Have you ever had the experience where a million people will come and ask you if you’ve seen a movie that you haven’t seen and then they will proceed to tell you why you should see it?

Everyone around you is talking about the movie, raving about the movie, asking you why in the world you still haven’t seen the movie so much so that you decide not to see the movie because even though you haven’t seen it, you already know you’ll hate it.

Simply by virtue of the fact that everybody else loves it.

Ever had that happen?

That’s what happend to me and the movie While You Were Sleeping.

And also, shortcakes with strawberries.

The entire world saw and loved While You Were Sleeping in 1995. Except for me.

The entire world has had shortcakes with strawberries (or at least it seems that way). Except for me.

This morning my mother and I went strawberry picking and I swear it was the last straw.

As we walked to the car with our pails of strawberries I think I heard about 4,000 comments about strawberries and shortcakes.

Enough is enough. Even I know when to throw in the towel.

I came home, cleaned strawberries for hours, made jam and then I did it.

I made shortcakes with strawberries. To be perfectly accurate, I made biscuits with strawberries and cream.

Okay. I get it. I finally get it.

Strawberries + shortcakes + cream = deliciousness.

Happy now?!

By the way, somewhere between 1998-2000 I finally saw While You Were Sleeping and loved it.

Happy now?!

Ciao!

Strawberries with Cream and Biscuits

Note: I’m going to do a separate post about the biscuits that I used for my version of this classic. If you don’t have a great shortcake recipe, try this one or this one.

1 cup sliced strawberries mixed with a bit of sugar and lemon juice
1 cup whipped cream
4 biscuits

Split the biscuits in half and put them on a plate.
Pile one half of the biscuit high with cream
Spoon on some strawberries and top with the other biscuit half and serve.
Enjoy!

Cherries.

How I love thee, let me count the ways!

Of all the stone fruits, cherries are my absolute favourite. One of my dreams is to have a house with a beautiful cherry tree (or two) in the backyard.

Growing up, we had a beautiful cherry tree but eventually my father had to take it down. That was such a sad day.

Every summer, no matter the cost, I make sure to get my fill of cherries.

While in Paris, I had a lovely dessert of cherries fried in butter and topped with ice cream. Since returning from my trip, I’ve been thinking a lot about french desserts and as luck would have it, the most recent issue of Fine Cooking has a feature on cherries.

Lo and behold, there is a recipe for Cherry-Almond Clafoutis.

I haven’t had much success in the past with clafoutis, but this recipe has erased past failures. It was heaven. One word of advice: serve it warm from the oven. While the flavour is still good the next day, the texture isn’t as lovely as when you first take the clafoutis out of the oven.

This is the first edition of Magazine Mondays for quite awhile so I have a lot of participants this week:

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Squash Casserole from the May 2010 issue of Southern Living. Earlier Tina made Crockpot BBQ Ribs from the June 2009 issue of Family Circle.

Tamy of Always Eat on the Good China made Cream Cheese Peppermint Cookies.

Tia of Buttercream Barbie made Strawberry Cake from a June 2005 issue of Martha Stewart Living. Earlier, Tia made an Oatmeal Apple Cookie Cake from the August/September 2006 issue of Taste of Home.

Janet of The Taste Space made Blueberry Rhubarb Cranberry Crisp with Pistachio Crust from the June 1999 issue of Gourmet. Earlier, she made a Miso Glazed Black Cod from the July 2008 issue of Food & Wine.

Carla of RecipeAddict made Vietnamese Beef-Noodle Soup from the April 2010 issue of Cooking Light.

Brenda of Brenda’s Canadian Kitchen made Herbed Flatbread from the June 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Recipe Sleuth from Eye for a Recipe made Grilled Asian Chicken and Vegetables with Ginger Cilantro Rice from the June 2010 issue of Bon Appétit, Jerk Pork Tenderloin with Pineapple Salsa from the June 2010 issue of Food & Wine, and Wine Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Rosemary-Orange Dressing from the June 2010 issue of Bon Appétit.

Jamie of Life’s a Feast made a Zucchini Ricotta Feta Tart from the June 2010 issue of Saveurs.

For those of you that are interested in participating in Magazine Mondays, just send me a link to a magazine recipe you’ve tried and I’ll include it in my next round-up.

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

For the Almond-Cherry Clafoutis recipe, click here.

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

In my ongoing and valiant efforts to catch up on all The Daring Kitchen challenges I’ve missed over the past year, I now bring you the February 2010 challenge presented by Aparna and Deeba, two most enthusiastic Daring Bakers. They chose the Italian dessert Tiramisu as the challenge.

Tiramisu, literally translated, means pick-me-up and in theory, it isn’t the most complex of desserts. However, when your hostesses challenge you to make all the components from scratch, including the mascarpone, well, let’s just say it changes things.

Yes. You read that correctly. The Daring Bakers are now also cheesemakers, among other things.

Even though my background is Italian, tiramisu is not my favourite. It’s not that I don’t like it - how could one not possibly like such a creamy, boozy dessert that packs a coffee-kick to boot?

It’s just that growing up, tiramisu became the ubiquitous dessert. Every birthday, every family dinner, every baptism, every confirmation, every wedding party dinner and just about everything else inevitably showcased a tiramisu.

To make matters worse, in the 80s and early 90s, mascarpone was not the easiest ingredient to find in Toronto. And even when you did find it, it was ridiculously expensive, moreso than it is even today. As a result, people (and I’m ashamed to admit some of my own family members) resorted to some very strange mascarpone substitutions the worst of which was fake “whipped cream”.

Ugh.

I prefer not to think of those horrible days! Happily, we have all seemed to move on and on the few occasions when we do make Tiramisu, it’s mascarpone all the way.

Over the years, I have shared my family’s Tiramisu recipe with numerous people and it remains my standard for the dessert.

However, Aparna and Deeba laid down the gauntlet and in the spirit of the Daring Bakers, I accepted the challenge.

There were two elements to this challenge that really intrigued me and that I enjoyed tremendously, even though I wasn’t all that successful with them.

The first element was the recipe for homemade mascarpone. I would have never attempted this on my own but Aparna and Deeba pointed everyone to a post on the blog Baking Obsession that belongs to Vera, a most talented baker. Even if you don’t make the mascarpone, you have to visit her site to see how beautiful her creations are!

The making of homemade mascarpone involves heavy cream, heated to a certain temperature, and the addition of lemon juice. The mixture is then allowed to drain in the refrigerator for a period of time after which you should end up with a thickened cream that is, in essence, a form of mascarpone.

My lack of patience reared its ugly head again and I did not allow my cream to heat to the right temperature before I added the lemon juice. I’m not sure what the issue was but after more than 40 minutes in the double boiler, my cream seemed to stop heating up. Finally I got so tired I mixed in the lemon juice and proceeded with the recipe.

My end product was delicious, but not nearly as thick as it should have been. Still, though, I wasn’t complaining. It was so good that we could all just imagine eating it in the summer over fresh berries. I cannot wait to try it again!

The second element of the challenge that I found most intriguing was the making of the savoiardi biscuits. Savoiardi (often referred to as Ladyfinger cookies) are an Italian biscuit that form the base of Tiramisu. However, savoiardi are quite popular beyond this dessert and are used for many other sweets and are also enjoyed on their own.

I have never actually made savoiardi so I was more than pleased to try them.

Like the mascarpone, things didn’t go perfectly for me. I’m not sure if I didn’t whip my egg whites enough but the biscuits didn’t quite rise as much as they should have. Still, though, the cookies were delicious and I can’t wait to try them again.

The rest of the challenge was quite involved. We had to make a zabaglione and a pastry cream, as well as prepare the espresso and whip up some cream to finish off the filling.

The end result was a very detailed dessert with lots of components. It was delicious, but also a lot of work. In Tiramisu’ world, this to me was the equivalent of a “supermodel” Tiramisu. For a very special event, I would consider trying it again, but for a Tiramisu’ fix, I’d probably stick with my family’s recipe.

For me, what distinguished this challenge was the unabashed enthusiasm displayed by Aparna and Deeba. They were the very embodiment of the spirit of The Daring Bakers. They cut no corners and pushed everyone. I have to admit sometimes I get a little lazy with these challenges, but not this time. Faced with the efforts that Aparna and Deeba displayed I could not, in good conscience, do anything but my very best.

Ladies, I thank you for being an example to us all and picking me up for an awesome challenge!

Ciao!

For a copy of the challenge recipe, click here.

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

The busy past few months have meant that I haven’t been able to fully participate in the Daring Bakers’ or the Daring Cooks’ challenges.

That’s okay. I’m allowed. Foundership (not just membership) has its priviledges!

Having said that, however, I don’t plan on slacking off and the first order of business was to complete the March 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge hosted by Jen of Chocolate Shavings.

Jen chose a dessert called Orange Tian as the challenge for the month.

The dessert consists of a pastry base, orange marmalade, a cream (stablized with gelatine) filling and segmented oranges in a caramel sauce.

To be quite honest, I’m not sure I would ever have tried this dessert had I come across it on my own.

It’s not that it was difficult, just time-consuming. And while I do like orange, I don’t necessarily like desserts that are predominantly orange-flavoured.

Plus I really dislike orange marmalade. I’m just not a fan of candied orange and the marmalade was too reminiscent of that.

Nevertheless, I am a Daring Baker so I perservered with all elements of the recipe, including the marmalade, and knocked out a fairly nice dessert if I may say so myself.

Actually, I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought. The frozen cream part of the dessert definitely has potential. I imagined making something similar in the summer with fresh berries.

For those of you interested in giving the recipe a go, you can find it here.

Be sure to check out the other Daring Bakers’ and their efforts with the Orange Tian.

Ciao!

You know Cream Puff loves you!

Just to be sure, I’m saying it with sweet crepes covered in Nutella.

And a few candied hearts, too!

Happy Love Day!

Ciao!

Crepes with Nutella
Inspired by Valvona & Crolla: A Year at an Italian Table.

This is a very easy recipe. For the crepes, I use like to use a crepe recipe from Julia Child, which never fails. But really you can use any crepe recipe you like. Once your crepes are made, drizzle with Nutella and serve.

Last night, in Vancouver, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games had their ceremonial opening with the lighting of a torch inside B.C. Stadium and another outside, by Vancouver’s waterfront.

I am an Olympics fanatic, regardless of where they’re held, but put them in my country, Canada, and it just adds a whole new meaning for me.

While I am so proud of my Italian heritage, I am Canadian.

To honour the 2010 Vancouver Games, I wanted to bake something, but had some difficulty finding the appropriate treat to express my excitement. Not too long ago the Daring Baker’s made Nanaimo Bars, in honour of the Olympics, but I wanted to try something else.

Then, last week, I was in the grocery store and I spotted a box of a favourite childhood treat: Passion Flakies. The best way to describe these is by saying that they’re puff pastry sandwiches with a marshmellowy and jam filling.

I avoid these because I could easily eat a box by myself, which is a bad thing.

But I remembered how much I loved them and the fact that they are a Canadian confection so I immediately went home and tried to recreate them.

My version of Passion Flakies consist of puff pastry rounds (I used store-bought puff pastry) sandwiched together with marshmellow creme and cherry jam. I topped them off with a sprinkling of red sugar just in case I haven’t fully conveyed my Canadian pride yet.

So yes. I am a very proud Canadian. Enjoy the Olympics.

Go Canada Go!

Ciao!

Jam and Cream Puff Pastry Sandwiches
My take on Passion Flakies.

Note: The puff pastry that I buy comes in two small squares per box. However you buy your puff pastry, you’re going to want to roll it out to about a 1/4-inch thickness. If you can’t find marshmellow creme, use whipped cream. You can also use any flavour of jam you like. You will need a biscuit or cookie cutter (2-inches wide) and some sheets of parchment paper

1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 cup marshmellow creme
1/2 cup cherry jam
1 egg for egg wash
coarse sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Roll the puff pastry out to a 1/4 inch thickness. Using a biscuit cutter or cookie cutter, cut out as many circles as you can. Reroll your scraps and cut out more circles.

Place the circles on a parchment-lined baking sheet and prick each circle with a fork. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle on coarse sugar. Cover the circles with another sheet of parchment paper and bake in the centre of the oven for 15 minutes, or until golden and puffed.

Remove from the oven and let cool.

Once cool, sandwich circles together with a heaping spoonful of marshmellow creme and a spoonful of jam.

Enjoy!

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook: As Compiled by Artie Bucco by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone. She also added her own modifications and changes.

Can I just say that I completely LOVED this challenge!

After missing the last two Daring Cooks challenges and not having much success with the October Daring Bakers’ challenge, it was such a pleasure to try making cannoli.

This was a first for me. I’ve never tried cannoli at home mainly because, to be honest, I’m not a huge cannoli fan. They’re okay, but they wouldn’t be my first choice when it cames to Italian desserts.

And I think I now know why.

After making the cannoli shells on my own, I can see that most of the cannoli shells that you buy at the store and even at bakeries, pale in comparison.

The recipe that Lisa provided created a shell that was crispy and light, with a faint hint of Marsala that was so pleasing.

And the filling was rich and luscious.

Perhaps what made this most worthwhile is that I finally got to use the cannoli molds that I purchased several years ago. I purchased them to use in making rolled cookies like tuiles, but I think in all this time I’ve only used them once.

While I considered rolling out the dough myself, I wimped out and used my pasta machine (thankfully Lisa included that in the instructions).

It was a breeze to roll out the dough with the machine. I wrapped the circles of dough around the molds and fried those babies up.

They looked so lovely coming out of the oil that I had to resist the urge to remove them from the mold right away. I found that if you let them cool down a bit, they slide of easily.

I didn’t do anything really fancy with my filling. I flavoured it with cinnamon and vanilla extract and as for the shells, I dipped the edges in melted bittersweet chocolate and then in ground pistachios.

These were just so delicious. The shells were so crispy they shattered when you bit into them. The filling was creamy and perfect and the chocolate and pistachios were just the right touch.

In the course of frying the cannoli shells, a few came off the mold because I hadn’t secured them properly but no worries, I used the shells to make cannoli stacks as Lisa suggested.

Thank you so much to Lisa for hosting. That’s another challenge to cross off the list!

Ciao!

The September 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

Before I left for Italy, I knew that Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon would be hosting the September 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge and that she would be putting forth vol-au-vents (and puff pastry) as the challenge for DBers everywhere.

In the flurry of getting ready for my trip, I didn’t really think much about it until … ummm … yesterday when I was like, “Oh yeah. Vol-au-vents. Puff pastry. Yeah. I should get on that.”

I could look it up but am, quite frankly, too lazy and tired to do so right now but I believe that vol-au-vents means something like flying in the wind or on the wind. Or something like that. Someone will correct if I’m wrong, I’m sure.

In any event, I made like the wind yesterday and threw together a batch of puff pastry and can I just say that I was thanking Steph all along because truly, I adore making puff pastry.

It’s not that I think my puff pastry is all that great. I mean it’s good, but I’m by no means an expert and I’m sure that my puff pastry would be judged as serviceable, at the very best.

But the act of making it is one of the most beautiful baking experiences. All afternoon long, as I rolled and turned, I kept thinking to myself: “This is what I love.”

A quiet Saturday afternoon, a hot cup of tea, flour, butter and a rolling pin. It’s the best day I’ve had since I got back from Italy.

I decided to fill my little puff pastry nests with a cold, dessert filling. For that I chose Italian Chocolate Mousse from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. I chose this chocolate mousse because it’s actually a recipe that I’m making along with my new friends in a new group that I joined.

Love new groups!

I actually found out about this group, called Cooking Italy, from Simone of Junglefrog Cooking (Love Simone!!!). On Simone’s blog I read about this group that cooks recipes from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. The group was created by the lovely Angela of the blog Spinach Tiger.

Once upon a time when I first started this blog, I remember thinking that I wanted to spend a lot of time really studying Hazan’s book. Of course, that hasn’t happened. While I do refer to it time-to-time, I haven’t used it nearly as much as I should and that’s a shame because Hazan is truly a treasure when it comes to Italian cooking.

I e-mailed Angela and she very graciously said I could join the group. So expect to see a lot more Hazan around here!

I’m going to do a separate post about the chocolate mousse but in the meantime, it was lovely in the little pastry nests. I caramelized some sugar and let it harden and then added some crushed caramel pieces to the top just for a bit of crunch.

So thank you so much to Steph, for choosing this challenge and for helping me remember why I love baking so much. And thanks to Simone for introducing me to Angela who’s helping me rediscover Marcella.

Ciao!

Here’s a photo journal of my vol-au-vent efforts. You can find the recipe on Steph’s blog.

We begin with a mass of flour, butter, salt and water … and a game of tic-tac-toe.

Bash a block of butter. Say it 20 times really quickly.

One day I would like to receive a love letter filled with butter.

My first turn. So pretty.

Dough rings.

And voila! Vol-au-vents!

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest, and Pragueby Rick Rodgers.

In case you hadn’t noticed and just thought that everyone in the foodblog world suddenly decided to make Apple Strudel for some inexplicable reason, today is Daring Bakers’ reveal day!

I did make the apple strudel, thank you very much to our lovely hostesses Linda and Courtney, but it’s been a crazy week so I’m not giving you the fill post … today.

Just a little tease until I can give you the rest of the details …

Ciao!

It seems I missed the anniversary of one of my life’s great loves: Nutella.

I don’t know when exactly I became so clueless when it comes to blog events, but it seems I find out about them usually anywhere from two days to four months after they’ve happened.

I realied that I missed World Nutella Day when I began seeing all sorts of nutella posts over the weekend.

So, how to make amends when you’ve missed your loved one’s anniversary?

Well, first of all, you must reassure your love that you still love them.

Nutella, I still love you.

Secondly, you must compliment your love.

Nutella, you’re awesome. And so are the hosts of your official day: Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso.

Thirdly, you must present your love with some sort of gift.

Nutella, I give you an oven-baked pancake upon which to lay yourself.

I was going to post something else for Magazine Mondays, but to make amends to my love, I am instead giving you an Oven Crespella with Nutella Sauce from the April 2008 issue of Gourmet.

Here are the other MM posts that people have sent in for this week:

Wandering Coyote of ReTorte is sending me some Coffee Crunch Squares because I really want some and some Dutch babies!

Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook made Croissants from a Fine Cooking issue that I’ve been meaning to try. Nicely done, Di!

Kylie of of Thin Crust, Deep Dish made a fabulous pasta dish using beets and beet greens!

Remember, if you post a magazine recipe send the link to me and I’ll include in my MM roundup!

Have a great week everyone!

Ciao!

Oven Crespella with Nutella Sauce
Based on this recipe.

Note: I made a few slight changes to the original recipe as I don’t have an oven-proof 12-inch skillet. I instead used an 8-inch cast iron skillet and made two crespellas. Please note that the recipe below is based on using an 8-inch skillet.

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup Nutella
icing sugar for dusting (optional)
nuts and/or berries (optional)

Combine the flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, salt and milk in a large bowl and whisk to ensure that there are no lumps. Let the mixture stand for 20 minutes.

While the mixture is standing, place your skillet or cast-iron skillet in the oven on the middle rack. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Once the oven is preheated and the mixture has stood for 20 minutes, place one tablespoon of butter in the skillet, close the oven door and wait 30 seconds for the butter to melt.

Pour half the mixture into the skillet and bake for 15 minutes. The pancake will puff up and become deeply golden. Check it every so often to ensure that it’s not burning.

Remove the skillet from the oven and place on a wire rack. The pancake will sink but don’t worry about this.

Let it cool for at least 10 minutes and then carefully slide the pancake onto a serving plate. Drizzle on a 1/4 cup of Nutella. Dust with icing sugar and sprinkle with chopped nuts or with berries.

Let the skillet cool for about five minutes or so and then wipe it out. Return it to the oven and let it reheat for 15 minutes. Place the second tablespoon of butter in the pan and let melt for 30 seconds. Use the remainder of the batter to make the second crespella.

Enjoy!

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