I had a craving for butterscotch, so I made these blondies. I used this recipe for the batter, but instead of the nuts and chocolate, I added 1 cup of butterscotch chips and 2 cups of mini marshmallows. I (of course) used a gluten-free flour blend. The marshmallows mostly disappear, but leave behind crusty little craters in the top.
Guess what I did today! I made these baked chocolate chip donuts. I had originally been looking at baked donut recipes so that I could use my brother’s donut pan, but in the end, I made mine into donut sticks by baking them in my mini loaf pans.
I decided to make a double batch so I that I would end up with six. The batter came together beautifully. I greased my mini loaf pans with oil, as well as lining each one with a strip of parchment paper. I subbed in a gluten-free flour blend for the all-purpose flour (my blend was a 4:1:1 mix of rice flour, sweet rice flour and potato starch) and baked my loaves/donut sticks for 20 minutes. I glazed them with a sugar glaze, in keeping with my memories of stick donuts.
The end result was very tasty and certainly satisfied my donut craving. And now I have breakfast for tomorrow. (I clearly need to do more baked donut experiments.)
Earlier this summer, I got to spend a weekend at a cottage with three very funny women. There was lots of laughter, wine and good food, and it was a nice break from city living. One of the highlights, foodwise, was a strawberry-rhubarb pie made with homegrown rhubarb. We had it for breakfast our first full day there. What a great way to start the day.
I mentioned previously that June was butter tart month in Ontario. I made a valiant effort to eat butter tarts at the beginning of the month (five days straight!) but didn’t manage to have one every day. However, I did manage to celebrate the end of June with a bang.
Toronto had an event called the Great Canadian Butter Tart Bake-Off at the end of June. It featured six pastry chefs each baking and serving a different style of butter tart. Since we can’t enjoy regular butter tarts, my sister decided we would have a butter tart bake-off of our own.
We made two types: one with chocolate pastry and chocolate drizzled on top and one made using maple syrup in the filling. The bake-off was extremely successful. We got to be both competitors and judges. My sister declared that both types of tarts won—the maple syrup won the classic category, while the chocolate version won the specialty category. I think this might be something we have to do every year.
We recently hosted our family to celebrate my eldest sister’s birthday. After lunch, a few of us headed down to the lake for a walk. When we came back, we had dessert. For the occasion, I had made this fabulous torte from Smitten Kitchen. It was easy to make and extremely delicious. We also had a giant butter tart, which helped me unknowingly kick off Ontario Butter Tart Month with the right spirit.
Apparently, June is Butter Tart month in Ontario. I don’t know many details about this. For instance, is this the inaugural Butter Tart Month? Will every June from now on be Butter Tart Month? Or is this simply a one-off promotion? However, I am lucky enough to live in a house where there are lots of gluten-free butter tarts. I have managed to eat butter tarts, in some form, every day of June so far (yes, I know it has only been three days). I don’t know how long I can actually keep it up, but I am willing to try. Today, I had two butter tarts for breakfast. Delicious.
Update, June 5, 2014: I have heard back from the Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance. It has dubbed June Butter Tart Month in Ontario in an effort to promote the various butter tart experiences available in the province—such as Wellington County’s Butter Tart Trail. OCTA is working on making June officially Butter Tart Month in the future. I can’t help but applaud its efforts.
You can read more about various ways you can celebrate the butter tart here, but the site only has last year’s information.
I had a craving for carrot cake recently. One of my sisters created a delicious carrot cake recipe years ago. Her version uses soured milk along with vegetable oil, which gets rid of the oiliness that some carrot cakes suffer from. Her recipe also features raisins and orange rind and is topped with cream cheese icing. It is by far my favourite carrot cake.
But this post is not about that recipe, exactly. This post is about what happens when you bake when you are tired…
I love fruitcake. It is another treat that is not universally loved in my family. A few years ago, my mother and I decided not to bake it at Christmas and to focus instead on more popular desserts. Then, later, after all the Christmas baking is long forgotten, we can make and really enjoy this treat.
Gluten-free fruitcake holds up fairly well. Because of the strong flavour of the batter and the way it’s loaded with nuts and fruit, you don’t need a large piece. This means there are fewer, um, “structural issues” than there would be if you needed to cut larger slices. We make a dark fruitcake from a recipe in Edna Staebler’s Food That Really Schmecks. It has molasses, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.
This is, of course, also an excellent breakfast cake. In case you were wondering…
One of my sisters made me this fabulous cake from Martha Stewart for my birthday. It was absolutely amazing.
She made it using three boxes of Betty Crocker gluten-free chocolate cake mix. Other than that, she followed the recipe. It was truly decadent.
And the best part? We celebrated my birthday a day early and I took leftovers home. That meant that on my actual birthday I got to eat this cake for breakfast. That’s a pretty good way to start the year.
This dessert features six layers of chocolate cake, a ganache topping and a salted caramel filling.
These black-eyed susans are in my mother’s garden. She worries about the weeds, but all I ever notice are the contrasting textures, the curves of the beds and the bursts of brilliant colour, like this one.
A Flour By Any Other Name 