3 tablespoons salted butter, at room temperature (or use unsalted butter, but add a pinch of salt)
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
1½ cups milk (water with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil can be substituted)
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter a 9-inch (23cm) loaf pan and dust it with flour.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and spices.
3. In a medium pot, gently heat and combine the honey, milk, butter, and orange zest. Remove from the heat. Add half the flour mixture. Stir gently, then add the remaining dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Do not overmix.
4. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. The top will be dark brown.
5. Cool 10 minutes, then turn the cake onto a cooling rack. Let cool completely before slicing.
Tip: This cake is often left to sit several hours before serving: it becomes more tasty and moist, and slices better.
Storage: Pain d’épices can be wrapped in plastic and stored for at least a week, during which time the flavors will meld and it will get denser. It can also be frozen, and is delicious toasted, topped with savory or sweet spreads.
Les pommes au four
(Spiced Baked Apples)
Preparation: 10 to 15 minutes
Cooking: 25 minutes
Servings: 1 apple per person
This dish is a real time-saver, and one of our favorite wintertime desserts. The first thing I do when I get home from work is preheat the oven and pop the apples inside. By the time the meal is ready to serve, the smell of the apples fills the house, beckoning the children to the table (at least, that’s the theory!). Usually, I take advantage of the hot oven to bake something for dinner (Five-Minute Fish en papillote, or Gratin de chou-fleur).
In Brittany, we use sweet and crunchy Dalinette apples. In Vancouver, I tend to use the Fuji or Gala variety (McIntosh, Delicious, and Granny Smith aren’t as tasty once cooked).
To avoid drying out the apples, just put a little water in the bottom of the baking dish. I drizzle a little maple syrup over each apple just before serving, but they’re just as lovely on their own.
1 apple per person, washed, skin pricked with a fork, stemmed and cored
1 teaspoon maple syrup per apple (or 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon butter)
Optional: ground cinnamon
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Place the apples in a baking dish after pricking with a fork. Drizzle maple syrup into the hole in each apple, or do as the French do and use sugar and butter instead. Dust with cinnamon if you like.
3. Bake the apples for about 25 minutes, or until they have reached your desired consistency.
Warning: Be sure to remove the apples from the oven at least 5 minutes before you plan to eat them. They stay piping hot inside, and can burn little tongues. Don’t rely on the heat of the outside of the apple to judge whether it’s safe to serve; the flesh inside will remain much hotter than the outside surface, which will cool down quite quickly. We cut the apples for our children, and let the pieces cool on plates on the counter before bringing them to the table.
Tip: This recipe can be used to help transition babies to more solid food. Baked long enough, the texture of the apple is as creamy as applesauce. Reduce the baking time, and the consistency gets progressively more solid.
Mamie’s
Chocolate-Stuffed Baguette
Preparation: 2 minutes
Servings: 4 per baguette
Long before prepackaged snack foods appeared on the shelves, French families were making delicious homemade treats for their children. This one is still a favorite when our children visit their grandmother. They hover around the table as she slices and prepares their treat, savoring the smells of chocolate and fresh bread.
Although it seems decadent, this snack is relatively healthy, especially if you limit the butter on the baguette. Chocolate provides essential elements like copper, magnesium, and iron. Butter provides vitamin D and fat—both essential for children’s growth. The bread provides carbohydrates necessary for kids’ active lives—but without any preservatives or additives.
3 to 4 squares of dark chocolate (70 percent cocoa or higher)
1 fresh baguette, unsliced, but cut into four equal pieces
Butter
1. Make a relatively shallow slit lengthwise in each piece of baguette (along the side, not the top). Pry the baguette open about halfway (but not completely open!). Slide your buttered knife inside, and butter the bread.
2. Split the squares of chocolate into pieces that will fit inside the slit. Stuff the baguette with the rectangles of chocolate placed parallel to the length of the baguette. That way, your child gets some chocolate—but not too much—with every bite.
Mousse au chocolat
(Chocolate Mousse)
Preparation: 10 to 15 minutes
Waiting: 2 to 3 hours
Cooking: None
Servings: 6
Mousse (whether lemon, chocolate, or any other kind) is amazingly quick to make. My French relatives need only about 5 minutes, but I’ve been generous with the time allowance here. The ratio of time spent to pleasure derived is probably the best of any dessert recipe I’ve encountered.
There are as many recipes for mousse as there are members of the family. Use this recipe as your point of departure. There are lots of little innovations you can try: serve with a bit of whipped cream if you like, or adjust the amount of sugar to suit your taste. But I like the minimalist version served below: dark and delicious.
The French are not, by the way, as fearful of raw eggs as are North Americans. I still can’t shake that slight paranoia, so I make sure to buy my eggs from a reliable source to avoid any chance of salmonella poisoning.
½ pound semi-sweet Baker’s chocolate
4 teaspoons butter
6 eggs, whites and yolks separated
Zest of half an orange
Pinch of salt
1. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bain-marie (double
