Fall recipes, from last Fall
Because Granola Daddy Is Tired
Hi friends, I had my first weekend with two markets – my friend Nigel worked at the Kitchener Market for me, while I was at Art Hop’s Sculpted Market in Waterloo. It was a big learning curve to do two markets at once with a whole bunch of new products… like parfaits, energy bites, caramels, and… Oktoberfest pretzel granola.
(A brief sidebar on the Oktoberfest pretzel granola: this was a gag for the event that turned out incredibly well. It’s oats with barley malt syrup, proofed yeast, baking soda water (for the alkalinity), three kinds of salt – kosher, flakey, coarse – and after it’s baked dehydrated mustard flakes. It’s very tasty – I would add it to salads or top mac and cheese. I will offer this through Oktoberfest now.)
After a 14-hour day I had my best Saturday sales day yet, double what I sold last week (which was double the week before!). Things are going very well 5-weeks into the business, but Granola Daddy is tired.
This means I have no newsletter for you today, but one of my new market offerings – vegan apple pie caramels – reminded me that I should share some of last year’s Fall recipe videos, from before I started this newsletter. While the recipe I made for YouTube has brown butter, I can confirm that using “The Future of Butter” vegan butter works (omit the cream entirely). YMMV with other non-butter butters. (If I was making these for myself, who is not vegan, I would use the good butter from St. Brigid’s Creamery).
One day, when I am less tired, I will make more YouTube videos. But that day seems to be getting further away as I become Granola Daddy more every day. So enjoy these time capsules of how funny I was when I used to sleep.
Apple pie caramels
These aren’t regular caramels, they are cool caramels. If you have every been intimidated by making your own caramels I break down the math of sugar stages in this video filled with Mean Girls and Hocus Pocus references.
I sold out of these in like an hour today. They are insanely delicious. I’ll have a vegan version of them at the Market through October, and for sale at the Bake-A-Thon, but you can also make them at home yourself.
Roasted butternut squash recipe with garlicky tahini dressing
This is an Ottolenghi recipe from Jerusalem that is my favourite to make for date nights (which reminds me I should put this on the agenda soon.) It’s a very easy Fall recipe that’s low effort, high reward. Cut squash and onions, roast. Make a sauce from tahini and garlic. Look fancy, eat vegetables.
My friend Nick commented on a different recipe that “pecans are for rich people.” But, truly, pine nuts are for rich people. So I used walnuts.
Back in the day, Zehrs used to sell bulk pine nuts and someone at the store wrote in Sharpie on the box “WARNING: THESE NUTS ARE VERY EXPENSIVE!” I read it like Nina Garcia commenting on Project Runway.
“It looks… expensive.”
Roasted pumpkin soup with garlic bread croutons
This is a recipe of my own invention that I came up with while listening to Phoebe Reads a Mystery read Dracula – I wanted a savoury, smokey pumpkin soup. The anti-pumpkin spice latte. I am also very proud of the jokes in this video, but even more proud of the recipe.
You must make this. You will be sad you didn’t double the recipe.
Slow motion recipe: pear cake with olive oil & honey
This is a recipe of my own invention, a whole wheat pear cake. I filmed this video like 18 times because I kept making mistakes, never published it as a recipe video, and instead made this very soothing slow motion video. I am still traumatized from the experience of making this last year, but my neighbours loved the process because they got a free pear cake every day for a month.
I’m going to pick like 200lbs of pears at my dad’s on Monday and I will be making this cake on repeat. It’s very good.
The best roasted cauliflower recipe
I don’t know what it is about this video – maybe the cauliflower that looks like a nuclear explosion in the thumbnail? My choice of shirt? The share-ability of me explaining what the brown spots on cauliflower are? The simplicity but extreme deliciousness of the recipe?
But my entire YouTube career is riding on this one video, which at time of writing now has over 70,000 views and so many comments praising the recipe.
If you find a very beautiful cauliflower you must make this. It will change how you think about cauliflower.
And with that I must rest.
And by rest I mean learn how to make Lao dumplings for Cookbook Dinner Club tonight.