Memories of Matchstick

A few days before our trip to Vancouver, when I was in the midst of wrapping up another school year, my partner asked me "What are you most excited to do when we get to Vancouver?" In my foggy brain that was still focused on report cards and marking and cleaning up the classroom, I blurted out "Drink lots of good coffee." And so the search began.

With a few tips and a little research, we developed a little list of coffee shops we wanted to visit while in Vancouver. Although we didn't get to do all of them, we did sample a lot of coffee on our vacation. I had many many iced americanos and countless cups of drip coffee, along with quite a few coffee shop treats. One of the first (and favourite!) places to went to for coffee in Vancouver, was Matchstick. It seemed to pop up out of no where (there's a trend .. finding coffee shops when you least expect it!) while we were trekking downtown on our first day in Vancouver. And it was on the list!

 And we loved it. They roast their beans in many different varieties in house and bake all their goodies right on site. The coffee did not disappoint. The americanos and cappuccinos were smooth and flavourful and the many different varieties of drip coffee available are single-brewed to order. Although there were many many different treats to choose from, we were recommended to try to chocolate almond berry scone. 

Let me tell you about this scone: first, it's vegan (which I didn't even realize until the next day when I actually read the sign) and also, it's made with hearty, nutty spelt flour. It was a dense, flavourful kind of scone, oozing with dark chocolate chips and fresh raspberries and blackberries and I definitely tasted a distinct but not over-powering coconut flavour. It was perfect with our coffee and I made a note to myself to try to re-create it at home.

Check out my drink! It's a home-made iced chai soy latte! You freeze a concentrated chai tea in ice cube trays and add your milk of choice! Recipe here. But I cheated .. and just used chai tea bags instead of regular tea with whole spices.


My scones turned out a little bit lighter but tasted quite similiar. I was sure that Matchstick used coconut oil in their recipe, but seeing as I haven't jumped on the coconut oil craze just yet, I settle for coconut flavoured Earth Balance, which worked perfectly. Ground almonds, almond milk, spelt flour, vegan chocolate chips and of course, fresh-from-the-market raspberries are also in the mix. These scones were a perfect morning and afternoon treat and were gone in no time. I'm already planning a second batch ..


Vegan Chocolate Berry Scones
inspired by Matchstick
recipe adapted from Post Punk Kitchen
makes about 10 medium-sized scones

1/2 cup of ground almonds
1 cup of spelt flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 cup of organic cane sugar
1/3 cup of coconut Earth Balance
1/2 cup of fresh raspberries
1/4 cup of vegan dark chocolate chips
1/4 cup of almond milk

1. In a large bowl, stir together the almonds, flour baking powder and sugar.

2. Add the Earth Balance and, with your fingers, rub the mixture together until you get a coarse mealy-textured mixture.

3. Add the berries, chocolate chips and almond milk. Gently stir the mixture until it comes together in a semi-sticky dough.

4. Drop 1/4 cup-sized mounds of dough on cookie tray and bake at 375 for about 15 minutes, or until the tops get nice and toasty brown.

5. Enjoy with your coffee.  Thanks, Matchstick!!

Mid-Week Quickies

Ok, so get your mind out of the gutter! I don't mean a quickie like that ... although ... ok! Focus. I meant that's it's the middle of the week and it's busy, but I have just enough time to share two recipes with you in one quick post. So here goes!

First, I'm proud to say that I made a bechamel sauce all by myself for the very first time! And it wasn't that hard! And oh my, was it delicious. I was even brave enough to make a few substitutions to this wonderful recipe at Everybody Likes Sandwiches. Basically, it's a macaroni and cheese recipe with fresh spring vegetables thrown in along with the summery zing of lemon juice and lemon zest. It was a perfect supper, and easy enough for me to put together in the middle of the week. I made a few little substitutions: I used parsley instead of oregano and broccoli instead of spinach, I used a combination of milk and homemade vegetable stock instead of just milk and I used olive oil instead of butter. What's the trick? Whisking... constantly! This helps to prevent lumps from forming when you stir in the liquids to the flour/oil mixture. I also used a really nice applewood smoked cheddar, so the cheese sauce had an extra little kick. The recipe is really easy to follow and even I couldn't screw it up. I definitely recommend you make this -- even if you're not into creamy sauces, because this sauce is far from those goppy, heavy, alfredo sauces that give my stomach nightmares. It's creamy, but light and fresh and oh so easy to make. PLEASE try it!


Wow! That was quick! One more quick one: yummy raspberry crumble muffins. I made these last Thursday and they stayed amazingly fresh and delicious all weekend -- fresh enough to give as treats to friends. They're sweet, fruity, lemony, very moist and almost healthy -- I made some substitutions to cut back on the amount of fat and sugar and they still came out amazing. The crumble topping is unique -- I used chopping roasted almonds which gave it a lovey deep flavour as well as a little crunch factor. Even though this recipe requires more than one bowl, I'd still say that it's a contender for mid-week baking.

Raspberry Crumble Muffins
(adapted from "Cookies" p. 398 - by Catherine Atkinson, Joanna Farrow and Valerie Barrett.)

Crumble Topping

1/2 cup of chopped almonds
3 tablespoons of melted butter
3 tablespoons of whole wheat flour
1/4 cup of brown sugar

Muffins

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
1/4 cup of honey (I used a fragrant wildflower honey)
1/4 cup of canola oil
1/4 cup of skim milk yogurt
1/2 cup of skim milk
1 egg
juice and zest of half a lemon
1 1/3 cups of fresh raspberries

1. Make the crumble by combining all the ingredients and mixing gently until you get a crumbly, sandy texture. Set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl mix together the egg, brown sugar, canola oil, honey, yogurt, milk, lemon juice and zest. Give it a good big mix to make sure everything is combined.

3. In a smaller bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and cinnamon.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture in three stages, mixing only until it's combined. Add in the the raspberries and give it a final mix.

5. Spoon the batter into muffin tins (I made 24 minis!) and top with the crumble topping.

6. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes or until a cake tested inserted comes out clean. Don't forget to share them with your friends.