quince gin fizz

Quince is a funny little fruit. It looks like a knobby, furry little pear and it's very hard and sour when raw. Cooking transforms it into a rosy-pink little gem with a citrusy-appley sort of taste. And the syrup it makes it so lovely and glowingly pink.

It also has slightly poisonous seeds that can give off hydrogen cyanide when ingested, so that's fun! Quince is like a really low risk fruit version of fugu fish. Don't worry though, you need to eat a lot of quince seeds to harm you. I think it's a good metaphor-fruit for a New Years Eve cocktail; about transforming something odd and a bit difficult into something lovely and slightly thrilling. Because all cocktails are elaborate metaphors about your life right? 

Anyway, happy new year! I hope you have a wonderful and quince-like 2017. 

quince gin fizz:

• gin
• limes
• quince syrup (recipe below)
• soda water
• mint sprigs for garnish

For each drink: 

Peel a strip of lime peel over a glass, aiming to catch the oils that spray out in the glass. Give it a squeeze to get a bit more oil into the glass. 

Combine 1 ounce gin, 1/2 ounce lime juice and 1/2 ounce syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into the glass. Top up with soda water and garnish with mint. 

quince syrup: 

• 4 quinces, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup sugar 
• 2 tbs lime juice
• 2 cups water

Combine all ingredients in a small pan and simmer on low heat for two hours, until syrup thickens slightly and turns a lovely, jewelled rose colour. Store in refrigerator. 

Photos: Tyrel Hiebert

maple walnut honeycomb

One more quick candy for any really severely last minute holiday emergencies you are having. Honeycomb or sponge toffee is a light, crispy, foamy candy - it's what's inside a Crunchy bar. It's great with chocolate on top, or with maple syrup and toasted walnuts as I did here. It's quick, it's an excellent stocking stuffer and you will find watching it magically bubble up strangely soothing in the midst of seasonal panic. Or at least I did. If the foaming isn't quite soothing enough, there is also some very cathartic smashing to look forward to. It puffs up so much it seems impossible. Make sure to choose a large enough pan to contain the foam explosion.

I hope you have a lovely, happy Christmas or holiday or your choice! 

maple walnut honeycomb

adapted from Merrill Stubbs at Food 52

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 tbs baking soda
• 1/3 cup toasted walnuts, roughly chopped
• big pinch flaky salt, if you wish
   

Line a cookie sheet with parchment and place this on a heat tolerant cutting board or trivet. 

Heat sugar, syrup and 1/3 cup water in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Swirl mixture a couple times but do not stir. Cook until mixture reaches 300°F on a candy thermometer. 

Remove the pan from heat and very quickly stir in baking soda. Mixture will foam up a lot so stir rapidly to mix soda thoroughly. Add half the nuts and dump mixture out onto prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle remaining nuts and salt on top. 

Let toffee cool completely and then smash it up into bite size chunks. Store in an airtight container, toffee will wilt and weep if left out for too long.

Photos: Tyrel Hiebert

spiced whiskey & apple caramels

Need a stocking stuffer, secret santa, party favour or just general emergency gift? A bag of juicy, spicy and slightly boozy caramels fit the bill nicely. And they are very quick to throw together for any festive crisis you encounter. They keep for a couple weeks in an airtight container + parchment wrappers at room temperature. 

Candy making is slightly intimidating, it needs a bit of precision and it can also hurt you real bad. Sugar burns are awful, so please be very careful adding things to boiling sugar and pouring the caramels. Also, I highly recommend not setting your sugar on fire, setting off all the smoke alarms, alarming & annoying the other building residents, having to call the charming fire-people to come turn the stupid thing off and ruining a perfectly good pan, as I did once making caramel. Just stay there and watch your caramel like a hawk. Despite these potential stumbling blocks, candy making is pretty easy if you have a reliable thermometer and lots of fun. 

Adapted from Bon Appetit

• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 cups apple juice, preferably cloudy
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 5 tbs butter
• 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt
• 4 tbs spiced whiskey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Line an 8"x8" square pan with parchment. 

Combine juice, sugars and cinnamon in a medium pan and cook on high heat until mixture registers 280° on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat and and cream butter and salt. The sugar will bubble up-be careful. Return to heat until mixture reaches 250°. Add whiskey and vanilla. Pour caramel into prepared pan and chill until firm. 

Slice into small rectangles and wrap in parchment squares. 

Photos: Tyrel Hiebert 

mini sticky toffee puddings

If you are casting around for a Christmas dessert, or what to serve at any upcoming holiday party, may I suggest mini sticky toffee puddings. Sticky toffee pudding is alchemy. It consists of a date cake soaked in a buttery toffee sauce, but the flavour combination transcends the fairly humble ingredients it's made from. It doesn't really have any showy, braggart ingredients, nothing hard to source or especially expensive. But the combination is almost magically greater than the sum of its parts. I'm not exaggerating, it's transcendent.

My family have been having STP as Christmas dessert for a few years and we have always made it in the traditional way, in a big pan. To increase toffee sauce-cake permeation I poked lots of holes in the cake with a skewer, hoping get the sauce really soaked in there. But I thought that creating a larger surface area for sauce contact would really help them get thoroughly sauced. I used a miniature bun to bake these and the little nooks and crannies really catch the toffee sauce.  If you don't have a mini bundt pan, use a muffin tin or a 8" round cake pan, increasing the baking time to around 50 minutes. 

Note: Both puddings and sauce freeze very well. Just reheat sauce and cakes when thawed in a 350° oven.  

Adapted from Martha Stewart

date cake

• 1/2 cup  butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and extra for the pans
• 8 ounces pitted dates, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Butter and flour the mini bundt pans or whichever pans you will use. Heat oven to 250° F.

Boil a kettle and combine chopped dates with 1/2 cup boiling water in a small bowl. Cover with a lid or plate and set aside. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. 

Cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy and add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Blitz the soaked dates in a food processor until a chunky paste forms. Add flour mixture, date paste and vanilla to mixer bowl and mix on medium until just combined, making sure to scrape the bottom. 

Using an ice cream scoop fill bundt pans 2/3 of the way full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. I found that they released from the pan best when they were still hot. Wiggle a toothpick around the edge of the pans to help unstick them, and pull them gently away from the edge with your fingers once they are cool enough to not burn you. Once they are pretty loose, pry em out.

toffee sauce

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients over low heat in a small saucepan. Simmer about 10 minutes. 

To serve, pour warm sauce over mini puds, and add a little bit of cream or ice cream if you like. 

Photos: Tyrel Hiebert

leek and lobster pot pie

I think alliterative food tastes better. When I was thinking about making this, I saw lots of lobster and fennel pies and mushroom lobster pies, lobster pie with peas and carrots, but the sounds of leek and lobster has a pleasing quality.  Sleeker, smoother, just better. Plus, I thought it would be tasty. Pot pie is a great way to use intimidatingly expensive lobster because you only need a little bit. I used one lobster for two people, which makes the price of the lobster almost reasonable. This pie has all the warming, cozy casualness of a chicken pot pie, but with a hint of lobstronomous fanciness. You can also substitute whatever kind of seafood you like, salmon, shrimp or crab would work well too. Just make sure to choose an alliterative vegetable to go with your choice of seafood. Crab and cucumber anyone?

Also, did you know sometimes lobsters are blue? Incredibly, brilliantly blue. I think they might be the bluest things in nature. It's pretty great. 

I am so impressed with this rough puff pastry. It was incredibly fast and it is really, really close to puff pastry made the traditional (much more laborious) way. You can sub in regular puff pastry here if you want to-it's really fun to make and not very difficult, but it is time consuming. Or you can use store bought puff pastry, it will be great.

rough puff pastry

from Bake!: Essential Techniques for Perfect Baking by way of Martha Stewart

• 1 1/4 cups cold butter

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

• a big pinch of salt

• 2/3 cup cold water

Chop one cup of butter into small cubes. Put them in the freezer. 

In a food processor, combine 1/4 cup butter, 2 cups flour and salt. Pulse until combined evenly. 

Add cold butter cubes and pulse twice very quickly. The butter will be in large chunks and not incorporated. Add about half the water and pulse very quickly again. Add more water if the mixture is still very dry. The dough will not come together or form a ball. 

Dump the contents of the food processor onto a clean work surface and roughly squish together. Roll dough out into a rectangle, dusting with flour as needed to prevent sticking. It will be crumbly and uncooperative at first, don't worry. Fold the short edges of the rectangle into the centre so they overlap. Roll out again into a rectangle and repeat this folding (check out this helpful video to see how). Wrap the dough tightly in cling wrap and chill. 

filling

• cooked meat from one lobster, or about 1 cup lobster meat chopped (frozen is fine)

• 3 sliced leeks, dark green leaves removed

• 5 cloves garlic, minced

• one shallot

• 2 small yellow potatoes, cubed

• 1 cup white wine

• 1 cup cream

• 2 cups lobster or other seafood stock

In a frying pan over medium heat, sauté leeks, shallot and garlic until wilted and slightly translucent. Remove vegetables and set aside. Add wine, cream, stock and potatoes. Simmer until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork. Add a little water as the potatoes cook if the liquid reduces too much. When potatoes are tender, combine with leeks and lobster meat. 

assembly

Note: I used a small (8") oval pan for this, you can use a small round or square pan, or two ramekins. This recipe serves two generously, but easily doubles or triples for a crowd. 

Heat oven to 425F. 

 Divide pastry in half. Wrap the remainder and chill or freeze for another use. Roll out pasty into a rectangle about 1cm thick. Trace the pie dish into the pastry with a paring knife and cut pastry to fit just inside the edge of the pan. Cut vents in the lid. 

Fill pan with the lobster mixture. Lay pastry lid over the mixture, pressing in gently. Brush with a little cream or beaten egg. Bake until the pastry is deeply golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Serve with a salad of lettuce and lotus root. 

Photos: Tyrel Hiebert

nameless (chocolate, walnut & pecan) bars

Like Holly Golightly's cat, these bars are nameless. Unlike Holly Golightly's cat, the reason for their namelessness is that their inspiration is a certain infamous pie, which is the registered trademark of some rather litigious individuals. Kern's Kitchen, who hold the trademark, like to make liberal and slightly terrifying use of the legal system to protect their pie. They have sued 25 times to protect it, with targets including cookbooks, restaurants and Bon Appetit magazine. In a fantastically Wizard-of-Oz-esque move, their production facilities include a curtained off area where the pie is mixed  by the sole employee who knows the recipe. 

So these are nameless bars. And also like Holy Golightly's cat, these should never be thrown out of a taxi in a rainstorm. 

These bars are fantastical dessert hybrids, a sugary chimera: part gooey sugar pie, part buttery shortbread, with a touch of chocolate chip cookies goodness. 

from Smitten Kitchen

crust

• 1 cup flour

• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea or table salt

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup butter, cut into chunks

filling

• 6 tablespoons butter, melted

• 1/3 cup brown sugar

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 large egg yolk

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 6 tablespoons flour

• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

• 1/2 cup toasted walnuts, roughly chopped

• 1/2 cup toasted pecans, roughly chopped

• flaky salt

Heat oven to 350°F. Line a 8" square pan with parchment paper. 

Crust: Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until the dough comes together in a solid lump. Pat dough into an even layer in the parchment lined pan. Bake until just beginning to colour, about 15 minutes. Set aside to cool. 

Filling: Mix together butter, sugars, egg, yolk, salt and vanilla. Add flour and stir until just combined. Fold in chocolate and nuts. Pour over crust, spreading evenly. Sprinkle the top with flaky salt. 

Bake for about 20 minutes, until top is crackly and golden but still wobbles a teeny bit when jiggled. 

Photos: Tyrel Hiebert