spoonfuls

Recipe from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice - aka. the best book ever if you want to bake serious bread.



For Mother's day breakfast, I decided to make bagels since I had just bought some bread flour and we had some amazing smoked salmon in the fridge. This is a two-day process, and definitely not a "quick" recipe, so try it out when you have a lot of free time on your hands! The results won't be disappointing - you get a delicious fresh-tasting bagel with a crunchy exterior and a chewy interior. The dough puffs up a lot on the oven, so make sure to make the holes wide enough!

( Click for recipe + picture )

I made this for my little sister's birthday..the flavour combination might sound a bit weird at first and my version may be a bit messy-looking, but tastes delicious! I would have never put three flavours together were it not for trusty Epicurious. The recipe was originally intended for a two-layered cake, but seeing as how there was only going to be five people eating it, I halved the recipe and made it a simpler one-layer cake. (I should have quartered the recipe for the icing!)

It was a dense (but not overly so) cake, with just the right amount of sweetness. When you mix the ingredients together, it will seem like there is way too much grated carrot, but you don't notice it at all when the cake is fully cooked. The icing is not too sweet like buttercream icing thanks to the cream cheese..it is a very interesting flavour.

( Cut for modified recipe for one-layer cake )

( Click for Recipe )

Adapted from this Epicurious recipe.

There was a yogurt sauce that went along with the recipe, but it honestly wasn't very tasty and was unneeded. It did have a bit of spice to it - but I really like spicy foods, so next time I would definitely add more paprika and dried crushed red pepper/chili. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Epicurious.

( Click for revised recipe. )

You will love these potatoes if you like.. potatoes, mustard, lemons, and herbs... the recipe is pretty self explanatory! The outside skin becomes just crispy enough to contrast nicely with the softer insides of the potatoes. The bitter tangy-quality from the mustard and lemon juice is cut by the soft creaminess of the butter. Definitely a side-dish to warm you up on a chilly evening!