Category: Desserts

Marzipan Strawberry Shortcakes

My mother has always been a phenomenal cook and aside from a handful of family recipes, she has honed her skills putting hours of love and dedication in in the kitchen.  This recipe was taught to her in a cooking course at an Italian restaurant in Chicago that has been long since forgotten by our family aside from these.  They are not your everyday spongecake strawberry shortcakes, but rather are marzipan filled sweet biscuits which are more traditional, photogenic, and delicious than their modern bakery aisle counterpart.

This recipe, depending on the size of each shortcake you choose, makes approximately 8-10 shortcakes.DSC_0033

Marzipan Strawberry Shortcakes

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons baking powder

4 ounces butter, cold

4 ounces almond paste broken into small chunks

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 whole eggs

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

sliced almonds

To serve:

Fresh berries

Whipping cream

Heat the oven to 350 F. A convection oven is preferred but not necessary.

Stir together the flour, 1/3 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. When this is incorporated, slowly work in the almond paste and the cold butter that has been cut into pieces. Work this together until the mixture appears to be like a coarse meal.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs and the almond extract. When this is incorporated, add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix only until the dough starts to form. You will probably not need all of the liquid ingredients.

Knead the dough slightly. Pat the dough out to a one inch thickness using as little flour as needed so that the dough does not stick to the work surface.

Using a round cutter, cut the dough into individual servings. It is helpful to dip the cutting edge of the cutter in flour prior to making each cut. Place the round disks onto a lightly greased flat baking pan or a pan lined with parchment or a silpat. Brush the tops with the left over liquid and sprinkle with the sliced almonds and the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Allow to cool. Slice horizontally and fill with berries and whipping cream as desired.

Marzipan Strawberry Shortcakes - A Pat & A Pinch Marzipan Strawberry Shortcakes - A Pat & A Pinch

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Red Wine Poached Pears with Crème Fraîche

Red Wine Poached Pears with Crème Fraîche - A Pat & A Pinch

I have only had the pleasure of travelling to Italy once.  We had family friends who had a charming flat at the time in Rome.  From there, we enjoyed the city immensely, always retreating to the lemon tree lined streets of their neighbourhood at dusk.  I couldn’t tell you how old I was or how long we stayed.  I do recall, among other things, drinking limoncello in the countryside as we wound our way through the hills, endless churches which I couldn’t appreciate at the time, constant cigarette smoke, streets that only a single car should have been physically capable of driving down at a time, and the most incredible foods (fried fiori di zucchine for example).  Down the street from the flat was a small delicatessen that, among many other delights, sold both tiramisu and poached pears in foil pans.  To this day, no tiramisu nor poached pear has ever been comparable, but my fond memories inspired me to try to poach pears at home with the following recipe which has been a family favourite ever since.

This recipe is directly out of Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Kitchen.  I, however, would offer one adaptation to those of you who think cooking with an amazing $40 bottle of wine is absurd.  I have very successfully made this desert with cheaper dry, full bodied red wines over the years.  Call me a philistine, but I promise you that the result of using a more affordable wine (but never “cooking wine”) in this recipe will still “wow” whoever has been lucky enough to be invited to dinner.  In fact, I used an Argentine Cabernet Sauvignon for this “batch”.

Red Wine Poached Pears with Crème Fraîche

2 vanilla pods
1 bottle Amarone (or another dry, full bodied red wine)
1 1/4 c. sugar
1 small cinnamon stick
1 orange, zest and juice of
1 small bunch fresh thyme
8 Comice pears, peeled and base removed
1 c. and 2 tbsp. butter

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.  Split the vanilla pods and remove the seeds. Put the seeds and pods into an appropriately sized casserole-type pan that will hold all your pears snugly, and add the wine, sugar, cinnamon, and orange juice and zest. Throw in your thyme, secured together in a little bunch with string. Bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer, and add your pears, sitting upright. Put the lid on the pan and bake in the preheated oven for around 1 hour until the pears are soft and tender but not falling apart. They should be soft all the way through but retain their shape. (Sometimes they can take less or more time depending on the ripeness of the pears.) When they’re ready they will have taken on the flavour and colour of the wine and should smell delicious.

By now the wine and the sugar will have thickened and the flavour will have intensified. Remove the pears to a dish, turn up the heat under the pan, and reduce the wine by about half. Remove from the heat and add the butter – agitate the pan but don’t give it any more heat. This will give you a really intense, tasty sauce which is to die for. Put the pears back in the pan and leave until ready to serve. The pears are best served warm with the sauce and a generous dollop of crème fraîche.

Red Wine Poached Pears with Crème Fraîche - A Pat & A Pinch

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Dried Cranberry Sticky Toffee Puddings

Cranberry Sticky Toffee Pudding - A Pat & A Pinch

 

This recipe is from Best of Bridge and is the perfect sized treat for anyone with a sweet-tooth.  Because it is made with dried cranberries as opposed to the traditionally used dates, I like it all the better.   This dessert can be prepared ahead of time, and even frozen, but it is best served warm all of the way through.  Also please note that you will need ramekins in order to make them portion sized.  This recipe serves approximately 8 (unless you enjoy it as much as our family in which case it serves 4 with seconds).

A current trend in cooking is to add a little salt to sweet, so I thought to myself while soaking up the toffee sauce last night that these would likely be marvellous with the addition of bacon as well.  I am sure to most that will sound odd, and to some it will sound brilliant, so if you decide to be the guinea pig and put in some bacon (it will need to be pre-cooked and cooled, chopped finely, blotted with paper towel to remove as much grease as possible) then please let me know how it is.  If this idea sounds sacrilegious to you as it did to my own mother, please forget I mentioned it!

Dried Cranberry Sticky Toffee Puddings

1 cup water

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup dried cranberries

3/4 cup butter

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp. baking powder

Toffee Sauce:

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup whipping cream

Butter and flour 8, 1/2 cup ramekins. Place in the fridge until needed.

Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan and add the vanilla and baking soda, then add the dried cranberries and set aside to cool.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
Lightly beat the eggs and gradually add to butter mixture. 
Lightly mix the flour and baking powder together and gently fold into the batter. Fold in the cranberry mixture.

Place the ramekins onto a baking sheet for easy handling. Portion the batter into the ramekins and bake at 350 F for 25 – 30 minutes.

To prepare the Toffee Sauce, combine the sauce ingredients in a saucepan and stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Simmer until the sauce thickens.
 To serve, remove puddings from ramekins by running a knife around edge. Invert on plate and drizzle with warm Toffee Sauce.

The puddings can be made ahead, but are, again, best served warm.  They are easily reheated in a 300 F oven.  The sauce can also be made ahead and reheated.

Cranberry Sticky Toffee Pudding - A Pat & A Pinch

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Ginger Spice Cookies

Today, I craved something sweet, something spicy, something delicious to overcome the dreary day and something to inspire me to read more cases for school.  The solution: these ginger cookies which are an adaptation of a recipe with the same name from Epicurious.

DSC_0002The candied ginger in these cookies is what takes them beyond the standard ginger cookie. They have a lovely texture, neither too crisp nor too chewy and they go so well with a cup of tea or coffee or even a glass of milk.

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Ginger Spice Cookies

2 ¼ cups  all purpose flour

2 ½ teaspoons  ground ginger

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

3/4 teaspoon  salt

¾ to 1 cup crystallized ginger depending on your taste and the size of the chunks (for finer chunks, use less)

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed (I use whatever brown sugar I have on hand, light or dark)

3/4 cup unsalted butter — (1 1/2 sticks) room temperature

1 large egg

1/4 cup molasses

White sugar to roll cookies in

Using a food processor, pulse the crystalized ginger and ¼ cup of the flour together until the ginger is crumb-like.

Combine the remaining 2 cups of flour and the next five ingredients in a medium bowl, blending with a spoon or whisk. Mix in the crystallized ginger and flour mixture.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl until fluffy. Add the egg and molasses, beating until blended. Add the flour mixture and mix just until blended. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon the white sugar in thick layer onto a small plate or flat bowl. Using your hands, form the dough into 1 1/4-inch balls, rolling each in the sugar to coat completely. Place the coated balls on the prepared sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies until just beginning to crack on top but still soft to touch, about 12 minutes in a conventional oven. Cool on sheets at least 1 minute before carefully transferring to racks and allowing to cool completely.

Don’t be surprised when the cookies fall a little while cooling – this is to be expected.

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Doreen’s Lemon Loaf

Doreen's Lemon Loaf - A Pat & A Pinch

It has been some time since I posted – law school is definitely time consuming.  Today, however, I needed a break from trying to understand the rule against perpetuities and wanted to make something simple and with good memories.  My grandmother’s lemon loaf was the perfect solution.  My grandmother, Doreen, wasn’t a great cook, but she made a few things that have definitely stuck around as favourites for me.  Two of them involved lemons, this cake and a lemon meringue pie that was to die for.  This is easy. The lemon meringue pie is more complicated.

Any type of lemons will work, but I had a bag of meyer lemons that I decided to use. The recipe calls for one lemon, I used 3 but they were small and not the juiciest.  As my dad says, you can’t have too much lemon.

Usually I spend a great deal of time on the photographs, but right now I don’t have the luxury of time, so I have gone to my point and shoot. I hope that the photo still entices you to give this simple and yummy recipe a try!

Doreen's Lemon Loaf - A Pat & A Pinch

Doreen’s Lemon Loaf

6 tablespoons butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 lemon, zested and juiced

½ cup milk

1 ½ cups flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar (for glaze)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a 8.5×4.5″ loaf pan or two smaller loaf pans with parchment paper.  I prefer to use two small pans and reduce the baking time.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl.  Add the beaten eggs, lemon zest, and milk to the creamed mixture.  Sift together the dry ingredients (excluding the sugar for the glaze).  Mix the dry ingredients into the liquid ingredients.  Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. I sometime find that it helps to lay a piece of parchment over the pan after the loaf begins to brown, to prevent over-browning. Remove the loaf from the oven.

Mix together the lemon juice and 1/3 cup sugar.  Carefully loosen and remove the still-warm loaf from the pan discarding the parchment paper. Return the loaf to the pan, pouring the lemon sugar glaze over it.  Allow the loaf to cool and absorb the liquid.  Remove the loaf from the pan when the liquid is absorbed. Cut, serve and enjoy with a cup of tea.

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Frozen Lemon Meringue Torte

This recipe has become a summertime (yes, I realize we are coming into fall and I am tardy) favourite at my family’s island home.  It is refreshing, sweet, tart and the perfect end to a hot summer’s day.

Frozen Lemon Meringue Torte - A Pat & A Pinch

Semifreddo

1 ¼ c. granulated sugar

1/3 c. butter

1 tbsp. Grated lemon rind

1 c. lemon juice

6 eggs

1 ½ c. whipping cream

Meringues

1 ½ c. sugar

2 tbsp. cornstarch

2 tsp. grated lemon rind

6 egg whites

1 tsp. vanilla

Prepare the semifreddo first as it needs to cool entirely. In a sauce pan over medium-high heat, heat sugar, butter, lemon rind and juice, stirring until sugar is dissolved. In bowl, beat eggs; whisk hot lemon mixture into the beaten eggs (DON’T add eggs TO lemon mix). Return mixture to saucepan and cook, stirring, just until boiling; simmer for 1 minute.  Pour into clean bowl. Place saran wrap directly on surface and chill in refrigerator to room temperature. (Mixture can be refrigerated up to 1 day) When ready to assemble, whip cream just to stiff peaks and fold it into the cold lemon mixture.

Trace four 8-inch circles on parchment paper, and place pencil side down on upside down baking sheets.  Combine ¾ c. sugar with the cornstarch and the lemon rind; set aside.  Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in remaining ¾ c. sugar until stiff peaks form. Add vanilla and then fold in reserved sugar mixture.  Spoon meringue onto circles, smoothing tops.  Bake in 300 oven for 1 hour or until dry and lightly golden.  Let cool.  (Meringues can be stored in a cool, dry place for up to 3 days.)

Line a 10” springform pan (bottom and sides) with plastic wrap to prevent torte from taking on a tinny taste from the metal unless the pan is non-stick.  Choose the best 3 meringues to use.  Fit one into the springform pan, carefully spread 1/3 of the lemon mixture over top.  Add 2nd meringue and spread another 1/3 of lemon mixture on top.  Do same with remaining meringue.

Freeze uncovered for at least 8 hours.  Torte can be frozen, well wrapped for up to a little over a week.  Let soften in the refrigerator for 45 minutes before removing sides and serving.

Frozen Lemon Meringue Torte - A Pat & A Pinch

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