Delectable Gifts…made with LOVE

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bread, brioche, Christma gifts, edible gifts, food gifts

This year I decided to give the gift of food for Christmas. Not just any food. Delicious treats made by yours truly. And made with love to boot. I remember when Charlotte was quite young and asking me how come the food I made for her tasted so good. I replied that it was because I had made it with love. Love makes everything taste great. Even Emma knows that everything mama makes is made with love.

I started with a most delicious bread. Brioche. A French bread with a dark, flaky crust and rich, tender, buttery interior. And I mean buttery. With just a hint of sweetness, this versatile bread can serve as breakfast with jam slathered over a slice. Or French Toast, Oh…! A super-rich grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. A snack in the mid-afternoon with a nice cappuccino. A thick slice with a bowl of soup at dinner time. Even  dessert… brioche, fresh figs, honey and custard baked in the oven and oozing with yumminess.

I came across an interesting fact on the brioche. In the 1700’s Marie Antoinette told the peasants of France, “If they have no bread, let them eat cake.” Apparently, this was a mistranslation. In French, she tells them to eat brioche. “S’ils n’ont plus de pain, qu’ils mangent de la brioche”.

I worked with a recipe from “Martha Stewarts’ Baking Handbook”, with a few of my own changes. The recipe calls for fresh yeast, which I did not feel comfortable working with, therefore I used dry yeast. I also changed the oven temperature the second time around, making for a less dry crust and interior.

• 5 tablespoons lukewarm milk (100 to 115 degrees)
• 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 pound 2 ounces all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon coarse salt
• 6 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 1/4 cup superfine sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon milk

Begin by warming the milk until it reaches between 110 and 115 on a thermometer. Add the yeast and set aside. Weigh the flour and add it to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, along with salt and eggs.

Add the yeast mixture and mix on low speed to combine and knead, about 5 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl with a spatula and knead on medium speed until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix together butter and sugar.

Add a few small pieces of butter mixture to dough; with the mixer on low, add remaining butter mixture, a little bit at a time. I made sure the butter was worked into the dough before adding more. When all the butter mixture has been added, increase speed to medium and continue mixing until smooth, shiny, comes away from the sides of the bowl and is elastic, about 10 minutes.

Butter a large bowl and transfer the dough into it. Cover with plastic wrap and a dish towel and let rise in a warm place until it has doubled, about 2 hours.

Lift dough from bowl and drop back into the bowl to deflate; repeat this 2 more times. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge to chill for at least 8 hours and up to overnight. I leave mine in overnight and continue with the recipe first thing in the morning.

Butter 2 loaf pans. Divide dough into 2 equal pieces. Divide each piece of dough into 8 equal pieces, forming each into a ball and placing each ball into a loaf pan, side by side.

Whisk egg yolk and milk in a small bowl and brush the rolls lightly with this mixture. Put the rest aside. Spray 2 pieces of plastic wrap with non-stick cooking spray and cover the pans, spray-side down. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, from 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush each loaf again, very lightly so as not to deflate the brioche, with the remaining egg mixture. Place pans in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, until it begins to turn a golden colour. Lower the oven temperature to 350 and bake an additional 20 to 25 minutes. Mine were done after 25 minutes. Let cool in pans for 5 minutes. Remove from pans and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

How good does that look? Charlotte said it was the best bread EVER!

I wrapped the brioche and attached a Christmas ornament.

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I then put together a gift basket which consisted of the brioche, a jar of Lemon Curd to spread over a nice slab of brioche, Jack Daniels Bacon Jam for a scrumptious grilled cheese sandwich, a Salted-Caramel Sauce to pour over vanilla ice-cream and Mojito Jelly to spread over crackers and cheese.

Who wouldn’t want to receive this delectable gift for Christmas?

Wishing you all the very best in the New Year!!

Chestnuts roasting…in my electric oven

Tags

chestnuts, christmas, roasted chestnuts

Alas, we have no open fireplace in which to roast chestnuts.  But that doesn’t stop me. I LOVE chestnuts. Always have. They were always a treat, perhaps because of their short life span. They appear in November and are usually gone by January. Growing up, chestnuts were de rigueur in our Italian household. Roasting chestnuts in the oven and enjoying them with my dad’s homemade wine. And because this starchy nut was so short-lived, we would gather around the kitchen table like thieves, snapping up as many of those piping-hot tender nuts as we could muster. They were so hot and we really should have waited at least 5 minutes before digging in. We just couldn’t wait. Eventually, an argument would ensue over who had eaten the most chestnuts. To ensure that I got my fair share, or perhaps a little more than my fair share, I would discreetly stash 2 or 3 chestnuts underneath the tablecloth in front of me, assuming no one would notice. And that’s when my dad decided to roast a specific amount of chestnuts per person. To be fair. As he put the roasted chestnuts onto the table, he would say to us that he had allocated 8 or 10 chestnuts per person.

Christmas time always brought an abundance of chestnuts in our home. Although my dad is no longer with us, I keep on with the tradition of roasting chestnuts for my girls. Emma is o.k. with them. But Charlotte is so much like me when I was growing up. She LOVES them! And when comes the time to decorate our Christmas tree every year, we roast some chestnuts and eat them as we go along.

You need to cut into the chestnut with a sharp knife before roasting, otherwise they will explode and make quite the mess in your oven.  Roast at 400 degrees for about 30 to 35 minutes. You could check for readiness after 30 minutes. Just crack one open and bite into it. It should be tender soft.

This year, as we were eating our chestnuts and decorating the tree, we found a surprise in our tree. A nest, left behind from last Spring. We were very excited about this small gift left to us. We left it there.  When the time comes to take down our Christmas tree, we will transfer the nest into one of our trees outdoors. Our way of passing the gift forward.

Hope you all had a very merry holiday, filled with your own little surprises!

Bejeweled Pomegranate

Tags

Cooking with kids, ice cream, Nigella Lawson, pomegranate

I’ve always thought of the pomegranate as a jewel-like fruit. Those little crimson seeds always made me think of the precious ruby. They still do. As a child, I would await the arrival of this forbidding fruit with anticipation. The short-lived fruit would arrive in late Autumn and thrive right through to Christmas. A few short months, and then they were gone. I think that’s one reason I found the pomegranate such a beguiling treat. That and the explosion of those sweet, juicy and succulent seeds once I spooned them into my mouth. This ancient Middle-Eastern fruit truly was a fleeting indulgence.

I love the myth that revolves around the pomegranate. Persephone is abducted by Hades, God of the Dead, and imprisoned in the underworld. There, she eats some pomegranate seeds. Demeter, Goddess of Agriculture and Fertility, is her mother. She is so saddened over the loss of her only daughter that she freezes all growth on earth. A deal has been made which allows Persephone to be released, but on one condition. Every year, she must be returned to Hades for one month for each pomegranate seed she ate. And that is why the earth has its seasons: the world is barren while Persephone does her time in the underworld, and offers up its bounty once she returns to the world of the living.

If we look at the pomegranate’s short-lived season, one might think the myth still applies today. Pomegranate trees go dormant in the cold of winter. They come into bloom in April, develop fruit in summertime, and are ready to be hand-picked by September and October. By January, they disappear for another year.

The pomegranate is a very symbolic fruit. Because of its many seeds and the fruit coming to an end with the New Year, it represents a fruitful or abundant year ahead. But it is mostly associated with fertility. Legend has it that Aphrodite herself planted pomegranate trees on the Island of Cypress and that Greek women once ate the seeds to increase fertility.

Thought to have originated in Persia or Afghanistan, the pomegranate is so old that some biblical scholars believe that it was the pomegranate and not the apple which the serpent tempted Eve with in the Garden of Eden. I know I could never be tempted with an apple, but a pomegranate…well, I would have become a most notorious sinner for the pomegranate!

I still anxiously await the return of the pomegranate every year. And so do Charlotte and Emma. I have instilled in them the same fascination towards this fruit as I had as child. And I sure appreciate the help in unwrapping those precious jewels. There are three of us, therefore three pomegranates. Have you ever pried open a pomegranate and dislodged those crunchy seeds from its pithy membrane? Needless to say, it is quite time-consuming and rather messy. And the girls really are quite patient. Not one jewel is eaten until all are unwrapped. They know the reward that lies ahead. The three of us, sitting together, as we plunge our spoons into our bowls and scoop those yummy seeds into our awaiting mouths. High in potassium and vitamin C, low in calories, what better snack can one ask for?

I’ve always wanted to cook with pomegranates, which is quite common in Middle-Eastern cuisine. They also make pomegranate molasses and use it in both meals and desserts. But I could never muster up enough of those seeds. I always ended up eating them. But not this time! I was going to make Pomegranate Ice Cream! Peter’s comment was, “Pomegranate Ice Cream, now?”. I had to remind him that he and the girls had just polished off the vanilla ice cream that was in the freezer, along with the chocolate sauce that I had made the week before! And besides, the pomegranate is in season now. In a couple of weeks, they’d be gone. I bet my pomegranate ice cream wouldn’t last that long!

I had come across this Nigella Lawson recipe last year but there weren’t any pomegranates around. You could use the juice, which is found year round, but I wanted the real thing.

There are other recipes out there but what I liked about this one is that you don’t need an ice cream maker as there is no churning involved, and there are only four – yes, four – ingredients to this ice cream.

• 2 pomegranates (plus seeds from a third for decoration – optional)
• 1 lime (juice)
• 175 gram(s) icing sugar
• 500 ml double cream

Juice the pomegranates into a bowl, over a sieve. Start by rolling them to release their juices, quarter them and then squeeze each section as you would a lemon.

With the seeds that manage to escape your squeezing fingers, just crush them down through the sieve.

What a gorgeous colour!

Transfer the juice out of the bowl. Add the icing sugar to the bowl. Slowly whisk the juice into the sugar. You can do it the other way around but I  prefer this than to whisking the icing sugar into the juice.

Squeeze in the lime juice and stir. Add the cream and continue whisking until soft peaks form, like a light whipping cream. Emma’s little arm soon tired of this so I took over. Soon after, my big arm tired of this and I switched to an electric beater. It wasn’t really thickening though, and after about 3 or 4 minutes I continued whisking again by hand. I finally got it. Beautiful pink peaks! 

Spoon the ice cream into an airtight container and freeze at least 4 hours or overnight. After 4 hours, my ice cream was still soft. Leaving it overnight was perfect. Serve the ice cream with pomegranate seeds sprinkled over the top.

How festive does that look? I must say, it is quite good for the little effort involved, although I find the taste to be a bit too creamy and not enough of that pomegranate punch to it. I think I’m going to try pomegranate sorbet next… no cream. Just pomegranate, sugar and water. Oh, I can’t wait!

Italian grilled cheese sandwich

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grilled cheese sandwich, kids, mozzarella in carrozza, Vegetarian

Note how I said sandwich and not sanguich… but that’s a whole other post in itself.

It was a lazy evening and all I really wanted was a grilled cheese sandwich. Maybe a nice green salad on the side. The girls didn’t need convincing. Emma could live on grilled cheese sandwiches. And mac & cheese. Peter was the one I could not convince. It seems that grilled cheeses are for lunch, not dinner. So he was having a pork chop with a baked potato, while we were having lunch fare.

The actual name for this Neapolitan food is “Mozzarella in Carozza”. Literally translated, it means mozzarella in a carriage. I know, it doesn’t make sense to me either. But here’s what it really is. A golden, battered and deep-fried cheese sandwich, oozing with yumminess. And it has to be the fresh mozzarella, never the dry one. I believe the dry one should really only be used for lasagne, pizza and pasta al forgo (baked pasta in the oven). It’s too bland of a cheese to use any other way, I think. And use buffalo milk mozzarella if you can wing it. Oh, what a difference that will make! Apparently, this food gave rise to the fried mozzarella stick found here in North America.

There are many variations to this sandwich. I am showing you mine. Giada De Laurentis uses smoked mozzarella – actually, that would be AMAZING! – pesto, fresh basil leaves and whole wheat bread to make hers. Naples is pretty big on anchovies and adding them in is another way of doing it. Another way is to add tomato sauce. The type of bread  can also vary from one person to another. Some use whole wheat, while others swear by white bread only. From white toast bread to ciabatta to day-old bread. It’s up to you. Try a different way each time and you decide what you like best. Hopefully you’ll try my version and enjoy it!

Buffalo Mozzarella, 2 balls (1 ball will make 3 sandwiches)
White toast bread  (2 slices for each sandwich you’re making)
Eggs, lightly beaten with salt and pepper (2 eggs if making 3 sandwiches)
Flour, enough to dredge sandwiches in
Milk, about 1/2 cup
Olive Oil, for frying, about 1/4 cup

Pour the milk in a small dish or bowl, the flour in a separate bowl and the eggs in another. Again, this step varies from one person to another. Some will combine the milk and the beaten eggs together. I keep them separate. Cut all crusts off the bread slices. Slice the Buffalo mozzarella. Make sandwiches by placing the cheese on top of 1 slice of bread, leaving a little edge and topping with a second slice of bread. Once sandwiches are made, press the edges together with you fingers. The fresher the bread, the easier it will stick together. This will prevent the cheese from oozing out once it hits the fry pan, although some people leave it open. It’s up to you.

Heat the olive oil in a fry pan on medium-low heat. Dip one sandwich in the milk first, then the flour and lastly the egg. Fry on both sides until golden and crispy. Place on paper towels while you proceed to cook the rest.

Slice in half and proceed to stuff your mouth with ooey, gooey, yumminess! Doesn’t that look fabulous? Peter did seem a little envious in the end of our lunch-fare dinner!

Holiday cookies and a bake sale

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bake sale, christmas, cookies

My daughter’s school was hosting an Arts & Crafts Fair for the holidays. Parents were asked to bring in some baked goods for the school to raise money for their bursary fund. I baked some cookies and gave them a holiday theme by decorating them with royal icing. I thought they looked pretty and festive, and they tasted quite yummy too. They were a basic sugar cookie to which I added freshly grated orange zest and orange juice to give them a little zing. They were quite delicate and as I was packaging them, some of the heads from the gingerbread men would break off. Oh well! Into my mouth went the gingerbread men!