Lemon Pound Cake

Um, hi?

I recently made a batch of lemon myrtle financiers with macadamia nuts and berries. (You can find the basic Bourke Street Bakery recipe here - I just added a couple of teaspoons of powdered lemon myrtle to the batter, and added nuts along with the berries.)

To use up some of the left-over egg yolks, I made this cake. And I think it actually turned out better than the financiers. (Apologies for the instagram photo, I'm too lazy to upload another.)

Lemon Pound Cake

90g butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
4 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 180 C. Butter and flour a small loaf pan.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter with sugar until light and fluffy.

Separately, beat the yolks until light and lighter coloured. Then work the yolks into the butter and sugar.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to the first mixture, alternating with the milk. Beat well.

Blend in the lemon zest and juice and the extract.

Spoon batter into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake about 45 to 50 minutes until golden and baked through.

Cool in pan on rack for about 45 minutes. Remove from pan and cool thoroughly. Pour lemon sauce on top.

Lemon sauce

1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup granulated sugar
a dash salt
1 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
2 -3 tablespoons lemon juice

In a saucepan, combine cornstarch, sugar, and salt. Blend well.

Stir in the boiling water.

Keep on medium heat, stirring. Once it begins to boil, turn the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat. Add the lemon zest and the fresh lemon juice.

From Italian Dessert Recipes

Twin Peaks Cherry Pie

Halloween = best time or best time for a Twin Peaks themed morning tea? We all dressed up for the occasion (most of us anyway) and I teamed up with my friend Serena to make this pie, served with some damn good coffee.



Cherry Pie

Pastry:
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
zest and juice of 1 lemon
400g unsalted butter, at room temperature (I used 350g)
200g caster sugar
600g plain flour
pinch of salt
brown sugar for sprinkling

Filling:
1.6kg of bottled cherries, or 4 x 400g pitted cherries, or 2kg of fresh cherries pitted (I used about 1.2kg of pitted Morello cherries)
300g raspberries (I used frozen)
zest and juice of 1 lemon
100g icing sugar
50g cornflour


To make the pastry, mix 2 of the eggs with the 2 egg yolks, vanilla extract and lemon zest and juice. Reserve the third egg for an egg wash later on.

Using a mixer, combine the butter and sugar. Beat until pale and creamy. Add the egg mixture a litle at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.

Sift on the flour and salt, beating slowly until the mixture just comes together as a ball. Don't overmix or the dough will be tough. Shape the pastry into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and refridgerate for about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 170C and grease a tart tin (or don't, if it's non-stick - the pastry was plenty buttery on its own, even with the reduction in the butter I used). Reserve a third of the pastry in the fridge for the topping. Roll out the rest on a lightly floured work surface to about 0.5cm thickness.

Lift the pastry on to the prepared tart tin and ease it in to the edges. Refridgerate for 20 minutes.

(Let me pause for a moment here to share a tip I learnt from - YES - Junior Masterchef. Hilarious, no? Maybe this is a trick everyone else knows already but it was new to me, and it was new to Serena, so: the thing is, in the past, getting the pastry from bench/board to tin has been my downfall. Often have I wept, gnashed teeth, etc, over pastry breaking and splitting in my hands. And then a couple of weeks ago, I saw a kid on Junior MC doing the most simple, amazing thing: he rolled out the pastry on his benchtop, then rolled the pastry back around and over his rolling pin, carried it over and then let it unfurl gently into the waiting tart tin. BRILLIANT. We did this today and it was perfection!)

Line the pastry with foil and fill with pastry weights, dried beans or rice. Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the foil and weights, prick the base with a fork, and bake for 8 minutes.

Lightly beat the last egg and brush the pastry case lightly. Return to the oven for 2 minutes to seal, then remove from over and if necessary trim edges.

Roll out the reserved pastry to 0.5cm thickness and use a pastry cutter or sharp knife to cut into 1cm strips. If your filling's not ready, cover with a tea towel. (Serena was in sole charge of this part and she was great - she used a serrated bread knife to cut out the strips, which gave them nice little edges.)

We did the filling while waiting around for the pastry to blind bake, but I guess you can do it whenever you like. To make the filling, combine the cherries, raspberries, lemon zest and juice, and icing sugar in a large mixing bowl. Toss together gently to avoid breaking up the fruit. Tip into a colander to drain away excess liquid - we did this a few times, as we had a lot of liquid from the frozen raspberries. Mix gently with the cornflour. Then pile the fruit into the prepared tart shell.

Lay the pastry strips across the top of the tart to form a lattice. Brush the pastry with reserved egg wash, then sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake for 20 minutes or until pastry is golden. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then carefully remove from the tin.

Serve with icecream (optional), while drinking coffee (essential) and watching Twin Peaks (not essential but a laudable life choice).

From The Good Life by Adrian Richardson, via the Kinokuniya Cookbook Catalogue October 2011.

Nutella Whoopie Pies

To celebrate the return of Masterchef (which was about a month ago, so yes, I'm running well behind), my fellow devotees and I gathered for a ritualistic eating and watching session. Two years of this has taught us that we're addicts, and there's no point pretending otherwise.

(Have you noticed, by the by, how successfully Channel 10 has trained us in the binge-diet reality television cycle? A season of Masterchef follows The Biggest Loser, which in its turn followed Masterchef, which was preceded by The Biggest Loser, ad infinitum...)

My contribution was nutella whoopie pies. The whoopie pie seems to be a concept native to America. I know I'd never eaten one before making this recipe. They're much more cakelike than cookie, despite appearances, and they turned out much larger than I expected - just about the same size as a cupcake or a mid-ish muffin.



Nutella Whoopie Pies

2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
4 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup of Nutella
2/3 cup of sugar
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon vanilla essence (or hazelnut liqueur)
1/2 teapsoon salt

Preheat oven to 180 C.

In a large bowl, beat the nutella, butter, and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add cocoa, egg, salt, buttermilk, and essence/liqueur and mix well.

Add baking soda and flour. Mix well

Line baking sheets with paper and place 1.5 tablespoons of dough in rounds.

Bake for approximately 10-13 minutes, until cookies are set and the top appears slightly dry. Remove from oven and let cool completely.


Frosting: as it turns out, I used about half of the frosting, so you may want to reduce the quantities listed here.

2/3 cup Nutella
225 g cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons whipping cream
1 tablespoon coffee-infused vodka (or hazelnut liqueur or espresso coffee)
3 cups icing sugar

With a mixer, whip cream cheese, vodka, nutella, and whipping cream.

Slowly add sugar and beat for 2-3 minutes. Adjust consistency by adding up more powdered sugar, or more whipping cream.

When cookies have cooled, place up to 1 tablespoon frosting on the bottom of one cookie, and gently press another cookie on top of the frosting, creating a sandwich.


From Twisted Kitchen

Long weekend fooding

No better way to celebrate a 5-day long weekend then a barbecue, right? Even if it was pouring outside. I made a cake and some appetisers. Others supplied delicious salad, sausages, chicken wings, bread, cookies and more cake. It was delicious.



Figs with goats cheese and proscuitto
12 ripe figs
6 slices of proscuitto, each sliced in half lengthways
120g goats cheese (or more to taste)
Rosemary sprigs to season
Olive oil
Honey

Cut the figs in quarters but only halfway down, so the segments don't separate.

Spoon in 2-3 teaspoons of cheese in the centre of each.

Wrap each fig in proscuitto and use a toothpick to secure.

Drizzle in oil and season with salt and pepper. Top with a sprig of rosemary.

Bake or grill until the cheese is soft or until it smells tasty.

Remove the rosemary sprigs, drizzle with a little honey, remove toothpicks and serve.



My cake to right. At left is a glimpse of an extremely delicious lime meringue tart.

Apple and olive oil cake with maple icing
Cake
80g sultanas
4 tbsp water
280g plain flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
120ml olive oil
160g caster sugar
1/2 vanilla pod
2 freerange eggs, lightly beaten
3 cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut in 1cm dice (Pink Lady, Jonathan or Granny Smith will do - Bramley was the suggested variety, but I don't think we have these in Australia)
grated zest of 1 lemon
2 freerange egg whites

Icing
100g unsalted butter at room temperature
100g light muscavado sugar (I subbed in brown sugar)
85ml maple syrup
220g cream cheese at room temperature

Grease a 20cm springform cake tin and line with baking paper.

Place sultanas and water in a saucepan and simmer over a low heat until the water has been absorbed. Leave to cool.

Preheat oven to 170C. Sift together the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and set aside.

Put oil and sugar into a large bowl. Slit the vanilla pod lengthways in half and, using a sharp knife, scrape the seeds into the bowl. Beat together using a whisk, then gradually add the eggs until smooth and thick.

Mix in the diced apples, sultanas and lemon zest. Then lightly fold in the dry ingredients.

Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl or in a stand mixer until at a soft meringue consistency. Fold into the batter, trying to lose as little air as possible.

Pour the batter into the tin and bake until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. The book suggested 90 minutes but mine took closer to 75 minutes so do watch out. The baked cake was golden brown on all surfaces.

Remove from oven and leave to cool in the tin. Once the cake is completely cold, remove it from the tin and slice horizontally with a serrated knife so you get two discs of roughly the same size. If it's very domed you may also want to slice some off the top.

For the icing, beat together the butter, sugar and maple syrup until light and airy; I used a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Then add the cream cheese, beating until smooth.

Using a palette knife or in my case a silicone spatula and a knife, spread a 0.5-1cm layer of icing over the bottom half of the cake. Carefully place the top half on top of that and then put the rest of the icing on top. Ottolenghi suggests using the palette knife to create waves or other patterns - for my own part, I was just glad to get it looking reasonably smooth and tidy!

From 'Ottolenghi: The Cookbook' by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

Earl Grey Chiffon Cake and Smoked Salmon Frittata

Having previously made Orange Chiffon Cake and Pandan Chiffon Cake, I turned my sights to Earl Grey Chiffon Cake, as inspired by the chiffon cakes at Azuma Patisserie.

Azuma's chiffon cakes are perfection - soooooo high and light and perfectly formed! My attempt was a little misshapen, not nearly as tall, and stuck to the sides of the tin. /o\ Nevermind. Everyone ate up their slices. The Serendipity icecream on the side probably helped though!

This is a slightly different recipe to the one I used previously, and it resulted in a much higher cake.


Earl Grey Chiffon Cake

3 tbsp high quality loose leaf Earl Gray tea. Tea bags will not work since the tea leaves have to be large and not ground up.

Dry ingredients:
256g self-raising flour
285g granulated/caster sugar (on 2nd attempt I reduced this to 180g and it was fine)
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp table salt

Wet ingredients:
5 large egg yolks
1 cup freshly brewed and cooled earl gray tea (on 2nd attempt I added 2 cups and it was better!)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla essence

Egg whites:
8 large egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
57g granulated sugar

At least 2 hours before making the batter, brew the tea using 3 Tbsp tea leaves and 1.5-2 cups boiling water.

Let the tea sit for at least 15 minutes (up to 2 hours for darker color) before straining out the leaves. Reserve the tea and the leaves separately.

Separate 8 eggs (you need 5 yolks and 8 whites).

Preheat the oven to 165C (325 F).

Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) into a large bowl.

In another bowl, beat the wet ingredients (yolks, tea, oil, vanilla) until smooth.

Gently stir the wet ingredients into dry ingredients along with 3 tablespoons of of very well drained tea leaves. Stir until the flour streaks disappear and most of the flour lumps are gone.

Whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar on low speed; a beater or stand mixer is best. When frothy, increase the speed to medium-high and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat to stiff peaks.

Gently fold egg whites into the egg yolk mixture, a third or quarter at a time.

Pour into an angel cake tin or tube tin, and bake for about 60 minutes.

Cool upside-down for 90 minutes. If the cake's come up over the edge of the tin, prop the tin on the neck of a wine bottle or similar so the cake isn't crushed.

When cool, remove from the tin, still upside-down, and serve.

From Beyond Salmon.


Mine wasn't too pretty, as I said - oh well! Here's some massacred remains. You can see some unevenness in the colouring, which means I should probably have folded it a little more carefully:



Usually I'm quite good at separating eggs but this time I was rubbish at it. I must've cracked three yolks in the course of making the chiffon cake! To use up all the leftover eggs, I decided to make a frittata for dinner. The original recipe doesn't include potatoes so feel free to omit them.


Smoked Salmon, Caper and Dill Frittata

5-6 eggs
1/2 cup cream
1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
200g potatoes, sliced thinly (I used desiree potatoes)
100g red onion, sliced thinly
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill
2 tbsp drained baby capers, rinsed
200g sliced smoked salmon


Pre-heat oven to 175 C. Oil a 20cm square cake tin, casserole dish or similar, and line with baking paper.

Pan-fry potatoes in olive oil until just cooked; drain on kitchen paper.

Whisk eggs, cream and rind in medium bowl.

Combine onion, dill and capers in small bowl.

Spread a third of the onion mixture in the pan, top with half the salmon, then half the potatoes. Pour half of the egg mixture on top.

Then layer again with a third of the onions, the remaining salmon and potatoes, then the remaining onions. Pour the remaining egg mixture on top.

Bake uncovered for 30-50 minutes (mine took about 50 minutes, perhaps the moisture in the pototoes?) or until frittata is set. Stand five minutes before cutting.

Frittata can be served hot or cold. I served this for dinner hot, with a side of green salad, and saved the rest for later.

Adapted from Women's Weekly: The New Classics

Siff Week #3 - Just Desserts, and Gluten-free Choc Chip Cookie Bars

Last Tuesday I went to the Tomislav-Black Star Pastry SIFF 'special dinner' night, titled Just Desserts. Despite the name, I didn't actually believe it was going to be mostly desserts until we arrived and saw the menu. Yeah, I know.

According to staff, the two chefs Tomislav Martinovic and Chris The teamed up on every dish. Each contributed elements to each course - so for instance The (a pastry chef) did the pastry on the meat pie, while Tomislav (leaning more towards the molecular gastronomy angle) did the granita-esque version of tomato sauce on the side. Between them, it was a very pretty meal, and although the dishes were dessert, they never veered towards the overly sweet. Instead a mix of sour, salty, tart, crunchy or hot kept the entire meal in balance.


Amuse bouche consisted of a test tube of Delamotte champagne and another of violet granita. Pour one tube into the other, swirl and drink - mmm, flowery.


First course: Grilled strawberries, mint and white chocolate. With 2008 Bress 'The Kindest Cut' Gewurztraminer, Victoria. This looked stunning, red and green and white against a slab of black tile, but was probably the least substantial of the courses.


Goats curd cheesecake with elderflower and pistachio. With 2008 Alacia Moscato D'Asti, Piedmont Italy. My favourite dish of the night - loved the sourness of the cheesecake with the sweetness of the elderberry.


Caramel icecream and toasted peanuts - served in a cone, the topping snapped and crackled in your mouth like those kid's candies! With 2007 Juniper Cane-cut Riesling, Western Australia.


Warm chocolate mousse, olive oil and sea salt, flavoured with horseradish; opinions differed, but I thought all the flavours worked. With 2008 Alan & Veitch Merlot, South Australia.


Beef mince pie, grilled onions and (frozen, granita-like) tomato sauce. With Karlovacko beer, Croatia.


Rice crackers with sea salt and vinegar - the vinegar came in a little bottle for us to spray it on the chips ourselves. One of Tomislav's signature dishes.


Take-away box from Black Star Pastry - very cute. Though I do think the rose-flavoured macaron was far too sweet, and the canelle a little burnt; my favourite by far was the fig and orange cake (top right corner).


Despite vowing not to bake this month (due to the amount of sweets I've been consuming), I decided to make an end to the last of the gluten-free flour sitting in my cupboard by making the following cookie bars. The result was far from perfect, as I'll explain below, but when I took these to work they were swiftly devoured!


Choc Chip Cookie Bars

Preheat oven to 175C (350 F). Lightly oil or line with parchment a brownie baking pan.

In a mixing bowl, beat together:

3 large free-range organic eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil or saffoil
2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Add in and beat:
1 cup firmly packed organic light brown sugar - which I reduced to about 2/3 of a cup

Add in and beat, or mix in a separate bowl and then make a well and beat in the wet ingredients:
2 cups gluten free baking flour - I used White Wings
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Stir in:
3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Using a rubber or silicone spatula, spread the dough evenly in the baking pan. The mixture is VERY sticky and heavy, so the spatula works much better than a wooden spoon. If you like, add some extra chips to the top and lightly press into the batter.

Bake on a center rack until the bars are set, about 21 to 25 minutes, depending upon your oven. Despite what the original recipe says, they will NOT turn golden, they'll be a warm yellow at best.

Do not over-bake - you want them a bit chewy - this is where I overshot because I was aiming for colour instead of consistency! Sadly, mine wound up too dry. Sigh.

Allow the bars to cool on a wire rack before cutting.

Makes 15 to 18 squares; I made well over 20.

Adapted from Gluten Free Goddess

Lemon cloud tea cookies

With October and the Sydney Food Festival just days away, we're on the cusp of a whole month of eating. But for early starters, there were at least two festivals this weekend to eat one's way through:

First up was Oktoberfest. Due to trackwork, the usual 10 minute train ride from Central turned into a 70 minute (!) two-bus commute to Tempe and the Concordia German Club. The beautiful weather and the historical re-enactments, complete with musketfire, almost made up for it.



And of course there was the obligatory schnitzel, sauerkraut, strudel, and schnapps. If you've never been to the Concordia club, I do recommend it. As their souvenir steiner suggests, it's where beer and kangaroos meet.



On Sunday it was time for the Malaysia Festival in Tumbalong Park at Darling Harbour. Lots of colourful costumes and performances, and some equally colourful food. (Full disclosure: this pink rose-flavoured drink was horrid, but it LOOKED great. Like something Hello Kitty would drink!)



For the less sweet-toothed, there was also plenty of curry, laksa, roti and rojak; and at least five different stalls selling their own versions of nasi lemak. Om nom!



My favourite, however, was both brightly coloured and sweet - dadar pandan, or pandan crepes filled with coconut and palm sugar, mmm...




Okay so the recipe below has nothing to do with this weekend of festival eating, except timing. Note I went back to my old fave, Technicolor Kitchen, for the recipe - I make no apologies.

This was a quick, easy recipe. I followed the instructions faithfully but overall I thought it could've been a bit more punchy in flavour, a little richer. As is they are a light biscuit best had with tea or coffee.


Lemon cloud tea cookies

1 1/2 cups (210g) all purpose flour
3/4 cup cornstarch
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
113g (8 tablespoons/1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (140g) confectioners’ sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest


Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F) and line two large baking sheets with baking paper.

Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

Combine the butter and confectioners' sugar until light.

Beat in the eggs one at a time. Batter may look broken and curdled. Beat in the juice and zest. Beat in the flour mixture.

Arrange rounded teaspoons of the dough on prepared pans. Space the balls about 5cm apart. Flour a fork and press a crisscross design into the top of each mound of dough.

Bake the cookies until they spread and become golden, about 20 minutes. Slide the parchment paper off the pan to cool completely.

Makes 48 tiny cookies - I made over 50.

From Technicolor Kitchen

Peanut Butter Cream Pie

"I can actually feel my heart beating faster from all the sugar in this," I confessed as I finished my first slice. So, fair warning, this one is even less healthy than the things which usually appear on this blog!

I made this pie at the suggestion of Michelle, a fellow peanut butter fiend, who saw a similar pie on Man v. Food. After looking at a few different variations, I cobbled the recipe below from a couple of different blogs. It seemed like such a simple recipe, albeit with a lot of different elements...

Little did I know that just about everything that could go pear-shaped in the process did. For instance -

a) I didn't make enough crust for my plate, so had to quickly make some more dough and paste it around the edges. Elegant.

b) Some of my custard burnt and had to be discarded.

c) And I still had twice as much as I needed anyway.

d) The meringue turned out beautiful! But then I put foil over the top and, uh, it wasn't so pretty after that.

e) Apparently you should eat these as soon as you make them. Instead of, say, storing it overnight in the fridge so that the sugar dissolves and becomes a gooey syrupy mess.

For all that, it wasn't a total failure! The layering in particular did turn out kinda nice-looking, and the taste was very rich and nutty. Now that I know where I went wrong, I am optimistic that I can conquer the problems on the second attempt. Provided my heart holds out long enough for me to give it another go, of course.




Peanut Butter Cream Pie

Crust
The Homesick Texan says this is enough to make 2 crusts, so I halved the recipe... and didn't have enough to cover my 24cm pie plate. So I'd suggest, um, making this at 3/4 of the ratio below?

2 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil (corn, canola or vegetable)
1/4 cup milk


Mix flour and salt. Mix oil and milk. Pour oil and milk into flour and salt and stir until combined into a dough. If it's too dry, add more milk.

Depending on how much you made, you can reserve some for later or use the whole.

Use a rolling pin to roll out between two sheets of wax paper, then line a buttered pie pan with the rolled-out crust.

Bake at 180C (350F) until lightly golden. Mine took about 20 minutes.


Crumb Mixture

1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 tsp cocoa powder

Mix powdered sugar, cocoa, and peanut butter until small crumbs form. Linnea's Blog suggests using a mixer; I found a fork was more than sufficient. For the peanut butter, I used Kraft.


Pudding (custard)
Using Linnea's Blog proportions, I made twice as much pudding as I needed - so I'd suggest halving the amounts below.

1 cup cold milk
1 cup cornstarch
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3 egg yolks
3 cups milk
3 tsp butter
3/4 cup sugar

Mix corn starch, salt, 1 cup milk, egg yolks and vanilla with a wire whisk and set aside.

Heat 3 cups milk, butter and sugar until scalding, stirring constantly.

Add cornstarch mixture to hot milk while stirring with whisk. Cook until thickened. Remove from heat before it boils.

Place pudding in refridgerator to chill. Stir every 10 minutes.


Meringue
2 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon of salt
4 tablespoons of sugar

Beat your egg whites with salt and when they start to get fluffy add the sugar.


Assembly

Layer as follows: Start with half the crumbs in the pie shell. Then spoon the pudding on top of the crumbs. Place the remaining crumbs on top of pudding.

Finally layer the meringue on top. Bake pie until peaks on the meringue are lightly browned, about 10 minutes at 180C (350F).

Serve immediately.


Adapted from Linnea's Blog and Homesick Texan

Honey poppy seed cakes with orange icing

Seems like all I've been doing this past weekend has been eating and shopping - wait, that sounds like every weekend. Some new places I tried on Saturday:

First I had a delicious brunch at Bruschetteria 102 at 102 Albion St, Surry Hills. Their Nutella coffee is divine and the atmosphere was really chilled and friendly; everything was cute as a button down to the individualised coffee cups and colourful placemats.



Then it was off to the Saturday markets in Glebe. But first, a stop at La Banette Patisserie (18 Glebe Point Road). Everything in their windows looked so pretty - tarts, millefeuilles, sourdough, eclairs, meringues, oh, there was so much of everything. No photos of their wares, sadly.

For dinner I went to Chef's Gallery (Regent Place, Bathurst St, Sydney). It's the latest Taiwanese-style dumpling and noodle house, quite similar to Din Tai Fung with the same open windows into the kitchen (hence the name) and quick, efficient service. At the moment it's very busy, there's always a queue to get in and many of the signature dishes seem to sell out early - but even so, it's worth a visit. I've already been twice in the past week!



While the handmade noodles are fine, and fun to watch being prepared in the front window, I'd recommend sticking to the array of dumplings, pork belly rolls, barbecue pork ribs, tofu, and pancakes with pork floss. And definitely leave room for the adorable desserts.



Finally this evening I came home and cooked a meal for the first time in days - Thai egg nets, mmm. And then my housemates roasted two whole fish with vegetables. And then we shared it all over wine. And then for dessert we had muffins. And then I was very very full. THE END.




Honey poppy seed cakes with orange icing

Cakes:
184g unsalted butter, softened
146g caster sugar
3 tablespoons honey
2 eggs
225g all purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons poppy seeds

Icing:
210g icing sugar, sifted (uh, I used something closer to 80g, and it was just enough; about 100g should do it)
zest of 1 orange
1-2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F and butter twelve cup capacity muffin pan.

Place butter, sugar and honey in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well. Fold through the flour, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds.

Spoon the mixture into prepared pans. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool in pans on a wire rack then carefully unmold.

Make the icing: place the icing sugar in a medium bowl and mix in the zest. Gradually add the juice, mixing, until desired consistency. Drizzle the icing over the cooled cakes.

Makes 12 cakes.


From Technicolor Kitchen - whose recipes, I realise, I've been cribbing from a LOT lately. I really do read a lot more blogs than just TK, I promise! /o\ Okay, next time I will definitely look further afield.

Black bottom pecan praline bars

If a pecan pie and a brownie had a baby - actually, let's not go there. This brownie variation is ugly but sweet and very easy to make.

When I was just starting to bake, a few years ago, the hard part was having the right equipment. Right now, I'm in a good spot because I've managed to accumulate most of the things I need, and to have access to my housemate's stuff too.

If I had to start over, or if anyone asked me how to begin (lol not likely), then these would be the top of the list:

A silicone spatula. SO much better than a wooden spoon.

Kitchen scales. Cups are nice but scales take all the uncertainty out of measurement.

At least one large glass bowl and at least one large stainless steel bowl.

And an apron. Because they are cute.



Black bottom pecan praline bars

Brownie layer
56g (2oz) unsweetened chocolate – I used 70% Black & Green
4 tablespoons (56g) unsalted butter
½ cup + 1 tablespoon (112g) caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cold large egg
1/4 cup (35g) all purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a 22cm (9in) square pan (I just used my standard brownie tin) and line the bottom and sides with foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides. Butter foil as well.

Start with the brownie layer: place the chocolate and butter in a medium heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Stir frequently until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

Remove the bowl from the heat. Stir in the sugar, vanilla, and salt with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula.

Add the egg. Stir in the flour and beat with a wooden spoon until the batter is smooth, glossy, and beginning to come away from the sides of the bowl, 1-2 minutes.

Spread the brownie batter in a thin even layer in the bottom of the lined pan. Set aside.


Praline layer
1/4 cup (35g) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons (56g) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (70g) packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups (140g) pecans, coarsely chopped


For the praline layer, mix the flour and baking soda together thoroughly and set aside.

Combine the melted butter, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl.

Stir in the egg yolk and vanilla, then the flour mixture, and finally the nuts.

Drop spoonfuls all over the top of the brownie batter - they will spread and cover the brownies entirely during baking. (Although, I actually had enough to spread quite evenly over the whole tray.)

Bake until the edges of the topping are well browned and cracked, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on a rack.

Lift up the ends of the parchment or foil liner, and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 25 bars.


From Technicolor Kitchen

Poh's Orange Chiffon Cake

Last night, like so many thousands of people around the nation, a group of us gathered to warm our hands at the digital fireplace and share a moment in history. In short, MASTERCHEF FINALE ZOMG YAY FOR ADAM.

To mark the occasion, I made an orange chiffon cake from a recipe by last year's runner-up and my current favourite tv cook, Poh Ling Yeow. While in her version she finishes it with cream and whatnot, I kept it simple - chiffon cakes are really just perfect on their own.

For more chiffon cake goodness, try Azuma Patisserie in Sydney CBD which has a constant array of the most gorgeous, pillowy cakes in flavours including earl grey, green tea, and chocolate. Their cakes are of a massive height too, at least twice as tall as the one I achieved!





Orange Chiffon Cake

Poh's recipe very specifically states that you need to use a NON non-stick tin, so that when you invert the cake after baking the cake will hold its shape until it's cool. I found it impossible to locate a sticky tin easily, so I just went ahead and used a non-stick tin anyway, and guess what, it stuck perfectly! In fact it stuck so well that I lost some of the top when I was decanting it. Oops.


5 egg whites (at room temperature is best)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
75g caster sugar
5 egg yolks
7 tbs coconut milk
5 tbs vegetable oil
75g caster sugar
5 tbs orange juice
1 tbs orange zest
150g self raising flour, sifted


Preheat oven at 160°C fan forced/180°C regular.

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer till soft peaks. Add sugar one tablespoon at a time a beat thoroughly after each addition till you achieve stiff peaks. Set aside.

In a separate bowl whisk egg yolks with caster sugar till fluffy. Add coconut milk, vegetable oil, orange juice, zest and self raising flour and whisk until combined. Gently fold the egg whites together with the yolk mixture in three batches.

Pour into a 22cm baba cake tin or angel cake tin. I used an angel cake tin with a removable base. Do not grease the tin.

Bake 25 mins at 160°C fan forced or 30 mins at 180°C, or till skewer comes out clean. Leave oven on to roast hazelnuts.

When the cake is out of the oven, immediately invert the cake still in the tin. Place on a cooling rack and leave to cool completely (about 2 hours).


From Poh's Kitchen

Chocolate Meringues

Despite the Zuger Kirschtorte, I STILL had some egg whites to dispose of - hence, meringues. With only three ingredients, this was the quickest and easiest way to get rid of the remaining whites.

This recipe uses the 'Swiss method' and is taken from the Bourke Street Bakery cookbook.



Chocolate meringues

The proportion is 1 part eggs to 2 parts sugar. I actually used 170g egg white to a whopping 340g sugar, but the purposes of this recipe I've kept BSB's measurements.

105g egg whites (about 3)
210g caster sugar
70g unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted into a bowl


Preheat oven to 130C.

Stir egg white and sugar in a very clean stainless steel bowl. Place the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and stir continually, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula.

When the liquid is smooth and clear, remove from heat. Wipe the bottom of the bowl to prevent water from contacting the mix.

Whisk the warm liquid in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until it's cool and firm peaks form. This will take about 10 minutes. My mix looked very white and very sticky.

Using a large spoon, scoop up a meringue and drop it into the cocoa powder. BSB suggests swirling the bowl so it's completely coated. This sounds so easy! Needless to say I made a mess.

Place meringues on a tray lined with baking paper. Using the tips of your fingers, 'drag' the meringue upwards a little to streak the chocolate and create a peak. Or try, anyway.

Turn the oven to 100C and bake meringues for approximately 90 minutes or until they're crisp outside and soft in the centre. (BSB suggests if you want them crispy all the way through, you can bake them for up to 6 hours!)

BSB's proportions make 12-18 small meringues or 4-6 large ones. Starting with more mixture, I made 20 medium sized ones, just to be different.

Uniformity not being one of my strong points, my meringues all turned out so different-looking!

This one reminded me of a poached egg:



This one was a bit like larvae from Alien:



And I don't know, some kind of cloud formation? Or something.




Adapted from 'Bourke Street Bakery' by Paul Allam and David McGuinness

Zuger Kirschtorte

After last week's Crack Pie extravanganza, I found myself with eight egg whites to dispose of. What to do, what to do? Pavlova, meringues, macarons?

A Swiss friend from work suggested this classic Swiss torte - it's basically a genoise sponge, sandwiched between two meringues and flavoured with kirsch (cherry liqueur).

I've known for a long time that presentation is my weak flank but it's particularly obvious when the original looks as gorgeous as it does. I tried! I really tried! But it wasn't to be. I NEED TO WORK ON THIS.

Otherwise, I think it was a success. It's a reasonably light cake, with just enough sweetness in the cream and flavour from the kirsch. The texture of the meringues was great, quite soft and chewy - it reminded me very much of the base of a particular variety of chocolate cream and sponge cake you can get in Chinatown bakeries. And that was a long sentence leading nowhere in particular.

We ate this while watching Master Chef - Iron Chef Sakai was guest judge! - and drinking tea. Nice.




Zuger Kirschtorte

This cake will require a long run-up time because of the meringues - you need to allow at least 4 hours for them to cool in your oven, and during this time of course you can't really start on the genoise sponge cake. I ended up making this over two days: I baked the meringues and genoise cake on day 1, sealed them in an airtight container overnight, then did the cream, syrup, and assembly on day 2.


ALMOND MERINGUE
4 egg whites
120g confectioners' sugar
20g corn starch
100g almond meal/ground almonds

Preheat the oven to 160ºC/320ºF. Draw two 25cm (10in) circles in a large piece of parchment/baking paper, on a baking sheet. Generously butter the insides of each circle.

Sift the confectioners' sugar in a small bowl, add the corn starch and almond meal; set aside.

Beat the egg whites until stiff; remove the bowl from the mixer and, using a rubber spatula, delicately fold the reserved ingredients into the egg whites.

Spread the mixture inside the circles, leaving 0.5cm of the edges free of meringue – it will spread.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the meringue is golden. Turn off the oven and allow meringue to cool inside, for at least 4 hours (can be made overnight).


GENOISE
3 eggs, egg whites and yolks separated
3 tablespoons hot water
80g confectioners' sugar, sifted
10g caster sugar
50g all purpose flour
50g corn starch
pinch of baking powder


Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF; butter a 25cm (10in) springform round cake pan (I used one with a removable bottom), line the bottom with baking paper and butter the paper as well.

Using a mixer, beat the egg yolks with the water until thick and light. Add the confectioners’ sugar gradually and beat well. Set aside. (I beat the yolks by hand, due to a shortage of bowls/equipment, and saved the stand mixer for the egg whites which are so much harder to beat.)

Beat the egg whites until stiff; add the caster sugar and beat well. Remove the bowl from the mixer and add the yolk cream to the egg whites. Sift the flour, corn starch and baking powder over the mixture and fold in carefully with a rubber spatula.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through – the cake will pull apart from the sides of the pan when baked. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely.


BUTTERCREAM
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
150g confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 egg yolk
50g currant jam – I used black cherry jam which gave the cream quite a rich colour

Beat the butter until light and creamy. Add the confectioners’ sugar gradually, beating well. Add the egg yolk and jam, beat well until smooth.


SYRUP
4 tablespoons water
20g caster sugar
120ml kirsch - this can be hard to obtain, you may have to look around at a few liquor stores. It's also VERY strong, so I ended up halving this part of the recipe.

In a small saucepan, combine water and sugar over medium-high heat until it starts boiling. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Add the kirsch and mix well. Set aside.


TOPPING
100g almonds, toasted and chopped
70g confectioners' sugar


ASSEMBLY

Very carefully, peel the meringue disks off the baking paper and place one of them on a serving plate. Spread 1/3 of the buttercream over the meringue. Place the cake on top of it and brush it generously with the syrup. (As above - I didn't use all the syrup because kirsch is so strong in taste.)

Carefully spread 1/3 of the buttercream over the cake. Cover with the other meringue disk. (As I found it hard to spread the cream without damaging the cake, I spread the cream on the bottom of the top meringue disk and then put that on top.)

Spread the remaining buttercream on the sides of the cake and "stick" the chopped almonds on the cream. (This is hard! VERY VERY HARD. I have no advice except perhaps don't chop the almonds too finely.)

Using a sieve, sprinkle the top of the cake with the confectioners' sugar. Draw a criss-cross pattern on the sugar using the back of a knife.

Keep it refrigerated, but serve it at room temperature – the cake gets hard in the fridge.


From Technicolor Kitchen

Momofuku Crack Pie

Midway through my first slice, I said, "It's nice, but is it really all it's cracked up to be?" Then, when I realised what I'd actually said, "oh, shi-"

"Are you gonna put that on your blog?" Robert said.

So.

I made this on request for Michelle, who saw the recipe on Almost Bourdain. The 'crack pie' - so-called because it's just as addictive - by NYC's Momofuku Milk Bar is apparently a sensation, and according to their website sells for US $44 per pie or US $5.25 per slice. Which sounds HUGE until you think about it, because that's really just a little more than the price of a nice cake at David Jones Food Hall, isn't it?

It was fun to make, and fun to eat, and even if it wasn't quite crack we still finished it all off in one sitting. But since thinking about the amount of butter that went into it is making me feel a bit ill (it could totally be reduced, I think), I am never going to make it again. <-- I reserve the right to renege this if you want to shell out $44.

 

Momofuku Milk Bar's Crack Pie

Servings: Makes 2 pies (6 to 8 servings each)


COOKIE FOR CRUST

2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (3 ounces) flour
Scant 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
Scant 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick = 113 g) softened butter
1/3 cup (2 1/2 ounces) light brown sugar
3 tablespoons (1 1/4 ounces) sugar
1 egg
Scant 1 cup (3 1/2 ounces) rolled oats


Heat the oven to 375 F (190 C) degrees.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and sugar until light and fluffy.

Whisk the egg into the butter mixture until fully incorporated.

With the mixer running, beat in the flour mixture, a little at a time, until fully combined. Stir in the oats until incorporated.

Spread the mixture onto a baking sheet and bake until golden brown and set, about 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and cool to the touch on a rack. Crumble the cooled cookie to use in the crust.

Though called a cookie, the texture of mine was more like a muffin.


CRUST

Crumbled cookie for crust
1/4 cup (1/2 stick = 56 g) butter
1 1/2 tablespoons (3/4 ounce) brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

Combine the crumbled cookie, butter, brown sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse until evenly combined and blended (a little of the mixture clumped between your fingers should hold together).

Or, if you're like me, combine by hand. Use your fingertips rather than palms to avoid melting the butter too much.

Divide the crust between 2 (10-inch) pie tins. Like Almost Bourdain, I used one round tart pan and one rectangular tart pan.

Press the crust into each shell to form a thin, even layer along the bottom and sides of the tins.

Set the prepared crusts aside while you prepare the filling.


FILLING

1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) sugar
3/4 cup plus a scant 3 tablespoons (7 ounces) light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon (3/4 ounce) milk powder*
1 cup (2 sticks = 226g) butter, melted
3/4 cup plus a scant 2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 egg yolks
2 prepared crusts
Powdered sugar, garnish


* Milk powder, you may or may not be surprised to find, is not sold in your local Coles in packets of less than 1kg. Since I didn't anticipate needing to use milk powder again in the near future, I skipped this ingredient. Reasoning that it was included for texture more than flavour, I subbed in a tablespoon of corn starch. Did I do wrong? Is this why I found the pie merely nice, instead of crack-like in addictive quality? You tell me.


Heat the oven to 350 F (176 C).

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, brown sugar, salt and milk powder. Whisk in the melted butter, then whisk in the heavy cream and vanilla.

Gently whisk in the egg yolks, being careful not to add too much air.

Divide the filling evenly between the 2 prepared pie shells. My filling had a texture like pureed fruit and was very easy to spread into the shells with a spatula.

Bake the pies, one at a time, for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325 F (162 C) and bake until the filling is slightly jiggly and golden brown (similar to a pecan pie), about 10 minutes.

Remove the pies and cool on a rack.

Refrigerate the cooled pies until well chilled. The pies are meant to be served cold, and the filling will be gooey. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.


From Almost Bourdain

Nanaimo Bars aka Caramel Slice

Last Thursday was Canada Day - one of my friends organised a surprise party on the Saturday for her Canadian husband, and we all celebrated by bringing along and then consuming vast quantities of food. There was a moose-mousse cake, maple bacon cookies, Canadian Dry ginger ale, turkey sandwiches, salmon bagels, pumpkin pie, and so much more.

My contribution was the Nanaimo Bar. Allegedly a Canadian specialty, I suspect it is nothing more or less than a good old Ausssie caramel slice!



The traditional recipe calls for Graham Wafers which are not sold in Australia or most places outside North America. The original recipe has instructions on making these from scratch. Being too lazy to do the same, I followed the lead of cooks around the world and used a local substitute, which I crushed to crumbs in a sealed plastic bag with a rolling pin.

Digestive biscuits of any kind are fine; I used Arnotts Granita, which has a marginally lower sugar content and a rougher texture than similar biscuits like the Milk Arrowroot. Some blogs have also suggested it's possible to use half tea sweet biscuit or digestive, and half a salty biscuit or even pretzels - given how strong and sweet the caramel layer is, I think a half salty mix would work really well.


Base:
115gram unsalted butter
50gram granulated sugar
75ml unsweetened cocoa
1 large egg, beaten
200gram Graham Wafer crumbs (see above)
1/2 cup almonds (any type, finely chopped)
1 cup dessicated coconut

Caramel:
2 cans condensed milk (about 800 ml)
30 gram unsalted butter
3 tbsp golden syrup

Topping:
150 gram semi-sweet chocolate (I used 85% Lindt and it was awesome)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter


BASE: Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 degrees Celsius fan-forced). Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned and slightly risen. Remove it from oven and let it cool.


CARAMEL: Place butter and golden syrup in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. When butter has melted, add condensed milk. Stir constantly over medium heat for about 9-12 minutes, until caramel thickens. Gently spread caramel evenly over base. Return to oven for a further 10-12 minutes (a 1/2cm border of lightly browned caramel should form around the edges of the slice).

This was the absolute messiest step by far - condensed milk is NOT a nice texture to work with and the whole kitchen was just sticky and sickly-sweet smelling, ugh. Also, I tried to be smart and used maple syrup instead of golden syrup. This turned out to be a fail because the maple crystallised instead of blending! I had to sieve the hard bits out before I could pour the caramel on to the base, which of course didn't help with the messiness...


TOPPING: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

Consider scoring the chocolate when it's semi-solid to enable easier cutting later. I didn't, and mine cracked all over the place!

Use a hot, dry knife to cut the slice - fill a tall glass with hot water, dip knife in water for a few seconds, and wipe dry with a clean tea towel.


From A table for two

Pumpkin polenta muffins

I had the most delicious ham and zucchini polenta muffin at Patisse in Waterloo on the weekend. And one chocolate and one passionfruit macaron. And a coffee. Mmmm...

I'm getting distracted. My point is their polenta muffin was awesome and I wanted to try making some too. Mine wasn't as tasty, I'm afraid, but it's not bad, and it looks nice, and I eated it.


Pumpkin polenta muffins

Olive oil, to grease
190g (1 1/4 cups) self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
90g (1/2 cup) polenta
2 eggs, lightly whisked
185ml (3/4 cup) milk
60g butter, melted
40g (1/2 cup) coarsely grated cheddar
180g (2/3 cup) cooked, mashed pumpkin
1 small red capsicum, finely chopped
270g can corn kernels, drained


Preheat oven to 180°C.

Grease and line muffin tin. (This is where I went a little wrong, by the way. I used a nonstick muffin tin and assumed it wouldn't stick. Surprise! It did. The muffins were okay, but some were a bit wrecked at the base. Next time I'm using muffin liners.)

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and polenta into a large bowl and make a well in the centre.

Use a fork to whisk together the egg, milk and butter in a second large bowl. Stir in the cheddar, pumpkin, capsicum and corn.

Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Spoon mixture into tins and smooth the surface. Bake in oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Set aside in pan for 5 minutes to cool slightly. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 12 muffins.


Adapted from Taste

Apple and Pecan Cake

I made this cake using my NEW STAND MIXER. :DDD

It's a birthday gift from my awesome friends and I can't waaaait to take the dough hook on a test run. I hope this will result in bread for all! Loaves in your face!

It was so fun using this for the first time and this was a good recipe to try it out on. Creaming the butter and sugar was a cinch, and this stiff batter would have been a pain to mix by hand.

In short, I approve.



Apple pecan coffee cake with cinnamon sugar topping

Like Technicolor Kitchen before me, I halved the ingredients and baked the cake in a 20cm tin with a removable base. Overall it came out a bit heavier than I expected, and I think I overdid the brown sugar.

Pecans:
1 cup (110g) pecans, coarsely chopped
2 ½ tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, slightly softened

Cake:
3 ½ cups peeled, cored and diced (1/3in) apples
1/3 cup (58g) packed light brown sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups (420g) all purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
generous ½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks/226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2/3 cup (174g) plain yogurt
2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Topping:
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F and prepare a baking tin.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. In a medium bowl, stir together the pecans, brown sugar, corn syrup and butter until the pecans are coated. Spread the pecan mixture on the foil liked sheet and toast, stirring occasionally, for 9 to 14 minutes or until nicely browned. Let cool completely then chop into ¼ in bits – the pecans will keep, stored airtight, at room temperature for several days.

In a large bowl thoroughly stir together the apples, brown sugar and cinnamon. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a small bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and granulated sugar until lightened and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until well blended, about 2 minutes.

On low speed, beat in half the dry ingredients just until thoroughly incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the yogurt and vanilla, beating just until evenly incorporated. Beating on low, add the remaining dry ingredients, then beat in medium speed until evenly blended – batter will be stiff.

Spoon half the batter into the pan, spreading it evenly to the edges with a buttered palette knife, the layer will be thin. Using a slotted spoon and shaking off any excess juice, distribute the apple mixture over the batter. Sprinkle with the pecans then spoon the remaining batter over the apples and pecans, spreading it to the edges – the batter will seem skimpy. Mix the topping ingredients in a small bowl and sprinkle over the cake.

Bake for 45-55 minutes or until the top is well browned and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely.

The cake will keep, stored airtight in a cool place, for up to 2 days, or refrigerated for 2-3 days or longer – let it come to room temperature before serving.


From Technicolor Kitchen

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cake

More gluten-free! Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised by my two-cake foray into gluten-free baking. The sad faces of my coeliac acquaintances as they ate their store-bought riceflour muffins had convinced me that gluten-free = not tasty. This is completely untrue.

This cake is awesome - the dark chocolate and the coconut go so well together. Like the carrot cake from the previous post, this too was deliciously moist and tasty.

Ideally, this is how you should eat it:

Start with a leisurely breakfast at Bangbang and then wander through Surry Hills markets. Walking at a gentle pace, swing by Frames for some takeaway coffees (their coffee is so underrated! they are much better than the more-hyped Sideplate) and then go back to your house. Have a slice in the kitchen while chatting to Jess and Tina.

Easy, right?

No photos this time because a) I'm lazy and b) it looks like a brown cake.


Coconut Chocolate Chip Cake

3 large free-range organic eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup coconut milk
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups organic light brown sugar
2 cups gluten free flour
A pinch of baking powder
1 1/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup dark chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 180 C. Line a 9-inch cake pan.

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs till pale yellow. Add in the oil and beat to combine. Add the coconut milk and flavor extracts. Beat in the sugar till smooth. Add the flour mix a little at a time and beat until the batter is smooth.

Stir in the coconut and chocolate chips by hand.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake in the center of a pre-heated oven, until the cake is set in the center. The cake should spring back to light touch.

The recipe suggested 30 to 35 minutes. Mine took closer to 45 minutes, but I have a temperamental oven so use your own judgement. The end result was evenly brown on top.

Cool the cake on a wire rack. Delicious slightly warm, almost as good the next day too.


Adapted from Gluten Free Goddess


*

Elsewhere:

Chengy baked an amazing Croquembouche for May's Daring Baker Challenge. It was impressive AND delicious! P.S. Those are my fingers in the photo.

Judith has a brilliant review post on 'Howl' and 'Exit Through The Gift Shop', both screening at the Sydney Film Festival. I think she's pretty much spot on - though my immediate reaction to Exit was less thoughtful and more of a straight-up "I HATE THIS STUPID MOVIE AND BANKSY'S STUPID FACE."

And Robbie has another ridiculous blog. OK I admit it - I lol'd.

Carrot cake with coconut and pecans

I haven't baked gluten-free before and was dreading the process of mixing my own gluten-free flour mix.

"Xantham gum?!" I cried to myself, tearing at my hair. "I have never even seen such a thing in the stores (though admittedly I have never looked)! And in Australia we do not have this quote unquote Pamela's Ultimate Baking Mix thing that all these American recipes talk about. I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO MAKE THIS CAKE AND THE EVENING WILL BE RUINED."

"Oh for the love of-!" said a colleague exasperatedly. "There's pre-mixed gluten-free flour in the supermarket. It's in the health food aisle."

And she was right.





Carrot Cake

1/2 cup light vegetable oil
1 cup organic light brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup plain yogurt (or coconut yogurt)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon honey (or agave)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon mix of nutmeg, clove and allspice
2 cups gluten-free baking flour mix (I bought a White Wings pre-mix)
Pinch of baking powder
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots (I used 2 large carrots)
1/2 cup golden raisins or currants
1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans (or walnuts)

Preheat the oven to 180 C and grease a 9-inch springform cake pan.

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, add the oil and beat, then add the brown sugar and beat until smooth.

Beat in the yogurt, vanilla, honey, cinnamon and spice.

Add baking flour mix and beat until combined.

Add coconut, carrots, raisins and nuts. Stir with a wooden spoon to combine.

Spread the batter evenly in the cake pan and place the pan in the center of a preheated oven.

Bake until the cake is firm, and a wooden pick inserted into the center emerges clean. Mine took about 1 hour but it could take less - the original recipe suggested 45 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack before frosting with cream cheese icing. Sprinkle with coconut, if desired. (I didn't.)


Cream Cheese Icing

120g softened cream cheese
2 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract, to taste
1-2 cups icing sugar
A squeeze or two lemon (or other citrus) to taste

In a mixing bowl beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add the vanilla.

Add in the sugar, 1 cup at a time. The original recipe calls for 3 cups (!) but I found 1 to 1.5 cups more than sufficient. Also, I cheated, because I ran out of icing sugar, and supplemented it with caster sugar. Ha.

Squeeze a little lemon or other citrus juice into the frosting and beat till smooth. Add more sugar, if needed, to thicken, or add more juice to thin.


Adapted from Gluten Free Goddess


*

Oh hey. My Coconut Bread recipe was transformed by Bryn into a most awesome comic strip for the latest issue of Beef Knuckles. There is even a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reference! :DDDD So you should totally pick up a copy if you get a chance. Also because the zine is actually good.

Pear and Almond Frangipane Tart

Dear friends of the Haus of KKW,

You are cordially invited to the third KKW High Tea event, on Sunday May 2 in the fine year 2010. The venue is the Poon Palace.

Please bring a plate of delicious food, preferably servable in cute little portions, and any tasty and/or rare teas to share.

Hope everyone can make it!! Ex oh ex oh gossip girls and guys!!

This was my contribution. It looked fairly humble next to the Earl Grey tiramisu (handmade! down to the mascarpone and sponge!), chocolate macaroons, honey and lemon semolina cake, mini quiches, polenta squares with truffle mascarpone, bacon jam and sourdough, blue cheese and onion bites, pate, mini chicken pies, pink lemonade, durian sponge cake and everything else I forgot to mention...



Pâte Sablée
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
125 g butter, very cold, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk


Poached Pears
3 ripe medium pears
3 cups water
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt


Frangipane
85g butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup almond meal
2 teaspoons flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 large egg plus 1 egg white
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons almond extract




Pears: Combine the water, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon stick, vanilla, and salt in a saucepan large enough to hold all the pears and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, cut the pears in half, remove the seed core and fibrous cores at either end, then peel the pears.

Add the pear halves to the simmering syrup and reduce heat to low. Cover, and let pears poach for about 10 minutes, turning them halfway. The pears will become slightly translucent, very tender, and easily pierced with a knife or skewer.

Let the pears cool in the liquid until room temperature before using. Or, you can store them in their liquid in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.


Tart shell: Mix the flour, confectioner's sugar, and salt. Add the pieces of cold butter and use finger tips to massage the butter into the mixture. Add the egg yolk and combine until the dough starts to turn from dry to clumpy. The mixture will be clumpy, but do not overmix - when the dough pieces looks like they will stick when you press them together, stop.

Butter a tart tin with removable bottom. Turn the dough out into the tin and press into the bottom and up the sides with your fingers. If you have any leftover dough, save the extra for patching the shell after you bake it. Do not press the dough too hard or it will become tough.

Freeze the tart shell for at least 30 minutes. When you are ready to bake it, preheat the oven to 190 C.

To partially bake the tart shell, take a piece of foil and butter the shiny side, then press the buttered side tightly to the shell. You do not need pie weights. Place the tart shell on a baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes until the shell is dry and lightly colored. If any places have cracked, repair with the extra dough. Let cool on a rack until room temperature.

NOTE: I baked it for 25 minutes and it was too long; after the final baking my tart shell was overdone, so I would recommend keeping a close eye on the oven during this step.


Frangipane: Combine the butter and sugar, mixing until smooth. Add the ground almonds; then add the flour and cornstarch; and then the egg and egg white. Mix until very smooth. Add in the vanilla and almond extracts just to blend.

The frangipane can be used immediately or you can store it in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. If it becomes too firm in the fridge, let it sit at room temperature for a while to soften before using.


Assembling the tart: Preheat the oven to 175 C. Spread the frangipane evenly into the cooled tart shell.

Take the poached pears out of their liquid and drain them on paper towels. You don't want too much excess liquid or they will make the frangipane soggy. Cut each pear half crosswise into thick slices. Do not separate the pear slices yet.

Slide a spatula or other flat utensil underneath the pear so you can transfer the entire half onto the tart. Press on the pear to fan the slices toward the top narrow end of the pear.

Slide the pear half onto the frangipane carefully - you can move the pear after you place it, but not much.

Repeat with the other pear halves until there are four to six halves on the tart, evenly spaced.

Place the tart on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 45-50 minutes, until the frangipane is puffed, golden brown, and firm to the touch. Cool the tart on a wire rack.

Before serving, dust confectioner's sugar over the tart.



Adapted from Dessert First