Adventures in Breakfast

Fennel Fig & Almond Bread (The Modern Baker)

Breakfast, though the most important meal of the day, is always a challenge for me. Always. I am not a morning person. As a result, I need something with minimal prep time to stuff in my mouth as I’m checking my email and forgetting to take my vitamins.

I’d been coveting Nick Malgieri’s Modern Baker ever since I saw it at my local bookshop. Finally I just bit the bullet, spent the 40 bucks and bought it. After reading all the baking tips and tricks from cover to cover on a later summer afternoon, I didn’t actually get to baking anything from it until recently. A loaf containing protein (almonds), fruit (figs) and complex carbs (loaf) seemed like a perfect breakfast.

2 cups all-purpose flour (spoon flour into a dry-measure cup and level off) tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed 6 tbsp (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened 2/3 cup sugar 2 large eggs 3/4 cup milk 1 1/2 cups stemmed and diced white or black dried figs 1 cup slivered almonds, lightly toasted

1. Set a rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat to 350F.

2. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and fennel seeds in a medium bowl and stir well to mix.

3. In a large bowl, beat the butter until smooth, then beat in the sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

4. Beat 1/2 the flour mixture into the butter and egg mixture, then gently beat in the milk, about 1/3 at a time. Beat in he remaining flour mixture. Use a large rubber spatula to fold in the figs and almonds.

5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake the bread until it is well risen and a toothpick or a narrow-bladed knife inserted into the center of the bread emerges clean, about 1 hour.

6. Cool the bread in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes, then unmold it and cool it completely on a rack. Transfer the bread to a platter or cutting board before serving.

Makes 12 to 16 slices.

Verdict: Weirdly tasty. The fennel and the figs together make this taste kind of savoury – which is a strange thing to wake up to when you’re biting into a fruit loaf. Huh.

Strange Fruit

Project: Fresh Figs with Raspberries and Rose Cream (Readers Digest Low-Calorie Cookbook)

There are many ingredients that are just not reliably available in Northern Ontario. It’s a fact of life. So, when I was visiting Toronto in September, my number one destination was Kensington Market. My primary goal was a tube of harissa, but I ended up buying a couple of totally superfluous spices (black cardamom, anyone?), some turbinado sugar (probably available here…oh well), and some really nice, ripe, fresh figs.

8 small ripe juicy figs 4 large fresh fig leaves (optional) 1 3/4 cups fresh raspberries fresh mint leaves, to decorate 7 tablespoons cultured crème fraîche 2 tsp raspberry jam finely grated zest of 1 lime 1 to 2 tbsp rose water, or to taste

Now, problem #1 is that I totally forgot to buy crème fraîche when I was at Kensington. So I tried to make it. This involves cooking cream and adding cultured buttermilk, then letting the culture do its job to thicken things up. This tactic didn’t work and I have henceforth resolved to either buy crème fraîche whenever I can get my hands on it, or just replace it with whipped cream. Nyeah.

To make the rose cream, place the crème fraîche in a bowl and beat in he raspberry jam and lime zest until the jam is well distributed. Add the rose water and stir to mix in. Transfer to a pretty serving bowl.

Cut each of the figs vertically into quarters without cutting all the way through, so they each remain whole. Arrange the fig leaves , if using, on 4 plates and place 2 figs on each plate.

So, obviously I didn’t pay much heed to the cutting directions. I’m not sure figs taste better when left partially intact…plus I’d already ruined the crème fraîche…

Spoon a dollop of the rose cream into the middle of each fig; serve the remaining cream separately. Scatter the raspberries over the plates and decorate with the mint leaves.

Et voilà! Yeah…I kind of forewent all the garnishes. Because I didn’t read the recipe properly. I thought these were pretty tasty. My other taste tester was, I think, a little trepidatious (yeah, I think I made that word up) about a big plate of strange fruit. Mixed reviews, anyway.