"A Taste Of Heart & Home"
The inspiration for this Coconut Orange Pudding recipe came about due to a few points:
Coconut Orange Pudding | urbnspice.com
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Straight up front, this recipe for Sunflower Butter Crumble is a fortuitous recipe. As a matter of fact, my Pinterest by-line is ‘Inspiration in my kitchen is often an experimental coincidence!’ This was definitely one of those times when an experiment turned into something else coincidentally.
Sometimes, those are the very best recipes, don’t you think? Think about Eaton Mess, for instance – pure happenstance. Popsicles were invented by accident. So were potato chips….the list goes on. The point is, all of these so-called mishaps are actually famous food products today. I think that I should rename these ‘The Serendipitous Sunflower Butter Crumbles.’ I am not sure if my Sunflower Butter Crumble will become famous, but I am sure you will enjoy trying them. They are delicious. They have a crunchy, buttery texture (although they are nut free and dairy free). As a matter of fact, Sunflower Butter Crumble is gluten free, grain free, nut free, dairy free, egg free and refined sugar-free.
Sunflower Butter Crumbles
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Prelude: I am a proud Canadian. When the Culinary Historians of Canada invited food bloggers to participate in the “CHC Canada 150 Food Blog Challenge”, I knew that I wanted in! What a great way to celebrate and honour Canada’s 150th birthday by featuring a different Canadian dish or discussing a topic near and dear to our hearts each month. The topic for the February “CHC Canada 150 Food Blog Challenge” is called doing without. This topic hits close to home for many Canadians, especially if you have a family member who has lived through difficult economic times. I am sure that there are many Canadians with countless stories of recent times or that have been passed down through the generations. My family is no exception. The Art of Doing Without is more of a skill – essentially a life skill.
My French Canadian Grandmother – Meme (Mimi to us) and my Mom told us of many difficult times during their lives where they did without or utilized what they did have in some creative ways. My parents & grandparents had a lot of influence in the development of my frugal nature.
Careful, cautious and thrifty were important characteristics of my forbearers. I draw on those traits daily in my own kitchen. In this article, I will share a few of their stories, recipes and techniques that have been passed down to me regarding how to make the most of what is available.
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I want to tell you why I came up with the idea for Pistachio Chicken Pastry Puffs. You would think that a girl who specializes in pastry arts would be totally focussed on creating a dessert. To be honest, I played with the idea of making pistachio brittle. That particular confectionery is gorgeous to look at, delicious and used frequently as a garnish for desserts either as a wafer-thin shard or crushed as praline. I am quite sure that I have made several hundred pounds of pistachio brittle over the years.
Pistachios are often used in both the sweet and savoury kitchen. When I think back to the wonderful dishes we made at my workplace that included pistachios as an ingredient, it occurs to me that they were typically very special dishes reserved for VIP events.
It is little wonder – they are expensive little nuts. Perhaps one of the reasons why they are ‘trop cher’ (too expensive for everyday use) is that it takes so many years (8 to 10 years) before the medium-sized deciduous tree produces its first major crop. (That reminds me of the cork trees in Portugal where the bark is harvested every nine years – an interesting fact.) So that aside, the uniquely similar properties of the pistachio nut is what inspired me to make a special appetizer dish that would feature them at their finest. A savoury bite like Pistachio Chicken Pastry Puffs seems apropos to this very pretty and tasty nut.
Pistachio Chicken Pastry Puffs cut on a diagonal
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What do you think of when Cinnamon Rolls are mentioned? Does it create food memories of cinnamon-spice gooey sticky buns or cinnamon pinwheels with a cream cheese glaze? Does it make your mouth water when the fragrance of cinnamon buns are wafting through the kitchen while they are baking in the oven? Can you wait even five minutes before you twist off a bit off of one corner of a freshly baked hot-out-of-the-oven cinnamon roll? That is familiar to me on all accounts.
And, if you are anything like me, a cinnamon roll feast is something that we seldom make now at home unless there is a special function where a large quantity is required. Then, I remember why I loved making cinnamon rolls so much. There is just something about working with a really nice dough that is just so satisfying.
Cinnamon Rolls with Vanilla
Do you know the difference between cinnamon rolls and cinnamon buns? I wonder about things like that. Actually, there really is no difference at all. The terms cinnamon rolls and cinnamon buns are often used interchangeably. There are certainly many different ways of making cinnamon rolls. Do you prefer the buns baked tightly together on one tray or individually baked in muffin tins? Do you like the cinnamon rolls individually baked free form or each contained in a pretty pan? Do you go off the beaten path and create something a little unconventional like a twisted cinnamon ring or chop the cinnamon roll dough to create an interesting effect?
Cinnamon Ring for special occasions
It does not really matter how you decide to bake them – what really matters is the quality of the ingredients that you use. I am quite fussy about the butter and eggs, of course, but what is really important for this baked good is the quality of the cinnamon. The cinnamon that I prefer is either Ceylon or Korintje variety from The Vanilla Food Company – the quality of their cinnamon is unsurpassed.
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The very reason that these Ultimate Sunflower Butter Breakfast Bars were created was due entirely to another recipe I was updating for Nut Butter and No-Nut Butter Cookies. I had been experiment making Sunflower Seed Butter – let’s just say that resulted in an interesting reaction. You can read my Funny Sunflower seed butter story in this post.
The moral of the story is: good things happen to those who are determined. I was very pleased with the outcome with my recipe for Sunflower Butter and also my bonus sunflower butter crumbles that resulted from trial and repeat. In addition to these Ultimate Sunflower Butter Breakfast Bars, stay tuned for Coconut Orange Pudding with Sunflower Butter Crumble garnish – another Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Egg free, Nut free and Refined Sugar-Free dessert.
Sunflower Butter Bars
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“Success is no accident.
It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all,
love of what you are doing or learning to do”.
Pele
LEARNING TIPS is a little bonus that I like to incorporate on Urbnspice and into my cookbooks. I use LEARNING TIPS to elaborate on a technique or share tips with you that helped me throughout my career as a chef and pastry chef as well as my home kitchen.
I use the term LEARNING TIPS in a broader sense to allow for a greater scope to explain some of the finer points of baking and cooking. This can often make the difference between a good result and an exceptional one.
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Find over 40 Super Bowl Snacks from Food Bloggers of Canada, including one of my favourites from the Urb’n’Spice blog. Have fun planning for your Superbowl party or any appetizer and small plates gathering today with these amazing recipes. It’s going to be a great party!
Every week Food Bloggers of Canada has a recipe roundup of some great Canadian recipes from Canadian food bloggers around the web featuring one main ingredient or dish. UrbnSpice contributed to this recipe roundup: Bacon Cheese Potato Cups
Bacon Cheese Potato Cups – perfect for any appetizer event
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I have an idea – Individual Baked Dark Chocolate Mousse in Crispy Wrappers! Why? My favourite day is coming up – Valentine’s Day. It always makes me happy to come up with ideas for Valentine’s Day desserts. My objective when considering choices for a Valentine dessert menu is two-fold. One of the choices has to be chocolate – this is universal, it seems. The second consideration for a chocolate dessert is anything but a chocolate molten cake, which (in my opinion) has been far too prevalent on dessert menus for far too long.
But, how about taking that same idea of a soft warm chocolate cake and giving it a new twist? How about encasing it in a crispy crunchy nest that you take apart and scoop up delicious filling to share with someone you love? If you follow me on Urbnspice, you probably already know that my favourite way to serve desserts is to make individual sized portions. So, after considering all of these points, Individual Baked Dark Chocolate Mousse in Crispy Wrappers was the inspiration for my dessert creation.
Individual Baked Dark Chocolate Mousse in Crispy Wrappers
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Raspberry Coulis or Raspberry Sauce is a very important item in the pastry kitchen. It is used for so many desserts. It is a mise-en-place item in the pastry kitchen (everything in its place). You definitely do not want to run out of this delicious sauce during a busy lunch or dinner hour rush.
I will always remember shopping at my local grocery store one day and there was a lady in a panic trying to get several clerks to help her find raspberry coulis for a special dessert that evening. If you have done the same thing, you know it is not something you will find readily in the store. Alas, raspberry coulis is surprisingly easy to make with just a few ingredients. In this post, I will show you how to make raspberry coulis by first making a raspberry puree.
Milk chocolate Torte with Almond Praline Crust and Raspberry Coulis
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