Hörnchen/ Sweet Crescent Rolls

This is one of my all-time favourite bread recipes, straight from 1969 East Germany. I've got this retro cookbook full of recipes suited for a time and place where expensive ingredients were lacking, so these rolls were originally designated to be made with margarine- still, butter is naturally better if you can get it. It's a very good roll to make for a sunday breakfast because you can make the dough in the previous evening, let it rise in the fridge overnight, then shape and bake it fresh in the morning.

This basic dough recipe is one that I use for many other sweet buns and breads, and I have made many rolls with fillings such as chocolate, nougat, cinnamon sugar and jam with great success. You can sprinkle the rolls with seeds or sugar or leave them plain, or skip the eggwash to make them totally eggless. If you reduce the sugar to about 15 g., you can even make a savoury version to serve with cheese inside. With their light, tender insides and golden outsides, these babies go with anything.

Hörnchen (From Das Backbuch- Verlag Für die Frau Leipzig, 1969 ed.)
Makes 8-10

500 g. Bread flour
100 g. Sugar
1 TBSP or 1 packet vanilla sugar
80 g. Butter or baking margarine, room temperature
1/2 Tsp. Salt
250 ml. Cold milk
30 g. Fresh yeast, or 10 g. Active dry yeast
Zest of 1 lemon (optional)
1 Egg or 2 TBSP melted butter, to wash

Whisk together flour, sugars, salt and zest, if using.

Combine yeast and milk to dissolve. Add to flour mixture and knead until smooth.

Knead in butter or margarine in pieces until completely incorporated.

Let rise in a covered, greased bowl overnight in the refrigerator.

In the morning, preheat oven to 200℃. Cut dough into two pieces. Roll out each on a floured surface into a large rectangle. Cut into triangles using a sharp knife or pizza cutter. Cut a slit in the base of each triangle to make it easier to roll into a crescent. Once shaped, let rise 20-30 minutes covered.

Brush with beaten egg or melted butter and bake for around 20 minutes, or until golden-brown and a thermometer poked inside registers 190℉. Let cool for about 10 minutes before eating.

Ginger-Walnut-Date Granola

I'm not a granola person... at all. I love oats, and I love muesli, and those crunchy bars with the oats and nuts... but granola itself has always disappointed me in the past. It's too sweet, too bland, with not nearly enough of the mix ins, and usually too expensive. Still, the idea of sweet, crunchy clusters of flavoured oats with dried fruit and nuts is a very welcome one, so I figured that a homemade granola might be better. And indeed, it was.

This granola was probably the first that I've ever really, really liked. It's sweet and crunchy, but not too oily or sweet. The spices and vanilla make it almost cookie-like, but not too rich. And the combination of walnuts, dates and ginger is just right- the dates add some fruity sweetness and chewiness, the ginger is both sweet and zingy, and the nuts are toasty and crunchy in a perfectly complementary way. Walnuts and dates are well-known to go well together, but they make a wonderful menage-a-trois with ginger as well.

It's very satisfying to make granola- and easy. All you need to to is mix your dry ingredients- I added some oat flour to help cement my clusters together- and pour on the wet ones, mix the whole affair up well, and spread it on a baking pan. Once it smells ready, you just let it set, add the fruits, and break up your nice oaty chunks. This recipe is a little unusual in its inclusion of egg whites, but since I've always got a few left over from some custard or pudding, and it adds a little protein, I don't mind. You can just as easily leave them out, but they do help to make the granola clustery. The golden syrup is easy enough to find if there's a British products section in your local supermarket, but can also be substituted with agave nectar or, probably, corn syrup. I like golden syrup because it isn't too sweet, and has a unique raw-sugar flavour. It's definitely worth looking for.

Because of the sweet dates and crystallized ginger, no further sweetness is needed, so this granola is best eaten with plain yogourt or milk. It retains its crunchy character for well over a week, but shouldn't be kept out indefinitely (I froze half of my batch for later) and needs to be in an airtight container all the while. It also can be eaten all on its own as a snack.

And thus, I dream of the possibilities for many more granola variants over a bowlful...

Ginger-Walnut-Date Granola
Adapted from Food in Jars, by Marisa McClellan

3 1/2 C. (300 g.) Old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 C. (40 g.) Oat flour (or 1/2 C. rolled oats ground finely in a food processor)
1 Tsp. Ground ginger
1 Tsp. Cinnamon (optional)
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1 TBSP Flaxseed meal (optional)
1/4 Tsp. Salt
1/4 C. (60 ml) Neutral oil, e.g. sunflower or canola
1/2 C. (120 ml) Golden syrup, or agave nectar
2 Egg whites, stirred until frothy
1 C. (140 g.) Crystallized ginger, diced
100 g. Pitted dates, diced
1 C. (130 g.) walnut pieces

Preheat oven to 160℃.

Mix salt, spices, flaxseed (if using), walnuts, oats and flour. Add oil, vanilla and syrup and mix until well-coated, then add egg whites. 

Spread evenly on a baking sheet and bake for 30-40 minutes, mixing well every 10 minutes.

Sprinkle ginger and date pieces onto the granola and mix in quickly while still warm, then leave to set in a dry place overnight.

Break up the cooled, dried granola into little clusters. Keep in an airtight container for up to a week, or freeze for several months.

Apple Yeast Pancakes (with Vanilla-Rum Sauce)

These are exceptionally good, simple pancakes. You only need a single egg, some yeast, milk and flour, plus a little sugar and oil and some cooking apples. Apart from those pantry (and fruit bowl) staples, nothing special is needed. That makes them a reliable option for a good late-autumn breakfast when you haven't gone grocery shopping quite yet.

I added some spices and walnuts, which went very well with the apples, but can be easily skipped. The mild yeast flavour of the batter and the apples are a good match. While I've got other, richer recipes for yeast pancakes, these can be fallen back upon when a single egg is all I've got. 

The vanilla sauce I made with rum was from the previous day (and my second-last egg) and when warmed, tasted extremely good with these pancakes in particular. Other good companions include sour cream, maple syrup (of course) and apple butter. Serve them hot and enjoy them in plenty- this recipe makes a lot. Halve it if you don't want to eat a dozen or aren't feeding a small army. I've got some in the freezer for the days when I don't have time to make pancakes, along with waffles and my new favourite homemade granola... it's good to be prepared.

Apple Yeast Pancakes
Adapted from Moje Wypieki
Makes a really, really large amount of pancakes

750-800 g. Flour (I used half type 550 and half bread flour)
1.5 L Milk, 3.8% is best
2-3 TBSP Brown sugar
42 g. Fresh yeast, or 3 Tsp. Active dry yeast
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp. Nutmeg
2 Tsp. Vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 TBSP Nut oil, or melted butter
1 Egg
5 Cooking apples, thinly sliced (with a mandoline is best)
2/3 C. Walnut pieces (optional)

Oil or butter, to fry
Syrup, vanilla sauce or cinnamon-sugar, to serve

Mix flour, salt and spices. In the middle, form a well.

Heat one cup of the milk until warm and dissolve the yeast and sugar. Add to the centre of the flour and let sit, covered, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the rest of the milk, vanilla, oil, and egg and mix well to combine.

Let rise covered for 1 1/2 hours.

Prepare a cup of hot water and two large spoons. Heat a nonstick skillet or cast iron pan with a bit of butter or oil. Use the spoons to scoop balls of dough onto the pan and use a spatula to press a few slices of apple into each (along with walnut pieces, if using). Cook for about a minute on each side and keep warm in a low-temperature oven until ready to serve.

Rum-Vanilla Sauce
400 ml. Milk, 3.8%
1/2 TBSP Cornstarch
1 Egg yolk
2 TBSP sugar, plus 1/2 TBSP vanilla sugar 
2 TBSP Dark rum
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract

Heat milk over medium heat until steaming in a small saucepan. In another bowl, combine cornstarch, sugar, and yolk with a whisk. 

Once milk is hot, use half a cup to temper the yolk mixture by whisking it in very quickly, until well-mixed. Pour into the pan with the rest of the milk and cook, while whisking, until it bubbles.

Remove from heat and whisk in rum and vanilla. Keep warm until serving.

Übernacht Sonntags-Brötchen - Infinitely Adaptable Overnight Buns

There are few things in the baking world simpler and more versatile than this recipe. It's my go-to for when there's been a glut of sweet things around the house, and I want to make the Sunday breakfast on the savoury and simple side while letting people customize to what they want. And buns are awesome in that they're basically personal breads- the German name pretty much translates to that. Breadlings. Nice.

Real bakeries are already staffed by the wee hours of the morning to ensure that there's bread to sell at opening time, but most of us don't want to (or in my case, simply can't due to sleeping family members) get up at 4 to start making bread for breakfast. Even though many breads are supposed to rest in the fridge overnight, they also often need to warm up to room temperature, get shaped, rise a bit more, and so on- so they really aren't ready in time for a Sunday breakfast. In such a case, one wants something fast, easy to make the night before, and preferably not requiring much morning preparation. These fit that bill very well.

It's also very forgiving. You can use just bread flour or even all-purpose flour, more or less spelt or whole wheat, and skip the malt if you want- it just adds crustiness. The yeast can be fresh or dried, and though I always choose fresh if I can, it works very well with either. You don't even need to do the step of preheating a pan to put the bread on- it's just another way to make them more crispy, as is the water-spraying. I like crusty buns, but you can make them softer by skipping these things.

You can also go nuts with add-ins! I like the plain ones because of the attractive floureyness, but they're also fantastic with sesame or poppy seeds. You could also use caraway, or even cumin. They're also great with grated cheese added as a final touch, not so early for it to burn- just enough so that is forms a crispy delicious crust. I added olives to some on the request of my brother. 

Of course, it's nice how simple these are because they can accommodate just about any desired filling, spread or topping. Any extras can be used for sandwiches, with soup, as toast, or wherever some fresh morning-baked bread might be appreciated.

Overnight Buns
Adapted from Chefkoch
420 g. Bread flour
80 g. Spelt flour, whole wheat flour, or a mix (can substitute more regular bread flour- or use more of another flour in place of the bread flour, though more whole grains will make it denser)
1 1/2 Tsp. Diastatic malt powder, or 1 TBSP malt syrup (optional- honey also works)
2 Tsp. Active dry yeast, or 25 g. Fresh yeast (fresh if you can!)
350-400 ml. Lukewarm water, preferably filtered
1 TBSP Salt
Toppings: Extra flour, any seeds or grains desired, or about 100g. grated cheese such as edam or gouda. Get creative!

Blend flours, malt (if powdered) and yeast (if dry). If using fresh yeast, crumble into the water and mix to dissolve. Dissolve the malt in the water as well, if it is a syrup.

Pour water onto flour and mix with a dough hook on medium-low until incorporated. Increase speed to medium-high and mix until it no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl. Alternatively, work the dough by hand on a lightly oiled surface until it forms a cohesive, relatively nonsticky mass. The dough is quite moist, so it will never be completely unsticky, but it should cling to itself well. On drier days, you may need the larger amount of water.

Add the salt and mix on medium-high for 5-7 minutes, until the dough forms strings when you stretch a small piece apart with your fingers. This can be done by about 15-20 minutes of working by hand.

Cover in a floured or lightly oiled bowl and place in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.

Preheat the oven to 220℃. Heat up a baking tray, pizza stone, or Dutch oven. 

Divide the dough into 8-10 pieces and let rest 20 minutes covered. Using extra flour to prevent sticking, shape into desired form and slash the tops with a bread lamé or very sharp knife. Add any desired seeds or grains on top by first dusting off the flour, then spraying with water from a spritzer and sprinkling on top. 

Place the buns onto the hot pan, stone, or Dutch oven bottom. Spray the inside of the oven with water. If using the Dutch oven, cover them. Bake for 20-25 minutes, uncovering after 15 if using the dutch oven, and spray with more water after 5 and 10 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese 5 minutes before you plan to take them out if desired.

Let cool about 20 minutes, or 30 if using the whole grain flour.

Neo-Classic (Vegan) Crepes with Pear-Walnut Filling

My experiments with vegan cooking and baking continue! This is a recipe I've tried in both sweet and savoury styles and it goes really well either way. Besan/gram flour/chickpea flour is an excellent egg replacer in a lot of things, and also helps give an eggy flavour/colour as well. It's also nutritious, so. 

I'm a legume lover in any context (and chickpeas are one of my faves) so this recipe was a natural choice. While it doesn't taste anything like chickpeas (probably for the best here) it's absolutely fantastic. 

I modulated the recipe to suit a sweet filling with some vanilla soy milk on top of the water, vanilla extract, and a tablespoon of sugar. I added a spoon of flaxseed meal just because I love it so, and also because it tends to help along the binding of egg-free baked goods et cetera. The potato starch is mostly responsible for that here, however- so you can skip it if you aren't as enthusiastic about flax as me.

Try substituting half the wheat flour for buckwheat for something different. I made them that way in the savoury manner with some vegan cheese and herb-roasted cherry tomatoes and it was delicious. Really, anything you'd put in a standard crepe goes. Here I tried a filling of diced pears, spices and walnuts that's worth a shot since they're in season, and tastes a bit like an autumn pie filling. Nice.

Now for the caveats- it took me a good two practically-inedible misfolds of crepes to get the heat and oil level just right, so don't give up. Try thinning the batter, or lowering/increasing the heat, until you get them to not stick and also cook nice and evenly. Take your time- they go really fast once you get it right, even faster than regular crepes. I made mine a bit on the small side, too, so that they'd be less likely to tear- but I made a couple of big ones and they were just fine. 

I plan to try further variations, maybe with a pseudo-cheese filling using vegan cream cheese, apricots, and so on. I made some with a sour cherry-apricot jam mix and it went well, but a little cheesy action never hurt anyone. 

Neo-Classic Crepes
Adapted from the Bean by Bean: a Cookbook by Crescent Dragonwagon

1 TBSP Flaxseed meal (optional)
2 TBSP Potato starch
1 TBSP Oil, either neutral or with a nice flavour (like olive or nut oil)
about 2 2/3-3 C. water (I used 2 2/3 C. water and 1/3 C. soy milk)
1/2 C. Chickpea flour/besan
2 C. AP flour (I used 1 1/2 C. of AP white flour and 1/2 C. graham flour)

2 Tsp. Vanilla extract and 1 TBSP sugar, if making sweet
1/2 Tsp. Salt (increase to 1 Tsp. if making savoury)

Oil and/or melted vegan butter, to fry

Pulse potato starch, flaxseed meal, oil and salt with 2/3 C. of water in a blender or food processor.
Add the flours, sugar and vanilla (if using), and an additional 2 C. water and blend until completely smooth. Keep adding water (I used vanilla soy milk here) until the consistency is of thin/table cream.

Use right away or refrigerate for up to a week. (I refrigerated it overnight, which I think helps relax the gluten.) When ready to cook, use a cast iron or nonstick pan. Heat to medium high and once hot, add a small amount of oil. Pour some batter onto the oiled pan and tilt to spread around. Cook until the surface no longer looks "wet", then flip. After another 15-30 seconds, take off the pan and place onto a plate to be filled.

Pear-Walnut Filling
Note: this is enough for about half of the above batch of crepes. Make more as you see fit.

5 Small pears, peeled, cored and diced
2 TBSP Sugar
1 Tsp. Vegan butter (optional)
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon
Generous pinch of cloves
Small handful of walnuts, crumbled to bits

Heat the sugar, spices and vegan butter (if using) on medium-high. Add the pears and mix well. Stir to coat evenly in sugar-spice mixture and cook on medium-high until the juices released are thickened. Add walnut pieces and vanilla and take off heat, covering with a lid, and leave for 5-10 minute to soften while you work on the crepes.

Nalesniki- Polish Pancakes

One recipe that hardly qualifies as such is my mother's nalesniki. I don't know how she does it- she never follows a recipe, but they always come out fantastic. I guess it's just an instinctual thing, but I still like to quantify, so I got her to measure her ingredients until I found what seemed to be the "ideal" starting combination of ingredients. One thing that amazes me is how she skips all the steps I assume to be essential, often not sifting the flour, never adding salt, and mixing the batter very thoroughly without loosing tenderness. But I'll accept this unorthodox lack of methods and materials consistency if it means my favourite pancakes in the world.

I've tried to make these myself a few times, but I fell into such pitfalls as assuming a greater need for eggs than there are (you really only need them to bind the batter) and adding too much milk relative to water (they shouldn't be too thick). You also need a really good, reliable pan- this can take a while, but once you find "the One" it'll never let you down.

The absolute best way to serve these, in my opinion, is with sour cherry preserves and sour cream. However, the options are limitless as what you have on hand- we use all types of jam, nutella, a mixture of cottage cheese with sugar and fruit, a spread made of ground walnuts, honey and cinnamon, and essentially whatever else looks like it might be good.

The only very important thing to remember is to use enough butter for both flavour and sticking-avoidance. It takes some practice to perfect these, but they become a second nature to make very quickly. It's good to have one person filling and rolling them up while the other works the pan, so it never gets left batterless- that would make it burn. Try doubling the recipe for extras- they freeze excellently.

If you haven't ever tried this style of pancake, it's pretty much the standard for Central and Eastern Europe, with every region and nation having its own variations, not to mention every household. Some are thicker and some are thinner- some have more egg or fat, and some are more watery. It can all be experimented with as you go until you get them exactly how you want. If you don't add sugar or vanilla, and add a half teaspoon of salt, you can also make them savoury with such fillings as spinach and cheese or mushrooms. They're delicate and soft but also just chewy enough, and are all-around my favourite for a reason.

Nalesniki
Makes about a dozen

675 ml. Milk, 3.8% preferred
2 TBSP Sugar (use homemade vanilla sugar if you want more flavour!)
1 TBSP Oil (we use almond or hazelnut oil, but any neutral oil is fine)
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
300 g. Flour (pastry flour is better, but AP is fine)
2 Eggs, medium to large
Water as needed (fizzy mineral water is better)
About 1 Tsp. butter per pancake, to fry
Filling- Jam, preserves, cheese filling, chocolate spread and so on
Optional: Sour cream etc. to serve, depending on the filling

Mix the milk, sugar, oil and vanilla. Add the eggs and flour, sifting if very clumpy. Mix with whisk attachment on medium-high (or by hand) until well-incorporated. Thin out the batter with about 1/2 C. water to begin, adding more if necessary.

Heat up a good crêpe pan (something that distributes heat well, especially good is a cast iron pan) on high heat, then reduce to medium and melt a piece of butter. Ladle on about 1/4 C. of the batter and tilt the pan to coat evenly. The first will take the longest to cook, and might not come out well, but they do get better with each attempt- flip once it no longer has wet spots on the surface and cook for another thirty seconds before flipping onto a plate and spreading with filling and rolling up.

Keep warm in a 80℃ oven until ready to serve- give any optional toppings on the side.

Honey Custard French Toast with Chocolate Honey Sauce and Pecans

I normally don't use so many eggs in my French toast, but I wondered if I could get a better result if I was more extravagant. Indeed- this is the richest, custardiest, pillowiest french toast I've ever had. It's soft but not soggy, not too eggy, and does my nice brioche loaf justice. The cinnamon compliments the mild sweetness of the honey, and it practically doesn't need any toppings.

Of course, it's better if you do. I made a simple sauce of chocolate and honey, puddinglike and bittersweet, creamy and perfectly balanced with the gentle flavour of the toasts. A topping of crunchy nutty pecans seals the deal- definitely a worthy weekend breakfast. 

Honey Custard French Toast
From Mr. Breakfast

10-12 Slices of brioche or challah
1 3/4 C. Whole milk
1/2 C. Honey
1 1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon
1 Tsp. Cornstarch
Pinch of salt
1 TBSP Rum
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
6 Eggs, beaten
About 2 TBSP Butter
Oil, to fry

Whisk together the salt, cornstarch and cinnamon. Set aside.

Mix the eggs, milk, honey, vanilla and rum. Whisk in the cinnamon mixture. Pour the mix into a shallow pan to a depth of about 2 cm.

Soak the bread slices for about 30 seconds per side. Heat a skillet pan with oil on medium and fry until golden brown, about a minute on each side. 

Pat the excess oil off the finished pieces with a paper towel. Overlap the slices with a small sliver of the butter on top of each. Keep in a warm oven until ready to serve.


Chocolate Honey Sauce

1 C. Whole milk
2 Tsp. Cornstarch
1 Tsp. Vanilla sugar
1/4 C. Honey
40 g. Semisweet chocolate

About 1/2 C. Toasted pecan pieces, to serve

Heat 3/4 of the milk until steaming. Mix the cornstarch, honey, remaining milk and sugar in a small bowl. Pour into the hot milk and whisk thoroughly, cooking on medium-low until thickened. Stir in pieces of the chocolate until all are dissolved. Serve warm with the french toast. Serve pecans on the side.

Forbidden Rice Porridge with Mung Beans, Coconut Milk and Ginger

I have a small reserve of the somewhat expensive forbidden rice in my pantry. Because of its price, I don't often use it- but recently I remembered it and thought to myself that it would be awful if I let it go stale because of that very stinginess. I decided to try making it into a porridge of sorts, since that's one of my favourite things to do when I've got extra coconut milk lying about as I did. I also had a small pot of ginger puree and a bag of organic mung beans- I already knew that combining a grain, a pulse, sugar and coconut milk was typically delicious. Why not try these together?

Needless to say, it worked. I think that to save time, I'd try soaking the rice and mung beans overnight next time, so that breakfast doesn't take an hour to cook. Still, the rice was just soft enough with a bit of bite remaining, and went well with the earthy mung beans, creamy coconut milk and bright ginger. I also added some peanuts for texture and another flavour layer, but I've got a feeling that some other toppings would be good, too- namely sliced finger bananas or toasted dried coconut.

I didn't sweeten the porridge too much, since it was intended to be breakfast rather than a dessert. Overall, it's got a good bit of nutrition in with the superb taste. Forbidden rice is a whole grain, and it pairs with the mung beans for optimal digestion. The debate on the health benefits versus antagonisms of coconut milk rages eternally, but it does contain a good amount of nutrients and beneficial fats, and is generally considered a good thing to consume in moderation, especially in the place of dairy cream.

Next time I find black glutinous rice, I'll try it in a similar fashion to compare the textural outcomes. So many kinds of rice, so little time!

Forbidden Rice Porridge

1/2 C. Forbidden rice
2 1/2 C. Water
Pinch of salt
2-3 TBSP Sugar, or 8-9 pieces of rock sugar
1/3 C. Hulled mung beans
2/3 C. Coconut milk, plus extra to top
1 Tsp. Ginger, Grated, or a large toonie-sized slice
Crushed peanuts to top, optional

Rinse the rice and bring it to a boil with the water, along with the salt. Cook for 20 minutes, covered.

Rinse the mung beans and add. Cook for another 15-20 minutes, covered, or until both ingredients are tender.

Uncover and add the sugar and coconut milk, along with the ginger coin if using. Cook for 5-10 minutes, or until some of the moisture is evaporated and the porridge is thickened. 

Add grated ginger, if using. Take off the heat and let sit, covered, for 10 minutes.

Serve in small bowls topped with coconut milk and peanuts, if desired. 

Che Chuoi Chung- Tapioca, Banana and Cassava Pudding

Mmm, che. I always feel very lucky to have grown up in Mississauga for being exposed to cultures that I never would have living elsewhere- amongst the many benefits of the mosaic-like society is the fact that I can try foods I'd never heard of before quite regularly. I was in a Vietnamese eatery (that same one where I discovered xoi gac) when I saw large tubs of what looked like puddings behind the counter. I asked about it and all of the ingredients sounded delicious, so I tried a couple. Along with che dau trang (my other favourite, recipe coming soon) I was fixated on how to make the delicious che chuoi chung. After all, there were no Western dishes like this that I'd ever tried, and I had no idea where to start but good ol' Google.

 I soon found that what I needed was simple- tapioca pearls, sugar, coconut milk, and some cassava and bananas. The last two were the only tricky part- but cassava is widely available in the freezer sections of Asian groceries, and the correct type of banana (firm, fleshy burro/sugar bananas tht hold up to extended cooking) are there as well, even available presliced. The garnishes of coconut topping and peanuts really do make the result perfect. I have found through the magic of the internet that in Vietnam, various types of che can be eaten at just about any time of day, for breakfast or a snack. I certainly wouldn't mind a greater availability of these!

There's nothing really tricky about making it yourself- just make sure that no component is over or undercooked. My cassava was precooked before freezing, so I didn't need to boil it for very long, but it's important that the cassava is tender, the tapioca pearls cooked through, and the bananas not overcooked. I added pandan leaf for a bit more aroma, which I find works very well. I have made the dish with both coconut milk and coconut cream, and while coconut milk is more readily available (and tends to be better quality, for some reason), both options work.

It's also nice to make this yourself so that you can adjust the sweetness, thickness, and amount of water compared to coconut milk/cream- I make mine on the richer side, and add sugar in differing amounts depending on whether I want it as breakfast or a pudding. While particularly welcome served warm on a winter's day, I'd have it at any temperature, any time. The mixture of textures and flavours is unparalleled, showing that even a very simple and humble food can be something special.

Che Chuoi Chung
Adapted from SBS

600 ml. Water
about 250 ml. Coconut cream (or, instead of 600 ml. water, use 350 ml. with 500 ml. coconut milk)
3-4 Burro/Sugar Bananas, sliced lengthwise into thin slices
100 g. Cassava, cut into 2 cm. pieces
140 g. Sugar
2-3 Pandan leaves, optional
40 g. Small tapioca/sago pearls
Pinch of salt

Cook the tapioca/sago in a saucepan of boiling water until translucent and soft, about 5-10 minutes. Strain and set aside.

Boil the 600 ml. water, half of the coconut cream, pandan leaves, salt, and sugar. Add the cassava and cook until tender. Add the banana slices and let simmer uncovered until thickened, about 10 more minutes. Add the remaining coconut cream and tapioca. Serve in small bowls or glasses.

For the Topping:
250 ml. Coconut milk
1 TBSP Sugar
1 Tsp. Tapioca or potato starch
Pinch of salt
35 g. Roasted unsalted peanuts

Whisk together the coconut milk, sugar, salt and starch. Bring to a simmer in a small saucepan and let cook until thickened, about 3 minutes. Set aside. Spoon onto the che just before serving.

Crush the peanuts with a pestle and mortar or pulse in a food processor. Sprinkle onto the che before serving.

Monkey Bread Loaf

Sometimes I come across a recipe that it seems everyone else has been familiar with since birth, but is completely alien to me. I've seen all kinds of renditions of monkey bread on the net, but never in bakeries or grocery stores- I guess it's one of those cultural phenomenons that only exists in the homemade state. And that makes perfect sense- it's very easy, and also tastes the best fresh out of the oven. 

It can be made in the cheatey way probably invented by '50s housewives in the dawn of a glorious age of premade baking mixes and doughs, with canned biscuit dough and plain old sugar. Just take bits of dough, roll them in sugar, adhere them together and bake. Add whatever spices or enrichments you like, but it all comes back to that simple formula. Of course, yeast doughs are also a possibility, such as this recipe here (you could use store-bought bread dough... but why you'd want to do that is completely lost on me) and the dough itself can be further varied to be a sort of brioche or egg bread, simple white bread, t cetera. 

The top sugar is crispy, yet conceals a gooey underbelly, like a lava flow! Only safer and better tasting.

I really like this buttermilk-based, very simple dough that I've jazzed up just a tad with orange extract and vanilla. It's tangy and mildly sweet, tender, and requires no eggs. The orange goes really well with the vanilla- lemon is also good, or even tangerine zest would be excellent.

The sugar itself is the basic brown sugar plus a bit of cinnamon and cardamom for what I'd hoped would be some Nordic flair. I lived in Finland as a toddler, and while I remember nothing of it, my mother always tells me of how all the pastries were flavoured with cardamom. I like to think this spice has imprinted itself on me that way- I now use it in biscuits, on oatmeal, in puddings, even on plain old bananas. You can imagine how much I like Indian sweets, which use a lot of cardamom. But you can always try another spice- maybe replace the cinnamon and cardamom duo with 1 1/2 Tsp. of apple pie, pumpkin pie, or even gingerbread spice. You don't really need any spices, but they definitely add something to the sugary buttery aura of the bread.

Speaking of butter- you don't need to use it, so long as you get the sugar to stick to the dough bits in some way or another, but it adds a lot of flavour and welcome richness. Not too much, not too little. Just right for breakfast, with tea, or to pick off with a fork while reading on a rainy day. 

Definitely a party favour favourite. The Carnage has already begun, as the missing chunks indicate.

Monkey Bread Loaf
Adapted from Baking Bites

2 1/2 Tsp. Active dry yeast
1 1/2 C. Buttermilk, at room temperature
1/2 Tsp. Orange extract, or the zest of one orange
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1/4 C. Sugar
3 to 3 1/2 C. Bread flour

Topping Mixture:
1/2 C. Butter, melted
1 C. Light brown sugar, or a mixture of white and dark brown sugar
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp. Cardamom

Grease a 9" loaf pan with butter and set aside.

Mix the yeast, buttermilk, extracts and sugar. Add just enough flour to form a sticky, cohesive dough and knead until elastic- it will remain sticky. Let rise covered for about an hour, or until doubled.

Divide into small pieces, about 16. Form balls. Mix the light brown sugar, cinnamon and cardamom. Dip the balls of dough firstly into the butter, then into the sugar mixture. Place the balls into the pan and once all the dough is used up, pour any remaining butter and sugar on top. Let rise 45 minutes covered.

Bake at 190℃ for about 35 minutes, or until the inside of the bread registers 190℉ with a thermometer. Let cool before unmolding- or eat straight from the pan while warm.

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

I'm a big pancake person. I love waffles, and french toast, and every other dessert-like breakfast food ever doused in butter and syrup, but pancakes are still on top.

A big stack of (slightly overbrowned) pancakes!

I think it's their versatility. Pancakes are really nothing more, by definition, than any sort of doughy disk cooked in a pan- so there's room for an incredibly diverse range of variations. You've got savoury and sweet, thin and thick, quick-rising, yeasted and unleavened, not to mention the almost infinite flavour and ingredient combinations. Even if you don't change up the pancakes themselves, there's also the huge amount of options for things to top them with. Pancakes of some sort exist in about every culture on Earth, and are all differently delicious.

These, however, are probably the closest thing to the American "default" pancake. When I was a kid I never had fluffy, American-style pancakes unless they were from a box in the freezer section- ours were almost exclusively thin and crêpe-like nalesniki rolled around a filling, or maybe some kind of banana fritter if we had too many brown ones. But the light, syrup-sponging pancakes I'd see on TV as part of the all-American breakfast seemed very exotic.

Needless to say, these are much, much better than any frozen boxed pancake. It took me many attempts to experiment with the much-exalted Martha Stewart recipe for the quintessential buttermilk pancakes until I got just what I was looking for- fluffy, light, tender and ready to absorb insane amounts of maple syrup.

I would recommend looking for "real" buttermilk for these pancakes- not regular milk that's been cultured or curdled with an acid. It really does make a difference, in my books. I used whole fat buttermilk from Organic Meadows, which is my absolute favourite buttermilk available, but use whatever looks to be the highest quality and fat content. I would even try thinning out a good organic sour cream with milk if I couldn't find good buttermilk- the important thing is that the acidity helps leaven the dough (by reacting with the baking powder) and tenderize it by preventing gluten networks from forming. This is also why you need to sift the dry ingredients- to minimize lumpiness, since overmixing the batter to make it completely smooth isn't an option.

You naturally don't need to use blueberries, if they're out of season or you want something different. You can also omit them and make plain buttermilk pancakes, or use chocolate chips. Still, when blueberry season finally hits Southern Ontario, I'm going to be collecting large bagfuls to freeze so that I can make these babies all through the winter. Fresh is obviously better since you can reserve some as a garnish, but you can throw frozen ones into the pancakes just as easily.

I would really, really recommend a nonstick skillet for these if you have one- for ages I suffered with pancakes that stuck regardless of how much oil I used or what the temperature was, or didn't want to cook through properly- a combination of a nonstick pan, medium heat and small pancake size fixed all these issues. You could also use a griddle if you have one, obviously- I didn't. And remember, flip frequently! They cook quickly, and nobody likes a burned pancake. If the surface is cooking faster than the inside, cover the pan with a lid after the first flip.

Lastly, use maple syrup. Not pancake syrup, not "butter-flavoured" syrup. You made these fantastic pancakes, so you deserve the best. And maple is the best.

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living

2 C. All purpose flour
3 TBSP Sugar
2 1/4 Tsp. Baking powder
1/4 Tsp. Baking soda
1/2 Tsp. Salt
2 C. Buttermilk
2 Large eggs, yolks and whites separated
2 TBSP Butter, melted
1 TBSP Oil
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1 C. Blueberries, fresh or just out of the freezer
Oil or butter, to fry

Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and soda and sift into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar, buttermilk, yolks, butter, oil and vanilla extract- it's alright if it's a bit lumpy.

Beat the whites until firm peaks form and fold into the batter.

Heat a frying pan or skillet (nonstick works best) on medium. Add Use a ladle or 1/4 Cup scoop to dispense batter onto the pan. Drop a few blueberries onto each mound of batter.

Fry about 30 seconds on each side (in the beginning it takes longer since the skillet isn't hot yet) or until golden brown. Keep warm in an 80℃ oven until all the batter is used up.

These are best served with extra fresh blueberries (in season), maple syrup and pats of butter.