blueberry buttermilk pancakes

I charged up the battery on my old d-slr this week. It's been a while since I played around with it. Last winter I upgraded my lens to a pretty snazzy macro for improved food photographs. All photos today were shot on my Nikon D40 with a AF-S Micro NIKKOR 85 mm. No flash.




After a wildly successful catering event this week, I had a few ingredients left over. Including most of a litre of buttermilk. What do you do when life hands you buttermilk? You make buttermilk pancakes, of course.

This recipe was modified from the one found here at epicurious.com

Ingredients:
2 C washed and dried fresh blueberries
1 1/3 C all purpose flour
3 Tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 C buttermilk
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
dash of ground cinnamon
real maple syrup to serve



Prepare the blueberries and leave them out on a folded sheet of paper towel to dry on the counter.



Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with a couple layers of paper towel to absorb excess oil. Put it in the oven and as each batch comes out of the pan, put it on the baking sheet and leave it in the oven to stay hot.

Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk wet ingredients.

Add wet to dry. Do not over-beat. Small lumps are okay.

Heat about a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat.

I started with oil and then switched to butter to keep the pan greased between batches. I like my pancakes to be a bit crispy around the edges, so I like lots of hot oil or butter in the pan. The first few pancakes are always a little wobbly, but once you get your heat right and the motion down, you kind of get a rhythm going.

Fold the blueberries into the batter with a spatula. I started coking the pancakes before I thought of adding the cinnamon, but now would have been a good time to do that.

Pour a heaping tablespoon of batter into the pan. Don't overcrowd. You need to have room to get in and flip.

You know the pancakes are reading to be flipped when little air bubbles begin appearing on the top.

A second spatula is often helpful in the flipping. Don't worry if you screw up the first few times. I've been flipping pancakes for years and I always start out a little rusty. To check that you've got it right, cut open a finished pancake to make sure the batter is fully cooked through.

Make sure you remove all the little mini pancake bits (bb's, my mom calls them) and loose blueberries so that they don't burn over the course of cooking.

Serve hot with as much maple syrup as you like.


Other topping options:
sweet yogurt
whipped cream
fresh fruit
jam
apple butter
creme liquer

If you're like me, and always make too much food, these pancakes can be covered and refrigerated. They will reheat beautifully in the toaster oven tomorrow morning. Or later tonight. More that likely, later tonight, as I don't think they are going to survive the J monster and his powerful pancake chomping action.

fruit filled french toast

I have been promising J I would make him some more stuffed french toast for the last couple of weeks. School, work, the ever-present mountain of laundry rising up out of the hamper in the corner... somehow, getting up and making breakfast on the weekends get lost under the covers.

This time I was making good on my promise. And boy was it good...

You can use whatever fruit you like for the filling. If it slices well like bananas or pears then they can go right in, as is. For berries, they should be macerated first.

I just so happened to have some extra cream cheese frosting leftover from cupcakes I made for class earlier in the week. Thanks for the recipe, La. The cream cheese frosting was actually J's idea. And for topping I chopped up craisins and pumpkin seeds and had 2 varieties. The Joy of Cooking strikes again!

Cream Cheese Frosting: (makes 2 cups)
8 oz cold cream cheese
5 Tbsp soft, unsalted butter
2 tsp vanilla
2-4 cups confectioner's sugar (I didn't use as much as Rombauer calls for because I wanted the flavour of the cream cheese to be more present. Plus I don't like having things too sweet. This is going on cupcakes and french toast after all...)

Step one: Beat together vanilla, butter, and cream cheese.
Step two: Sift in sugar in batches.
Step three: Stir, stir, stir! Or if you are lucky and have an electric mixer or food processor... well then... that's just a lot easier, isn't it?

For french toast: (this is for two, multiply as needed)

4 slices of bread (I like challah or sliced country loaves)
Arrange your bread slices like butterflies and spread 1 Tbsp of cream cheese frosting on each facing slice.

Layer banana slices so that they rest overlapping but still inside the edge of the crust.

How to macerate berries:
Rinse and dry raspberries... or blackberries, or blueberries (you get the idea.)
Place in a bowl.
Mash for 10 seconds or until the once-berries are now kind of in between recognizable fruit and jam.

Squeeze about 2 tsp of juice from a lemon. See this post for a tip on a quick, easy, clean way to juice a lemon without any fancy gadgets.

Sprinkle 1-2 Tbsp of fine or superfine sugar. Mix together and check for balance of sweetness, acidity, and berry flavour.

Let stand briefly before spreading over the already existing layer of cream cheese on one side of the butterflied bread.

In a medium sized flat-bottom dish, prepare a mixture of 3 eggs, salt, cinnamon, and a splash of milk and stir vigorously with a fork.

After closing each sandwich, press firmly together before placing the bread in the egg mixture.

Wait for the bread to soak up the egg before flipping and repeating the soak up time.

Prepare a large non-stick pan, melting about 1 Tbsp of butter over medium heat until sizzling.

Transfer bread from egg dish to hot pan. Fry on both sides until golden and no longer releasing egg when poked with a spatula.

J and I wanted to try 2 different kinds of filling so when it was ready to come out of the pan I quickly cut each one in half and served up combo plates. They were quickly doused in maple syrup and whipped cream and gobbled down with indulgent glee.

Now I ask you, if pizza is a vegetable, is raspberry and cream cheese filled french toast a serving of dairy and of fruit?

Bread Pudding or What to do with stale cinnamon buns ...

Start by opening up your Joy of Cooking to page 822. If you do not have a copy of Irma S. Rombauer's classic compendium of everyday dishes... well shame on you. But fear not - if you still choose not to add this essential encyclopedia of culinary wisdom, you're reading this, so at least you have the internet.

If you do a search of "bread pudding recipe" you'll find dozens of ideas to get you started. As Ms. Rombauer writes, "bread pudding is an efficient way to transform stale bread into a considerable variety of delicious desserts". There are very few rules when it comes to this dish. But of the few things that are certain you must not deviate.


1) Don't bother baking this with fresh bread. The whole point is to use up the ends of things like buns, sliced bread, or challah. I find challah makes the very best bread pudding because it's so rich and a little bit sweet already.

We had extra cinnamon buns lying around that were forgotten about after a lazy Sunday turned into a hectic week so they were the inspiration for this entry.

Cube the bread/buns/whathaveyou into bite-size pieces. You'll need about 5 Cups for this recipe, but a little more than that won't hurt.

*Note - the only bread that won't work for this is the kind made with baking powder or baking soda - you need actual yeast breads for bread pudding

2) Fillings are optional but always a good idea

There were raisins in the cinnamon buns so I thought I would go with the fruity theme and added a handful of dried currants (raisins being unavailable). You could use chopped up dried apricots or dates or even fresh apple. These are extra little add-ins and are not required for the pudding to be considered a pudding.

Sometimes I add roughly chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chips. Once I actually chopped up brie cheese and added a splash of brandy... that was legendary.



Like all of the best things, there is butter in my recipe. Though Ms. Rombauer doesn't list it as a main ingredient, she does instruct that the casserole or baking dish be "buttered". Take a nob of butter - from your retro orange glass butter dish if you have one - and using some parchment paper or the foil from the butter itself, rub it into the bottom and sides of the dish.

If you're trying to be health conscious - well, why are you baking a custard-based dessert in the first place? ... Anyway, you can replace that last step by spraying the baking dish with low-fat cooking spray.

3) Learn to make custard

The Joy of Cooking asks for 3 Cups of whole milk. We are a 1% milk kind of house but I happened to have a quart of buttermilk leftover from pancakes so I used that up and finished the 3 Cups with regular milk.

To the milk add 4 large eggs. I learned from my mother that you should always crack each egg into a small bowl or cup separately first before adding it to the larger bowl of ingredients. You never know when you might fail and end up with shards of egg shell all over the place - not delicious.

Also - and I've noticed this with the fresh eggs from the market especially - you need to watch for blood spots in the eggs - the blood should be removed or the whole egg should be discarded. It depends on how squeamish you are, I suppose.

Either way, lesson learned, thanks Mom!

Whisk together your milk, 4 eggs, 1/2 - 3/4 Cup of sugar (depending on if you're using already sweetened bread like cinnamon buns for example).


4) Get creative

Add your flavour boosters - 1 tsp vanilla, 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg, and a pinch of salt

As I mentioned above - in the past I've added all kinds of things to my custard to give it extra flavour.

Ideas? Try lemon zest, ground ginger, cloves, lavender, rosemary, almond extract, or Bailey's.

Really this the the fun part - the part where bread pudding can get really wild. Have fun with it -

And if you are particularly successful with your rendition, do let me know.

When your milk-egg mixture is all combined, all you have to do is pour it over the bread cubes sitting in wait in your prepared baking dish. Make sure you pour it evenly over all of the surface. Then all you have to do is wait. The dish needs about 30 minutes to soak up all the custard.

In the meantime there are lots of things you could do. Some might tell you to clean up after yourself. I think that is the job of whomever is lucky enough to be tucking into your dessert. And if that someone is you, well, I guess it will be all the more deserved, won't it?

Sweep the living room, fold laundry, rearrange your spice drawer, do whatever. I just wouldn't take the dog for a long walk as you need to press the bread down with a spatula periodically - every 5-10 minutes - to ensure proper soaking up-ness.


5) Get in the habit of always preheating the oven before it's time to put your food in

The other thing you should probably do in that half hour prior to baking is preheat the oven - at 350 degrees F.

Oh yes, and the other part of learning to make custard:

6) Prepare a water bath and set the baking dish inside it.
A water bath insulates the delicate custard from the violently hot oven temperature. It's easy. Find an oven safe dish that's larger than the one you're baking the bread pudding in. Line it with a few layers of paper towel. Rest the baking dish inside it. Pour water up to about halfway up the side of the bread pudding dish. Now your pudding is protected!

Bake the bread pudding for about an hour - depending on the hotness of your oven this may be a bit more or less. The time will also vary depending on the bread-custard ratio. If you have more custard and less bread, it will take a little longer.

You'll know your dessert is done when a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

If you're really keen you can prepare a butterscotch sauce or some sweetened whipped cream to serve on top.

We (Irma and I) think bread pudding is best served warm, so if you want to reheat it in an oven at around 300 for 15 minutes or so, you'll really impress people at your next potluck.

Bread pudding is even more amazing because you can make it in advance of a get-together and it will only get better as it sits.

Remember to refrigerate that puppy - eggs left on the counter of several days = gross.

U-Pick is amazing!

Can you believe that I've lived here my whole life and never visited a U-Pick berry farm? Well the time has come, I thought, to correct this gross oversight in my agricultural education. I recently visited Roy's Raspberries, just a mere 10 minutes drive from the city. A quick left off of Highway 16A, a couple clicks past the Devon overpass is a hideaway I've probably driven by a hundred times. There's a sign on the highway, so you really can't miss it, but if you need to, you can call ahead and ask for directions. The picking should still be good for a couple weeks, I think.

At Roy's Raspberry Farm "Alberta's Finest" berries are thriving. Many of the bushes have been around since the 70's when Roy Boyko first planted on his 20 acres. They grow about a dozen different varieties of raspberries - Thornless, Summit, Souris, Red River, Qualicum, Newburg, Mammoth, Jewel, Honey Queen, Fall Gold, Double Delight, Chief, Boyne, and Bounty. Did you even know there were so many kinds of raspberries? I guess I should have, but when you hear that 97% of plant diversity has disappeared from our supermarkets since the 1950's it's difficult to conceptualize this when it comes to actual species.

My sister and I ventured out into the field with our homemade berry picking buckets securely fastened around our necks with measuring tape and shoelaces to keep both hands free for easier picking. Lorraine Boyko, wife of Roy's son Harvey who now runs the farm, gave us a rundown of the procedures and offered us old car mats to sit on so we could get down low where the berries were growing.

We walked a good distance away from the main house and the highway, though unable to get away from the noise of the traffic. When we found a spot that looked good, my sister and I got down to it, grabbing handfuls of berries - half of which made it into the buckets, the other half somehow ended up in our happy tummies... I really don't know how that happened...

We picked and ate for about a half hour, walking around the fields and sampling some of the other berry varieties. We focused on the oldest bushes with the most fruit, which we discovered later were Boyne raspberries. Sweet, tart, and juicy, the bright crimson berries were honestly the most raspberry-tasting berries I've ever tried. Nothing tastes better than fresh picked fruits and veggies, and this was an experience I'll never forget. What's more, I'm looking for reasons to go back as soon as possible...

Back at the hut where we received our instructions and mats we settled up with Lorraine and for all the raspberries we could pick and eat, it came out to $6.75(!) There are recipes for muffins, pie, and a summery beverage all using their fresh raspberries. I haven't yet tried them since we ate all the raspberries before I got a chance, but the recipe sheet is going in my need-to-try book for sure.

U-Pick, where have you been all my life?

strawberry shortcake!!!!!!!!!!!

My Zaida's favourite dessert is strawberry shortcake. My mom used to make it occasionally when she had my grandparents and other family over for dinner. Sort of. Her version of strawberry shortcake, though not exactly loyal to the true definition, was a delicious pile of thickly sliced Sara Lee frozen pound cake with sliced strawberries and vanilla and icing sugar sweetened whipped cream. All my life I grew up thinking this was all there was to it. Deep down, though, I knew... I knew there must be a whole other world to shortcake that delved deeper into the realm of the "made from scratch".
Don't get me wrong. I love Sara Lee pound cake. It's convenient, can be served almost directly out of the freezer, and can be modified in a myriad ways for all kinds of desserts. But once I did a little digging, I found out exactly what I had been missing all those years, and learned precisely why strawberry shortcake is my Zaida's very favourite.
A friend of mine clued me in to Recipezaar, a user supported site where readers can submit recipes, rate others they have used, and offer suggestions and modifiers. My friend suggested that I search the recipe I was looking for and then scan the results for ones that had high ratings and had been tried lots of times. The one I found was for "Old Fashioned Strawberry Shortcake". It's a very simple recipe that can be whipped out (*pun intended) in relatively little time. I learned why it's called shortcake. A few basic ingredients and some handmade love and you'll be enjoy a beautiful classic dessert in no time at all.
Make sure you've got plenty of strawberries. I ate quite a few as I baked and it would have been quite sad if I didn't have enough to make the pretty border on top at the very end. I prepared everything in the afternoon and then went out to run some errands. I was able to quickly assemble it at the end of dinner and after some minor spillage (my kitchen is on a slant and a bunch of the strawberry juice went running off the bottom layer, down the side of the plate and onto the table), the cake was brought out to applause and birthday singing.
The coolest part, in my opinion, is the way the actual cake is made, before any of the assembly happens. Work flour, salt, baking powder, and butter together with your hands until it resembles a coarse meal. Form the meal into a dough ball and divide it in half. Roll each half out into a round shape the size of a spring form pan. Butter the pan and drop one of the rounds into it. Brush the top with melted butter. Place the second round directly on top of the first. Bake the two together and when they come out and cool a bit, you can take them apart and set them aside to assemble the layers. I was so excited and in a bit of a rush (with floury, buttery fingers) and so I didn't get process shots of this part, but the baker who uploaded the recipe took some great ones.

*** Caption Contest***
"Please... no more cake... it's just too delicious"