Scientifically Sweet

Peanut Butter Banana Oat Bars with Dark Chocolate Bits

2013-05-17T23:07:00.002-04:00

There's some big news to deliver first thing. Congratulations to Elizabeth Toy who is the winner of my giveaway from last post. A copy of Scientifically Sweet: A Scientific & Delicious Approach to Artisanal Baking is in the mail and I hope you bake your local shop outta sugar! Now here's some less exciting and more absurd news... I'm watching Dr. Oz rub egg whites all over a lady's face.

White Chocolate Chunk Chocolate Cookies & a cookbook GIVEAWAY!

2013-05-06T07:31:00.001-04:00

I realize that the title of this post has the word "chocolate" in it twice. It deserves it. Believe me. I also realize that if I don't get my daily dose of chocolate, my mood ring would change from blue to amber. Apparently that means I'm "unsettled", and apparently in the 1990's I needed a ring to tell me that. Let me make something clear though. White chocolate is not actually

Chocolate Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

2013-04-27T20:15:00.001-04:00

There may just be 101 ways to use chocolate, not including in baking. Chocolate comes from a powerful fruit. Yes. Cocoa is a fruit. Cocoa pods grow on trees and cocoa beans are the seeds. Chocolate is made from fruit. So we can all eat it for breakfast, for snack, at a picnic and in a salad. Period. This week I also used chocolate to estimate the weight of an envelope. I know

Creamy Coconut Lemon Squares

2013-04-21T22:00:00.003-04:00

Spring is here! At least it is on one side of the world. Or is it? I don't know. I'm sitting here in Australia where everything is opposite, so outside it is a breezy & sunny Autumn day averaging around 20 degrees C. But, most of my family is sitting somewhere in Canada enjoying a supposedly Spring day averaging about 4 degrees C. That doesn't sound right, but let's just go

Little Banana Pound Cakes with Spice & Chocolate

2013-04-13T22:33:00.001-04:00

Sometimes I just want to write: "Put your mixer on high speed, freak out, and blend like crazy!" ...because that's how I made these lovely little cakes. That's what I love about baking - that it makes people nervous. It's exciting! Once and a while things don't go as expected in the kitchen, but to our surprise the end result turns out fantastic. Then sometimes things go

Chewy Coconut Raisin Honey Granola Bars

2013-04-05T23:55:00.001-04:00

How? Somebody please tell me HOW is it April? Please don't go on to explain how time is a continuous and intangible phenomenon that always moves forward regardless of what is happening around us. Please just don't tell me that because I know. I know it just moves. Time keeps moving even if I decide not too. It's just so hard to believe that 2013 is already more than 3 months old.

Caramelized White Chocolate Almond Squares

2013-03-21T06:32:00.001-04:00

Caramalized White Chocolate is something to obsess over. I'm obsessed and it is worthy. It's like that 50% reduction on balsamic vinegar that transforms it into a thick sweet syrup... ...like that extra hour of simmer time on your bolognese sauce, ...that sear on your beef before you start braising, ...the second proofing on a fresh batch of bread dough, ...or that extra

Brown Butter Banana Bread

2013-03-11T07:49:00.002-04:00

I do this thing sometimes. It's this totally useless, wasteful thing that just drives me mental. And it's not biting my nails or binning day-old milk (because that would just be silly - it's still good). Sometimes when I do something in my life, I look back on it and think about how I could have done it differently and why I made the decisions I made. It's really not productive.

Maple Pecan & Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

2013-03-04T18:23:00.003-05:00

There is never a day not worthy of cookies. Once you get the basic technique down, blue skies are the limit! In reality, what you have in your pantry is the limit! You can be baking them everyday and be eating them in a matter of minutes with little effort. Let's go over one of the most important techniques. CREAMING. Many cookie recipes begin with a very similar story: "Cream

Decadent Cocoa Terrine (Gluten-free!)

2013-02-26T21:48:00.000-05:00

Funny how easy it is for me to go from healthy snack lady to evil decadent dessert witch in a matter of days. Last week I brought you Soft Baked Breakfast Bars, but this week it's a whole different song. I can't stay away from the decadent very long. It's like a drug... I'm not ashamed to admit. Why do you think the Cookie Monster was so manic? He wasn't pregnant. He was a super

Soft Baked Breakfast Bars

2013-02-18T05:45:00.000-05:00

I really enjoy my job. That probably has to do with the fact that I bake cake and then eat cake, and then bake more cake...and then eat more cake all day. ALL day. Then I go back to my desk....apply some science to my recipe and then go back into the kitchen and continue to bake (and EAT) cake. So you'd probably think that by the time I get home, the last thing I want to think about is

Double Chocolate Oat Cookies with Toasty Almonds

2013-02-11T06:01:00.001-05:00

What happened to the days when your mom packed your lunch? And when did packing lunch become such a chore? Sometimes I just throw a few ingredients in a bag and hope it moulds itself into something tasty between 8:30 am and 12:30 pm. Unfortunately I do not own a magic bag so that carrot, can of tuna and piece of lettuce is still a carrot, can of tuna and piece of lettuce. Sigh...

Anzac Brownies

2013-01-27T20:32:00.000-05:00

I've been in Australia for nearly 5 months now and I've learned a lot about this wonderful country. The spiders are huge, birds make an obscene amount of noise but are equally beautiful, swim between the flags (!), everyone has a dog, the "penny" does not exist, cricket is a funny sport, wearing shoes outside or in the airport or in shopping centers is optional, they pronounce tomato

Raspberry Coconut Jam Dots

2013-01-19T06:32:00.002-05:00

This week I've been reduced to something really strange. I've been rubbing thermal cream on my left butt cheek. I know. So weird. I did something really stupid, and I'm not being hard on myself here. I deserve it. It was stupid. I pulled a muscle/pinched a nerve in my butt somehow while doing my sort-of daily run around the cricket field. This isn't the first time I've experienced a

Chewy Chocolate Coconut & Almond Granola Bars

2013-01-10T02:28:00.000-05:00

It's not even midway through January and I've already heard the words detox, juice and cleanse too many times. Don't even get me started on chia seeds. For real. I respect a solid new year's resolution. But, if getting healthier, living better and sustaining your future is one of them then drinking green juice 5 times a day is not the way to do that. How about a bit of exercise a few times

The best things in 2012

2013-01-02T06:37:00.003-05:00

Two Thousand and Twelve has got to be one of my favourite years in the whole 27 that I've been around so far. It shares a close place with the year I discovered the beauty of dark chocolate in the form of Dove chocolate foil eggs in my Easter basket. I was like...13, but that year changed everything. Mucho thanks to you, creepy Easter Bunny! Oh, and that year I got my first hampster, Mortimer...

Crispy Double Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

2012-12-28T18:11:00.002-05:00

There's a paradox here in Australia. They do a lot of things backwards...and that's in reference to how we do things back home in North America. They drive on the wrong side of the road, they have Summer during our Winter, they celebrate Christmas on the beach, wear outdoor shoes in the house (and on the carpet....I can actually feel you cringe right now, Mom), then sometimes they wear no

My Christmas Dessert List

2012-12-16T05:54:00.002-05:00

Well it's crunch time! If you haven't already got any desserts planned for Christmas, let me recommend a cookie buffet! It's just like a regular buffet, except there are only cookies. I'm being serious. Make a big variety and overwhelm your guests. I like when people can't decide so they end up taking one of each. Hahaaaa suckers! But really, you can make most doughs ahead of time,

Super Simple Vanilla Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Icing

2012-12-05T05:43:00.000-05:00

There are those days when I just want something simple. I'm a doer of creaming butter and sugar, sifting dry ingredients, alternating the wet with the dry and delicately folding. There is definitely a place for that in the lovely world of baking. There is definitely a need for that in many many recipes. These steps ensure lightness, soft texture and happy endings with cakes that bake

Intensely Chocolate Fudgy Biscotti with Dates & Almonds

2012-11-27T05:19:00.001-05:00

What is the deal with ironing? Really. My clothes end up more wrinkled than they started off so clearly I'm doing something wrong. And, why does it just. take. so. freaking. lonnnnnggggg! I mean, it's an iron. It looks harmless and easy enough to use. You plug it in, it gets hot and you press it against your clothes to make them flat. This is pretty basic stuff, no? Then why the heck can

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

2012-11-18T05:26:00.003-05:00

I feel like I need to talk about something really basic. Something that seem's minor and irrelevant but is major and full of impact. It's salt. It's the stuff we use everyday but take for granted. Imagine living a week without salt. Our lives would be so blaaaaa. I picture beige walls, grey tone clothes, blushless cheeks and the "dry eyes" commercial voice narrating in the background -

Brownie Bombs!

2012-11-01T08:08:00.002-04:00

Baking at home is pretty much the best. No stress and no one to impress. It's just me and the mixing bowl. There's nothing that goes into my mixing bowl that I don't want to eat. There are no major expectations and no specific requirements. It just has to be a) fun, and b) delicious enough to warrant eating the batter. In my job, I bake every day. The things I bake at work need to look a

Little Gingerbread Spice Date Cakes

2012-10-22T07:06:00.000-04:00

I hope you don't mind that I'm posting something called "gingerbread". I hope you don't think that gingerbread is only for Christmas. This isn't a Christmas post, I promise. There's still so many ballerina flats to be worn, many more I-can-just-wear-layers-instead-of-my-hideous-but-warm-winter-coat days left and enough time still to not have to think about putting together a

Ultimate Chocolate Roundie Brownie

2012-10-14T06:28:00.001-04:00

How do you know when you're grown up? I mean, when's that exact point in your life when you realize...crap, I'm old. Right now I feel like the song playing in the background of my life should be the Toys 'R Us theme song...you know the one. *I-don't-wanna-grow-up...* I had a major "oh crap...I'm old" moment when I was on the bus coming home today with a box full of tiny cakes, a

Apple Mulberry Pie Perfection

2012-10-07T21:43:00.001-04:00

Pie is like the latest iPhone...everyone wants in on it no matter how great it really is. Pie is like good sushi...we're happy to have it if someone else makes it (especially if someone else serves it to you while you sit and wait!). That's me with sushi...I love it. I really actually adore it. Yeah, I've made it at home - and yeah, I'll never do it again. It's just not worth the