Pistachio and cranberry shortbread

Absolutely delicious and I can eat these all day long. Not too much sugar and a very nice texture. The best shortbread cookie I have ever had. I tried a few out and this one really is a hit with the family. Just made some for gifts over the weekend and kept eating as I wrapped them.

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all purpose flour

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup butter chilled, cut into cubes

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1/4 cup dried cranberries

• 1/4 cup pistachios

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Chop cranberries in half and in a food processor pulse pistachios till they are diced into crumbs. Set aside.

2. In a food processor or mixer, add flour, sugar and salt and mix the dry ingredients.

3. Add chilled butter and mix till mixture is crumbly. Then add vanilla extract.

4. Add the pistachios and cranberries and mix by hand.

5. Roll dough into a log by sprinkling a little flour. Wrap the dough in a cling wrap and chill for one-two hours.

6. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Cut the chilled cookie dough into 1/4 inch round circles.

7. Bake till golden brown (depends on your oven) around 25 minutes. Check at 15 minutes.

How to melt chocolate

Check out our chocolate melting guide on our shop in our chocolate section.

Some more tips:

• make sure to cut the chocolate into fairly small uniform pieces. Good quality Callebaut chocolate works well too.

• All microwaves are different so use your discretion and stop every 20 seconds and stir using a rubber spatula and scrape the sides. Chocolate should take about 2 minutes to melt.

• Stop heating the chocolate and remove it from the microwave once the chocolate is mostly liquid but there are a few solid pieces remaining. Continue stirring until completely melted.

• Use melted chocolate for chocolate glaze, to dip strawberries in, holiday shortbread and other cookies and donuts.

Stollen (with marzipan)

Stollen is thought to have originated in Germany in the 1400’s. Stollen is a fruit bread of nuts, spices and dried or candied fruit, coated with powdered sugar or icing sugar and often containing marzipan. It is a traditional German bread eaten during the holidays. Learn to make your own

This recipe is tried and tested ! I got this from the Cupcake Jemma and it is a fabulous recipe. I tweaked it a bit as I prefer orange juice over rum and brandy. But you can add the rum!

Ingredients:

• 150ml whole milk- warm to touch

• 1 pack of instant yeast

• 415 g all purpose flour

• 100g fine sugar

• 1 tsp salt

• 3/4 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp mace

• 1/2 tsp cardamom

• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

• 150 g soft unsalted butter

• 2 egg yolks

• 200 gr currants/raisins/sultanas (soaked in rum or brandy overnight) I used orange juice

• 100g (mixed peel) I used orange and lemon peel

• 50 g almonds

• 250 g marzipan

Directions:

1. Activate yeast ( add yeast to the milk and add the sugar) stir and leave in a warm place for about 10-15 minutes

2. Sift all purpose flour into the mixer(don’t start mixer yet), add sugar, soft butter, egg yolks and all spices, salt and finally the milk/yeast mixture. Start the mixer with regular paddle for about 1 minute and then switch a dough hook. Keep mixing till you see a dough ball ( about 10 minutes) you should be able to stretch it.

3. Proof the dough in a greased bowl and cover with saraan wrap and a tea towel ( in an oven -with a bowl of hot water) Leave for an hour till it rises to double the size.

4. Remove dough and roll it out into a circle. Add soaked fruit , raisins and slivered almonds. Knead the dough through. You can divide the dough in two and roll each again into a circle. Add a tube of marzipan and mold into a stollen bread shape. Cover again with saran wrap and proof the stollen again for another hour in the oven again. Dough should be ready once it springs back very slowly (about 45 mins to an hour) Remove any fruit that are poking out as they will burn.

5. Bake at 320 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Cool for about 10 minutes. Poke holes in the stollen with a skewer and drizzle unsalted butter all over making sure the stollen is well soaked. Sprinkle icing sugar all over till covered. Let cool for 15 minutes and its ready to eat. Enjoy!!

Gingerbread cookies

This recipe is amazing and I got it from Gimme some oven. Your home is guaranteed to smell amazing. This one has fresh orange zest and it really does the trick.

Vegan substitutes included.
Makes 40 cookies.

Ingredients

• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

• 1 tablespoon ground ginger

• 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (all from our baking spice dabba)

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (use vegan butter here if vegan)

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (or maple syrup, agave syrup)

• 1 large egg (flax egg if vegan)

• 1/2 cup molasses

• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• zest of one small orange(optional)

  Icing

• 2 cups Icing sugar

• 2–3 tablespoons milk (soy, oat or almond milk)

• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Whisk together your dry ingredients. Flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda,, cloves, salt and nutmeg.

2. Beat the dough. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in eggs and molasses, and beat on medium speed until combined. Then gradually add in the flour mixture, and beat on medium-low speed until just combined.

3. Chill the dough. Divide the dough into two equal portions and form each into a ball. then gently use your hands to flatten each ball into a 1 “ thick disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerator for an hour or so until the dough is pliable.

4. Roll and cut the dough. Unwrap one of the discs and place it on a lightly-floured surface. Use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough evenly until it is approximately 1.8 inch thick. Then use your favourite cookie cutters to cut your desired shapes, re rolling the dough as needed to cut more. Transfer the shapes to parchment covered baking sheet.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes or until the cookies are crisp around the edges and on the top. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes., then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling

6. Decorate: Once the cookies cool to room temperature, feel free to decorate as desired with the icing.

Holiday fruitcake

I grew up in a home with my parents always in the store (Galloway’s on Robson or Pacific Centre) and therefore always around food. The best part was when my mom would make fruitcakes for the holidays. She always prepared these with love and gifted them to family and friends (the ingredients were always from Galloway’s on Robson Street where she worked for many years). She got this recipe from a customer at the Robson street store and still uses it. My mom is 81 now and I wanted to share this amazing recipe with you all. This recipe uses orange juice instead of rum, but you can use rum if you wish. I pretty much love this cake warmed up and served with a hot cup of tea.

Ingredients:

🍒8 oz currants

🍒8 oz sultana raisins

🍒4 oz mixed peel

🍒4 oz red and green cherries, whole and broken 

🍒1/2 tsp ginger ground

🍒1/4 tsp nutmeg ground

🍒1/4 tsp cardamom ground

🍒1/4 cup orange juice

🍒10 oz white all purpose flour

🍒8 oz butter (soft)

🍒16 oz organic cane sugar

🍒4 eggs ( room temperature)

🍒1 tbsp fancy molasses

🍒3/4tsp baking powder 

🍒3/4tsp vanilla extract 

Almond paste for icing.

Directions:

🍒Remove stems from currants if any. Rinse and drain both currants and sultanas and place in a bowl. 

🍒Add mixed peel, red and green cherries, spices and orange juice.

🍒Soak fruit for 2 hours. Remove 2 tbsp of flour from 10 oz flour and then add to fruit mixture and mix well till all fruit is coated with flour and let stand for another hour.

🍒Preheat oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit and line a 10” cake pan with parchment and butter the sides as well.

🍒Cream butter in a cake mixer, add sugar slowly making sure to get a nice fluffy texture.

🍒Add eggs one at a time  and flour alternately (1 egg then 3oz of flour and repeat 3 more times)

🍒 Add molasses and add baking powder and vanilla extract and mix well. Stop mixer and fold in the fruit mixture. Mix well.

🍒Pour batter into the lined cake pan  and bake for 1 hour and turn cake pan clockwise and continue baking for another hour.

(If you want to decorate with almonds or cashews, place on top of cake mixture before putting in the oven to bake ~as shown in picture)

🍒Insert knife 🔪 into cake at 2 hours. Knife should come out clean.

🍒 Let cool and ice with almond paste if you want and enjoy with a cup of tea.

Mango Kulfi

Sometimes you just need a dessert that is sinfully rich, delicious, creamy and irresistible. I usIf you are ed canned mangoes that I blended in a blender. If you have all the ingredients on hand, it literally takes 5 minutes to make this incredible dessert. If you are following a plant-based diet, you can switch to non-dairy substitutes. The flavours of saffron, cardamom, pistachios and almonds will blow your mind away!! This dessert is usually served on special occasions like Navratri, Diwali, Eid or Khushiali.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 398 ml canned mangoes (juice removed)

• 1 tablespoon warm milk

• 300 ml condensed milk

• 385 ml evaporated milk

• 250 ml whipping cream

• 1/2 tsp cardamom ground

• 6-7 strands saffron

• 12 almonds crushed

• 12 pistachios crushed

Directions:

1. Bloom the saffron in 1 tablespoon of warm milk for about 5 minutes (Let the saffron sit in the warm milk for 5 minutes for the flavour to bloom)

2. Blend the canned mangoes, then add the condensed milk, evaporated milk, whipping cream, cardamom and the bloomed saffron.

3. Pour liquid mixture into an 8”x12” pyrex dish or metal dish and put in the freezer for about two hours then sprinkle crushed pistachios and almonds and leave in freezer to set till 20 minutes before serving.

4. The kulfi will be hard to cut if you don’t remove from the freezer 20 mins before.

Enjoy!!

Peach cobbler

Peaches galore everywhere and now we have to say goodbye to summer crisps and hello to peach cobbler.

Did you know that cobblers originated in the British American colonies? The new English settlers were unable to make traditional suet puddings due to lack of suitable ingredients and cooking equipment, so instead covered a stewed filling with a layer of uncooked plain biscuits, scone batter and cooked it all together.

Our recipe includes our pumpkin pie spice and will have the aroma in your house screaming FALL and cozy.

Serves: 8-10

Prep time: 25 mins

Cook time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

• 5 peaches peeled and 1/4 inch sliced

• 2 tbsp demerara sugar

• 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

• 1 cup organic cane sugar

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter

• 1 cup all purpose flour

• 1/2 tbsp baking powder

• 1/4 tsp sea salt

• 1 cup cream or whole milk

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel and remove pits from peaches and slice them 1/4 inch thick. Place peaches in a bowl and stir in demerara sugar, pumpkin pie spice mix, !/4 cup organic cane sugar, till coated and let sit for 20 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, cook butter on medium heat, stirring often till it browns. Pour butter into a pie baking dish.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, rest of the organic sugar, baking powder, salt, cream and vanilla extract.

4. Pour batter over melted butter ladle by ladle so butter an batter swirls.

5. Top with marinated peaches and bake till golden brown around 35-40 minutes. Cool before serving. Serve with whipping cream or ice cream. Enjoy

Rhubarb almond cake (gluten-free)

Rhubarb is technically a vegetable but considered a fruit. It tastes rather sour when eaten raw and can be described as “tart” similar to green, unripe apples. Rhubarb is great in pies, cakes and mostly paired with strawberries to balance its sour bitter taste. Rhubarb is usually in season April through June and are tender and delicate. Rhubarb found in the summer are more robust and flavourful. Opt for the dark red stalks as they are sweeter and more intense in flavour.

This recipe can be made with our all purpose gluten free flour and our regular all purpose flour. This cake is simple to make and amazing with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter (vegan butter) plus more for the pan

• 3/4 cup plus 4 tbs organic sugar plus more for the pan

• 1 lb rhubarb stalks, trimmed

• 1 1/4 cup all purpose gluten free flour or regular all purpose flour

• 3/4 cup blanched almonds

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt

• 3/4 of a vanilla bean split lengthwise

• 2 large eggs

• 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream (or plant-based yogurt)

• 1 tsp Xanthan gum (only if using gluten free flour)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Butter 8” springfoam pan and sprinkle with sugar, tapping out excess. Slice rhubarb in half lengthwise (quarter if very large). Set 8 of the prettiest pieces aside for the top of the cake; chop remaining rhubarb into ½" pieces.

2. Pulse flour, almonds, baking powder, and salt in a food processor until almonds are finely ground.

3. Place 1 cup butter and ¾ cup sugar in an electrical mixer and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean and beat for another 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating till light and fluffy.

4. Reduce speed to low and gradually add dry ingredients, followed by yogurt. If using the all purpose gluten free flour, add the Xanthan gum as well. Beat till batter is nice and thick. Fold in chopped rhubarb and scrape batter into prepared pan. Smooth batter and arrange reserved rhubarb over top; sprinkle with remaining 3 Tbsp. sugar.

5. Place sprinfoam pan on a large rimmed baking sheet (the mixture might leak) and bake, rotating once, until cake is golden brown and rhubarb on top is soft and beginning to brown, 80–90 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cake cool before removing from pan.

Avocado chocolate mousse

Looking for that simple plant-based dessert that only has a few ingredients and takes 2 minutes to make? So quick and easy and perfect for your family craving a healthy delicious snack or dessert. All you need is a blender or a food processor and simple ingredients that you probably have in your pantry.

• Serves 4-6

• Prep time 3 mins

• Cook time 3 mins

Ingredients

• 2 ripe avocados, peeled and pitted

• 1/4 cup cocoa

• 3-4 tbsp plant-based milk

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• 1/8tsp sea salt

• 1/4 cup maple syrup

Directions

1. Mix cocoa and milk in a cup and set aside to bloom for about 2 minutes

2. Add all ingredients in the blender including the cocoa mixture and blend till smooth

Serve with

• strawberries, melon, blueberries, pears, peaches ,bananas

• sprinkle crushed pistachios, crushed almonds, shredded coconut