No-knead molasses seed bread
Easy bread that is more delicious than you might expect for the minimal effort it takes to make.
Month: July 2020
Tart pastry cases
This is less of a recipe, and more assembly instructions. I have not (yet) been brave enough to try making my own pâte feuilletée, or puff pastry. It’s an intimidating process of several hours. Fortunately, frozen puff pastry is widely available!
Make up some dessert cream, then bake these tart cases to fill with it! And even little kids can do the assembly.
Modified from original directions in From the Hearth. Makes about 12 tart cases.
Ingredients
200 grams frozen puff pastry, thawed 1-2 tbsp milk 1 egg yolk
Instructions
Preheat oven to 450F. Roll out puff pastry to 1/8" thickness. Cut 24 two-inch rounds. For half of the rounds (12), cut the centre out with a smaller cutter (1"). (Either keep the centres to bake as little lids, or knead them together, re-roll them out, and cut more tart shells from them). Brush the plain rounds with cold water and press the cut-out rounds on top. Brush the tops with either milk or a milk/egg yolk mixture. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 450F, or until delicately brown.
The only thing challenging thing in terms of timing is to remember take the puff pastry out of the freezer well in advance. Check the package about exact length of time to thaw and whether you should thaw in the fridge or at room temperature.
I was skeptical when I rolled this pastry out paper thin. This surely wouldn’t result in usable tarts?! But this pastry lives up to its name – it puffed up beautifully.
My kid very much enjoyed putting together his own tart, with dessert cream and a few pieces of candied peel on top.
The Verdict
As long as you are using the pre-made puff pastry, these are very easy and look quite impressive!
What would you put in these tarts? Sweet or savoury nibbles? Let us know in the comments!
Dessert Cream
Dessert cream has multiple uses, and it’s even delicious by the spoonful out of the fridge!
Lemon meringues
This is a sweet (and lemony) way to use egg whites when you’ve made a recipe that only takes the yolks!
Candied lemon peel
When I started making historic 18th-century recipes from a French colonial fortress on the coast of Canada, I figured that there would be ingredients that I would have trouble buying. I mean, we’re talking recipes from 275 years ago.
I didn’t think that candied lemon peel would be one of those ingredients, however. Seems like something that would be used in baking today, regularly. Alas, I have still not found it in any of the stores I’ve searched.
Luckily, I discovered that it’s really easy to make candied peel! (And then I discovered that my candied peel easily and steadily disappears from its jar, as it has become a treat for kids and adults both).
Candied peel is frequently used in From the Hearth, in dishes like Frangipan Pie, Lemon Meringues, and Dessert Cream.
This recipe is kind of an amalgam from a few different sites. You can make this with only lemons, or add the peels from other citrus fruits too. (I added mandarin oranges, because we had them).
Ingredients
4-6 lemon peels, cut in 1/4" wide strips 2 cups white sugar 1.5 cups water Coating: 1/2 cup white sugar
Instructions
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add lemon peels and cook for 10 minutes (removes bitterness). Drain peels and set aside. Add 1 cup water and 2 cups sugar to the pot, and heat until sugar is dissolved. Add lemon peels to pot. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a low simmer and cook until a candy thermometer in the mixture reads 230F. This takes a while! Expect about an hour. Drain the syrup (but save it for flavouring other things!) using a strainer, and roll the sticky peel pieces in the last 1/2 cup of white sugar. Leave on a rack overnight to dry. Store in an airtight container.
The peels ended up being infused with sugar all the way through (you can see they are sort of translucent-looking now).
Don’t put them away too early. They really need quite a long time to dry. Don’t worry, they don’t become hard, but after the drying time they will keep their shape a bit more and won’t stick to each other in the jar.
This candied peel was really dead easy to make, even though it took a while. The result is bright, sweet, citrus-y good stuff. Just keep them out of reach of the kids if you want to keep enough to use them in your recipes!
Got other uses for candied peel? Let us know in the comments!
Frangipan pie (cream, almond flour, and candied lemon peel)
A delicious and yet unusual pie – once you have the ingredients on hand, this is straightforward and popular with both kids and adults.
Eggs au fromage (soft-scrambled eggs with cheese and wine)
Like soft-scrambled eggs and cheese fondue in one amazing dish. Great recipe for weeknight dinner or weekend brunch!
Eggs à la jardinière (egg and Béchamel bake)
Another great egg dish from Louisbourg! Modified from the original in From the Hearth, this is a relatively simple dish that tastes outstanding. Basically, you take onions, Béchamel sauce and beaten eggs, mix them all together and bake it up.
This recipe is more effort than eggs à la bourgeoise, but still completely reasonable for a weeknight dinner along with a nice salad.
The original recipe suggests this dish serves 10-12 people, but if it’s your main dish expect it to serve 4-5.
Ingredients
4-5 onions (mild flavoured varieties), cut in thin strips 2 tbsp butter 2 tbsp flour 2 cups milk 10 eggs, well beaten salt and pepper to taste
Milder or sweeter onions, like Spanish, Walla Walla, or Vidalia, are best for this dish because it contains a LOT of onion. If you only have the standard cooking onions, you can make them less pungent by blanching them after cutting them up.
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F. Melt butter in an oven-proof frying pan or French oven and sauté onion strips until translucent. Add flour to the butter and onions and cook briefly. Add 1/2 cup of milk and mix well to work out any lumps of flour. Add the rest of the milk and simmer until Béchamel sauce is thickened, stirring continually. Add salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Mix beaten raw eggs into pan with Béchamel and onions. Bake in oven at 350F for 20-30 minutes, or until eggs are done.
It was pretty easy to make this recipe all in one oven-safe pan or pot. It’s a little bit of work to get the Béchamel smooth with big strips of onions in there – you could put that together in a separate sauce pan, but then you lose that one pot advantage. Otherwise this is pretty straightforward.
The Verdict
I really enjoyed this dish! It has the texture of a frittata, but tastes like Béchamel as well as eggs. And the onions, despite their prevalence, were not too strong. They give a really nice texture to the dish.
Definitely one to make again!
Fortress of Louisbourg Soldier Bread
Soldier bread is a dense and rustic loaf that sustained soldiers at the Fortress of Louisbourg.