Amelie's Plum Cake

If you've seen the movie Amelie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain), I'm sure, like me, you've always wanted to be able to make her famous plum cake. 

A few weeks ago, I was looking at recipes on the internet and came across this website, which claims to have THE Amelie plum cake recipe --> http://whiskflipstir.com/2010/10/24/amelies-famous-plum-cake-kouign-amann/

I tried the recipe out and it turned out fantastic! Be forewarned - this recipe takes about 4-5 hours in total to make, due to letting the dough rise and chill multiple times. A good lazy, rainy day activity! 

When baked, the butter and sugar turn into a smooth and silky caramel - delicious! 

Amelie's Plum Cake

1 tablespoon yeast, not rapid rise
¾ cup warm water
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar, which will be used in 1/4 cup incriments
(Plus an additional bit of sugar for yeast feeding and dough rolling)
1 stick salted butter cut into inch square pieces, chilled
2-3 tablespoons additional salted butter, melted

2-3 ripe plums

Instructions:
For a step by step guide with pictures, check out this website.  

The final stage of the dough - ready for the plums, butter and sugar.  

After adorning with plums. 

The final result! 

Apple Cake

This recipe is from a cookbook that I rashly bought at the Dublin airport in Ireland, and to which I am very glad that I so rashly purchased. Since being home, I have made four or five recipes from it, all with excellent results. 

A couple of weekends ago, Thomas and I went to his parent's house in Langley and picked about ten pounds of apples from their apple tree. After making a couple of pies, there were still plenty of apples left so I decided to try this recipe out. 

The cake is just perfect! The combination of the cinnamon-y cake, the soft apples and the sweet, crispy strudel is delicious. I liked this recipe so much that I made the cake twice in the course of five days! 

Apple Cake
1lb cooking apples
175g self-raising flour 
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
115g butter, plus extra for greasing cake tin
115g white sugar
2 eggs
1-2 tbsp milk (I used plain yogurt, as I don't keep milk in the house)

Streusel:
115g self-raising flour
85g butter
85g white sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch round springform cake tin. 
2. To make streusel topping, sift the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the white sugar and reserve. 
3. Peel, core and thinly slice the apples. To make the cake, sift the flour into a bowl with the cinnamon and salt. Place the butter and white sugar in a seperate bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little of the flour mixture with the last addition of egg. Gently fold in half the remaining mixture, then fold in the rest with the milk.
4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the top. Cover with the sliced apples and sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the top. Bake in the oven for 1 hour, or until browned and firm to the touch. Leave to cool in the tin before removing the sides. 
5. Serve with warm with vanilla ice cream or creme fraiche. 

Peach and Raspberry Galette

One of my favorite parts of summer is the berry desserts! I had never tried to make a galette before, but was always drawn to the idea of them. This one is a peach and raspberry galette, but you can use any combination of fresh berries and stone fruits - whatever's in season and local!

Peach and Raspberry Galette
Pate Brisee
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, chilled and cut into inch cubes
1/4 cup cold water

Filling
1 pint fresh raspberries
3-4 fresh peaches, pitted and sliced
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch

1 egg, lightly beaten
white sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Make the dough and let chill thirty minutes before rolling out into a flat circle.
3. Mix the fruit with the sugar and cornstarch. Place the fruit in the center of the dough and fold edges over fruit. Brush edges with egg and sprinkle with sugar.
4. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour in the oven, until golden brown and fruit is bubbling. If the crust starts to brown too quickly, cover with tin foil and reduce heat to 375 degrees F.

Cherry Pie

This was my first time making and eating cherry pie (ever!). The pie was easy to make, although i would recommend using a cherry pitter if you own one. I do not own one and consequently had to use a chopstick to poke through 2-3lbs of cherries, which ended up leaving my hands quite sore and my kitchen looking like a crime scene (red cherry juice everywhere!). 

I used a recipe from joyofbaking.com, which I made some adjustments to. (See the recipe here: http://www.joyofbaking.com/CherryPie.html). 


Cherry Pie
Pate Brisee: 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1 inch pieces
1/3 to 1/2 cup ice water


For the dough, mix the flour and salt together. Mix in the butter using your hands, until the butter resembles a pea-like consistency. Add water and mix gently until the dough has just come together. Split the dough in two. Roll out the bottom and fit into pie plate, then place in fridge to chill until filling is made. Roll out the top and cut into long strips to make a lattice topping. 


Filling: 
4 cups pitted fresh cherries
3/4 cup white sugar
2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tbsp unsalted butter 


Once cherries have been washed, stemmed and pitted, mix in a bowl with the sugar and cornstarch. Add the salt and vanilla extract. Place in chilled pie plate and add dabs of butter overtop filling before weaving lattice dough overtop. 


Glaze: 
egg yolk
white sugar


Brush with beat egg yolk and sprinkle with white sugar. Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees C, then lower to 350 degrees C and bake for another 30 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and the fruit filling is bubbling. 


Enjoy! 

Nanaimo Bars

Nanaimo Bars
Adapted from Joyce Hardcastle

Bottom Layer
½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
¼ cup sugar
5 tbsp cocoa powder
1 egg, beaten
1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs
½ cup finely chopped almonds
1 cup coconut
Combine the butter, sugar and cocoa powder in a double boiler and heat until melted. Slowly drizzle the hot mixture into the beaten egg, whisking constantly until thickened. Stir in the graham cracker crumbs, almonds, and coconut. Press the mixture firmly into an ungreased 8″ x 8″ baking pan.

Middle Layer
½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
3 tbsp whipping cream
2 tbsp vanilla pudding powder
2 cups icing sugar
Cream together the butter, cream, vanilla pudding powder and icing sugar until light. Spread over bottom layer.

Top Layer
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate
2 tbsp unsalted butter
Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler over low heat. Once cool but still liquid, pour over middle layer and chill in refrigerator until set, about an hour.
Cut into squares using a knife dipped in hot water. For easier (and neater!) pieces, dip the pan very briefly in hot water and then turn out onto a plate. Flip over using a second plate and cut into squares.

High Tea at the Secret Garden Tea Co.

Every year, my mom and I go to the Secret Garden Tea Company in Kerrisdale. Besides the excellent tea and treats, this place has exquisite decor that will make you feel like the dainty queen you have always secreted wanted to be. This place is the ONLY place in Vancouver that serves you authentic English high tea. Check out their website here: http://www.secretgardentea.com/

To start, you pick your tea from their extensive tea menu. This year, I opted for the Buckingham Palace tea, which was a mixture of earl grey tea with jasmine.

The bottom of the tier is my favourite part, the sandwiches. This year there were three different kinds: mini croissants with tomatoes and brie cheese; caraway crackers topped with cheese, portobello mushroom and sweet onions; and devilled egg pinwheels.

The middle tier has the pastries: slices of cranberry and white chocolate muffin, and mini apple scones, both served with fresh devonshire cream and raspberry jam.

On the highest tier is my mom's favourite, the sweets! The dessert selection included: mini lemon tarts; an espresso and chocolate cake topped with filo pastry; and a strawberry and pistachio mousse cake.

Coconut Cheesecake

wow. wow. wow.

yum. yum. yum.

the recipe can be found here:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Strawberry-Coconut-Cheesecake-109722

I missed France... so I made a Tarte Tatin!

I miss France.
I miss France so much.
My sister and aunt took me to see Julia & Julie this last week.
Everyday at work we play the Amelie soundtrack.
All my parents ever buy for me anymore is cheese.


The recipe can be found on Martha Stewart Living: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/baking-handbook-tarte-tatin?autonomy_kw=tarte%20tatin

Cheeeeeeeeeeesecake!

I got this recipe from my ex-boyfriend's mother and it is by far the BEST cheesecake I have ever tasted in my whole life. In fact, I never used to even like cheesecake until I tried this recipe! I topped it with a homemade blackberry sauce and it was de-li-cious!

Here is the original recipe:

CHEESECAKE

­Crust:
1 package digestive cookies
¼ cup butter (melted)
2 TBS sugar

Filling
2 – 8oz. packages cream cheese (room temperature)
½ cup sugar
2 TBS flour
¼ tsp. Salt
1 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs separated
1 cup 18% cream

Crush 12 digestive cookies into crumbs and add melted butter and sugar and mix.
Pat into bottom of 10" spring-form pan. Whip egg whites until stiff.

Beat cream cheese with electric beater until light and fluffy. Add sugar and continue beating. Then add flour, salt, vanilla and egg yolks, and continue beating. Beat in cream.

Fold in egg whites until mixture is smooth. Pour over crust.
Bake at 350F for one hour. Open door and cool in oven.

French Almond and Pear Tart

After seeing this recipe come up over and over again on TasteSpotting, I decided to try it out myself. The tart turned out wonderfully; the crust tasted like buttery shortbread and paired perfectly with the sweet pears and smooth almond cream filling. I served it warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.... yummmmm~

For the original recipe and more photos go to the site:

http://www.doriegreenspan.com/dorie_greenspan/2009/01/index.html

The Perfect Remedy for a Cold, Wintery Day

I live in Vancouver, Canada, where it rarely ever snows. However, for the last few days, the temperature has been in the negatives and very, very snowy. To keep warm, I decided to cook a hearty meal of sweet potato gnocchi and a warm chocolate tart.

This was the first time I have ever made gnocchi and I will definitely try it again. I served it with a fresh mixed greens salad and some yummy Italian bread, it was so delicious! For the sweet potato gnocchi I used this recipe from wild yeast blog: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2008/10/20/sweet-potato-gnocchi/

To follow the gnocchi, I made a warm, chocolate tart. I recommend to serve it warm with a scoop of creamy, vanilla ice cream~ I found the recipe from a blog that I really like to follow called chocolate shavings:

http://ourchocolateshavings.blogspot.com/2008/06/warm-chocolate-tart-with-candied-orange_10.html

The Pie of all Pies!

The delicious recipe can be found here:

--> http://joyofbaking.com/pumpkinpie.html