Who knew such a thing would exist in such an incongruous setting? But it does. Brownie ice cream sandwich with candied pecans and chocolate sauce at Wheelies Motorcycles, 2620 Rock Bay Avenue, Victoria, British Columbia. I mean, why wouldn’t you? Also seems to have a great selection of sandwiches, all of which can be turned into tacos on Taco Tuesdays….
After a long hiatus, I figured the start of the new year would be a good opportunity to get back to this much-neglected blog. And what better way to get over the excesses of the Christmas season than with… a churros recipe? (OK, just because it’s a new year doesn’t mean we have to suffer!)
In case you don’t know, churros are basically strips of deep-fried dough coated in sugar and cinnamon, commonly eaten with a generous helping of thick, hot chocolate. In Spain, these are generally eaten sometime between midnight and 5am, presumably because the fried dough can help to absorb some of the nocturnal liquid excesses, and often also sold at markets, where you can see them being fried in big vats of oil. But now these trendy snacks are seen everywhere. The rise of the ubiquitous, overpriced churro is rather mysterious – perhaps it’s to do with the proliferation of Mexican eateries, which often carry a version of these, or maybe their perceived similarity to Chinese savoury you tiao accounts for their current popularity in Asia. Who knows? What I do know is that, as with many of these food fads, although the trendy churro is easy to find, finding a good one is actually pretty rare. Often they’re not made fresh and are deep-fried from frozen, or they’re overly chewy, or too greasy, or bastardised by all manner of lamentable additions, from strawberry sauce to pandan flavouring. And people tend to be pretty stingy with their chocolate sauce, the rationing of which makes for a fairly disappointing experience. Continue reading
Filed under food, Life in Singapore, Spain
There are, I’m sure, many things we could tell you about the historical importance of Bruges as a trading and merchant hub, the fact that it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the carillon bells, the lace, Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child, and the Holy Blood brought back by the crusaders. But let’s not pretend we went there for any reason other than the waffles and chocolate…
…make a mighty fine cake. But first you need to buy some beer.
And that’s where our story starts. Well, not quite. It starts with the need to make a cake suitable for a 40th wedding anniversary. Other stipulations: it must be nut-free (allergies), it must travel well (2 trains, 3 stations, 80 minutes of travel time), it must be made in advance (see travel times for reasons why), and if at all possible, it must use the brand-new bundt pan that has journeyed from Canada to grace our shelves, but is still shrouded in its cardboard wrapper.
The natural solution to my cake needs was the Chocolate Guinness Cake, first made for a girls’ weekend in the mountains, where it was declared good enough to eat for breakfast. Now that’s a seal of approval. The recipe comes courtesy of Fine Cooking, and no cake recipe from that website (or magazine) has failed me yet. Continue reading
Filed under food
Yesterday was gray and blustery, and I was feeling a bored and needed to find something exciting to do. Yes, the trials of a housewife are great…
I suddenly decided I felt like making brownies, but not just any brownies. I wanted to make two-bite brownies, from scratch. Every time I’ve had the store-bought variety, I’ve asked myself why I didn’t just make them, free of the chemicals that prolong their shelf-life into infinity. I knew I had seen a recipe in my cookbook, Home Baking by Alford and Duguid. Judging by the quality of their other recipes, I had faith this would produce the brownies I craved. After meandering through the book’s other yummy recipes, I finally found the brownie recipe, only to realize that it called for bittersweet chocolate, and I didn’t have any in my trusty baking cupboard! Having already been to the grocery store TWICE in one day, I refused to make yet another trip. So the hunt was on for a recipe that called for cocoa powder rather than chocolate.
*Note: You can substitute cocoa powder for chocolate in a recipe, but you have to increase the butter content significantly, and I was unwilling to make the brownies any more calorific than they already would be.
The internet is truly a wonderful thing…I found many recipes for two-bite brownies, most of which sounded suspiciously like any other brownie recipe made in a mini-muffin tray rather than a square pan. I discarded all the low-fat recipes. Why bother?! Here are the brownies I finally made, thanks to Canadian journalist, cookbook writer and blogger, Julie van Rosendaal.
I made them in the silicone mini-muffin cups we got for Christmas last year. By far the one of the best kitchen gadgets we’ve received as a gift, these silicone muffin cups are re-usable, fit into a regular muffin tray, and are much more environmentally friendly than paper cups. Just make sure they don’t accidentally get thrown away! (*Note: They aren’t great for gas ovens, although we’re not sure why. And do not put them into the dishwasher. The smell of the detergent will never go away, leaving you with muffins that always taste a bit soapy.)
Two-Bite Brownies
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Beat sugar and butter together until well-blended. Add in the eggs and the vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together. Add to the butter mixture and mix until there are no more lumps of flour. Spoon into muffin tins (lightly greased), or mini-muffin cups. Bake for 12-15 minutes, but make sure you do not overbake! They will collapse slightly when they come out of the oven, but they still taste delish! Makes 24 mini-muffin size brownies, or 12 large ones (which then are no longer two-bite, but more like four-bite, unless you have a big mouth).
Filed under food
I resisted the temptation to title this post ‘Suckertorte’, because, well, that would have been unkind……
The story goes that, in 1832, the Austrian minister for foreign affairs ordered his chef to create a dessert for a special dinner. The chef fell ill, however, leaving the task of devising a suitable dessert to Franz Sacher, then a second year apprentice in the kitchens. The result was the now-famous Sachertorte, a chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam, covered in chocolate icing. Franz Sacher’s son, Eduard Sacher, founded Vienna’s Hotel Sacher and registered the trademark for the “Original Sachertorte”, which is still made to this day from a secret recipe and served daily to hordes of tourists (us included).
The rights to the “Original Sachertorte” have been the subject of a legal dispute between Hotel Sacher and Demels, which claimed to have acquired the recipe from Sacher. The Hotel Sacher won the exclusive right to serve the “Original Sachertorte” based on the family connection. Demels still sell their version of “Ur-Sachertorte”, the main difference being that their apricot jam is layered underneath the icing instead of in the middle of the cake.
All this pre-amble aside, the Hotel Sacher is a nice place for a mid-afternoon pit stop if you feel like getting out of the Viennese rain and indulging in a piece of culinary history accompanied by a frothy cup of mélange (a Viennese cappuccino, usually served with whipped cream). In my opinion, the cake itself is over-rated. Apparently, the reason why it’s usually served with whipped cream is because most Austrians find it too dry to eat on its own, which makes one wonder why they don’t just make the cake more moist. It’s also not very chocolate-y. Oh, and Austrian coffee, while nice, is over-frothy, although the Viennese don’t seem to care too much about the size of bubbles in their cappuccino froth (no latte art here….). If you’re ambivalent about the Sachertorte, you can try their apple or cheese Strudel, both very good. And there is a bewildering range of other Sacher-related drinks and confectionery, all involving some or other combination of chocolate and apricot liqueur.
Original Sachertorte
Viennese mélange
Coconuts and Bananas 