Baking With Anna Olson
After having been crazy-busy with my PhD for the last 3 months, I have finally found some calm again, enough for me to get back into baking at least. I made these coconut-almond-chocolate bars for a colleague’s birthday today. I wanted a recipe that didn’t look too complicated to ease back into it gently and I was not disappointed. These bars are simple to make yet taste delicious.
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What is one to do with a large amount of egg whites leftover from making crème brûlées? Make soufflés, of course! Now I had never made a soufflé as I, like the majority of people I think, have always been intimidated by soufflés. Nonetheless, I decided that I would give it a shot by making this Baileys chocolate soufflé. It was not too complicated to make, but I was still nervous about messing it up. The first moment that gave me doubt was when the “thick paste” that I was supposed to obtain from combining the melted chocolate and the milk mixture was not so thick.
Read MoreThe dessert I made next called for this velvety and creamy caramel sauce. What a delight! It is fast to make and excellent. I highly suggest the addition of Baileys as it changes the whole taste profile. It is like caramel sauce for grown-ups!
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Considering that I was, to my surprise, fairly successful in making the classic crème brûlées last time, I thought that I would be a little fancy and attempt the dulce de leche crème brûlée. Dulce de leche consists in sweet milk which can be obtained by caramelizing sugar in milk. I made the classic vanilla crème brûlée several months ago and sadly I had forgotten how delicious it was. I dare say, however, that this caramelized version is my favorite of the two.
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Like most people, I strongly dislike wasting food. As such, whenever I have some fruits or vegetables, or any other ingredient for that matter, laying around that I know will probably turn bad before I get to consume it, I search for a recipe that I could make to use it up and prevent wastage. Last week I had a combination of apples that were getting soft, raisins, dates and prunes, the last of which I wouldn’t even think of eating just like that. To my surprise, I was able to find a perfect recipe in “Back to Baking” that would allow me to use all of these ingredients! I call upon… the mincemeat pie.
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After last week’s marble pound cake, I wanted to make another well-known yet simple cake that I had never tried – to eat or to make! This tres leches cake is a name that I often heard but never realized its meaning until I saw a recipe for it in this bible of a cookbook that I cherish so much. This latin american cake is meant to be a moist and simple cake. Tres leches means “three milks”, referring to the three types of milks traditionally used in such recipes: condensed milk, evaporated milk and heavy (i.e. whipping) cream.
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For my first recipe of 2015, I decided to make this simple yet enticing marble pound cake. Certainly, I have to practice the art of “marbling” different batters, in this case chocolate and vanilla, but I think that for a first it came out pretty good. Truth be told, I was a bit worried as I was putting the batter in the loaf pan as it was very thick. However, it came out perfectly!
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I quickly discovered that after making crème brûlées, there is the inevitable “problem” of having 6-8 leftover egg whites. What is one to do with 8 egg whites? is the question I asked myself after having made and devoured last week’s dessert. It suddenly came to me that I had once stumbled upon in this wonderful cookbook a recipe for angel food cake, which requires a lot of egg whites! This is the simple story of why I decided to make an angel food cake for my friend’s baby shower.
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Having never really tasted crème brûlée and evidently having never made them, I was excited to try this recipe.
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I used to be horrendous at making pie dough and pies in general, for that matter, but I think that I’m getting the hang of it! I love this recipe because it is universal and can be adapted to most fresh fruit that you have in your fridge! The ratios of fruit to sugar to thickener is simply perfect and makes for a scrumptious, fresh-tasting pie whose filling is both adequately juicy and thick at the same time. Briefly, this fresh fruit pie is just right.
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Valerie 