Labour Day Again

Labour day snuck up on me this year. I usually see it coming at least a month in advance, and then begin the slow lament of summer's end. But not this year. This year was sunny skies and patio brunches and early morning farmers' markets, and tree ripened peaches and juicy, impossibly sweet watermelons all the way up until this weekend. And then all of the sudden.  Ouf. It's Labour day.

It's in my small tradition on this blog to bake a little something on Labour day to help me ease back into the routine of getting up early, teaching, marking, planning, going to bed at an insanely early hour, and then doing it all over again. Not that it's particularly painful -- I like routines, and I love my job. But after 2 months of adventures and unstructured days, of coffee breaks whenever I felt like it and spending whole days reading in pyjamas, it's kind of hard to let go.

So today, I've made us a chocolately zucchini bread to help smooth over the Labour day jitters and make us feel happy about returning to work or school tomorrow. This bread is dark and deep, but with a very light and fluffy crumb. It's packed with good things like shredded coconut, summer zucchini, cocoa nibs and spelt and just a whisper of those pumpkin pie spices -- nutmeg and cinnamon. It was a great way to use up two zucchinis that I kind of forgot about at the bottom on my crisper, and that quarter cup of coconut milk I was dying to use up. The crunchy topping of flaked almonds and raw sugar make this loaf feel like something really special... and it is! It's a Labour day treat and will last all through the work week.

I'm still sad summer is over for me, but I still look forward to a few more weeks of warm temperatures and fair skies.. and just a few more posts about Vancouver!

Chocolate Zucchini Bread
adapted from Everybody Likes Sandwiches

2 small zucchinis, grated
1 egg
2 tablespoons of safflower oil
2 tablespoons of plain yogurt
1/4 cup of coconut milk
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups of spelt flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
a pinch each of cinnamon and nutmeg
a small handful each of shredded coconut and cocoa nibs (chocolate chips if you haven't got nibs)
a small handful each of flaked almonds and raw sugar

1. Put your shredded zucchini in the middle of a large tea towel. Gather the towel up around the zucchini pile and then squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze! Try to get as much liquid out of the zucchini as possible. Don't skip this step, otherwise your bread will be gummy.

2. Put the squeezed zucchini, egg, oil, yogurt, coconut milk and brown sugar in a large bowl and mix very well. Sift in the cocoa powder, spelt flour, baking powder and soda, and spices. Mix gently, until just combined.

3. Add in the coconut and cocoa nibs and give it one final stir. Pour the batter in a loaf pan and sprinkle with flaked almonds and raw sugar.

4. Bake the loaf in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes, or until the almonds get slightly golden, and a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Anzac Cookies + Happy Blog Birthday

Just a quick little post to say HAPPY (belated) BLOG BIRTHDAY to ursula over at Apples and Almonds, one of my favourite blogs. In honour of ursula's blog birthday, I made a batch of Anzac bicuits, one of my favourite posts on her site. They're super tasty and really easy to whip up. It's also easily veganized since there are no eggs involved. I was going to make something with almonds and apples in it ... but I thought that would be a bit too weird and cheesy! :)

Let me tell you more about these biscuits. First, they make your house smell like a bakery. The combination of oats and coconut give these cookies a toasty, hearty flavour, absolutely perfect with coffee or tea. They're slightly crunchy on the outside and magically chewy on the inside. I made a few tiny tweakings, because that's what ursula always does and I felt that she would have approved! First, I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of self-rising flour (you could add a bit of baking powder to make up for it, and I meant to, but forgot. The cookies were still fabulous), honey instead of gold syrup (which I'm sure what it is exactly .. ) and I added a splash of almond extract. Likes I said, these cookies are pretty toasty perfection.


I've said enough. You should head over to Apples and Almonds and find the recipe. You'll find a whole bunch of other cool and funky things as well. I love it for many reasons:

- Ursula lives on the other side of the world, so it's sooooooooo cool to see her cooking wintery soups in May and summery fresh pastas in January
- There's a video, often featuring funky music at the end of each post
- There's so much more than food! Crafts, sewing, fashion ...
- Ursula makes crazy classics likes Julia Child recipes, french pastries, multiple layer (and coloured!) cakes, and lots .. of .. treats!

There's more, but I won't spoil it for you. Head on over and take a peak. And make the Anzac biscuits!

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.

Another New Year .. a little late

I've crawled out of my report card hole, thank goodness! I'm a little late, but I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Lunar New Year! It's the year of the Rabbit, which only means to me, that the students at my school are all making cute little origami rabbits.. I have like ten of them on my desk right now.

Lunar New Year means lots of little traditions in my family -- cleaning the house (did that .. kind of), getting a haircut (yeah .. not this year), lots of family time spent eating (yup.. dinner.. and then dim sum!) and of course, New Year treats. I love baking for family occasions. The holiday season, I did tons of baking for my family: gift-cookies, orange crumb cake on Christmas eve, cranberry walnut bread for Christmas morning, rosemary chocolate chip olive oil cake for New Year's day .. yup! I totally baked up a storm. But for Lunar New year, it's a bit tricky. I never delved into the world of Chinese desserts, mainly because they either included difficult-to-make fillings (like lotus paste, black bean paste, and melon/coconut filling) or they were deep fried (yuck).


One of my favourite new year flavours is included in a deep fried, oily dumpling-type snack. Basically, it's a deep-fried pastry pocket filled with sesame seeds, sugar, peanuts and coconut. I gave those up several years ago, but this year, I thought I'd try to re-make it in my kitchen. I'm so glad I did! Instead of rolling up all those goodies into a deep-fried package, I baked it into a healthy-ish cookie (oats, whole wheat flour, canola oil ..). I made one batch with peanut butter and another with tahini -- both were delicious. The secret is toasting the coconut, peanuts and sesame seeds in the oven before mixing them in the cookie. It's crumbly and crunchy with just a little bit of chewiness when you get to the middle -- perfect with a cup of jasmine tea.


Now that I've officially tried baking Chinese-inspired desserts, my next plan is to play around with azuki beans. It's often made into a sweet paste, or cooked into a sweet dessert porridge (yeah I know it sounds kinda .. well... ya know..), but who knows? Azuki muffins? Bars? Squares? We'll see ...

New Year Cookies
makes about 3oish mini cookies

1/2 cup of peanuts, chopped
1/2 cup of unsweetened, shredded coconut
2 tablespoon of white sesame seeds
2 tablespoons of black sesame seeds
1/4 cup of peanut butter or tahini
1/4 cup of canola oil
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of white sugar
1 egg
1 cup of rolled oats
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the peanuts, coconut and sesame seeds out on a baking tray and place in the oven. Toss after about 5 minutes and let it toast for another 5. They should be nice and golden. Set aside.

2. Mix the peanut butter, oil and sugars together until smooth. Add the egg and mix until combined. Add the flour, oats and baking powder and mix.

3. Add the coconut mixture to the cookie dough. With your hands, knead the dough so that all the coconut, peanuts and sesame seeds get incorporated. Form the dough into little balls and place on a cookie sheet. Flatten (or not!) with wet fingers and bake into the oven for about 15 minutes, or until they get golden brown.

4. Serve with Chinese tea. Gong Hai Fat Choy!

Favourite Fruits and Rainy Labour Day Baking

Labour day is always a funny kind of day. I always wake up with a funny feeling, the feeling of something ending and something beginning, wanting to have an adventure, but knowing that obligations follow the next day. And I never ever have a good night's sleep on labour day. My most vivid memory of labour day was when I was about 11 years old, and it had turned cold all of a sudden. Instead of bounding downstairs in shorts and t-shirts, ready to tackle the weekend, I dug around until I found my flannel night gown. I spent the day curled up on the couch and going back and forth from being excited and dreading the first day of school.

This year, was not too much different. The funny feeling came over me the minute I woke up, but this year, I wanted to make it disappear, or at least fade to the back of my mind for the first couple hours of the day. The rainyness didn't help and the chill that sneaked up over the whole loft reminded my of that labour day way back when I was 11. To help ease my anxiety over summer leaving and autumn arriving, my holidays ending and work beginning, I decided to do a little bit of baking with what I have just recently discovered, is my favourite fruit.

If you had asked me even a few months ago what my favourite fruit was, I would have probably said apples. They're reliable, wholesome, very Ontario and who doesn't like apples? But, as much as I like my empires, and macintoshes, idareds, granny smiths and cortlands, I've recently discovered that there's another fruit that I pretty much add to everything: the lemon. From iced teas to curries, muffins to coleslaw and everything in between, it's the lemon that adds brightness, fruitiness, tang and that unmistakable finishing touch.


But, this labour day, I made lemon the star of the show. Don't gasp, people. Those lovely pictures of the perfectly cut, sugar dusted lemon bars above are, sadly, not mine. They were made by my best friend and closeted cooking blogger for a barbeque party this past summer. Not only do they look lovely enough to serve to royalty, but the boys at the party couldn't keep their hands off of them... and my boy even asked for the recipe. We didn't get to baking it this summer-- mostly because we were afraid that we'd be disappointed that they wouldn't turn out to be the exact luscious, lemony, tangy, crumbly, buttery goodness of the originals from the party. But I thought it would be the perfect little baking project to chase away those labour day blues. And it definitely was. The smell coming from the oven instantly brought sunshine and summer back into my mind, and kept back the back-to-school anxiety, if only for a couple of hours.

I'm going to leave you with the original recipe, but as usual, I made a few little tweeks which I mention below. Happy lemon-baking!

Coconut Lemon Squares
via "Mia the baker" adapted from Betty Crocker's Entertaining Basics

Coconut Crust

1 cup of all purpose flour
6 tablespoons of butter or margarine at room temperature
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix everything except the coconut in the large bowl using a pastry blender, fork, or cold hands, until a soft dough forms.
3. Stir in the coconut
4. Press into an ungreased pan (Mia used an 8x8" square pan)
5. Bake for 20-25 mins until golden. While the crust is baking, prepare the lemonyness.

Lemony Filling

1 cup of granulated sugar
2 teaspoons of grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons of lemon juice (about 1 small lemon)
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs

1. Beat everything in a medium bowl until light and fluffy. (Mia used an electric mixer on high speed. It took about 3 minutes).
2. Pour the lemony filling over the hot crust.
3. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until there is no indent when you lightly touch the centre.
4. Cool on a wire rack for about 1 hour.
5. Dust with icing sugar if you want to be fancy.


As usual, I made a few changes, the most drastic because it was raining outside and I didn't want to go to the store ...

1. Instead of 6 tablespoons of butter, I used 4 tablespoons of canola oil and 2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter. I didn't need a fork or pastry blender -- a spatula worked fine. The peanut + coconut combo was so good that we didn't miss the butter at all.

2. For the flour, I used 1/2 cup of whole wheat pastry flour, 1/4 cup of ground almonds and 1/4 cup of all purpose flour .. just to be interesting. :)

3. I used about 3 tablespoons of lemon juice because my lemon was large and I wanted to finish juicing it. :) My mixture never went light and fluffy .. it kinda stayed liquidy and I was worried, but all was mended under the heat of the oven -- it only took about 20 minutes for it to set.

4. Last but not least, I baked it in a 9 inch round pie-shaped dish, so I couldn't cut them out into beautiful little bars, but now that I'm thinking about it, it would make a great substitute for a birthday cake ...

Oh, I almost forgot! If you're in Toronto and you love coffee, you should totally buy an Indie Coffee Passport. $20 gets you a card where you can get a drink of up to $5 in 24 different independent coffee shops. It's a coffee adventure! We've already started ..

Green Grind: We had a cappuccino and a skim latte.
Red Rocket (Welleslely location): We had a cappuccino and a "Red Rocket" (a shot of espresso, chocolate syrup and brewed coffee).