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. 

Perch

Perch is quite possibly my favorite restaurant in all of Vancouver. The menu is quite simple really - appetizers, pizzas, sandwiches and burgers - but the combination of ingredients and flavor make this place unique.

The main reason I go to perch is for the pizzas. All the pizzas are gluten-free, made with fresh ingredients and offer the option of vegan cheese. My favorite is the #2 - spinach, brie, portobello mushrooms, caramelized onions and pesto. But, really, any one of the pizzas on the menu is delicious. Seriously, I probably daydream about these pizzas on an every-few-days basis, they're that good!

The other reason I love this place is the yam salad. Arugula, cooked yams and cashews, with a pesto-hummus dressing. Perfecto!

Also, did I mention that they have free two-player tetris?

Perch up until this weekend was located at 1701 Powell Street (at the foot of Commercial Drive), but will be opening at a new location on East Hastings street in the middle of September.

Jars and Jars and Jars!

This summer I went a tad bit canning/preserving/jarring crazy!

I just love the feeling of opening up a cupboard or pantry and finding a row of beautiful and colorful jars of jams, sauces, pickles and yes, even granola, to look at!

Next on the list - pickles, pickles and more pickles!

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! 

England + Scotland + Ireland

My boyfriend and I recently took a trip to the UK - England, Scotland and Ireland. In the two weeks we were there, we traveled from London to Liverpool to York to Edinburgh, then across the water to Dublin and the West coast of Ireland. The UK is a lovely place to visit - lots of lively music, beautiful landscapes, and of course, delicious food and beer!

Here are some highlights of our trip:

Sunday Afternoon roast dinner at Toby Carvery in South Croydon (outside of London). Yorkshire pudding, ham, gambon, turkey, roast beef, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, peas, carrots, broccoli, swede, stuffing, cauliflower, turnips... all washed down with a pint of London's Pride.

Thai food at the Travel Joy Hostel in London.

Bold Street Coffee in Liverpool. http://www.boldstreetcoffee.co.uk/

Lunch at the Bistro Franc in Liverpool. http://www.bistrofranc.com/

Dinner at the Egg in Liverpool - an all vegetarian restaurant! http://www.eggcafe.co.uk/

Cornish Pasty! They have pasty shops at all the train stations in the UK - it's hard to walk by one and resist the temptation.... if only they had pie shops here in Canada!

 High Tea the the Earl Grey Tea Rooms in York. http://www.earlgreytearooms.co.uk/

We each got a three tier assortment of cucumber sandwiches, cranberry scones with clotted cream and raspberry jam, and cake! All accompaigned with a hot cup of black tea.

Rekorderlig Cider in Edinburgh.

Lovecrumbs in Edinburgh. http://www.lovecrumbs.co.uk/ I absolutely loved this cafe - everything about it is perfectly dainty and sweet. The decor is very antique, with a beautiful old wood wardrobe that holds the cakes, and old vintage tables and chairs (they even have a piano that they use as a table for customers as well!). This cafe is owned by two women - one does all the barista-ing and one does all the baking. The baking is fantastic - I tried out one of the cheese scones, while Thomas had a brownie and a slice of cake!

 

Raspberry White Chocolate Cake at Lovecrumbs.

Homemade dinner at our Dublin hostel - mushroom pot pie with mashed carrots and swede, and a salad.