread chunky applesauce sweetened with honey on the dough, and then topped it with sliced apples. In my version, I cooked up a chunky applesauce sweetened with maple syrup, cinnamon and a bit of lemon juice.

I made a pastry dough with all purpose flour and ground pecans. I love maple pecan ice cream so I figured they would work well in a tart as well.

You could also use this recipe to make 6 mini tarts instead. Vanilla ice cream goes exceptionally well with these tarts. Wishing all a sweet and healthy new year!

Click here to print recipe for APPLE MAPLE PECAN TART

 

 

 

 

 

Late Summer Peach Streusel Cake

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It happens every summer. I get carried away when local peaches finally arrive. The rest of the year they are like rocks with absolutely no flavour or aroma. For a few short weeks each August, they are perfect. The flesh gently yields as you take a bite, and the juice drips down your chin and stains your shirt. But it’s worth it. I always buy more peaches than we can possibly consume. Last year I peeled and pitted the extra peaches and tucked them away in the freezer to use during the winter. Of course I completely forgot about them, until I was cleaning the freezer in June and pulled out a frost covered bag.

This summer, I decided to take action and bake a cake with my peach windfall. The problem with most peach cakes is that the peaches exude so much juice that the cake has a wet, gummy texture. Cook’s Illustrated cracked the code on that problem by suggesting that you roast the peaches first, and then mix them with Panko breadcrumbs.

I tarted up the Cook’s Illustrated version of this cake with a delicious streusel topping, crafted from pecans, oats, butter, brown sugar and maple syrup. I love a little crunch on top of my cake.

A drizzle of some salted caramel sauce wouldn’t be a bad idea.
And a scoop of vanilla ice cream, because it’s the last week of summer and I propose we go out with a bang!

Click here to print recipe for Summer Peach Streusel Cake.

 

 

 

Heirloom Tomato Galette and a Family Reunion

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This past weekend we hosted our Triennial (that’s once every three years) family reunion at our cottage, Our first one was 18 years ago, in 2000. This summer we topped out at 43 guests. A tent and more than a few blow up mattresses were involved. Luckily the weather cooperated.

For lunch on Friday, I made a bunch of these galettes. Taking advantage of glorious summer heirloom tomatoes and corn, I added some dijon mustard and Gruyere cheese to amp up the flavour.

In my mind, a galette is the boho-chic French cousin of the tart. Free form and just a little rough around the edges, she is way more fun than a tart.

No need to use a tart pan, just roll out the dough into the approximation of a circle or oval. Once the toppings are in place, gently pleat the sides to form a border.

The dough I use for this galette is a bit unusual in that it contains sour cream as well as butter. The sour cream contributes to a super-flaky crust, almost reminiscent of puff pastry, but without all the work. It rolls out like a dream, no cracking.

The video below demonstrates how to make the dough and assemble the galette. I like to make a few recipes of the dough at a time and then just freeze the rolled out pastry. That way, I can bake a galette whenever the mood strikes or hordes of guests descend upon me.

We hired an amazing caterer so that no one had to spend the entire time in the kitchen. Aside from the galettes, my daughter and I baked over 375 “Bubbe Cookies  (poppy seed cookies created by my grandmother, who we called Bubbe) and crafted a Bubbe cookie wreath to welcome everyone.


We introduced our newest cousin to Bubbe Cookies. She’s a fan!
In past years, we crammed the days full of games and activities. 2012 featured “The Amazing Race- Wedding Edition, in honour of my brother’s upcoming nuptials. Under the guise of helping the betrothed couple prepare for the wedding we were  divided into teams and went off on a car rally-treasure hunt to the lovely town of Perth, Ontario.
2015 featured a donut eating contest, where the donuts were dangling from a string, as well as another “Amazing Race” car rally, this time to the booming town of Smiths Falls, Ontario. This year, it was a bit more low key, with more time chilling, and just a bit of drinking. Now that all the little cousins, nieces and nephews have reached the age of majority, everyone indulged in margaritas on Friday night and Cherry Lemon Gin and Tonic on Saturday night.



Being surrounded with loved ones, watching the sun set and eating great food…We are blessed.

Click here to print recipe for Heirloom Tomato, Corn and Gruyere Galette.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cherry-Lemon Gin and Tonic

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One of my favourite things to create is cocktails. It’s a bit of a joke in our family, since I don’t really like drinking them. My drink of choice is wine, preferably a very chilled Australian Sauvignon Blanc. I’m going through an Australian phase now. Perhaps it has something to do with my binge watching Masterchef Australia. Australians are so much nicer than Canadians and Americans. They always hug each other after each challenge. Sorry, I digress. Back to cocktails.

Mixing up different flavour combinations and then taking pictures of them is my idea of fun. I especially like to create cocktails with my brother-in-law Brandon. He is always game to try something new. This genius cocktail idea came from my friend Erin, at Dish Catering. She was telling me about a new cherry flavoured gin, made by Dillon’s. She mixed it with Fever Tree Lemon Tonic water and said it was outstanding. If you can’t find Cherry Gin or Lemon Tonic, I think you could use regular gin and tonic and add a bit of lemonade, cherry juice and some fresh cherries. Not quite the same, but, in a pinch, it would still be quite good.

Fresh cherries get muddled in the bottom of the glass. A shot of cherry gin, some lemon tonic water and lots of ice. Really refreshing. If you’re a G&T fan, this could become your new favourite drink. We’ll be serving it at our big family reunion next weekend. Nothing brings families closer together than lots of gin, or in the case of our family, Prosecco!

I have spent the past week immersed in studying light. The uber-talented food photographer Bea Lubas, threw down an Instagram challenge this month to shoot only using backlight. Bea’s philosophy is that “If you want to improve your photography, don’t take pictures of food. Become a student of light and take pictures of it instead.”

Backlight is when the light hits the subject from behind. Most food photography is side lit (light comes from the side of the subject), as it is universally flattering. Backlighting is difficult to do well. If you’re keen to learn more about it, Bea wrote an excellent blog post on the subject. It really helped me to nail the technique.

Here is a photo I shot, using my iPhone, showing the setup I used to get my photo.
I undertook 4 backlighting photo sessions this week, practicing, trying different windows at different times of day. I shot carrot cake (recipe coming soon), but didn’t love the results.
I shot blueberries, with somewhat better results.
My final shoot was this G&T. The sweet spot, for me, was a North facing window at around 2:00 pm. It was a grey rainy day and the soft light coming in through the window created that magical glow. I used a white foam core board at the front of the image, to throw some light back onto the front of my scene, as that area was quite dark. Check out the #belightinspired gallery on Instagram to see the amazing images others have created.

Click here to print recipe for Cherry and Lemon Gin and Tonic.

 

 

 

Peach Tomato Corn Salad

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When Mother Nature forces corn, peaches and tomatoes to ripen all at the same time, I do believe she intended for us to put them together into something delicious.

First, let’s chat about peaches. There are two types of peaches, cling and freestone. As the name suggests, the flesh of the cling peach stubbornly hugs the stone, making them a real pain to slice. The flesh of the freestone, comes away easily from the pit. Unfortunately, without slicing the peach open, there is no way of knowing which type of peach is which. The first peaches of the season are almost always cling, and the freestones usually follow a few weeks later.
The easiest way to pit a freestone peach is to use a sharp paring knife. Pierce the peach at its stem end and slice it along the seam all the way around the fruit. Place each half of the peach in either hand. Twist the halves in opposite directions. Pull the halves apart to reveal the pit. Use the tip of a spoon to nudge the pit out of the peach.
For this salad I encourage you to buy as many different types, colours and sizes of ripe tomatoes as you can find. Heirloom ones are perfect for this salad. This is truly a blank canvas and you are the artist.

I recently discovered Tomberries. They are minuscule red and yellow tomatoes, about the quarter of the size of a cherry tomato. They are super-sweet and freaking adorable. In the photo below, I put a in grape tomato (bottom left)  for size reference. Loblaws in Canada carries them under their President’s Choice label. If the corn is really fresh, like picked that day, just shuck it, cut the corn off the cob and use it raw in the salad. I like to sauté the corn in a bit of olive oil if it was not picked that day.

Cut some of the tomatoes in slices, others in wedges and start composing. I just drizzled mine with some really fruity extra virgin olive oil. I scattered some fresh basil over top and finished it with a judicious sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper and flaky sea salt. I didn’t feel it needed any vinegar as the tomatoes have a good amount of acid. If you feel it needs vinegar, then go ahead and add some delicate white wine vinegar.

Send me a picture if you make this salad. I’d love to see what you create.

Blueberry Ginger Lime Mini Pies

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I have waxed poetic about my love of wild blueberries before on this blog. (See here, here and here). Sweeter, smaller and less acidic than their big sister, the cultivated blueberry, they are, without question, my favourite summer fruit. Mostly I just enjoy them raw, in cereal or with yogurt and granola, but I also love to bake with them.

My daughter is pushing me to try flavour combinations I have never considered before. Blueberry and ginger?  According to Bon Appetit  it’s a dynamite combo. The ginger adds a subtle bit of heat in the back of your throat that is totally unexpected but very delicious. Tart lime adds the perfect hit of acid.

I decided to make mini pies, because I was dying to use my new tartlet pans from Nom Living in London. Their ceramics are beautifully hand crafted and just a joy to look at. I had some fun covering the pies with little flower cut outs.
Plain or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, these mini blueberry ginger pies are just adorable. But, full disclosure here, I found the crust to filling ratio was wrong. Way too much crust in these mini pies. A fruit pie needs to be singing with fruit and these tiny pies were just humming.

A 9 inch glass pie plate is the perfect vehicle to cram in all this blueberry happiness.

Click here to print recipe for Blueberry Ginger Lime Pie.

 

Turkey Koobideh (Persian Kebabs) Pita Sandwiches

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One of the things I love best about blogging is the glimpse it gives me into how other people live their lives. I am not so naive as to believe that what they post is how they live everyday. I know it   is their aspirational life, and I’m ok with that. I’m just curious. I love to see the little details that they deem important and beautiful. I am a highly aesthetic person. The curve of the handle on a knife or the organic edge of a plate bring me great pleasure. To connect with other people who obsess over such details is a joy.

So when I stumbled upon the gorgeous blog post titled “My Shabbat Table” over at Sina Mizrahi’s beautiful blog, I was enthralled. She articulates the peace that is Shabbat with such clarity. And because she is such a genuine soul, she assures us that her Shabbat table does not look like this every week. Already I feel better about myself!

This recipe for Turkey Koobideh Pita Sandwiches is inspired by a recent post of Sina’s. Koobideh is a Persian kebab, made with ground chicken. Similar to Lebanese kofta. I made mine with ground turkey, because that’s what I happened to have on hand. These kebabs are little flavour bombs. Black pepper, turmeric, Aleppo pepper, sumac and salt combine to make an intensely flavoured koobideh.
The first time I made them, I found them to be a bit dry. Ground turkey and chicken can be quite lean. On round two I added a tablespoon of refined (unscented) coconut oil to the mixture. I decided to turn these into pita sandwiches and made a vegan tzatziki sauce to drizzle over everything. This sauce is so delicious. The recipe hails from melissas_healthykitchen on Instagram.
These sandwiches require lots of napkins. They are a drippy delicious mess!

Click here for Turkey Koobideh Pita Sandwiches.

Mango Coconut Lime Ice Pops

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It is undoubtedly the summer of ice pops. This week we’re going tropical with mango and coconut, with some lime thrown in, because we’re fancy like that.

The first time I made them, I layered the coconut and mango to make them striped. While they made for a gorgeous picture, I found that the mango-lime layer was too tart and the coconut layer was too sweet. So, I am recommending that you throw aesthetics aside (not something I am prone to doing lightly), for the greater good of taste, and forgo the lovely layers. When you blend everything together the harmony of flavours is exceptional.

You could of course buy fresh mangoes, sit them on your countertop and wait several days for them to ripen. But it’s bloody hot and we want our ice pops NOW, so buy a bag of frozen chopped mango.

Chances are, If you have any millennials in the house, there’s already a bag of frozen mango in your freezer along with the ubiquitous container of protein powder in the cupboard, and kale and spinach in the fridge. My daughter is visiting for the summer , so we are well stocked on all the smoothie ingredients.

Into the blender go frozen mangoes, lime zest and juice, coconut milk, a bit of sweetened condensed milk and a touch of heavy cream.
You could leave them unadorned or accessorize them with a quick dip in melted white chocolate and toasted coconut. Your choice. No judgement here.

Click here to print recipe for Mango Coconut Lime Ice Pops.

Cherry Yogurt Breakfast Ice Pops

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I make popsicles a few times every summer and end up buying new molds almost every year because I can’t find them or have lost half the parts for the set. This year I splurged on this set , and I am promising myself it will be the last set I will ever buy. They are stainless steel and everything fits neatly into a little tray to hold and store all the parts.

Fresh cherries are at their peak now and we decided to celebrate with them.My daughter thought that plain Greek yogurt would be the perfect base for these popsicles. She is way more health conscious than I am and she convinced me to sweeten them with just 2 tablespoons of honey. We decided to use both pureed and chopped cherries for a textural treat.

Fresh or frozen pitted cherries are cooked with a bit of water for about 5 minutes, until softened. They get blitzed in the blender. we mixed some chopped fresh cherries with the yogurt and honey and filled the molds 2/3 full. Then we poured in the pureed cherry mixture and swirled it with a wooden skewer for a pretty marbled design.
Since they are not very sweet, I thought they would make a perfect portable breakfast. I couldn’t resist dipping the top into more honey and rolling them in some chopped granola, for a complete breakfast!

Click here for recipe for Cherry Yogurt Breakfast Ice Pops.