Whitecap Books Blog - News & Events

Banana Coconut Muffins from Back to Baking

Jesse Marchand — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:18:08 -0800

After previously making Anna Olson’s Coconut Cake from Back to Baking, (a huge success with my guests, by the way), I had some coconut left over. I found a delicious way to use it in Anna's recipe for Banana Coconut Muffins.

I had everything on hand to make these except the lime and after lugging home a huge trip of groceries via bus, I just couldn't bring myself to go back out to the store. So I did without, sorry Anna!

These muffins definitely can work without the lime but I do think it would have added a real kick to the flavour, as well as the je ne sais quoi of a professional muffin.

This recipe only makes 8 muffins so if you like really big muffins I recommend doubling it filling up the muffin cups to the top. This might be against the book’s whole everything-in-moderation theme, but if you share the big muffins with your friends, everything will balance out. The bigger your muffins the longer your cooking time. I found my largest muffin took the full 25 minutes while the smallest took only 20.

If you don't have muffin cups, and don’t mind the extra calories, these work really well in a buttered muffin tin. They taste so good, you really can't go wrong.

All in all this was an incredibly simple recipe with really delicious results. Next time I'd really like to try it with the lime!

Banana Coconut Muffins

• Makes 10 muffins •

If coconut isn’t your thing, substitute the same measure with walnut pieces instead.

3/4 cup (185 mL) mashed, ripe bananas (about 2)

1/2 cup (125 mL) packed golden-yellow sugar

1 egg

1 tsp (5 mL) finely grated lime zest

1/2 tsp (2 mL) vanilla extract

1/2 cup (125 mL) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 1/4 cups (310 mL) all-purpose flour

1 tsp (5 mL) baking powder

1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt

1/2 cup (125 mL) sweetened, flaked coconut

Preheat the oven to 375°f (190°c) and line a muffin tin with paper liners.

Stir the bananas and sugar together, then stir in the egg, lime zest, and vanilla. Stir in the melted butter.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt, then add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and stir until combined. Mix in the coconut and spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the muffins spring back when gently pressed. Let the muffins cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin to cool completely. The muffins will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Twitter Giveaway

Jeffrey Bryan — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:49:41 -0800

In celebration of hitting the 1500 follower mark on our twitter account we’re running a little contest! Simply tweet “I love Canadian cookbooks from @whitecapbooks” by 4:00pm PST / 7:00pm EST on March 5th and you’ll be entered to win a classic Canadian cookbook set including new editions of Kate Aitken’s Canadian Cook Book (first published in 1945) and The Laura Secord Canadian Cook Book (first published in 1966)!

On March 6th we’ll use random.org to pick a winner! You must have a Canadian mailing address to be eligible.

Good luck!

**UPDATE: This contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone that entered and congrats to our winner!

Hummus Five Ways

Jesse Marchand — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:33:05 -0800

I'm a huge fan of recipes that require incredibly minimal effort. I don’t like chopping, rinsing, and prepping, so when I saw how easy Julie and Sue's recipe for hummus from Spilling the Beans is, I was super excited.

It was Sunday afternoon, and my two close friends were coming for dinner to see my place for the first time. After cleaning up the house, prepping a main course meal, and baking a cake for dessert, I didn’t have a tonne of time for an appy. So while I really wanted to try the beautifully pink Roasted Beet version, time was of the essence and the basic prevailed.

I was apprehensive at first because I don't actually have a food processor; I'm still living in blender-land. But the hummus is moist enough that even my cheap drug store blender mixed it up with ease.

I cannot stress enough how easy this recipe is. It is probably the most simple, absolutely delicious thing I have ever made. Now with my giant jar of tahini, I pretty much always have these ingredients on hand to whip up a quick snack, or feed unexpected guests. Not only does it impress but it's far superior than anything you’ll find in the prepackaged aisle.

Hummus Five Ways

Makes about 2½ cups

All the measurements here are approximate—add more or less of any ingredient to suit your taste. If you don’t have tahini, use peanut butter. If you love the sesame flavour of tahini, boost it with a drizzle of sesame oil—whether or not you’re using tahini. Flavour your hummus with anything you think would work well: try whizzing in curry powder or paste, roasted vegetables or garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, a chipotle chile, fresh jalapeño pepper, or a spoonful of horseradish.

2 cups (500 mL) rinsed and drained canned chickpeas (19 oz/540 mL can)

1 large garlic clove, peeled

¼ cup (60 mL) thick plain yogurt (optional)

Juice of 1 lemon (2 to 3 Tbsp/30 to 45 mL, or to taste)

2 Tbsp (30 mL) tahini (sesame seed paste)

½ to 1 tsp (2.5 to 5 mL) ground cumin (optional)

¼ tsp (1 mL) salt, or to taste

2 to 4 Tbsp (30 to 60 mL)

olive oil

Put everything but the olive oil into the bowl of a food processor and purée, pouring the olive oil in through the feed tube as it blends, until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning (salt, lemon juice, cumin) as needed. If it’s too thick, add more olive oil, yogurt, or water.

Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 4 days before serving.

Variations:

Lemony Parsley Hummus: Add a handful of chopped fresh parsley (leave the stems out) and some extra lemon juice, or grate some of the zest and add it, too.

Roasted Beet Hummus: Wrap 2 medium beets in tin foil and roast at 425ºf for an hour, or until tender. Cool, peel, and slice into chunks; add to the hummus mixture as you purée it.

Green Pea or Edamame Hummus: Add a cup of thawed frozen green peas or steamed edamame or broad beans.

Olive & Feta Hummus: Add a small handful of pitted olives and a small chunk of feta, crumbled; pulse them in at the end so that they stay slightly chunky.

Raisin Butter Tarts and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Theresa Best — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:16:39 -0800

Raisin Butter Tarts and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last night my sister and I had a Christmas baking session. I’d brought a copy of Anna Olson’s Back to Baking to try out, and after consulting Anna’s recipe for Raisin Butter Tarts (page 100), my sister declared that she wanted to follow it instead of the recipe she already had. My baking choice was Anna’s Chocolate Chip Cookies (page 18), made with her Basic Brown Sugar Cookie Dough (page 17, or see below!).

For the butter tarts, we had to use regular margarine instead of unsalted butter because that’s what we had on hand. We also had a package of pre-made tart shells that we used instead of making our own dough. (Sorry Anna! Time wasn’t completely on our side!) However, instead of these two “departures” we followed the recipe exactly, and we decided that the resulting tarts were pretty much the best we’d ever tasted.

For the chocolate chip cookies, we also had to substitute regular margarine for unsalted butter. And, because I wanted tidy, round, evenly shaped cookies (go figure: I’m an editor), we rolled out the dough into a log and sliced it instead of dropping spoonfuls of it onto the baking tray. The cookies were simple, chocolaty bliss: a classic that turned out perfectly.

We were using a convection oven, to handle multiple baking trays, and Anna’s notes (page 8) on using this type of oven were really helpful.

Thanks, Anna!

—Theresa Best

Basic Brown Sugar Cookie Dough

• Makes enough dough for 2 to 3 dozen cookies •

foundation recipe

This cookie dough is the base for the favourites of the drop cookies: Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Raisin, Molasses, and Peanut Butter. After a couple of batches, you’ll likely have these proportions memorized and be able to whip off a batch of cookies with your eyes closed. Before making any of the cookies for which this dough serves as a base, read the specific cookie recipe itself to see if additions need to be made to this basic dough recipe.

½ cup (125 mL) unsalted butter, at room temperature

½ cup (125 mL) packed light brown sugar

¼ cup (60 mL) sugar

1 egg, at room temperature

1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract

1¼ cups (310 mL) all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp (30 mL) cornstarch

½ tsp (2 mL) baking soda

½ tsp (2 mL) salt

Cream the butter, brown sugar, and sugar together until fluffy.

Beat in the egg and then the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, stir the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt.

Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and stir until evenly blended.

Follow instructions to make Chocolate Chip (page 18), Oatmeal Raisin (page 20), Molasses (page 20), or Peanut Butter (page 22).

Notes from Anna’s kitchen

1. The cornstarch is the secret to this dough. Regardless of which cookie variation you choose to make with this recipe, the cookies stay soft in the centre and are delectably tender.

2. Ever run out of brown sugar? You can re-create light brown sugar by using granulated sugar and adding 1 tablespoon (15 mL) of fancy molasses to a recipe for every 1 cup (250 mL) of brown sugar called for. The molasses creates the taste and the moisture that the brown sugar would add to a recipe.

Four Whitecap titles will be representing Canada at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards

Jeffrey Bryan — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:32:43 -0800

The winners in the Canada-English category of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards were announced today and I am very proud to report that Whitecap Books received 4 wins!

Best Single Subject Book:
Spilling the Beans by Julie Van Rosendaal and Sue Duncan
Best Desserts Book:
Back to Baking by Anna Olson
Best First Book:
Everyday Exotic by Roger Mooking and Allan Magee
Best Asian Cuisine Book:
Bal's Quick and Healthy Indian by Bal Arneson

These titles will now go on to compete against the winners in these categories from all over the world at the Paris Cookbook Fair held on March 6, 2012. Best of luck to our authors in the final round!