Archive for December, 2009

Preena Chauhan

The event was a Canadian cookie exchange - with the flavours of India. All thanks to Arvinda Chauhan, pioneer promoter of South Asian flavours in the Toronto area, and her daughter Preena who led the class of 24 aspiring bakers. The location was Nella Cucina, cookware store and culinary school located on the Bloor Subway Line at Bathurst Street. Chef Joanne Lusted, a veritable bundle of creative energy, runs the school that brings in top chefs from around the country.

Chef Joanne Lusted does some of the finishing work - slicing the biscotti logs for the second baking.

The welcome to Merry Masala was platters of naan bread, popadams, Indian huumus, bowls of red lentil and pumpkin soup topped with yogurt and coriander, cups of fragrant chai and crunchy samosas to nibble on as we arrived from work and got ready to learn and bake.

Preena Chauhan led the class, with help from the school's staff. The program was ambitious - in groups, we were to make 5 different Indian-accented cookies with the reward of a box of cookies to take home. Aromatic cookie loot boxes!

Packing up the cookie loot boxes.

And as in any cookie-making event, plenty of cookies to nibble as we worked. A selection of the spices Preena Chauhan and her brother Paresh produces using her mother Arvinda's blends were used in the recipes -they are available on line at www.hgic.ca, click on Shop. But if you don't have these blends, get the highest quality replacement you can find in your community.

Here's what Merry Masala cookies were in production: Mango Curry Snow Crescents (recipe below), Holiday Chai Coconut Ladoos (Snowballs), (recipe below),  Festive Garam Masala Gingerbread Squares, Crunchy Pistachio Cranberry Chocolate Chai Biscotti and Citrus Chai Spice Sugar Cookies. For all, the starting point was a familiar recipe with lovely and inviting twists via spice blends and as this is Christmas week, I've chosen the easiest two recipes to make. The Ladoos don't need baking, and while the Crescents do take some time, they are such a winning cookie that I think you will want to make them - any time of the year. They are particularly delicious with fruit sorbets and ice creams.

Holiday Chai Coconut Ladoos (Snowballs)

In her introduction to these no-bake treats, Preena Chauhan describes a ladoo as a popular Indian sweet rolled into balls and served at Indian festivals. Preena's version uses mixed peel, coconut, raisins and the sweet spices of masala chai (the spice mix for the delicious milk-rich tea).

1/4 cup (50 mL) golden raisins

2 tbsp (30 mL) sherry or rum

3/4 cup (175 mL) crunchy natural peanut butter, organic recommended

3/4 cup (175 mL) unsweetened desiccated coconut

1/2 cup (125 mL) dried cranberries

1/2 cup (125 mL) chopped blanched almonds

1/4 cup (50 mL) candied mixed peel or red candied cherries, diced

1/4 cup (50 mL) icing sugar

1/4 cup (50 mL) liquid honey

2 tbsp (30 mL) ground ginger (halve for less spicy ladoo)

2 tsp (10 mL) Arvinda's Chai Masala or chai spices

Snowball Coating:

1/2 cup (125 mL) unsweetened desiccated coconut, approximate

. Line a tray with waxed paper; set aside.

. In a small bowl, toss the raisins with the sherry; set aside while measuring out remaining ingredients.

. In a large bowl, stir together the peanut butter, coconut, cranberries, almonds and candied peel. Add the icing sugar, honey, ginger, Chai Masala and the raisins with sherry; stir to combine the ingredients evenly.

. Cover and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes or up to 1 day.

. Scoop up a round teaspoon for each ball; roll in your palms and set on prepared tray. 

. Snowball Coating: Place the coconut in a shallow bowl. One at a time, roll the balls in the coconut, pressing to make the coconut stick to the ball. Refrigerate until firm. 

. Layer the balls with waxed paper in an airtight container. Refrigerate for up to 3 weeks.

. Makes about 48 balls. 

Tip: Chai masala can include spices such as ground cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and black pepper.

Mango Curry Snow Crescents

Preena's recipe calls for 1 tsp (5 mL) curry powder, but 1/4 tsp (1 ml) was sufficient when I made the crescents in my kitchen. The curry flavour was pronounced enough, but didn't dominate the other two appealing ingredients, almond and dried mango.

To dice the mango, start by cutting the supple slices lengthwise as thinly as possible. Stack them up and cut crosswise into a fine dice.

1/2 cup (125 mL) butter, softened

1/2 cup (125 mL) icing sugar

1/4 tsp. (1 mL) Arvinda's Curry Powder (or premium quality curry powder)

1 tsp (5 mL) almond extract

1 cup (250 mL) all-purpose flour

1/2 cup (125 mL) ground almonds

1/3 cup (75 mL) very finely diced dried mango

Garnish:

2/3 cup (150 mL) icing sugar, approximate

. Line a rimless baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat; set aside.

. In a large bowl, beat butter with icing sugar until light. Beat in the curry powder and almond extract. Stir in the flour, then the ground almonds and mango. The mixture should be ragged.

. With your hands, firmly press the dough together. Wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

. To form the crescents so they are all the same size, scoop out 2 tsp (10 mL) of the dough. You will need to do this 1 tsp (5 mL) at a time.

. Squeeze the dough together, then press into a smooth log about 2-inches (5 mL) long. Bend the ends in to form a crescent shape.

. Arrange the crescents about 1-inch (2.5 cm) apart on prepared baking sheet. Cover and chill until firm, about 30 minutes.

. Bake in the centre of preheated 325°F (160°C) oven until light golden on the bottom and firm to the touch on top, about 15 minutes. 

. Let firm up on the baking sheet for 3 or 4 minutes.

. Garnish: In the meantime, sift half of the icing sugar into a small pie plate or plate. Arrange as many crescents as will hold in the icing sugar; press gently. Sift some of the remaining icing sugar over the cookies; transfer to rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining cookies and icing sugar, increasing the sugar as needed to cover the cookies with a delicious "snow job". You can also roll the crescents one at a time in the icing sugar. For the icing sugar to stick, the crescents need to be very warm. 

. To store the crescents, layer with waxed paper in an airtight container and tuck them into a cool dry spot for up to 5 days, or freeze for longer storage, up to 3 weeks.

Tip: Dried mango is available in sealed bags in my local supermarket under the 7D label. The texture of these slices of mango from the Philippines is softer and the flavour fresher than in brightly dyed sugary dried mango available in clear plastic boxes.

When it comes to Carrot Pudding, I break from tradition. That's probably because I grew up with plum pudding - more fruit and luscious dark seeded raisins and carrot pudding was an acquired taste, rather later in life. What you see at the top of the post is a favourite carrot pudding, adapted from a recipe from the BBC Good Food of a decade or so ago. It does have carrots, but also canned not candied pineapple, slivered apricots, golden raisins and I like to add some dried sour cherries or cranberries. 

To get the glossy top, there's a drizzle of corn syrup at the bottom of the pudding bowl, followed by some of the pineapple, apricots and slivered almonds that are part of the pudding batter itself.

You can serve this pudding with lightly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and save making a sauce.

2 tbsp (30 mL) corn syrup

1 can (14 oz/398 mL) pineapple slices preserved in juice not syrup

1 cup (250 mL) slivered dried apricots

1/2 cup (125 mL) slivered almonds

1 cup (250 mL) coarsely grated peeled carrots

1/2 cup (125 mL) dried sour cherries or cranberries or extra apricots

1/2 cup (125 mL) golden raisins

1-1/2 cups (375 mL) all-purpose flour

1 tbsp (15 mL) baking powder

1 tsp (5 mL) freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt

1-1/2 cups (375 mL) fresh bread crumbs

3/4 cup (175 mL) butter, softened

1-1/4 cup (300 mL) packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 tbsp (15 mL) finely grated orange rind

. Butter an 8-cup (2 L) heatproof pudding bowl or mould. Spoon the corn syrup into the bottom of the bowl. 

. Drain the pineapple, reserving the juice for another use such as in a punch or as a spritzer with soda water for the cook. Cut the pineapple slices into chunks a slim half-inch (1.25 cm) wide. Spoon enough of the chunks to cover the bottom of the bowl. Add 2 tbsp (30 mL) each of the apricots and almonds; set aside.

. In a bowl, combine the remaining pineapple, apricots, almonds, cherries and raisins. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt; mix in the bread crumbs. Set these dry ingredients aside.

Freshly grated nutmeg adds a big bonus of flavour.

. In a separate large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Be sure to stop the beaters and scrape down the side of the bow from time to time.

. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, then the orange rind. Alternately add the dry ingredients and the carrot mixture, making 2 additions of the dry and 1 of the carrot mixture. Fold in the remaining almonds.

. Scrape into the prepared pudding bowl. Press down firmly on the batter; smooth the top. Cover the batter with a disc of parchment paper or waxed paper cut to fit.

. Make a 1-inch (2.5 m) pleat down the centre of a piece of foil cut large enough to cover the top of the bowl and extend 3-inches (8 cm) down the side all round the bowl. Press the foil down the side of the bowl; Tie string tightly around the bowl about 1-inch (2.5 cm) below the rim.

. Fold the  foil up to the rim and trim off any extending above the rim.

. Place the pudding bowl on a rack in a deep  stock pot or Dutch oven. Pour boiling water into the pot, avoiding the pudding bowl, to come halfway up the side of the bowl.

. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, adding boiling water if necessary to maintain the level, for 3 hours. Remove from the pot.

. You really don't need to test the pudding, but if you do, uncover the pudding and test that a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Recover and set the pudding on a rack to settle if serving immediately, or to cool completely if making ahead. (Make-ahead: Let cool completely. Refrigerate for up to 1 week. Resteam until hot, about 1 hour. Or, unwrap, run a flexible blade down the inside of the pudding bowl and turn pudding over onto a microwaveable plate. If the pudding is in a metal mould, lift it off and cover the pudding loosely with a large microwaveable bowl or plastic wrap. Microwave at medium until steaming hot, about 5 minutes.)

. Makes 8 to 10 servings. 

Tip: If you don't have an 8-cup (2 L) pudding bowl or mould, you can use 2 smaller bowls as long as they are heatproof. Steam the puddings until they pass the doneness test above, about 2 hours. 

Liz Driver's Carrot Pudding

Culinary Historian Liz Driver claims that Carrot Pudding is one of the rare only-in-Canada dishes. Other cuisines make puddings - think English Trifle or Portuguese  Arroz Doce  (rice pudding) , other culinary traditions include carrots in desserts -  South Asian Cajar ka halva (carrots cooked with spices and milk until thick, creamy and sweet) comes to mind. Only in Canada have carrots been so beautifully integrated into the tradition of a steamed pudding

The ingredients in the pudding her mother made when she was a child, and which she continues making every Christmas, are simple, and economical. Carrots, potatoes - both grated raw, mixed with spices, some candied fruit and raisins and steamed and enriched with either suet (the traditional fat) or butter which works just as well and satisfies her vegetarian son. (See below for the butter variation.) The pudding ages well, but Liz Driver has been known to steam the pudding fresh on Christmas Day - not a practice she recommends, but then, these are busy times.) Liz flames her pudding, adding drama to the festive meal, and serves plenty of sauce, in fact she quadruples her mother's recipe. "You can't have pudding without sauce. It's like gravy: you can never have enough."

Here is the recipe from her mother's manuscript cookbook, that Liz Driver passionately defended at the ROM's Canadian Sweet Treats: Food Experts Debate the Classics. She even brought the ingredients, partly for fun, but also to show a piece of suet for audience members who have never used this traditional ingredient.

 Steamed Carrot Pudding

Liz Driver believes that one of the reasons this pudding is so popular in Canada is the simplicity of the measurements. Most of them are 1 cup (250 mL).

 1 cup (250 mL) each grated raw peeled carrot, grated raw peeled potato, packed brown sugar, grated suet, raisins and currants 

 1 large egg, beaten

1/2 cup (125 mL) candied lemon peel

1/2 cup (125 mL) candied citron peel

1-3/4 cups (425 mL) all-purpose flour

 1 tsp (5 mL) each salt and baking soda

 3/4 tsp (4 mL) ground cinnamon

 1/2 tsp (2 mL) ground nutmeg

 1/4 tsp (1 mL) ground cloves

. Grease an 8-cup (2 L) pudding bowl or mould, or a deep heatproof dish; if desired, line the bottom of the bowl with parchment paper cut to fit. Set aside.

. In a large bowl, mix together the carrot, potato, sugar, suet, raisins, currants, egg, lemon and citron peel. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Pour over the wet carrot mixture and stir just long enough to combine the ingredients evenly. 

. Spoon into prepared bowl; pack down and smooth the top. Cover the batter with a disc of waxed or parchment paper cut to fit. Drape a sheet of foil over the rim of the bowl; make a 1-inch pleat in the centre. Press the foil down the side of the bowl. Tie string around the bowl about 1-inch  (2.5 cm) from the rim. Press the foil up over the string and trim the foil to the top edge of the bowl.

. Place the pudding basin on a trivet or rack (or the ring from a preserving jar lid) in a large deep saucepan so that the basin does not rest directly on the bottom of the saucepan. Add boiling water to about half way up the side of the pudding basin.

. Cook the pudding at a low boil for 3 hours, topping up the water level with boiling water as needed. Note that there is no need to check the pudding for doneness - it will be done at the 3 hour mark. Remove from the pot; let cool on a rack.

. Make-ahead: Wrap in heavy-duty foil or enclose in an airtight container; refrigerate for up to 2 weeks, or freeze for up to 6 month. Thaw before continuing.

. To serve, either resteam the pudding as directed above for 1 hour. Run the flexible blade of a knife between the outside of the pudding and the bowl. Turn out onto a rimmed plate or tray. Or, to microwave,  remove the foil and parchment paper; loosen the sides with the blade of a flexible knife and turn over onto a heatproof plate. Microwave on medium until steaming hot, about 5 minutes. Lift off the bowl.

. Serve with Pudding Sauce, below. Makes 8 good helpings, 12 if guests have had seconds of stuffing. 

Variation: To substitute butter for the suet, the best way to make the pudding is to beat 1 cup (250 mL) softened butter with the brown sugar and to beat in the eggs. Measure all the grated carrots, potato, raisins, currants, lemon and citron peel into 1 bowl, and the dry ingredients into a second bowl. Add half the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, then all the carrot mixture and finally the remaining dry ingredients. Proceed with packing and steaming as above.

 Pudding Sauce

 Liz Driver's family love this old-fashioned sauce and she usually makes four times this amount. 

 1/2 cup (125 mL) packed brown sugar

 1 tbsp (15 mL)  flour

 Pinch salt

 1 cup (250 mL) water

 2 tbsp (30 mL) butter

 2 tsp (10 mL) white vinegar

 1/8 tsp (0.5 mL) ground nutmeg

 1/8 tsp (0.5 mL) ground cinnamon

 Pinch ground cloves

 1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla

 In a saucepan, whisk together the sugar, flour, and salt. Add the water. Bring to a simmer and cook, whisking or stirring constantly, until the floury taste is gone,  about 10 minutes.  Stir in the butter, vinegar, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. Bring back to simmer; stir in the vanilla.  

. Serve in a warmed sauce boat or pitcher so family and guests can pour it over individual servings 

 Flaming the pudding (optional but worthy of the occasion)

 Liz Driver recommends choose a silver serving plate or tray with slightly raised edges that will contain the alcohol. Warm the serving plate by filling it with hot water from the kitchen tap. Tip out the water and invert the hot pudding onto the plate. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, warm about 1/2 cup (125 mL) brandy or Cointreau, to just before the boiling point (don’t allow it to boil and don’t leave it on the stove too long, or the alcohol will evaporate away, thereby losing its flaming properties). Pour the heated brandy or Cointreau onto the serving plate, around the sides of the pudding. Immediately, set it alight with a long match and carry the flaming pudding to the table. Caution: Flaming a pudding is dangerous and should only be done with the utmost care. Wear heatproof oven mitts when carrying the pudding and be sure there's a safe place on the table to set the hot serving tray. 

This is the third of 6 posts about the December 13 Canadian Sweet Treats: Food Experts Debate the Classics. Presenting the case for lemon squares Toronto Cookbook Store manager and all round food guru Alison Fryer. While lemon squares don't have the Canadian culinary history of butter tarts or carrot pudding, Canadians have embraced the concept of bars and squares. They carry well to parties and potlucks. For a busy baker, squares are less fussy than even the simplest drop cookies, and are usually plenty sweet, satisfying out collective love of sugar. Lemon squares are about the most popular kind of square. 

From about 1900, lemons became available in Canada - the burgeoning citrus industry in the States plus refrigerated rail cars brought the sunshine fruit into Canadian kitchens. I had always associated Lemon meringue pie with 30s and 40s diners, small town restaurants and special family occasions,  and was frankly  astonished how rooted lemon meringue pie was in turn of the 20th century cookbooks. From pies to squares took about 50 years, and we have never looked back. 

So, how did the lemon squares do when moderator Fiona Lucas polled the crowd: Lemon Squares won. Hands down, or rather, hands up.

Alison Fryer's favourite lemon squares come from San Francisco, to be precise, Jeremiah Towers's Stars Restaurant, alas no longer in existence. This is the recipe Indira Ramnarine, Pastry Chef at Food Studio @ the ROM used to make the winning-est lemon squares for the tasting part of the event. Lemon zest is called for in many lemon square recipes  - but not in this recipe, so no bitty bits in your mouth. It's pure freshly squeezed  lemon juice, eggs, sugar and some flour to help firm up the filling. If you can get eggs with bright yellow yolks you will be rewarded with sunny yellow lemon squares. Alison recommended organic eggs, and the squares I baked in my kitchen for this post were sensational with organic eggs. Good to look at, we do eat with our eyes first, and raves for their flavour.

Trim the ends and sides for neater squares, and to afford the baker a taste preview. You wouldn't want to serve these squares before first verifying their tangy deliciousness.

The Winning Lemon Squares

What's exceptional about these squares is the depth and tanginess of the filling. There is just more of it than in many other recipes,  providing just the right balance of tartness and buttery shortbread base.

Base:

1-1/2 cups (375 mL) all-purpose flour

1/2 cup (125 mL) icing sugar

3/4 cup (375 mL) unsalted cold butter

Filling:

6 large eggs

3 cups (750 mL) granulated sugar

1 cup (250 mL) plus 2 tbsp (30 mL) freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 cup (125 mL) all-purpose flour

3 tbsp (45 mL) icing sugar

. Line a 13- x 9-inch (3.5 L) metal cake pan with parchment paper or grease; set aside.

. Base: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and icing sugar. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch (1.25 cm) cubes. With a pastry blender, cut butter into the flour mixture until the mixture is crumbly with some pea-sized pieces. 

. Press the base evenly into the prepared pan. Bake in the centre of a 325°F (160 °C) oven until pale golden, about 20 minutes. Let cool to room temperature. Reduce the oven temperature to 300°F (150°C).

. Filling: Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat the eggs until frothy. Beat in the sugar, then the lemon juice and finally the flour to make a smooth mixture. Pour over the base.

. Bake  until no longer giggly and slightly more golden around the edges, about 40 to 45 minutes.

You won't notice any imperfections once you've dusted the squares with icing sugar.

. Let cool on a rack; refrigerate until cold and set, at least 1 hour or preferably up to 1 day before cutting. (Make-ahead: Cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days.)

. Using the parchment paper, lift the squares out of the pan and onto a cutting board.

. Add the icing sugar to a small sieve, being careful to prevent the sugar from falling out before you have a chance to tap it evenly over the lemon squares.

. With a long sharp knife, trim off the outer edges to neaten the edges. Cut into squares or bars, using a damp clean cloth to wipe the knife between cuts. 

. Makes 48 squares.

Tip: Cut the Lemon Squares bite-size and serve them in bonbon cups with a selection of truffles and coin-size shortbread.

Tip: HIDE THESE SQUARES UNLESS YOU WANT THEM EATEN UP BEFORE YOU PLAN TO SERVE THEM.

. 

It was Rose Murray's job on December 13th at the Canadian Sweet Treats:Food Experts Debate the Classics event at the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) to shed light on the delights of fruitcakes. If anyone in Canada knows fruitcake, it's Rose. In her first of ten best selling cookbook, The Christmas Cookbook she paid homage to this rich mix of fruit, nuts, booze, butter and sugar with nine, yes nine recipes for fruitcake. Among Rose's ongoing repertoire is a lovely light white fruitcake, more cake than fruit and one that appeals to people even if they think they don't like fruitcake.

As for these people who distain fruitcake, there's a distinct possibility they've never tasted a good homemade fruitcake with fresh quality ingredients. I liken them to people who say  they don't like beef when all they've tasted is tripe. (sorry all tripe lovers out there).Or people who've heard all the fruitcake jokes and think it's easier to say no than to try something new.

Plus, there are fruitcakes, and fruitcakes.

Having a lovely moist fruitcake handy to cut when there's company is makes entertaining much easier over the holidays. Here's Rose's recipe, the one served midway through the debate on Sunday, and the pieces of cake disappeared in a trice - even before the lemon squares. Skeptics were convinced - fruitcake has a place in the panoply of Canadian baking icons.

Begone fruitcake prejudices!

See below for two recipes, Rose's Light Orange Almond Fruitcake, and Tropical White Fruitcake (with step-by-step photos) from Canadian Living Magazine.

Light Orange Almond Fruitcake

3 cups (750 mL) mixed candied fruit

2 cups (500 mL) golden raisins

1-1/2 cups (375 mL) halved candied cherries

1-1/2 cups (375 mL) coarsely chopped candied pineapple

1-1/2 cups (375 mL) finely chopped blanched almonds

1 cup (250 mL) candied citron peel

2 cups (500 mL) all-purpose flour

2 tsp (10 mL) baking powder

1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt

1/2 cup (125 mL) butter, softened

1 cup (250 mL) granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1 tbsp (15 mL) coarsely grated orange rind

1 tsp (5 mL) almond extract

1/2 cup (125 mL) orange liqueur or orange juice

. Grease two 9- x 5-inch (2 L) loaf pans; line bases and sides with double thickness of parchment paper. Grease paper. Set aside.

. In a large bowl, combine mixed candied fruit, raisins, cherries, pineapple, almonds and citron peel; toss with 1/2 cup (125 mL)  of the flour and set aside.

. Stir together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy; beat in eggs, one at a time, orange rind and almond extract, beating well. Add flour mixture alternately with liqueur, making three additions of dry and two of liqueur and mixing just until flour is incorporated. Fold in fruit mixture. Scrape into prepared pans, smoothing tops. Tap pans gently on counter.

. Set a shallow baking dish on the bottom rack of the oven; fill halfway with boiling water. Bake cakes on the centre rack in a 250°F (120°C) oven for 2-1/2 hours or until cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean, covering loosely with foil if cakes begin to crack.

. Let cakes cool completely in their pans on racks. (Cakes can be wrapped in cheesecloth moistened with brandy or another spirit, then waxed paper, then foil and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for several weeks.) Makes 2 cakes, about 90 small pieces.

Tip: It's easy to slice fruitcake if you refrigerate it a few hours ahead. Always slice with a very sharp knife and wipe the blade with  a damp cloth between slices. If you have an electric knife, it works well. 

Tropical White Fruitcake

To get myself in the mood for the debate on Sunday, I set myself the goal of making a fruitcake, carrot pudding, a pan of lemon squares, and of course, butter tarts. I looked to one of Canadian Living Magazine's most beautiful light fruit cakes - coincidentally echoing the choice of a light cake, like  Rose's. However the mix of fruit and nubblies in the batter are different, as is liqueur, and the shape of the cake. Many years ago Rose and I worked out a way of baking a fruit cake in a 13- x 9- inch ((3.5 L) metal cake pan that offers the baker the opportunity to cut the cake crosswise into 6  bars. The bars are a snap to slice crosswise into a neat little slice that won't overwhelm anybody. And a whole bar, wrapped nicely, is a perfect gift to a friend or family member who might not have had time to make a cake but still yearns for a taste of homemade. 

2 cups (500 mL) shredded coconut

1-1/2 cups (375 mL) chopped dried papayas or apricots

1-1/2 cups (375 mL) chopped dried mango

1-1/2 cups (375 mL) chopped candied pineapple

1 cups (250 mL) golden raisins

1 cup (250 mL) halved candied red cherries 

1-1/2 cups (375 mL) white rum or coconut rum

2 cups (500 mL) all-purpose flour

2 tsp (10 mL) baking powder

1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt

1/2 cup (125 mL) butter, softened

1 cup (250 mL) granulated sugar

3 large eggs

2 cups (500 mL) slivered blanched almonds

1 tbsp (15 mL) corn syrup

8 oz (250 g) marzipan

Icing:

1/4 cup (50 mL) butter

1-1/4 cups (300 mL) icing sugar

2 tbsp (30 mL) whipping cream

1/2 tsp (2 mL) vanilla

. In a large bowl, combine the coconut, papaya, mango, pineapple, raisins, cherries and 1/2 cup (125 mL) of the rum. Cover and let stand for 1 day, stirring occasionally when convenient.

. Line 13- x 9-inch (3.5 L) metal cake pan with 2 layers of parchment paper; set aside.

. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. In separate large bowl, beat butter with sugar until light; beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Stir in half of the flour mixture, 1/2 cup (125 mL) of the rum and remaining flour mixture. Spoon fruit mixture and almonds over the batter; stir just enough to combine.

. Scrape batter into prepared pan; smooth the top and tap the pan lightly on the counter to eliminate air bubbles.

. Set a shallow baking pan on the bottom rack of oven; pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up side. Bake the cake in the centre of a 250°F (120°C) oven until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 2 to 2-1/2 hours. Check the cake at the 1-1/2 and 2 hour mark and cover the surface of the cake lightly with foil if there is any sign of cracking or darkening beyond pale gold.

. Let the cake cook in the pan on a rack. Place a cutting board larger than the cake over the top of the pan. Turn the cake over; peel off the paper. Soak a double thickness (or 2 thicknesses) of 28-inch (70 cm) x 12-inch (30 cm) cheesecloth in remaining rum. Place a length of foil sufficient to generously enclose the cake, then an equal length of plastic wrap and finally the cheesecloth on the work surface.

. Supporting the cake , place it on the cheesecloth. Wrap with cheesecloth, plastic wrap, then foil.

. Place on a supportive cutting board or tray. Refrigerate for at least a week, or for up to 3 months.( To speed up the ripening process, unwrap the cake after a few days and sprinkle generously with additional rum. Rewrap and repeat as desired.) Freeze for longer storage. 

. Icing: In a bowl, beat the butter until light. Beat in the icing sugar, cream and vanilla.

. Unwrap the cake and, supporting its length, transfer to a board or rimmed baking sheet as close to the size of the cake as possible. Brush the top with corn syrup. On a board, roll out the marzipan to fit the top of the cake.

Marzipan is quite easy to roll, not sticky at all, and to transfer it to the cake, simply roll it around the rolling pin. Position one end over one end of the cake and unroll over the cake.unroll over the cake.

Place over the cake and press gently to stick the marzipan to the surface.

. Trim the edges if desired, and patch the edge if needs be.

If you wait to trim the edges before slicing and serving, you can do two things at once. Check that the cake is as delicious as you anticipated while rewarding yourself with a few of the slim trimmings.

. Spread with icing. Cover cakes lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate in airtight container until cold and firm, about 1 day. Cut crosswise into 6 bars, each about 2-inches (5 cm) wide. Wrap separately if desired. Cut bars crosswise to serve. Makes about 72 to 90 slices, depending on thickness.

Tip: The riper, the colder, the easier it is to cut a fruitcake. Have a clean damp cloth handy to wipe the knife between cuts.

Sunday the 13th of December will be remembered as the day 6 baking women took to the stage of the Royal Ontario Museum and debated which sweet treat deserved to be the icon of Canadian baking. While the event was not Christmas oriented, the timing of the debate did affect the choice of subjects. And they were: Butter Tarts: Carrot Pudding: Fruitcake: Lemon Squares: Cocoa Oat Bars with Barley Flakes: Red Fife Apple Tart with Maple Sugar. The participants in order of sweet treats: Elizabeth Baird: Elizabeth Driver: Rose Murray: Alison Fryer: Nettie Cronish: Dawn Woodward. 

Consider the butter tart. Only in Canada. Back in 1975, after the publication of my first cookbook, Classic Canadian Cooking, I wrote an opinion piece for the Globe and Mail in which I had the audacity to claim there was such a thing as Canadian cooking. With the speed of Canada Post's fastest, a reader responded. "Why", I was chastened, "could there be such a thing as Canadian cuisine when there was only one authentic Canadian dish, the butter tart."

And I was momentarily taken aback, but in the intervening 34 years, such a thing as cooking a la canadienne has flourished to the point that sceptics can no longer deny its authenticity or deliciousness. Meanwhile, the butter tart has taken on star status, a veritable  icon of our northern bounty.

There's a lot to say about butter tarts, and if you input "butter tarts", Google will reward you with page after page of references. A dessert cookbook without a recipe for butter tarts is somehow lacking. Canadians, it seems, care about butter tarts, and in much the same way as hockey, winter driving and curling, we identify with butter tarts. They're ours. So how did it come to pass that the simple little pastry, flaky and golden, cupping a sweet filling, more sugar than butter,  become so important to Canadians? My theory about the significance of butter tarts has to do with its lack of definition. Or, said a different way, the perfect butter tart depends on your idea of the perfect butter tart, and let me tell you, there are differences in perfection. 

Let's start with the filling. Runny or set? Well that depends. One of the earliest written recipes for butter tarts appeared in Selected Recipes published by the Ladies of Young Street Methodist Church in 1909. The recipe was called Currant Tarts and its simple list of ingredients laid the foundation for one camp in the butter tart debate. The filling of 1 cup brown sugar, 2 eggs, butter the size of an egg, 1 cup currants and lemon to flavour, sets like a custard. It wasn't until the 1930s when corn syrup became a popular baking ingredient and an addition to the filling  that butter tarts took on what some aficionados consider the finest characteristic of this delicacy - a runny filling. According to Caitlin Coleman who has presented an academic paper on the history of butter tarts at a conference in honour of Elizabeth Driver, it was corn syrup that raised the profile of butter tarts.  And raised the possibility of having a butter tart break in mid bite and run down your chin, and if you don't lick fast enough, tie and shirt. 

In spite of a growing preference for drippy fillings, there are dissenters. One comment found on the Chowhound site in an ongoing discussion about where to buy the perfect butter tart I discovered this piece of pure culinary poetry, "I am of the non-runny camp, preferring the chewy caramel that results where the sugary filling meets the pastry edges, especially as it boils over and escapes down the side of the pastry before it stiffens into sticky candy caramel bliss". 

Then there's what's in the filling. Currants, as in that 1909 recipe, were first off the mark. But how about raisins? Dates? All affordable ingredients a century ago. Walnuts? pecans? (the latter a travesty according to culinary historian Mary Williamson), coconut? Your favourite may have more to do with what your granny or mom put in the tarts of your childhood than the actual addition. When Emily Richards and I were presenting holiday recipes at the 2009 Christmas in November at The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, we did a totally unscientific poll among guests attending our cooking sessions. And what did the largely Alberta crowd put into the butter tarts. Almost to the woman it was raisins. But raisins can be controversial. I know from experience of growing up with mixed raisin parents - my mother hated raisins, my father loved them passionately. Good job they loved each other. Going back to the Chowhound site, a writer who is trying to convince the reader that Hannah's Kitchen's tarts in the Yonge/Eglinton area of Toronto beat anything else in town writes, "Still not sold? Two words might help convince you. NO RAISINS". (emphasis is mine).

Then there's the matter of the chocolatification of the butter tart. It started innocently enough with a few slivers of dark chocolate slipped into the filling. There is no doubt that bittersweet chocolate contrasts beautifully with the carmel-like filling. But then, the chocolate in the filling spread to drizzles over the filling, even butter tarts dipped in dark chocolate.  In fact, the Canadian Living Butter Tart Cooking Lesson transgresses in the matter of chocolate drizzles. But, I say in defense, the chocolate version was not the main recipe, simply a variation. This chocolatification raised the ire of another commentator on the Chowhound site. "The Canadian butter tart is a specifically defined creation and would never come with anything drizzled on top including pecans or high grade chocolate. What you had (in reference to a previous positive comment about chocolate drizzled on butter tarts) was a mutation on the original old-fashioned sweet." And now for the zinger. "Drizzles of any sort are post modern butter tarts - like earrings on an elephant."

There's no denying the passion we feel for butter tarts. And there's no denying that butter tarts have moved beyond being simply dessert. They are now a tourist attraction. Remember when you needed a Niagara Falls, the Olympics or a Stampede to get people to come for a visit. Well, when the residents of the Township of Wellington North came together to figure out how to attract visitors to the gently rolling lush farmland north of Guelph, Ontario, one thing the community agreed upon was the number of great bakeries in the area, and that the bakeries sold terrific butter tarts. From this hatched the Butter Tart Trail, now trademarked. According to a December 2008 Toronto Star article, this is a"serious, not flaky tour", and a destination year round where antique stores, greenhouses, nature walks, for example, supplement the half dozen or so bakeries with over a dozen different varieties of butter tarts. These include goat butter tarts, referring to goat butter, and, if can be a cheeky, not an alternative to raisins. Google "Butter Tart Trail" for a downloadable map of this gastronomically Canadian destination and plan a drive to do a thorough sample of the tarts. Call it citizenship research.

The pastry? Another point of dissention, but not one that tears families and communities apart the way runny or set, or adding raisins to the filling does. Should the pastry be thick and homey? Thin and crisp? Buttery - well the original butter tart was probably made with a lard pastry, a crisp and flaky foundation. The butter of the title was not referring to the pastry. Nowadays you can find butter tarts made with an all butter pastry, a blend as in the recipe below, or in the case of my friend Rose Murray in her Taste of Canada, phyllo pastry, a real boon for the pastry challenged. And very pretty. So far no evidence I've seen of wonton skins as butter tart pastry.

I hope I've persuaded you that one of the reasons butter tarts are so important to our identity is that we weigh in with our opinions. Butter tarts are a subject of ongoing debate. We spend time looking for the perfect recipe, the shop with the finest example of the sweet treat. Of course, butter tarts are pretty delicious with all that sugar and butter, and have their own claim to fame.  But, significant also to firming up the tart's reputation is the way it invites variations. Bakers and food writers have all taken a stab at tweaking, updating, dressing up the butter tart. That's where the chocolate came into action, and that whole range of additions to the filling, going so far as maple sugar, maple syrup, macadamia nuts, candied peel, hazelnuts and dried cherries. Size matters too. Butter tarts got big and morphed into butter tarts squares, and shrank into mini tarts, one-bite size amuse bouche as are served at C5, the excellent restaurant at the ROM. It wasn't long before creative types chopped up some butter tarts, mixed  the mess into ice cream and called their concoction, butter tart ice cream. Even the base of a butter tart sundae,warmed and  topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The butter tarts ability to adjust to new ingredients like corn syrup, developed out of technology, or ingredients like chocolate added for trendiness  and glamour, has kept, and I suspect will keep butter tarts on the lips and hips of Canadians for decades to come.

In an era when healthy eating is a priority, butter tarts are an anomaly. They're high in fat, over the moon in calories, don't provide fibre or anything like the vitamins and minerals we need to flourish. In other words, should not be allowed on Canadian soil. But before we dismiss butter tarts from our diets, keep in mind that once a year, and only once a year on Canada Day, our culinary icon the butter tart is calorie- and fat-free. (just joking)

Butter Tarts

This particular recipe came to me from Jessie Murphy, when I published the recipe in the Toronto Star in the mid 1980s, a resident of Midland Ontario. What makes these butter tarts so delectable is their candy-like filling created by cooking the sugar and corn syrup together before mixing with the butter and eggs. In the early days of butter tarts, the flavouring was usually a little splash of lemon juice or vinegar , but as befits a more recent recipe, vanilla is the baker's choice. Decide for yourself what you like to add to the filling - raisins and walnuts are Jessie Murphy's preference.

Filling:

1 cup (250 mL) packed light brown sugar

1 cup (250 mL) corn syrup

1/3 cup (75 mL) butter, cubed

2 large eggs at room temperature

3/4 cup (175 mL) chopped walnut halves

1/2 cup (250 mL) raisins

1/2 tsp (2 mL) vanilla

1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt

Pastry:

3 cups (750 mL) all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. (2 mL) salt

1/2 cup (125 mL) cold butter, cubed

1/2 cup (125 mL) cold lard, cubed (or replace with additional butter)

1 large egg

2 tsp (10 mL) vinegar

Ice water

. Pastry: In a large bowl, whisk flour with salt. With a pastry blender, cut in butter and lard until mixture looks crumbly sprinkled with some larger pieces. 

. In a liquid measuring cup, whisk the egg with the vinegar. Add enough ice water to make 2/3 cup (150 mL).

. Gradually sprinkle egg mixture over the flour mixture, all the while stirring briskly with a fork until the pastry clumps and holds together. If there are floury bits lurking in the bottom of the bowl, add a splash more ice water to incorporate them into the ragged dough. With a floured hand, firmly press the dough together; divide in half. Press each half into a disc about 1-inch (2.5 cm) thick. Wrap each half and chill for 1 hour or up to 3 days. Let stand at room temperature until easy to roll out.

. Filling: Meanwhile, in a saucepan, bring the sugar and syrup to  a gentle simmer, stirring just to blend. Simmer for 3 minutes; let cool for 5 minutes. Stir in the butter; let cool to room temperature.

. In a medium bowl beat the eggs with the vanilla and salt; pour the butter mixture slowly over the egg mixture, stirring continuously. Set aside for the moment.

. On a floured pastry cloth or surface, roll out one half of the dough at a time to 1/8-inch (3 mm) thickness. Using a 4-inch (10 cm) round cookie cutter (or bottom of empty 28 oz/796 mL) can), cut out about 20 rounds. (Save any leftover dough for another purpose.)

. Fit rounds of pastry into regular muffin cups. Divide the walnuts and raisins among the pastry shells. Spoon the filling in until shells are about three-quarters full. 

. Bake in the bottom third of 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F (180°C)  and bake until pastry is golden and filling bubbling, about 10 minutes. 

. Let firm up for 3 minutes in the muffin pans. With a rounded blade of a table knife or small off-set spatula, run around each tart to loosen. Lift out onto a rack to cool. If tarts feel too fragile to move, let them set in the cups a few minutes longer. But, be careful of tarts with any filling bubbled out over the edges. Loosen them before the filling hardens. 

. Makes about 20 tarts.

Where did Butter Tarts Come From?

Good Question. There are a number of tarts and pies that play on a similar sweet filling. Think Quebec's sugar pie, lassie tarts from Newfoundland, the pecan pie of the US south, the treacle tart of England. Mary Williamson, a serious collector of historic cookbooks and an expert on butter tarts has revealed a link that sounds plausible. The tarts in question are called Border Tarts and come from the border area of Scotland, source of many Canadian immigrants in the 19th century. The Border Tart filling often contains dried fruit, sugar, eggs and butter - all ingredients our largely rural population would have handy, often from their own farms. Mary Williamson has sourced the first written reference to what are now butter tarts. It is in a cookbook compiled, like so many cookbooks have been by women in churches, synagogues, clubs and community groups, by The Women's Auxiliary of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie in 1900. Like a baby just being born, its name "butter tarts" was yet to come. The recipe was labeled simply, "A filling for tarts". By the teens, butter tarts went by their own name and the recipes abounded. In the 1915 edition of the Five Roses Cook Book the recipe for butter tarts reads: 1 egg, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup currants, Butter size of a walnut, Flavor to taste. Beat all until full of bubbles. Drop from teaspoon into lined patty tin, and bake in quick oven. One cup of dates may be added if desired." 650,000 copies of that cookbook were sold to Canadians, putting 1 copy in every second home. No wonder Canadians are such good bakers. We've had our hands in flour for a long time.

This is an homage to oats. Fair warning if you think oats, oatmeal and rolled oats are old-fashioned. And don't belong in your cold weather kitchen. You may miss out on some fine dishes. 

Let's start out with what I didn't know about Avena sativa, the grain that favours a northern growing conditions. We ate oatmeal as kids, or porridge. Generous amounts of brown sugar and milk. But when it came to washing the pot, a geography test - any kind of test, Latin declensions, irregular French verbs - would get me out of cleaning the pot, porridge stuck bottom and sides.

It was on my honeymoon in Kingston Jamaica that I learned about nutmeg in porridge. What a revelation. Freshly grated nutmeg is still my favourite flavour, but cinnamon will do in a time pinch. Into the mixture of 1/3 cup rolled oats and 1 cup water goes a little handful of raisins or dried cranberries or dried cherries or slivered apricots. Plus nutmeg and a very few grains of salt.  Four minutes in the microwave and there's breakfast.

Then too it's fine to add honey, flax seeds, chopped nuts, maple syrup.Even blueberries, diced apple, pear or banana and I know people who dollop applesauce over their oatmeal or use apple juice instead of water to cook the oats. With these additions you don't need sugar, although milk is still a must. 

And we ate oatmeal cookies, long before adding chocolate was on the horizon - but big fat black raisins or chopped dates were. All the while we called the hot cereal "oatmeal". But what went into the pot was really rolled oats. We seemed oblivious to the simply crushed or chopped oat kernels (groats) called steel cut, Irish or Scotch oats.

From left to right, steel cut (Irish/Scotch) oats, large flake (old-fashioned) rolled oats, quick-cooking rolled oats

In 1877 in the United States, the Quaker Oat Company created rolled oats by steaming oat kernels, then flattening them into flakes. While there is a loss of flavour, the flakes cooked more quickly for breakfast, became the accepted version of oats, and opened up a whole new world of baking. Think date squares, oatmeal cookies (now with coconut, pecans, dried cherries, chocolate, white and dark), granola, muesli, Queen Elizabeth Cake, apple crumble, muffins, breads and more.

Over the last few years, real oatmeal or Irish/Scotch/steel-cut oats have had a revival. And while for your morning cereal, the longer time the chunky bits take to cook might encourage an oat lover to make a whole batch ahead and reheat as needed. Bulk stores, health food outlets and farmers' markets are where you can get this kind of oats. In my opinion, it's for breakfast that they shine, leaving baking to the realm of rolled oats.

"Rice of the Prairies", aka as oats. Cook some with your favourite long grain rice and serve with warming stews, chilis and curries. Or add a small handful when simmering a homemade vegetable soup.

As for rolled oats, there are two recipes that are ideal for preholiday baking, and frankly, for keeping in your repertoire for the year round. One's for savoury occasions, the second, in the shortbread tradition, perfect for a cookie exchange and the de rigueur cookie plate at holiday time. 

Nova Scotia Oatcakes

Like oatmeal cookies, but not nearly as sweet, oakcakes are just about the best crunchy cracker base for a variety of cheese, especially blue cheese or well aged Cheddar. In Nova Scotia where this recipe originated, oatcakes are such a popular regional specialty they are often tucked into a bread baskets, frequently beside slices of moist oatmeal brown bread. In the province, Tim Horton's sells oatcakes along with the usual scones and doughnuts. In case you don't fancy the cheeses mentioned above, oatcakes, butter and jam are a wicked breakfast/snack combo. Any jam, although with a name like Baird, marmalade is recommended.

3 cups (750 mL) large flake rolled oats
1-1/2 cups (375 mlL) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
1/2 tsp (2 mL) baking soda
1/2 cup (125 mL) packed brown sugar
1 cup (250 mL) cold butter, cubed
1/2 cup (125 mL) ice water

. Line 2 rimless baking sheets with parchment paper or grease; set aside.
. In a large bowl, whisk together the rolled oats, flour, salt and baking soda; work in the brown sugar, using your fingers if necessary to combine dry ingredients.
. Sprinkle with butter. With a pastry blender, cut in butter until the ingredients are crumbly. (Because of the flakes, this will take longer than cutting butter into flour alone.) Sprinkle ice water over the oats mixture, tossing them with a fork to moisten the dry ingredients evenly.
. With your hands, press the dough together.  The dough will be a little sticky; dust your fingers with flour to solve this problem.
. On a floured surface or floured pastry cloth, press into a rectangle; divide in half.
. On a floured pastry cloth or between two sheets of floured waxed paper and using a rolling pin, roll out half of the dough at a time into 12 x-9-inch (30 x 23 cm) rectangle, 1/4-inch (5 mm) thick. With a pizza cutter or blade ofa long chefs knife, trim the edges; cut dough into 3-inch (8 cm) squares. Cut each square diagonally in half. Reroll and shape the scraps for a baker's oatcake.
. Transfer to prepared baking sheets, separating oat cakes slightly. Bake in centre of 350°F (180°C) oven until golden brown on bottom and top is darkened slightly, about 15 minutes. Let cool on the pans for 5 minutes. 
. Transfer to racks to cool. (Make-ahead: Layer with waxed paper in airtight containers and store at room temperature for up to a week or freeze for up to a month.)
. Makes about 48 oatcakes.

Oats and Chocolate Shortbread

In a sweet cookie like this brown sugar shortbread, a bittersweet chocolate is the best foil. While you can use chocolate chips - the small ones deliver chocolate in every bite, I like to buy a quality chocolate bar and chop it to about the same size as chocolate chips, especially for this cookie. This recipe is based on one found in the December 2009 issue of Canadian Living Magazine. 

1 cup (250 mL) butter

1/2 cup (125 mL) packed brown sugar

1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt

1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla

1/4 cup (50 mL) cornstarch

3/4 cup (175 mL) quick-cooking rolled oats (not instant)

1-1/4 cups (300 mL)  all-purpose flour

3/4 cup (175 mL) chopped bittersweet chocolate or chocolate chips

. Line 2 rimless baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mat; set aside.

. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar until light. Beat in the salt and vanilla.

. With a wooden spoon, stir in the cornstarch, then the rolled oats and finally the flour. Sprinkle the chocolate over the surface of the dough and stir in just long enough to combine.

. Divide the dough in half; place each on a 12-inch (30 cm) length of waxed paper. Shape the dough into a rough log. Using the paper, shape and roll the log into a smooth 9-inch (23 cm) length. Wrap in the paper, twist the ends to seal and chill until semi-firm, about 30 minutes. 

. Remove the rolls from the fridge. Reroll in the paper to make sure the log is round and hasn't developed a flat side. Return to the fridge to chill until firm, about 30 minutes. 

. Using a serrated or good chefs knife, cut rolls, one at a time, into 1/2-inch (1.25 cm) slices; place about 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) apart on prepared baking sheets. (Make-ahead: cover baking sheets with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 1 day.)

. Bake one sheet at a time in the centre of a 275°F (140°C) oven until bottoms are lightly browned, about 40 minutes. Let cool on the pan set on a rack for 5 minutes. Transfer to a rack to finish cooling. (Make-ahead: Store layered between waxed paper in an airtight container for up to a week, or freeze for up to a month.)

. Makes about 36 cookies. 

Real Oatmeal Porridge

In Scotland and Ireland, the whole oat kernel or groat is ground or crushed into oatmeal of various coarseness. In bulk stores, look for steel cut oats. A pot of this real oatmeal takes about 40 minutes to simmer on top of the stove. It's chewiness is one of the pleasures of real oatmeal porridge.

For 4 servings, bring 4 cups (1 L) water to the boil. Stir in 1 cup (250 mL) steel cut oats; stir while the mixture comes back to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered and stirring occasionally, until the porridge thickens, about 30 minutes. Add a sprinkle of salt if desired.