When I was a kid my Mum used to take us almost weekly to our favorite bakery, Bee Bell Bakery, in Edmonton, AB, Canada where I grew up. It was always jam-packed and smelled incredible. I loved looking in the glass cases at all the treats while my Mum took a number and waited to make her order. We rarely got the cakes or tarts that looked so exciting to me then, but very often my Mum would bless us with an order of the cheese buns. Cheese buns don’t really do justice to these incredible morsels. They were not round and domed like a traditional bun, but more the shape of a popover, and shot through with a ton of bright orange cheddar. The best were the ones that had cheese spilling out the side that had gotten baked and crispy. Or the ones where cheese had burst through the bottom and it was shiny with orange cheese grease, oh man.
Sadly Bee Bell closed its doors a few years ago so no one can get these beautiful buns anymore. With my strong memories as guide I set out this week to make a copy-cat version at home and I am incredibly happy with the result. So today I’m sharing with you a lightly sweet brioche dough, stuffed with cheddar cheese and cooked in a muffin tin for the same crazy shape I remember as a kid. These are a special, uber-cheesy treat. They take a bit of time, but were fairly easy to shape and work with so don’t be afraid if you are a beginner baker.
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Po’ Boys, the delicious Louisiana sandwiches, are a craving I get surprisingly often and fried shrimp po’ boys are the best of them all. There are many toppings for po’boys but I am most partial to the fried shrimp, catfish, crawfish, or oysters kind. Although there are many perfectly decent places to grab a po’ boy in NYC, I still just don’t have a go-to spot that I love. And the last time the craving hit and we tried a new place I ended up with food poisoning. So this time when I couldn’t get the idea of a pile of fried shrimp with pickles and hot sauce out of my head I figured I might as well make it myself and see what happens. The results were a super crunchy, spicy fried shrimp sandwich — stuff falling out of the sides of my roll, needing two or three napkins to clean up. Total success.
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Still looking to maximize friend and family time in this zone between Christmas and New Years? Cooking and baking together can be so much fun, and perogy-making is the perfect project to do in groups! And hearty, cheesy, starchy, satisfying perogies are just what your body craves during the cold months. In my hometown, Edmonton there is a big Ukrainian population and Ukrainian grandmothers often gather in church basements to make the most delicious perogies together. So let’s be inspired by them and have a perogy-making party! The best part is that everyone can leave with a bag or two of these delicious cheddar and potato perogies for the freezer.
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Still away in the cold north for the holidays but I wanted to share this quick and easy (and festive, dare I say) warm brown sugar pear cake with you. I made it just before leaving and couldn’t bear not to share it with you. It’s based on the peach coffee cake from Good and Cheap, and uses pears in place of peaches and nutmeg in place of cinnamon. This is a good reminder that this cake recipe is mega adaptable to just about any fruit. I love it so much. It gets all browned and crunchy and sweet on the outside, and gooey and soft and moist and sticky on the inside. Oh man.
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