Category: Dessert

Pavlova with Whipped Cream and Fresh Fruit

Posted by foodess on Mon 2nd of Mar, 2009 11:53:58 AM

When I was an exchange student in Belgium, my best friend was Hannah from Australia. Hannah told me stories of inside-out seasons (Christmas on the beach?! That could blow a Canadian girl’s mind!), taught me important exchange-student life skills (like which Belgian beers were the strongest, and how to stuff your rapidly expanding exchange-student ass into your tiny pants), and introduced me the Australian delights of Tim Tams, Anzac biscuits, and Pavlova. I make Pavlova on occasion, and always think lovingly of my favorite Aussie, somewhere out there on the upside-down side of the world.

Pavlova is a traditional to Australians and New Zealanders that was apparently created in honour of the ballerina Anna Pavlova, when she toured in those parts. It is basically a delicate mountain of whipped meringue. After being baked under low heat, the outside shell gets crunchy, the top gets browned, but the inside stays chewy and soft - like creamy fresh marshmallow. It then gets piled high with softly whipped cream and fresh fruit. The result is dreamy, with the consistency of a cream-smothered cloud.
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Buttermilk Scones with Strawberries and Milk Chocolate Chunks

Posted by foodess on Sat 28th of Feb, 2009 05:00:04 AM

Over the Christmas holidays, my sweetie took me on an exciting trip to the big city, NYC. We walked and walked and walked, and we ate and ate and ate, (and we froze and froze and froze). I made the mistake of bringing only my Vancouver-weather rubber boots to stomp around in. Did you know that uninsulated rubber boots act as individual foot refrigerators in cold weather, the way they trap and recirculate damp, frigid air? So because of my silly choice of footwear, we froze. And because we froze, we ate - for every few blocks we walked, we had to stop in somewhere to warm up. We found all kinds of little hole-in-the wall shops and cafes where we were happy to munch on cupcakes, rice pudding, cardamom coffee, dosas, thin-crust pizzas… As far as problems go, this one was rather favorable, the freezing necessitating the eating - my tummy was happy enough to more than make up for my toes’ misery.

One of my favorite places we stumbled into to thaw our extremities was a little tea house called Alice’s Tea Cup in the upper west side. The entrance was just like a descent into the rabbit hole, and the inside was magically decorated with twinkly lights, keyhole windows, stained glass, and antiques. They had a multiple-page menu of teas and a selection of sweets to accompany them, including a variety of fresh scones with cream and fruit preserves. I hungrily devoured a warm strawberry-chocolate scone, piled with sweet whipped cream. And it was so scrumptious that it has been on my mind ever since.

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Creamy Pineapple Pie with Brown Sugar Meringue

Posted by foodess on Sat 21st of Feb, 2009 10:53:38 AM

Pineapple Pie with Brown Sugar Meringue? It just kinda happened to me. See, I was in need of a recipe to use up my egg whites after making this. So I did what I do when I need to think through a big decision: I hitched Oliver into his harness, laced up my sneakers, and hit the seawall. Loping along the dusty trail that flanks the Vancouver shoreline, my thoughts darted through all the important things I had to consider. Like pavlova… and dacquoise… and homemade marshmallows… and seven-minute frosting. But all I really wanted to become of those whites was a pile of soft, billowy meringue to top something gooey. So I moved on to the next important decision. What kind of gooey did I want to sit beneath my meringue? (Yes, this really IS what I think about while I run - call it the carrot that drives the horse).

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Peanut Butter Fudge Swirl Ice Cream

Posted by foodess on Tue 17th of Feb, 2009 07:02:42 PM

I bought myself a new toy! An ice cream maker. It really actually looks like a toy, too, in all its hard plastic glory. But despite its rather un-extraordinary appearance, with its moving parts that snap together like a tonka truck, I have to give it credit. My new toy produces eye-widening, silence-inducing ice cream.

I must admit that my first attempt was less than impressive. In my naive, if enthusiastic, efforts, I didn’t follow a recipe. With what confidence did I think that I was born knowing how to make ice cream? I don’t know. To my credit I began by loosely following a jumble of ideas I nabbed from a variety recipes, but decided half-way through making the custard that I would split it in two and make two flavours. (Mango and White Chocolate). The White Chocolate ended up being far too sweet, the Mango not nearly mango-y enough, and only the first was frozen because I didn’t realize you needed to re-freeze the bucket between batches. Lessons learned.

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Cinnamon Buns with Cream Cheese Frosting

Posted by foodess on Sat 7th of Feb, 2009 04:47:51 PM

I just finished devouring a cinnamon bun hot from the oven. A swirl of soft dough, oozing with buttery brown sugar and cinnamon and thickly gobbed with cream cheese frosting. Actually, for the sake of truthfulness, I just finished devouring two. Oops.

(Don’t worry - I ate a carrot straight after to make up for it).

This is what I do when I am supposed to be studying “Advanced Topics in Clinical Nutrition”. With midterms next week, I should probably feel ashamed at being covered in flour when I should be covered in something studious like post-it notes. But really - what would you do if the thought of warm cinnamon buns kept floating into your mind in place of something like Chapter 18: Diseases of the Hepatobiliary. Hmm? Would you think about bile? Or would you think about the cinnamon buns? Come on, you know you’re on my side.

This recipe is from Molly Wizenberg, written for Bon Appetit magazine. It is the best cinnamon bun recipe I have ever tasted. Ever. Since I found it, I ceased my faithful pilgrimage to the local jewish bakery. I like mine better.

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