Baking recipes
Scroll through our posts below to try all sorts of delicious baking recipes from our instagram baking videos. New baking videos are posted the first week of each month on Instagram and Facebook.
To easily find one of our recipes type below:
Cream Puffs with a Lemon Cheesecake Filling!
Cream puffs are made with ‘Choux Paste” which is a dough that is used for ALL sorts of things - eclairs, churros, cruellers, profiteroles, gorgieres and more! It’s a dough you cook on the stove, then add eggs to before piping and baking. I filled my cream puffs with a lemon cheesecake filling, but you can fill them with lightly sweetened whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream for a simple and delicious dessert!
A mountain of Cream Puffs!
Cream Puffs with Lemon Cheesecake Filling
Yield: 24-30 cream puffs
Preheat your oven to 400*F
Choux Paste aka Cream Puff Dough:
1/2 cup Milk
1/4 cup Water
1/3 cup Butter
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Sugar
3/4 cup Flour
~3 Eggs
icing sugar for dusting on top
Lemon Cheesecake Filling:
1 cup (8oz.) Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 cup Icing Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
zest of 1 lemon
In a small pot, bring your milk, water, butter, salt and sugar to a boil.
Once the milk mixture is boiling, add your flour and stir over a medium heat until the mixture become a dough ball and leaves a film on the base of your pot. Transfer to a bowl and cool for a minute or two.
Add your eggs one at a time, stirring to combine after each egg. Depending on how much moisture is in your dough, and how large your eggs are, you might not need all three. You want your finished dough to be soft and when you run your finger though it, it should slowly fill in the gap, but still leave a visible line where your finger had been.
Place your dough into a piping bag and pipe about 1.5” diameter rounds onto a parchment lined baking tray.
If there are little “kisses” poking up from where you stopped piping, wet your finger and lightly press them down so the tops of your cream puffs are flat.
Bake in a preheated 400*F oven for 20-30 minutes, or until golden brown. Try not to open the oven at all (no peeking!) for the first 20 minutes, the cream puffs are creating steam that will help them bake, and we don’t want that to escape!
To make the lemon cheesecake filling, whip together the cream cheese, icing sugar, salt and lemon zest until light and fluffy. If you plan on piping it into your cream puffs, you can place it into a piping bag or a ziplock bag with the corner cut off.
Once your cream puffs are baked, let them cool and fill with your choice of filling! You can use a knife to poke a hole in the base of your cream puff, large enough to fit the tip of a piping bag full of filling, then squeeze it into your cream puff, or you can cut the top of your cream puff off with a serrated knife, scoop some filling into it and then place the top back on once filled, both look cute!
Sprinkle the tops with icing sugar and devour!
Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies!
An oldie but a goodie! Peanut butter cookies are the perfect combination of sweet and salty! They combine that delicious nuttiness of peanut butter with the chewiness of a cookie and it’s pretty much perfection! These cookies are crispy with a soft, chewy centre, but if you like the crispier bake them for a minute or two longer, and if you like them chewier, pull them out a minute or two earlier.
soft and perfect!
Peanut Butter Cookies
Yield: 8-12 depending on how large you scoop them
Preheat your oven to 350*F
1/4 cup Butter, soft
1/4 cup Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Vanilla (optional)
1 Egg
3/4 cup Flour
Granulated Sugar for sprinkling on top (optional)
In the bowl of your mixer, whip together the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, vanilla, baking soda and salt until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
Add in your one egg, and continue whipping for about 1 minute, or until combined and fluffy.
Add your flour into the mixture and mix until combined, being sure to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl to get any chunks of butter combined.
Scoop onto a parchment lined baking tray (or if you don’t have a liner, just spray with baking spray oil. I used a ice cream scoop but you can just use a spoon. Leave at least 2” between cookies so they don’t bake into each other.
Sprinkle the tops of your cookies with granulated sugar for a little extra crunch and sparkle!
Bake in a preheated 350*F oven for about 10-12 minutes, or until lightly golden.
Let cool and eat!
Fruit and Nut Crisps! The PERFECT cracker for cheese!
Nothing is more perfectly paired than cheese and crackers, but sometimes you want to feel fancy so you get those delicious fruit crisp crackers from the store, but they are super expensive in terms of crackers pricing, so if you’re me, you only buy them when you are feeling fancy and having guests over. Instead of buying them, we can make them! These crisp crackers aren’t too tricky to make, but they do take a few hours because you need to let things cool and do a second bake. Feel free to switch up the flavours, you can use any nuts, dried fruit and spices you have on hand. You can even switch up the flour if you have some fun flours like whole wheat or rye flour, feel free to substitute 50% of the flour with that. Lots of fun flavours you can make!
Snazzy Crackers!
Fruit and Nut Crisps
Yield: about 50 crackers depending on how you slice them
Preheat oven to 350*F for the first bake, 250*F for the second bake
1 cup of Flour
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 cup Oats
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
2-3 teaspoons herbs and spices, I did 1/2 teaspoon each: cinnamon, dried rosemary, dried thyme, and paprika but do whatever your heart desires!
1/2 cup seeds/nuts (I used 1/2 cup sliced almonds)
1/2 dried fruit (I used 1/2 cup dried cranberries)
1 cup Milk
1/4 cup Sour Cream (you can also use yogurt, buttermilk, or even unsweetened apple sauce or pumpkin puree)
In a large bowl stir together your dry ingredients, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, oats, salt, pepper, and herbs/spices. Toss to combine.
Stir in your dried fruit and nuts.
Pour in your milk and sour cream, stir to combine.
Pour into a greased and lined loaf pan, I used an 8”x4” pan.
Bake in a preheated 350*F oven for about 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick stabbed into it comes out clean.
Let cool at room temperature, then freeze for 1-2 hours.
Once lightly frozen, slice your loaf as thinly as possible using a serrated knife.
Lay each slice in a single layer on lined baking trays.
Bake in a preheated 250*F oven for 35-50 minutes or until thoroughly dried out. We are not baking at this point so much as we are drying out the crackers.
Let cool and eat! These babies can be stored in a sealed container at room temperature.
Pitas! The envelope of the bread world!
Pitas are a delicious flatbread that puffs up when it bakes, creating a lovely little pocket inside that you can stuff full of yummy things like falafel, meats, salad, really whatever you like! You can also just rip apart the pita and use it as a receptacle for large scoops of dip! Yum! These are little tricker of a bread to make, but even if they don’t turn out perfectly, they will still be super delicious!
Pitas are perfect for dipping!
Pitas
Yield: 8-10 pitas, depending on the size you want
2 1/2 cups Flour
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 teaspoons Instant Yeast
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 cup Water, warm
In the bowl of a mixer, stir together your flour, sugar, salt and yeast.
Add the olive oil and water and knead with the dough hook for about 6 minutes, until the dough forms a nice smooth ball that isn’t sticking to the sides of the bowl.
Place dough ball into a greased bowl with a lid and let sit at room temperature until doubled (about 1 hour).
Remove dough from bowl and using a knife, divide into 8 (or 10) even pieces.
Cup each dough ball in your hand and roll it in a circle on the counter until the dough forms a nice little ball. Place on a lined or floured baking tray and cover with a tea towel, then repeat with the remaining dough balls until they are all nice and round. Let rest at room temperature at least 20 minutes to relax the dough.
Grab one dough ball at a time and roll into a thin flat circle about 6-7” in diameter and about 1/8” thick. If your dough is just not rolling out thinly, roll it as much as you can, then place back onto a parchment lined baking tray with a tea towel on top, and let it rest for about 10 minutes (I just waited until I had rolled out all the dough balls), then come back to it and roll it out a little more until it is the thickness you want. By this time the dough will have relaxed a bit and it will allow you to roll it thinner.
Cover all your rolled out pitas with a tea towel and layer in between pieces of parchment paper so they aren’t overlapping.
You can bake these in a 450*F preheated oven for about 4-8 minutes until puffed and lightly golden, or you can bake them on the stove in a pan which I did.
To bake on the stove in a pan, heat your pan to medium-high heat, I found my stove worked best at medium heat, but see what works best for you. Make sure your pan is nice and hot before you add a pita.
Place one pita down flat into the hot pan, as soon as it starts to bubble (about 15 seconds), flip it over, then once it starts expanding flip it again, then your pita might be fully expanded, or your might need to flip it again, depends on the pita. If you are like me, my pitas weren’t all the exact same thickness, so some of them needed an extra flip or two, but use your judgement, if it’s starting to burn, flip it. They only take a minute or two to bake.
Don’t worry if you burn some, they are still delicious, and baking them off is definitely a learning curve! Regardless these pitas are WAY more delicious than anything you will buy in the store.
Enjoy the labour of love and remember, practice makes perfect!
Graham Crackers...well imitation "Graham" Crackers!
Graham crackers… they’re really more of a cookie, but if we can call it a cracker and eat it at any time of the day without judgement I’m down for it! True graham crackers are made with graham flour, which is a whole wheat variety of flour. It’s quarantine, which means I am not leaving the house, and also finding graham flour can be a bit tricky, but if you have whole wheat flour feel free to substitute that in for the oats in this recipe. To add to the “whole wheat” flavour of this cookie…I mean cracker! I added in some quick oats, but if you don’t have those, just use straight up regular flour, they will still be delicious! These crackers are great for making the best SMORES or using as a base in other desserts, which we are going to be doing tomorrow!
“Graham” crackers…ok these are basically a very thin oatmeal cookie but shhhhhh! I’m not telling!
“Graham” Crackers
Yield: 15-20 - 2” cookies
1/4 cup Quick Oats (use whole wheat flour if you have it!)
3/4 cup Flour
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 cup Butter, soft
2 Tablespoons Milk
2 Tablespoons Honey (can substitute with corn syrup)
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
In a bowl combine all your dry ingredients - flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Toss to combine.
Using your hands, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until its fully combined and there aren’t any large butter chunks. It should look like sand.
Add your milk, honey and vanilla, and stir until fully combined.
Place your dough onto a baking tray sized piece of parchment paper, then top with another piece of parchment paper the same size and roll it until it is about 1/8-1/4” thick. If you plan on making square shapes try to roll it into a rectangle shape for easier cutting. Chill your dough with the 2 pieces of parchment until firm, at least 30 minutes.
Take your dough out of the cooler and peel off the top layer of parchment, if it is not coming off cleanly, your dough isn’t cold enough, just put back in the cooler until hard.
Cut out your desired shapes from the dough, you can use a pizza cutter to make squares easily, I made rounds using the edge of a water glass.
Peel the shapes off of the parchment paper and place on a lined baking tray about 2” apart.
Dock each cookie with a fork so they don’t get too many air bubbles.
Bake in a preheated 350*F for 5-12 minutes, until golden brown and delicious smelling!
Eat or save in a sealed container.
Pizza Dough!
Pizza party time! Pizza dough is fairly easy to whip together and then you can have both a delicious meal, and a fin activity for your family. Each person can make their own pizza with whatever toppings they like, super fun!
It’s a pizza party!
Pizza Dough
Yield: 3 approximately 9-10” diameter pizzas
Preheat the oven to 450*F with your Cast Iron Pan or Pizza Stone inside so it gets hot hot hot!
2 2/3 cup Flour
1 teaspoon Instant Yeast
1.5 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 cup Water, warm
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
Toppings for your pizza like pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni, vegetables, pineapple, anything!
In the bowl of your mixer, combine your dry ingredients - flour, yeast, salt and sugar, toss to combine then pour in your liquid ingredients - warm water and olive oil
Knead in the mixer for about 6 minutes, until you get a nice firm dough ball, and the dough is not sticking to the sides of your bowl, but wrapped up around the hook.
Place your dough ball into a greased bowl with a lid and let sit at room temperature for about an hour or until doubled.
Preheat your oven to 450*F with your cast iron pan inside of the oven (or pizza stone) so it gets nice and hot.
If you want to make this ahead of time, you can put your dough in the fridge now, otherwise divide the dough into 3 even portions and take each portion and roll out into a roundish shape 9-10” in diameter.
Add whatever toppings you like to your pizzas.
Once your pizzas are ready, pull your hot pan out of the oven and slide one pizza onto it and quickly place it back into the oven.
Bake for 5-10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the bottom of your pizza is golden brown and crispy.
Once your pizza is ready pop it out of the pan and immediately place the next pizza on it and pop it back into the oven, and continue until they are all baked!
Now it’s pizza eating time!
Cheese Crackers!
Who doesn’t love cheese crackers, a favourite since the days of eating handfuls of goldfish crackers on the playground! These delicious cheesy crackers can be modified to incorporate whatever grate-able cheese you have in the fridge, which results in SO many fun flavours! I went with cheddar and parmesan because that’s what I had on hand, and as we know, it’s quarantine so I am avoiding the store.
Little cheese bites!
Cheese Crackers
Yield: depends on how you cut them, lets say about 100 small crackers!
Preheat your oven to 350*F
1/2 cup Flour
1 teaspoon Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Smoked Paprika (you can leave this out or replace it with other spices, things like onion or garlic powder, italian seasoning, cajun seasoning, even rosemary or thyme would be good!)
2 Tablespoons Cold Butter, cubed
about 115g Cheddar Cheese, grated on the smallest sized grater you have (you can replace this with another cheese such as swiss, mozzarella, havarti, whatever you got!)
2 Tablespoons grated parmesan (optional)
1-2 Tablespoons of cold milk or water
Coarse salt for the tops
In a bowl combine all your dry ingredients - flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and smoked paprika (or other spices)
Toss in your cold butter and cheese and combine together by pinching and rubbing the dough with your hands until it looks like coarse sand. We ideally want there to be no large butter chunks left but it still looks crumbly.
Now add your milk (or water) a little bit at a time, I used about 1.5 Tablespoons, but it will vary depending on how dry your cheese is, something like an old cheddar or a parmesan is going to need a little more moisture, while something like a havarti is not as dry and will need a little less. So just add a little bit at a time, stirring them together until you can grab a ball in your hand and when squeezed it will stay in a ball.
Press the dough together into a disk and wrap with saran wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Roll out your dough onto a lightly floured surface and cut into small squares using a pizza cutter, or whatever shape you like!
Bake in a preheated 350*F oven for about 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden on the bottom and cheese-y smelling!
Let cool and eat! Store any extras in an airtight container or baggie.
Herb and Garlic Pull Apart Bread!
This loaf of bread is made up of many squares of dough layered with herb and garlic butter! The layering results in a flaky loaf you can just pull apart with your fingers! So tasty and easy to eat!
Layers of buttery goodness!
Herb and Garlic Pull Apart Bread
Yield: 1 loaf sized 9”x5”
Dough:
1.5 cups Milk, warm
1/4 cup Butter, melted
3 cups Flour
1.5 teaspoons Salt
1.5 teaspoons Instant Yeast
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
Herb and Garlic Butter:
1/3 cup Butter, soft
2 cloves Garlic, chopped
1/2 cup chopped herbs - I used green onion, cilantro and parsley, but use what you got!
pinch of Salt
pinch of pepper
In the bowl of your mixer combine all the dry ingredients for your dough - flour, salt, instant yeast, sugar and pepper. Toss to combine, then add your warm milk and melted butter.
Mix with the dough hook about 10 minutes or until the dough is no longer sticking to the sides of your bowl and is in a nice firm ball around the dough hook.
Place the dough into a grease bowl with a lid and let sit at room temperature for about 1 hour or until doubled.
While the dough is resting, stir together the herb butter- soft butter, garlic, herbs, salt and pepper.
Once your dough is ready, roll it into a large rectangle about 12'“x16” on a lightly floured surface.
Now spread your garlic butter on top of the dough covering the entire thing.
Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 12 pieces 3 columns x 4 rows, don’t worry if some aren’t exactly square.
Now grab one of the 12 squares and fold it in half so the butter layer is in the inside like a herb butter taco, you will do this with each square of dough.
Place all the folded pieces of dough into a greased loaf pan, placing the folded edge on the bottom of the pan so you can see the buttery centre from the top of your loaf. I find it easiest to place my loaf pan on it’s side so I can stack all the pieces of dough on top of each other without them falling over, then I can place the pan back on it’s bottom and rearrange the pieces if needed.
Once all your dough is in the pan, cover with a piece of saran wrap and let sit at room temperature until it has expanded and filled the pan, about 1 hour.
Bake in a preheated 350*F oven for about 30-45 minutes, or until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped.
Cool and eat!
Blueberry Cake aka Blueberry Buckle!
This cake is family favourite! We would make it every summer whenever we had some fresh blueberries! It’s a soft buttery cake layered with blueberries and cinnamon streusel! the blueberries burst into the cake while it bakes making a delicious layer of blueberries and cinnamon in the middle! So good!
ALL the blueberries!
Blueberry Cake
Recipe courtesy of my mama Patty Lotecki
Yield: one 9”x13” pan
Preheat your oven to 350*F
Streusel:
1/4 cup Butter
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
Blueberry Layer:
2 cups Blueberries
1/2 cup Sugar
Cake:
3/4 cup soft Butter
3/4 cup Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs
1 cup buttermilk (or sour cream, or yogurt, or 1 cup milk plus 1 teaspoon vinegar)
2 cups Flour
In a bowl combine your streusel ingredients (butter, brown sugar and cinnamon) by rubbing them together with your hands until combined. Set aside.
In a bowl combine your blueberry layer ingredients - blueberries and sugar. Toss to combine. Set aside.
In the bowl of a mixer place your butter, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder and vanilla. Whip until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing between each egg until they are combined. Then give your bowl a scrape down and whip for a few more minutes or until light and fluffy.
Slowly add about 1/3 of your flour to the butter mixture, once it’s almost fully combined add half of the buttermilk, then continue alternating the buttermilk and flour until it’s all used up. I usually do 3 portions of flour and two of buttermilk. Then scrape your bowl down and mix for about 20 seconds until the batter is nice and combined.
In a greased 9”x13” pan put about 2/3 of your cake batter and smear so it covers the entire base of the pan.
Next, layer all of your blueberry mixture, spreading it evenly on top of the cake batter.
Then layer all of your streusel topping on top of the blueberry layer as evenly as possible.
Now dollop spoonfuls of the remaining batter randomly on top of the streusel layer so you can still see the streusel peeking through.
Bake in a preheated 350*F oven until golden brown and comes out clean when stabbed with a toothpick.
Let it cool then devour!
Pavlova!
Pavlova is the fluffiest of cakes! It’s a GIANT meringue with a marshmallowy centre that you fill with whipped cream and top with fresh fruit! It’s our favourite dessert for any bakery staff party! Named after a ballerina’s fluffy tutu this cake is as light as air!
it’s a mountain of deliciousness!
Pavlova
Yield: 1 approximately 8” round pavlova
Preheat oven to 300F, then reduce to 250*F when you place the pavlova into the oven.
Pavlova:
5 Egg Whites, room temperature
pinch Salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract (optional)
1 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
Filling:
1/2 cup Whipped cream
1-2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 cup Fresh Fruit
1 Tablespoon Sugar
In the bowl of your mixer place your egg whites and the pinch of salt.
Using the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites until they start to turn white and foamy.
While the machine is running on a low speed, slowly pour in the sugar until it is fully incorporated, then increase the mixer speed to medium high speed and whip until super thick and fluffy, at least 10 minutes. The meringue should not feel grainy when you rub it between your fingers.
Add the vinegar and cornstarch to the mixer and mix on a medium speed for 20-30 seconds until combined.
Using a bowl or plate, trace an approximately 8” diameter circle onto a piece of parchment paper, then flip oven the parchment so the outline is on the bottom of the paper, and place the parchment onto your baking tray. You can use a little baking spray on the pan to stick down your parchment so it won’t slide.
Load your meringue mixture onto your drawn circle on the parchment. Then gently spread it into the circle shape. You can use the back of a spoon or a spatula to create decorative lines on the side of your pavlova, or just leave it with a rustic look.
Place pavlova into a preheated 300F oven, then as soon as the pavlova is in, REDUCE the heat to 250*F and bake for 1.25-1.5 hours. The pavlova should be crispy feeling on the outside.
Turn off the oven, but leave your pavlova in the oven to cool - about 2 hours (or just leave overnight.)
Once your pavlova has cooled, whip your cream to soft peak and sweeten to taste with sugar (1-2 Tablespoons if usually good for me), place the whipped cream on top of the pavlova.
Chop up your fresh fruits and toss with a little sugar to taste - if your fruit is sweet enough don’t worry about adding any sugar. Place fruit on top of the whipped cream.
Serve right away! So delicious!
Homemade DOUGHNUTS!
Doughnuts are AMAZING! I love doughnuts! That is my birthday treat of choice. Home made doughnuts are truly the ultimate version of doughnuts because you can’t beat a warm doughnut straight out of the fryer! It’s sooooo yummy! The dough isn’t too tricky, but you do need to deep fry them, because lets be honest, a baked doughnut should just be called a bun and we don’t want none, if you’re just a bun! Ok I would still eat a bun, but fried is the WAY TO GO! I don’t have a deep fryer, you just need a sturdy pot and ideally a thermometer.
Freshly baked doughnuts are the love of my life!
Doughnuts
Yield: 6-8 regular sized hole-y doughnuts
Dough:
2/3 cup milk, warm
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (optional)
3/4 teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Instant yeast
2 cups Flour
In the bowl of your mixer combine the dry ingredients - flour, salt, sugar, yeast. Toss together to combine.
Pour in your liquid ingredients - milk, melted butter, egg and vanilla.
Knead the dough in your mixer until it creates a ball around your dough hook, and isn’t sticking to the sides of your bowl, about 10 minutes.
Place your dough ball into a grease bowl, cover and let rise at room temperature for about 1 hour, or until doubled.
Once double, press down your dough and take it out of the bowl. Wrap in saran wrap and place in the fridge until chilled, at least 30 minutes. You can even leave these overnight if you want to fry them off for breakfast in the morning!
Next, roll out your dough to about 1/2” thick and cut out your doughnuts, ideally use a 3-4” round cutter with a 1” cutter for the middle, but use what you got! Wine glasses work great!
Place your doughnuts onto a lined and lightly floured baking tray, then cover with a clean tea towel and let rise at room temperature for 30 minutes-1 hour, or until almost doubled.
Get your glaze and/or cinnamon sugar ready at this point, so they are ready to go once your doughnuts are fried!
While your doughnuts are rising, heat up a deep fryer or a large pot with at least 1” of canola oil or shortening at the bottom, you want an oil with a high smoke point. We want our oil at 350F-365F. Ideally use a thermometer to keep an eye on your oil, otherwise you can toss scraps of dough in to see how the sizzle and gauge the temperature that way.
Once your dough is ready place a 2-3 doughnuts in at a time and fry for 1-2 minutes flipping halfway. Mine took about 1.5 minutes for the larger doughnuts.
Once your doughnut is golden, remove it from the oil and place onto a wire rack that is sitting on top of a baking tray to catch anything that drips.
If you want cinnamon sugar doughnuts, roll them in the cinnamon sugar while they are hot out of the fryer. If you would like to glaze them, finish frying all your doughnuts and then toss them into your glaze and place back on to the wire rack to dry for a minute before serving.
Now eat them while warm, it is the GREATEST!
Cinnamon Sugar:
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Toss together!
Vanilla Glaze:
1 cup Icing Sugar
2 Tablespoons Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Stir ingredients together until smooth, if you want it thicker, add more icing sugar to get the consistency you like.
Giant Lemon Cheesecake Mousse Cream Egg!
Easter is almost here and that means Cream Eggs! So lets make a GIANT cream egg!!! You can definitely make this mousse in a glass or serving dish, but I am making it in a giant egg so I can crack it open! Yay! dessert and a show!
pre-smashing!
Lemon Curd
Yield: about 2 cups
1/2 cup Lemon Juice
1/2 cup Sugar
3 Eggs
1/2 cup Butter, cubed
In a pot bring your lemon juice to a boil on the stove.
which together your eggs and sugar in a bowl, set to the side.
Slowly pour the hot lemon juice into the eggs while constantly whisking until about 75% of your lemon juice has been whisked in.
Pour the egg mixture back into the pot and over a low-med heat on the stove, constantly stirring until the mixture begins to thicken.
Take off heat and then stir in the butter until melted.
Pour your lemon curd into a bowl and let chill in the fridge.
Lemon Cheesecake Mousse
Yield: about 4-5 cups
1 cup Lemon Curd
8 oz. Cream Cheese (1 cup), softened
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Whipped Cream
2/3 cup Icing Sugar
Whip your cream to medium peaks, set aside in the fridge.
in a mixer whip up your cream cheese and salt until soft.
Add your lemon curd to the cream cheese and using a whisk in the mixer, whip up until fluffy.
Add your icing sugar to the cream cheese mix, and whip until fluffy.
Using a spatula, fold your whipped cream into the cream cheese mix in 2-3 additions, folding as gently as possible to not deflate your mousse.
Pour into moulds or glasses!
Giant Egg Method
Yield: 1 giant egg!
You will need a giant easter egg that opens up to use as a mould
1 package of Candy Melts (I used white, but you can use any colour
Lemon Curd (just the leftovers from your mousse is perfect)
Lemon Cheesecake Mousse
Sprinkles and candies to decorate your egg
Line your easter egg with saran wrap on the inside of the egg, pressed as smoothly as possible against the sides and letting the excess go over the edge so you have something to grab onto when you want to pop out the egg shell from the mould.
Melt your candy melts in the microwave doing just 10 second intervals so you don’t burn the candy, you can also do this on a double boiler.
Once you candy melts are completely melted, using a small spatula or a spoon, brush the candy melts onto the saran wrap, it’s easiest to do a few layers, so brush your layer on, pop it in the fridge or freezer, once it’s hardened add another layer until your “shell” is thick enough that you can pop it out of the mould and it will stand on it’s own. I did 2 thick layers.
Fill your egg shells with the lemon cheesecake mousse, smoothing out the top so it is not higher than the edges.
In the centre of the mousse, scoop out an egg sized hole on both sides of the egg, as a yolk would be on a real egg.
Fill the hole with lemon curd.
Freeze your eggs until firm, I let them freeze overnight.
Once frozen, pop your eggs out of the moulds and remove the saran wrap.
Using a sharp knife, trim the edges until they are flat and the two halves will fit together.
Heat up your remaining candy melts and place them into a piping bag if you have one.
Pipe the candy melts around the edges and glue the two halves together, then smooth any candy melts that squished out with your finger.
Now using your candy melts as glue, decorate your egg using sprinkles and candies.
Your beautiful egg is not ready to go! Let it sit in the fridge for at least 4 hours so the mousse thaws and isn’t frozen!
Happy Easter!
Mud ball Cookies aka Easter Nests!
Mud ball cookies, sounds like your eating mud, but they’re actually a delicious chocolate coconut oatmeal cookie! This recipe is from my mom! We made them ALL the time growing up, and they are still a favourite today. They are a great cookie because they are quick to make and don’t involve any baking! Today we shaped them into nests with little mini eggs in the centre, but you can just scoop them and eat them without any chocolate eggs on top. These are also egg free and wheat free, which is great for anyone with allergies!
The most delicious bird’s nest you will ever eat!
Mud Ball Cookies
Recipe courtesy of Patty Lotecki - mama extraordinare
Yield: about 12 nests, or 24 smaller cookies
No oven required for these cookies!
1/4 cup Butter
1/4 cup Milk
3/4 cup Sugar
1 1/2 cups Oats (quick or rolled, both work great)
1/4 cup Cocoa Powder
1/2 cup Coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
pinch Salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract (optional)
Mini Eggs for garnish (optional)
In a pot heat bring your butter, milk and sugar to a boil, then boil for 1 minute while stirring.
In a bowl combine all your dry ingredients - oats, cocoa, coconut, and salt. Stir to combine, breaking up any cocoa balls.
Once your butter mixture has boiled, pour it into the dry ingredients and add your vanilla extract. Stir until everything is well combined.
Grab a baking tray lined with parchment, and scoop your batter into little mounds on the tray. I used an ice cream scoop, but two spoons work great too! Then press the centre of each mound down slightly so it looks more like a nest shape.
Place a few mini eggs in the centre of each mound like eggs would be placed in a nest.
Let them cool at room temperature for about 2-4 hours, or until set and you can remove them from the parchment paper.
Eat! You can also store these in a sealed container…if you don’t eat them all!
Mini Egg Nanaimo Bars!!!!! Yes, you read that correctly!
Mini eggs - they’re my addiction! Normally I would be in the midst of making a zillion mini egg cakes and bunny shaped sugar cookies, but alas it’s quarantine! Now I have a ridiculous amount of mini eggs and all I want to do is eat them by the handful…which I do, but we should bake some too! Genius idea - MINI EGG NANAIMO BARS! It came to me as I was eating mini eggs out of a bowl like they were cereal and they are HEAVENLY!
Mini Egg Nanaimo Bars before slicing!
Mini Egg Nanaimo Bars
Yield: 8”x8” pan
Preheat your oven to 350*F
Base:
1 cup Graham Cracker Crumbs
3/4 cup Sweetened Coconut (or unsweetened)
1/2 cup Toasted Almonds, chopped up (can substitute another nut, or replace with graham cracker crumbs)
1/4 cup Cocoa Powder
1/4 cup Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/3 cup Butter, melted
1 Egg
Icing Filling:
1/2 cup Butter, soft
2 Tablespoons Hot Chocolate Powder (or 1 Tablespoon Cocoa powder)
2 Tablespoons Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 cups Icing Sugar
1/4 cup Crushed Mini Eggs (I crushed them in a food processor)
Chocolate Topping:
3/4 cup Dark Chocolate (semi-sweet Chocolate chips will work great!)
1.5 Tablespoons Butter
2 Tablespoons Crushed Mini eggs
Roughly chopped mini eggs for top decor ~ 1/4 cup
In a bowl combine the base dry ingredients - graham cracker crumbs, coconut, almonds, cocoa, sugar, and salt. Stir to combine.
Add your melted butter and egg, and stir until combined.
Pour your base mixture into a parchment lined 8”x8” baking pan, and using your hands press it evenly over the base of the pan until its evenly covered and compacted.
Bake your base for about 10-15 minutes until it feels firm and you can’t see any liquid bits. Let cool.
Once your base is cool, in the bowl of a mixer combine your icing filling ingredients. Start with the milk and hot chocolate powder, stir them together to moisten the powder, then add all the other ingredients - butter, icing sugar, mini eggs, and vanilla extract. Mix on medium high speed until light and fluffy looking 4-6 minutes.
Smear the icing filling on top of your cooled base and evenly spread it out, trying to make the top as smooth as possible. Chill until firm, at least 30 minutes.
In a microwaveable bowl, or a double boiler (if you want to use a stove), melt together your chocolate and butter until fully melted.
Stir in the crushed mini eggs to the chocolate and quickly spread on top of the firm icing layer.
Sprinkle with more chopped mini eggs!
Chill until set, ideally 4 hours.
Cut and eat! These also freeze great!
Ciabatta - it takes a day...but it's worth it! I swear!
Ciabatta is my favourite bread! I have paid a ridiculous amount of money for a single loaf of ciabatta (and I would happily do it again!), but guess what, you can make it at home for pennies! Literally! My food costing comes in around $0.30 whaaaaaatttt! Amazing! It is a labour of love though because it takes about 24 hours to make, but what else are we doing, it’s quarantine! If I am going to have 24 hours to dedicate to a bread it’s now! Yay! This delicious bread starts the day before with a pre-ferment called a biga. A biga is basically a lump of firm dough, I think in theory it was a lump of the dough from your bread baking the day before, but obviously if I made dough it would all be eaten that day. That lump of dough then sits for ideally about 18 hours at room temperature so it can gain lots of flavour and grow some natural yeasts, giving it that sourdough tang without needing to worry about a sourdough starter, because that takes like a week and I can’t be bothered!
Ciabatta Bread before going into my belly!
Ciabatta
Yield: 1 loaf (approximately 10”x4” rectangle)
Biga:
2/3 cup Flour
1/4 cup Warm Water
pinch of Instant Yeast
Final Dough:
1 1/4 cup Flour
1/2 teaspoon Instant Yeast
2/3 cup Warm Water
1 teaspoon Salt
Biga that has sat for 12-18 hours at room temperature
In your mixer with a dough hook combine your Biga ingredients - 2/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup warm water and pinch of yeast. Mix for 3 minutes on a low speed.
You should have a little dough ball, this is your Biga! Place your biga in a greased bowl with a lid/saran wrap and leave at room temperature for 12-18 hours. It should become bubbly and rise.
Once your Biga is ready to go, place it into your mixer along with all of the other ingredients for the final dough. Mix with a dough hook for 4 minutes. This dough is going to look very sticky and goopy, that is perfect!
Place the dough into a greased bowl or pan that has a lid and let sit and proof at room temperature for about 1 hour or until doubled.
Once your dough it ready you will fold your dough ball in half 4 times, I like to use a rectangle pan instead of a bowl when I make ciabatta because it has 4 sides, and i can turn the pan for each fold so I make sure to do this 4 times. Grab the edge of the dough and fold it in half, then turn the pan or bowl 90 degrees and repeat, do this until you get back to where you started and your 4 folds will be complete! Now put the lid on and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
Now that your dough has sat, you will repeat the 4 folds like we did earlier. Then place a lid on and let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Our dough is now ready to shape. Grab a large baking tray and dust it fairly heavily with flour.
Place your dough gently onto the tray and gently stretch the dough into an approximate 10”x4” rectangle shape. Try not to squish the dough, we don’t want to collapse too much of the volume.
Now heavily dust the top of the ciabatta bread with flour, then drape a clean tea towel on top and let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
While the dough is resting, heat your oven up to 450*F and place a clean metal tray on the bottom rack of your oven, this needs to be hot when we bake our bread.
Once your dough is ready to go, place it into the hot oven, on the rack above the one with the hot tray, then grab 1-1 1/2 cups of water and carefully pour it onto the metal pan that is on the bottom rack and its going to SIZZLE and create STEAM! Quickly close the oven to capture all the steam and bake your ciabatta for about 20 minutes. DON’T OPEN THE OVEN! If you take a peak into the oven it’s going to release the steam we just created and we want to keep that steam in there to allow our dough to grow and expand in the oven before it crusts up.
Your ciabatta will be done when it is golden brown and when you tap it with your finger it should sound hollow.
Place your cooked loaf onto a wire rack to cool (this helps steam from forming under your loaf and giving you a soggy bottom!)
Now eat your AMAZING ciabatta bread! I’m eating mine now! mmmm
Tiramisu! It's like we're at a fancy Italian Restaurant... when actually we can't leave the house!
Tiramisu! It just sounds delicious! This Italian dessert has layers of coffee soaked ladyfingers (which we made yesterday!), sandwiched with sweet fluffy mascarpone cheese filling, then topped with a sprinkle of cocoa powder! No Italian restaurant required!
This photo does not capture the deliciousness of this Tiramisu!
Tiramisu
Yield: 1 large serving dish, I believe my glass dish is about 2 litres, but use whatever pan you’ve got, the taller the container, the more layers you will get. You could also make this in a 9”x13” pan
Mascarpone Filling:
1 1/4 cup Whipping cream
4 Egg Yolks
1/2 cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons Frangelico - Traditionally this is made with Marsala wine, but I don’t have any, so use whatever liqueur you got!
pinch of Salt
1 1/4 cup Mascarpone Cheese, softened at room temperature
Ladyfinger Soaking Syrup :
2 cups of coffee
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons Frangelico (optional)
Approximately 24 ladyfingers (or one batch of the recipe we made yesterday)
Cocoa Powder - for dusting
In a shallow baking dish stir together your ladyfinger soaking syrup ingredients - coffee, sugar, Frangelico. Set this to the side.
In the bowl of your mixer (or by hand) whip the cream to soft peaks. Then leave in fridge until we are ready for it.
Get a pot with water simmering on the stove, we are going to do a water bath! Just an inch or two of water in the bottom of a large pot will be perfect.
Grab a metal bowl the will fit on top of your pot of water and in it place the egg yolks, sugar, Frangelico, and salt. Then stir them together and place it on top of the simmering water pot on the stove. The bowl should not be touching the water, we are just trying to steam the bottom of our bowl and cook the eggs so they are safe to eat.
Constantly stir your egg mixture while it is sitting on the waterbath until the eggs feel warm/hot and when you rub it between your fingers you cannot feel any grains of sugar. Then pour this mixture into the bowl of your mixer and whip on high until cool - it should be super fluffy and marshmallowy looking.
In a large bowl place your softened mascarpone cheese.
With a spatula fold in all of your egg mixture, being as gentle as you can so you don’t knock out too much air.
Now fold in about 1/3 of your whipped cream, again, being gentle!
Then fold in the rest of your cream. Now your filling is complete!
To layer your tiramisu you will start with a layer of ladyfingers. Grab one ladyfinger, dunk it into your coffee syrup on both sides and then place it into the bottom of your serving dish. Continue until you have fully covered the bottom of the pan (mine fit 8 cookies).
Now pour a layer of your mascarpone filling - my container would fit 3 layers of ladyfinger cookies, so I planned to do 3 layers of mascarpone filling, so I poured about 1/3 of the filling on top. but count up your ladyfingers in the base layer and see how many cookies you have for your baking dish and divide the filling evenly.
Continue to layer the soaked ladyfinger cookies, then the mascarpone filling until you use them all up.
Then lightly dust the top of your tiramisu with cocoa powder!
This baby is all finished now, it just needs to sit in the fridge for about 8 hours or overnight to let everything soak into each other.
Yum!
Spinach Dip STUFFED Pretzels!
It’s a soft pretzel…it’s a dip…it’s a SPINACH DIP STUFFED PRETZEL! I love dip! Like everything is better with dip! I could just live off of dip. Some people seem to think it’s inappropriate to just eat straight dip though, so what can one do but stuff it into a delicious soft pretzel! They’re SO good!!!
Pretzels EXPLODING with flavour!
Spinach Dip Stuffed Pretzels
Yield: 4 giant soft pretzels
Once you start shaping your pretzels, preheat your oven to 425*F
Dough:
3/4 cup Milk (or water), warmed
1 Tablespoon Honey
1 1/4 teaspoon Yeast
2 Tablespoons Butter, melted
1 teaspoon Salt
2 cups Flour
Spinach Dip Filling:
1/4 cup Cream Cheese, softened
1 Tablespoon Sour Cream
2 Tablespoons Cooked and drained Spinach (I use the frozen kind, thaw it, and squeeze out the water)
1-2 Tablespoons grated Parmesean
1/4 teaspoon Onion Powder
1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder
pinch Salt
pinch Pepper
Water Bath:
2 Litres of Water
1/4 cup Baking Soda
Egg Wash:
1 egg
pinch salt
pinch sugar
Coarse Salt for sprinkling on top
In the bowl of your mixer stir together the warm milk and honey. Then sprinkle the yeast on top, and let it sit for about 10 minutes until nice a foamy looking.
Add the rest of the dough ingredients - flour, melted butter, and salt. Using the dough hook on your mixer, knead the dough for about 5-8 minutes, or until the dough is in a ball, not sticking to the sides of the mixer, and no longer sticky to the touch.
Place dough into a greased bowl, cover, and let sit for 1 hour at room temperature.
While the dough is resting, time to make the spinach dip! In a bowl stir together all the ingredients for the spinach dip, taste it, and adjust the seasoning to your taste!
Place the spinach dip into a piping bag, or if you don’t have one, a plastic ziplock bag will work. Then cut the corner/tip of the bag off so you will be able to squeeze out the spinach dip once your dough is ready. Leave at room temperature.
Once dough is rested get your water bath going, you will need a pot with about 2 Litres of water and 1/4 cup baking soda brought to a boil. You can also preheat your oven to 425*F at this time.
Now to roll the dough! Take your dough out of the bowl and cut into 4 equal pieces.
Roll each quarter into a long wormy on the counter, ideally about 18” long.
Now flatten out each wormy with a rolling pin so its about 1.5” wide.
Pipe a line of spinach dip in the middle of your flattened piece of dough from one end to the other.
Now fold the dough around the spinach dip and pinch the two sides together as tightly as possible. Try to make sure no spinach dip squishes out.
Now you should have a long wormy again, but this time it’s filled with spinach dip! Grab both ends, cross them, then place them onto the middle section of the wormy so it looks like a pretzel shape. That is a terrible description, but just look at the photo and make it that shape…or whatever shape your heart desires! Then press the overlapping dough parts together so they somewhat stick. Place onto a lined baking tray that has been lightly floured.
Next you will very gently simmer each pretzel in the baking soda water for about 20-30 seconds per side, then carefully remove and place back onto your baking tray. If your pretzel falls apart don’t worry, just put it back into shape on your baking tray once you remove it from the water.
Whisk together your egg wash - egg, salt, sugar. Then brush it onto your pretzels and sprinkle them with coarse salt.
Pop them into the oven for about 10-15 minutes until golden brown! Yay! Stuffed pretzels and no mall required!
Date Bars, some call them "Matrimonial Slice" but you know commitment issues...we're just DATING!
Sometimes I am a 100 year old women, why? BECAUSE I LOVE DATE BARS! They are buttery, soft, crunchy, cinnamon-y, and sweet! Plus, they are made of dried fruit and oats, so as far as I’m concerned they are a breakfast food. If you aren’t into the dates, you can also replace the date filling with the apple pie filling we made for our turnovers a few days ago, just double the apple filling recipe so you use 2 apples!
Date Bars for when your not allowed to go on dates to bars.
Date Bars
Yield: one 8”x8” pan or something of a similar size
Preheat your oven to 350*F
Date Filling:
2 1/2 cups roughly chopping Dried Dates (about one pound)
1 cup Water
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Butter
1 Tablespoon Grand Marnier (optional)
Streusel:
3/4 cup Butter, soft
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 1/4 cup Flour
1 1/4 cup Oats
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
In a small pot over medium heat cook your dates, water, lemon juice, baking soda, salt and butter until it thickens and forms a puree type mixture. Remove from heat. (If your don’t want any larger date chunks you can puree this mixture in a food processor, but I like the texture so I just leave it as is!)
Add the Grand Marnier if using, then set to the side.
In a large bowl combine all the Streusel ingredients and rub them together with your hands until they are combined.
In a greased and lined 8”x8” pan pour about 2/3 of your streusel mixture and press into the bottom of the pan to form a crust.
Pour all of your date filling on top of the base crust and smooth it out evenly making sure to cover the entire base.
Now take the last 1/3 of streusel and crumble it on top of the date layer.
Bake in a preheated 350*F oven for about 25-35 minutes or until just starting to turn golden brown on the edges.
Let cool, then slice and eat! Or add to your tray of dainties if you are having a fancy team party like I wish I was having right now!
Lemon Cranberry Scones!
Did you see Julie Van Rosendaal and I did a live instagram! What!!! She’s only my idol, no big deal! Just kidding SUPER BIG DEAL! How exciting!!! Anyways Julie made biscuits and I made these lemon cranberry scones!
Lemony and delicious!
Lemon Cranberry Scones
Yield: 6 scones
Preheat your oven to 350*F
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 cups Flour
1/4 cup Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 cup Butter, cold, cubed
1/2 cup Buttermilk
1 Egg
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract (or the zest of 1 lemon)
1/4 cup Dried Cranberries
Glaze:
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
Enough Icing Sugar to thicken to a drizzling consistency ~1/4-1/2 cup
In a large bowl stir together your dry ingredients - salt, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder.
Using your fingers pinch and rub in the butter until the mixture looks sandy but still has some pea sized chunks of butter.
Now pour in your liquid ingredients - buttermilk, egg, lemon extract, and you can also add in the cranberries at this time too. Stir just until combined.
On a floured surface shape your dough into a rough circle about 1” thick, then using a knife cut the circle like a pie, into 6 pieces.
Place onto a lined baking tray and brush the tops with a little buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.
While baking, mix together your glaze, lemon juice and icing sugar, just add enough icing sugar until you get a thin paste.
Once your scones come out of the oven, drizzle the glaze on them while hot.
Now eat! Yay!!
Cornbread - Cake you can eat for dinner!
Anyone else dreaming of the Stampede'? The weirdest 10 days of Calgary’s summer where everything becomes cowboy themed and it’s socially acceptable to wear a cowboy hat in any circumstance. Glorious! Well with cowboy themed things come chili and what goes with chili? CORNBREAD! Yee HAW! Cornbread is a super easy quick bread that you can stir together and pop into the oven while your chili is cooking, or equally as delicious made into muffins in the morning! So many options!
The corniest of breads!
Cornbread
Yield: one 8”x8” pan or a cast iron skillet
Preheat your oven to 350*F
1/2 cup Butter, melted
2/3 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1 cup Sour Cream (can replace with 1 cup buttermilk, yogurt, or 1 cup of milk with 1 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice)
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Flour
1 cup Cornmeal (I like Yellow cornmeal for the colour, but white will work too!)
Fun flavourings: I used 2 Tablespoons chopped cooked bacon, 1 Tablespoon chopped pickled jalapeños, and 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese. Other delicious things you can add are whole corn kernels, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers. Or for a sweet variety, blueberries and lemon zest!
In a large bowl mix together your melted butter, sugar and eggs.
Add the sour cream, baking soda and salt. Stir to combine.
Stir in your flour and cornmeal.
Stir in any flavourings you want to add like cheese or bacon! Now pour into a greased 8”x8” baking dish.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until its lightly golden, springs back to the touch and a toothpick inserted into it comes out clean.
Now enjoy! YAHOO!