Dirty words and Dough

We here at LBB are not afraid of carbs. Bring on the bread. Boss Hog has a close relationship to all things home baked. His health nutty-ness inclines him to guilt and avoidance of anything truly decadent. Pity that is not the case with me.

In honour of his love of the more homely baked goods, we tried a few new things. Above is my new favourite bread/bun. It is a 50% spelt dough, slightly sweetened with TONS of chopped green onions folded in and then sprinkled slightly with Maldon Smoked Sea Salt. These are great. In fact I put them up to be considered over the traditional Hot-Cross Bun for the ultimate baked goods to welcome spring.
Above are some buns from this book. It was recommended to me by PH and she was right, this man makes great bread. And he has given me a new pseudo-swear word to throw around when the mood strikes and the kids can hear me.

Below is a photo of bread called Fougasse. I love it, it's beautiful, quick to make, delicious and makes you seem like a very advanced French chef when your bread basket is full of these rather than conventional buns. Very high satisfaction:effort ratio with fougasse. Also the word itself, 'fougasse', is deliciously naughty sounding when you need to holler a truly dirty word but little ears prevent you.
Another brilliant substitute bad word brought to me by PH and her husband is 'credenza'. Do you have another bad word replacement? Let me know in the comments.

I'm Back

I have been a bad blogger, I know. And I didn't make this cup either. But, I'm sure you'll agree it is lovely (if you don't then maybe holding it in real life would change things). It was made by Cathi Jefferson. I bought it last weekend at Creative Chaos, apparently the largest craft show and sale in Western Canada. I have some issue with the name of the show implying that the art/craft just happens in a whirlwind of unstoppable creativity rather than by the blood and sweat of persons so inclined to work themselves ragged for nearly no money. Maybe it's just me, but I think the lousy name sets the tone for the whole show. And not a good tone generally.

How excited was I when I found Cathi Jefferson and her amazing pottery there? So excited I bought a whiskey cup! I spent last winter trying to cultivate a taste for whiskey in the cold evenings after the kids went to bed so, obviously, I needed a whiskey cup anyway. And what a lovely one this is. All covered with silver dollars. Mmm. Lovely. Almost makes me want to drag out my clay and reclaim my title as 'potter' but.....

yeah, it gets better. Dearest Boss Hog really came through for my birthday this year and organized a felting workshop for me here at my house with Postmodern Hausfrau. Jessica from Funk Shui is actually coming to my house for a whole weekend of wool. Pretty great. I am so looking forward to PH coming with wee Fritz and Liesl. Eden and Arlo are going to go bananas when they realize that we are having a whole week of sleepovers!!

As for my absence here recently. I agreed to do the concession for Susan Paisley's dance school recital two weeks ago. It was five shows of amazing dance, Eden is going to get signed up for ballet come fall, but it totally taxed the ability of me and my kitchen to mass produce cupcakes and caramel corn. As a result, I have been spending most of my time since then proving to my family that I still love them and am capable of producing delicious dinners, not just special treats that they are not allowed to taste. How cruel am I, making dozens of cupcakes and not giving the girls any? Just ask either of them and they will tell you. Not sharing is mean. I have taught them well.

Home made Granola

One of Boss Hog's favourite things in the world is starting the day with a nice, reassuring bowl of home made granola. He is the type to enjoy the same thing every day and, truthfully, can be a bit of a functional eater. This kills me because I am the type to want something different every day, but every day it must be something tasty, not simply nutritious and filling. I do like a bowl of granola occasionally, with thick yogurt and frozen raspberries if I have them. So, since a dependable breakfast = true love according to Boss Hog I have been doing my best to keep him supplied.

I bought organic almonds, coconut, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and dried cranberries and raisins from Rancho Vignola, a fantastic fruit and nut supplier located in, of all places! my small town. I added a cup of each of the nuts and seeds to 12 cups of organic old fashioned oats. In a sauce pan I combine one cup butter, one cup of liquid honey and a generous tsp of ground cinnamon and poured it over the oat mixture in two 9x13 pans. Bake at 300 F stirring every 15 mins until golden and toasty all over. I add the dried fruit after everything cools and Voila! I am beloved by Boss Hog until we run out of granola again.

Cake

Who doesn't like cake? Arlo actually. But she is a fan of icing so this is her favourite cake so far. The icing to cake ratio is high enough to interest her for a few minutes anyway.
My town's Museum and Art Gallery Society have a book sale every year to raise money. The sale is all of donated books and it runs for eight days. It is amazing. It's jam packed with books and people for all eight days, new books being brought out every day. I got an old baking book there and have started my review of the book in the cake section. This cake is called The Ultimate Chocolate Sandwich cake and it is seriously misleading. The cake is mainly beaten eggs and has a very stiff, dry texture. Blah. Not nearly chocolaty enough for the likes of me. And the icing was the type with raw egg in it so I decided not to use that recipe at all.
Luckily for all of us I had some white chocolate, whiskey and whip cream to hand. I made a chocolate ganache, cooled it and beat it into whipped cream. Ooooh la laaaa! I am not a white chocolate fan generally, but with whiskey it is sublime. Just to guild the lily a bit I added some yellow plum jam in one of the layers. I am finding that this type of icing is my favourite at the minute. Buttercreams tend to be overly sweet and whipped cream alone doesn't stand up for more than a day. Really, it's not an indulgence. This ganache and cream icing is pure practicality.

Easter Bread

There seems to be a time in life when your kids start to realize the importance of holidays in terms of what sort of sweets will be served. That time is now at our house. My new challenge is to get them to look forward to the Easter bread as much as the chocolate bunnies and jelly beans. Not that there is much wrong with chocolate bunnies, but I am starting to wish we could settle on some more solid traditions in our family. So, naturally, I begin with baked goods.

I have a fairly standard Challah recipe that I love and this is where I started. To it I added the zest of one lemon and a few hand fulls of raisins, cranberries and Turkish apricots. It's pretty good but the next batch will have a lemon juice glaze to give it a fair chance at competing with chocolate bunnies.
(note the little bread thief in the first photo. Eden could not let the buttered slice sit untouched while I took endless photos. )

She's Two

Arlo is two!! She seems like she's been two for ages now. Partly because it's easier to say she's 2 than to say she will be two in four months, and partly because she's the second child and she's way more advanced than Eden was at two. In any case, Arlo doesn't much like cake. She LOVES ice cream though so I decided to make an ice cream cake. Super yum.

Line a bowl with cling film and fill the bowl with ice cream. Bake a brownie while the ice cream sets up in the freezer. Cut the brownie into a circle to fit the opening of the bowl. Invert bowl of ice cream on top of the brownie and frost with 8oz chocolate melted with 1cup of whipping cream (cool the chocolate ganache completely before attempting to frost the ice cream!!) Promptly freeze again for at least three hours and then enjoy!!

Black and White, take 2

I saw angry chicken's post about chocolate covered shortbread a few weeks ago and thought it would be the perfect gift for going visiting during spring break. Our family went down to Vancouver and spent a few whirlwind days visiting the coastal clan members. We went with bags of these shortbread covered in either dark chocolate and almonds or white chocolate and pumpkin seeds. And we took some cinnamon, almond and chocolate covered biscotti which did not get photographed in the rush to pack up two kids intent on unpacking the tidy bags left in front of the door. Let me tell you, it took some will not to unpack the shortbread and eat it at the hotel before it could be delivered.

Simple Things

We made a pie the other day. Partly it was to keep Boss Hog happy and partly to keep Eden and Arlo happy. I had a bad childhood stomach flu that involved peach pie and have as a result never been too overly fond of pie in general. It is not worth the effort to me (unlike chocolate cake which I can rouse myself to bake with startling regularity).

For some reason we had a lot of pie dough left over this time so we made a mini muffin tray of "fairy pies" for the little people. They were quick and easy and delicious filled with last summers raspberry jam. They were also much easier to give to the kids and did not require forks or plates. They were simple and homey and wonderful. They have not won over Boss Hog's heart but they have won over mine.

Tiny Baking Day

You already know how much the girls and I love making and eating the delicious Peppernuts. They were our cookie exchange contribution this year. But now we have a savory favourite in the tiny category too. We made garlic cheese crackers in tiny pinches the other day and they are so good I have forbid myself to make them for "fun". Boss Hog and I ate most of them and they are addictive. I based the recipe on a plain sweet shortbread recipe and took enormous liberties.

Yes, I am one of those people. Yeah, the kind that make up recipes out of their heads and don't write them down. The basic idea is to take a shortbread recipe, remove the sugar and replace it with finely grated strong cheese. Sprinkle in any herb or spice that tempts you and season with salt. Then see what you have. Is it too wet? or too dry? Add flour or yogurt to make the dough stiff enough to roll out or pull apart. I know this haphazard method of baking would drive some people mad but this is the most fun! How can you go far wrong with a base of flour, butter and good cheese. Bake it up baby!

Hallelujah!! cheese bread

It's official. This bread will henceforth appear at every Christmas dinner that I ever make until we all become lactose intolerant. It is stuffed with a mixture of feta, mozza and ricotta (to approximate the original regional cheese totally unavailable in Canada).I have to thank the ever over-the-top Nigella Lawson for adapting this Hachapuri, a traditional Georgian bread, for her readers in Feast. It is divine in many ways. The absolute simplicity of the recipe, the fabulous reheating, the totally easy to deal with dough and, of course, the fact that when Ms. Lawson suggests that this quantity will do nicely for eight people, what she really means is eighteen people. I have kids though and I love a left over probably more than most, especially when it is this good.

But wait, there is more divinity here!! The dough is not yeasted, and while I am not averse to yeasted bread I also know that making it while wrestling a turkey and several side dishes would simply not work in my house due to lack of space alone. And it can be made 2-3 days ahead. And though basic and essential in it's construction, it is pure, glorious indulgence to eat.

* photo credits to my mom who, along with Boss Hog, suddenly got really excited for this to be blogged about and staged virtually every dish I made.