Tag: baking

The More Things Change…

~ wcaplan ~ 2 Comments

Unless you are a really good friend of mine, or a relative, or maybe a relative who is also a really good friend of mine (I believe there are some of those), you probably never knew my Auntie Fanny z”l. Which is a shame. Because if you had known her, you would have loved her as much as we all loved her, There are lots of things I could tell you about my Auntie Fanny but for now, let me just say that unlike me, she was a baker. A real baker. One who knew how to put things together without reading a recipe. Or wondering what goes with what. Or batting an eyelash when one day, after mixing and putting her very famous coffee cake in the oven, she found two eggs still sitting on the counter. Nonplussed she grabbed that cake pan right out of the heat, threw in the two eggs, mixed the whole thing up again and without a flinch or a shrug put it back in to bake, knowing that whether you add the “dry to the wet” or the “wet to the dry”, or whether the eggs and the butter are room temperature or cold out of the fridge, or whether you mix things up more or less, it really doesn’t matter. Because if you are a real baker, like my Auntie Fanny was, everything just works out all of the time. And while I’ve told that story a time or two before (it’s on its way to legendary status in my books) you really had to watch my Auntie Fanny in action to understand how great a baker she really was. Lucky for me I had the chance to do just that many times. 

“Fanny Cocoa” (as we liked to call her) would often make us a hot chocolate (with marshmallows of course) as we sat at the counter in her little kitchen and watched her at her craft. And she was no one-trick pony. Coffee cake aside, there were lots of delectable treats that made their way from her oven to our little hands. But perhaps I should digress here for a moment to explain why going to Auntie Fanny’s house was such a big deal for me. This might not come as a surprise but one of the reasons I am not a baker is that no one else in my house was a baker either. Nope. In my house cookies came from a bag, bread from the bakery down the street and cakes, well apparently bakeries make those too. What magic was employed to bring any of these creations to fruition was left only to our imaginations. Just so you know, those of us who lived in our home had no complaints with our lot in life as there always seemed to be some little black and white discs (you know which ones I mean) in the pantry when we needed them. Enough said. You get the picture. It is however, why Auntie Fanny’s house was an oasis in our lives otherwise devoid of flour, salt, yeast and cocoa powder. And why, while watching Mary Berg and her “Good Stuff” the other day do what only Mary Berg does (Yes, I know. “Oh my gosh, it’s perfect deliciousness” can get a tad annoying after the hundredth time but she too is a baker), I was taken back to my Auntie Fanny’s kitchen. 

You see, Mary Berg was making biscotti. Those fancy, schmancy little cookies you shell out $3.95/each for at your fav cafe to go with your “Espresso Con Panna”, or your “Brown Sugar Oat Americano” or perhaps your “Iced Sugar Cookie Almond Milk Latte”. Now you know I love a good baking show and I’ve always enjoyed how much joy Mary B. brings to the baking table. But this time as I watched her measure, chop, mix and bake (twice no less) my mind drifted to those days I spent in my Auntie Fanny’s kitchen. I remembered watching my aunt make the most marvellous little hard, dry cookies, laced with almonds and chocolate chips, that pretty much begged to be dipped in milk or tea or that hot cocoa she managed to sneak to me before my Mother came to pick me up. And so it was that while I watched Mary bake and re-bake her biscotti I thought “Oh my! Those look just like the cookies Fanny used to make. Biscotti? Unh uh! That’s my Auntie Fanny’s mandelbrot” (also known as mandel bread in some circles). I can’t explain to you why I never thought about this sooner (although it might have something to do with not being a baker) but at that moment it finally dawned on me that mandelbrot and biscotti are, in fact, pretty much one in the same. One’s Italian, one’s Jewish but who’s counting? If you want to know more, and I’m honestly not sure that you do, you can check it out for yourself. And now here I am, all these years later putting these little almond cookies in my own oven. As usual, it took me eons longer than it took Mary but, if I do say so myself, they were very, very good. And as I dipped my mandelbrot/biscotti into my oh so regular coffee that afternoon I thought of my Auntie Fanny, her little kitchen and how it really does seem that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Mary Berg’s Chocolate Almond Biscotti 
Prep time: 30 minutes; Cooking 50 minutes
Me: The cookies are baked twice. I just called it a day.
Favourite thing about this recipe: These last for a month so no need to eat them all at once. Like the other cookies I’ve made.
Least favourite thing about this recipe: Did I mention it takes a day?
What I learned: Probably more about mandelbrot and biscotti than I ever needed to know. 

I Bought a Book

~ wcaplan ~ Leave a comment

I suppose you are wondering why I’m telling you that I bought a book. After all, this is a blog about baking, and even though I am not a baker I really should, at the very least,  keep the focus on baked goods. Truth be told, I’ve bought quite a lot of books since I last posted in this blog which explains a little bit about why it has taken me so long to come back. You can learn more about that in my “shallow” blog (yes another example of blatant self-promotion) so I won’t bore you with the details here. Suffice to say, the reason I am sharing my latest acquisition with you, and perhaps you have guessed by now, is that I didn’t buy just any book. I bought a cookbook. More specifically, a baking cookbook by Tom Moore (with Rebecca Wellman) who co-owns Crust, one of our local and much loved bakeries. Which makes me feel pretty good ‘cause I’ve eaten stuff from Crust lots of  times and it’s always delish. And now I can attempt to bake that stuff myself. 

Now buying a cookbook might not seem like a really big deal to most people. Admittedly, even I have bought cookbooks in the past, most of which linger on the shelf in my kitchen. But let’s face it, they look good. I mean there’s some cachet in having the “right” books on display. In the 60s and 70s (no, I don’t go any further back than that) for me it was “The Joy of Cooking” that took centre stage. I’m not exactly sure why because, to be honest, back then I got most of my joy from having a “Mama Burger” delivered directly to the window of my car. Nonetheless, when I pick up that book now (of course I still have it) it “appears” to have been used so something from in there must have found its way to my table. Fast forward and the “Best of Bridge” ladies were added to the shelf. From what I recall those books were somewhat revolutionary, mostly because they transitioned from the traditional binding to spiral spines making them infinitely easier to use. At least that’s what I’ve heard. In the 80s we traded our sugary treats for root vegetables with our trio of new age (for the times) soft covers from Harrowsmith. The 90s saw us emulating Umberto because, if we could eat at his restaurants surely we could cook just like him. And while there was a lull in acquisitions over the next few years (work and kids mostly got in the way of pretending we were interested in food) there were the vain attempts at figuring out how to sneak vegetables into meals just like Jessica Seinfeld. As if she ever spent a day pureeing 50 pounds of cauliflower, carrots, broccoli or beets. Get real. She has help and they make gummy vitamins for the rest of us. I would be remiss not to mention the struggle to make elaborately decorated cupcakes a la Martha Stewart. I did try. Once. And most recently I have spent some time admiring the fabulous vegan offerings by Angela Liddon in my two volume set. They were a gift and they absolutely glow up there among my collection. 

But here’s the thing. Since I started my “not a baker” journey I have relied, almost exclusively, on the internet. Because on the internet there are literally billions of recipes for anything you can think of. And therein lies the problem. In order to find something on the internet you have to think of it. For me, who is not really a baker, that means looking in my kitchen to see what’s close to the end of life. Like those brown bananas or the blueberries that are getting a little softer than I like on my cereal, and then searching out a recipe that allows me to rescue these items from the compost bin. The result (and I know this because I have read this blog) is a plethora of muffins and loaves. Which is fine, but just a tad boring. 

That’s why, when I saw the Crust cookbook at my local big box store with the great prices, I decided to put it in my cart. I have a somewhat delusional notion that it will help me to expand my horizons and challenge me to become a better baker. To go beyond muffins and loaves. Maybe even bake a cake one of these days. So, for the next little while I will be selecting recipes from the book which I won’t be able to post because of copyright laws which I dutifully respect. What I will do though, whenever possible, is find a fac simile on the internet (surely not too hard to do with the billions of recipes there) and I will share that link. 

To begin this new baking mission of mine I decided to randomly open the book and bake whatever I found on that page. Guess what!. I landed on the Zucchini Marmalade Cake which looked a lot like a loaf to me. I know what you’re thinking but give me a break. I had never made a cake/loaf with marmalade before. Besides there was a jar of it in the fridge that needed using up. Turns out, it is really, really good! If you want to try one, this comes pretty close. 

Tartine’s Zucchini and Orange Marmalade Tea Bread

Here’s the stats on my bake:
Recipe: Prep time: Tom doesn’t give prep times. Another reason why I like his book so much
Me: 45 minutes to get this puppy in the oven. Pretty much par for the course.
Favourite thing about this recipe: I’ve never used marmalade in a loaf before so I could pretend it was a whole new thing.
Least Favourite thing about this recipe: Toasting nuts. Usually I give this step a pass but Tom is pretty adamant about staying the course. Just be careful. They burn very quickly!
What I learned: Call it what you will, a loaf is a loaf is a loaf.

There might not be a Partridge

~ wcaplan ~ 2 Comments

I’m the first to admit that there are some things I am and some things I am not. If you are reading this, you already know that I am not a baker. Which doesn’t mean I don’t like baking. Au contraire. I love baking. It’s just, as I have explained over many pages, that I don’t really know much about baking. Because of that, I simply take the authors of all those recipes I use at their word. I trust they know what, when and how stuff goes together and, with only a few exceptions, they have been mostly right. For this I am quite grateful as it lets me do pretty well what I don’t really know how to do at all. 

Here’s the thing. I may have mentioned this once or twice before in my other blog (yes blatant self-promotion. So sue me!) here I go again. I am also not a gardener. But unlike baking, I actually don’t really like gardening at all. And while, as an adult, I am willing to take some responsibility for my lack of interest and capabilities for this endeavour, I feel that some blame lies with my upbringing. You see, I grew up in the middle of the big city where the only plants that were planted, grass that was cut and trees that were pruned, was done by a small army of men (yes, I am that old) who drove up in their trucks once a week to descend upon a dozen or so unkempt lawns and flower beds and return them to their well manicured, not to mention rather uniform, splendour. There was no borrowing the neighbours lawn mower or pruning shears as there was nary a garage that housed any of those implements of destruction. Which is exactly what they would have become in the hands of us and those around us. Geraniums, petunias and cedars summed up the extent of my rather limited knowledge of the local flora. No admonitions here. Or judgements. Just telling it like it was for me. Enough said. I figure I’m somewhat absolved.

You can imagine then, it was with some wonder that one morning I watched my Dad come home carrying what appeared to be a rather large twig in a bucket. Intrigued, I followed him to the backyard where, after some careful consideration, he very methodically cleared a spot among the cedars and began to dig a hole, presumably to house the twig. To make a long story short, as I am sure you will appreciate, it turns out that, for whatever reason, my Dad had decided that what we needed in our backyard was a pear tree, so he planted one. A pear tree. I hate to admit this but, up until that very moment we all assumed that pears came from the grocers in little cardboard containers. Somehow (and I attribute this again to growing up in the big city) we never really made a connection between the fruit and the fruit’s origins. The fact that there might be orchards full of trees bearing pears seemed to have escaped us. Again, not judging or wanting to be judged. But here we were now with a pear tree right in our own backyard. Which was kind of nice.

It took a few years but eventually our little twig grew up to be quite a formidable size. Each year, as we watched our tree get bigger and taller, we were overcome with anticipation as we thought this might be the one. The year that one of those little white flowers would produce a piece of fruit. Alas, for many, many years it was not to be. Until one year when it was. A little white flower magically turned into a pear. Granted, there was only one, but each year after that the tree came through for us until we found ourselves asking people to come and relieve us of the fruits of our labours. Well my Dad’s labours really. 

Fast forward 50 years or thereabouts. When we moved into our new home on this Island of ours where unlike me, everyone is a gardener, we felt compelled to add a pear tree to our yard. For old times sake. And for my Dad. Little did I know that in order for one tree to bear fruit you need to plant two, which although doesn’t really explain how pears ever appeared on our little tree in the big city could possibly explain why it took so long to do so. Never one to question the experts (hence the recipe thing), we of course have two lovely pear trees in our yard. While it has taken some time, there might not be a partridge in our pear trees but this year there sure are a whole lot of pears. Which brings me to what I wanted to write about today. Pear recipes. Because for the past few weeks I have had no choice but to focus all my baking efforts on using up the abundance of pears our lovely little trees have provided. So if like me, you are not a baker or a gardener, or even if you are, and you too have a circumstance that has resulted in an overabundance of pears, you might want to try one or more of these. 

Yogurt Cake with Pear and Dark Chocolate

Recipe: Prep time: None given. Smart. I wouldn’t have come anywhere close.
Me: 47 minutes. That’s not so bad.
Favourite thing about this recipe: Chocolate. Did I really need to answer that question?
Least favourite thing about this recipe: Licking the grated chocolate off my fingers. Just kidding!
What I learned: Whether you call this a cake or a loaf (I’d call it a loaf) pears with chocolate are delish!

And here’s a few more.
Pear, date and walnut loaf
Pear and blueberry cobbler
Pear and Blueberry Muffins







			

	


				
					


	

		
It  All Started on the 401: Rugelach
	

				

			 ~ wcaplan			 ~ Leave a comment					

				

		
As I look back on what has become a somewhat longish life, there are adventures I’ve had with predictable endings from the get go and others that brought a few surprises. Those of you who know me well know that I didn’t always live in the frigid north-west of this vast country of ours. Nope. I started out in the “big city” and, to tell you the truth, was perfectly content there until it became apparent that, after much hard work and study, there was going to be little demand for someone with degrees in sociology and english (who would have thought!) in what could only be described as a challenging employment market. So what does one do when hard times hit? If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times. You “go west young man”. And while that sentiment doesn’t exactly fit, I did in fact, go west. And stayed there for over 40 years so as you can see, there’s potential here for a very long story which I will do my best to truncate. 


It all started on Highway 401 in a 1970 fuel injection, Volkswagen Squareback Station wagon whose name, if I remember correctly, was Frodo. Northern Ontario is scenic, at least for the first day or so, at which point driving through miles and miles of forest with not even the remote possibility of passing a flush toilet, or any other kind for that matter, does get a little tedious. As we waved goodbye to Ontariairio, we stopped for a quick boo around Winnipeg which, because it was not yet winter, was tolerable. From there our plan was to head for the mountains before making our way to our final destination where we had heard that jobs were aplenty. Ok. So you know what they say about the best laid plans. That’s right. Not long after leaving “the Peg” as the locals know it, our little Frodo decided he was no longer going to accompany us on this journey of ours and he just stopped. That’s right. Stopped dead. Right there in the middle of the Trans Canada Highway for seemingly no reason at all. Unless you consider throwing a piston through the engine block reason enough. Which left us just shy of Elie Manitoba.


Now many of you may not have been to Elie in the late 1970s so let me tell you a little bit about it. It won’t take long. Elie was, and perhaps still is although I can’t say for sure not ever having revisited, a railway town about 30 miles west of Winnipeg. On one side of the highway there was a gas station (thankfully) and on the other side was Elie, with its approximately one hundred houses (honestly I never counted) and one hotel. You’ll just have to believe me when I say this was no Motel 6. This was the kind of hotel where people lived full-time, but not because they really wanted to. And where we were to spend the next three days, fortunately in one of the few “bathroom adjoined” rooms, while the very lovely people at the aforementioned gas station worked tirelessly to try to find us a solution to our problem. Alas to no avail. There were just no 1970 Volkswagen Squareback Station Wagon fuel injection rebuilt engines to be had no matter how many trips to Winnipeg our new friends at Esso made. So it was in Elie that our plans fell off the rails (swidt?) and onto a bus which carried us to our final destination, Edmonton. Thankfully, despite the rather dubious start, we enjoyed our many years there with our growing family, wonderful friends and yes, those jobs that enticed us on our journey in the first place. Until recently when we landed on this little Island of ours. 


Which brings me to the next chapter in this longish story of mine. Rugelach. As you are well aware, I am not a baker. In all those 40+ years in the north country I can count the number of times I baked anything on one finger. I might have mentioned this once or twice before so I won’t go into it here but if anyone had asked me what I thought my future would look like, the last thing I would have said was chocolate chips and cookie dough. So this is as much a surprise to me as it is to you. The thing is, all it took was one afternoon, baking rugelach with the walking ladies for this new journey to begin. Maybe it was the camaraderie. Or perhaps the realization that my cobalt blue, Kitchenaid mixer could do more than just look pretty on my counter. I’m pretty sure it didn’t hurt that everyone who tasted these cute little crescent rolls marvelled at their deliciousness. Whatever it was, the one thing I know for sure is that it all started with the rugelach and now here I am. Baking up a storm and loving it!  It’s a whole new adventure for me and with any luck, my engine won’t conk out before I get to wherever it is this road is going. 


Ina Garten’s Rugelach


Recipe: Prep time: 10 min; Inactive: 1 hr 30 min; Cook: 15 min; Total: 1 hr. 55 min.

Me: Those times? In your dreams! I make these over two days (dough one day, fillings and construction the next) but otherwise I would suggest you keep your whole morning or afternoon free.

Favourite thing about this recipe: Everyone loves rugelach! And even if like me, you are not a baker, you can concoct interesting and delicious fillings  which will make you feel like a baker.

Least favourite thing about this recipe: Talk to my back.

What I learned: You never know what adventures life will take you on, so hop into that Volkswagen and see where it goes. Just be prepared for a little dead yeast along the way. (And that’s a whole other story.) 


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Times Up! Yogurt based loaves
	

				

			 ~ wcaplan			 ~ 3 Comments					

				

		
Banana Chocolate Chip Pecan LoafWondering where I’ve been? No worries. I’m exactly where I was last time we spoke. Which now that I think about it was quite some time ago. Here’s the thing. If you’ve ever lived through a pandemic you know that the concept of time has entered a whole new paradigm. Days feel like months, months like days. Remember last March when we all figured we’d be in the house for a couple of weeks while we waited for this whole thing to blow over? At first it seemed like a long time. Stuck in the house all day with nothing to do but source out lysol wipes and toilet paper. But then we realized it was just a couple of weeks. Who can’t stay home for a couple of weeks? There were fridges to clean and closets to sort. And what a great time to catch up on that reading we couldn’t find time for in our endlessly busy days. Surely those weeks would go by in no time. But as the weeks turned into months the paradigm shifted again. We had to adapt and some of us started to lose our perspective.


One day you get up in the morning and somehow, before you even realize what’s happening, the clock strikes five pm, you look down and realize, much to your chagrin, that you are still in your pjs. The next day, resolved not to let time pass you by, you wake up raring to go, eat a hearty breakfast and start to cross those “to do” items off your list. What seems like eons later, and feeling a little peckish, you check your watch only to discover that a mere hour has passed since those bacon and eggs settled in your gut. How, you ask, can that be? How is it that some days and weeks fly by while others seem to move at a snail’s pace? How did Christmas sneak up on us when we can hardly remember what we ate for dinner last night? Has it really been almost a whole year since we first had an inkling that “something was rotten in Denmark”? (his words, not mine)  And, if you don’t mind me saying so, in most other places across this wide world of ours as well. Did Mother Earth forget to remind Father Time to put a fresh battery in that clock of his and now the whole damn world has gone haywire? 


All of this time shifting is compounded if you happen to be, like me, a retired person. Because the least of my concern is what hour it might be on any given day. What I really need to know is what day it is and, if we happen to be near enough to a cusp, in what month. You see we no longer have any anchors. I mean I know I have to watch the Amazing Race on Wednesday evening but beyond that, what clues do I have? No more Thursday morning volunteer work. No more Tuesdays with the walking ladies. So how am I supposed to keep track? These days I often find myself asking why is this night different from any other night? Which I believe, is why I have run into my current problem and explains my need to bake an rather inordinate number of loaves. With yogurt. 


You see, about 6 weeks ago, give or take a few, there was a sale on yogurt at my local grocers. Now while those who know me know I love a sale, I’m not so enamoured with saving a few shekels that I would risk the perils of loading up on perishable goods. But on this day the deals were great and the expiry dates long. So long that I could not even imagine the contents going bad before we had a chance to use them all up. Between all the smoothie making and baking going on in this house these days we can literally go through buckets of the stuff before you can say “Jack Robinson”. So I went out on a limb and tossed not one, but two cartons of plain greek yogurt into the cart. Now I can’t even begin to explain how it happened but in the shake of a lamb’s tail I was faced with the stark reality that my calendar had caught up with that yogurts’ best before date. Hence the proliferation of yogurt based loaves currently taking up space in my freezer. The ones I’ve tasted are delish so if you have some time on your hands you might want to try one or two of these. The good thing is life should get back to normal soon. That vaccine is right around the corner. They say it could be here in a month or two. And if you ask me, that’s just a couple of buckets of yogurt away.


Greek Yogurt Banana Bread


Recipe: Prep time:  15 minutes; Cook Time: 1 hour; Total: 1 hour 15 minutes

Me: Prep time: 29 minutes; Cook Time: 61 minutes; Total: 1 hour 30 minutes

Favourite thing about this recipe: Using up some of that yogurt

Least favourite thing about this recipe: Waiting for my bananas to ripen before I could bake it. (See below)

What I learned: You can teach an old dog new tricks. I learned that you can ripen bananas by baking them in the oven for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.  Who knew?


 


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Here’s a couple more to try if, like me, you have some yogurt to burn through:


Zucchini Carrot Bread

The Best Zucchini Bread

			

	


				
					


	

		
It’s A Bagel! 
	

				

			 ~ wcaplan			 ~ Leave a comment					

				

		
For those of you who don’t know, I’m originally from Toronto. Now, in and of itself, that’s neither here nor there. What I can tell you is that the big city wasn’t quite so big when I was there. Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t a village, although I did live in one for a while. But it was definitely a small big city and quite possibly a kinder, gentler place than it is now. “Toronto the Good” was a place where a gaggle of twelve year old girls could take the subway downtown to do a little shopping and the only thing the Moms and Dads really had to worry about was how much money they might spend. There was a rush hour but it was exactly that. One hour. No road rage. Just a little inconvenience. The CN Tower was a really big deal and no one, anywhere lived above the 34th floor. As you can well imagine, things have changed since those days. Which isn’t too much of a surprise to me as, so have I. And although Toronto has gotten bigger and badder, and I have gotten older, there’s one thing that has stayed the same over all of these many years. Bagels. Toronto loves its bagels!


In anticipation of what you are thinking, yes I have heard of Montreal and New York but since I didn’t sow my oats in either of those cities I can only speak from my own experiences. And I know Toronto. And its bagels. But here’s the thing. Bagels in the “Big Smoke” are a rather contentious issue. Because in Hogtown this is a one sided affair. Never both. In the “6” you’re either going to frequent Gryfe’s or Harbord Bakery. What a Bagel or Open Window. Bagel World or Bagel House. It’s always one but never the other. Not that you have a choice. Like Democrats and Republicans, albeit with less vitriol. And malice. Ok. Lots less these days. It’s a family tradition. You’re born into it. Try bringing home a dozen from any of the competition and you’ll find out exactly what I mean. One will be too chewy, another not chewy enough. One’s like a brick, another’s just bread with a hole in it. And don’t even get me started on flavours. I mean who ever came up with the cockamame idea that blueberries, or worse yet, chocolate chips, belong in a bagel? Repeat after me. Poppy (but only if you can avoid having them stuck in your teeth). Sesame. Period.


No doubt about it. In my hometown, bagels are serious business. Which leaves both you and me wondering what the heck possessed me to decide to try to bake them. Maybe it was muffin fatigue. Maybe I got a little carried away with baking hubris. Maybe it was just that the recipe assured me it would be “easy”. There were only 5 (6 if you count the topping of choice) ingredients. What could go wrong? Whatever the reason, late one afternoon I donned my apron, gathered up all of my baking accoutrements and got to work. I was going to make bagels. For dinner no less. 


I suppose I should have known. Things didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked. Before long I found myself elbow deep in what can only be described, in pro baking lingo, as a gooey mess. With the equivalent of the dough of an entire bagel glued (there’s no other word for it) to my hands, my inside voice urged me to dump the whole damn thing, run down to my local bagelry and bag myself a baker’s dozen. After all, who would know? Suffice to say I soldiered on, deciding that the only thing left to do was wash off the detritus, dump copious amounts of flour on the remaining dough and get these puppies into the oven. You know. When life throws you lemons. To make what has become a long story shorter, 25 minutes later dinner was being served. On my bagels. Did they live up to expectations? They weren’t terrible. Although I’ll be the first to admit, maybe they were a little chewy. 


Oh yeah. In case you’re wondering where my allegiance lies in the T.O. bagel controversy, I’m afraid I’ve been away for much too long to voice a valid opinion. Unlike my brethren to the south who I strongly encourage to exercise their right to vote in November, I will sit this one out on the political fence.  Next time I’m back in the big city you’ll likely find me in line at the closest bagel joint, whichever and wherever that may be. I’m sure much to the chagrin and distaste of my family. 


Easy Bagel Recipe


The Recipe: Prep time: 5 minutes! Cook time: 25 minutes; Rest time: 15 minutes; Total: 45 minutes

Me: Prep time: 37 minutes! Cook time: 25 minutes; Rest time: 15 minutes; Total: 1 hour and 17 minutes

Favourite thing about this recipe: I made bagels!

Least favourite thing about this recipe: My little inner voice telling me over and over again I was going to fail.

Lesson Learned: Read the comments before starting out (I think I learned this once before). Had I done so I would have known that many people ended up adding lots more flour to their very sticky dough.


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Baking: Not Always a Bowl of Cherries
	

				

			 ~ wcaplan			 ~ 2 Comments					

				

		
If you are anything like me, and I’m not suggesting you are, you know that no matter what you do, sometimes things go right and sometimes they go wrong. The thing is, from the get go you never know exactly how it’s all going to end up. Hopefully for all of us, we have more “rights” than “wrongs”, “goods” than “bads”, but it’s my experience that the best laid plans, as they say, can most certainly go awry. Of course no one starts out thinking that whatever it is they are doing or making might turn out to be a disaster. Most of us embark on our projects with a modicum of optimism and at least some confidence that things will turn out a-ok. It’s just that it ain’t always so. Even when you do your best to follow all of the instructions. 


Remember that first time you bought furniture from Ikea? It all looked so simple while you were in the store. Mostly because it had already been assembled by someone other than you. As you carefully scrutinized each and every angle of what you thought could finally be the culmination of your endless search for that perfect wall unit, one that could hold all of your tchotchkes, not to mention your brand new flat screen TV, you noted that the joints fit exactly as they should, the drawers opened and closed like butter, and the doors actually met in the middle. No gaps. Get that sucker home and it’s a horse of a completely different colour. I mean who ever heard of instructions with no words? Does the screw go in from the front or the back? And which screw exactly do you use? The one that’s a millimetre shorter? Or two millimetres longer? And what’s with the red and blue thingamajigs? The instructions are black and white! As you peruse your hard work, hoping that the tiny beads of sweat on your forehead don’t stain the wood, if that’s what you can call it, you realize the shelves aren’t quite as level as you’d like and there’s that dastardly gap between the doors. And even though you did the best you could, and followed all of the instructions, such as they were, it just didn’t work out exactly as you had planned because, as we all know, things don’t always go the way we would like. Sometimes it just is what it is. (Remind me. Did someone else say that lately?) 


Take my latest passion. Baking. For someone like me, who is not really a baker, instructions are my life raft. You know by now that without a recipe I’m dead in the water. I follow my baking instructions to a tee. Not only that. I check out all of the comments in an effort to make sure that everything turned out hunky dory for all of the people I have never, and likely never will meet. Not 5 stars? You won’t find it in my oven. I need all the help I can get. Admittedly, on very rare occasions, I do add a splash of lemon, especially if blueberries are involved, or a little red fife flour for a bit of panache. But for the very most part I leave well enough alone and keep my fingers crossed that “god willing and the creek don’t rise” things will turn out as they should. Unfortunately, as with all things in life, baking is not always a bowl of cherries.  Not so much for me but rather for the innocents who partake in my never before tasted goodies. To date I’d estimate I have about an 80% approval rating, mostly because people have a propensity towards politeness. Nonetheless, at the outset of this blog I committed to sharing with you all of my baking experiences so it’s only fair that you hear about the “ugly” along with the good and the bad. Please note: Unlike the current prez of the US of A I absolve the recipe providers of any fault and take full responsibility for these failures. My poor results should not deter you from trying these out for yourself.


 Rhubarb Almond Chevron Cake


Let me just say that I should have known better.

The Recipe: Prep Time: Undisclosed and I think I know why. Cook time: 30 minutes

Me: Prep Time: 1 hour and 23 minutes. Cook time: 42 minutes Total time: 2 hours and 5 minutes. Seems to me that nothing you are going to eat for dessert should take that long!

Favourite thing about this recipe: The picture of her cake

Least favourite thing about this recipe: Having to come to grips with the fact that I have a complete lack of spatial intelligence

Lesson learned: Friends will always be polite but when your husband’s first reaction is “it’s a little dry” you gotta know who’s telling you the truth.


Zucchini Carrot Muffins


I call these my “salty muffins” which I suppose says it all.

The Recipe: Prep time: 15 minutes; Cook time: 22 minutes Total:37 minutes

Me: Prep time: 44 minutes not including the shredding; Cook time: 24 minutes Total: 66 minutes

Favourite thing about this recipe: More veggies, less guilt

Least favourite thing about this recipe: I really don’t like grating carrots by hand

Lesson Learned: You know you have a problem when you crunch down on a grain of salt. When even your polite friends admit they’re a little salty, they’re really salty.

My suggestion (not that I’m a baker): Substitute table salt for kosher salt in this one. And tread lightly.

			

	


				
					


	

		
Carrot Zucchini Walnut Loaf: Stuck in a Rut? So What!
	

				

			 ~ wcaplan			 ~ 4 Comments					

				

		
It has occurred to me lately that I might be in a bit of a rut. Even before this pandemic. Now I realize that those of you who only read this blog and not my “other” one don’t know all that much about me. So let me start by telling you that, while I don’t consider myself a creature of habit, I do have a few. Like breakfast. I eat yogurt for breakfast. Have been doing so for longer than I can remember. But it’s not like I eat the same yogurt everyday. I like lots of different flavours. And fruit. Sometimes I add fruit. Lately I’ve taken to making parfaits. Yogurt, fruit, a little granola, a bit of chia and flax, some honey. The whole kit and caboodle. I’m certainly aware there are other options for the first meal of the day, but I’m happy with my choice. So not really a rut. Just my choice. There’s a difference.


I suppose my movie watching has rut potential. Sure. I have a slight bias towards the Romcom. At least that’s apparently what Netflix thinks since it seems to me they have whittled down my recommendations to one category now. I admit. I’ve watched more than my share of Hallmark fluff. But why not? The thing is, once you’ve seen one you’ve really seen them all. I know that. I know there’s going to be a trip from the big city to the small hometown where the old flame still resides. That at some point the new guy will pale in comparison with the old one. That there will be a missed kiss before the sparks really fly which makes the realization that there is “no place like home” absolutely indisputable. I know all of that which means I can get a whole lot of other things done while keeping one eye on the telly.  More of a timesaver and less of a rut if you ask me. 


And it’s not because we have coffee everyday at 2:00 pm that makes me feel as though I could be in a rut. Seems to me it’s only natural to want a bit of a break in the afternoon. Since I rarely eat lunch (that’s rarely not never) I’m usually a little peckish right around mid-afternoon so a granola bar (I have several varieties) and a cuppa hits the spot. And now, due to the pandemic, we’ve actually experienced a seismic shift (and I use that term reluctantly living here on the west coast), moving our afternoon repast from the local cafe to our very own backyard. Where, if I do say so myself, no two days are the same. One day it’s a hummingbird bathing in the fountain, the next it’s a crow. I suppose due to the caffeine involvement this one could be considered a habit. But with all that wildlife action, certainly not a rut. 


But here’s where I must concede. As I continue to bake and to write this baking blog it has occurred to me that I might be drifting into rut territory. You may not know this, and how would you, but I have baked way more than I have blogged mostly because, and this should go without saying, it’s much easier to bake than to blog. Besides, with baking I get to eat the results. A quick review of my endeavours over these past few months however, revealed a distinct pattern. It would seem that if I’m not baking muffins I’m baking loaves. Different muffins and different loaves, but no cookies, no cakes, no croissant, pies, cinnamon buns, bagels or pretty much anything else. Just muffins and loaves. Honestly, I have never in my entire life baked a cake which should not really be a surprise since, as you know, I never claimed to be a baker. I suppose I could surmise there’s some value in developing expertise in a particular genre. And I’m prepared to go with that excuse for my singularity. But I would like to try my hand at something else. So here’s my promise. For my next blog, or perhaps the one after that, I will bake something other than a loaf or muffins. For no other reason than to make sure I don’t fall completely into this rut. 


In the meantime, my latest kick at the can. A zucchini carrot walnut loaf mostly because I had zucchinis and carrots that were either going to end up as a side dish or desert. I do have one admission to make. As you know, I normally follow recipes to the tee but I made a couple of changes to this one. Nothing drastic of course. First I went out on a limb and used my 8×4 loaf pan mostly because I like it more than my larger one but also because the author did suggest that the loaf is not very tall and personally, I like a taller loaf myself. Turned out not to be too tall in the smaller pan either. Second, I heeded the recipes’ advice and “watched my bread, not the clock” taking it out slightly before the stated 52-58 minutes. I must say that caused me some distress but it looked done and many, many jabs with a toothpick convinced me it was the right thing to do. Finally, and this was quite a leap for me, I substituted some of the all-purpose flour with Red Fife. Despite all of these changes, it was delish. And now that I think about it, maybe I’m not in a rut after all. And if I am, well so what!


Carrot Zucchini Bread


The Recipe: Prep time: 10 minutes; Cook time: 58 minutes

 Additional time (what’s that?) 22 minutes; Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Me: Prep time: 43 minutes; Cook time: 50 minutes Total time: 1 hour and 37 minutes

Favourite thing about this recipe: Great way to get your daily veggie requirement

Least Favourite thing about this recipe: Grating carrots by hand

Lesson learned: Zucchini is way easier to grate by hand than carrots. Also, a little Red Fife never hurt anyone.


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Cheddar and Chive  Guinness Bread: It’s no Sour Dough but…
	

				

			 ~ wcaplan			 ~ Leave a comment					

				

		


Quite some time ago I decided it would be a good idea for me to learn to bake bread. I certainly wasn’t a baker back then so can’t say I know why. Seems to me, the last time I looked there was plenty of the stuff on the shelves of my local grocer. Besides, nothing compares to walking into your local patisserie and getting accosted by the heavenly aromas of freshly baked bread wafting through the air. Hearty whole wheats, delectable sourdoughs, crusty baguettes and chewy ryes. The biggest problem is choosing which one to take home. Knowing all of this didn’t prevent me however, from enrolling in a “how to bake bread” course offered through my very favourite kitchen shop. It wasn’t a long course. Just three hours. So I was in no way under the misconception that I would become proficient at the task. What I did figure is that I would come home with enough enthusiasm to put together a loaf or two. Which, somehow, I never did. No fault of the course. It was fine and dandy. But I had a fear.


Yeast. I don’t know about you but there’s something about yeast that scares me. I’ve thought lots about this but it’s kinda hard to pinpoint. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that yeast needs to come alive in my kitchen. Not that I have never eaten anything that was once alive. The thing is, typically by the time I have to deal with it, it’s not. Yeast is a totally different story. Apparently it becomes my responsibility to activate it, at which point it will “start eating the sugar and fermenting into alcohol and carbon dioxide”*. I don’t know. It just seems a little creepy to have an organism that does that right before my very eyes. Which is why I hesitated to add bread to my baking repertoire. That is, until I discovered an alternative. And not such a bad one at that. 


As I often do, I’ll digress for a moment. If you’ve been reading my blog(s) for some time, you already know quite a bit about me. What you may not know is, I don’t drink. Well perhaps I should be more precise. I don’t drink alcohol. No reason in particular. Certainly no moral imperative. I just don’t. Not that I never did. But I don’t now. Can’t say whether that’s good or bad but I do know one thing. The fact that I no longer imbibe has pretty much left me in the dark about spirits in general. Ask me to pick you up a good scotch at your own peril. I readily admit that I can’t tell the difference between whiskey and rye and as far as I’m concerned vodka and gin might as well be one in the same as they are both just clear liquids to me. Southern Comfort? Well I do know a little something about that but, from what I can recall, most of you don’t care. Nor, quite frankly, should you. When asked if I prefer white, red or rose I can confidently say all have caused me to have monumental headaches in the past so it’s all the same to me. And the last beer I had cost two bits and was delivered in a glass with a “fill line”. 


But back to the issue at hand. I was pretty excited to find this recipe for Cheddar and Chive Guinness Bread. For some reason it was remarkably comforting for me to know that whatever needed to happen to the yeast had already been accomplished in the making of the beer.  My problem? Finding a Guinness. Now I’m guessing you know this, but the world of beer has expanded exponentially since the last time I found myself picking up a two-four (linked provided for my American friends). To say I was taken aback during my first foray into my local purveyor of spirits would be an understatement! Who knew? Well you did but I did not and so it was that I found myself back on the sidewalk empty handed having been utterly confused by the enormous selection of ales. Pale, IPA, Stouts, Crafts, Canadian, German, Irish. How the heck was I supposed to find a Guinness amongst all of those bottles and cans? To make what is already a long story shorter, suffice to say I enlisted my trusty partner to go in and find me a Guinness. Any Guinness. After all. I wasn’t going to drink it. I was finally going to make bread.


Bottom line. I know.  It’s no sour dough, but it is a bread. And for a non-baker like me, a pretty good one at that. No kneading. No proofing. No waiting. Just throw everything in a bowl, mix it up and toss it (carefully) in the oven. With very little effort it can be on your table, in all it’s cheesy glory, in a little over an hour.  Best of all, you don’t have to make anything come alive. 


Cheddar and Chive Guinness Bread


The Recipe: Prep time undisclosed

Me: Prep time: 31 minutes; Cook time: 41 minutes

Favourite thing about the recipe: No yeast!

Least favourite thing: Finding a Guinness

Lesson Learned: Even someone like me, who is definitely not a baker, can bake bread


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*https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-proof-yeast-1388313

			

	


				
					


	

		
Banana Sour Cream Loaf: Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do!
	

				

			 ~ wcaplan			 ~ Leave a comment					

				

		
It’s just the way it is. There are times, no matter how hard you try, or think you might like to try, when you really have very little choice about what you can do. Like now. How many of us would like to be doing whatever it was we were doing around the beginning of March? I mean who doesn’t want to go outside? Or have a little dinner party with a few close friends. Or never again have to hear “it’s the new normal” when you weren’t aware there was an “old normal”? But right now for the sake of all of us, we simply have no choice but to stay in, eat on our own, and resign ourselves to the distinct possibility that the next time we Zoom, someone will inevitably utter that dastardly phrase and you will resolve, when this whole thing is over, and all of the commercials tell me that one day it will be, that you will never, not ever, allow anyone to tell you what’s normal, be it old or new. Yes, I digress, but I felt I needed to illustrate why it was that I made this Banana Sour Cream loaf. It was, simply, because I had no other choice. 


Don’t get me wrong. I like a decent slice of banana bread every once in a while. But that’s not why I chose this specific recipe. It wasn’t even the two overripe bananas sitting on my counter that were quickly reaching the point of no return. Nope. What motivated me to search out this particular treat was the approximately half cup of sour cream left over from some other baking exploit of the past few weeks which was more quickly than I realized, approaching its best before date. Which might not be a problem in some homes but it certainly is in ours. I suppose I should explain. 


A long, long time ago in a land so far away there was a young lad that worked in a cheese factory. And while it was a good job with the added benefit of all the free cheese one could reasonably eat, as the sun set on each day this lad found himself smack dab in the middle of a very large vat that earlier in the day had held, you guessed it, sour cream. Unfortunately, it was the job of this Cinderfella to ensure that not a speck of cream lingered, lest some tiny critters find their way in to feast on the remains. And so it was that he toiled away at this rather distasteful, yet very important task, with nary a thought of the consequence. At least not at the time. 


Now you might only be able to imagine what it would be like to find yourself in this situation, but since I know this fella quite well I can tell you, from countless hours of hearing about it, that this experience can lead to a distinct dislike of sour cream. Just the smell of it seems to be enough to set off an endless stream of stories recounting those days in the vat. And so it is, when sour cream comes into this house, and let me say it very rarely does, the only way for it to exit is in disguise. It must find a way to leave the premises with not even the tiniest hint of its heretofore existence. And there you have it. As you can plainly see I had no choice but to make this Banana Sour Cream loaf. Luckily for all of us, no one was the wiser.


Ok. I know exactly what you real bakers are thinking. You’re thinking, “why the heck doesn’t she just use plain yogurt instead of sour cream? That way she can avoid the problem altogether!” This is a new blog and many of you have just joined so I get that you might not yet completely understand where I’m coming from. Let me just say this once again. Even though you know, and deep down in my heart I know, that yogurt makes perfectly good sense, I am not a baker. And because of that, I make no substitutions. Yeah. You probably noticed, or soon enough will, that I added nuts to the recipe. Technically that’s an addition not a substitution but nonetheless deserves an explanation. So Mel, this is Mel’s recipe, kind of left a door open when she mentioned there’s a banana bread controversy which has divided aficionados into two camps. Those who add nuts and those who don’t. Far be it from me to take sides. I had some so I threw them in. 


BTW…If I do say so myself, it was delish!


Sour Cream Banana Bread (from Mel)

The Recipe: Prep time: 10 minutes; Cook time: 1 hour; Total: 1 hour and 10 minutes

Me: Prep time: 37 minutes; Cook time: 1 hour; Total: 1 hour and 37 minutes

Favourite thing about this recipe: In the comments someone actually explained that the darker brown colour (as opposed to light) was a result of the Maillard reaction. It was heartwarming to learn there are actually people who know all about that!  Not to mention you can make the whole thing in one bowl.

Least favourite thing: The instructions could have been a little more precise.

Lesson learned: There’s a video! I suggest you watch it before putting the loaf in the oven. Would have helped with the instructions for sure. 


 


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