Desserts

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Raspberry Coconut Bread

It’s nice to cook with seasonal ingredients. Luckily for me, coconut is in season now in Canada so coconut bread is a good idea. By in season I mean a few packages of coconut flakes were being sold at my local grocery store, of course. Unfortunately, since the last ice age, coconut trees have not grown in Canada. If you’re in a tropical country you probably don’t even have to go buy coconut for this recipe, just walk outside and look around – it seems that tropical countries have coconut trees everywhere. Just open the coconut (you want a brown one) and hit it with a hammer so that the coconut “meat” separates from the shell, shred the “meat” in your food processor, and then dehydrate it. If you’re not lucky enough to live near a coconut tree then just buy some coconut flakes in the grocery store.

Coconut bread with raspberry-lime compote and fresh whipped cream

I used frozen raspberries for this recipe because I still had a lot left over from my raspberry hazelnut torte. While I was waiting for them to defrost I was reading the plastic bag they were stored in and found out that the raspberries were imported all the way from Lithuania.

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Raspberry Hazelnut Torte

I was wondering a few days ago what flavours went well with raspberries besides the classic vanilla and rose. I eventually had this idea that chives would pair well with raspberries. Yup. Chives – relatives of the onion. So, I tried to find a recipe online that used chives with raspberries and found none. At that point I questioned whether or not chives were a good choice. Online research made it seem as though chives would complement raspberries as well as Worcestershire sauce would (you know, the sauce that no one knows how to spell). At first, I decided against using chives with raspberries since it would be too risky. But, eventually, I did it anyway just to see what would happen (and to entertain you).

Raspberry hazelnut torte with vanilla-chive pastry cream, hazelnut dacquoise, and hazelnut nougatine

I decided to made a hazelnut dacquoise for the cake layers. Dacquoise is made very similarly to French macarons, except when the nuts are folded in the goal is not to deflate the egg whites (while making French macarons you’re trying to deflate then). Here, you want to keep as much air inside the egg whites as possible so that the cake is light and fluffy.

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Basil-Peach Cobbler

I’ve got this thing against apple pie. All pies, for that matter. It just seems strange to see photographs of perfect slices of pie. If the crust was truly flaky and perfect it wouldn’t look like that. I’m sorry, but it just wouldn’t. A perfect slice of pie falls apart as soon as it’s taken out of the pan. People need to realize that just because a dessert isn’t presented in neat slices doesn’t mean it’s not delicious. It’s the same thing with cobblers. This cobbler? Delicious.

Digging into rosemary-peach cobbler with a dash of whiskey

Here’s the thing with cobbler: it can be ridiculously simple to make and taste great. What sets cobblers apart though are the extra steps you can take to make them amazing. Sweet, juicy, and ripe summer peaches that drip down your chin are enticing for making peach cobbler but they should be avoided. That’s right – do not use them! While great for eating out of hand, overly juicy peaches actually lead to a mushy peach cobbler that doesn’t have slices of peaches, but peach mush. You shouldn’t have to settle for mush, even if it’s peach mush. Actually, peach mush doesn’t so bad…

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