Baking through limiting beliefs

I’m a terrible baker.

One time, I mistook powdered sugar for flour and accidentally made chocolate chip toffee. On another occasion, a friend and I turned the oven to broil while trying to bake a cake — resulting in goopy uncooked batter topped with a black, carbonized crust.

Even when things don’t take a horrifying turn, most of my baking comes out hard and dense. Mixing dry with wet just isn’t my forte.

At least that’s the self-fulfilling prophecy I’ve been following for decades. Things have shifted recently.

Regular Dish readers may recall the food-centric new year’s resolutions I whipped up a few months ago. Among the items was a desire to bake a passable loaf of bread.

After making not just a passable but dare I say delightful pan of focaccia last weekend, I can confidently cross that one off the list. (This Bon Appetit recipe is indeed “shockingly easy.”)

But it’s not just bread. I’ve successfully baked cinnamon buns (what?); a pair of galettes (excusez moi?); soft, chewy cookies (as if!); and pizza dough (scusi?).

I was shocked each and every time I opened the oven to discover a baked good that actually resembled the photo attached to the recipe.

This peach galette, surprisingly, tasted as good as it looks.

I didn’t become an adequate baker overnight. I joined a cookbook club at a local library.

There are cookbook clubs at several Winnipeg Public Library branches and, let me tell you, it’s a delightful way to spend an evening. Fair warning: most have waitlists.

The group is made up of home cooks of varying abilities, and we meet monthly for a casual baking forum.

We’ve discussed everything from flour varieties to yeast to the virtues of different kinds of vanilla. The atmosphere is genial, treats are often involved.

I’ve learned more about baking from these conversations than I have from the countless cookbooks and online tutorials I’ve waded through.

Learning how to properly measure flour — with a scale or by scooping from the bag into a measuring cup so as not to compact it — was the epiphany I didn’t know I needed.

Home cooking can be an isolating experience. Save for family members and internet comment sections, there are few outlets to celebrate food wins and bemoan recipe failures.

Community, man, there’s nothing like it.

So, lay it on me: what’s the best thing you’ve made in recent memory? And, perhaps more entertainingly, what’s the worst?

Eva Wasney, arts and life reporter

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Tasty tidbits

🌮 Celebrate Cinco de Mayo this Sunday at Bonnie Day. The Wolseley restaurant, located at 898 Westminster Ave., has teamed up with Winnipeg-based agave spirits importer Montella Spirits and Wine for a five-course Mexican meal paired with mezcal and tequila cocktails.

Dinner kicks off at 6:30 p.m., tickets are $125 per person. Visit bonniedayisagoodidea.ca to book a table.

🎶 Support Manitoba Opera and the Dante Alighieri Society while scarfing down Italian fare and a range of wines at the In Vino Veritas fundraiser taking place Thursday, May 9 from 7-9:30 p.m. at the Centro Caboto Centre (1055 Wilkes Ave.).

Tickets are $80 and include wine, food, live opera (featuring excerpts from The Elixir of Love sung by Stephen Haiko-Pena and Nikita Silagy Labdon) — to get yours click here.

🥰 If the mothers in your life are fans of brunch, it’s time to book a reso at one of the many local restaurants and organizations hosting Mother’s Day meals on Sunday, May 12.

For a celebration with historic flair, take in a high tea of finger sandwiches, scones and sweets at Fort Gibraltar (866 Rue. St Joseph). Tickets to one of three seatings are $55 pus fees at Eventbrite.

Sporting moms may enjoy breakfast or lunch hosted by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Princess Auto Stadium (315 Chancellor Matheson Rd.). Reservations range from $29 for kids to $50 for adults and are limited to 90 minutes. Call Mallory at 204-784-7442 to book.

Or, take the fun outside with a guided baby bison walk at FortWhyte Alive (1961 McCreary Rd.). The nature preserve’s on-site restaurant, Buffalo Stone Café, will also have a special Mother’s Day menu next weekend. Visit fortwhyte.org to reserve a tour spot.

Other brunch venues include The Leaf at Assiniboine Park, the Fort Garry Hotel (222 Broadway), Trans Canada Brewing Company (1290 Kenaston Blvd.) and Next Door (116 Sherbrook St.).

🍹 Winnipeg’s sharpest bartenders and mixologists will put their skills to the test on Monday, May 13 at the Fort Garry Hotel as part of the In Good Spirits cocktail competition, presented by the Manitoba chapter of the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers (CAPS).

Each of the 18 competitors have been assigned a spirit with which to make their signature cocktail, which will be judged by a panel (there’s also a people’s choice category). The wildly fun event runs from 6:30-9 p.m.; tickets are $60 and are available here.

Recommended fare

Ben: I finally hit up Dreamland Diner for the first time last weekend, and it did not disappoint. I opted for the classic bacon cheeseburger (after a 16-km run in preparation for the WPS half marathon on Sunday, I had earned it), and it was delicious.

I also managed to sample the poutine (very good, real cheese curds) and one of their fabulous milkshakes (chocolate — thick, delicious and heavenly).

The ‘50s vibe was happenin’ and our server was really fun.

Eva: I’m hosting the next Free Press Book Club, which will feature a conversation with local author Adriana Chartrand on Tuesday, May 28 at 7 p.m. about her debut horror novel, An Ordinary Violence.

The book is a spooky slow burn about a young Indigenous woman’s begrudging return to her unsettling hometown.

Homemade

Homemade is a Free Press project celebrating home cooking in Manitoba. Want to share a recipe with readers? Visit wfp.to/homemade to fill out the submission form.

Enjoy this chocolate cake recipe submitted by Dawna Grant.

Baking through limiting beliefs

Tasty tidbits

Recommended fare

Homemade

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