Using Demerara sugar in place of icing sugar makes these cookies extra moist and adds a slight molasses-like taste. Fill the thumbprints quickly or else the caramel will seize. If this happens, simply reheat on the stovetop or microwave in a microwaveable dish until soft.
Italian sausage and bread make a flavourful, moist stuffing. After rolling the pork, your hands will be dirty, so have the twine precut and ready to go.
Layers of ganache nestle under a chocolate jacket. For a neat presentation, lift entire batch out of pan using parchment paper, trim edges even and cut into squares.
On Thanksgiving weekend The Village at Blue Mountain, Ont., fills with the fragrance of freshly baked apple pies. For this Quintessential Apple Pie Contest, bakers from this apple-growing region that rings Georgian Bay carry their pies – double crust, single crust, lattice top, streusel and more – to the judging tables. Baking enthusiast Brenda Hall of Collingwood, Ont., took first prize with this pie, which she called “Grandma Thompson's,” a classic double-crust pie that's not too sweet but full and juicy with freshly harvested local McIntosh apples. For a fall pie, re-roll the pastry scraps and cut out maple leaves to arrange over the top crust.
First Prize in Rolled Cookie Category
Catherine Laframboise of Toronto loves the flavours of maple and walnut together and says they are even better dressed up in this recipe with buttercream and praline. If you can't find maple sugar, substitute 1/2 cup (125 mL) granulated sugar and 1 tsp (5 mL) maple extract.
Plump pork sausages, crispy Yorkshire pud and a rich onion gravy come together to make this family favourite.
An everlasting favourite of children, this dish is known and loved by most British people as sausages (the toad) cooked in Yorkshire pudding batter (the hole). But it wasn’t always so. In 1861, Mrs. Beeton described a version that used steak and kidney instead of sausages, while other early recipes called for cheap offcuts or leftovers of any kind of meat . The Art of Cookery (1747) even includes a recipe for “pigeon in a hole.” Sausages became integral to toad in the hole during World War I – perhaps as a way to
stop them exploding in the pan when frying – and the dish rapidly became a national hit.
Vegetarians, rejoice! This meat-free, dairy-free handheld treat will be the hit of the party. Kosher panko makes an ultracrispy crust that soaks up any moisture from the artichokes. For guests who don't feel like dipping, serve the artichokes with wedges of lemon to squeeze over top.
Instead of fluted tart pans, you can also use mini (1-1/4- x 3/4-inch/3 x 2 cm) muffin cups.
Jack-o’-lantern cookie pops do double duty as tasty treats for the kids and their friends and an edible Halloween centrepiece.
