Strawberry and marscapone tart

Strawberry marscapone tart on Flickr by beFOODled.

Strawberries, cheese and Grand Marnier. Who knew they would have such chemistry?

I made this for NU's pool party. It's a no-bake recipe with only eight ingredients. The original recipe cuts the dessert into bars, but my glaze never set, so I served it cobbler-style as shown in the photo below.

NU's kids ate the strawberry and marscapone layers, but didn't like the ginger-cookie crust. If I ever make it for them again, I'll make the crust out of biscotti instead.

Mmmm, so good. I think I've found my signature potluck dessert!

Strawberry and marscapone tart
Adapted from Food and Drink's Early Summer 2007 issue

1 package of ginger cookies
1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
1 1/2 cup marscapone
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups strawberries
1/2 cup red currant jelly
1 Tbsp Grand Marnier

Line a 8 x 8-inch or 9 x 9-inch baking dish with parchment paper.

Blitz the ginger cookies to crumbs in food processor, or even better, put them in a bag and whack them into rubble with a rolling pin or similar blunt instrument. This is a particularly satisfying step if you've had a bad day or are royally peeved at someone.

Combine the ginger cookie crumbs with the melted butter and press them into a layer on the bottom of the baking dish. Refrigerate until firm.

Whisk together the marscapone, yogurt, sugar and vanilla. Add more marscapone and yogurt if you want this layer to be extra thick. Use a low-fat yogurt like 2 per cent so it thins out the marscapone. Spread over the crust layer.

Wash and dry the strawberries and cut into thin slices. Lay the slices over the marscapone layer in tight overlapping rows.

Heat the jelly and the liqueur in a saucepan until melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

Brush the cooled liqueur glaze over the strawberries to fill any cracks. Reserve any extra glaze in a tupperware. Cover the dessert with cellophane and refrigerate until the glaze is set and you are ready to serve.

Drizzle each serving with some of the extra glaze.


Strawberry marscapone dessert on Flickr by beFOODled.

CupCakeCamp Ottawa

CupCakeCamp Ottawa's red velvet purse was best in show on Flickr by beFOODled.

Last week I was a taster for CupCakeCamp Ottawa. About 500 people came to taste the wares of the many bakers who participated.


CupCakeCamp Ottawa platter on Flickr by beFOODled.

There were over 3,000 delicious cupcakes to be tasted, so I was glad I didn't have to taste alone.


Random cupcake closeup on Flickr by beFOODled.

The cupcakes came in all shapes and sizes, and were made even more charming with names like stud muffin, nacho libre, and dulce de leche with rum and butter cream.


Dulce de leche cupcake with rum and butter cream on Flickr by beFOODled.

Despite my good intentions to love them all, it only took four cupcakes before my stomach was full.


CupCakeCamp Ottawa bakers on Flickr by beFOODled.

The bakers brought out trays every fifteen minutes and placed them on long tables before the crowd. Then it became a feeding frenzy. For 25 cents, you could wash everything down with a shot of milk or coffee. And if things really took a turn for the worst, you could recover in the aptly-named Sugar Coma Lounge.


CupCakeCamp Ottawa judges on Flickr by beFOODled.

The judges had to taste all of the cupcakes and were definitely showing signs of sugar overload after only the first hour. Luckily they persevered, and these are the results of their deliberations:

* Best in Show: Red Velvet Purse by Michelle Morrison
* Best Chocolate: Before 9 Minipops by L’Oven
* Best Decorated: Oreo Sunrise by Kristen LaFrance
* Most Unique: Irish Car Bomb by Anne Patenaude
* Honourable Mention for Tastiness: Lemony Lemon by Colleen Forer

The organizers raised $2,000 for Ottawa’s Woman Alive/Femme Active Program.

BeaverTails on the canal

BeaverTails on the canal on Flickr by beFOODled.

When I first started skating to work, I ate three of these BeaverTails in the span of about a week. They are highly addictive, and highly Canadian. But I recently found out there's an American connection, too.

Breakfast or dessert?

Breakfast for dessert on Flickr by beFOODled.

Pancakes for supper is one thing, but breakfast for dessert? This might look like breakfast, but it's actually the dessert that we made with Mark in Calgary. This clever little plate finished off the meal that we cooked with him on New Years Day. The egg whites are Chantilly cream, and the yolks are peach halves that I carved into circles. There's a sprinkling of sugar and toasted sesame seeds on top — salt and pepper :). Beside them is a slice of pumpernickel toast and jam, or if you had a mouthful, you would discover it's chocolate cake topped with a berry compote. Such a cute and creative idea. It would be a fun thing to make with little kids :)

Choux Pastry and Éclairs

On Saturday, Em and I spent the whole day making choux pastry and pastry cream to make éclairs for Ella's harvest brunch on Sunday. We had a few false starts, but eventually... success!

There were a few challenges — our pastry nozzle was small and we didn't really know how to pipe well, so our first batch was too skinny. We also opened the oven too soon and our puffs collapsed ... fffft! We weren't sure about the batter of our second batch, so we temporarily abandoned it to make a third batch, and this one led to some good ones that we could take to the brunch so the practice paid off :) We salvaged our second batch and made them into savouries by adding chopped chives and grated cheddar to the batter. Em spooned out big dollops onto the baking tray and they puffed up nicely and tasted fab.



Choux Pastry

Choux pastry was invented in 1540. About two hundred years later, someone advised to add eggs to the recipe. Fast forward to today, we now use a recipe perfected by someone named Antoine Carême.

Em and I used a scale to measure quantities.

125 g milk
125 g water
100 g butter
5 g salt
5 g sugar
163 g flour, sifted

Preheat the oven to 425 F.

Mix milk, water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Take it off the heat, and add the sifted flour to the batter (Em says a real chef will know if you use unsifted!). Mix quickly until the mixture falls away from the sides of the pan and starts to form a thick ball. At this point the batter is called a panade. Put it back on the stove on low and keep mixing it around as best you can to dry out the panade. Mix quickly and note the bottom of your pan should look sticky.

Put the panade into a mixing bowl and stir until it's at room temperature. Add 4 to 7 eggs (we added four, but it depends on how your panade turns out) one at a time from a separate bowl. Fold them into the panade until the batter drops off a big wooden spoon in a V-shape.

Pipe éclair shapes onto two cold non-stick baking sheets using a piping bag with a big circular nozzle. Use a fork dipped in egg wash to score them in the opposite direction to piping. This will allow the steam to pass through the batter and makes the éclairs glossy.

Put in the oven and immediately turn the oven down to 380 F. Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes or until the tops are golden. Don't open the oven until they are golden on top, otherwise they will collapse!

You'll have to test your oven to find the best temperature and time combination. Em's oven worked best when we put them in at 325 degrees and left them for about 20 minutes.

Put them on a cooling rack. Poke two holes in the bottom where you will pipe in pastry cream. After piping in pastry cream, smear some chocolate spread on top of the surface with the holes and serve!

Pastry Cream

500 g milk
4 egg yolks
100 g sugar
50 g flour, sifted

Heat the milk and a little of the sugar. Whisk the rest of the sugar into the egg yolks until light yellow and silky looking. Add a bit of milk to the eggs and mix together. Add flour to the eggs. Add to milk and bring to a boil while stirring. When the mixture thickens, pour onto a tray and cool in the fridge with some cellophane on top.

Torching a Creme Brulée

Here's PB and J's recipe for the creme brulée that I blogged about previously after the Gastronati's French night. We each torched our own, and here's a video of S doing the honours.

Creme Brulée
Serves six

2 cups heavy cream
4 tablespoons, plus 2/3 cup sugar
4 extra-large or jumbo egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the egg yolks, cream and four tablespoons of sugar. Cook, stirring occasionally, for five to six minutes, or until small bubbles appear around the edges of the pan. Set aside.

In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and vanilla extract until smooth and light. Pour the hot cream mixture into the egg yolk mixture a little at a time, beating continuously until well blended. Divide the mixture between six small ramekins or four medium ramekins.

Arrange the ramekins in a baking pan on the middle shelf of preheated oven. Fill the pan with boiling water to halfway up sides of ramekins. Cover the pan loosely with aluminum foil. Bake until the custard has just set, about 25 minutes. Chill two to three hours or up to three days.

Sprinkle the remaining sugar evenly over the top of the cooled custards. With a creme brulée torch, move the flame continuously over the surface of the ramekins, in a circular motion until sugar melts and becomes golden brown and bubbly. Serve with fresh fruit and crèpe-style French biscuits.

Creme Brulée

Here's the creme brulée that Peanut Butter and Jelly brought to the Gastronati's French feast. I know it looks scrumptious. As soon as PB and J e-mail me the recipe - hint hint - I'll post it so that you, too, can achieve this epitome of French dessert fabulousness. Note: They did - here's the recipe!