The Litibaker

Matzah doesn’t have to be boring

I’m cutting to the chase here folks. Pesach (Passover) is my favourite Jewish holiday. I love the food, the family time, the rituals. It’s just great. Yes, I love the food, including the matzah! But matzah doesn’t have to be boring, tasteless and overpriced. Because honestly, it is The. Easiest. Recipe. Ever. Super customizable, done in…

Blood Orange Cheesecake

I’ve been eyeing the blood oranges at our local grocery store for a while now. Their colour is just so striking, and I knew I needed to do something with them. Turns out, I did a few things, and this is the first one. Everyone likes cheesecake, but sometimes cheesecake can just be too much,…

Maple Whiskey Cinnamon Buns

It could be any number of things that makes these cinnamon buns so irresistible. It could be that they’re made with a variation of my (“best ever”) challah dough, or that they’ve got whiskey in them, or that they’re filled with maple sugar. Whatever it is, these are delicious. Dough 423g warm water (about 95f)…

Red. Velvet. Cinnamon. Buns.

I feel like nothing really needs to be said beyond the title. What more can I say? Red Velvet Cinnamon Buns. Oh ya, how about Valrhona chocolate chunks, and cream cheese icing? This started off as a birthday breakfast, and is pulling double duty as a Valentine’s Day brunch. The buns themselves are soft and…

A surprising classic

I know what you’re thinking – lemon poppyseed cake? Really? Yes, really. It is really not possible to overstate how good this cake is. Simple and understated, this little cake packs a massively oversized punch. This is the “Lemon and Poppy seed cake (National Trust version)” from Yotam Ottolenghi & Helen Goh’s new book, Sweet….

Scones, Tea Ways

Who doesn’t love scones? They’re easy as anything to make, delicious and easy to customize, and the perfect food for nibbling on your way to work. I have a whole bunch of recipes that I’ve developed around tea flavours, which you’ll see over the next little while, and these are the first. The green ones…

Cranberry Curd and White Chocolate Tart

I know, I know. My pie for the Great Canadian Baking Show’s “elegant pie or tart” challenge fell short of the “elegant” mark. So we’re calling this my redemption tart. I can do elegant darnit! All joking aside, that pear/hazelnut/chocolate pie was delicious and I’ll post the recipe soon, but I wanted to show that…

The Litibaker’s Chocolate & Pumpkin Cheesecake (Bites)

(I may have been trying slightly too hard with the picture, but hey, you’ve got to start somewhere!) A couple of facts about these… Fact 1: Everything is better when associated with shortbread. Fact 2: “(Bites)” is in ( ) because this works just as well as an actual cheesecake, and as cheesecake squares/bites. I…

The Perfect Brunch Bread: lemon and hazelnut

I spent last weekend in Calgary, visiting family, which meant no time for baking. But it also meant I got to put my latest creation to the perfect test. The lighter coloured bread on the right is my Lemon and Hazelnut wild yeast bread (aka Sourdough), with a bit of herbs de provence to keep…

Sourdough additions, two ways

A good, artisan bread, with its thick crust and its chewy and strong crumb, is like a blank canvas ready to take on whatever flavours you throw at it. This week I threw two very different flavours at my basic sourdough. Both turned out great. These breads start with my basic pain au levain (from…

And now for something completely different

As you may have noticed, I bake a bit of bread. Bread works particularly well for me because the timing is fairly forgiving. No matter if I’m in Court all week, with meetings in the evening and more work afterwards, bread is forgiving. A good wild yeast artisan dough will last in the fridge anywhere…