Bryton Taylor | A Perth Food Blog

Hansel and Gretel Fairytale Cottage Gingerbread Cake

On my grandpa's summer cottage property, there's an old stone building that houses the firewood. To a child who's familar with the fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel, it can be terrifying. Step too close, and who knows what really hides behind that door...

This recipe is from the old Canadiana Cookbook.

Preheat oven to 175oC (350oF)

 

In a small saucepan over low-medium heat mix together

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup molasses or treacle

1/4 cup butter

until molasses has softened and butter is melted and mixed in with the sugar.

 

Transfer to a mixer and blend together 

2 1/4 cup gf plain flour

1 cup hot water

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp baking soda

 

Butter cake pan well before pouring batter in. Bake for 35 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

If using a cake pan like the fairytale cake pan, double the recipe and cook for approx. double the time.

 

The fairytale cottage cake pan was provided courtesy of

Old Fashioned Hot Cross Buns with a Cointreau Twist

They ended up looking like paper fortune tellers that we used to make and play with as kids, but the taste of them were definitely hot cross buns. The recipe is based off on an old fashioned version found in our big old Chatelaine cookbook, and caught my eye for it's use of hot mashed potato.

Nanaimo Bites

The last time I had these in Canada was several years ago now. I had enthusiastically and joyously purchased a large tray, certain that I was feeling so deprived of one of my favourite treats that I’d devour most of it. All 1.87 pounds of chocolate, coconut, custard, cookie and icing. 0.04m² of pure, wonderful, sinful sugar.
As you can imagine, a few bites in and enough was enough. My stomach wasn’t having any more of my brain’s silliness.

Quick Hot Buns

Another recipe from the Mennonite category out of the Canadiana Cookbook. These are best served hot with a slathering of butter or syrup, alongside a coffee.

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp soda

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup lard (butter works fine)

1 egg beaten

Topping:

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 egg, beaten

Sift together the flour, soda, cream of tartar and sugar. Cut in the butter (and lard if using) with two knives or a pastry cutter. Beat the egg in a measuring cup and add enough milk to reach the 3/4 cup mark. Add to flour mixture. Toss to blend. If necessary, add a bit more milk. Put on a board, shape into a ball and roll to a sheet of 15 x 15 inches (~40 x 40 cm).

Combine the brown sugar, the 1/2 cup flour and beaten egg until creamy. Spread on top of the dough with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle cinnamon on top. Roll as for a cake and cut into slices about 3/4 inch thick ( ~2cm) Place each in well buttered muffin pan or one next to the other on a baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven 375oF (190oC) for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Notes: I was having a crumby day (understatement of the year) when I made these and just whacked the batter into a muffin pan and sprinkled the topping over it before baking. At the end of the day, it tasted just as delicious! If you're really health conscious, I'm sure you can cut back or swap with the butter... if you really want to (I didn't ;) )

Maple Cloud Cake

If I was to re-name this, it would be Maple Bonfire Cake. The icing, a simple combo of beaten egg whites and boiled maple syrup, led to a nostalgic taste of marshmallows roasted in a bonfire on a summer evening out in the countryside. Funnily enough I was never a big fan of marshmallows. Still not. But there is something of that bonfire taste/smell that I couldn't resist. So I used a little on the cake, and kept a small container for some creative idea. Although the creative idea is still to appear in my mind.

This recipe, another out of the Canadiana Cookbook, is described as light and feathery. Although nothing, other than taste, is light about it. And 'cloud' normally means fluffy, or nice stiff peaked icing... No fluff here. I followed the recipe to the T, but I'm thinking the ratio of beaten egg white to maple syrup was off. Consistency is that of creme de nougat on a cold day. Delicious, yes, and at the end of the day, that's really all that matters, doesn't it?

Maple Cloud Cake
(from The Canadiana Cookbook by Mme, Jehane Benoit)

3/4 cup maple syrup
4 eggs, seperated
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sifted all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp ground coriander (optional)
1/4 tsp salt

Icing
1 1/4 cups maple syrup
2 egg whites

Boil maple syrup exactly 2 minutes. Beat egg whites until stiff and set aside. Beat egg yolks and vanilla until light, then gradually mix in boiled syrup.

Fold egg yolk mixture gently into egg whites. Sift remaining dry ingredients together 3 times and fold into egg mixture. Pour batter into an ungreased 9 or 10 inch tube pan. Bake at 325oF (163oC) for 50 minutes or until done. When cake is cooked, invert pan on a cake rack and let cool for 1 hour. To unmould, pass a knife around the edges and ease cake out of pan.

To make icing, boil syrup until it forms a firm ball when tested in ice water (328oF on candy thermometer). Beat egg whites until stiff, then, while still beating constantly, slowly add hot syrup. Continue beating until frosting stands in peaks or cools. Spread on top and sides of cake.

Chestnuts Roasting

 

I got my instructions from this blog:

http://startcooking.com/blog/299/How-to-Roast-Chestnuts

and tried both roasting and boiling. When making them at home, boiling I find makes the best tasting ;) Although if you have a good fire going, apparently nothing beats chestnuts roasting on an open fire.



 

 

Shoo-fly Pie (♪don't bother me♪)

I've just recently gotten hooked on buying old cookbooks from the 1970's back. In particular, cookbooks that take me back to my Canadian roots, with recipes that my grandma made and ancestors would have made. The one thing you find when you move countries is, even if you were proud of your country before, you become even more fiercely proud and protective of it.

I'm slowly making my way through these cookbooks. The upside is the simplicity of the recipes, afterall, most recipes had to just be remembered or were passed by word of mouth. The downside, you can't find ingredients like smelt (fish), choke cherries (berry) or coot (water bird). And as some may know, even if you do have the ingredients, it never tastes quite the same, does it? Nevertheless, I'm currently making my way through 'The Canadiana Cookbook' by Mme. Jehane Benoit, recently purchased on http://www.abebooks.com/ 


The book, with recipes I want to try already tabbed

But back to Shoo-fly Pie. In a nutshell, this is a molasses pie, and as well as Canadians, flies also like molasses... immensely. This recipe is traditionally Pennsylvanian Dutch (with Dutch meaning Deutsch meaning German; emigrants from SW Germany and Switzerland to the PA area. Many moved up to Ontario, Canada, including some my ancestors. I could give you a history lesson happily, but I'll stop there.)

Update: Here's the recipe! Typepad gobbled the words up and didn't post them.

 

Shoo-fly Pie Recipe as in book (my notes in italics)

1 tsp soda

3/4 cup molasses 

(I used half treacle and half golden syrup, but just treacle is fine)

1 cup boiling water

pinch of salt

pinch of ginger

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup lard 

(I added 1/2 cup butter instead)

1/4 cup butter

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pastry of your choice 

(I can't emphasise this strongly enough, do NOT use the frozen shortcrust puff pastry here in Australia. I learnt this early on-- make your own when it comes to Canadian/ American recipes. Try Martha Stewart's recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/336991/easy-pie-crust )

Stir soda into molasses until foamy. Add water, salt, ginger and set aside. Mix flour and brown sugar 

(in other bowl), cut in lard and butter, then add cinnamon. Stir until crumbly. Line a 9-inch pie plate with pastry and pour in 1/3 of the molasses mixture. Sprinkle 1/3 of the crumb mixture over and continue alternating layers with crumbs as top layer. Bake at 375oF (190oC ) for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown on top. 

 

♫She's a lumberjack and she's okay♫

 
(My sis donning a fur hat with earflaps.)

My sister Maz once told her boyfriend Kev, that our family would accept him, only if he wore plaid. She still chuckles over that one, since he believed her, if only for a few minutes.

Come this past Canada Day, we thought it a fun idea to have a lumberjack-ish themed dinner. Maz and Kev are still travelling Europe, so missed it (that plaid shirt would've come in handy Kev!). However I was able to rope in Rob and Jess to join my fam.
Rob whipped up CC and Ginger to start the night (recipe here)

Before bringing out,
spareribs (Grandma's recipe) 
roasted veggies,
johnnycake (Chatelaine version here)
cornmeal dinner rolls
butter tarts (recipe from Joy of Baking)



Decked up in flannel plaid shirts, fur hats, fur boots and a bottle of CC, we had set up the dining room earlier. Wall to wall glassed door bookshelves were lined with a forest image, plaid fabric from Ikea was used as a tablecloth, chopped wood was used as a centrepiece, and larger candles were placed in large glass jars. Above, we strung plants (both fake and real) through the chandelier.

It almost felt like home sweet home!



 
 



 

(Mamma bear and I, Canadian Club and plaid. )

CC & Ginger; The Canadian Way

Canadian Club and Ginger

build over ice:
1.5 parts Canadian Club
4 parts Ginger Ale
 and garnish with a wedge of lime