On se prepare pour Paris

"Hey, what do you want to bake this week?"
"How about something French-inspired"
"Why?"
"Because I'm going to Paris!"
"What?! You lucky bastard!"

So to celebrate Paul getting ready for a short séjour to Paris, we decided to make choux à la crème (cream puffs). Light, fluffy, heavenly cream filled puffs of deliciousness.  Paul thought this would be so difficult... but I convinced him that it was easier than he thought; and of course I was right.

To make the mood even more French, Paul turned on his BRAND NEW record player and we listened to Edith Piaf and ate chocolate (can I tell you the Dairy Milk Marvellous Creations Jelly Popping Candy is all kinds of awesome/the worst idea for diets ever).

The cream puffs are surprisingly easy to make with few ingredients.  First you need to start with the choux paste:

Choux Paste

250 ml of water
1/2 cup of butter
5 g of salt
185 g of all purpose flour (or bread flour)
6 eggs

1.  Preheat your oven to 400F
2.  In a saucepan place the water, butter and salt and bring to a boil. Don't put a lid on the pot when bringing to a rolling boil; the butter will turn frothy.
3.  Add the flour and stir until the paste is formed and it pulls away from the sides of the pot. Take the saucepan off the heat.
4.  Place the dough in a mixing bowl and mix to cool.  When no more steams comes out of the choux paste, you can move to step 5.
5.  Add eggs one by one until fully incorporated. 
6.  Pipe using star shape and bake for about 30 minutes until golden.

Yes, 30 minutes seem like a really long time but if you pull them out sooner, the puffs will have an eggy-taste and no one wants that!

Once all your Choux Paste have been baked, it's time to start the filling. We decided to stick with the classic and made a whip cream filling.

Whip Cream

500 ml of  cream
40g of icing sugar
a splash of vanilla extract

Mix all the ingredients together with a whisk until stiff peaks form. 

Cut the puff pastries in half using a seraded knife and fill with the whip cream filling (we used a star shape pipping tip again).

Once finished, you can dust icing sugar like we did or make a chocolate ganache (we wanted to make the ganache but it was 9:00 pm and we both have to work tomorrow). These will probably not make it to work tomorrow!

Angry Chocolate Chip Cookies

For some weird reason, tonight's baking date turned into a night of angry baking...

 

It all started on a cool December evening after Celine arrived at Paul’s house - maybe it was because it’s been a crazy work week, or maybe because Paul didn’t go grocery shopping, or maybe because it’s kind of cold outside, or maybe it’s because... it was just an angry night.

 

Looking through at least a dozen recipes on the couch and then running to the cupboards to see what Paul had in stock - we decided on cookies; chocolate chip cookies from a pin on pinterest. (We both LOVE pinterest - the ultimate time waster; lets pin random stuff that we’ll never make regardless of how easy a DIY job it ”says” it is!)

 

DoubleTree by Hilton, Chocolate Chips Cookies: DELICIOUS!! (http://www.somethingswanky.com/doubletree-hotel-chocolate-chip-cookies/)

 

The recipe says that it makes 20 cookies, so naturally we doubled it. Not the smartest idea, since Paul’s oven is apartment-sized; which translates to only one cookie sheet at a time. This recipe has cinnamon in it - Paul’s reaction: “really? That’s weird! Lets just not put that in” to which Celine responded with “shutup, it’s going in!” Angry night, much.

 

So after mixing in everything but the dry ingredients, Celine decided to re-read the recipe: chill over night... WHAT? (it was actually a much more colourful response that went something like this:

 

Paul: “Chill over night... really?”

Celine: ”*&$% that *&$%”

Paul: “&$*%(@”

Celine: “Who cares, put them in the oven”

 

Yup, it’s been that kind of night!

 

Cinnamon everywhere, countless blobs of cookie dough on the floor, and all the sugar hardened into a block (thanks, humidifier!); we finally got the first batch in the oven. We baked our cookies for 12 minutes instead of the recommended 15 minutes listed in the recipe.  Paul’s oven may be small, but she’s mighty. We chose not to add walnuts because, really, who likes walnuts in chocolate chip cookies? NO ONE! And if you do, you’re not our friend (unless you are currently our friend and in that case, we forgive you!)

 

The cookies turned out amazing; Celine rates a 4.5 and Paul ranks them a 5 - so good! We followed the directions and scooped about 1/4 cup per cookie - so these are MONSTER COOKIES. And of course Celine and I had to taste test the first batch: four cookies later, we’re so full, but just want to keep eating them!

 

So, why did the night continue to be angry with such delicious cookies around? Well, Celine found out that Paul and his other half went to a expensive steak house (not the KEG) and ordered their steaks medium  and medium-well. According to Celine, “Who does that?” and “you two should be ashamed of yourselves” and “I deserve to go there; not you! You don’t eat steak right!”

 

Then the conversation turned into the fun game of "Lets buy this house”. Celine was not overly  thrilled when she found out that her other half had neglected to update her that a house on her dream-street just went for sale.  And conversation went like this:

 

Celine: "I can’t believe he didn’t tell me!”

Paul: “Did you really dream about that house?”(b/c she did actually have a dream about the house)

Celine: “Not the point. Love the house” - then MLS came out and Paul started commenting:

 

Paul: “the kitchen’s ugly, the bedroom’s ugly, but it has an arch doorway”

Celine: “It’s on my dream street!”

Paul: “It’s pretty ugly"

Celine: “Shut up”

 

Long story short:  angry night - amazing cookies.

 

Paul/Celine - “Now why can’t I lose weight?”

Back on the Maple

So... it's been a couple of years since we've last posted... and we're thankful to our faithful three followers for waiting so patiently for our next blog post. We've experienced some life changes, some new adventures, some new "hellos" and some sad "goodbyes"; but the one thing that remains the same: is our friendship and our love for all things maple and butter.

We've thought things through since our last post and decided that the pseudonyms "Mr. Crumbs" and "Ms. Butters" aren't really working for us anymore. They don't let you know more than that one really likes bread and the other really likes butter. So, it's time for a change and since so much has happened over the last two years, we thought we'd start with introductions of who we really are.

Céline, a.k.a. "Ms. Butters" has a major addiction to anything sweet, but is choosey with only indulging in homemade VS. store bought. (Unless it's a nice bakery, or a really good chocolate shop, or really cheap Halloween candy, or... she just may have a sweet tooth!). Céline is also the proud mama of healthy little girl with her mama's sweet tooth (we were both really worried during Céline's pregnancy - she couldn't stomach anything sweet! Phew, glad that's over with!).

Paul, a.k.a. "Mr. Crumbs" is definitely a lover of anything bready: bread, muffins, cookies, bread! He has no problem eating store bought or homemade; anything goes.

With that over with, we can get to the important stuff: the food! As many of you (or three of you) know, Céline and I love the LCBO's food and drink magazines. And apparently Maple flavoured things, as most of the recipes we test out tend to have maple somewhere in them. And since it's the end of November our thoughts went to Christmas baking. Which, to us means COOKIES!!!

To restart our renewed blog, we're doing a double-whammy post and are testing two recipes: Peppermint Spritz Sticks and Double-Double Maple Walnut Cookies (which we then realized once we starting mixing, that we were out of walnuts... pecans it is!). 

Peppermint Spritz Sticks:

We were really hopeful for these. They were really cute and super easy to make. How can anything be bad when it looks so professional, being piped onto parchment paper with the fancy tips. Well, we were wrong. They're taste like a cookie that freshens your breath as you chew. Maybe we added too much peppermint extract, or maybe they just aren't our type of cookie. Céline was out of vegetable shortening and we improvised with lard - keeping it old school. But we're pretty sure that that wouldn't make them any better. The one thing that we like was that they weren't too sweet and this recipe could be easily modified. Paul thinks that instead of using peppermint extract; use vanilla extract and 1/4 tsp. ground cardamom could make them a little better.

Out of five, we'd give this recipe a two. Sorry Food & Drink, recipe fail. But our second recipe, Double-Double Maple Walnut (or Pecan) Cookies turned out MUCH better.

Double-Double Maple Walnut Cookies:

We mixed these up first, as they had to chill in the fridge for an hour. Or, if you're Céline, the freezer for 20 minutes.  It does use quite a bit of maple syrup and at point one of us quoted "I'm dripping maple syrup".  We must admit, these are pretty tasty and look pretty too.  Perfect for a cookie exchange!  I give this recipe a solid 4 stars but that might be because I love the maple icing so much.  Paul also give the recipe 4 stars.   Good job redeeming yourself Food and Drink. 

Should of added more butter!

Pecan Cinnamon Cupcakes/Cake

It's been a couple of months (ok, a lot of months!) and our blog has remained quiet; but there's been MANY reasons. Renovations, work, and trying to keep up with the day-to-day demands; But, Ms. Butters has an even better excuse! Pregnancy! Trying to find the time to get together, bake or cook, and photograph and write a post is pretty hard when you're on pregnancy-time. You've all heard of Caribbean-time; well this is much funnier to watch! Mr. Crumbs can remember one night in particular when Ms. Butters actually fell asleep standing up!

If you're a regular, then you know that we heartily promote butter being added to pretty much everything! Dry cake batter - add butter, vegetables seem a little bland - add butter, that glass of milk boring you - add bu... well, maybe that's too far! But the reason for this post is a little different. It all starts with our infamous Maple Carrot Cake, our first recipe that we tested.

We've nicknamed it the baby-popper and when Ms. Butters' baby shower came around; Mr. Crumbs couldn't think of a better thing to bring - besides his gifts! Unfortunately, the cake didn't do the trick and Ms. Butters remained very much pregnant! We're not blaming this on the cake - and are still very much believers that the nickname sticks - we should have just added more butter; plain and simple! (forget what mother nature says!!)

Batter Up!

However, since we've brought it up - lets talk about some of the amazing gifts Ms. Butters received from her FANTASTIC baby shower! Guests were encouraged to bring a children's book instead of the traditional card. Some brought back GREAT memories like the Mr. Men book collection, others were soft cuddly things like the monkey blanket, and some were new finds like "Go the F**K to Sleep" book. Can you guess which one Mr. Crumbs purchased!?

The gifts were well received and our Mamma to be thanked everyone, as she waddled around the room. Now, back to that cake!

Fresh out of the oven

Throughout Ms. Butter's maternity leave she sent Mr. Crumbs  many text messages and emails,  planting the seed that she hadn't had cake in a while. She shared that sugar didn't seem to be well received by baby-butter - SHOCK! - and she was missing it terribly! So to assist in the waiting period; Mr. Crumbs decided to do a bit of research and make Ms. Butter's a CONGRATULATIONS cake for her and her new arrival - well, more for her! Sifting through recipes and cook books, Mr. Crumbs finally decided upon something - a recipe from the LCBO - and chose Pecan Cinnamon Cupcakes - but instead of cupcakes Mr. Crumbs would make it a cake! With the continued successes from the LCBO; this became the natural choice. The recipe stated it would make a dozen cupcakes; so doubling the recipe would make a very nice layered cake.

While Ms. Butters was whisked off to the hospital - but still managed to keep track on the progress of the baking and share updates with all that she was going through: how far dilated she was, the joy of an epidural, and discussions between having a c-section and a "natural birth" - Mr. Crumbs is a very GOOD friend! (and yes, he wrote this particular blog so he can edit it however he wants!) With the cake baked and all the previous text messages erased from his mind - he began to make the icing - not the usual butter cream, but something more: a toffee-esque sauce with icing sugar whisked in. It seemed a bit tricky at first, but turned out AMAZING! If you're a fudge lover, then this icing is for you!

Bring to a rolling boil - the icing - pre-icing sugar

The icing does set pretty fast, so you need to ice those badboys right away - and since Mr. Crumbs decided NOT to make cupcakes (well, he made four as he had a bit of left over batter) he thought it'd be a lot faster! WRONG! The icing set pretty fast and with icing sugar still in the air, he spatula'ed that cake faster than he'd care to share. Since this was a Pecan Cinnamon cake - Mr. Crumbs thought he'd jazz it up by sprinkling chopped praline pecans between the two layers and on top.

All in all the cake was great - not that Mr. Crumbs would know; it's still sitting in the fridge waiting for the happy family to return home. However, those four cupcakes that he conveniently made were eaten and praised by the Crumbs-home. Even the cat liked the icing!

Some modifications that Mr. Crumbs made were:

- Instead of making cupcakes, he made a layered cake using 9" cake pans
- Doubled the cake recipe and tripled the icing recipe
- Instead of using chopped toasted pecans; Mr. Crumbs used chopped praline pecans - sugar, how bad could that be!
- Mr. Crumbs also whipped the icing once the icing sugar was added to ensure that it was thoroughly incorporated and, more importantly to break up the crystalized sugar.

The cake/cupcake can stay out at room temperature for 2-3 days or in the refrigerator for up to a week (if it lasts that long!). Also it would go great with an ice-cold glass of milk!

The Cake... man, it's heavy!!

To conclude this post; Mr. Crumbs just wanted to finish it off with: Congratulations Ms. Butters; my friend - we are so happy to welcome your new family member into the group - and considering that this baby is yours; we all know that we have a future-foodie on our hands!

Happy Birthday Baby Butter!

How do you like your coffee... cake

With a chill in the air, the scarves out of the closet, and the leaves changing from vibrant greens to golden reds: Fall; what's better than that! After giving out the last of the mini chocolate bars, Halloween is now officially out of the way. The jack'o'lanterns have found their way to the curb, the ghosts, ghouls, and skeletons have been boxed up and put away to scare another day, and the spider webs have mostly been gathered from the bushes - now time to focus on the next big celebration.



Apples and Cranberries

 What better way to celebrate then to blog and bake - and what's better than cake? Nothing you say... well, we agree - cake is "the end all be all" to Ms. Butters, especially since any leftover cake slices often become that night's main dinner option.

Ms Butters and Mr Crumbs are getting super excited for Christmas (the stores have all their shiny holiday nick-nacks out on display... so no, we don't think it's too early to get excited) and we decided to pull out an older copy of the LCBO's Holiday Magazines out to get in the spirit.



Apple Cranberry Tea Cake

 We wanted to have something with fruit; because fruit goes with dessert which = delicious.  We found an apple cranberry tea cake and it sounded festive enough without being too Christmas-y.

The nicest thing about this recipe is that the only thing Ms. Butters didn't have in her pantry were cranberries and they were easy enough to pick up. The recipe suggests fresh cranberries, but we like the ease of frozen - plus the grocery store hasn't gotten fresh ones yet.

Using a spring form pan, we buttered (Ms. Butters surprisingly used an appropriate amount when Mr. Crumbs would have been much more liberal) the pan and put in 2/3 of the dough and layered on the apples and cranberries. Mr. Crumbs put on the rest of the dough and Ms. Butters felt that the cake needed more cranberries (as Mr. Crumbs diced up more apples than what the recipe called for - next time read the recipe!).

We felt that this recipe worked out really well and enjoyed how easy it was to make. This cake is the best served hot out of the oven or later in the day. Ms. Butters recommends that this cake freezes well and even tastes better ice cold with a warm cup of tea or hot chocolate.

Ready for the oven!

One thing that we would do differently next time with this recipe would be to include all the ingredients, as we forgot to add the sliced almonds. To modify, we would double the cake/dough recipe and possibly add cinnamon to the dough as well as sprinkle the top of the cake with raw sugar to add a crunch and sweetness to counter the tartness of the cranberries.

P.S: LCBO is using the incorrect picture on their website, which is why our pictures look so different. 

B.D.B. (Bad Day Buttertarts)

Buttertarts

After writing about our cupcakes; Ms. Butters and Mr. Crumbs decided that we definitely needed to schedule a day right away versus waiting around for one of us to pick the phone and schedule the date. Today was decided previously with high hopes of a great cooking day.

Well... that hope fell flat; for one of us at least!

Feeling overtired, dealing with frustrating clients, and a rainy day didn't help Mr. Crumbs' mood get any better. Grocery shopping still to do, tidying the house, and making dinner - Ms. Butter's was on her way with three hours to spare. What a day!!

Running into the store with three bags balancing on one arm, Mr. Crumb's phone started to ring - "Hey, are you ready for tonight? I'm thinking buttertarts!" That's the best thing Mr. Crumbs heard all day!

A little bit overly full

The recipe, well that's Ms. Butter's family secret and Mr. Crumbs had to wait over four years just to be able to be in the same room with the recipe while it sat on the counter. One thing Ms. Butter's is willing to share about the filling is that it has butter in it. That's it. You'll just have to wait four more years for that one!

One thing that we HIGHLY recommend is to not over fill your buttertarts - when baking, they seem to bubble up and spill over the edges of the pastry. They also candy when cool, which makes it hard to remove from the muffin pan.

Mr. Crumbs was very apprehensive about making crust from scratch - "what's wrong with the frozen-store bought shells?" Ms. Butter's scoffed at that one. "it's easy, trust me!" After this day, Mr. Crumbs was not eager. But we can tell you one thing - Mr. Crumbs is converted - it was SO easy!

Pastry warning: you will get covered in flour

Ms. Butter's is willing to share the pastry recipe and here it is:

4 cups white flour

1 pkg tenderflake (that's been refrigerated)

1 egg (separated: white and yolk in two bowls)

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp white vinegar

1/2 cup ice cold water

Sift the flour into a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment. Cube the tenderflake and add it to the bowl and mix on medium; until the mix looks like peas. Add the vinegar, and egg yolk into the water and pour into the mixer. Mix and once combined, whisk the egg white and add. Mix until well blended.  Take dough out of bowl and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.

This recipe will make 5-6 pies - or 5 dozen tartlets.

Bad Day Buttertarts were a success - both Ms. Butters and Mr. Crumbs really enjoyed them: flaky, gooey, and sweet. Both of us would definitely make these again. 

Maple + Blueberries = ...meh

Walking around the house one day, the phone began to ring. Answering the phone, Mr. Crumbs assumed the voice that he'd hear on the other end would be that of a telemarketer selling him insurance; but it was Ms. Butters excitedly telling Mr. Crumbs to check out the bon appetit website as something had caught her eye: Blueberry Hill Cupcakes.

Blueberry Hill Cupcakes

When asked why; Ms. Butters gasped into the phone receiver, "we can use maple syrup with this recipe!" (kind of). Considering our previous success with maple syrup, and the vast quantity of maple syrup that was supplied by Ms. Butter's husband - we decided that this would be the best choice.

After rushing over to Ms. Butters house; we set out to make cupcakes. Pulling out all of the ingredients - we placed them all around the counter. A friend of ours encouraged us to have all the ingredients easily accessible so we wouldn't have to keep searching for ingredients as we mixed. This proved to be really helpful, as by the time we put in the cupcake tins; all of the items we used were cleaned, dried, and put away. Mr. Crumbs was very happy about this - as he tends to have a little OCD tendencies within the kitchen.



Hot out of the oven!

 We did modify the recipe somewhat: we used frozen blueberries just like the recipe told us not to, but were trying to use ingredients that we had within the cupboards and fridge. The recipe did call for maple sugar, which is something that most people don't have in their cupboards. Ms. Butters asked Mr. Crumbs what exactly maple sugar is and so out came the lap top and we googled maple sugar - what exactly is it?

According to google; maple sugar is maple syrup that has been concentrated to a solid form and then grated. The instructions can be found here. Regardless, we decided that maple syrup was just as good and substituted it instead: we're rebels like that!

The end results were mixed. Mr. Crumbs thought this recipe was a dud; he thought the cupcake itself was too dry and bland while the icing was sickly sweet (so maybe using maple syrup instead of maple sugar wasn't the best idea). While Ms Butters enjoyed it (because cake is cake) and enjoyed the differences in tastes of the actual cake and icing. The cake was a bit too dense and the frozen blueberries were good if the cupcakes were eaten right away - if they're being eaten about 2-3 hours after assembling, the berries seemed to thaw and become too liquidy and melted the icing.


Action Shot!

 We were able to use Ms. Butter's most prized possession: her cake decorating set. Piping was a lot easier than either of us thought - but if you're not in possession of a piping bag, a plastic baggie with the corner tip cut works just as good.
Also, we're recommending that these cupcakes should be refrigerated if not being eaten, as the blueberries went a bit rancid - but we think that may be from the blueberries being frozen.

Would we make these again... probably not.

Recommended drink pairing: a good stiff drink!