Crumbs on the Table -- stories about food

Rose and violet shortbread biscuits

July 15, 2020 Leave a Comment

There is something sensuous about nibbling a dainty biscuit that transports one to a perfumed rose arbour or a sunny patch of violets. And the taste of these really lives up to the romantic associations. They are beautifully buttery, with a great balance of salt and sweet, and of course, they have that seductive floral flavour from sweet fragments of crystallised violets or rose petals.

These are a variation of shortbread, as they have a high proportion of butter, and no eggs or rising agents. Instead of rolling and cutting them into chunky fingers, or pressing them into a shortbread mould, these are ‘refrigerator biscuits’, where the dough is rolled into cylinders and then chilled before slicing and baking into light and crispy rounds. [Read More…]

Easy chocolate sorbet

July 9, 2020 Leave a Comment

I’ve been on a quest for a really scrumptious chocolate sorbet for a while. When it’s hot, it hits the chocolate spot like nothing else.

More refreshing than a dairy ice cream, this sorbet is still seductively creamy, with a meltingly silky mouth-feel. Made with cocoa, sugar and water (with a little extra flavouring from coffee and vanilla), it has a lusciously deep-chocolate flavour, but is also properly sweet. It’s intense, so one scoop is delightfully satisfying (and look at that inviting sheen!).

Superb as it is on its own, this sorbet also makes a perfect foil for all the red summer fruits that are coming in right now. Cherries and raspberries are divine with it, and so is a companion mint sorbet, or a scoop of vanilla gelato for contrast. In Italy, I’ve seen tall parfait glasses of chocolate sorbet served with a long spoon thrust down the middle to make a tunnel, which is liberally filled with whipped cream. [Read More…]

Celebrating with rye-flour chocolate brownies

April 20, 2020 Leave a Comment

Today is my sister Amy’s birthday, and in two days’ time it will be niece Caitlin’s. A few days after that it’s our Mom’s special day. We were meant to be celebrating all these important dates together this year. Well, we still are — just across an ocean and a continent. And we really are celebrating. That still means something with a candle, and something that looks like birthday cake.

Baking anything right now is a challenge for most of us. Flour is a scarce commodity, and even if you have lucked into some flour, then you might not have eggs, or butter, or sugar, much less vanilla, chocolate, or any of those other nice things we can mostly take for granted for creating something for a special occasion.

I’ve been safe-guarding the baking ingredients I have left, and really trying to make them count. I’ve already shared some ideas here for baked treats that use oats instead of wheat flour. But for the birthday girls, I wanted something chocolate, and none of us have enough of anything for a whole, decadent, three-layer birthday cake. So I halved my favourite brownie recipe, and used rye flour instead of the usual wheat flour. Rye flour and chocolate are a really good combination, especially in something that’s already fairly dense like a brownie. The texture is a little less smooth, and the effect is slightly less sweet, perhaps, but also a little more toasted or caramel-like.

[Read More…]

Easter 2020

April 11, 2020 1 Comment

The solemn strangeness of this year, and for those of us who aren’t managing far worse, the preoccupation with running out, brings back memories for me of another Easter: one I spent in Denmark many years ago as a 17-year-old exchange student.

The six months I spent in Denmark at that formative age changed my life, and among the moments that stand out most is a meal I was fed on Easter Sunday. It meant much then and has become emblematic since for me of being lost and found – of salvation.

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Cooking in the time of COVID-19

April 9, 2020 Leave a Comment

Dear Kind Readers of Crumbs on the Table,

We’re all in a time of transition to a new normal/abnormal. While some of us automatically look to the kitchen for comfort and a sense of routine, I know that many people find having to cook unwelcome or stressful under the best of circumstances — much less right now when we’re concerned with how to keep people happy while stuck at home, how to magic up something decent when we have to make do, or how to keep going when we don’t always feel up to it.

Most of us will find we’re called upon to cook more than we have in a while, or ever — and it’s not only cooking, but having to source more food for all those meals that used to be eaten somewhere else. It’s a lot of responsibility, and even confident cooks are probably feeling much more stress than usual about kitchen duties. I know I have.

But I’m also finding, at last, that some of the initial problems seem to be easing as I find my way through new routines, and get more experience with the particular kinds of problem-solving this situation demands.

For anyone struggling right now with these responsibilities, I hope you can pat yourself on the back from time to time, and remind yourself that you’re doing a wonderful job at a terrible time. What you’re doing is worth doing and makes a huge difference. And you’re not alone. For every one of us cooks, novice or experienced, who sometimes feels under-skilled or under-valued, there are countless fellow cooks rooting for you.

[Read More…]

Easy chocolate sorbet

Celebrating with rye-flour chocolate brownies

Easter 2020

Cooking in the time of COVID-19

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