I have been fortunate enough to have a few brushes with the pastry world.

I have had the tremendous honour of having lunch with Dorie Greenspan and many, many, many years ago, shortly after completing my university degree and enrolling in a publishing certificate program, I had the opportunity to talk to Regan Daley.

For about 30 seconds.

I was working on an internship with a publishing company and it was around the time that In The Sweet Kitchen, Regan Daley’s tremendous baking book, was being produced.

I no longer remember the circumstances, but I do remember being asked to call her to confirm a few details.

I believe the entire conversation lasted about 30 seconds. Or at least I was so nervous that it seemed like 30 seconds.

What I do remember was how sweet Ms. Daley was, especially when talking to a most nervous intern fresh out of school.

When In The Sweet Kitchen was published, I wanted it immediately. Strangely, though, over the years I have never picked up a copy. Do not take that as a sign of the book’s merits.

This is a tremendous baking book. It’s thorough, detailed and innovative without being intimidating.

What is particularly unique about the book is that the recipes don’t actually begin until more than halfway through. The first half of the book is an exhaustive look at everything from ingredients to baking methods.

I don’t care if you’ve never turned your oven on in your entire life, there is no way that you cannot come away from this book with a basic understanding of baking and more importantly, inspiration to start baking.

The recipes themselves are gems. Daley doesn’t go for the run-of-the-mill recipes but rather builds the recipe chapters with some really interesting recipes that are destined to become favourites.

The recipes are meticulous and the head notes to the recipes are both informative and often entertaining.

Once again, had I all the time in the world I probably would have baked my way through this book.

Instead, I settled on shortbread.

But not just any shortbread. Butter-Toffee Crunch Shortbread.

In the recipe directions, Daley writes, “I should warn you, at this point, that this dough now smells better than any cookie dough you have ever experienced. Restrain yourself …”.

She’s not kidding, people.

I have to confess that I was in very short supply of retraint and ate a significant portion of this dough. Raw.

These were quite simply the best shortbread cookies I have ever eaten or baked. And then eaten.

For good measure, I thought I should try another recipe and I settled on The Ultimate Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies only because I happened to have a bag of chocolate chunks lying around.

I can confirm that the cookies were the ultimate, were definitely soft and were also chewy.

Another winner.

If you already own In The Sweet Kitchen, then you know the joys this book has to offer.

If you don’t own it, what are you waiting for?

Ciao!

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

Okay. So I’m exaggerating just a bit. The Daring Bakers aren’t actually physically going to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver but we’re definitely going in spirit with the January 2010 Daring Baker’s challenge.

Lauren, who is one of the sweetest girls, decided to put her Canadian pride on display by choosing a very “Canadian” treat for the DB challenge. As a proud Canadian myself, I cannot wait until February 12th when the world’s focus will shift to Vancouver.

While I don’t know what will happen over the two weeks of competition, I have no doubt that the world will see what good, caring and friendly people Canadians are. And I also have no doubt that we will have our fill of drama, joy, thrills, tears, beautiful moments and reminders of why sport, amateur sport in particular, is such a worthy pursuit.

With all the compelling stories that the Olympics promise, I was so happy that this first challenge for 2010 was relatively straightforward.

The best part of the challenge was learning to make graham crackers. Nanaimo Bars use graham cracker crumbs in the recipe for the base of the bars. Lauren very creatively challenged us to make our own graham crackers, and not just regular graham crackers, but gluten-free graham crackers at that. She also generously provided some links to recipes for regular graham crackers for those who didn’t want to try the gluten-free version.

I was surprised at how easy it was to make graham crackers. Considering how much I love to eat them out of hand and how regularly I use graham crackers in baking, I can’t thank Lauren enough for thinking of this part of the challenge.

As for the Nanaimo Bars, if you’ve never seen one or tried one, you should definitely attempt them. They’re an easy bar cookie to make (if you use store-bought graham crumbs there’s actually no baking involved) and I have yet to meet anyone that doesn’t like them.

I made basic Nanaimo Bars (no variation) as I’d never tried them before so I wanted to make the original. When I served the bars, I cut them into very small squares because they are quite sweet.

I want to thank Lauren for her efforts in hosting the challenge and for making all Daring Kitchen members honourary Canadians just in time for Vancouver 2010!

Ciao!

For the challenge recipe, click here.

Click here to visit The Daring Bakers’ blogroll.

If you’re interested in following the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, visit the official site here.

Lately, as I rush out of the house in the morning grabbing at the fruit basket before I go, my reaction tends to be the same, “Apples, again!”

Now I love apples. But by this time of year we’ve been on a steady diet of apples as primary fruit since … oh … about September.

What I want are peaches. Juicy, fuzzy Ontario peaches.

And I want those few precious strawberries from the handful of plants in our garden.

I also want cherries, straight from Niagara.

But all I got is apples.

So I made me some Apple Pie Bars and pretended I was eating them in the middle of a blackberry patch on a sunny afternoon.

Have a good week!

Ciao!

Note: For this edition of Magazine Mondays, I finally tried the recipe for Apple Pie Bars from Food & Wine’s March 2008 issue. If you have to eat apples, you might as well dress them up!

I’ve had Paris on my mind of late.

I suspect part of it is that I recently finished reading this lovely book. Not to mention that I kept seeing this other pretty little tome pop up all over the food blog world (who wouldn’t want to go to Paris after seeing that?).

But part of it also the desire for a bit of escape.

It’s been a tough month and as is often my way, I look to my cookbooks for relief.

This month, my eyes fell on Paris Boulangerie-Patisserie. I’ve had this book for quite awhile and, from time to time, have perused its pages wondering wistfully when I will be able to visit Lenôtre and Dalloyau, among others.

Perhaps soon.

In the meantime, though, I have set my mind to baking.

I am of the belief that the truly simple things are the ones that do your heart good. And while there are those that would argue that butter and sugar may not be the most heart-friendly things in the world, I believe that something that comes out of the warmth of your oven does far more good than bad, no matter what.

I saw a recipe for these lovely jam squares and my heart immediately said, “Make them!”

Faites-les!

Ciao!

Jam Squares
Adapted from Paris Boulangerie-Patisserie by Linda Dannenberg.

Note: The original recipe for these squares is called Carrés aux Framboises (Raspberry Squares). I had to do some work on the dough part of this recipe as I could not get it to come together nicely for me. But after a few tweaks, I ended up with a gorgeous dough that’s a cross between a pie dough and a shortbread dough. You can use any sort of jam to fill the squares.

2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup sliced blanched or natural almonds (the original recipe uses blanched almonds but I used sliced, natural almonds as I preferred the texture)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
2-1/2 sticks (1-1/2 cups) unsalted butter, softened
a glass of ice water (you may need it to moisten the dough)
1 to 1-1/2 cups of thick jam (whatever jam you prefer)
1 large egg, lightly beaten with a tablespoon of water (this is for the egg wash)
coarse sugar (optional)

Place 1 cup of the flour and the 1/2 cup of the almonds in the bowl of the food processor. Process until the almonds are finely chopped and you have a powdery mixture.

Add the remainder of the flour and the sugar to your mixture and pulse several times to combine.

Add the beaten egg, vanilla extract and the softened butter and pulse 15 to 20 times (or until your dough comes together around the blade). If your dough doesn’t come together, drizzle in a few tablespoons of ice water. The dough should come together nicely and should not be powdery or floury.

Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and gather into a disk. Wrap with plastic and refrigerate for half an hour.

While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. The original recipe calls for a 10-1/2 x 15-1/2-inch jelly roll pan but you can use any size you have. If you have smaller pans, then make two sets of squares.

When the dough has chilled, divide it in half and roll out the first half into a rectangle that is about an eighth of an inch thick (you can make it slightly thicker). Carefully transfer your rectangle of dough to your lined baking sheet.

Spread the jam over the rolled out dough, leaving a two-inch border all the way around.

Roll out the second half of the dough to a slightly smaller size. Lightly brush egg wash over the border on the first half of the dough and then top with the second piece of rolled out dough. Working from one end, fold the bottom part of the dough up over the top half. Then press down with a fork all the way around to seal the border to ensure that the jam doesn’t escape.

Brush the top of the dough with more egg wash and prick with a fork to create some holes to allow the steam to escape. Sprinkle on coarse sugar if you like.

Bake for 35 minutes. The dough should be golden and baked through.

Remove to a wire rack and allow to cool before slicing into squares.

Enjoy!