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Bourke Street Bakeoff wrap up, part 3 of 3
Everyone likes warm cookies.
I arrived at The Drake Hotel early and met the reps from Type Books and HarperCollins Canada as well as the one competitor I didn’t know, Stephanie Dickison of One More Bite. Some of the cookies were broken, but they were broken perfectly in half, making me glad that I’d chosen to warm them up and cut them before serving.
Following Ivy into the kitchen, I found myself filled with excitement. It was only the second restaurant kitchen that I’ve been in. I slightly feared that my choice of footwear (boots with heels) would prove dangerous in the kitchen but I also knew that when I put them on in the morning. My cookies were warmed and sliced into triangles and other geometric shapes, then some were baked again. Double-baking wasn’t the original plan but some seemed kind of raw in the middle even though they seemed fine the day before. Not having had time to make a test batch, it was just one of those things.
Kitchen staff who sampled my gingerbread (the least pretty pieces) before it went out enjoyed it.
A glass of wine, and show time. For days I’d been referring to myself as the “underdog”, joking that I’d have to kiss babies and flirt for votes. As I said in my post on October 16, “…[I] won’t use bacon as a gimmick. I feel like an underdog… but guaranteed, I’m going to bring it. What I bake will rock your socks.”
Judging our creations was National Post columnist & House & Home Magazine editor Amy Rosen, Michelle Edgar, Owner/Pastry Chef of The Sweet Escape Pastisserie, and Kyla Eaglesham, owner of Madeleines Cherry Pie & Ice Cream. They, of course, selected the “judges choice” winner. Michelle called me on coming over to “judge’s table” to suck up. I wasn’t hiding the fact that I was doing it but I was also doing it in jest.
Also judging our creations were anyone who showed up. The event was open to the public and those in attendance were to vote for their favourite.
I got some encouraging comments. Some pointed out to the seasonal nature of the cookies. A number of people liked that I used three types of ginger. Positive comments didn’t translate into a win, but that’s okay.
Who won? Not David Ort. Sadly, he had to drop out of the competition because he hadn’t received the cookbook. He provided support though. The winner was Kristina Groeger for her pork, apple and braised red cabbage pie (page 212). Her modification was a pickle on the bottom. Coming in second was Stephanie Dickison for her financiers with strawberry (page 322). Joel and I tied for third. He made the chocolate sour cherry biscuits that I’d decided not to make, substituting bacon fat for butter and using booze marinated cherries on a select few for the judging panel. Phew. As third place winners we chose from books that were donated by HarperCollins Canada. I really could have done better. I could have been more exact with my cookie thickness. I could have gone into with more confidence and less self-consciousness. I could have been more of a perfectionist. Sure, I wish I’d won or come in 2nd place, but I’m happy that I answered the call and showed up. I did it to have fun, not to win. As hokey as it sounds, we were all winners.
It was a fun experience. Thank you to the judges and everyone who came out to participate. Thanks to friends and colleagues who asked how it went, even though they couldn’t be there. Thank you to the kitchen staff at The Drake Hotel for allowing me to encroach upon their space. I was seriously worried about getting in the way or interrupting the flow of the kitchen.
Full photo set on Flickr:
Eat well, be well.
Bourke Street Bakeoff wrap up, part 2 of 3
The books were a week late arriving (I’ve never had a book from a publisher arrive on time) and we had four days to choose a recipe and make it. The original requirement was to make a test batch and blog about it but this became optional. Thumbing through the 350 thick pages of this softcover book for the first time, I was struck by its heft and photos. Contemplating recipes with four days to go and little free time, I obviously had to reject anything involving starter, a 3 week process. I considered chocolate sour cherry biscuits (page 312), Pan au chocolat (page 173), flatbread (pages 126-130), dark chocolate raspberry muffins (page 329) and gingerbread (page 333).
All had their pros and cons.
At one point I thought I’d settled on the croissant.
Despite my hesitation to bake cookies, gingerbread won after a discussion with a trusted friend. David granted me use of his Kitchen-Aid Professional stand mixer. He also offered some advice (“Here’s how I’d do it, but you do it how you want…”) but was very hands off. I solicited his help for using his appliances (removing the bowl from the stand is not intuitive) and finding things in his kitchen, and also to validate some of my hunches, but that was about it. I took some of his advice but made sure that in some cases I specifically didn’t and ensured that I knew why I was or wasn’t doing what I was doing. I always want to have an answer to “why” I did something. I also got to hang out with his then 9-day old daughter while the cookies were baking.
Seriously, on a fall day it doesn’t get much better than the smell of gingerbread in the oven, good friends and an adorable, cuddly baby who’s at the age where all she does it sleep, eat and use her diaper.
Waiting to be baked
Part of what makes me feel more inclined to cook than bake (other than necessity) is the ability to improvise in a forgiving medium. I knew that I didn’t want to make gingerbread people. I didn’t even know if I wanted to use shapes. I wanted to infuse some of my personality into it. I also felt that the gingerbread recipe in the book didn’t have enough ginger. If you’re using ginger, you can’t be timid.
My only modification to the ingredients was therefore a triple hit of ginger: The ground ginger that it called for, minced candied ginger, and grated ginger. I made sure that any juice that dripped off the grater went into the mixing bowl. My confidence wavered a little bit with the proportions. It’s hard to tell when going bold with flavour is ballsy and when it’s just too much but like I said, you can’t be timid. I wanted to enhance the flavor, and make it dramatic without being too dramatic. Too much ginger burns. In retrospect, I could have added more ginger. What would be great too is infusing honey with ginger in advance or adding fresh ginger juice.
I stopped following of the directions after removing four discs of dough from the fridge. At this point I rolled them out quickly, thickly and more haphazardly than intended (see photo above, the result of not wanting to form a new ball and re-roll), baked them, and took four large gingerbread cookies home to freeze overnight (to keep them fresh and also moist), thaw all day, and finish by warming them up and cutting them in the kitchen at The Drake Hotel. Everyone likes warm cookies.
Bourke Street Bakeoff wrap up, part 1 of 3
Parts of the beginning of this post come from the notes that were in my head before I started writing last Saturday’s bake-off post titled “Bourke St. Bakery Bake-off: Starring me“.
(“I originally had this profound post in my head that was going to supplement the poster; an ode to my childhood and a book review, but you can read that after the competition. “)
For as long as I can remember, baking has been a hobby of mine. I don’t remember when it started but while drafting this post I recalled being enrolled in a baking class for kids with my sister at really young. Single digit age, I’d guess between 6 and 8. It would have been the early 80s. As my mind glimpses one tiny moment, I can visualize the classroom. I think it was at the downtown JCC, now the Miles Nadal JCC, years before the name changed and large reno. I recall that this cookbook was somehow connected, like many we were cooking recipes from it:
That's not my copy, it's David's. I took the photo last weekend at their house and, for the second time, relayed that I used to have the book.
I have great childhood memories of helping my mom in the kitchen, whether it was baking or cooking. Spending time in the kitchen seems as Jewish as bagels and lox. But then, I think that every culture has an equivalent analogy.
Of course we had all the standard appliances; Kitchen-Aid stand mixer, Cuisinart food processor with various blades. It made our lives simple in the kitchen.
One summer – I must have been in my early teens or younger – my sister and I made my mom a birthday cake from a Duncan Heinz mix and forgot to grease the pan. That didn’t turn out so well but the story was told for awhile and was a minor learning experience.
I recall a period of time when I baked almost daily.
In my adulthood I’ve been more into cooking than baking which is in part a matter of lifestyle, in part a matter of personality.
My sister, however, excels and both cooking and baking but is an especially impressive baker. Years ago I realized that our strengths in the kitchen are indicative of our personalities and other differences: Her Bachelor of Science and MBA degrees, creative, yet methodical mind and patience are all suited to baking. She once said that she realized that baking was like chemistry. Then there’s me: Bachelor of Arts (communications) degree, Arts Administration-Cultural Management diploma, ADD, creative, impulsive, common need for instant gratification, free form in the kitchen. Recipes are guidelines. Cookbooks are sometimes inspirational, sometimes food porn, rarely rules. I read cookbooks the way I read novels.
I love to bake but I don’t have the patience and living on my own is a big influence. I’ve never had the kitchen space to roll out dough. I lack the stand mixer. When I bake, I’m not baking for a family or a roommate or a significant other. My colleagues benefit from my baking moods.
Baking is so satisfying, though. I love experimenting and getting my hands messy. I like using my hands to combine flour and butter and eating the batter (ubiquitously the best part). I really enjoy baking but I am not a baker.
What I am is competitive and I like a challenge and I like to get out of my comfort zone occasionally and to try new things, have new experience. So when Ivy Knight, host of 86′D Monday nights at the Drake Hotel solicited bloggers for a bake-off to launch the cookbook, Bourke Street Bakery: Ultimate Baking Companion
It presented a fun challenge and a chance to try a new cookbook and although this might sound dorky or pretentious, I still get a kick out of being sent review copies of cookbooks. I wasn’t the least bit intimidated until I learned who my fellow competitors were. I knew three of the four: Kristina works in the kitchen at the new and notable Enoteca Sociale. David Ort and Joel Solish are super-talented.
See that? “five toronto food bloggers”. Me, Joel, David, Kristina and Stephanie. I originally had this profound post in my head that was going to supplement the poster; an ode to my childhood and a book review, but you can read that after the competition. I want to stick to the basics here.
Location: The Drake Hotel. Good drinks, good food, good-looking staff, and you never know what old movies will be showing on the little TV screens. In the summer I found myself watching Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein with neither sound nor subtitles.
Come vote for me. I’m not really a baker and won’t use bacon as a gimmick. I feel like an underdog (go Leafs) but guaranteed, I’m going to bring it. What I bake will rock your socks.
See you Monday.
P.S. If you do want to read up on the book now, Kristina‘s got a mini-review of it and Kerry Knight reviewed it for Good Food Revolution.
Catherine Kustanczy of local radio station CIUT wrote a post about the event in her blog too. Read You Knead It.
