Blog Tour: All Four Stars by Tara Dairman

I'm so happy to be participating in my first blog tour for a book here! I've organized a bunch for work, so it's refreshing to be on the other side of things. And there's probably no one better to collaborate with for my first blog tour than Wendy (she's an amazing blogger - bookmark The Midnight Garden if you're looking for great reads), who is also a fellow food lover, and someone I had the pleasure of meeting at ALA recently.

Sometimes, timing is everything. My editorial director at work had an extra All Four Stars ARC from a colleague at Penguin Canada, so she gave it to me to read. Of course I devoured it and was so hungry after reading it. (I then passed the ARC to Steph at kitchen frolic - this is how word of mouth starts!) Later, reading the book blogs I follow, I find out that Wendy is hosting the blog tour. Do I sign up? YES! So here we are ladies and gentlemen.

All Four Stars
Written by Tara Dairman
Hardcover | 288 pages | Ages 8–12
ISBN 978-0-39916-252-7

All Four Stars is a fun middle-grade read for those who love food and writing - a combination of two of my favourite things. But wait, there's more! New York City, food review, desserts, grand schemes, and humour are also included.

The story revolves around Gladys Gatsby who has been cooking gourmet dishes since the age of seven. Her fast-food-loving parents have no idea and are filled with horror when they find out. They don't know why recipes never work out for them and don't understand why people would want to cook when they can conveniently get take out. Gladys is cut off from cooking (and her allowance) until she can pay for the damages she's caused in their kitchen.

In attempts to have Gladys become more well-rounded after the kitchen accident, her parents devise a list of things she can do. It was so nice to see Gladys develop and grow in her social and school surroundings, to the point where a school assignment leads her to reviewing for one of the largest newspapers in the world. This is where the fun begins as Gladys figures out a plan to sneak into New York City, eat at the exclusive dessert restaurant, write her review, and keep her dream job a secret.

The book leaves you hungry for more so it's no surprise that there's a sequel in the works!

In honour of All Four Stars, I made some crème brûlée to celebrate. Gladys' troubles begin when she makes crème brûlée at home and loses control of the torch - revealing her secret hobby to her parents. The first time I made a classic crème brûlée, I used a tiny kitchen torch which took it's sweet time to melt the sugar. My dad walked in, took a look, and walked back out. He returned with his propane torch and suggested I use that instead. Much to afraid because it was super powerful, I declined and proceeded with my slow little kitchen torch and got scoffed at by my dad. I thought I would share that since Gladys had the opposite reaction from her dad.

This time, I wanted to try something different and made osmanthus flavoured crème brûlée. I felt that Gladys would have liked that extra ingredient.

Preheat your oven to 325°F (163°C). Place four 6-ounce ramekins in a small roasting pan or a baking dish with sides higher than your ramekins. Pour 2 cups of heavy cream into a medium saucepan and add in a teaspoon of dried osmanthus flowers. Heat the cream and occasionally stir to prevent a skin from forming on the top. When the cream starts to bubble and boil, remove it from the heat and turn off your stove. Let it cool and steep for 10 minutes.

In another bowl, whisk 6 egg yolks, 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon of salt together. Pour a third of the heavy cream into the egg yolk mixture while whisking. Continue to add the heavy cream until it is all combined.

Take the small roasting pan with the filled ramekins to your oven and set it on the oven rack. Gently pour hot water into the roasting pan - be careful not to get any into the ramekins! The water should reach about halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the custard is set, it'll still be wobbly in the middle. Remove the ramekins from the roasting pan. Set it aside to cool in room temperature. Then cover and refrigerate overnight (or at least 4 hours). When your oven has cooled, carefully take out the roasting pan and pour the water out.

I wanted you to be able to see the osmanthus sprinkled throughout the crème brûlée, normally you would put the mixture through a sieve, but doing so would remove the osmanthus!

Look at that, super smooth! Sprinkle a teaspoon of granulated sugar evenly on top and set your torch on to it create that signature crunchy caramelized topping.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the All Four Stars Blog Tour! There are fantastic posts, excerpts, recipes, and giveaways at each stop.

Tuesday, July 1st: The Midnight Garden
Wednesday, July 2nd: The Reading Date
Thursday, July 3rd: For What It’s Worth
Friday, July 4th: The Spirit of Children’s Literature and me!
Monday, July 7th: Xpresso Reads
Tuesday, July 8th: For the Love of Words
Wednesday, July 9th: Finding Bliss in Books
Thursday, July 10th: Candace’s Book Blog
July 7th – 10th: Cuddlebuggery, Great Imaginations, Lone Star on a Lark, Log Cabin Library, The Hiding Spot, Fic Talk, Carina’s Books, Karen Brissette @ GoodReads, Book Jems, Sporadic Reads, and The Social Potato Reviews

Win a copy of All Four Stars!
Thanks to our friends at Putnam, we have 8 finished copies of this lovely book to give away throughout the blog tour. All you have to do is fill out the Rafflecopter form below and leave a thoughtful comment below telling us why you’re excited to read the book! Visit each stop to earn extra points, or you can also tweet, pin, etc. Open to U.S. and Canadian residents aged 18 or older, or 13 or older with parental permission. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Giveaway copies are provided by the publisher, and photographs are courtesy of the author.

Osmanthus Macarons

Hello, friends! I hope you have wonderful long weekend plans ahead of you. It's almost frightening how fast this year has gone by. Sometimes I still feel like we've just all returned from the Christmas holidays. But it's now more than halfway through the year. Yikes! I don't think I've been blogging as much as I like to be. The other day I wistfully browsed through all my cookbooks to find inspiration and energy and excitement again. I think it worked and I feel like flexing my fingers this weekend.

I made some Osmanthus macarons back in the spring and realized that I didn't share these yet! So I did some quick photo editing and posted the recipe below. To some of my local readers, you might recognize the macaron box - saved from a bakery in Toronto! Any guesses?

Osmanthus Macarons
(Makes about 50-60 shells for 25-30 filled macarons)

1 cup of egg whites (from 7-8 eggs)
2 3/4 cups of almond flour
2 3/4 cups of powdered sugar
3 tablespoons of dried Osmanthus flower
A pinch of salt
3/4 cups of granulated sugar

Separate your eggs and leave the whites out in room temperature while you prepare the flour.

In a food processor, combine the blanched almond slivers, powdered sugar, and Osmanthus flowers together. Pulse until the almond and Osmanthus flowers has been grounded to a fine flour. Be careful and do not grind it to the point where it becomes a paste.

Here comes the tedious task of sifting. I take a large deep pan and gently tap a sieve over it to sift the mixture (try that while also holding a camera). Any bits and parts that don't pass through the sieve are placed back in the food processor for some more blade action.

After, when your arms are aching from sifting, place the egg whites in your stand mixer's bowl. Using the whisk attachment, give it a low whirl to loosen up the egg whites - about a minute. Add in a pinch of salt and up the speed to medium. Pour in the granulated sugar in three parts. When it's all combined, turn the speed up again and wait for stiff peaks to form. To test, remove the whisk attachment and flip it to see if the tip of the egg whites hold or if they droop over. The mixture should feel thick and heavy.

(An aside, the brackets make this an aside, right? I recently read The ACB with Honora Lee and it inspired me to have "O is for Osmanthus" in this post. See photo above.)

Once you've achieved stiff peaks, pour about a third of the almond flour mixture in and give it a good mix so that there isn't a pile of dry almond flour in the bowl. Then add the next third, fold the mixture, and add in the final flour mixture and fold it into the mixture. You want the batter to be firm enough to hold it's shape after piping and runny enough that any lumps and bumps smooth out by itself. Almost like the consistency of yogurt or honey.

Fit your pastry bag with a large-round tip and fill it with the macaron batter. Squeeze small amounts onto your parchment paper to form 2 1/2 inch circles. You can also make them slightly smaller or larger, it's up to you! Just be consistent so you have pairs with the same size. And leave at least 1 inch of space between the piped macarons. Give the tray a good strong tap to smooth out the batter.

Preheat the oven to 300°F/150°C (325°F/162°C for non-convection oven, but we highly recommend using a convection oven). Let the macarons rest for 15 to 30 minutes. Then pop them into the oven and bake for 14 minutes. When ready, take them out to cool before lifting them off the parchment paper.

Osmanthus Pastry Cream
(Makes enough to fill the 25-30 macarons)

2 cups of milk
3 tablespoons of dried Osmanthus flower
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of cornstarch, sifted
3 1/2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

1. In a small pot, bring the milk and Osmanthus to a boil, set it aside to cool for 10 minutes.
2. Fill a large bowl with cold water (or ice). In a medium sized pan or small pot, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch together. Gradually whisk in the hot milk. Place the pan over high heat and bring it to a boil, whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes. Set the bowl in the ice bath or cold water and stir until the temperature reaches 140°F (60°C) on an instant-read thermometer. 
3. Stir in the butter. Cool, cover, and refrigerate.
4. Once the pastry cream has cooled and set, you can fill a pastry bag with it and pipe it to fill your macarons.

Happy Chinese New Year

We're celebrating the Year of the Rabbit with some more peanut butter chocolate crispy bars. They were so good that we made it again with more "crispy" to them. By some kind of luck, we had a snow day yesterday, so I made these early in the morning and popped them in the fridge to set. By late afternoon, half of the batch was gone.

This is currently the wallpaper on my laptop. Mmmm chocolate!

Such a good combination!

Let me out of the pan!

I packed up 3 boxes of these little treats. One for Howard's parents, one to stay at home, and one for me to snack on at work.

My dad had the brilliant idea of adding Osmanthus flowers to the crispy bars. So I made a batch without the peanut butter and chocolate topping for us to test. It is quite the success and I'm torn between which version I like better! The flowers give such a great aroma when you're combining it with the corn syrup mixture and the fragrant stays even after the bars are chilled!

Osmanthus Crispy Bars
Makes about one 8x8 square pan

1 3/4 cups of crisped rice cereal
1/4 cup of water
1/4 cup of sugar
3 tablespoons of corn syrup
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1 1/2 tablespoons of dried Sweet Osmanthus flowers

1. Lightly spray a paper towel with nonstick cooking spray and use it to rub the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan.
2. Pour the water into a small saucepan. Gently add the sugar and corn syrup. Make sure none of the sugar or syrup gets on the sides of the pan. Use a wooden spoon to stir the mixture until combined.
3. Put a candy thermometer in the saucepan, cook over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Cook until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage, 235 degrees F.
4. Remove from heat, stir in the butter and Osmanthus until well combined.
   
5. Pour the mixture over the crispy rice cereal. Quickly stir until the cereal until it is thoroughly coated. Then press into the 8-inch square baking pan. Let the bars cool to room temperature, chill to set.
   

Osmanthus Cookies

My dad was baking on the weekend and I couldn't tell from the aroma what was in the oven. He told me that he was using Osmanthus flowers to make cookies. Apparently, he saw this on YouTube and wanted to give it a try. It's in Mandarin, so if you understand it (I don't), have a look.

Well, the reasons I am posting these cookies are, first they tasted pretty good (crunchy) and second, I am so proud of my dad for knowing how to use YouTube (where does he find these things?)! I have underestimated his computer skills...

Osmanthus flowers are more commonly used for Chinese tea, but apparently have lots of health benefits as well. My dad bought some during his trip to Vietnam and Hong Kong last month. Osmanthus flowers aren't easy to come by (in Toronto at least), so my dad was pretty proud of his find. Here's the translated recipe, if you spot an error, please let me know!

Osmanthus Cookies
(Makes about a dozen)

15 grams of dried Osmanthus flowers (you can also use fresh ones, like in the video)
70 grams of sugar
150 grams of all-purpose flour
100 grams of unsalted butter
10 grams of egg whites
10 grams of almond flour

1. Preheat your oven for 180°C (350°F). Have all your ingredients at room temperature and ready. Use a cookie sheet or tray lined with parchment paper.
   
2. Sift the all-purpose flour and almond flour together and then add in your unsalted butter.
3. Gently mix with your hands to keep the batter light and fluffy. Watch the video for her technique.
4. Add in the sugar, egg whites, and Osmanthus flowers. Use a spatula to mix until well combined.
5. Gather the cookie dough together. Using your hands, create little dough balls of about 1.5-2 inches wide. Place it on your tray and gently and evenly press the dough balls down a bit.
6. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool.