Bakewell Tart

The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800’s in England.

This challenge is so close to the deadline that I haven't even tried the tart yet! But it should make a pretty delicious breakfast with fresh blueberries. In terms of what I did this afternoon to make the tart, I started off by mixing the sifted flour, sugar and salt and adding the butter by grating it through a cheese grater.

And yes, it looks like cheese. A pretty easy method really- I'll have to do this next time I make scones.

Next you mix the butter into the flour and add the egg yolks one a time. Assemble the dough with some cold water and put it in the fridge for about an hour.

Here's one measly picture of the making of the frangipane- it was too quick and easy.

Once you have your dough, frangipane and jam, roll out the dough, place it in the pie dish and spread out the warm jam.

Then top it with the frangipane before putting it into a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes. We'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out what looks like and tastes like!

Pretty Tasty

Bakewell Tart
a traditional (UK) recipe from the 1800s in England
1 sweet shortcrust pastry
bench flour
1 cup (250ml) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
1 batch frangipane
handful almond slivers, blanched

sweet shortcrust pastry
8 oz (225g) all purpose flour
1 oz (30g) sugar
1/2 tsp (2.5ml) salt
4 oz (110g) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp (2.5ml) almond extract (optional)
1-2 tbsps (15-30ml) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside. Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough. Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

frangipane
4.5 oz (125g) unsalted butter, softened
4.5 oz (125g) icing sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp (2.5ml) almond extract
4.5 oz (125g) ground almonds
1 oz (30g) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in color and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow color.

Assemble the tart: Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it’s overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking. The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish. When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough. Makes one 9-inch tart.

How We Refinished our Couch- Part 2

So it's been a couple weeks since we went over refinishing the bottom of the our old couch and today we are going to address that funky material on the top. And we're not just talking about a funky design- this stuff obviously hadn't been cleaned in decades!





And it felt so good ripping it all off.


Well that's a bit of a lie as I didn't really get to rip anything off- see the trick to recovering a couch is to keep the pieces of fabric intact, only ripping the seams- this was you will already have a pattern for each piece you need to cut out from your new material.

Like this! You just take the piece of fabric from your couch (i believe this the bottom of a cushion) and lay it down flat on your new fabric and cut it out.

A couple things to keep in mind:

1- You want to make sure that you are keeping the seams in mind (on my old fabric the seams are the rolled up edges) so either lay them down as you are cutting or just cut 1/4- 1/2 inch away from the original fabric to account for seam allowance.
2- When cutting out your fabric, always lay the face of the old fabric onto the face of the new fabric or just make sure you are consistent otherwise you will end up with two identical pieces cut out for your right armrest.


Once you have your pieces cut out, you just want to affix them back onto the frame of the couch in the exact same way that they on there originally. This means paying attention to the upholstering of the couch while you are taking the pieces down. So that I wouldn't have to rely entirely on my memory of how it used to be assembled, we left the left side of the couch semi-attached (notably the intricate armrest area) so we had a guide for the re-assembly on the other side.

We used a staple gun for 80% of this recovering, a sewing machine for the rest and only needed a hammer to reinforce some staples that hadn't gone in all the way. Use a very light touch when hammering in the staples as the hammer tends to leave unsightly black marks on the fabric (no matter how clean you think it is).

To finish it off, we had to find some trim to cover all those staples. The orignal couch had some really gross white braided satin trim, but once we sanded down the wooden features, the couch was feeling a little beachy so I just bought some twine from the hardware store (far too much twine, I might add).

This part was actually the most painful- it took 4 episode of Law & Order, 2 rows of twine and 3 severe burns to my fingers.

But looking back at this monstrosity....

I'd say it was worth it.

Detail shot! Hello beautiful wooden features!

Admire the perfectly tucked fabric and curvature of the trim.

aaaaaah- Totally worth it.

• Cost: 3 shower curtains from Crate and Barrel at $35 each + 2 yards of extra yellow fabric at $12 + the twine at $4.95 + a couple sheets of sandpaper at $1.95= $123.90
• Time: I would say a full weekend
• Ease: If you have a good dose of common sense, this is not that difficult- just a but labour intensive and time consuming.

How we Refinished our Couch- part 1

Hello world! It's been a while since we last spoke, but with many of the big projects which had been keeping me away complete, I thought I would share some of the knowledge acquired along the way- or maybe just prove in pictures that I haven't been slacking off!

The Big project with a capital "B" has been recovering our couch. Remember our couch?

You can tell how much Kris loved it. We got it at the Salvation army near his parents house over Christmas for $100. Considering how resilient this couch is and the fact that it was much less ugly than all other options, we were pretty pleased.

So we lived with the couch for a couple months and it was pretty cozy until the springs started popping out of the bottom causing Kris' butt (never mine of course) to hit the floor. We knew we were going to have to patch things up under there. We flipped it upside down and Kris tried hammering some of the nails back in but this "patch" didn't last very long as the burlap-esque straps were dry rotted and breaking. We needed more than a "patch up". We were going to have to Refinish The Couch.

Kris is still super happy about our purchase!

One of the hardest parts was ripping out the old straps and enough of the old nails to put in the new stuff. A lot of the nails were too frail or rusted and the straps, despite being mostly dry rotted, REFUSED TO GIVE unless they wanted to. Also- the couch had obviously been completely filled with dust before sealing it up. In short- the process was messy.

Boing-y springs!

We decided to replace the old straps with new vinyl straps meant for lawn furniture. It took us two bags of $14.99 to recover the bottom and we found the vinyl very easy to use. We started off by trying to reuse some of the old nails, but my shinny new staple gun turned out to be much more practical and efficient.
The couch was naturally sectioned into 3, so we did them one at a time- stapling the straps on both sides along the width first, not worrying about the springs and then stapling one length at a time, weaving it through the cross straps (over, under, over ect.) while the other person pushed the springs down.

It was pretty easy once we worked out a system.

Kris did mess up the over, under pattern a few times, which wasn't be the end of the world, but writing this now about a month after the fact, the sections with no crossing mistakes are holding up perfectly whereas the other section has had a spring start to pop out.

Beautiful perfection on this side!

Look at that naughty spring!

We finished everything off by folding over a length of strapping and stapling them down the middle of the 2 sections for extra support since that what had been on the couch before we ripped it all up.

Now if we really wanted to make this professional, we would have hand tied the springs but we (or maybe I) are just too lazy- plus I wasn't sure how to do it at the people who constructed our couch used some fancy metal attachments instead- but I recently stumbled on this blog which shows some professionals doing exactly this with a chair very similar to our couch!

Although it did take the better part of a evening and a morning to complete, the redo has been a huge success and we're no longer afraid of falling through the bottom.

• Cost: $68= $30 vinyl straps + $30 staple gun + $8 staples
• Time: Approx 6 hours
• Ease: Easier than you'd think and worth the investment- especially if you already have a staple gun and staples!

It's been so long that...

I had to log into blogger manually! So why the long silence? Well it hasn't been intentional. I guess things got busy at work and I got busy with some spring cleaning which turned into some home renovations... It started out with some "Pineapple Grove" paint....


And then continued on to the busted old couch we bought from the salvation army in December...


And has spiralled out of control (?) with some reupholstering using shower curtains...

But such lovely shower curtains!

Once the apartment is back in order and I can take some nice photos, I will be sure to go into full details of each project, but I wanted to get us back on track with this Orange Marmalade Muffin recipe from the good ol' Pioneer Woman:

Can't go wrong with brown sugar sprinkled on top!


This makes a great treat for breakfast- not too sweet and plenty filling.

Good Morning Muffins

From The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Makes 18 muffins

• 4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup shortening (can use 1/4 cup shortening with 1/4 cup butter)
• 2 cups orange marmalade
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs, beaten

Topping:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon plus
• 1 teaspoon melted butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Sift together flour, sugar, and baking powder. Place in a mixing bowl.Use a pastry cutter to mix in shortening (or butter/shortening if desired).Mix marmalade, orange juice, and vanilla in a small bowl. Pour into dry ingredients.Beat eggs and pour into the bowl.Mix all ingredients together gently, using fewer than 10 large strokes.

In a small bowl, mix topping ingredients.

Fill muffin pans with batter. Sprinkle 1 heaping teaspoon of topping ingredients over each muffin.

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes until done. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack. Eat warm or at room temperature.

Yum!

Getting Crafty with my walls

For those who have followed the progress of our little apartment, you may have already seen the below picture which I posted as part of a "tour" once we moved in. You may not have noticed but despite having several pictures of my necklace rail in the bathroom (which I'm sure was of supreme interest to everyone), there were none of the right side of this room.

And why you might ask? Let me show you:

Pretty hideous, right? Although the boyfriend and I were very fortunate when acquiring furniture, we did not make out with a real wardrobe. And where would we put one anyway? The apartment came with one small closet across from the front door but this was enough for someone with no clothes. which is not me. Thankfully, my mom had the above temporary wardrobe in the garage and this would have to suffice.

Then is started sagging. And leaning into Kris's "space". And driving us both nuts. So Kris decided it was due to the poles coming undone and all he would have to do is to bang them back into place. He took a hammer to it and pretty much banged it into an early but deserving grave. Something had to be done.

I theorized that the wall next to my side of the bed, the one with the bookshelf could become some sort of hanging space but the fireplace was too shallow and would mean hangers poking out from the wall. The only solution would be to hang clothes flush to the wall and hope I could find some accommodating shelves.

We headed to Ikea and I found everything I needed down to the screws and spacers.

Got myself 4 of these

3 of these babies

And just so all my hangers would be the same and swivel- I picked up a pack of these.

The result?

Ta da!!! And I have Kris to thank for all the manual labor- he did a really fantastic job with this and none of the shelves have even fallen off!

And for less than 100 bucks I got myself a full wall worth of storage. Yes, I have had to make some compromises, but keeping only my work clothes on hangers means that getting ready in the morning is practically mindless.

Now all i need is a night stand- What do you think between this recycled aluminum one and this nestling table set?

• Cost: less than $100
• Time: An afternoon
• Ease: Pretty darn easy if you have a big burly man!

Triple Strawberry Cheesecake

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I really loved this challenge. Even though we made cheesecake for the cheesecake pops in a previous challenge, this allowed many more variations and it was so much fun seeing some many drastically different cheesecakes from all the other Daring Bakers.

A couple weeks, maybe months ago, I found this adorable cookbook collection called Sugar and Spice by Keda Black. It was languishing in the sale pile at Urban Outfitters and was calling out my name: 16 mini books each dedicated to one or two ingredients in recipes for candies, cookies, cakes and the like. Not only are the recipes inspired but the books are so incredibly cute! I think I might try to do one recipe out of each 16 books and post about it here. Any interest? Here's the first book:

The backside is dedicated to Yogurt!

Start by hulling and cutting 2/3 of 2lbs of strawberries. Don't worry about the math- you just want to save some of the strawberries for decoration at the end (the 3rd part of this TRIPLE strawberry cheesecake)

Blitz it all together with 2tblsp sugar.

Next, break up the graham crackers and run them through a food processor until you have crumbs. Make sure you use pulse the graham crackers intermittently and not continually for about 30 seconds or you will end up with cracker dust and a couple chunky bits.

Then you add in good stuff like melted butter and vanilla extract and smoosh it into a spring form pan.

Mix up your cheesecake ingredients and finish the filling off by folding in half of the strawberry puree without blending it until it's homogeneous- so much prettier this way!

Once it's out of the oven, let it cool completely (or just put it in the fridge overnight) then spread the rest of the strawberry puree on top.

Finish it off with some sliced strawberries.

The verdict? The cheesecake was excellent- The best I've ever made, that's for sure. And the recipe wasn't really difficult at all. I did this early in the month and had plans to try other flavours, but ran out of time. But I know I will revisit this recipe again- plus the variation based on Keda Black's book was so simple and effective. I can't wait to try this with every other berry this summer!

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake

Crust:

• 2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
• 1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
• 2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Cheesecake:

• 3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
• 1 cup / 210 g sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
• 1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.


Triple Strawberry Cheesecake variation:

From Strawberry + Yogurt by Keda Black

Wash and hull 2lb strawberries. Puree two third of them with 2 tblsp sugar.

Continue with recipe as written then fold in half of the strawberry puree, without trying to obtain an even mixture. Pour into the cake pan. Bake as directed above.

Turn out the tin and and store in the refrigerator until the next day. Slice the remaining strawberries. Cover the cheesecake with the remaining strawberry puree and add the sliced strawberries.

Try not to eat it all in one sitting!

India- September 17th 2005

September 17th 2005
Delhi is insane. I’ve already brushed my teeth with the contaminated water and become the life long friend of a rickshaw driver named Ravi who has promised to pick me up again tomorrow against my will- “No problem!” What should have been a 20 rupee ride turned into 50 because he took us to the wrong side of town, thinking I had asked for some Babar market and not Babar lane, He then proceeded to drive us to Babar road, which was different of course. Who the heck is Babar anyway?
I thought we would never make it home

September 18th 2005
There is a man outside our window who has been pacing back and forth while sounding like a goat and chiming some bells on a sick.

This has been the craziest day yet- from a rickshaw ride with Jen’s butt hanging out the window (and later mine) to a Punjabi and Sari shopping spree and then a Las Vegas inspired Jain Temple.


The owner or some high ranking man immediately ran over to us, explaining that he was from Vancouver, Canada & how he knew that it was a long way away (a whole 5 hour plane ride, he says).
He ushered us through a highly decorated bird hospital and then through sacred areas. By the end of our forced tour, we know that he wrote and appeared in musicals and that he would be waiting for us to return to Delhi in three months to have lunch and dinner.
Next, as we walked to the Red Fort, a man walked up to Elise and asked: “would you like a beard, Madam?” She just about collapsed on the floor laughing and then had to get back up and ask the price. The man said 100 rupees, which Elisa said was too expensive and he replied: “but this is real human hair!” well this argument cinched the deal for Elise and they settled on 50 rupees.
We finished the night at a “sound & light show” at the Red Fort which last half an eternity.

September 19th 2005
Today was our last day in Delhi, so it was mostly spent running errands, but we did manage to go see where Gandhi ashes are kept, in a beautiful garden in the middle of dirty Delhi.
As a special treat our leaders treated us to movie tickets to Salaam Namaste, but before that us girls had to go pick up our handmade punjabis & saris. I bought a sari and a punjabi (tunic, pygama pants and matching scarf) which was a perfect fit, but the sari needed a shirt and petticoat made to order. Let me tell you that having something custom made is amazing- The shirt fit perfectly and I now have an extra skirt- and it’s a pretty purple! After trying on my gorgeous sari, snapping a picture with the woman who helped me for 2 days, we darted to out movie.


I WANT TO BE IN A BOLLYWOOD MOVIE!
The movie was just as crazy as Delhi is and I’ve never heard louder music. All in all, I loved it.

from claire date Sat, Sep 17, 2005 at 6:04 AM subject Namaste! mailed-by gmail.com

hide details 9/17/05

Reply

Hello everyone!!
well, Im here and its completely INSANE. But let us start from the begging- Im sorry I didnt call anyone from Hong Kong, but I left my address book in my checked luggage and didnt have the special phone card number with me. The 13 hour flight turned out to be a cinch since I took a sleeping pill (thank you Ashly!) and was knocked out for 9 hours. We arrived at 5:30 AM and took the train into the city. Our first stop was the Botanical and Zoological gardens which were awesome. I am officially in LOVE with this city. It is like nothing I've ever seen before. It's an island with massive hills covered in greenery and the skinniest, tallest skyscrapers I've seen. We took the Peak Tram which took us at a 60 degree angle up the mountain and witnessed the prettiest views of the city. We also visited a famous temple (but dont ask me which one...) and it was the coolest kitchiest place. It was stuffed full is statues of gods, fruit, candles, twinkling colored Christmas lights and incense. They even had those giant spiraling incence sticks which look like beehives, and these covered the ceiling. All in all, the place was pretty smoky and under construction, so it was very 'transy'
At about 6 pm we decided that we were all pretty exhausted and headed back to the airport, where we all promtly fell asleep sitting up.
We arrived in Delhi at 3 am to rain and craziness. They drive on the left hand side, but we would never have know that since no one obeys any traffic laws. They incessantly honk and try to squeeze in between trucks and concrete pylons. I've found that the best way to cope is to close your eyes.
Right now I'm in the middle of a crazy scavenger hunt and i think my team is loosing- we are way too tired to think straight- after getting to bed at about 6 am, we were up for breakfast at 9.
Also, I went on the best shopping spree in Hong Kong. Its fabulous and cheap. My bag is much heavier now and I could care less.
I miss everyone terribly and feel like I'm might as well be living on mars right now (at least they might have hot water and a shower head there!!) but I think this should only get better. Delhi is a little to crazy for me,and I cant wait to find inner peace in the mountains.
I shall write back as soon as I can find this dingy little place again- but right now I have to go bargain for a ride back to the guest house in a rickshaw (think bicycle pulled carts).
Much love!
~Claire