Posts Tagged ‘baking’
BKD Cookbook Club – August
Posted on: August 14, 2025
- In: Food
- 75 Comments
It’s time for BKD Cookbook Club, and this month the theme is: A cookbook first published in your country. For me, being from Canada, that means by a Canadian author.
There was no question about it, I had to feature a cookbook by Jean Paré. Jean is well known for her Company’s Coming series of cookbooks, and I own a number of them. In fact, I used to sell them in my kitchen store, and even got to meet her when she celebrated selling one million cookbooks. A lovely person and a hero of mine, she is not only Canadian but from my home province of Alberta. Before publishing cookbooks, she was a caterer in her hometown of Vermilion, Alberta. Because of requests for her recipes, she wrote and published her first cookbook in 1981 at the age of 53. The rest, as they say, is history.
Jean Paré 1927-2022
“She’s one of the world’s best-selling cookbook authors, selling 30 million copies by 2011. From breakfast to desserts and wraps to entertaining, her books covered everything from Christmas cooking to low-fat cooking, muffins and snacks, to kid-friendly cooking and slow-cooker recipes. In all, Jean Paré published some 200 books over a career that spanned several decades.” Source: Wikipedia
Just a sample of her cookbooks. I own about eight of them.
The one I use the most is Muffins & More. It is my go-to cookbook when I need to mix up a quick batch of muffins, a loaf, or a coffee cake. They always turn out! The ingredients are simple and things usually on hand. You can see that my copy is well-worn.
The photos inside are mouth-watering good.
A few favourites of mine from the book are Apple Streusel Muffins, Banana Chip Muffins, Orange Bran Muffins, Date Pineapple Loaf, Apple Coffee Cake and Strawberry Banana Loaf.
Here is a recipe I have made many, many times. I particularly like this one, as it doesn’t require too much sugar, and it calls for oil instead of butter.
Cranberry Muffins
2 cups/500mL all-purpose flour
1/2 cup/125 mL granulated sugar
4 tsp./20mL baking powder
1/2 tsp./2 mL salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup/50 mL cooking oil
1/2 cup/125 mL milk
1 cup/250 mL whole cranberry sauce
Measure flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Stir thoroughly. Make a well in the centre.
In a separate bowl, beat eggs until frothy. Mix in oil, milk and cranberries. Pour into well. Stir to moisten. Batter will be lumpy. Fill greased muffin tins 3/4 full.
Bake in 400°F/200°C oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Makes 18 to 24 muffins, depending on the size of tins.
Topping: Brush hot cooked muffin tops with melted butter. Sprinkle with granulated sugar.
Fresh cranberry muffins: Use coarsely chopped or whole cranberries instead of sauce. Add a bit more milk just so the batter is not too stiff to spoon out.
I didn’t have any cranberries, fresh or frozen, when I decided to make these. So I used 1/2 cup of fresh blueberries and 1/2 cup of fresh strawberries, and they turned out great! The recipes are so flexible.
Perfect with a cup of London Fog tea and a good book.
The linky, found on Joanne Tracey’s site, will be open at 8am on August 13 2025 and remain open until 5pm on Friday, August 15. All times are her time zone, ie Brisbane, Australia. Hope to see you there
A reminder of what BKD Cookbook Club is all about…
Each month, we “discuss” a cookbook (or a favourite recipe blog – the rules, such as they are, are flexible, and recipe blogs are 2025’s answer to cookbooks) and share a recipe. Or, if you want, just share a recipe (or a link to a recipe) along the theme. It’s all pretty flexible. I’ll post my link at 8 am on the scheduled date here, and you can either:
- Link up at the linky thingie (the link will be open until 5 pm Friday)
- Post your link in the comments or
- Post your link on the Facebook page (it’s a private group so just request approval to join)
Feel free to post links to foodie blogs on the Facebook page throughout the month, too—it all helps with the conversation.
Your post doesn’t have to be new, and you don’t have to post on the due date or at the scheduled time. I’m ridiculously flexible like that. The only rules are:
- it should be (at least loosely) along the theme selected for that month, but you do you.
Thanks, Joanne, for this great cookbook club!
2024 Virtual Cookie Exchange
Posted on: December 12, 2024
- In: Christmas | Food
- 87 Comments
Staci Troilo is once again hosting a virtual cookie exchange, which I am pleased to participate in. Here’s my entry. These cookies are so good that I ate the half I didn’t freeze almost immediately. The magic ingredient is tahini so don’t substitute. Your guests will love these, if there are any left.
Tahini Choc-Chip Cookie Slice
Ingredients
- 100g unsalted butter, melted, see the note above
- 280g plain (all-purpose) flour
- ¾ tsp bicarb soda (baking soda)
- 1 tsp sea salt flakes
- 75g tahini
- 125g caster sugar
- 125g brown sugar
- 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 250g dark chocolate, roughly chopped ( I put my chocolate in a plastic bag and rolled over it with a rolling pin a few times. It made a variety of sizes and the crumbs added flakes to the dough.)
You’ll also need a brownie tin – approx 9 x 13/23cm x 33cm, greased and lined. I always leave a little overhang of baking paper to make it easier to lift the slice out. (I didn’t have a brownie tin so used two 8 x 8/20cm x 20 cm square cake tins and it worked well)
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan).
Add the flour, bicarb soda and salt to a bowl and stir to combine. Set aside.
Tip the tahini, both sugars and melted butter into the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk everything together for about 5 minutes until the mixture is combined and lightened.
Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and mix to combine.
Add the flour mixture and mix at the lowest speed until most of the flour has been absorbed. Then tip in the chocolate and stir until it’s evenly distributed. It might seem as though there’s too much chocolate for the dough, but don’t panic.
Scrape the dough into your prepared tin and press it until it’s an evenish layer. I use the back of a soup spoon for this – mainly so I don’t get finger marks.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden. Leave to cool completely in the tin before lifting out and cutting into squares.
Thanks to Jo at https://brookfordkitchendiaries.wordpress.com/
Cookies don’t have to be round! Enjoy.
Make sure you check out the other awesome cookie recipes here
Thanks, Staci for putting this together!
My Favourite Cookbooks
Posted on: May 22, 2020
- In: Books | Food
- 70 Comments
I enjoy cooking and baking, and I especially love trying new recipes. During the nine weeks of lockdown here in Spain, I’ve had plenty of time to go through my cookbooks and try recipes I haven’t made before. Needless to say, we’ve been eating very well. I’ve collected cookbooks since I was very young and have a wonderful assortment. Some have been gifts and others I have bought myself. I managed a chain of kitchen stores in the 1980s where we sold cookbooks, so I was privy to some of the best. I was thinking about my special cookbooks and why I like them so much. So I decided to share my favourite six with you.
Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & North Africa by Habeeb Salloum is my go-to cookbook. I use this one most of all. I visited the United Arab Emirates twenty years ago and fell in love with the food. When I returned from my trip, I looked for recipes from that part of the world. A friend worked in a bookstore and recommended this one. In fact, she bought it with her employee discount so it didn’t cost me as much. She has since passed away, so every time I use it I think of her and my amazing trip. The recipes are easy to follow and each one has a short explanation or story attached, which I love. As an aside, a few years ago one of my short stories was included in an anthology in which Habeeb Salloum was also featured. How cool is that!
The Vegetable Market Cookbook, Classic Recipes From Around the World by Robert Budwig, was given to me as a gift from a special cousin who knew I was a vegetarian and that I liked international recipes. The book is divided into Italian, French, Moroccan, Thai, Indian, Mexican & Guatemalan, and Californian recipes. The dishes are made from fresh fruits and vegetables you would buy at the market. Everything I’ve made from this book has been delicious and the drawings inside are delightful. This recipe book is a pleasure to sit and read over and over.
The Lighthearted Cookbook, by Anne Lindsay, is endorsed by the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation. This was a book we sold in the kitchen stores. The recipes are low fat and heart-healthy, and also delicious. My hubby’s favourite stew comes from this book, which has a great assortment of meat, vegetable, dessert, and baked goods recipes. This one is used a lot in our house and has the stains to prove it!
New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant, by The Moosewood Collective is another cookbook we sold in the kitchen stores and was very popular. In the early 1980s, vegetarianism was just starting to get popular and many people didn´t know how to make a veggie meal interesting. This cookbook proves that vegetables do not have to be boring. It has been updated many times since I bought this one. I love the whimsical photographs interspersed throughout. I have often given this book as a gift. It makes a perfect bridal shower or housewarming gift.
Company´s Coming series of cookbooks by Jean Paré were best sellers in my kitchen stores. I couldn’t keep them on the shelves. And no wonder; they are filled with simple, easy to make recipes using ingredients readily available. I have a number of these cookbooks, but the one I use the most is Muffins and More. So much so it is almost falling apart. When we feel a need for a snack, I whip up a batch of muffins, a loaf, or a coffee cake from this gem of a recipe book. It never disappoints. Because I sold her books in the stores I managed, I was invited to a reception celebrating the sale of 1 million books, where I got to meet this lovely lady who turned her down-home recipes into an empire! She has since sold over 30 million copies and she is as down to earth as her cookbooks!
The George Bernard Shaw Vegetarian Cookbook by Alice Laden & R. J. Minney was a gift from a dear friend who picked it up for me when she visited The Shaw Festival in Stratford, Ontario. I love this little book compiled by GBS’s cook/housekeeper who ensured the great playwright always had tasty vegetarian meals. GBS became a vegetarian at age twenty-five and remained extremely healthy until he passed away at age ninety-four. I often make the Nut and Rice Roast from this book for my Christmas dinner.
There is no love sincerer than the love of good food. – George Bernard Shaw
Of course, I have many other cookbooks, recipes clipped out of magazines and newspapers, some from my mother, and others scribbled on bits of paper.
I would love to hear about your favourite cookbooks.
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