Monthly Archives: August 2010

Walnut Brownie Puddles

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Are you a nuts or no nuts type of person?

I’m a no nuts person. I’ll never refuse a brownie, with or without nuts, (I just typoed that as “buts” and snickered to myself. I am apparently a 5-year-old boy) but I generally avoid using nuts in any baked good where the texture of the baked good is my favourite part about it. This includes things like brownies, chocolate fudge and banana bread. When I’m so enamored with feeling the texture of something on my tongue, I don’t like interrupting it with anything hard and abrupt like nuts. This of course doesn’t include baked goods where the nuts are key, say pecan pie or chocolate hazelnut cake. This is strictly a “1 cup walnuts (optional)” sort of situation that I always say “No” to.

These cookies break my brownie rule and are overrun with nuts.

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Chocolate-Malt Cake

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Each month when I get my new issue of Bon Appetit in the mail, I get rather excited. It always comes safely tucked away in plastic wrap and tearing it open, exposing the pages within is not unlike christmas morning.

I’m pretty sure that on average I spend more time each day on the computer than not on the computer. So keep that in mind when I say that I prefer reading the magazine in my hands for a subscription fee instead of on my screen for free. The glossy pictures, the small joy in each new page turned, I’m hooked. To a food magazine.

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Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins

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Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins

Come. Come come. Have a seat with me. I have something I need to discuss.

Grab a chair and a muffin. Oh, and some coffee, definitely, muffin + coffee make for a deadly duo. I would argue even better than donut + coffee. Except maybe Krispy Kremes and coffee. Krispy Kreme glaze is so delicious but coats your mouth like nobody’s business and coffee cuts through it beautifully, preparing your mouth for that next bite…

Er, sorry, tangent.

Here’s what I actually wanted to discuss: I think continental breakfast gets a bad rap.

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Triple-Chocolate Scotcheroos

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Triple-Chocolate Scotcheroos

So when I said that my butterscotch craving had been satiated, I was lying.

I thought about keeping up the ruse… for the sake of baked good variety on the blog, moving on to another ingredient… but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t lie to you, not this early in the relationship. You and me, we’ve been doing this together for what… 2.5 months? If I bring lies into our beautiful honeymoon period, what does that say for the long-term?

Tsk tsk, no, that will not stand.

However, the kitchen was in a bit of a… disarray from my previous endeavour with butterscotch.

ugh..

I was going to clean it up, but if I did, I wasn’t in the mood to just make it all dirty again. And it was also such a hot day that the thought of turning on the oven was unfathomable.

So so very hot.

It was time for some scotcheroos.

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Butterscotch Swirl Cake

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Butterscotch Swirl Cake

I was in need for some butterscotch.

Mmm... so much butterscotch!

Unlike chocolate which my heart is always calling out for without pause, butterscotch is one of those things that only beckons from time to time. Understand that I will never pass on butterscotch when it is offered my way, but I don’t often search it out unless I’m in a particular mood.

Chocolate’s naturally darker flavours help balance out the rich sweetness it comes along with. Butterscotch is often like pure unadulterated sugar goo. Well, I don’t mean goo really, I eat butterscotch in a solid form more often than not, what I mean is that all the adjectives that usually go with “goo” in the dessert world are strangely appropriate. Sticky, thick, sugary, rich, oozey… make your teeth scream out in pain/joy delicious. I easily associate all this with butterscotch.

Butterscotch chips

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Baked Peaches with Raspberry Crumble

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Baked Raspberry Crumble Peaches

So Trevor wanted to buy some peaches.

Peaches

However, due to some odd placement decisions by the supermarket staff, he was not able to find his standard peaches. Just white peaches.

White Peaches

We eventually found the normal peaches in a bin over by the… frozen foods? (Err.. what?) By then he already had picked out his white peaches so we just ignored them and moved on.

Unfortunately, Trevor discovered the hard way that he did not like white peaches. He likened them to peaches with no peach flavour. I knew I needed to save the poor things before they ended up in the trash. So I improvised.

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Join the dark side. We have cookies.

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Galactic Empire

What’s this? A mid-week update? Is this a special occasion?

Why yes! Yes it is.

Tomorrow is my 2 year anniversary at work! I wanted to celebrate with some goodies but wanted to also somehow make them a little more special to the day than my usual Friday fare. Something featuring the Dark Lord.

So what do Darth Vader and my work have in common? The company I work for has jokingly been referred to in the past as “The Empire”. Not just in a “this is a huge corporate empire” sort of way, but actually in the “Join the dark side..” empire sort of way. By this point you can probably figure out where I work, but I’m going to pretend you don’t and just continue omitting the actual name.

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Chocolate Matcha Bundt Cake

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Cake Slice

Looks like this is a bundt-filled weekend! They happen just sometimes. I try not to stand in their way.

I’ve always wanted to try a recipe using matcha. I drink green tea daily at work (when I’m not downing some coffee) and my affection for green tea ice cream is boundless. Matcha baked goods was a logical step for me to take next.

Bakerella’s Chocolate Matcha Bundt Cake seemed like a good option to start with. The combination of green tea flavour and chocolate had serious potential and the recipe seemed straightforward enough.

Now I just needed some matcha.

Easier said than done on a lazy Sunday. It was one of those days where traveling far for a single ingredient sounded tedious and unnecessary to my sleepy mindset. Luckily, we live a 5-10 minute walk from a QFC grocery store so not all was lost. I gave them a call and after being put on hold for about 3 minutes, they confirmed that yes, they did in fact have matcha. In no time I was there and back, tea tin in hand, bundt cake on my mind.

Then I cracked open the tin.

Matcha teabags

Despite clear imagery of matcha powder on the label, there were tea bags inside. They were filled with some matcha, yes, but mostly green tea leaves.

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