Passover means a hankering for floury, baked goodness. With blueberry season around the corner I’m looking forward to making one of my favourite recipes – blueberry buckle. I don’t have a huge sweet-tooth, so this recipe by Alton Brown hits the mark.
A traditional cobbler has fruit on the bottom, topped by dough. Whereas a buckle has the fruit mixed in. Absolutely perfect with a cup of coffee, this buckle balances between sweet and salty, allowing the blueberries to really steal the show.
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Blueberry Buckle
Adapted from Alton Brown
Ingredients:
For the cake:
Nonstick cooking spray
9 ounces cake flour, approximately 2 cups
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
5 1/4 ounces sugar, approximately 3/4 cup
1 large egg
1/2 cup whole milk
15 ounces fresh whole blueberries, approximately 3 cups
For the topping:
3 1/2 ounces sugar, approximately 1/2 cup
1 1/2 ounces cake flour, approximately 1/3 cup
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2 ounces unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
Preparation:
For the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Spray a 9 by 9-inch glass baking dish with nonstick spray and set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, approximately 1 minute.
- Add the egg and beat until well incorporated, approximately 30 seconds. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and beat on low speed just until incorporated and then add 1/3 of the milk and beat until incorporated. Repeat, alternating flour and milk until everything has combined.
- Gently stir in the blueberries and pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish
For the topping:
- In a small bowl combine the sugar, flour and nutmeg. Add the butter and work into the dry ingredients using a fork to combine. Continue until the mixture has a crumb-like texture.
- Sprinkle the mixture on top of the cake. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 35 minutes or until golden in color. Cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Filed under: Recipe on March 28th, 2013 | Comments Off on Blueberry Buckle
The Jewish festival of Purim is all about celebrating and having fun. Kids dress up in costumes, families deliver food baskets to one another filled with treats and most communities have carnivals for the children. One of the classic treats is a triangular cookie called a hamantaschen. In a conversation with my cousin Shimon the butcher and my friend Arie the baker (insert candlestick-maker joke here) we dreamed up the idea for this awesome take on a Purim treat.
I used a potato dough recipe similar to what you’d use for a beef knish or gnocchi and made a flavourful ragu filling of lamb, beef and vegetables. The end result was a tasty, savoury, scrumptious treat. We may have finished them all before the holiday even started…
Lambentaschen
Ingredients:
Dough:
2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cups water
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 to 4 cups unbleached white flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
Filling:
1 medium yellow onion
2 teaspoons allspice
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow pepper, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground lamb
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Preparation:
- For the filling: Place the diced onions in a bowl and mix with allspice and salt. Add the olive oil and mix well. Add the ground beef and lamb, and mix again.
- Stir in the diced red and yellow peppers, diced tomato and black pepper.
- Brown meat mixture in a large pan over Medium-High heat for 10 mins until the meat is browned, the vegetables are tender and most of the liquid is gone. Drain any excess liquid. (I do the browning step in two batches to make it more manageable.)
- For the dough: Cook the potatoes in 2 cups of boiling water in a covered pot for 20 minutes. Drain and cool with water.
- Mash potatoes then mix with spices, salt and baking powder. Mix the flour a 1/2 cup at a time until dough comes together.
- Knead the dough for a few minutes. Then roll dough out onto a floured surface until 1/4 inch thick.
- Cut the dough into rounds (I used a standard water glass). Moisten the edges of the circles with water, place a tablespoon of the filling on each and fold the dough to form a triangle shape. Pinch or press the edges with a fork to seal.
- Preheat your oven to 375F. Place lambentaschen on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm.
Filed under: Recipe on February 22nd, 2013 | 1 Comment »
I love a challenge – and when Deerhurst Resorts asked me to create a triple-beef dish on the grill you know I had to give it my all.
Not being one to shy away from a challenge, I came up with homemade steak, sausage and smoked meat pinwheels. My kids thought meat on a stick was the greatest thing they’d ever seen. We will definitely be making these again soon!
I didn’t have any sausage around, so doctored up some lean ground beef with tomato sauce, herbs and spices. Sausage would have been easier and quicker. I also opted for thin ribeye steaks as opposed to the more traditional skirt steak, as I thought the marbling would help ensure my pinwheels didn’t dry out.
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Grilled Pinwheel Lollipops
Serves: 8
Couch to table in: 90 minutes
Ingredients:
2 thin rib eye steaks, about 1 cm thickness each
1/2 pound ground sausage (casing removed)
10-15 slices smoked deli meat
Preparation:
- Butt the steaks up against one another on a cutting board and flatten with a meat tenderizer, rolling pin or similar.
- Press the sausage meat out onto the steaks in an even layer.
- Top the sausage with an even layer of smoked meat.
- Carefully roll up the beef, keeping the core as tight as possible when rolling. Cover tightly in plastic wrap and place in freezer.
- After 60 minutes remove beef from freezer (it should not be frozen), place skewers through the plastic wrap at 1 to 2 cm intervals, being sure that you pierce close to the seam to hold the pinwheels closed.
- Carefully remove the saran wrap and slice the beef into individual pinwheels.
- Preheat grill over High heat. Grill pinwheels until desired doneness, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Serve with BBQ sauce or mustard.
Filed under: Recipe on December 17th, 2012 | Comments Off on Grilled Pinwheel Beef Lollipops
