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!

One true love

Talking about our childhoods we naturally came to the topic of our favourite foods. Oreos and milk, slurpy-spaghetti, and peanut butter. When Ms. Butter was little she was introduced to peanut butter by her parents, and immediately fell in love. This love-affair has lasted 30 plus years and hasn't waned. Picture this, Ms. Butters, a spoon, and a freshly opened jar. Organic, smooth, chunky; as long as it's peanut butter, Ms. Butter's is in on it. Ms. Butter's is currently yelling across the kitchen that peanut butter is great in the morning, for a snack, for lunch and often for dinner (it makes a great University-budget meal!).

Since we had so much luck with our Lemon Cake - we automatically pulled out our tried, tested, and true favourite cook book: Barefoot Contessa Parties. Wondering what to make, we decided that it was a cookie night. Peanut butter was hot on our mind and Mr. Crumbs was flipping through the book when Ms. Butters immediately slammed her hand down onto a recipe: peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. DONE!

Pulling out the jar of smooth peanut butter we quickly whipped up a batch of cookies. When looking through the cupboards, we realized that the only chocolate chips that we had were milk chocolate - we thought, "chocolate is chocolate!"; so we mixed it all together and baked them in the oven. We were eager to try them - so out came the milk and we stuffed our faces with cookies - how bad can that be?

To match the cookies with those of our childhood memories; we used a fork to make the iconic peanut butter cookie top and had to dust the forks with some flour, to reduce the stickiness. The cookies were good, and had that memorable peanut butter texture; but were a little dry.

Also, when a recipe calls for bitter sweet chocolate chips - we'd recommend that you use those - the milk chocolate chips were a little sickly-sweet in the cookies. They were still edible and tasted great for breakfast, afternoon snacks, and the ever popular midnight snack.  But we don't know if we'll be making these again.

 Mr. Crumbs felt that the peanut butter taste was lacking in the recipe and recommends adding another 1/2  to 1 cup  of peanut butter to get a better taste.

Regardless of the not-so-great results with this recipe - we strongly recommend that you get your hands on a copy of this book. Barefoot Contessa Parties, by Ina Garten; is a highly addictive book filled with great recipes (including Lemon Cake/Loaf) and fun pictures of great looking food.

Recommended drink pairing; milk.

Walking Barefoot

The inspiration

Walking along a hot and humid street, Ms. Butters came across a fruit stand and was immediately drawn to the brightly coloured fruits that summer seems to be filled with. Cherries, plums, and peaches were all calling to her but something else stood out - Lemons! Just the colour and smell of citrus finalized this tarty sale.

Coming to the kitchen, the next question became, "what do we make?" An easy question as Mr. Crumbs grabbed the "go to" book - Barefoot Contessa Parties. Can we tell you how much we love the Barefoot Contessa?  That woman has no shame in using liberal amounts of butter to cook and bake which makes her Ms. Butters hero.

Her cookbooks are full of lovely recipes and great pictures. We all know and love her iconic line "how bad can that be", which makes us weak in the knees - finally someone who loves butter as much as us!

Lemon Cake

Her cookies are the star choice in our tins of Christmas cookies and often the ones we keep coming back for! Usually, when we're baking for Christmas we make a variety... wait why are we talking about Christmas when it's still summer?

For the summer, Mr Crumbs and Ms Butter enjoy desserts with a tart flavour and long walks on the beach - this is not a singles add, we know - But after our day out and about, we raced to the kitchen to whip up this recipe.  The main difference between the recipe we used and the recipe online is that we used buttermilk instead of yogurt. Considering not many people drink buttermilk - we easily used regular milk and about a tablespoon of the prized lemon juice into regular milk - and voila instant buttermilk.

How bad can that be

The cake was good, but heavy. More like a loaf than cake. The lemon flavour was subtle and next time  more lemon zest is needed (because you can really never have too much).

With our recipe, it said that we'd get two cakes (or loaves), but we cut the recipe in half and made only one - next time, we make the two cakes - because, "how bad can that be".