Sucre à la Crème

Sucre à la Crème is a traditional "fudge" from Quebec, Canada. I had never heard about it until a few days ago when my friend Josee (who is from Quebec) told me about it. It sounded so delicious that that same day I looked up a recipe for it and set to make some the next day.


Ingredients:

- 2 cups whipping cream
- 2 1/4 cups brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup
- 2 Tbsp sugar

Put all of the ingredients in a large saucepan. If you are using a candy thermometer, set it on the pan now too.

Bring to a boil.

Be careful, it might boil over! This phase lasts about 2 minutes. I actually had to lift the pan up, otherwise it would have been a huge mess. After the 2 minutes or so, it will continue boiling but it will come down.

You shouldn't need to stir it at all but I wasn't sure so I stired it a few times.

Take the pan off the heat exactly when the temperature reaches 240 degrees F. (soft ball stage). It took me about 18-20 minutes to get there.

If you do not have a candy thermometer, you will need to do the following to find out when it has reached the soft ball stage: in a bowl of very cold water, drop some of the mixture. If it forms a soft, moldable ball (take it out with your fingers), then it is ready! Watch this video for a better understanding of the process.


Let the mixture cool for 10 minutes. Then, with an electric mixer on high speed, mix for 5 minutes, until it has thickened.

Pour into a lined 8x8 in pan.

Cover and let cool down for a few hours.

Once it is completely cooled down, take it off the pan and cut into bite-size squares.

What happened in the lower left corner you may ask? Oh, that was just me being impatient... I just had to taste :-)

And here are my little sucre au lait in candy boxes for my friends :-)

Not to sound too corny or anything, but the best part about making all these yummy things is sharing it with my friends!

I used this recipe :-)

Banana Coconut Muffins

Last week, Maia made some banana coconut muffins and after seeing them on her blog, I just had to make some too! I love bananas and coconut so those muffins sounded very appealing! I made a few changes to the Epicurious recipe that she used.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 very ripe bananas, mashed (3/4 cup)
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut
• 1/4 Tsp ginger
• 1/4 Tsp cinammon
• 1/2 cup chopped dates (optional)
• 1 Tbsp Orange blossom water (optional)

Set the oven at 375 degrees. Line muffin pan with muffin liners and spray with canola oil (this way the paper won't stick to the muffins - thanks Maia for the tip :-)

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, ginger and cinammon.

In another mixing bowl, whisk together the bananas, butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, 1/2 cup coconut, chopped dates and orange blossom water until well combined.

Fold in the flour mixture until the flour is just moistened.

Divide batter among lined muffin cups and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup coconut. Bake until muffins are puffed and golden, about 25 minutes. Transfer muffins to a rack and cool slightly.

Print this recipe!

Homemade Dog Food

People are usually very surprised to hear that I cook my Boston Terrier Jade's meals. The truth is, it takes me less than 5 minutes to get her meals ready, twice a day. What does take a long time though, is when, every few months, I have to cook the vegetable and grains mix that I just store in the freezer. I made a batch last week and it took me exactly 4.5 hours from start to finish. It takes a long time because I have to wash, peel, cut and steam everything (well not the grains).

Here are the veggies and grains I used (I also had some zucchini but forgot to include them in the picture):

In this picture you can see the winter squash in the steamer in the background. Each batch of veggie required about 25 minutes in the steamer.

I mixed in some cranberries along with the couscous, lentils, rice, oats and quinoa.

Once everything was cooked, I used the immersion blender to make a nice and smooth "paste".

Then I just put it all in containers to go in the freezer!

Then, everyday, all I do is cook up some turkey (once in a while she gets beef, chicken, or even salmon), and add a tablespoon of the veggie mix.

I also add some steamed bone meal as a supplement for calcium (that really grosses me out, but you have to do what you have to do...)

Result: a happy dog!

I am sure Jade would be happy with kibble too if that's what she were used to, but I figured, why not? It doesn't cost me more to do this. I have not calculated yet but I am pretty sure that this is costing me less than a good quality kibble would!

Other result: dishes almost up to the ceiling! Oh well, that's why I love my dishwasher!

Brioche.

Making Brioche has been my biggest baking endeavor to date. It is a very time consuming process but the result is oh so worth it! This sweet and buttery bread is to die for! Brioche is something that reminds me of my childhood. It is very common to have a brioche for breakfast in France, just like croissants and pains au chocolat (chocolate croissants). Brioche and cafe au lait (coffee and milk) go very well together. I love dipping my brioche in it!

I know there are going to be too many pictures but I don't want to leave anything out for those who are going to make this. I know that, for me, seeing lots of pictures along with a recipe helps me visualize the process better and makes it a lot easier!

The recipe is from Baking with Julia, by Dorie Greenspan. The stand-mixer is courtesy of Maia!

The first step is to make the sponge. For this, you will need:
- 1/3 cup warm whole milk

- 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

- 1 large egg
- 2 cups all purpose flour

Put the milk, yeast, egg, and 1 cup of the flour in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer. Mix the ingredients together with a rubber spatula, mixing just until everything is blended.

Sprinkle over the remaining cup of flour to cover the sponge.

Set the sponge aside to rest uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes. After this time, the flour coating will crack, your indication that everything is moving along properly.

The dough:

- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 1/2 cups (approximately) all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature.

Add the sugar, salt, eggs, and 1 cup of the flour to the sponge.

Set the bowl into the mixer, attach the dough hook, and mix on low speed for a minute or two, just until the ingredients look as if they're about to come together.

Still mixing, sprinkle in 1/2 cup more flour. When the flour in incorporated, increase the speed to medium and beat for about 15 minutes, stopping to scrape down the hook and bowl as needed.

During this mixing period, the dough should come together, wrap itself round the hook, and slap the sides of the bowl. If, after 7 to 10 minutes, you don't have a cohesive, slapping dough, add up to 3 Tbsp more flour. Continue to beat, giving the dough a full 15 minutes in the mixer.

In order to incorporate the butter into the dough, you must work the butter until it is the same consistency as the dough. I used the back of a large spoon. When it's ready, the butter will be smooth, soft, and still cool. Not oily or greasy.

With the mixer on medium-low, add the butter a few tbsp at a time. This is the point at which you'll think you made a huge mistake because the dough that you worked so hard to make smooth will fall apart. Carry on.

When all of the butter has been added, raise the mixer speed to medium-high for a minute, then reduce the speed to medim and beat the dough for 5 minutes or until you once again hear the dough slapping the sides of the bowl. Clean the sides of the bowl frequently as you work, if it looks as though the dough is not coming together after 2 to 3 minutes, add up to 1 Tbsp more flour.

First rise: Transfer the dough into a very large buttered bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let it rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

Second Rise and Chilling: Deflate the dough by placing your fingers under it, lifting a section of dough, and then letting it fall back into the bowl. Work your way around the circumference of the dough, lifting and realeasing.

Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough overnight or at least 4 to 6 hours.

This is what my dough looked like in the morning:

Your dough is now ready to be used in any brioche recipe. I decided to make into 2 braided loaves and I used the directions from the King Arthur baking blog. Scroll down to about the middle of the page for the braided loaf version and follow the directions. They omitted the oven temperature/time. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes, tenting with foil after 15 to 20 minutes.

This is how much my loaves rose after 2 hours 45 minutes. They could have used another half an hour or so, I am sure, but I was getting too impatient!