Material Archive

Make a Pavlova

 

See many more lovely videos by Sanna here at matbruk.se

Nice little video about Wayne Thiebaud

 

Love this man.

European Tour: Ladurée, Paris & London

If it's not wildly obvious already, I am obsessed with Ladurée. Why? Where to begin... it represents everything I love: amazing pasteries & chocolates, beautiful branding & packaging and an authentic legacy of doing it exceptionally well for 150 years.

While In London and Paris – I sought out almost every location to sample something new I hadn't tried before. My new favourite item is pictured above with the rose petal – it's called the rose & raspberry Ladurée Saint-Honorés and is every bit as delicious as it is pretty.

Of course, I shipped home all of my empty boxes so that they could assume their rightful positions on my packaging wall.

 

Modernist Cuisine – mostly no Photoshop

When I first saw this series of books, I assumed it was almost all retouching that produced the amazing cut-away photograpy – but alas, as this Ted talk shows, the majority of imagery is a result of actually sawing dishware and appliances in half! Pretty cool.

Watch several other videos on the book here.

Read a great article about Nathan Myhrvold, the book's co-author, and the former CTO of Microsoft, here.

High Tea at the Windsor Arms

Last weekend, a group of friends and I enjoyed High Tea at the Windsor Arms.

The Red Room we started out in was charming as all hell but very hot, so we had to move to a cooler area. Once re-seated, our tea arrived quickly and we were grateful! The rose tea we had was wonderful, as were the scones and Devon clotted cream. The sushi style rolled sandwiches were not remarkable though – a bit dry and flavourless. The petit fours were also not terribly inspired either, although pretty to look at. I would advise skipping those courses and simply focus your attention on what they do best – scones & tea!

Overall, a nice experience, with attentive service.

Next up for High Tea – MoRoCo & The Four Seasons!


P.S. There was a wealth of great art all around too – many great Charlie Pachters throughout the space.

 

Jeni's Splendid Ice-Creams At Home: The Book

The last two weeks have been a bit rough at work and so @itbitme decided to cheer me up with a wee preezie when I arrived home today. How lucky am I? :)

Jeni's Splendid Ice-Creams At Home is a book that catalogues Jeni's 15 year history of making all manner of ice-creams in her bakery / creamery.

I'm super excited to try:

♥  Grapefruit Hibiscus Frozen Yogurt

♥  Wildberry Lavender Ice Cream

♥  Toasted Rice Ice Cream with a Wiff of Coconut & Black Tea

♥  Earl Grey & Cherries Ice Cream

♥  Cucumber, Honeydew & Cayenne Frozen Yogurt

♥  Star Anise Ice Cream with Candied Fennel Seeds

♥  Sweet Potato Ice Cream with Torched Marshmallows

 
Stay tuned – experiments will be documented!

In the meantime, here's a cute video about JSIC:

 

 

My first homemade ice-cream sandwich

After the oreo cookie had some time to chill in the frigo – it was the perfect balance of soft and crisp so the result was really good!

Ice-Cream Project: Second Attempt

The addition of @itbitme to the mix improved everything tenfold – the consistency and texture of the ice-cream was perfect tonight! So rich and custardy.

Just packed some of it into ice-cream sandwiches for tomorrow – can't wait to see how they turn out! :-)

 

Bakerbots opens in Bloordale

 

Julie and I had a busy day – we went to Bonjour Brioche for brunch, Bobbette & Belle for dessert, furniture shopping on Queen East, antiquing at the St Lawrence North Market and finally, ended up at Bakerbots for ice-cream sandwiches.

Rosanne, who has been creating custom cakes for the last two years as part of her Bakerbots catering business, decided to open a retail outpost recently so that the public could sample her marvellous cookies, croissant, macaroons and cupcakes as they puttered around Bloordale.

The place is utterly charming and the food is scrumptious. In addition to the delicious ice-cream sandwich I had made with the "everything cookie" and "sweet cream" ice-cream, I went home with a care package of cookies and cream cheese carrot cupcakes – which already have a substantial dent in them – they will not last!

 

Bompas & Parr Jelly Mongers

 

 

 

My darling @itbitme introduced me to Bompas & Parr a couple of years ago – here are some videos that capture their approach to all things jelly related.

 

 

 

So if macaroons are already over and cupcakes are super passé, could the artisan jelly take their place as the must-have dessert du jour to serve at your next soirée? I say yes! BP will make you a custom mold for only £800.

 

 

Today was International Ice-Cream Day, so I made some.

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted an ice-cream maker. Yesterday, I was in such a bad mood that I decided there was only one thing that could cheer me up. As it turned out, my timing was perfect. Today is National Ice-Cream Day in the U.S., which I conveniently internalized as a big sign that my decision to buy a very singular kitchen appliance was brilliant.

Then I set to work researching every recipe I could get my hands on and what I discovered, as usual, is that there are many different theories on how to prepare this classic dessert. 

My goal was simple. Make an incredible vanilla. So I not only bought a Madagascar vanilla bean, I also stopped by Dlish Cupcakes to ask Verg what vanilla extract he uses in his buttercream frosting and he generously gave me some of his to take home and try too.

The whole process was quite simple all told – that is if you forgo using eggs, which I did for this first try. I bought duck eggs for round 2 tomorrow! Which should yield a very rich, custardy version!