STEMS & FORKS

Beautiful musings of flora and fare.

stemsandforks

White Cake with White Buttercream Icing

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 For children, birthdays are up there on the list of favourite occasions with Christmas and Halloween. Aside from the gifts, they get tons of attention and feel wonderful to be more “grown up”. It’s  also the only day of the year I see my kids’ faces light up with wonder when it’s time to blow out the candles. That moment when they get to make a wish. A wish that cannot be shared with anyone or it won’t come true. 
 
“All grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince
 
I remember the feeling of aging began on my 35th birthday. In my head I multiplied 35 by 2 and I came up with 70. Was I halfway through my life? What have I done for society so far? Why am I here? Well thankfully I was too busy with my floral business and a young child I didn’t have time to analyze my existential questions. I had weddings and diapers to deal with. Those questions would be dealt with at a later time,  I had told myself.
 

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White Chocolate Grapefruit Poundcake

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It’s not often that I come up with my own recipe. Typically I adapt someone else’s.  Why reinvent the wheel if it works, right? Wrong. Cooking/baking is truly an art. A perishable, consumable art form that has evolved so much since humans began to eat (so since forever). In every culture and society, food is one of the most tangible elements that defines us. Without the innate need to push the envelope or evolve our culinary creativity, humans wouldn’t have invented sous-vide cooking or Cronuts, (the latter, which I still haven’t tried). But enough of sliding down this sociological slope. 

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Korean Pear Galette

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With in-laws living in Waterloo, Belgium we usually spend a couple weeks in the summer to visit so my husband Pierre can get his fix of Belgian cuisine whilst the in-laws enjoy their grandkids. Pierre has now been living in Toronto for 12 years and gets home-sick every now and then. Well, its mainly the food he misses. As do I. Once there, he easily eats the tomate aux crevettes grises (small, grey, flavour-packed shrimps prepared in a hollowed tomato), or Américain préparé (Belgian version of steak tartare) daily for lunch. Then of course there’s Belgian street food – frites with so many different sauces (Samurai and Américaine sauce are our faves), Mitraillette (a baguette with meat or sausage, topped with, grated carrots, lettuce and French fries smothered with Andalouse sauce) and my daughter’s favourite, Belgian waffles. 

For those of you who haven’t been to Belgium, its one of those countries where the majority of the restaurants and street foods are consistently excellent. There are way more hits than misses. After personally experiencing the food and culture, its easy to understand why a Belgian expat would become home sick. I often find myself craving certain restaurants or dishes from Belgium. Not to mention even basic groceries such as their high fat butter and fresh eggs with sunset hued yolks. 

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French Crullers

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I recall when my husband Pierre immigrated here (Canada) in 2005 from Europe, he was fascinated by the Canadian obsession with Tim Hortons. He would without fail, cry out, “Quelle horreur!” every time we’d pass one. He couldn’t understand why Canadians would line up 24/7 for a large water-downed coffee and deep-fried, saccharin-drenched, yeast-leavened rings known as the donut.

Coming from Belgium he is definitely a food snob. Delicious and perfect Croissants and eclairs can be found on every street corner in Brussels. Here in Toronto, there are only a small handful of authentic Patiserrie/boulanger. Sure I get it. Tim Hortons looks and tastes nothing like Herman van Dender or Pierre Herme, but Tim Hortons is not bad. It’s consistent and for me it’s “comfort pastries” and an iconic Canadian experience. 

In fact my love for “pastries” started probably in kindergarten when my mother bought me my first chocolate walnut cruller at Mister Donut (now Dunkin Donuts). I still remember that donut to this day. I was standing in line twirling around in my brown floral dress feeling like Liesel from The Sound of Music, when my mom passed me what I thought looked like feces. Of course being 4 years old I immediately said no. That’s when my dad firmly told me to at least try. The donut was bliss. The glaze, the crunch, and the soft chocolate dough whirled around in my mouth like a beautiful symphony.

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Chocolate Cut Out Cookies

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I remember seeing a Staples ‘Back to School’ commercial last fall, to the tune of, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” In this commercial, the dad gleefully drags a rope attached to a sofa with his grumpy kids in anticipation of getting them out of the house and seeing them off to the start of school. Fast forward a couple months, and as the winter holidays are coming to a close here in Ontario,  I’m feeling a bit giddy like that dad in that Staples commercial. 

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Earl Grey and Orange Ganache Chocolate Macarons

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I have this recurring nightmare that’s been haunting me for decades. I’m in a bakery surrounded by delectable and mouthwatering mounds of pastries. Croissants, cakes, pies, macarons and muffins piled high in baskets and platters in varying hues of browns and beiges. I can see steam wafting from the butter croissants and fresh icing still runny, dripping off the danishes. It’s one of the most beautiful and delicious sights ever. I’m overwhelmed by the wondrous selection and I can’t decide which to eat first. Chocolate torte first? Then I won’t have space for the tarts. I’m so torn. This indecisiveness goes on and on and feels as if the entire night of dreaming is spent trying to decide which pastry to taste first. Then the dream becomes a nightmare. I awake without having made a choice. My indecisiveness leaves me empty handed. As I’d slowly awake to reality, I’d be filled with regret for not having sunk my teeth into one of those heavenly pastries.

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Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

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As a mother I am always trying to sneak healthy foods into my kids’ meals. As every parent knows, chicken nuggets and pizza can be great to satiate the kids, but the challenge is trying to include nutrient-rich foods into their fickle little diets. Sometimes these covert operations are met with more success than other times. Recently, I was making chocolate zucchini bread (well, chocolate bread to my 10 year old daughter), when she caught me red-handed standing over the bowl of chocolate batter with the offensive green squash in one hand and a grater in the other. I may as well have been holding a a bottle of rat poison and a dirty syringe based on her reaction.

Just as the trust was being rebuilt, (and she was finally convinced I wasn’t trying to poison her), my culinary antics were blown wide open again. For years I had strained anchovies into her miso soup, but the gig was finally up when she discovered a tiny little anchovy eyeball staring back at her from her bowl. Clearly, I should have used a finer strainer. Her reaction was epic as far as meltdowns go.

Even now, I still mince yellow peppers (so finely that it might as well be a puree) into her spaghetti bolognese. The older she grows, the more her taste buds and sense of smell evolves. Most attempts at concealing healthy food now are as she put it a “#fail”. Thus the days of fooling my little princess into believing her food is unadulterated are pretty much done.

Trying to outsmart a 10 year old is challenging. My daughter likes things simple. If it’s apple pie, it better not have blueberries, just apples. Same with chocolate cake. Add a few raspberries on top and suddenly its not a chocolate cake anymore. It’s a raspberry cake.

I recently made cookies with black currants when my daughter finally dropped the big question. “Can’t you bake normal stuff?” I stopped and realized that some of the baked goods I was preparing she wasn’t interested in at all. From a child’s perspective, some of my baking was exclusively for grown ups. Children desire plain and simple. They’re not interested in unique baked goods like Korean Pear Galette or ricotta cheesecakes. So I’ve added another New Year’s resolution. That is, to bake “normal” recipes. This ones for you Moineau. xo

 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yields 36
Crispy on the outside. Chewy on the inside.
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Prep Time
15 min
Total Time
57 min
Prep Time
15 min
Total Time
57 min
Ingredients
  1. 227 g or 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
  2. 200 g or 1 cup packed brown sugar
  3. 150 g or 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  4. 2 eggs room temperature
  5. 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  6. 260 g or 2 cups all purpose flour
  7. 1 1/4 cups quick oats
  8. 1 teaspoon baking powder
  9. 1 teaspoon baking soda
  10. 1 teaspoon salt
  11. 2 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips Or chopped chocolates of your choice
  12. 125 g or 1 Cup chopped Walnuts
  13. 1/2 cup turbinado brown sugar (Optional)
Instructions
  1. Line baking tray with silpat or parchment paper
  2. In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix in quick oats and set aside
  3. In stand mixer or bowl, paddle beat the butter about 1 minute.
  4. Add both sugars until light and creamy about 2 minutes. Add vanilla extract
  5. Beat in eggs, one at a time until just incorporated
  6. Take the dry mix of flour, baking soda etc and stir in the butter sugar mixture until just incorporated.
  7. Add the chocolate chips and walnuts. Don't over mix
  8. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes
  9. Preheat oven to 375F/190C, place rack in middle of oven
  10. Roll cookie dough into 1 inch balls or I use a 1 inch ice cream scoop
  11. Roll in the turbinado sugar until its completely covered (optional)
  12. Drop on Cookie sheet about 2 inches apart
  13. Bake for about 10-11 minutes or until just slightly golden on the edges
  14. Let cool before transferring to a rack.
  15. Once cool, take a small tumbler glass with a flat bottom and gently press the cookies down. Alternatively you can bang your cookie tray on the counter about a minute after it comes out of oven. This helps spread them out.
Notes
  1. Refrigerating cookie dough prior to baking prevents the cookie from spreading too much when baking. However if you're strapped for time, pop the cookie balls in freezer for 10 minutes.
Adapted from from the back of a bag of PC Decadent Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips!
Adapted from from the back of a bag of PC Decadent Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips!
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