Baked

How's your week going? Hope it's been stress-free.

I was in the mood for balsamic soaked strawberries, and decided to make chocolate sponge cake to go with them. Just couldn't leave well enough alone, it seems Have you tried balsamic with strawberries? If not, you need to. Outrageously good.   

Chocolate Sponge Cake with Balsamic Strawberries - makes 6
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs, room temperature and separated
1/2 cup berry/caster sugar
2 oz unsalted butter, melted
8 oz fresh strawberries
1.5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon raw sugar
1 cup whipping cream
Icing sugar for dusting

Balsamic Strawberries:

Hull strawberries and cut in half. In a bowl, mix the strawberries, balsamic vinegar and raw sugar together with a spoon. Allow to stand for about an hour. 

Preheat oven to 350f/180c. Grease and dust with cocoa powder, a six cup muffin tin (3/4 cup) and set aside.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder, 3 times. In a large bowl, beat the 4 egg yolks and sugar, with an electric mixer, until thick and creamy, about 5 minutes. In another bowl, beat together the 4 egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg whites making sure not to over mix. The batter needs to remain light and airy. Next, sift half the flour over the egg mixture and carefully fold in until just incorporated. Sift over the remaining flour mix and fold in. Add the butter and gently fold into batter.

Spoon the batter into each cup of the muffin. Bake for about 18-20 minutes, or until cake springs back with lightly pressed, and cake is coming away from sides of muffin tin. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack. 

Cut cakes in half, and top one half with whipped cream and strawberries. Place other half on top and dust with icing sugar. Enjoy!

Have you baked anything lately? Do you find baking to be a bit of a stress-reliever or a stress-adder (new word)? I'd love to know.

Have a great day! Back soon.

Janis

Weekend Observations

Did you have a nice weekend? It always go by so quickly, doesn't it? Sigh.

A little bit of my weekend....

Working on the images from the Butter cookbook shoot. 

I scouted this fun home recently. Keep you posted on where the entire story ends up!

 "Love" print by Jen Ramos of MadeByGirl. Merci, Jen!

What did you get up to this weekend? Fill me in!

Back soon.

Janis

Happy Friday

I'm happy to see the weekend roll around. Looking forward to some down time! What will you get up to this weekend? 

I'm wrapping the week up with a trio of buildings in NYC, taken from the High Line.... 

Back soon,

janis

Baked

Regular, gluten-full wheat bread, I've missed you. Life has been pretty crazy lately, and I needed to "knead", so I made a good old fashioned loaf of whole wheat bread and added apricots and pistachios. Gluten-free bread can be tasty, but I miss the kneading. ;)

Whole Wheat Bread with Apricots and Pistachios - makes one large loaf

1/4 cup honey or maple syrup (I used honey this time)
1 packet yeast
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup dried apricots, chopped
1 cup pistachios, chopped

In a medium bowl, mix together 1 3/4 cups warm water (about 115f), honey and yeast. Let stand for about 5 minutes, or until mixture becomes foamy. In a separate bowl, stir together whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, salt, apricots and pistachios. Add yeast mixture, then oil. Stir to combine, then turn dough out onto a floured work surface. Now here comes my favourite part: knead for about 8 minutes, or until dough is elastic and smooth. Whoohoo!

Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning to coat. Cover with a damp cloth and let stand, in a warm spot, for about 90 minutes or until dough doubles in size.
Punch down dough, and knead a few times, on a lightly floured surface. Shape into a round loaf, and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes or until doubled in size. Preheat oven to 375f.  Make a couple of slashes, with a sharp knife, on top of dough and bake for about 45 minutes or until bread sounds "hollow" when tapped. Cool on a wire rack. This bread is perfect, toasted, for breakfast, and also makes great sandwiches. Love it.

Have a good day! Back soon.
janis

Weekend Observations

I hope you had a great weekend! What did you get up to?  My weekend included a little live painting, a new "girl crush" and a touch of wild nature.....

We went for a bit of a hike at Lynn Headwaters, in North Vancouver. It's about a 25 minute drive from our home in Vancouver. Pretty stunning place. Dense, mossy, loveliness. 

I was familiar with Zoe's work, but I hadn't met her in person. She was painting all weekend at the Fours Seasons in Vancouver, so we popped down to watch. I love her. She's mom to two kids, and a full-time artist. Her paintings are beautiful. If you're in the Vancouver area, she opens her new show on May 31st. Click here for more info. Hope to see you there!

Bye for now! Back soon...

Janis

Hello Weekend

After noticing that gas, here in Vancouver, bolted up to $1.50 per litre, I thought I'd end the week with this image of a ghost gas station. All the more reason to park my car more often ;)

Back soon!
Janis

Baked

How's your week going? I've had a couple of crack-of-dawn photo shoots rescheduled, as the weather just didn't cooperate....but not until we were already at the shoot location.  I made these muffins since I had suddenly had some spare time ;)  I've had rosemary and orange in a salad dressing, and it turns out this combo works really well in a basic cornmeal muffin. Love it.

Orange & Rosemary Cornmeal Muffins - makes 10-12 

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup all purpose flour (I used 1 cup gluten free flour*)

1/4 cup raw sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons orange zest

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

* mix together 6 cups brown rice flour, 2 cups potato starch, 1 cup tapioca flour. Store in the fridge in a jar.

Preheat oven to 375f. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners and set aside. 

In a large bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, oil, and eggs. Pour into flour mixture and stir to combine. Fold in the orange zest and rosemary. 

Pour batter into baking cups and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in centre, comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool a little before eating. 

If you try them out, let me know what you think. 

Have a nice day! Back soon.

Janis