STEMS & FORKS

Golden Beet Cake with Brown Butter Sage Frosting

February 9, 2017 By stemsandforks 1 Comment

Every now and then, I whip up gnocchi with brown butter and fresh sage drizzle. Add a bit of fresh parmesan and cracked black pepper and my mouth is singing. Or I’ll roast beets and toss with some goats cheese and walnuts. Often I’ve wondered if I could translate the sage/butter/cheese/beets/walnuts into a cake and finally I did. I know what you’re thinking. Betty’s finally lost her marbles. She’s trying to make cake from a salad.

Well, I did and it was sublime. The golden colour from the beets gave the cake a beautiful soft golden hue. The taste was sweet yet subtly earthy, crunchy yet creamy. The closest thing I can compare this to is carrot cake but less sweet with loads more elegance.

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Sesame Crusted Panettone French Toast with Pear Butter

January 28, 2017 By stemsandforks 1 Comment

Lunar New Year in our family is just another excuse to get together to eat copious amounts of food. Typically we go to my mom’s home, where she cooks up lavish Korean dishes and the entire family eats like gluttons for both lunch and dinner.

Taking this into consideration I skipped on groceries today and figured I’d scrounge something up from the cupboards for breakfast. Maybe cold cereal?

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Pear and Mascarpone Fritters

January 26, 2017 By stemsandforks 2 Comments

Who doesn’t love a good deep fried donut hole? Especially if it’s filled with ripe sweet pear and the ever-so-pricey, silky Italian cream cheese (that we North Americans covet)mascarpone, then deep fried to a golden ball and tossed with some cinnamon and sugar. Pure bliss.

I often mention how I tend to mix ingredients that are on its way to expiry and this combination was just that. The pears I used were so ripe, they were melting as I peeled away the bruised skin and the mascarpone was open a few days prior for a chocolate cake I was working on (recipe to come!)

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Tahini Maple Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

January 24, 2017 By stemsandforks Leave a Comment

It’s only been about 6 six weeks since I started this blog and so far I’m loving it. The more I bake, the better I get and the more I realize that I need to continue to challenge myself by not always replicating or adapting other bakers’ recipes. I need to create original recipes that actually taste great.

I suppose deep down inside I’m insecure. I have no formal baking education. Almost everything I learned has been through trial and error, ups and downs. Sometimes the failures turned out to be wonderful new recipes. Other times they are as my daughter would say, “Hashtag fail, Mom.” My insecurity still lingers, but with every victory in producing a winning recipe, that small, undermining voice gets a little more subdued.

These Tahini Maple Chocolate Sandwich Cookies are soft to bite, taste nutty and chocolatey (without any nuts) and are ultimately scrumptious. After concocting these mini sandwiches, I realized the cure to my self-doubt was simple. Make my own recipes.

Bon app!

Tahini Maple Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

2017-01-24 17:15:22

Yields 24

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300 g/ 2 1/2 cups AP flour
90g/ 3/4 cup hulled and roasted white sesame seeds
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
170 g/ 3/4 cup butter softened
2 eggs
110 g/ 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
100 g/ 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup 100% maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or extract

CHOCOLATE FILLING

100g/ 1 cup Cocoa powder unsweetened
1 cup 100% maple syrup
90g/ 3/4 cup hulled and roasted white sesame seeds
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract

Instructions

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in large bowl and set aside
Take food processor/Kitchen Aid/Ninja and process all the sesame seeds until it is nicely ground.
Take about half of the ground sesame seeds, add to the flour mixture, put aside the remaining sesame seeds to be used later for the chocolate filling
In stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar and white sugar for about a minute on low speed until they're well blended
Add the maple syrup in slowly until just combined.
Beat in egg, one at a time. Scrape bottom and sides
Add the vanilla and beat for a few seconds
Add flour and mix on low speed, scraping sides and bottom until flour has been fully incorporated - about half a minute or so
Dough consistency should be moist and ever so slightly tacky...not sticky or gummy
Take dough and make into a ball and double wrap with plastic wrap
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight
Place rack in middle of oven and preheat oven to 350F
Take cookie dough out of fridge and let it come to room temperature about 10 minutes
Roll out about 1/4 inch thick on lightly floured surface and cut out with desired cookie cookies
Remember you need pairs to make the bottom and tops for cookie sandwiches!!
Bake for 10 minutes until the shine on the cookies has disappeared.
Allow to cool about 5 minutes on tray, then transfer to cookie rack
Repeat for the remaining cookies

CHOCOLATE FILLING

Take the remaining ground sesame seeds and add the maple syrup and blend with your food processing gadget (I used my NINJA) until it looks like tahini paste about 1 minute (depends on the gadget you're using)
Add the vanilla bean paste or extract and blend
Then add the cocoa powder and blend for another half minute
Consistency should be like very thick paste
After the cookies have cooled either pipe or spread the paste on one half of the cookie sandwich
Put the other cookie on top of paste and give them a soft squeeze

Notes

I used 1", 2" and 3" heart shaped cookie cutters which made approximately 24 cookie sandwiches.
Store in air tight container for up to one week.

By Betty Binon

STEMS & FORKS https://www.stemsandforks.com/

Berry Galette Picnic

January 20, 2017 By stemsandforks 1 Comment

It’s been tried, tested and its definitely true. Kids will be more willing to eat unfamiliar foods if they have a hand in helping to make it. I won’t get into all the tedious facts and stats about the nutritional value of berries, as we all know by now, they’re super healthy and chock-full of vitamins. So I found it fitting to make berry galettes with the kids last weekend. It was incredible. My 2 year old son Georges who doesn’t take instruction very well was so eager to follow his older sister’s lead on how to roll the dough, then toss the berries in. Some of the galettes may have had a bit too much sugar or one too many berries. But they all turned out super great and delicious once baked.

Some tips to ensure this activity is fun and clean-up is minimal:

-To lay your biggest table cloth on the floor and have the kids assemble on top.

-Make the dough the night before.

-Have your kids roll them out on cutting boards or cheeseboards

-Spread everything out on the floor

-Have the starch and sugar premixed in a bowl with a laddle or wooden spoon( I separated the starch and sugar…oops!)

-have the fruits in separate bowls and spread them out

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White Cake with White Buttercream Icing

January 19, 2017 By stemsandforks 2 Comments

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

January 17, 2017 By stemsandforks 2 Comments

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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French Crullers

January 11, 2017 By stemsandforks 4 Comments

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

January 10, 2017 By stemsandforks Leave a Comment

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

January 9, 2017 By stemsandforks 3 Comments

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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