Frangipane (Almond Paste) Buns

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A few months ago, my boyfriend and I went to The Forks in Winnipeg to wander around & grab a delicious pastry from Tall Grass Prairie Bakery. Normally, I like to get one of their rhubarb strawberry muffins or even one of their amazing cinnamon buns. However, on this particular day, I was intrigued by their frangipane croissants. I had just got back from France and I think I was feeling a bit nostalgic. *hah* The frangipane croissant was incredible. Wow! The croissant was so buttery and soft. And the frangipane was just the right amount of sweet. Ever since that day, I have wanted to try re-creating the almond paste croissants at home. However, since I still have not conjured up enough courage to try making croissants from scratch, I’ve gone without the delicious pastry for months. And I’ve not seen them again at the bakery since! Perhaps they are a best seller? Anyway, this week I stumbled upon a frangipane bun very reminiscent of a cinnamon bun. You basically start with a sweet yeasted dough as you would a cinnamon bun. However, instead of coating the dough with a cinnamon/brown sugar/butter mixture before rolling it, with the frangipane buns you coat the dough with a mixture of ground blanched almonds, white sugar, butter and pure almond extract. Amazing. Although the buns were not as flaky as the croissants at Tall Grass Prairie, I think my craving is finally satisfied.



STEP ONE: Sweet Yeast Dough
Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup of milk
  • 1/4 cup of granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup of butter
  • 1 teaspoon of salt
  • 1/4 cup of warm water
  • 1 package of active dry yeast (or 2 1/4 teaspoons)
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 cups of all-purpose flour

Method


1. In a small saucepan, heat together the milk, all but 2 teaspoons of sugar, the butter and salt until the butter is melted; let cool to lukewarm.


2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, dissolve the remaining sugar in the warm water. Sprinkle in the yeast. Let the mixture stand until frothy (about 10 minutes). 


3. With the paddle attachment on your mixer, stir in the milk mixture, the eggs and 3 and 1/2 cups of flour to make a soft and sticky dough. (note: It may look a big shaggy, but that is okay. It comes together once you use your dough hook) 


4. Put the dough hook attachment on your mixer. Mix on low speed for 8 minutes. Be sure to add flour if dough is too wet. Dough should be smooth and elastic after 8 minutes of mixing.


5. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl. Turn to grease the entire ball of dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk (approximately 1 and 1/2 hours).


6. After the dough has doubled in size, punch down the dough. Roll the dough out into an 18 X 14 inch rectangle.


STEP TWO: Frangipane Paste


Ingredients

  • 1 cup of whole blanched almonds
  • 1/3 cup of granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon of flour
  • 1/4 cup of butter; melted
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 teaspoon of pure almond extract
  • 1 egg; beaten
  • 1/4 cup of sliced almonds
  • 1 tablespoon of icing (confectioner’s) sugar

Method


1. In a food processor, finely chop the almonds. Add sugar and flour and pulse until combined. Add butter, egg and almond extract. Pulse until the mixture is smooth. (note: I just used 1/2 cup of ground almonds that I bought from the grocery store and mixed everything by hand. No food processor required!)


2. Leaving a 1-inch border, spread the frangipane evenly over the dough; mounding the frangipane slightly along one long side. Starting from the mounded side, tightly roll the dough to make a log formation. Pinch the seam to seal.


3. With a serrated knife, cut the roll into 12 slices. Arrange the slices, cut side up, in a prepared baking pan. Cover the pan with a clean tea towel; let the buns rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk (approximately 45 minutes). 


4. Once the buns have doubled in bulk, brush beaten egg over the tops of the buns. Sprinkle the tops with sliced (or slivered) almonds.


5. Bake the buns in the centre of the oven at 375’F until golden (20 to 25 minutes depending on your oven). (note: rolls will sound hollow when tapped on the bottoms when they are perfectly done baking) Let the pan cool for 5 minutes and then transfer the frangipane buns to a wire rack and let cool. Dust with icing sugar.


Makes 12 buns.


Source: The Complete Canadian Living Baking Book by Elizabeth Baird

Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Frosting

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I love the combination of chocolate & raspberries. So, when I was asked to make some cupcakes for a local fundraiser recently, I decided to be a bit selfish and make my very favourite flavour. Since I had to make 72 cupcakes for the fundraiser (and had already used almost every clean bowl in the kitchen), I opted for this one-bowl chocolate cupcake recipe I found on the Martha Stewart website. It was so easy! Since the other cupcakes I had made for the fundraiser (Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes & Pineapple Coconut Cupcakes) were so rich, I wanted to make a light frosting for the chocolate cupcakes. So, I came up with a really light & fluffy raspberry cream cheese frosting that was pretty darn 
tasty :)   

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup warm water
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk
  • 3 tablespoons canola oil
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1-8 ounce block of low-fat cream cheese; at room temperature
  • 4 tablespoons of seedless raspberry jam
  • 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup of icing sugar/confectioner’s sugar
  • 1 tub of Cool-Whip whipped topping
  • bittersweet chocolate shavings

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.

2. Sift cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth.

3. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to wire racks, and let cool. Cupcakes will keep, covered, for up to 3 days.

4. To make the frosting, whip the cream cheese until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes at medium to high speed). Add the vanilla and whip thoroughly. Add the raspberry jam (make sure it is seedless!) and whip until well combined. While the mixer is on low, add the icing sugar gradually. Once icing sugar is well combined, fold the whipped topping into the raspberry mixture. 

5. Frost cupcakes as desired. Decorate the top of the cupcakes with bittersweet chocolate curls.

Sources
Chocolate Cupcakes by Martha Stewart 
Raspberry Frosting by Courtney Jones

Restaurant Review: Blackbird Café

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Blackbird Café – Minneapolis, Minnesota
This past weekend, my boyfriend and I drove all the way to Minneapolis, Minnesota for a mini-vacation. One of my very favourite parts of vacations & travelling is getting to try new restaurants and new/exciting foods. A good friend of mine, Serena, suggested we check out one of her favourite restaurants in Minneapolis – The Blackbird Cafe. Since I value her opinion a great deal, it was the first place we stopped for some food. And she did not lead me astray. The food was wonderful and the atmosphere lovely. I was incredibly impressed when I walked in, not only on the welcoming vintage decor, but also by the fact that they were playing the Weakerthans; one of my all-time favourite bands. We arrived around 2PM on Monday and happy hour was just starting. I ordered a delicious peach mimosa and a fantastic veggie burger. The patty was made with brown rice, black beans, wild rice and sour cherries. It was covered in provolone cheese and served on a bed of tortilla chips with a side of homemade guacamole and mango salsa. Delicious! My boyfriend ended up having a spicy oriental noodle bowl with deep-fried tofu. He said it was fantastic. We will definitely be checking out the Blackbird Cafe again in the future when we visit Minneapolis next. If you are in the Minneapolis/St.Paul area, I definitely recommend you check out the new Blackbird Cafe – 3800 Nicollet Avenue.
Check out the neat decor at the café. I loved the antique mirrors lining the walls. I also loved the plastic deer that lined the wainscotting. Very cute! I also liked how open and bright the restaurant was. The staff was extremely friendly and the atmosphere had a very fun, vintage feel to it.