My Favourite Summer Baking with Longing for Marché St. Georges

There are few things I enjoy or remember more about my summer holidays then long afternoons alone or with friends at a cafe. Even if I'm enjoying only one mug of coffee, the act of sitting and drawing out the experience, makes it seem as if I'm drinking coffee "all day." And what could be more relaxing?

We're spoiled here in Toronto -- there is so much good coffee .. here ... here ... here...oh and this one and this one.. this is one of our old stand-bys, where I drank I gigantic up of cinnamon laced coffee served to me in a beer glass and enjoyed and peanut butter and jelly sandwich, all alone. This one is a frequent stop on our bike rides, and this one, just around the corner from me, holds such sentimental value. I've enjoyed solo breakfasts over bottomless coffee here and here, because breakfast treats make the coffee experience that much better, don't you think?

Despite all the wonderful cafes here in Toronto, yesterday, my heart tugged towards to a neighbourhood coffee shop that we went to in Vancouver: Marché St. Georges.  It's tucked away in quiet residential neighbourhood, away from the more stylish, sleek-looking cafes on busier, streets. It's also a market that sells unique products and gifts such as specialty teas, coffees, cookies and an intriguing honey, flavoured with thai chillies. Although the gifts were tempting, we settled on iced coffees and a few treats -- a cherry crumble tart and a butter tart -- and let the late afternoon melt into evening.

But yesterday when I was thinking about Marché St. Georges, it occurred to me that I wanted to have breakfast there, sitting in the patio, slowly enjoying a coffee and something sweet, warm and fruity, in front of some reading material or maybe even some *gasp* planning for September. If anything were to make the prospect of going back to work in a few weeks bearable, it would be breakfast and coffee at Marché St. Georges. But since I'm in Toronto and no longer rambling about the streets and trails of Vancouver, I'll just savour the memories along with my fruity and caffeinated breakfast.

And my breakfast of choice? It would have to be a simple summer fruit crumble. When I got back from Vancouver, there were baskets of sour cherries just begging to be taken home from the farmer's market. Some of them were cooked down and jarred, but most of them went into making this crumble many, many times. In with the cherries, I threw some raspberries, and some chopped rhubarb. A squeeze of lemon would have made sense, but I didn't want to taint that beautiful, almost almond-like flavour of the sour cherries, so I skipped that part. I also skipped the spices I would generally add to a crisp or crumble topping like cinnamon or nutmeg, just to keep things nice and fruity and pure.

I ate this warm, right out of the oven with my coffee, but it was equally as good eaten cold then next day with some yogurt. It was beautiful and the perfect way to wake up on a perfect summer day.

Simple Summer Fruit Crumble
inspired by Joy the Baker
serves 4-6

6 cups of fresh summer fruit, chopped if necessary (berries, cherries, peaches.. go wild)
2 tablespoons of natural cane sugar
1 cup + 1 tablespoon of spelt flour
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons of rolled oats
1/3 cup of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
3 tablespoons of Earth Balance (or butter)

1. Place your fruit in a large baking dish. Sprinke over the cane sugar, 1 tablespoon of flour and 2 tablespoons of rolled oats. Mix well.

2. In a bowl, stir together the rest of the flour, oats and brown sugar until everything is evenly combined. Add the maple syrup of stir gently.

3. Add the Earth Balance or butter and with your fingers, rub it against the flour mixture until you get a nice coarse meal.

4. Spoon the crumble mixture over the fruit mixture and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes or so, or until the crumble is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling up.

Spring Spring..

Spring = busy. Spring = almost insanely busy. Spring = distracting sunshine that prevents me from working on the weekends. Today, though, is foggy and rain is threatening to fall .. Spring = rain as well.

Spring also means Mother's day and I guess I should have posted some Mother's Day treats last weekend, but I just didn't get around to it. My own mommy is off gallivanting in east Asia, and my Grandma was more than happy with her noodle-y brunch and piece of apple cake. Instead of working or blogging, I went bike-riding instead. Bad me.

This weekend, however, I'm stuck at home procrastinating on an inevitable teacher's year end task: reports. Yes, again. I'm currently taking a break and thinking about thing many things I can make for my Mom when she returns, and I'm reminded fondly of this healthy, tasty, fruity, coconut-topped loaf that I served to my parents on Family Day way back in February. It's not just any old loaf -- it's totally special and worth serving the most important of guests, like your mommy. I'm not a stranger to making loaf cakes, but I wanted this one to be more special. I got the idea for the coconut topping from Heidi over at 101 Cookbooks, who made a cherry tart with a macaroon topping. My mom loves coconut, so this was perfect for her.




This loaf is as simple as it gets. Whole wheat flour, a little rolled oats, frozen berries (although the fresh ones are coming soon! They would be fabulous in this recipes) and a splash of real fruit juice topped with a simple mixture of coconut, chopped hazelnuts and maple syrup. It was the perfect tea time treat and my Mom loved it. If you're like me and didn't get to spend Mother's Day with your mom, bake her up this beautiful loaf, just because. It'll be even more special.

Whole Wheat Raspberry Loaf with Macaroon Topping
inspired by 101 Cookbooks

1/4 up of rolled oats
6 tablespoons of skim milk yogurt
splash of vanilla
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of honey
1 egg
2 tablespoons of canola oil
2 tablespoons of fruit juice
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1 cup of raspberries (fresh or frozen)

1/4 cup of unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup of chopped hazelnuts
3 tablespoons of maple syrup

1. In a large bowl, combine the oats, yogurt and vanilla and let stand for about 15 minutes.

2. Whisk in brown sugar, honey, oil and fruit juice.

3. Sift in the flours, baking powder and baking soda and mix until just combined.

4. Fold in the berries. Pour the batter in a loaf tin.

5. Make the topping my combining the coconut, hazelnuts and maple syrup. Sprinkle over the loaf.

6. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes, or until the topping gets dark and crunchy and a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

Letting Summer Go ...

I know, I know. I've lamented about the loss of summer more than once. But .. but .. it's just that I'm so relaxed in the summer, and there seems to be so much more time to just be. Like every other summer, this once seemed to fly by. It was like all of July, I spent anticipating our trip to Moncton, and then once we got back, all I could do was think about school starting and counting the days till the end of freedom. Well, my friends, September has finally arrived and summer, for me at least, has come to an end.

But I'm not crying, because this summer has been one of the best and most exciting. I have one last summer story post for you coming up next week, but for now, I'll keep it short and sweet and present to you ... some beer bread. But this is not just ANY beer bread -- it's fruity, summery, memory-inducing beer bread, made first with Pump House Blueberry Ale that my best friend brought over one weekend as a funny surprise. Her and my partner drank quite a few of these when we were in Moncton. Over there, it was the specialty, brewed in downtown Moncton. It even had a little restaurant attached to the brewery called The Pump House.

A little research brought me to this wonderful blog, Farmgirl Fare, where I saw her recipe for whole wheat beer bread. I used the blueberry ale and added in a handful of fresh Ontario blueberries for good measure. It smelled wonderful in the oven, and even better when it came out. The blueberries had exploded and turned jammy and beautiful and I could definitely taste that slightly bitter tang from the beer. The texture was hearty and dense, as expected from a beer bread, but a little bit too moist and sticky. The next time I tried it, I used KLB Raspberry Wheat Beer and, you guessed it, fresh local raspberries provided by my sister's CSA. This time, I baked it a little longer and the texture was definitely better.

Don't be scared of bread. Go ahead and bake some. Use a fancy beer and throw in some fruit. Hey .. you could even try chocolate beer bread and use chocolate stout .. oh my ...

Fruity Beer Bread
adapted from Farmgirl Fare

1 cup of whole wheat flour
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon of baking powder
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of honey
7 ounces of fruity beer (that's about 3/4 of the bottle)
a handful of berries to match the beer, washed and patted dry

1. Sift together the flours, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Pour the honey on top of the dry ingredients.

2. Open a bottle of fruity beer. Take a biiiig gulp. Pour the rest of the bottle into the other ingredients and stir gently until everything comes together in a sticky, thick batter. Add the berries and mix them in.

4. Pour in a prepared loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean, and the top has browned every so slightly. Best served warm with a cup of coffee.

Ooooooops.. some very tasty miscalculations

Ok, I'm going to say it. I'm a bit uptight. Whew. That was hard to admit -- but like all things that make us stronger, admitting our weaknesses is good in the long run. Like that time in high school when the good-looking guidance counsellor suggested that if I hated math, I might not want to go into the science field. I was furious at first. He didn't know me! I was going to be a scientist and that was that. Math was just something I'd have to deal with or learn to like. A year later, I was lining up at 8:00am in the morning with a note from my Mommy asking the ex-cop VP if I could swap Algebra/Geometry for Writers Craft, and switching my university dreams from University of Toronto to York University. Mr. New-Guy-Guidance was right. I didn't want to admit it, but in the end, I did. And I wholeheartedly regret not telling him.

But I'm off topic! My uptightness, yes. I'm a little uptight. (Sorry for getting mad when you told me before!) Sometimes, I plan everything out, and it all works out. Other times, I have a perfect plan that doesn't follow through. Though I've had a pretty good coping strategy, I'm pleased to say that I'm learning to make the best out of a situation that comes about unplanned instead of just accepting the consequences as is.

For example, last week, I made a this beautiful roasted tomato pasta salad to take to a barbecue party. The recipe called for a vinaigrette made with lemon juice, mustard, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and honey. Yum! Fabulous combination that tasted awesome. However, when I assembled the salad, I found that my tomatoes that had been roasting with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and garlic, produced lovely juices that reduced nicely in the oven, and coated the pasta perfectly. What did that mean? My lovely little bowl of vinaigrette went unused. Instead of putting plastic wrap over the bowl and leaving it in the back of the fridge for a month, which I would have probably done before, I surprised my partner by using it to marinate some chicken thighs. "Look what the balsamic vinegar did for the chicken!" he exclaimed when searing them off. I smiled proudly when I saw a yummy-looking, caramelly crust on the outside of the chicken. We'll definitely be doing this one again!

Balsamic Roasted Chicken

2 teaspoons of grainy mustard
juice of one lemon
1.5 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
4 chicken thighs
1/4 cup of broth or water
2 sprigs of thyme

1. Prepare the marinade by whisking together the lemon juice, mustard, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

2. Place the chicken thighs in a large dish and pour over the marinade. Turn the chicken several times in the marinade so that everything gets coated evenly. Let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour.

3. Heat some olive oil in a stainless steel pan until smoking. Place your chicken thighs carefully in the pan, making sure that you let any excess marinade drip off. Save the remaining marinade for later. Sear the chicken thighs for about 3-4 minutes on each side until a nice, dark, sticky crust forms.

4. Remove the chicken from the pan and let it rest for a few minutes. In the meantime, add the remaining the marinade and broth/water to the pan and let it reduce a bit, making sure you scrap up the yummy, balsamicy bits from the bottom. Add the sprigs of thyme.

5. Put the chicken back in the pan and place in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.



Example number 2 (hey, I'm getting less uptight already!): For an outdoor dinner with my parents, I was going to make the best strawberry and rhubarb crumble. The best. That's what kickpleat said so I had to give it a try. I had 3 lovely stalks of rhubarb begging to be used up. However, when I went to the market, there were no more Ontario strawberries. Instead of sulking in disappointment or breaking down and buying those gigantic California strawberries, I looked to the local fruit that replaced the strawberries on the shelf: beautiful, delicate, ripe raspberries. I had never really baked with fresh raspberries before, let alone combine it with rhubarb. It didn't seem like a good idea at first -- tart rhubarb + tart raspberries ... ? I gave it go, and thought, if we're going with "tart" we're going all the way. I added a big dose of lemon, popped it in the oven and hoped for the best. Result? Bubbly, crumbly, very tart, lovely raspberry flavour and a hit with my family. Yup, definitely the best.

Raspberry Rhubarb Crumble
adapted from Everybody likes Sandwiches

3 stalks of rhubarb - chopped
1/2 pint of fresh raspberries
juice of half a lemon juice
1/3 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of corn starch

1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup of ground almonds
1/4 cup of oats
zest and juice and half a lemon
2 tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1/4 cup of canola oil

1. Placed the chopped rhubarb and raspberries in a baking dish. Sprinkle over the lemon juice, corn starch and sugar. Toss so that all the fruit is coated.

2. Prepare the crumble by first mixing together the flour, ground almonds and oats. Add the honey, brown sugar, oil, lemon zest and juice and stir until a crumble forms.

3. Spread the crumble evenly over the fruit. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes or until the crumble gets golden brown and the fruit gets bubbly. Pucker up and get ready for a bite!