Marcellina in Cucina

JANUARY, 2012 CHALLENGE: Back to Basics:Scones (a.k.a. Biscuits)

2012-01-27T21:07:00.010+10:00

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!

The basic scone.

Quite innocent looking, really. Just some flour, rising agent, butter and milk.

It should be easy, shouldn't it?

But to many it isn't. That's probably why scones are also known as "rock cakes". To many creating the perfect scone can seem elusively beyond their reach. Which is where Audax comes in and our latest Daring Bakers challenge, the first for 2012.

What a great way to start off the year. Scones are made from basic ingredients and the recipe supplied was small so that meant it was cheap and could be made many times over in the aim to achieve the perfect scone!

Scones were one of the first recipes taught to me in my Home Economics class. The "rubbing-in" technique was being learnt. That is, the rubbing in of butter into the flour. Apparently, according to my teacher, the process is to coat each flour grain is with butter. As you rub the butter in you should lift the butter and flour out of the bowl to aerate the mixture and only use fingertips which are the coolest part of the hand . I still remember my teacher examining our hands to check that our palms remained free of flour or butter lest our hot palms melt the butter.

This month Audax became our Home Economics teacher. And very experience he was too, having tested the recipe 16 times! Audax has a different method to keep everything cool - use frozen, grated butter! This certainly does help but you still need to only use you fingertips to do the rubbing in. Thanks Audax for hosting this months challenge.

Scones are always so appreciated in our home!

Basic Scones (a.k.a. Basic Biscuits)
Servings: about eight 2-inch (5 cm) scones or five 3-inch (7½ cm) scones
Recipe can be doubled (I doubled this recipe)

Ingredients:
1 cup (240 ml) (140 gm/5 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
2 teaspoons (10 ml) (10 gm) (⅓ oz) fresh baking powder
¼ teaspoon (1¼ ml) (1½ gm) salt
2 tablespoons (30 gm/1 oz) frozen grated butter (or a combination of lard and butter)
approximately ½ cup (120 ml) cold milk
optional 1 tablespoon milk, for glazing the tops of the scones

Directions:1. Preheat oven to very hot 475°F/240°C/gas mark 9.
2. Triple sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. (If your room temperature is very hot refrigerate the sifted ingredients until cold.)
3. Rub the frozen grated butter (or combination of fats) into the dry ingredients until it resembles very coarse bread crumbs with some pea-sized pieces if you want flaky scones or until it resembles coarse beach sand if you want tender scones.

4. Add nearly all of the liquid at once into the rubbed-in flour/fat mixture and mix until it just forms a sticky dough (add the remaining liquid if needed). The wetter the dough the lighter the scones (biscuits) will be!

5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, lightly flour the top of the dough. To achieve an even homogeneous crumb to your scones knead very gently about 4 or 5 times (do not press too firmly) the dough until it is smooth. To achieve a layered effect in your scones knead very gently once (do not press too firmly) then fold and turn the kneaded dough about 3 or 4 times until the dough has formed a smooth texture. (Use a floured plastic scraper to help you knead and/or fold and turn the dough if you wish.)
6. Pat or roll out the dough into a 6 inch by 4 inch rectangle by about ¾ inch thick (15¼ cm by 10 cm by 2 cm thick). Using a well-floured 2-inch (5 cm) scone cutter (biscuit cutter), stamp out without twisting six 2-inch (5 cm) rounds, gently reform the scraps into another ¾ inch (2 cm) layer and cut two more scones (these two scones will not raise as well as the others since the extra handling will slightly toughen the dough). Or use a well-floured sharp knife to form squares or wedges as you desire.

7. Place the rounds just touching on a baking dish if you wish to have soft-sided scones or place the rounds spaced widely apart on the baking dish if you wish to have crisp-sided scones. Glaze the tops with milk if you want a golden colour on your scones or lightly flour if you want a more traditional look to your scones.
8. Bake in the preheated very hot oven for about 10 minutes (check at 8 minutes since home ovens at these high temperatures are very unreliable) until the scones are well risen and are lightly coloured on the tops. The scones are ready when the sides are set.

9. Immediately place onto cooling rack to stop the cooking process, serve while still warm.

The scones should be well risen with golden brown tops.

I think this is called a "tender crumb". I just call it fluffy and delicious!

I made a variation of Cheese and Parsley by following the Basic recipe above but adding ¼ teaspoon of baking soda, after Step 2, 50 gm grated cheese, 25gm parmesan cheese and 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley into the sifted ingredients, in Step 3 aim of beach sand sized pieces of fat coated in flour, in Step 5 knead the dough, form into a round and cut into wedges, spread apart slight on the baking tray, sprinkle the wedges with cracked pepper.

Cheese and Parsley Scones welcomed my hungry, teenage children home from school

On Australia Day (26th January) I converted the scone recipe to make a damper by substituting half the milk for water and only adding enough liquid to make a firm dough.
Edited 29-01-2012: Damper is a traditional Australian quick bread originally made by stockmen moving cattle who were away from home for weeks at a time with only basic provisions on hand - flour, sugar, tea and whatever meat was available. Mix quickly and bake on the campfire it accompanied the meat or was spread with golden syrup, if it was to hand. Nowdays, leavening is used along with milk and butter.

The damper had a different crumb to that of the scone - much tighter but tender and delicious!

My son enjoy his damper with Vegemite.

Instead the rest of us enjoyed the sweet stickiness of golden syrup.

Steamed Pork Buns

2012-01-20T17:04:00.002+10:00

Chinese New Year.

This year Chinese New Year falls on 23rd January.

Now, as most of you would know, you will mainly see sweet recipes on this blog with lots of Italian recipes thrown in. But I also like to dabble with recipes from other cultures. Steamed pork buns are one of my family's favourites. This adapted recipe come courtesy of the Australian food magazine Super Food Ideas. Whether it is a traditional recipe I'm not sure but what I do know is that it tastes really good!

The recipe calls for Chinese Barbecue Pork which occasionally I will make myself because it is not readily available where I live. However I have found simply slicing up the same quantity of pork tenderloin fillet, frying it off then adding the remaining ingredients is quite a good substitute.

Edited 21-01-2012: After reading Claudia's comment I realised I should link to a Chinese BBQ Pork recipe. I use this AWW recipe but there are lots of variations.

Cook and mix up the filling ingredients ahead of time so it has a chance to cool.

Prepare the dough according to the recipe, roll out and fill. See, easy!

Let the filled pork balls rest and rise.

Then steam and serve.

You can see how fluffy the crumb of the dough is, can't you!

I'm told the feast for Chinese New Year is held on the eve. For various reasons, I will be preparing Steamed Pork Buns on Monday.

Join me and let me know what you think!

Steamed Pork Buns

Makes 16

1 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

2 tablespoons castor sugar

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup self-raising flour

3 teaspoons butter, melted

Filling:

2 tablespoons oil

2 teaspoons grated ginger

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon horsing sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

3 teaspoon cornflour mixed with 1 tablespoon water

250g Chinese Barbecue pork, finely slice (or fresh pork fillet as mentioned above)\

6 green onions, finely chopped

Combine yeast with 2 tablespoons water in a small bowl. Blend in 1 teaspoon each of sugar and flours. Cover. Stand in a warm place until frothy (about 15 minutes).

Sift remaining flour into a large bowl. Add remaining sugar, yeast mixture, water and butter. Mix to form a soft dough/ Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 3 minutes or until smooth and elastic.

Put dough in a large oiled bowl. Stand covered, for 1 hour or until doubled.

Prepare Filling:

Heat oil in a wok or pan. Stir fry ginger and garlic until aromatic. (At this point you can add and stir fry the fresh pork fillet, if using) Add sauces and oil. Cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Blend cornflour mixture. Bring to the boil, stirring until sauce thickens. remove from heat add in Barbecue pork (if using) and green onions.

Punch dough down. Knead on a floured surface until smooth. Divide into 16 equal pieces. Roll out each to make a 6 sm circle. Cover with a damp tea-towel. Working with one round at a time, place 2 teaspoons of mixture into the centre. Gather edges together. Pace each bun seam-side-down on a small square of baking paper. Cover with a tea-towel. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.

Half fill a work or saucepan with water (steamer should not touch the water). Bring to boil. Working in batches, arrange buns with paper in steamer basket. Cover with lid.Place over water. Steam for about 15 minutes, adding more boiling water as required.

Remover buns from steamer. If desired, snip top with scissors to resemble a star.

Serve warm.

Pasta Estiva! My "go to" summer pasta dish.

2012-01-06T15:22:00.001+10:00

Happy New Year!

This is my first post for 2012! There is much hope that 2012 will bring good times for our area which was hit by a cyclone and four floods in early 2011 and the repercussions were felt throughout the year. So far, the weather has been kind. Bright sunshine, occasional rain and humidity. A perfect tropical summer, as it should be!

Summer in North Queensland is hot and humid, quite often unbearably so! Necessary work is completed in the cool of the very early morning or evening and sometimes even then there is no relief.

As night falls, air conditioners can be heard like the humming of mosquitoes in the stillness of the night. And when the monsoonal rain starts there is no stopping it. Humidity is so thick it's hard to breathe.

This is a time when cooking takes a turn. Fresh, cool and easily prepared. This dish, though not really a recipe, fits the bill.

I'll call it my "Pasta Estiva" - Summer Pasta. Though it doesn't really have a name. It's just an idea which originated after a conversation with my Calabrian cousin. All that needs to be cooked is the pasta. In the time it takes to cook the pasta the "sauce" can be prepared. If you can boil water, you can make Pasta Estiva. Think of my choice of ingredients as a template. Alter the ingredients to suit your taste and that of your diners but remember to select best quality ingredients. I hope you enjoy as much as I do!

Pasta Estiva

Serves 4-6

500g pasta ( I like fusilli, the twirly one, but it's your choice)

185g canned tuna, in oil Italian style

2 or 3 vine ripened tomatoes

stuffed green olives

sundried tomatoes in oil

capers, to taste

dried oregano leaves

oil from the sundried tomatoes

red wine vinegar

freshly cracked black pepper

Bring a large pot of water to the boil and salt it well. Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. I like to taste a few minutes before the time is up to ensure it is not overcooked.

In the meantime, drain the tuna and place into a large bowl, breaking it up. Chop the tomatoes coarsely, slice the green olives and slice the sundried tomatoes. Place in the bowl with the tuna, mix well. Finely chop capers and mix into remaining ingredients. Sprinkle with oregano.

When the pasta is cooked, drain well and turn immediately into bowl with tuna and tomato mixture. Dress with oil from the sundried tomatoes, red wine vinegar and black pepper. Taste, and adjust seasoning if needed. Toss to combine well.

Turn into large serving bowl or platter and sit back and accept the compliments!

DECEMBER, 2011 CHALLENGE: LETTING NATURE DO THE WORK...Sourdough Bread!

2011-12-28T11:29:00.000+10:00

Our Daring Bakers Host for December 2011 was Jessica of My Recipe Project and she showed us how fun it is to create Sour Dough bread in our own kitchens! She provided us with Sour Dough recipes from Bread Matters by AndrewWhitley as well as delicious recipes to use our Sour Dough bread in from Tonia George’s Things on Toast and Canteen’s Great British Food!

Sour Dough Bread.

Flour and water and not much else. Fascinating, almost unbelievable, delicious but very cantankerous for some of us.

For the initiated, sour dough bread is made without commercial yeasts instead the baker captures and cultivates the natural yeast occurring in the air and flour. This process is called a starter and starters can be kept, maintained and used for many years. Starters can be shared with family and friends. Doesn't it sound wonderful! Well, let me tell you, creating a starter in the first place can be ridiculously hard and frustrating. Nothing like pulling a packet of dried yeast out of the cupboard when you decided to bake some bread. Nup! A starter is nurtured and babied for at least four days before you even think of baking the bread. Then the production leaven is prepared and rested for 4 hours, then the dough is prepare and rested for another hour and, no, you're not ready to bake yet - knead again and rise for 3 to 5 hours. This is a bread not to be taken lightly. But when is works the satisfaction and delight is immeasurable!

Let me introduce you to "Myrtle the third". Myrtles 1 and 2 unfortunately both saw an untimely death! "Myrtle the first" lived in my laundry which was nice and warm. What I didn't realise that it was so warm Myrtle needed to eat more often. When she didn't she started to die letting me know by smelling out the whole house with a stink more akin to rotting garbage. Eeeak! The family became suspicious of the Daring Bakers Challenge! "Myrtle the second" just never got off the ground. I kept her in the airconditioning - maybe she didn't like that maybe she was contaminated from the outset. "Myrtle the third" bubbled and frothed from the second day. She needed to be fed a little more often in our warm tropical climate but she thrived and proved to be very useful!

This is my first sour dough attempt with no commercial yeast whatsoever. Previously I attempted sourdough with a recipe from the cookbook My Calabria by Rosetta Constantino. We were supplied with several recipes but I chose the French Country bread. I was thrilled with how this finally turned out. Thanks Jessica!

More sour dough recipes and tips provided by Jessica can be found here.

The dough set in a basket lined with rye floured cloth.

I'm impressed with how much it rose!

The dough is carefully turned out onto a baking sheet for baking.

A crusty, well risen loaf! Yum!

Once we had baked our sourdough bread our next task was to showcase the bread. I chose to make Anchovy Bread. First it was cut in half horizontally and it was at this point that I marvelled at the fine crumb and even texture. I wonder if this is a result of the the "air kneading". The linked videos Jessica provided proved invaluable.

Strips of anchovy, ground dried chilli, finely chopped garlic and a sprinkle of oregano were finished off with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a little oil from the anchovies. Replace the lid and heat through in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes.

The flavours meld and intensify. Mmmmmm!

French Country Bread
Servings: 1 large loaf plus extra wheat starter for further baking
(Note:- where ever you read stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat flour I used regular whole-wheat flour and where ever you read unbleached all-purpose flour I used white breadmaking flour)
Wheat Starter - Day 1:
Ingredients
4 1/2 tablespoons (70 ml) (40 gm/1 ½ oz) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour
3 tablespoons (45 ml) water
Total scant ½ cup (115 ml) (3 oz/85 gm)
Directions:
1. In a Tupperware or plastic container, mix the flour and water into a paste.
2. Set the lid on top gently, cover with a plastic bag, to prevent messes in case it grows more than expected!
3. Set somewhere warm (around 86 F if possible). I sometimes put mine on a windowsill near a radiator, but even if it’s not that warm, you’ll still get a starter going – it might just take longer.

Wheat Starter - Day 2:
Ingredients
4 1/2 tablespoons (70 ml) (40 gm/1 ½ oz) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour
3 tablespoons (45 ml) water
scant 1/2 cup (115 ml) (3 oz/85 gm) starter from Day 1
Total scant cup (230 ml) (6 oz/170 gm)
Directions:
1. Stir the flour and water into the mixture from Day 1, cover, and return to its warm place.
Wheat Starter - Day 3:
Ingredients
4 1/2 tablespoons (70 ml) (40 gm/1 ½ oz) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour
4 teaspoons (20 ml) water
scant 1 cup (230 ml) (6 oz/170 gm) starter from Day 2
Total 1⅓ cup (320 ml) (230 gm/8-1/10 oz)
Directions:
1. Stir the flour and water into the mixture from Day 2, cover, and return to its warm place.
Wheat Starter - Day 4:
Ingredients
3/4 cup plus 1½ tablespoons (205 ml) (120 gm/4 ¼ oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup less 4 teaspoons (100 ml) water

Total scant 2⅔ cup (625 ml) (440 gm/15½ oz)
Directions:
1. Stir the flour and water into the mixture from Day 3, cover, and return to its warm place. At this point it should be bubbling and smell yeasty. If not, repeat this process for a further day or so until it is!
French Country Bread
Stage 1: Refreshing the leaven
Ingredients
1 cup less 1 tablespoon (225 ml) (160 gm/5 ⅔ oz) wheat Leaven Starter
6 tablespoons less 1 teaspoon (85 ml) (50 gm/1¾ oz) stoneground bread making whole-wheat or graham flour
1 cup plus 2 teaspoons (250 ml) (150 gm/5 ⅓ oz) unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup (120 ml) water
Production Leaven Total 2¾ cups plus 4 teaspoons (680 ml) (480 gm /1 lb 1 oz)
Directions:
1. Mix everything into a sloppy dough. It may be fairly stiff at this stage. Cover and set aside for 4 hours, until bubbling and expanded slightly.
French Country Bread
Stage 2: Making the final dough
Ingredients
3/4 cup less 1 teaspoon (175 ml) (100 gm/3 ½ oz) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour, plus more for dusting
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (510 ml) (300gm/10 ½ oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
1¼ teaspoons (7½ ml) (7 gm/¼ oz) sea salt or ⅔ teaspoon (3⅓ ml) (3 gm/⅛ oz) table salt
1 ¼ cups (300 ml) water
1 ¾ cups (425 ml) (300 gm/10 ½ oz) production leaven – this should leave some (1 cup) for your next loaf.
Total 6 cups less 2 tablespoons 1415 ml (1007 gm/35 ½ oz/2 lb 3½ oz)
Directions:
1. Mix the dough with all the ingredients except the production leaven. It will be a soft dough.
2. Knead on an UNFLOURED surface for about 8-10 minutes, getting the tips of your fingers wet if you need to. You can use dough scrapers to stretch and fold the dough at this stage, or air knead if you prefer. Basically, you want to stretch the dough and fold it over itself repeatedly until you have a smoother, more elastic dough.
See my demonstration here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqS3raEGdwk
3. Smooth your dough into a circle, then scoop your production leaven into the centre. You want to fold the edges of the dough up to incorporate the leaven, but this might be a messy process. Knead for a couple minutes until the leaven is fully incorporated in the dough. See my demonstration here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPO97R4iO4U
4. Spread some water on a clean bit of your work surface and lay the dough on top. Cover with an upturned bowl, lining the rim of the bowl with a bit of water. Leave for an hour, so that the gluten can develop and the yeasts can begin to aerate the dough.
5. I used a bit of flour on my surface to knead, though not a lot. Once your dough has rested, you can begin to stretch and fold it. Using wet hands and a dough scraper, stretch the dough away from you as far as you can without breaking it and fold it back in on itself. Repeat this in each direction, to the right, towards you, and to the left. This will help create a more ‘vertical’ dough, ready for proofing. See my demonstration here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDoJRCMfclE
6. Heavily flour a banneton/proofing basket with whole wheat flour and rest your dough, seam side up, in the basket. Put the basket in a large plastic bag, inflate it, and seal it. Set aside somewhere warm for 3-5 hours, or until it has expanded a fair bit. It is ready to bake when the dough responds to a gently poke by slowly pressing back to shape.
7. Preheat the oven to hot 425°F/220°C/gas mark 7. Line a baking sheet with parchment, then carefully invert the dough onto the sheet. I like to put the baking sheet on top of the basket, then gently flip it over so as to disturb the dough as little as possible. Make 2-3 cuts on top of the loaf and bake for 40-50 minutes, reducing the temperature to moderately hot 400°F/200°C/gas mark 6 after 10 minutes.
8. Cool on a cooling rack.

A Tribute to a Wonderful Lady

2011-12-23T21:46:00.001+10:00

On the night of 12th December we received the telephone call we had expected but dreaded. Dear nonna Lucia had passed from this life aged 98. Nonna Lucia is my husband's grandmother, she is my children's great grandmother. But to me she was friend, a confidante and a mentor. From nonna Lucia I learnt about honesty, I learnt about pride and I learnt about giving without receiving. We spent many hours chatting about her life and I absorbing her knowledge that comes from a century of experience.She was, as many nonnas are, a great cook and baker. From poor, humble beginnings, a servant girl by the age of 9 and then travelling far from home across the seas to Australia to be with her husband at 19, she knew how to make the most of life.

Nonna Lucia food was simple, wholesome and delicious -typically Italian. Most of her recipes were in her head. In Australia she learned to make the quintessential Australian cake - the sponge. And how well she mastered that recipe. However ask her the quantities and she would show you a teacup and say it would depend on the eggs - how large, what type (hen, bantam hen, duck) as to whether it is a heaped teacup or level. She just knew by judging the batter when it was just right,

One of her specialities was her Torta di Zucca made especially for Christmas. This is made by many in our town and each has their own recipe - some better than others though all claim theirs the best. This Torta contains a strange combination of ingredients and I often wondered where it originated as I had never seen such a torta in any Italian recipe book. Recently while googling I found something very similar at As Strong As Soup. Finally I found someone else makes this strange torta and loves it as much as I do.

This year I made this on my own for the first time - without nonna Lucia's guidance, without her making new suggestions and with her tasting and giving me her approval.

I miss you nonna Lucia.

Torta di Zucca

Keep in mind that while we can use a food processor to crush and puree, nonna Lucia made this completely by hand in great quantities to be lovingly wrapped and given to family and friends at Christmas. It was a great effort for her and she continued well into her 90's preparing this by hand.

It is only meant to be about 2 1/2cm/ 1 inch in thickness.

200g dried apricots

200g dried peaches

5 cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped coarsely

2 tablespoons sugar

4 cups steamed, mashed pumpkin, use something like butternut

1 200g packet amaretti ( the crunchy type)

375g sweet plain biscuits (cookies)

200g chocolate

2 cups sugar

7 eggs, beaten

90g butter, melted

1 cup sweet sherry

1 cup marsala

1/2 cup brandy

50ml almond essence

3 tablespoons cocoa

1 lemon, rind only, grated

1 tablespoon instant coffee

Simmer the apricots and peaches in a little water with the 2 tablespoons sugar for 10 minutes. Add the apples and cook until the apples are soft. Drain, reserving the liquid.

Crush amaretti and plain biscuits with chocolate in the food processor.

Puree the fruit in the food processor.

Process the pumpkin also to ensure it is smooth.

Preheat the oven to 275F/135C.

Grease and line with nonstick parchment two 30cm x 20cm baking pans.

Cool the fruit and pumpkin then add to the crushed biscuit/ chocolate mixture.

Slowly mix in the remaining ingredients.

Pour mixture into prepare pans and bake for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The mixture should come away from the sides when it is ready. Turn out onto paper lined board to cool. Once cool wrap in baking paper and keep in a sealed container in the refrigerator. It will keep for several weeks.

This torta is meant to be cut into small squares or portions and consumed as almost a "spoon sweet" with coffee as it will be enjoyed in my home this Christmas.

My best wishes to all for a happy and joyous Christmas.

If you too have experienced loss this year and will feel it at Christmas, let us remember to give thanks for the gift of our loved ones and for the gift our Lord gave us - his only Son.

Ti voglio bene, nonna Lucia.

Dormi in pace con Dio.

Sempre nel mio cuore.

Chocolate, Apricot and Hazelnut Panforte

2011-12-20T19:16:00.000+10:00

Wow! Where has the time gone!

Christmas is but a few days away!

For various reasons, regular readers will know that I have been very absent from blogging of late but I hope to change that from now on.

And though absent online, baking has not ceased in my kitchen (albeit it may have slowed!).

A new job this year has strengthened an acquaintances and a by product of that is the sharing of new recipes and ideas - I love it!

This recipe comes from a colleague's husband who spotted it in a Woolworth's supermarket catalogue.

Originally made with pistachios and ginger, this is my twist.

Chocolate, Hazelnut and Apricot Panforte

Ingredients

1½ cups plain flour
¼ cup cocoa
2 teaspoons cinnamon, ground
1 cup blanched almonds, toasted
1 cup hazelnuts nuts, toasted
200g dried figs, stems discarded, roughly chopped
100g glace apricots, roughly chopped
1 cup honey
1 cup caster sugar
100g dark chocolate

Combine nuts, fruit and ginger in a large bowl.

SIFT together the flour, cocoa and cinnamon

COMBINE the honey and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to the boil then simmer for 3 minutes stirring occasionally. Stir through the chocolate until melted then remove from heat. Pour into the bowl with the flour mixture, nuts and fruit and mix until well combined.

PRESS the mixture into a greased and lined 23 cm round pan. Bake in a moderately slow oven 160°C for 30 minutes. Cool in pan before turning out and slicing.

You will find that once you add the chocolate, and remaining ingredients the mixture becomes quite firm and you will need some muscle to mix it. That all as it should be.

This is delicious but please, small slices only!

It's very rich! Perfect with a coffee!

NOVEMBER 2011 - FILIPINO DESSERTS

2011-11-27T02:19:00.003+10:00

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious Sans Rival cake! And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.

Filipino cooking is not familiar to me so I was very interested in this months' challenge. The Sans Rival sounded (and is) rich but delicious! The Sans Rival consists of several layers of crisp, cashew meringue sandwiched together with vanilla flavoured French buttercream. A chocolate version of the meringue, though not traditional was also given. We could choose other types of nuts if we wished. I decided not to make the optional Bibingka recipe which had ingredients I wasn't able obtain.

I opted to substitute the French buttercream which is based on egg yolks for an Italian meringue buttercream which is based on egg whites. In the end I could give every excuse under the sun but basically I'm scared of tasting an 'eggy' buttercream. If it did taste 'eggy' it would be a waste because we wouldn't eat it. I know the meringue buttercream goes down well with my family and hopefully the guests to whom I would serve the Sans Rival.

To start, I prepared only one half of the meringue recipe - the original consisting of 10 egg whites.

Toss in my toasted cashews (minus a few..or more..that I ate).

I chose to freeform the meringue on baking parchment custom sized for the serving plate.

To start the Italian buttercream, I boiled the sugar and water to 245F, cut the butter into tablespoon sized pieces and started to beat 5 egg whites to a meringue consistency. The recipe I use is widely available on the internet as Warren Brown's Italian Meringue buttercream. It works everytime and I love the light (in taste, not calories!) fluffy result.

I used a two tablespoons of coffee granuels dissolved in a tablespoon of hot water to flavour the buttercream.

Only a small amount of buttercream went into each layer.

Then I covered the whole lot in the remaining buttercream and added a few swirls, nuts and coffee beans to decorate.

I served this at a morning tea I hosted for a group of wonderful volunteers who teach religion in our government schools. They enjoyed the well earned treat.

Thank you Catherine for introducing us to a delicious Filipino dessert!

Sans Rival - the original recipe as supplied

Servings: 12

Ingredients

10 large egg whites, room temp
1 cup (240 ml) (225 gm) (8 oz) white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (3 gm) cream of tartar
¼ cup (60 ml) (20 gm) (2/3 oz) Dutch processed cocoa (optional and not traditional)
2 cups (480 ml) (240 gm) (8½ oz) chopped, toasted cashews

Directions:

Note: You will need four layers which will mean that you might have to bake in two batches. Be sure to use fresh parchment paper and cooled pans for each batch.

1. Preheat oven to moderate 325°F/160°C/gas mark 3.
2. Line cake pan bottoms with parchment paper and butter and flour the sides really well.
3. In a large clean, dry glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites on medium until foamy (2 mins.). Sprinkle with cream of tartar. Gradually add sugar, a couple of tablespoons at a time, continuing to beat now at high speed until stiff shiny peaks form. (about 7-10 mins.)

4. Fold in nuts, reserving enough to use for decoration.

5.Divide meringue into four equal parts. Spread in pans, evenly to edges. If doing batches, use fresh parchment paper and cooled pans for each batch.

6. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the meringue from the baking pans while still hot; allow to cool slightly. Peel off the parchment paper while it is still warm, it is difficult to remove sometimes when they have completely cooled.

7. When cool, trim edges so that all 4 meringue layers are uniformly shaped. Set aside.

French Buttercream:
Ingredients

5 large egg yolks, room temperature
1 cup (240 ml) (225 gm) (8 oz) white granulated sugar
1/4 cup (60 ml) water
1¼ cup (300 ml) (2½ sticks) (285 gm) (10 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
Optional Flavorings: 2 oz (55 gm) unsweetened chocolate, melted, or 1½ teaspoon (7 ½ ml) almond extract, or 1½ teaspoon (7 ½ ml) vanilla extract, or any flavor you like

Directions:
1. Put the egg yolks in a mixing bowl. Beat at high speed until the yolks have doubled in volume and are a lemon yellow.
2. Put the sugar and water in a heavy pan and cook over medium heat, stirring the sides down only until all the sugar is dissolved and the syrup reaches 235°F/112°C (or thread stage).
3. With the mixer on high, very slowly pour the syrup down the sides of the bowl, until all has been added. Be careful as the very hot syrup could burn you if it splashes from the beaters. Continue beating on high until the mixture is ROOM TEMPERATURE (about 15 mins). Still on high, beat in the soft, room temperature butter a tablespoon at a time. Add flavoring after you beat in the butter. Refrigerate the buttercream for at least an hour, and whip it smooth just before you use it.

Assembly:
Set bottom meringue on cake board with a dab of butter cream to hold it in place. Spread a
thin layer of buttercream and then place another meringue on top. Repeat with a thin layer of
buttercream, meringue, thin layer of buttercream, meringue, and finally buttercream the top and
sides. Decorate with reserved nuts.
Refrigerate until ready to serve. It is easier to cut cold. May freeze.

Witches Fingers

2011-10-31T21:09:00.002+10:00

Halloween.

It is only just starting to take on here in Australia however it is not something I have fully embraced. Moreover it is an event fuelled by clever marketing.

My family has never "tricked or treated" - certainly a 9 kilometre walk into the countryside to our home would put off most trick or treaters. Our country is spread far and wide and the idea of dressing up and walking door to door would not always work.

However on 2nd November my family does recognise All Souls Day - a time for remembering and praying for our dearly departed.

And it is with this in mind that I found a recipe in one of my cookbooks for Ossi dei Morti - Bones of the Dead. A traditional biscuit or cookie from Basilicata in the south of Italy. I was curious to try it out. It went something like this -

Mix 600g flour with 5 eggs, anise liqueur, oil, lard and a bit of sugar. Form into shapes and boil in water until they float. Drain then bake for 20 minutes.

I know, I know, the warning bells should have gone off. What would this recipe create?

Well, here is your answer. We have all tried to like them. I even sprinkled them with icing sugar (I mean, isn't everything better with a sprinkle of icing sugar?). Nup. Not these.

Ok, so after a disappointment you just have to climb back onto the horse ( or go back to the kitchen, as in this case).

So, with the latest Better Homes and Gardens magazine in hand and Halloween on my doorstep, I decided to give in to marketing pressure.

Oh, what fun I had!

These are the "cute" Witches Fingers. They are pretty aren't they?

The recipe is a simple shortbread:-

350g all purpose flour

250g butter

100g icing sugar (powdered sugar)

Whizz in a food processor until it all comes together. Then form into a ball and refrigerate for 1 hour.

I let it soften a bit before I could form my shapes.

Better Homes and Gardens shows us the cute Witches Fingers which are made simple by rolling out the dough and cutting finger shapes. I used a little egg white to ensure the Smartie stuck to the dough.

Bake for 12- 15 minutes.

BUT..... I got bored making pretty shapes and remembered some Witches Fingers I had seen somewhere which involved rolling dough and using half an almond for a fingernail. I loved the result.

I'm not sure where I saw this but I thank whoever thought of such clever decoration. (If I knew where I saw it, I would make the link). I used the shortbread dough but I'm sure any plain cookie dough could be used. A dusting of cocoa completed the wicked look!

I love these fingers! What fun!

No wonder you fabulous bloggers are busy baking up crazy Halloween treats!

Happy Halloween... is that what one says?

DARING BAKERS OCTOBER 2011 CHALLENGE - Povitica

2011-10-27T01:44:00.002+10:00

The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!

I was so thrilled with the Daring Baker's October challenge recipe - Povitica! Funnily I had seen a recipe for Potica (another name for Povitica, I think) in my copy of a "Baker's Odyssey" and bookmarked it. The Baker's Odyssey recipe was only slightly different to the challenge recipe in that it uses honey and egg whites in the filling similar to our previous challenge of the Yeasted Meringue Coffee cake.

I love that this challenge recipe used everyday ingredients to create something special. I had a packet of walnuts in the pantry but only enough for 1 loaf. I remembered the dried apricots I had and the almond meal in the freezer. The apricots were simmered with water, drained and whizz in the food processor with almond meal, an egg, sugar, Amaretto liquor and a few drops of almond essence.

The dough was very sticky. I used all the flour (of the half batch recipe) and made the dough in my mixer. This is not a good photo but I wanted to show the texture of the dough.

I floured a cloth and rolled the dough quite thin then stretch it a bit - it barely took 5 minutes. I did wonder at the time if I had stretch it too thinly as I was treating it like a strudel dough.

The dough is beautiful to roll out.

I found spreading the filling more difficult as it was thick and sticky - I made a quarter recipe but used a whole egg (didn't want more whites in my freezer) then added a bit more milk. The pic in the challenge show an almost honey like filling mine was more peanut butter-like thickness. I found a offset palate knife help to spread the filling.

I used the cloth to help roll up the dough, brushing off excess flour as I rolled.

I allowed the dough to rise longer than the 15 minutes as I knew my family would prefer a lighter loaf and not the dense loaf this was meant to be.

The Apricot Almond loaf was yummy with a tart bite.

The resulting Walnut loaf smells amazing and taste delicious. I love the swirls! This recipe is a keeper!

Here I will give you the challenge recipe as set.

Povitica (makes 4 loaves)

Ingredients
To activate the Yeast:
2 Teaspoons (10 ml/9 gm) Sugar
1 Teaspoon (5 ml/3 gm) All-Purpose (Plain) Flour
½ Cup (120ml) Warm Water
2 Tablespoons (30ml/14 gm/½ oz/2 sachets) Dry Yeast
Dough:
2 Cups (480ml) Whole Milk
¾ Cup (180 ml/170gm/6 oz) Sugar
3 Teaspoons (15 ml/18 gm/2/3 oz) Table Salt
4 Large Eggs
½ Cup (120ml/115 gm/one stick/4 oz) Unsalted Butter, melted
8 cups (1.92 l/1.12 kg/39½ oz/2½ lb) All-Purpose Flour, measure first then sift, divided
Walnut Filling:
7 Cups (1.68 l/1.12 kg/2.5 lbs) Ground English Walnuts
1 Cup (240ml) Whole Milk
1 Cup (240ml/225 gm/2 sticks/8 oz) Unsalted Butter
2 Whole Eggs, Beaten
1 Teaspoon (5ml) Pure Vanilla Extract
2 Cups (480ml/450 gm/16 oz) Sugar
1 Teaspoon (5 ml/4 gm) Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 Teaspoon (5 ml/3 gm) Cinnamon
Topping:
½ Cup (120 ml) Cold STRONG Coffee
2 Tablespoons (30 ml/28 gm/1 oz) Granulated Sugar
Melted Butter

To Activate Yeast:1. In a small bowl, stir 2 teaspoons sugar, 1 teaspoon flour, and the yeast into ½ cup warm water and cover with plastic wrap.
2. Allow to stand for 5 minutes

To Make the Dough:3. In a medium saucepan, heat the milk up to just below boiling (about 180°F/82°C), stirring constantly so that a film does not form on the top of the milk. You want it hot enough to scald you, but not boiling. Allow to cool slightly, until it is about 110°F/43°C.
4. In a large bowl, mix the scalded milk, ¾ cup (180 gm/170 gm/6 oz) sugar, and the salt until combined.
5. Add the beaten eggs, yeast mixture, melted butter, and 2 cups (480 ml/280 gm/10 oz) of flour.
6. Blend thoroughly and slowly add remaining flour, mixing well until the dough starts to clean the bowl
7. Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead, gradually adding flour a little at a time, until smooth and does not stick.
8. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces (they will each weight about 1.25 pounds/565 grams)
9. Place dough in 4 lightly oiled bowls, cover loosely with a layer of plastic wrap and then a kitchen towel and let rise an hour and a half in a warm place, until doubled in size
To Make the Filling10. In a large bowl mix together the ground walnuts, sugar, cinnamon and cocoa.
11. Heat the milk and butter to boiling.
12. Pour the liquid over the nut/sugar mixture.
13. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly.
14. Allow to stand at room temperature until ready to be spread on the dough.
15. If the mixture thickens, add a small amount of warm milk.
To Roll and Assemble the Dough:16. Spread a clean sheet or cloth over your entire table so that it is covered.
17. Sprinkle with a couple of tablespoons to a handful of flour (use flour sparingly)

20. Using the tops of your hands, stretch dough out from the center until the dough is thin and uniformly opaque. You can also use your rolling pin, if you prefer.
21. As you work, continually pick up the dough from the table, not only to help in stretching it out, but also to make sure that it isn’t sticking.
22. When you think it the dough is thin enough, try to get it a little thinner. It should be so thin that you can see the color and perhaps the pattern of the sheet underneath
23. Spoon filling (see below for recipe) evenly over dough until covered
24. Lift the edge of the cloth and gently roll the dough like a jelly roll.
25. Once the dough is rolled up into a rope, gently lift it up and place it into a greased loaf pan in the shape of a “U”, with the ends meeting in the middle. You want to coil the dough around itself, as this will give the dough its characteristic look when sliced26. Repeat with remaining three loaves, coiling each rope of dough in its own loaf pan.
27. Brush the top of each loaf with a mixture of ½ cup (120 ml) of cold STRONG coffee and 2 tablespoons (30ml/28 gm/1 oz) of sugar. If you prefer, you can also use egg whites in place of this.
28. Cover pans lightly will plastic wrap and allow to rest for approximately 15 minutes.
29. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4.
30. Remove plastic wrap from dough and place into the preheated oven and bake for approximately 15 minutes.
31. Turn down the oven temperature to slow 300°F/150°C/gas mark 2 and bake for an additional 45 minutes, or until done.
32. Remove bread from oven and brush with melted butter.
33. Check the bread at 30 minutes to ensure that the bread is not getting too brown. You may cover the loaves with a sheet of aluminum foil if you need to.
34. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 20-30 minutes, still in the bread pan. Remember, the bread weighs about 2.5 and it needs to be able to hold its own weight, which is difficult when still warm and fresh out of the oven. Allowing it to cool in the pan helps the loaf to hold its shape.
35. It is recommended that the best way to cut Povitica loaves into slices is by turning the loaf upside down and slicing with a serrated knife

Jenni, thank you so much for this brilliant recipe! I was going to try the Baker's Odyssey recipe but I don't think I will. This is a recipe I can't go past! Really very good!!!

In my area of the world this type of bread is not seen. I am thrilled to be introduced to a fantastic Eastern European recipe!

Strawberry cake

2011-10-21T15:30:00.003+10:00

A simple strawberry cake with a buttery cake and glistening strawberry topping.

(Cake base adapted from Processor cake - Australian Women's Weekly Cakes and Slices)

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

3/4 cup castor (superfine) sugar

125g butter

2 eggs

vanilla to taste

1/2 cup milk

500g strawberries, washed, hulled and dried

1 cup icing sugar mixture

strawberry jam (preferably homemade)

Preheat oven to 180C (350F) and grease and flour a 23cm flan tin.

Place flour, sugar and butter into food processor and process until the mixture is crumbly. Add eggs, vanilla and milk process until just combined. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes but it could need more.

Remove cake from pan after 5 minutes resting. Cool cake then place inverted ( that is bottom side up) onto serving platter. Mix icing sugar mixture with a little warm water until a spreadable consistency and smooth over cake and allow to set for 10 minutes or so. This layer will prevent the strawberry juices soaking too much into the cake and add extra sweetness. Arrange strawberries over cake. Warm strawberry jam and brush over strawberries and pouring in between strawberries.

Refrigerate until set. Serve with cream or vanilla icecream.

Making Mozzarella Cheese

2011-10-16T14:54:00.000+10:00

Some time ago I spotted a cheese making kit at my local deli. Already having prepared ricotta using Mrs G's method, I was ready to move on in my cheese making endeavours but not ready to do it on my own. This kit was perfect. The Begininners' Italian Cheeses Kit by Mad Millie provided everything I needed to make macarpone, ricotta, ricotta salata and mozzarella.

This kit includes a thermometer and pipette (for measuring small quantities of liquid) which are required for subsequent kits.

You just need to obtain un-homogenized whole milk which can sometimes be difficult. I found a local brand from Misty Mountains Farms and I was set to make my own mozzarella cheese.

Calcium chloride is added to the milk which is then heated to 13C (55.5F) before mixing in diluted citric acid. This milk is then brought to a higher temperature of 32C (89.5F) and rennet is stirred in. After 30 minutes the curd forms and is cut and heated further to 42C (107.6F).

Once the correct temperature is reached the curds are scooped into a muslin lined colander and allowed to drip for 5 minutes.

Now the fun part! Put on a pair of rubber gloves and take a handful of curds. Place the curds in a bowl of 70C (158F) hot water for 20 seconds. Now, carefully stretch and fold the curd until it is smooth and flexible.

The balls of mozzarella are place into a bowl of icy salt water for 20 minutes and then they are ready to eat!

The mozzarella is delicious fresh with red ripe tomatoes and basil but matured for a week in the refrigerator is wonderful on a pizza. Either way I'll be making this regularly.

THE DARING BAKERS’ SEPTEMBER, 2011 CHALLENGE: FRESH, FLUFFY, FRENCH CROISSANTS!

2011-09-27T01:21:00.001+10:00

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

Croissants are not something I make regularly actually I've only made them twice! The recipe I have used (and blog about here ) is very similar to the challenge recipe. However the challenge recipe had double the amount of salt and only a small amount of sugar. These croissants I found were salty when eaten on their own or with strawberry jam but fill with ham or cheese and they were sublime!
I doubled the recipe because it didn't seem worth all the trouble to only make 12 small croissants. By doubling the dough I ended up with 15 nice size croissants and 4 pain au chocolate.

Croissants

Servings: 12 croissants
Ingredients¼ oz (7 gm) of fresh yeast, or 1¼ teaspoon (6¼ ml/4 gm) of dry-active yeast (about ½ sachet)
3 tablespoons (45 ml) warm water (less than 100°F/38°C)
1 teaspoon (5 ml/4½ gm) sugar
1 3/4 cups (225 gm/½ lb) of strong plain flour
2 teaspoons (10 ml/9 gm) sugar
1½ teaspoon (7½ ml/9 gm) salt
½ cup (120 ml/¼ pint) milk2 tablespoons (30 ml) tasteless oil ½ cup (120 ml/1 stick/115 gm/¼ lb) chilled, unsalted butter
1 egg, for egg wash

Directions:

1. Mix the yeast, warm water, and first teaspoon of sugar in a small bowl. Leave aside for the yeast and sugar to dissolve and the yeast to foam up a little.
2. Measure out the other ingredients
3. Heat the milk until tepid (either in the microwave or a saucepan), and dissolve in the salt and remaining sugar
4. Place the flour in a large bowl.
5. Add the oil, yeast mixture, and milk mixture to the flour
6. Mix all the ingredients together using the rubber spatula, just until all the flour is incorporated
7. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and let it rest a minute while you wash out the bowl
8. Knead the dough eight to ten times only. It’s a little difficult to explain, but essentially involves smacking the dough on the counter (lots of fun if you are mad at someone) and removing it from the counter using the pastry scraper.
9. Place the dough back in the bowl, and place the bowl in the plastic bag. I just covered the bowl with cling wrap. 10. Leave the bowl at approximately 75°F/24°C for three hours, or until the dough has tripled in size.

11. After the dough has tripled in size, remove it gently from the bowl, pulling it away from the sides of the bowl with your fingertips.

12. Place the dough on a lightly floured board or countertop, and use your hands to press it out into a rectangle about 8 by 12 inches (20cm by 30cm).
13. Fold the dough rectangle in three, like a letter (fold the top third down, and then the bottom third up)

14. Place the dough letter back in the bowl, and the bowl back in the plastic bag.
15. Leave the dough to rise for another 1.5 hours, or until it has doubled in size. This second rise can be done overnight in the fridge

16. Place the double-risen dough onto a plate and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Place the plate in the fridge while you prepare the butter.

17. Once the dough has doubled, it’s time to incorporate the butter
18. Place the block of chilled butter on a chopping board.
19. Using the rolling pin, beat the butter down a little, till it is quite flat.

20. Use the heel of your hand to continue to spread the butter until it is smooth. You want the butter to stay cool, but spread easily.

21. Remove the dough from the fridge and place it on a lightly floured board or counter. Let it rest for a minute or two.

22. Spread the dough using your hands into a rectangle about 14 by 8 inches (35 cm by 20 cm).

23. Remove the butter from the board, and place it on the top half of the dough rectangle.

24. Spread the butter all across the top two-thirds of the dough rectangle, but keep it ¼ inch (6 mm) across from all the edges.

25. Fold the top third of the dough down, and the bottom third of the dough up.
26. Turn the dough package 90 degrees, so that the top flap is to your right (like a book).
27. Roll out the dough package (gently, so you don’t push the butter out of the dough) until it is again about 14 by 8 inches (35 cm by 20 cm).
28. Again, fold the top third down and the bottom third up.

29. Wrap the dough package in plastic wrap, and place it in the fridge for 2 hours.

30. After two hours have passed, take the dough out of the fridge and place it again on the lightly floured board or counter.
31. Tap the dough with the rolling pin, to deflate it a little
32. Let the dough rest for 8 to 10 minutes
33. Roll the dough package out till it is 14 by 8 inches (35 cm by 20 cm).
34. Fold in three, as before
35. Turn 90 degrees, and roll out again to 14 by 8 inches (35 cm by 20 cm).
36. Fold in three for the last time, wrap in plastic, and return the dough package to the fridge for two more hours (or overnight, with something heavy on top to stop it from rising)

37. It’s now time to cut the dough and shape the croissants

39. Take the dough out of the fridge and let it rest for ten minutes on the lightly floured board or counter
40. Roll the dough out into a 20 by 5 inch rectangle (51 cm by 12½ cm).

41. Cut the dough into two rectangles (each 10 by 5 inches (25½ cm by 12½ cm))

42. Place one of the rectangles in the fridge, to keep the butter cold
43. Roll the second rectangle out until it is 15 by 5 inches (38 cm by 12½ cm).
44. Cut the rectangle into three squares (each 5 by 5 inches (12½ cm by 12½ cm))
45. Place two of the squares in the fridge
46. The remaining square may have shrunk up a little bit in the meantime. Roll it out again till it is nearly square
47. Cut the square diagonally into two triangles.

48. Stretch the triangle out a little, so it is not a right-angle triangle, but more of an isosceles. I cut a little slit in the triangle which helps with the rolling and shaping of the croissant.

49. Starting at the wide end, roll the triangle up towards the point, and curve into a crescent shape.

50. Place the unbaked croissant on the baking sheet
51. Repeat the process with the remaining squares of dough, creating 12 croissants in total.

52. Leave the tray of croissants, covered lightly with plastic wrap, to rise for 1 hour

53. Preheat the oven to very hot 475°F/240°C/gas mark 9

54. Mix the egg with a teaspoon of water
55. Spread the egg wash across the tops of the croissants.

56. Put the croissants in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until the tops are browned nicely. I think they need a few extra minutes.
57. Take the croissants out of the oven, and place them on a rack to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

With ham, they made a delicious lunch!

The chocolatey/salty combination was quite irresistible.

Thank you Sarah for hosting this months challenge. I enjoyed making croissants again and my family enjoyed reaping the rewards!

Conserva di Pomodori - Homemade Tomato Paste

2011-09-20T14:51:00.001+10:00

While in most areas summer is tomato season, in tropical North Queensland tomato season is in our mild winter. Really there are only two seasons in the tropics - the cool and dry or the hot and wet. Traditional vegetables don't cope well with the extreme heat and the monsoonal rains of our summer. This is a time best reserved for tropical vegetables like snake beans, winged beans, Ceylon spinach, sweet corn and you might even get some eggplants. During the Wet insects and bugs abound whereas during the Dry bugs are much more controllable. So, here we are getting close to the end of our tomato season and our ripe, red tomatoes are lush and abundant. We have enjoyed many tomato salads and tomato bruschetta - tomato this and tomato that. Now we want to preserve what is left.

Growing up, tomato day was an important day where my mum and dad rounded my sister and I up to help with the important bottling of a years worth of tomato passata. Once we moved on with our own families my sister and I rejected tomato day "grateful" to buy pre-prepared passata from the supermarket. As time has gone by we have returned to our roots of preserving and are truly grateful for the traditions passed on to us by our parents. My sister at this time is busily processing her tomatoes into passata. I, on the other hand with a much smaller garden, have chosen to process my tomatoes further to create a conserva di pomodori or tomato paste which requires less storage room and is perfect for smaller quantities of tomatoes.

As well as the luscious Marmande variety, I also grow the Roma tomato so it is with these two varieties that I made my paste. Homemade tomato paste has a deep, mellow, caramelized flavour quite unlike the acidity of store bought tomato paste. It makes the world of difference when added to your favourite dishes.

Following an idea from one of my favourite cookbooks, My Calabria by Rosetta Costantino I began by coring and quartering the tomatoes and placing in a large saucepan. On this occasion I had about 5 kilograms of tomatoes.

Boil the tomatoes for about 30 minutes or until the are soft and starting to break down.

To make life easy for the tomato passata/pasta preserver, a spremipomodoro, literally translated "a tomato squeezer", is essential. This inexpensive item is indispensable as it separates the skin and seeds of the tomato from the juicy flesh resulting in a smooth puree.

It works quite simply - cooked tomato in the top, to one side comes the seeds and skin, to the other the tomato puree.

I like to pass the skin and seeds through several times to obtain all of the precious puree.

Tomato puree minus seeds and skin - fantastic isn't it! This is the same type of machine my parents, and I'm sure many Italian families, own.

For the purpose of making tomato paste or conserva di pomodori, the resulting puree must be concentrated further. Turn the puree into a large pan - I used two pans to allow the steam to evaporate more easily. Add some salt about 35 grams for this quantity of tomatoes. Simmer the puree over medium heat for about 50 to 60 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent it from scorching. This will reduce the quantity. As it thickens you may need to turn the heat down as it will bubble and spit. Stir often near the end. Towards the end preheat the oven to 93C (200F) and turn on the convection fan.

With a tablespoon of olive oil, lightly oil shallow lipped baking trays enough to take your puree. I needed three. The thinner the puree the sooner the moisture will evaporate and the puree will thicken. Spread the puree evenly and place the tray into the preheated oven for 30 minutes. After this time, remove the baking sheet from the oven and stir the puree with a rubber spatula so that is dries evenly and doesn't form a crust. Re-spread the puree and return to the oven stirring and re-spreading the puree every 20 to 30 minutes. Due to evaporation the puree will no longer cover the entire trays. With a paper towel, remove any bits of tomato that cling to the edges or exposed bottom of the tray, or they will burn.

After about 3 hours the puree will have thicken to a delicious paste. It will no longer be sauce-like but instead thick, stiff and a little sticky.

Let the conserva cool, then pack tightly into clean, sterilized jars with a spoon, tamping it down to make sure there are no air pockets. Level the surface with the back of the spoon. Cover completely with olive oil so that the paste is not exposed and refrigerate. After every use, level the surface of the paste and top with more oil so the paste remain completely submerged. It will keep for at least a year.

I thank my parents for their traditions and beliefs instilled in me so that I may pass them on to the next generation. Even though we may wander, may we always return to our roots.

August 2011 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Candylicious!

2011-08-27T06:20:00.001+10:00

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

A fun challenge was proposed to the Daring Bakers in the month of August - playing around with sugar and chocolate and for some, the chance of winning an amazing prize.

Our two hosts only stipulated that:-

You must make TWO candies

• The first candy must be ONE of the following CHOCOLATE candies:

a. A truffle, dipped or not dipped in chocolate OR
b. A cut (square) dipped chocolate/bonbon OR
c. A filled chocolate/bonbon using a chocolate mold

• The other candy can be any CHOCOLATE OR NON-CHOCOLATE candy you like.

I chose to make honeycomb also called buffalo sponge candy. Having made this years ago with a recipe that I felt was too strongly flavoured with golden syrup and honey I opted to use this recipe by Wilde in the Kitchen which was suggested by several Daring Bakers. Wilde in the Kitchen is a great blog and she has a wonderful private candy challenge going on.

I have always loved the Australian favourite chocolate bar Violet Crumble consisting of honeycomb covered with milk chocolate. So naturally I dipped the honeycomb (sponge candy) in milk chocolate. Once I can get my hands on some couverture chocolate (unavailable in my local area) I will try my hand at tempering chocolate by the seeding method described by our host Lisa.

Something I have always wanted to try is Paté de Fruit and here was a perfect opportunity. With the backyard kumquat tree ladened with fruit (the only fruit to survive the cyclone earlier this year) I looked for a citrus recipe. A recipe Kumquat and Vanilla Pate caught my eye however many recipes require pectin which to my knowledge is unavailable in Australia. Instead I purchase several packets of Jamsetta from my local supermarket. Jamsetta is a pectin and sugar product used to assist the set of jams and jellies. I used one and a half packets Jamsetta for this recipe. Also, as I make many jams in the microwave oven I decided to give it a whirl. Once I had the juice and the sugar mixture I microwaved it for 20 minutes stirring every 5 minutes. Other than that I followed the recipe as given.

As you can see this Paté de Fruit set beautifully and stayed firm and dry during storage. I love the jewel-like colour!

Finally, I made some Milk Chocolate, Coffee & Hazelnut Praline Truffles. These were certainly a favourite. Some coated in the Hazelnut praline and other in cocoa. Here's the recipe:-

Milk Chocolate, Coffee & Hazelnut Praline Truffles

Servings: Makes +- 30 truffles, recipe easily doubled or halved
Adapted from the Cook’s Academy Curriculum, Dublin
Active Time: 1 - 2hrs
Ganache Setting Time: 2 - 4hrs or Overnight

Praline Ingredients:
½ cup (2 oz/60 gm) hazelnuts, shelled & skinned
½ cup (4 oz/115 gm) granulated white sugar
2 tablespoons (30 ml) water

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to moderate 180°C / 160°C Fan Assisted (convection oven); 350°F / 320°F convection / Gas Mark 4
2. Place whole hazelnut on a non-stick baking tray and dry roast for 10mins
3. Allow to cool
4. Place hazelnuts in a clean dry kitchen towel and rub to remove the skins
5. Line a baking tray with parchment paper or a silicon mat
6. Place the skinned hazelnuts onto the prepared tray
7. Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium low heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved
8. Turn the heat up and bring to the boil (do not stir), brushing down the sides of the pot with a pastry brush dipped in water to remove any sugar crystals
9. Boil until the mixture turns amber (160°C - 170°C / 320°F- 340°F on a candy thermometer)
10. Remove from heat immediately and pour the syrup over the hazelnuts
11. Allow to cool completely
12. Break into small pieces
13. Transfer pieces to a food processor and process until desired texture, either fine or rough
14. Set aside
Ganache Ingredients
1¾ cup (9 oz. / 255 g) Milk chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup (4 oz. / 125 ml) Double/Heavy Cream (36% - 46% butterfat content)
2 Tablespoons instant coffee powder
2-3 Tablespoons (1-1 ½ oz. / 30ml – 45 ml) Frangelico Liqueur, optional
½ - 1 cup Crushed or Ground Roasted Hazelnuts for coating

Directions:
1. Finely chop the milk chocolate
2. Place into a heatproof medium sized bowl
3. Heat cream and the coffee powder in a saucepan until just about to boil
4. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir gently until smooth and melted
5. Allow to cool slightly, about 10 minutes
6. Stir in the praline and (optional) liqueur
7. Leave to cool and set overnight or for a few hours in the fridge
8. Bring to room temperature to use
Forming the truffles:
1. Using teaspoons or a melon baller, scoop round balls of ganache
2. Roll them between the palms of your hands to round them off
Tip: Handle them as little as possible to avoid melting
Tip: I suggest wearing food safe latex gloves, less messy and slightly less heat from your hands
3. Finish off by rolling the truffle in the crushed roasted hazelnuts
Tip: You can also roll them in hazelnut praline
4. Place on parchment paper and leave to set
Tip: They look great when put into small petit four cases and boxed up as a gift!

Thank you to our wonderful hosts Mandy and Lisa! It was a fun challenge and delicious to boot!

White Chocolate Walnut Blondies with Maple Cream Sauce

2011-08-18T14:13:00.001+10:00

I discovered this recipe at Tasty Kitchen. Apparently in the U.S. this is a particular favourite in a certain restaurant chain. In Australia I have no knowledge of this but various comments enticed me to try it. I am not actually a fan of white chocolate or blondies for that matter. Give me a dark luscious brownie any time!

But these are sensational!

Sightly adapted by reducing the flour the result is a dense, cakey and sweet blondie. Perfectly teamed with the Maple Cream Sauce and vanilla icecream.

Blondie Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

10 Tbsp's/140g butter, melted

2 cups brown sugar

2 whole eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup white chocolate chips

Sauce Ingredients

2 Tbsp's unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

6 Tbsp's real maple syrup

2 Tbsp's light corn syrup

Blondie Directions

Preheat oven 180C/350F. Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking pan or line with baking paper. Sift flour salt bkaing powder and baking soda.

In a large mixing bowl. combine butter and brown sugar, add in eggs and vanilla.

Slowly add in flour mixture. Stir slowly and don't overmix. Fold in nuts and chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven 25-30 minutes. Cut into squares.

Maple Cream Sauce Directions

Melt butter in a saucepan. Add the cream, maple syrup and corn syrup. Lower heat slightly and allow mixture to come to a gently simmer. Be sure to stay close to the stove to monitor the heat as it can boil over. Once the mixture comes to a gentle simmer cook for 20-30 minutes stirring occasionally until the sauce reduces by 1/3 and has slightly thickened.

Now take a square of White Chocolate Walnut Blondie, top with good vanilla icecream and pour over a generous amount of Maple Cream Sauce.

Oh wow - HEAVENLY!

Greg Patent's Granny's Kahk

2011-08-07T11:14:00.000+10:00

I have been wanting to try this recipe since buying "A Baker's Odyssey" almost a year ago. I have blogged about the Lebanese pita I made a while ago and am slowly working my way through this fantastic collection of recipes from America's rich immigrant heritage. "Granny" is Greg Patent Iraqi grandmother who did most of the cooking in the Patent household and Greg paints a warm picture of her. If these Kahks are anything to go by Granny was a marvellous cook and baker. These are crunchy and moreish. The simple ingredients don't hint at the wonderful taste and texture. It goes to show what can be done with basic ingredients. That's what I love about old traditional recipes. You don't need fancy expensive ingredients to bake great food.

Granny's Kahk (Savory Bracelets)

Dough

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoons sugar

9 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon sized pieces

1/2 cup water

fennel, cumin and/or caraway seeds to flavour (optional but delicious)

1 egg, beaten with a pinch salt for egg wash

sesame seeds for sprinkling

Combine flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in a food processor fitted with the metal blade and process for 5 seconds. Add the butter and pulse 10 times or until the mixture is the consistency of fine breadcrumbs. With the machine running, add the water in a steady stream, taking 10 seconds to do so. Process for 1 minute. It should gather into a ball. Feel the dough, it should be smooth soft and elastic and no longer sticky. If necessary adjust with small amounts of flour or droplets of water. At this point I divided the mixture into 3 portions and incorporated 1 teaspoon of fennel into one portion, 1 teaspoon cumin seed into the second portion and 1 teaspoon caraway seeds into the third portion. Divide each third into 8 and forms balls. You should have 24 balls of varied flavours. Allow to rest for 20 minutes covered with a kitchen towel.

Heat the oven to 350F/180C and line two trays with silicone paper or liners. Roll each piece of dough beneath your palms into a log 7 inches long and 1/2 inch wide with tapered ends. Bring the ends together, overlapping them by about 1 inch and pinch tightly to seal. Each ring will be about 2 inches in diameter. Set the rings on the prepared sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Paint with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake for about 30 minutes until the kahk are golden brown. Rotate sheets to ensure even browning. Cool completely on baking sheets.

These will keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 weeks but I doubt they will last that long. They can also be frozen for up to a month but refresh in the oven preheated to 300F/150C for 10 minutes.

Kahk could be made smaller and would be lovely served with drinks along with olives, cheese and salami. They also make a great after school snack or to pop into a lunch box.

The Daring Bakers July 2011 Challenge: FRESH FRAISER!

2011-07-29T16:37:00.001+10:00

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

So...what is a Fraiser?

To put it simply "fraise" is french for strawberry hence the "Strawberry Cake". However a French Fraiser is more than a simply strawberry cake - take a light chiffon cake, split it drench it in a delicious sugar syrup maybe flavoured, fill decoratively with strawberries and a light pastry cream and finish it off with an almond paste icing. And there you have it - a French Fraisier

This challenge came in our winter with strawberries still to arrive. Luckily by mid July the first of the strawberries had arrived in the shops however they were quite pricey. I left making the Fraisier until the end of July when I was able to source some cheaper strawberries. They were large and well flavoured!

The filling was a creme patisserie of sorts with one whole egg and lots of cream. I used delicious home made limoncello liqueur to flavour the creme.

Chiffon cake is a delightfully light sponge which absorbs the sugar syrup beautifully! To go with the limoncello creme I made a lemon chiffon cake using lemon juice in place of the water.

The recipe specified an 8inch (20cm) spring form cake pan but I found I only used a bit over half the cake mixture for this size pan. The remainder I bake in an angel food cake pan. When baked I support the upside down cake pan on glasses to allow the cake to hang as it cooled. (The pan is not greased so the cake can hold onto the pan). I'm not sure if this was necessary as it was not specified in the recipe but some other Daring Bakers had mentioned that the cake sank considerably after baking.

The one half of the cooled split cake in replaced into the clean cake pan which is line on the sides with paper and then drenched with sugar syrup. Mine was flavoured with the limoncello. And the halved

strawberries lined the edge. Fill the centre with creme and strawberries then top with the other half of cake equally drenched in syrup.

Traditionally this cake is finished off with almond paste. Not being able to find almond paste I made a simple lemon glace icing which actually complimented the cake wonderfully!

Here is the original recipe -

French Fraisier

Basic Chiffon Cake:

Ingredients:
1 cup + 2 tablespoons (270 ml) (5½ oz/155 gm) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (4 gm) baking powder
3/4 cups (180 ml) (6 oz /170 gm) sugar
1/2 teaspoon (2½ ml) (1½ gm) salt, preferably kosher
1/4 cup (2 fl oz/60 ml) vegetable oil
3 large egg yolks
⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon (3.17 fl oz/95 ml) water
1 teaspoon (5 ml) pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon (3¾ ml) (3 gm) lemon zest, grated
5 large egg whites
¼ teaspoon (1¼ ml) (1 gm) cream of tartar
Directions:

Preheat the oven to moderate 325°F (160°C/gas mark 3).

Line the bottom of an 8-inch (20 cm) spring form pan with parchment paper. Do not grease the sides of the pan.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder. Add in all but 3 tablespoons (45 ml.) of sugar, and all of the salt. Stir to combine.

In a small bowl combine the oil, egg yolks, water, vanilla and lemon zest. Whisk thoroughly.

Combine with the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly for about one minute, or until very smooth.

Put the egg whites into a stand mixer, and beat on medium speed using a whisk attachment on a medium speed, until frothy. Add cream of tartar and beat on a medium speed until the whites hold soft peaks. Slowly add the remaining sugar and beat on a medium-high speed until the whites hold firm and form shiny peaks.

Using a grease free rubber spatula, scoop about ⅓ of the whites into the yolk mixture and fold in gently. Gently fold in the remaining whites just until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Removed the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack.

Variations to the Basic Chiffon Cake:

Lemon Chiffon Cake

Ingredient Alterations:
Reduce water to 1/4 cup (60 ml)
Add 1/8 cup (30 ml) lemon juice
Increase lemon zest to 1½ teaspoon (7½ ml) (5 gm)
Remove the vanilla from the recipe
Direction Alterations:
Follow the directions, same as above, adding the lemon juice and zest to the oil, egg yolks and water in step 4.

Orange Chiffon Cake

Ingredient Alterations:
Replace the full amount of water with orange juice
Replace lemon zest with the zest of one orange
Remove the vanilla from the recipe
Direction Alterations:
Follow the directions, same as above, adding the orange juice and zest to the oil, and egg yolks in step 4.

Coconut Chiffon Cake

Ingredient Alterations:
Add ¼ teaspoon (1¼ ml) (1 gm) freshly ground nutmeg
Reduce oil to 1/8 cup (1 fl oz/30ml)
Reduce water to 1/8 cup (1 fl oz/30ml)
Add 1/3 cup (2 ⅔fl oz/80 ml) unsweetened coconut milk
Remove the vanilla from the recipe
Direction Alterations:
Follow the directions, same as above, adding the nutmeg to the flour mixture in step 3, and the coconut milk to the oil, water and egg yolks in step 4.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Ingredient Alterations:

Add 1/4 cup (60 ml) (3/4 oz/20 g) cocoa powder
Direction Alterations:
Follow the directions, same as above, adding the cocoa to the flour mixture in step 3.

Pastry Cream Filling:

Gluten Free! Vegans see the links at the end!
Ingredients:
1 cup (8 fl oz/250 ml) whole milk
1/2 teaspoon (2½ ml) pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon (1/2 ml) (¼ gm) salt, preferably kosher
2 tablespoons (30 ml) (10 gm)cornstarch
1/4 cup (60 ml) (2 oz/55 gm) sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoons (30 ml) (1 oz/30 gm) unsalted butter
3/4 teaspoon (3¾ ml) (4 gm) gelatin
1/2 tablespoon (7½ ml) water
1 cup (8 fl oz/250 ml) heavy cream
Directions:

Pour the milk, vanilla, and salt into a heavy sauce pan. Place over medium-high heat and scald, bringing it to a near boiling point. Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile, in a stand mixer add the cornstarch and sugar. Whisk to combine

Add the eggs to the sugar and cornstarch and whisk until smooth.

When the milk is ready, gently and slowly while the stand mixer is whisking, pour the heated milk down the side of the bowl into the egg mixture.

Pour the mixture back into the warm pot and continue to cook over a medium heat until the custard is thick, just about to boil and coats the back of a spoon.

Remove from heat and pass through a fine mesh sieve into a large mixing bowl. Allow to cool for ten minutes stirring occasionally.

Cut the butter into four pieces and whisk into the pastry cream a piece at a time until smooth.

Cover the cream with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic wrap onto the top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Chill in the refrigerator for up to five days.

In a small dish, sprinkle the gelatin over the water and let stand for a few minutes to soften.

Put two inches (55 mm) of water into a small sauce pan and bring to a simmer over a medium heat.

Measure 1/4 cup (2 oz/60 ml) of the chilled pastry cream into a small stainless steel bowl that will sit across the sauce pan with the simmering water, without touching the water.

Heat the cream until it is 120 F (48.8 C). Add the gelatin and whisk until smooth. Remove from the water bath, and whisk the remaining cold pastry cream in to incorporate in two batches.

In a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the cream until it holds medium-stiff peaks. Immediately fold the whipped cream into the pastry cream with a rubber spatula.
Simple Syrup:
gluten free and vegan!
You may choose to flavor the syrup. One way is to use flavored sugar (for example: apple cider sugar, orange sugar, or vanilla sugar) or to stir in 1-2 teaspoons of flavored extract. You may also infuse with herbs or spices, if desired or add four tablespoons (60 ml) of fruit juice or liqueur while the syrup is cooling.
Ingredients:
1/3 cup (2⅔ fl oz/80 ml) (2⅔ oz/75 gm) of sugar, flavored or white
1/3 cup (2⅔ fl oz/80 ml) of water
Directions:

Combine the water and sugar in a medium saucepan.
Bring the mixture to a boil and let the sugar dissolve. Stirring is not necessary, but will not harm the syrup.
Remove the syrup from the heat and cool slightly.
Transfer syrup to a lidded container or jar that can be stored in the refrigerator. Simple syrup can be stored for up to one month.
Fraisier Assembly:
Components:
1 baked 8 inch (20 cm) chiffon cake
1 recipe pastry cream filling
⅓ cup (80 ml) simple syrup or flavored syrup
2 lbs (900 g) strawberries
confectioners’ sugar for dusting
½ cup (120 ml) (5 oz/140 gm) almond paste
Directions:

Line the sides of a 8-inch (20 cm) spring form pan with plastic wrap. Do not line the bottom of the pan.
Cut the cake in half horizontally to form two layers.
Fit the bottom layer into the prepared spring form pan. Moisten the layer evenly with the simple syrup. When the cake has absorbed enough syrup to resemble a squishy sponge, you have enough.
Hull and slice in half enough strawberries to arrange around the sides of the cake pan. Place the cut side of the strawberry against the sides of the pan, point side up forming a ring.
Pipe cream in-between strawberries and a thin layer across the top of the cake.

Hull and quarter your remaining strawberries and place them in the middle of the cake. Cover the strawberries and entirely with the all but 1 tbsp. (15 ml) of the pastry cream.

Place the second cake layer on top and moisten with the simple syrup.

Lightly dust a work surface with confectioners' sugar and roll out the almond paste to a 10-inch (25 cm) round 1/16 inch (1.5 mm) thick. Spread the remaining 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of pastry cream on the top of the cake and cover with the round of almond paste.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

To serve release the sides of the spring form pan and peel away the plastic wrap.

Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days

This is a lovely fresh cake which I know I will make again and again. It is ideally prepared the day before you want to serve it so it's perfect for entertaining. Thank you Jana for Cherry Tea Cakes - I have a great go-to recipe when asked to bring a sweet for dessert!

Christmas in July

2011-07-23T09:28:00.000+10:00

Christmas in July?

In Australia it is becoming quite fashionable to recreate Christmas in our winter to have what our cousins in the Northern hemisphere have. Chilly weather in which eating the usual Christmas fare such as turkeys, roasts and plum puddings is actually enjoyable.

Some would say it is wrong to take such a sacred day of the holy calendar out of its true and righteous place. Certainly, Christmas in July takes all that is commercialized about Christmas and celebrates that. Is it right or wrong? I'm not sure but these celebrations are building in number each year and have a dedicated following.

This year I produced a cake for this particular occasion. I didn't want the cake to be specifically Christmas only so no holly and no Christmas greeting. Gold tipped briar roses, clusters of little red flowers and gold leaves encircle the three red candles. With a bit of red and gold ribbon tucked in here and there I finished the cake and was happy with the result.

Covered with white fondant icing the rich fruit cake underneath epitomises the luscious foods of Christmas. I know many have ditched the fruit cake in favour of chocolate mud, lemon or a multitude of other cake flavours. For this type of rolled fondant icing a fruit cake is really best. There is almost a kilogram of icing on this 8 inch cake and most cakes do not hold this weight very well.

Over time I have come to know that the fruit cake is not well received the the US and perhaps other parts of the world as well. It is often the brunt of jokes and scorned at. (Oh, the poor fruit cake!)

A fruit cake made with quality fruit and good alcohol is delicious and appreciated in my family. Try my simple boiled fruit cake recipe and you will be surprised. But be sure to use good, dried, natural fruit not sweetened or adjusted in any way and good rum like a dark Jamaican rum. I like the Captain Morgan brand.

Boiled Fruit Cake

Boil the night before:

250g (1/2lb) butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups water

1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

1kg (2lb) mixed fruit (your choice of golden sultanas, raisins, currents, glace fruits etc)

2 teaspoons mixed spice

Boil all ingredients for 3 minutes. In the last 30 seconds add 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda. Let stand until morning or cool.

In the morning add:

4 beaten eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup self raising flour ( or 1 cup all purpose plus 2 teaspoons of baking powder)

1/2 cup rum

Mix well. Bake in a triple lined 20cm (8inch) square or round cake pan for 1 1/2 hours at 180C (350F) then 1/2 hour at 150C (300F).

Check with a skewer that it is cooked.

Sprinkle over more rum when you take it out of the oven (maybe 1/4 cup) then wrap in a towel to cool slowly. This will ensure it will be moist.

I hope you enjoy it .... if not just enjoy the pics of the decorated cake!

Dulce de Leche Brownies

2011-07-10T09:17:00.002+10:00

Brownies.

Yes, everyone has been making them for years. And loving them.

I instead have never found the recipe I love.

It was a case a bit like Goldilocks...

...too dry

... too sweet

...too nutty

...too moist

...and so on.

Yeah, I'm fussy! None of the recipes really lived up to my expectations of what a brownie should be despite the huge quantities of delicious chocolate going into them.

Well, surprise, surprise! I tried this cocoa brownie often touted over the net when I need something quick to bring along to a picnic and guess what! It's brilliant! The flavour comes from cocoa. That is probably what I love. Now, don't use dutched cocoa. I really love the bitterness of natural cocoa and I think that is what makes these brownies so good.

In the words of Goldilocks....

..."aaah, this one is juuust right!"

And she ate them all up!

I have varied the original recipe by adding rum and subtituting the nuts for chocolate pieces.

For this variation I also added dulce de leche as a layer in the middle for my caramel loving nephew! They were a hit!

Dulce de Leche is referred to in Australia as "caramel" and for many years we have been enjoying caramel tarts and slices or just eating it out of the can with a spoon. For the Dulce de Leche, in Australia you can use a can of Top Fill Caramel or simply boil a can of condensed milk for two hours completely submerged in a pot of water. Remember the part about "completely submerged" - there have been too many cans of condensed milk explosions during this process and it is not fun to clean off the ceiling!

Dulce de Leche Brownies

140g unsalted butter

1 1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup cocoa, sifted

salt

1 tablespoon rum

2 large eggs, beaten

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2/3 cup chocolate pieces/chips

380g dulce de leche

Preheat oven to 160C and line an 8 inch/20cm square pan with baking paper. Grease well with butter or non stick cooking spray.

Melt butter then add sugar, cocoa and salt. Allow to cool a bit if really hot. Then add rum and eggs. Finally fold in flour and chocolate pieces/chips.

Now spread half them mixture into your prepared pan. Dollop spoonfuls of dulce de leche evenly across the batter. Top with the remaining batter making sure the dulce de leche is covered.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes. Really, I guess you should allow then to cool completely but a brownie is really at it's best gooey and warm even if it doesn't cut so cleanly.

If you should leave out the dulce de leche only bake your brownie for 20 to 25 minutes.

THE DARING BAKERS’ JUNE, 2011 CHALLENGE: FROM PHYLLO TO BAKLAVA!!

2011-07-03T15:52:00.003+10:00

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

It was a thrill this month with Daring Bakers to learn the art of homemade phyllo! I have often made Baklava with store bought phyllo but have never even considered making my own. This was a wonderful nudge into the direction of the old arts of baking.

I have given you the original recipe we were supplied and also spoken of my variation. It was a delicious Baklava and lots of fun to make my own phyllo.

Baklava

For my syrup I simply measured equal quantities of sugar and water flavoured with a cinnamon stick and cardamom then after simmering for 20 minutes I added a two spoonfuls of orange flower water off the heat.For the syrup:

1 1/4 cups (300 ml) honey

1 1/4 cups (300ml) water
1 1/4 cups (300 ml) (280 gm/10 oz) sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1 (2-inch/50 mm) piece fresh citrus peel (lemon or orange work best)

a few cloves or a pinch or ground clove

When you put your baklava in the oven start making your syrup. When you combine the two, one of them needs to be hot, I find it better when the baklava is hot and the syrup has cooled

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium pot over medium high heat. Stir occasionally until sugar has dissolved

2. Boil for 10 minutes, stir occasionally.

3. Once boiled for 10 minutes remove from heat and strain cinnamon stick and lemon, allow to cool as baklava cooks

Phyllo Dough:

I doubled the quantity of pastry to achieve 22 sheets 10 x 10 inches. Really the pastry was easy to roll thinly but very time consuming - for me anyway! I think it took at least an one and a half hours to roll 22 sheets. Now I know why no one needed gyms years ago! My problem was that I mustn't have floured the sheets well enough so the last two sheets stuck and had to be rerolled - not a good idea. The dough was then very difficult to roll and that was my top two sheets on my Baklava. So definitely flour your sheets well.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups (320 ml) (185 gm/6½ oz) unbleached all purpose (plain) flour

1/8 teaspoon (2/3 ml) (¾ gm) salt

1/2 cup less 1 tablespoon (105 ml) water, plus more if needed

2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough

1/2 teaspoon (2½ ml) cider vinegar, (could substitute white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar, but could affect the taste)

Directions:

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer combine flour and salt

2. Mix with paddle attachment

3. Combine water, oil and vinegar in a small bowl.

4. Add water & oil mixture with mixer on low speed, mix until you get a soft dough, if it appears dry add a little more water

5. Change to the dough hook and let knead approximately 10 minutes. You will end up with beautiful smooth dough. If you are kneading by hand, knead approx. 20 minutes.

6. Remove the dough from mixer and continue to knead for 2 more minutes. Pick up the dough and through it down hard on the counter a few times during the kneading process.

7. Shape the dough into a ball and lightly cover with oil

8. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and let rest 30-90 minutes, longer is best ( I let mine rest 2 hours)

1. Unwrap your dough and cut off a chunk slightly larger then a golf ball. While you are rolling be sure to keep the other dough covered so it doesn’t dry out.

2. Be sure to flour your hands, rolling pin and counter. As you roll you will need to keep adding, don’t worry, you can’t over-flour

3. Roll out the dough a bit to flatten it out.

4. Wrap the dough around your rolling pin/dowel

5. Roll back and forth quickly with the dough remaining on the dowel

6. Rotate and repeat until it is as thin as you can it. Don’t worry if you get rips in the dough, as long as you have one perfect one for the top you will never notice.

7. When you get it as thin as you can with the rolling pin, carefully pick it up with well floured hands and stretch it on the backs of your hands as you would a pizza dough, just helps make it that much thinner. Roll out your dough until it is transparent. NOTE: you will not get it as thin as the frozen phyllo dough you purchase at the store, it is made by machine

9. Set aside on a well-floured surface. Repeat the process until your dough is used up. Between each sheet again flower well. You will not need to cover your dough with a wet cloth, as you do with boxed dough, it is moist enough that it will not try out.

Ingredients for the Filling:

I used the same nuts as the challenge recipe only in different quanities depending on how much I had. The walnuts were predominant. I used cinnamon, a pinch of cloves and a spoonful of orange flower water in the filling. I should have used more cloves. I clarified the butter as Audax recommended and added a few spoonfuls of olive oil. The syrup was just sugar and water flavoured with a cinnamon stick and cardamom then after simmering for 20 minutes I added a two spoonfuls of orange flower water off the heat.

I cooked the baklava according to the tips suggested by fellow Daring Baker Audax which is 30 minutes @ 200C, 30 minutes @ 150C, 30 minutes @ 100C then back up to 200C for colour( I didn't need the last one).

1 (5-inch/125 mm piece) cinnamon stick, broken into 2 to 3 pieces or 2 teaspoons (10 ml) (8 gm) ground cinnamon

15 to 20 whole allspice berries ( I just used a few pinches)

3/4 cup (180 ml) (170 gm/6 oz) blanched almonds

3/4 cup (180 ml) (155 gm/5½ oz) raw or roasted walnuts

3/4 cup (180 ml) (140 gm/5 oz) raw or roasted pistachios

2/3 cup (160 ml) (150 gm/ 5 1/3 oz) sugar

phyllo dough (see recipe above)

1 cup (2 sticks) (240 ml) (225g/8 oz) melted butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4.

2. Combine nuts, sugar and spices in a food processor and pulse on high until finely chopped. If you do not have a food processor chop with a sharp knife as fine as you can. Set aside

3. Trim your phyllo sheets to fit in your pan

4. Brush bottom of pan with butter and place first phyllo sheet

5. Brush the first phyllo sheet with butter and repeat approximately 5 times ending with butter. (Most recipes say more, but homemade phyllo is thicker so it's not needed)

6. Sprinkle 1/3 of the nut mixture on top

7. Continue layering phyllo and buttering repeating 4 times

8. Sprinkle 1/3 of the nut mixture on top

9. Continue layering phyllo and buttering repeating 4 times

10. Sprinkle 1/3 of the nut mixture on top

11. Continue layering and buttering phyllo 5 more times. On the top layer, make sure you have a piece of phyllo with no holes if possible, just looks better.

12. Once you have applied the top layer tuck in all the edges to give a nice appearance.

13. With a sharp knife cut your baklava in desired shapes and number of pieces. If you can't cut all the ways through don’t worry you will cut again later. A 9x9 pan cuts nicely into 30 pieces. Then brush with a generous layer of butter making sure to cover every area and edge

14. Bake for approximately 30 minutes; remove from oven and cut again this time all the way through. Continue baking for another 30 minutes. (Oven temperatures will vary, you are looking for the top to be a golden brown, take close watch yours may need more or less time in the oven)

15. When baklava is cooked remove from oven and pour the cooled (will still be warmish) syrup evenly over the top, taking care to cover all surfaces when pouring. It looks like it is a lot but over night the syrup will soak into the baklava creating a beautifully sweet and wonderfully textured baklava!

Next morning all syrup is absorbed

16. Allow to cool to room temperature. Once cooled cover and store at room temperature. Allow the baklava to sit overnight to absorb the syrup.

17. Serve at room temperature

I loved this opportunity to make the phyllo and it certainly adds crunch to the finished baklava. I'm not sure I would make homemade phyllo regularly ( although I would sure be fit and strong ) but I love knowing I can do it. I think next time I would stretch out one large rectangular sheet and roll up with the filling. Then cut into rounds.

Thank you Erica as you have taught me a new technique. These old traditional techniques will be lost if we don't continue to practice them even if we can buy good phyllo in the stores. Thank you, I have thoroughly enjoyed the process! (and the result!)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

2011-06-13T10:17:00.000+10:00

Red Velvet Cupcakes look pretty ordinary on the outside.....

Lately I have been watching parts of the latest MasterChef Australia. The parts I love are learning new recipes, "meeting" renowned chefs and being introduced to different foods and ingredients. One of the parts that annoy me is the harsh, unnecessary criticism "dished" out by the judges who then are surprised that their victim is upset. Or the system of elimination which is not always very fair or just. The "reality" show is certainly not about finding the best untrained chef in Australia. But sometimes MasterChef Australia actually inspires me. I mean, who on earth would not want to devour one of those Red Velvet Cupcakes after watching Nigella take a bite. Nigella swoons over food as only Nigella can. Nigella enjoys food with no guilt whatsoever. So should we!

...but quite spectacular inside.

Red Velvet cakes have been enjoyed in the U.S. and Canada since the 1920's but does not have a long history in Australia. I have for a long time wanted to try Red Velvet cake though when reading through the recipe have really just thought "light chocolate cake" - nothing special. However, I have proved myself wrong. This cake benefits from the flavour of buttermilk and possibly a reaction of the bicarbonate of soda and the vinegar. The flavour is not chocolate and not vanilla but a flavour all of its own and the texture is deliciously velvety. I am truly impressed by this cake. ( My family love it, too! In fact, I will make another batch today!)

The uncooked mixture is gorgeous!

Red Velvet Cupcakes (adapted from Nigella's Kitchen)

Makes 12 muffin size cupcakes

250g plain flour

2 x 15ml tablespoons cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

100g soft butter

200g caster sugar

1 rounded teaspoon red powder colour dissolved in 2 teaspoons hot water

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 eggs

175ml buttermilk

1 teaspoon cider vinegar or other vinegar

Preheat the over 170C and line muffins tins with paper

Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarb into a bowl.

In another bowl, cream butter and sugar, beating well until pale and fluffy. Beat in the food colouring and vanilla.

Beat in a tablespoon of the dried ingredients then 1 egg, followed by some more dried ingredients, then the other egg, followed by the rest of the dried ingredients.

Finally beat in the buttermilk and vinegar and divide the mixture between the cases. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack and ice only when completely cold.

Buttery Cream Cheese Frosting

(this was way to much frosting for my 12 cupcakes)

500g icing sugar, sifted

125g cream cheese

125g soft butter

1 teaspoon lemon juice

shaved chocolate to decorate

Beat butter and cream cheese until soft and fluffy. Add icing sugar. Beat to mix. Beat in lemon juice to make a smooth icing.

Ice each cupcake and sprinkle with chocolate shavings.

There is not much left. I had better made more!

THE DARING BAKERS MAY 2011 CHALLENGE: MARQUISE ON MERINGUE

2011-05-27T01:00:00.002+10:00

The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

Wow! How many of us know what a Marquise is? What is it supposed to be like?

I don't.

Well, that is until now!

The May 2011 Daring Bakers' challenge initiated we Daring Bakers' into a world of restaurant quality desserts. A chocolate marquise consists of chocolate, eggs, heavy cream and sugar. Basic ingredients that form a rich decadent dessert. Combine this with other components such as toasted, marshmallow meringue, crunchy, spicy nuts and a tequila flavoured caramel sauce and you have a dessert any restaurant would be proud of.

When I first read through this recipe I again (as usual) considered not completing this challenge - too hard, too complicated, too many components and too many serves! Too many of everything. However regarding the serves, which reflects commercial restaurant quantities, fellow Daring Baker, Audax came to the rescue scaling down the recipe into half and quarter quantities. So, my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to tackle the challenge. I really did want to taste this chocolaty spicy combination and besides, I had a bottle of Tequila not doing too much in the pantry!

I decided to mold the marquise in a cupcake paper and top with a swirl of meringue - so that the cute and sweet appearance belies the spiciness of the dessert ( I think the dried chilli would a dead giveaway, though!). And while this recipe is detailed and has many components, I did find that each component was not that difficult and can be prepared ahead. A blow torch is required for toasting the meringue however I don't own one though I plan to soon. Instead I piped the meringue onto silicone baking paper then popped them into a very hot oven for two or three minutes. I could then pick the shapes up and position them onto the chocolate marquise bases.

I know you too will be curious and if you accept the challenge you can find the recipe here. Even if you don't prepare the entire dessert do make the tequila caramel...mmm... I could it by the spoonful!

Thank you to our wonderful hosts Emma and Jenny for an amazing challenge. This is certainly a dessert I would never normally attempt!

La Pastiera - for Easter and Beyond

2011-05-20T13:41:00.001+10:00

La Pastiera is known to many as the traditional Italian Easter grain cake so you are probably wondering why would I bother to post after Easter....because I think you should try it! And don't just reserve it for Easter. This cake or pie is not overly sweet or rich and can be enjoyed as dessert or as a snack and really, is quite healthy as far as sweets go.

For many years my Italian cousin spoke of "La Pastiera", the traditional Italian Easter grain cake. She makes many cakes in the preceding days of Easter Sunday to be gifted to family and friends. Originally a Neapolitan speciality, la Pastiera is full of meaning and now popular throughout Italy. However, this was not something I grew up with. Ingredients required in La Pastiera would not have be easy to come by in the Australia fifty years ago. Several years ago I made a version with cooked rice but I was not pleased with it. However this past Easter I was able to acquire grano cotto (cooked grain), aqua di millie fiori (water of 1000 flowers) and good quality candied Italian fruit so I set to work.

The recipe supplied by my cousin required 200g grano cotto but the tin I had was 400g so I adjusted the recipe accordingly. I later realised the recipe was very similar to the one found in Luciana Sampogna's cookbook "Light of Lucia". The result was a delicious, fragrant pie/cake which I will serve not only for each forthcoming Easter but at many times throughout the year. A filling of cooked grains, ricotta and candied fruits is encased in delicate pasta frolla. This cake is best made several days prior to serving to allow the flavours to meld.

La Pastiera

Serves 10

375g (13 3/4oz) plain (all purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting

150g (5 1/4oz) caster (superfine) sugar

200g (7oz) chilled butter, chopped

2 yolks (from large eggs)
1 or 2 tablespoons iced water

Filling

420g (14 1/2ozs) can grano cotto

300ml (10fl oz) whole milk

35g (1 1/4 ozs) butter

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

400g (14oz) ricotta

300g (10 1/2) oz caster (superfine) sugar

1 vial acqua di millie fiori (or 1 tablespoon orange blossom water)

1 grated lemon rind

4 eggs, separated

150g (5 1/2 ozs) mixed Italian candied fruit

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Prepare the first part of the Filling so you can let it cool.

Place the grano cotto, milk, butter, 1 tablespoon sugar and vanilla in a saucepan and cook gently over a low heat for about 30 minutes until the mixture is thick and creamy. Cool

Now prepare the Pastry so you can let it rest.

I did mine in the food processor. Place the flour, sugar and butter in the food processor bowl. Blitz in bursts until crumbly. Then add the egg yolks while the motor is running. Drizzle in a little iced water if the dough doesn't come to together and seems a bit dry. Remove from the bowl, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate while you prepare the rest of the filling.

Heat the oven to 150C/300F.

Beat the ricotta with an electric mixer or by hand until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and mix well. Add acqua di millie fiori, lemon rind, egg yolks, candied fruit, cinnamon and cooled grano cotto mixture. Mix well. In a separate bowl beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold egg whites into ricotta/grano cotto mixture.

Remove the pastry from refrigerator and roll out and line a 24-26cm (9 1/2 - 10inch) flan pan, which has been greased and floured. Pour in the filling. I had a bit leftover and made a small individual pie. With the leftover pastry cut strips and form the traditional lattice top.

Bake in the preheated over for about 2 hours. Once cooled dust with icing (powdered) sugar.

Be sure to prepare this several days before you want to serve it.

Macaron Tower for Our Own Royal Wedding

2011-05-03T14:34:00.000+10:00

On Friday 29th April, 2011 many people around the world stopped to watch Kate Middleton marry her prince. Whether a royal follower or not most of us could not avoid the hype over this wedding and sure, Kate Middleton made a beautiful bride and her prince William struck a handsome figure. The following day, my family celebrated the marriage of our own princess, my niece. And yes, the bride looked gorgeous, the groom was emotional and the day was perfect. Our princess has her prince!

After a wonderful wedding ceremony, we moved onto a local family run hotel for the reception. Food and drink flowed, speeches brought tears to eyes and the music played.

My challenge for the day was to produce two macaron towers to accompany coffee.

Of course, I thought the day was perfect so I decided to give you a little peak.

A twist on the Italian tradition of bombonieri, the selection at the elegant Candy Buffet was abundant.

Full blown white roses decorated the reception area.

Guests wrote their personal messages to happy couple then hung them on the message tree.

A candlelit hallway welcomed the guests.

The bridesmaids posy added colour.

The wedding dress was cleverly crafted.

(Doesn't my niece display it perfectly?)

The two macaron towers on the coffee table along with other sweets.

I use Tartlette recipe for macarons as I find they always (well, almost) work. Visit her blog for the recipe. The macarons were plain with flavoured ganache -

White macarons with Amaretto milk chocolate ganache,

Purple with Parfait d'Amour, white chocolate ganache and

Purple with Creme de Cassis, dark chocolate ganache.

Just by reducing the cream and adding liqueur to taste produced delicious ganache.

For two towers I needed almost 180 macarons which was about six batches of the macaron recipe. I covered the styrofoam cones in foil then used white chocolate as the glue to stick the macarons on. I was concerned with our very humid climate that the usual toothpicks would not hold the macarons. The white chocolate worked well and the small amount did not interfere with the taste.

The next morning as we arrived at the back door of the family run hotel to collect the last few remaining items we were greeted with this sight. Nonna had been up earlier and washed all the wedding tablecloths and hung them to perfection.

Don't you just love it?

Tortellini d' Erbetta

2011-04-11T17:40:00.000+10:00

This is a pasta dish I made recently for my Dad’s 80th birthday lunch. It is a regional speciality from his home town of Piacenza, Italy. It highlights the region’s wonderful produce but we can quite successfully reproduce it here in North Queenland, Australia. Tortellini d'Erbetta translates literally to Short Grass Tortellini but of course, we use whatever delicious, leafy greens we have. I like silverbeet.

The cheese/silverbeet ratio is up to you. More of one, less of the other, as you please.

The shape of the half moon is how we always make them. How small and delicate you make them is up to your expertise. They taste delicious just the same. I assure you once you try these you will be hooked!

I usually make the filling the day before.

You will need 2 bunches silverbeet which you finely sliced and steam. Then all the water squeezed out by wringing in a clean teatowel ( I had about 450g silverbeet in the end)

600g fresh ricotta

2 eggs

200g grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (this is the best parmesan for this recipe, other good parmesan can be used but bear in mind the parmesan is the key to the flavour so get a really good one)

a little freshly grated nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the filling ingredients.

For the Pasta:

5 eggs

500g flour

salt

Beat eggs. Heap the flour onto a work surface and make a well. Add into the well eggs and salt. Gradually incorporate the eggs. Knead well. Allow to rest for 1 hour.

Make the sauce or butter or whatever you want to call it while you wait.

250g butter

10 cloves garlic, chopped very fine

lots of fresh basil, finely sliced

more grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Melt butter with garlic allow to heat and flavour. Do not brown garlic

To make the tortellini:

Cut off a small piece of pasta dough and pass through the pasta machine rollers. Fold and roll through again several time until the pasta is smooth and supple. Gradually reduce settings of the rollers until the dough is quite thin, maybe the last or second last setting. Lay the strip of dough onto the work surface. Spoon little mounds, the size of a small walnut, along the length of the dough allow dough to be folded in half lengthwise covering each mound. Press the air out carefully from around the mounds of filling. Press firmly to ensure the tortellini are well sealed. With a pasta cutter or knife cut around each tortellini in a half moon shape. Set aside on a well floured tray while you prepare the remaining tortellini. The leftover dough is reincorporated in with the next lot of pasta dough to be rolled. Continue in this manner until all the pasta or filling is used up.

Now have a large pot of boiling, salted water ready. Place a few (10 or 15) tortellini, depending on the size of your pot into the boiling water. Stir gently so they don’t stick to the bottom and cook until al dente. It will only take a short time, maybe 3-5 minutes. Scoop out with and drain well. Place into warm serving dish, spooning over some sauce, sprinkle of basil and cheese. Keep warm. Continue cooking and dressing the tortellini. Serve and enjoy! Not for the diet conscious!

This served 12 of us generously as a pasta course... but then again, come to think of it we didn't eat too much else after this!

A Sourdough Bread - Pane Calabrese

2011-04-04T13:48:00.002+10:00

Pane Calabrese

I am so excited!!!

I actually had another post scheduled for today however I couldn't help but push it to the side (just for a little while) to tell you about my latest achievement! Sour dough bread!

Ok, ok, I know you've all been creating starters and producing wonderful sourdough for some time but I really didn't think it was something I could manage. I mean, think about it, capturing wild yeast? To the uninitiated it does sound odd and slightly fairytale-like. Does that mean we are walking around with yeasts floating about? I'm still not really sure about the science in it but I created a starter, it bubbled and frothed as it should and then I made chewy, crusty sourdough bread!

I had been reading a little about starters and sourdough breads and had some great information from Rebecca but it wasn't until I acquired Rosetta Costantino's book My Calabria that I felt confident enough to try.

A few days ago I created my starter. Rosetta's starter requires a small amount of dried yeast to begin with, very similar to Rebecca's however in a smaller quantity which suited me. I followed the instructions and after three days prepared to make my bread.( And also prepared myself for failure!) First I made the bread sponge and then the next day planned my time around the bread. After the first rise where I left it for 4 hours there seemed to be only a little lift. So I shaped the bread, one a "filone" and four "friselle". I gently wrapped them in a cloth like babies and decided to use a barely warm oven for the second rising. Well, didn't I get a pleasant surprise when I unwrapped my "babies". They had risen so proudly and beautifully!

My "Filone" is not quite the "elongated loaf with tapered ends" that it should be.

Admittedly I had such little faith in my starter that it could raise anything that I misshaped my bread. So the filone "fattened" and the friselle no longer had a hole in the middle. But never mind that, I was pleased my little starter had worked so well!

The friselle are meant to be doughnut shaped

After baking in a hot oven the breads emerged crusty, brown and delicious. I am fascinated by the process and thrilled that it worked so well first up which has given me the confidence to experiment.

The filone are split in half after baking and rebaked until crisp.

The friselle should have been flattened before baking so as they wouldn't be so thick. My friselle are "tooth-breakingly" hard even when softened with water as is tradition. But it won't stop me trying these again. The concept of friselle is a dry rusk that keeps for months. Friselle must be reconstituted by being briefly soaked in water then can topped with chopped fresh tomato, olive oil, garlic and basil or more simply olive oil, garlic and oregano.

The texture was perfect - crunchy crust and chewy interior.

I can totally understand the respect Rosetta talks about that the Calabrese have for bread and the bread starter. Within my own family, bread is surrounded by traditions and beliefs and great respect. Though I have baked many loaves of bread I have never tried to make sourdough bread or a starter. What a thrill it was to have such success and I can't wait to make more!

What I haven't mentioned is the book which guided me in my venture. My Calabria is a wonderful book for all who are interested in southern Italian cooking and traditions. Rosetta pulls the reader into her own family. You are included in her traditions, her youth, her garden, her family and her kitchen. And if your not, you would soon want to be a Calabrian! Viva Calabria!

Pane Calabrese - recipe by Rosetta Costantino

Bread Sponge

4 ounces (115g) Bread Starter (see below)

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 cup warm water (105F to 110F/45C)

Dough

3 pounds (1 1/2 kgs) unbleached all purpose flour, plus more for dusting

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons salt

3 3/4 cups (900mls) warm water (105F to 110F/45C)

To create the Bread Sponge: Put the starter into a bowl and add the flour and water. Stir well with a wooden spoon.Cover with a cloth and place in a warm place overnight.

To make the dough the following day: Put the flour in a large bowl make a well in the centre and add the sponge. Dissolve the salt in the water and add to the well mixing with a wooden spoon or your hand. Bring the flour in gradually until it is all absorbed and knead for 10-15 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball, dust with flour and place into a large bowl. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and leave in warm place for 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Rosetta recommends wrapping the bowl in a blanket. I didn't because I live in a the hot, tropics however next time I will use a barely warm oven to obtain the optimum temperature of 80F (27C). I left mine to rise for 4 hours because I wasn't satisfied that it had risen enough.

At this point Rosetta suggests to retain 4 ounces (115g) of the dough to use as the starter for next time. "Place in a bowl cover with a lid or plate and let stand at room temperature for one or two days to develop flavour. Then refrigerate in an airtight container." I had some starter left which I fed and I will use that but when I understand the sourdough more I will try keeping the dough.

With a knife divided the dough into three portions. Flour the dough and handle gently. Do not punch down. you can shape the dough however you like. I chose a filone and 4 friselle. I placed the dough on individual pieces of baking paper so once they were risen they would be easy to move. Ii tucked them all in close and wrapped them gently in a cloth. This is where I placed them into the barely warm oven.

Leave rise for 2 hours. I removed them from the oven after 1 1/2 hours and began to heat my oven and baking stones to 475F (250C). When the loaves were ready I baked them for 20 minutes then reduced the heat to 400F (200C) and continued to bake for 25 minutes until the loaves were well browned and hard on the top and bottom.

Rosetta says to cool on a wire rack completely before slicing - well we didn't, we tucked into the warm bread and enjoyed it!

To Create a Starter:

On Day One: combine 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour and 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast in a bowl ( I used a clear plastic container, don't use metal). Add 1/4 warm water stir well.Cover with a cloth or plate and leave for 24 hours.

On Day Two: Remove and discard one half of the starter and stir in 1/2 cup flour and 1/4 water. Repeat as for Day One.

On Day Three: Repeat as for Day Two. After 24 hours your can refrigerate the starter in an airtight container or proceed with the Bread Sponge.

The Daring Baker's Challenge March 2011 - Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake

2011-03-27T16:50:00.038+10:00

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

This month The Daring Baker's had fun with yeast and a very unusual recipe. Jamie found this recipe on a piece of yellowed paper in her dad’s collection of clipped out and hand-written recipes from the 1970’s, no source, no date, and she tried the recipe and it was brilliant! After a bit of googling I seemed to get the idea that this is a typical coffee cake of Eastern Europe which is filled with a whipped meringue and usually nuts, chocolate and spice. The meringue melts into the yeasted, brioche-like dough and cannot be detected after baking apart from a little around the cut edges.

The dough has an absolutely, wonderful silky texture which is a dream to work with and I know I will use it again and again for many sweet breads. For our family we found the result was bit on the dry side not unlike panettone (not necessarily a bad thing - we love panettone). Maybe I beat the meringue until it was too dry. I tried the recipe again leaving out the meringue and we all thought it was much more moist. Also in the second meringue-less version I increased the filling to 1 cup chocolate, 1 cup nuts and 1 teaspoon cinnamon for each cake. All in all this is a wonderful recipe and many Daring Bakers found it very moist - I'm not sure what I did wrong. Regardless this dough recipe is one to be treasured and shared.

Thank you Jamie for giving us this wonderful gift.

FILLED MERINGUE COFFEE CAKE

Makes 2 round coffee cakes, each approximately 10 inches in diameter

The recipe can easily be halved to make one round coffee cake

Ingredients

For the yeast coffee cake dough:

4 cups (600 g / 1.5 lbs.) flour

¼ cup (55 g / 2 oz.) sugar

¾ teaspoon (5 g / ¼ oz.) salt

1 package (2 ¼ teaspoons / 7 g / less than an ounce) active dried yeast

¾ cup (180 ml / 6 fl. oz.) whole milk

¼ cup (60 ml / 2 fl. oz. water (doesn’t matter what temperature)

½ cup (135 g / 4.75 oz.) unsalted butter at room temperature

2 large eggs at room temperature

For the meringue:

3 large egg whites at room temperature

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon vanilla

½ cup (110 g / 4 oz.) sugar

For the filling:

1 cup (110 g / 4 oz.) chopped pecans or walnuts

2 Tablespoons (30 g / 1 oz.) granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup (170 g / 6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips or coarsely chopped chocolate

Egg wash:

1 beaten egg

Cocoa powder (optional) and confectioner’s sugar (powdered/icing sugar) for dusting cakes

Directions:

Prepare the dough:

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 ½ cups (230 g) of the flour, the sugar, salt and yeast.

In a saucepan, combine the milk, water and butter and heat over medium heat until warm and the butter is just melted.

With an electric mixer on low speed, gradually add the warm liquid to the flour/yeast mixture, beating until well blended. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes. Add the eggs and 1 cup (150 g) flour and beat for 2 more minutes.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that holds together. Turn out onto a floured surface (use any of the 1 ½ cups of flour remaining) and knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is soft, smooth, sexy and elastic, keeping the work surface floured and adding extra flour as needed

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let rise until double in bulk, 45 – 60 minutes.

Prepare your filling:

In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar for the filling if using. You can add the chopped nuts to this if you like, but I find it easier to sprinkle on both the nuts and the chocolate separately.

Once the dough has doubled, make the meringue:

In a clean mixing bowl – ideally a plastic or metal bowl so the egg whites adhere to the side (they slip on glass) and you don’t end up with liquid remaining in the bottom – beat the egg whites with the salt, first on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high and continue beating until foamy and opaque. Add the vanilla then start adding the ½ cup sugar, a tablespoon at a time as you beat, until very stiff, glossy peaks form.

Assemble the Coffee Cakes:

Line 2 baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper

Punch down the dough and divide in half. On a lightly floured surface, working one piece of the dough at a time (keep the other half of the dough wrapped in plastic), roll out the dough into a 20 x 10-inch (about 51 x 25 ½ cm) rectangle. Spread half of the meringue evenly over the rectangle up to about 1/2-inch (3/4 cm) from the edges. Sprinkle half of your filling of choice evenly over the meringue (ex: half of the cinnamon-sugar followed by half the chopped nuts and half of the chocolate chips/chopped chocolate).

Now, roll up the dough jellyroll style, from the long side. Pinch the seam closed to seal. Very carefully transfer the filled log to one of the lined cookie sheets, seam side down. Bring the ends of the log around and seal the ends together, forming a ring, tucking one end into the other and pinching to seal.

Using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife (although scissors are easier), make cuts along the outside edge at 1-inch (2 ½ cm) intervals. Make them as shallow or as deep as desired but don’t be afraid to cut deep into the ring.

Repeat with the remaining dough, meringue and fillings.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

Cover the 2 coffee cakes with plastic wrap and allow them to rise again for 45 to 60 minutes.

Brush the tops of the coffee cakes with the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until risen and golden brown. The dough should sound hollow when tapped

Remove from the oven and slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheets onto the table. Very gently loosen the coffee cakes from the paper with a large spatula and carefully slide the cakes off onto cooling racks. Allow to cool.

Just before serving, dust the tops of the coffee cakes with confectioner’s sugar as well as cocoa powder. These are best eaten fresh, the same day or the next day.

Again thank you to Jamie and Ria for hosting this months Daring Baker's Challenge. Many Daring Bakers were very creative in their choices of fillings even daring to try savoury fillings. Ria's Indian-inspired version can be found here along with the original recipe and more hints and tips.

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

2011-03-15T16:29:00.000+10:00

This post has been a long time in the making. Eighteen months ago the Daring Baker's Challenge for November 2009 was Cannoli. At the same time I had a telephone call from my sister inviting me along to a ricotta making lesson. Well, the two went hand in hand, didn't they? The cannoli with the ricotta filling were a winner and I have made them on many occasions since. But what about the ricotta making lesson?

My sister took me along to the home of a lovely Italian lady who has been making ricotta at least once a week since she arrive from Italy over half a century ago using the same recipe and techniques. This is the recipe I give to you today exactly as Mrs G proudly showed us. I'm sure there is a scientific reason as to what is going on in this recipe but that was of no interest to our instructor.

Ricotta means "recooked". True ricotta is made from the whey leftover from cheese making which is then allowed to acidify for 12-24 hours at room temperature. This acidified whey is reheated and the proteins in the whey form a fine curd.

This ricotta is made from whole milk and cream to which an acidulant is added in the form of calcium lactate to form the curds. I have seen other recipes using vinegar or lemon juice. Unlike true ricotta, this version is not low in fat but creamy and luscious. The calcium lactate was easily obtained from my local pharmacist, just ask!

Mrs G's Homemade Ricotta

2 teaspoons calcium lactate

2 litre whole milk

300ml pure cream

1 tablespoon salt, or to taste

water

Mix 1/2 cup of lukewarm water with the calcium lactate and stir to dissolve.

In a non reactive pan mix the milk, cream and salt. Stir in the water/calcium lactate mixture and place over medium heat. Do not stir. Have ready a bowl of water and a ladle this will be used to control the temperature of the milk. I assume this was used before there ever was thermometers to measure that the temperature was correct. It just goes to show we don't need fancy equipment to make good food.

As you see a bubble rise to surface pour a little ladleful of water to cool it. You will see the curds forming. It will not take long. Do not allow it to boil or heat for too long or your ricotta will be tough.

When all the ricotta has come to the surface turn off the heat and ladle out the curds into a fine strainer. You can line it with cheese cloth but Mrs G never bothers.

Allow it to drain well - over night if you are using it for cannoli or as a filling for ravioli.

This ricotta is delicious served with crusty bread, salty crackers or mixed through hot pasta with a little Parmesan and herbs.

February 2011 Daring Baker's Challenge - Panna cotta and Florentines

2011-02-27T01:06:00.001+10:00

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies

February's challenge was really easy and delicious. I don't know why I've never made panna cotta before. My teenage children loved it. One ate it for breakfast and the other for an after school snack! Thanks you, Miss Mallory!

I omitted the honey from the recipe and just sweetened with sugar and flavoured with vanilla bean! Served with mixed sweetened berries!

Panna Cotta

Ingredients:

1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
1 tablespoon (one packet) (15 ml) (7 gm) (¼ oz) unflavored powdered gelatin
3 cups (720 ml) whipping cream (30+% butterfat)
1/3 cup (80 ml) honey, I ommited the honey
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) granulated sugar, I increased the sugar to 1/2 cup
pinch of salt
1 scraped vanilla bean

Directions:
1.Pour the milk into a bowl or pot and sprinkle gelatin evenly and thinly over the milk (make sure the bowl/pot is cold by placing the bowl/pot in the refrigerator for a few minutes before you start making the Panna Cotta). Let stand for 5 minutes to soften the gelatin.
2.Pour the milk (at this point I added the scraped vanilla bean) into the saucepan/pot and place over medium heat on the stove. Heat this mixture until it is hot, but not boiling, about five minutes. (I whisk it a few times at this stage).
3.Next, add the cream, honey, sugar, and pinch of salt. Making sure the mixture doesn't boil, continue to heat and stir occasionally until the sugar and honey have dissolved 5-7 minutes. I divided the cream and whipped half up to soft peaks and warmed the other half as the recipe states. I let the warmed cream/milk mixture cool before mixing in the whipped cream.
4.Remove from heat, allow it to sit for a few minutes to cool slightly. Then pour into the glass or ramekin.
5.Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight. Add garnishes and serve.

I made the florentines to the recipe except I didn't have dark corn syrup but saw some pure maple syrup in the pantry and used that instead. I didn't sandwich the florentines but just drizzled with choc. The florentines seemed a bit sweet on their own but with a touch of dark choc they were perfect!

Florentines

Ingredients:

2/3 cup (160 ml) (150 gm) (5.3 oz) unsalted butter
2 cups (480 ml) (160 gm) (5 2/3 oz) quick oats
1 cup (240 ml) (230 gm) (8 oz) granulated sugar
2/3 cup (160 ml) (95 gm) (3⅓ oz) plain (all purpose) flour
1/4 cup (60 ml) dark corn syrup
1/4 cup (60 ml) whole milk
1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1½ cups (360 ml) (250 gm) (9 oz) dark or milk chocolate

Directions:
Preheat oven to moderately hot 375°F (190°C) (gas mark 5). Prepare your baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper.
1.Melt butter in a medium saucepan, then remove from the heat
2.To the melted butter add oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix well. Drop a tablespoon full, three inches (75 mm) apart, onto your prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly with the back of your tablespoon, or use a spatula
3.Bake in preheated oven for 6-8 minutes, until cookies are golden brown. Mine took about 15 minutes to become golden brown. Cool completely on the baking sheets
4.While the cookies are cooling melt your chocolate until smooth either in the microwave (1 1/2 minutes), or stovetop (in a double boiler, or a bowl that fits atop a saucepan filled with a bit of water, being sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl).

5.Peel the cookies from the silpat or parchment and place face down on a wire rack set over a sheet of wax/parchment paper (to keep counters clean
6.Spread a tablespoon of chocolate on the bottom/flat side of your cookie, sandwiching another (flat end) cookie atop the chocolate.

This recipe will make about 2 1/2 - 3 dozen sandwiched Florentine cookies. You can also choose not to sandwich yours, in which case, drizzle the tops with chocolate (over your wax paper).

Check out our host Miss Mallory at A Sofa in the Kitchen and all my other Daring Baker friends who have excelled with the panna cotta and florentines this month!

Nigella's Churros with Chocolate Dipping Sauce

2011-02-24T09:49:00.001+10:00

The most recent addition to my cookbook collection is Nigella Lawson's "Kitchen". As I skimmed through it I knew I would be trying out her Churros with chocolate dipping sauce recipe as soon as possible. I liked her recipe because it eggless. Most of the recipes I have seen for churros are basically a choux pastry rich in eggs and somehow it just didn't sit well with me. I have never like that gooey uncooked centre in a cream puff hence mine are always well baked!

In the aftermath of the cyclone with no electricity for more than a week and heaps of outdoor work to do, baking took step to the side. But I was having bad "baking withdrawal" symptoms! So, left to my own devices when the family made yet another trip to the dump, I set to work eager to surprise them with a sweet treat! And churros, it was! We really enjoyed these churros. I piped them thinner than the ones I have eaten so they were deliciously crunchy. The chocolate dipping sauce is a must!

Churros with chocolate dipping sauce (adapted from Kitchen by Nigella Lawson)

which Nigella claims should be enough for 4-6 but...

I doubled this recipe - I think Nigella must have be on a very strict diet that day!

50g caster sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon or to taste

125g plain flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

15ml olive oil

250ml freshly boiled water

oil for deep frying

Chocolate Sauce

50g dark chocolate

75g milk chocolate

150ml cream

Mix the sugar and the cinnamon together. Set aside for coating the churros in later.

Melt all the chocolate ingredients really gently in a saucepan until it all melts and combines. Set aside.

To make the churros: put the flour into a bowl and stir in the baking powder then beat in the olive oil and freshly boiled water from the kettle. Keep mixing until you have warm sticky dough. Leave it rest for 10 minutes while you heat up the oil to about 170C.

When you are ready fit a piping bag with a star shaped nozzle (I used about 8mm one) and fill with the dough. Squeeze out lengths of dough. I just used my finger to break each one off the nozzle.

Cook only a few at a time until golden brown. Drain on absorbent paper then toss in cinnamon sugar.

Reheat the sauce if needed.

Serve churros with Chocolate dipping sauce in individual pots ( to avoid the double dipping dilemma) and dip away!

Surviving Cyclone Yasi

2011-02-16T14:50:00.003+10:00

Two weeks ago, on the 2nd February, North Queensland survived Queensland's largest and most powerful cyclone ever recorded. The preceding days were filled with anxiety amongst a flurry of activity as we prepared to be pummeled by this monster. I cannot describe the fear as we realised we were directly in its path. As further reports were broadcast, the cyclone moved slightly north so we would escape the direct hit but not it's powerful outer winds. Reports by storm chasers in our area calculate the winds as somewhere between 250kms/hour to 309kms/hour. To grasp the size of this monster cyclone click here. The night of the 2nd February, 2011 was long and frightening and will not be forgotten for a long time.

When we peered out of windows at first light, with winds still extremely gusty we were greeted with a changed landscape - trees devoid of leaves, striped of bark, others fallen and snapped, electricity power lines fallen and twisted, corrugated iron scattered and crumpled, mountains prickly with the outline of striped trees,sugar cane crops at an unnatural angle. Further north homes and crops totally destroyed. The first 3 or 4 days our area had no water, electricity or telephones. Utilities are being restored gradually with army and tradespeople from all over Queensland and beyond swooping on our area to help with the mammoth task. Many still have no electricity and camping and candlelit dinners are becoming tiresome.

Here I took a few pics of our property.

This 100 plus year old mango tree was uprooted not far from our bedroom.

The roots simply ripped out of the earth with the tremendous force of the winds.

Our machinery shed has a new skylight due to sheets of corrugated iron being ripped off during the cyclone.

Native trees are striped of leaves and bark hence their orange colour

Luckily for us bananas are not our lively hood but we won't be enjoying any bananas from these plants for many months.

The sugarcane crops lie at a 45 degree angle.

This dwelling once housed cane cutters of the district and now was good extra storage for our farm.

Trees snapped and in the background the sugar cane almost lies horizontal.

In the following days as we were able to get around I took a few more photos but honestly it was just too overwhelming to keep taking photos.

The local high school grounds.

These steel 6 tonne capacity sugar cane "bins" were tossed about as though they were cardboard boxes.

The Australian Army arrived to lend a helping hand.

Miraculously, only one life was lost during Cyclone Yasi. Police said the young man was killed by fumes from a generator he was running inside a closed room after the storm knocked out electricity.

January 2011 Daring Baker's Challenge - Biscuit Joconde Imprime

2011-01-29T16:54:00.000+10:00

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

This month's challenge proved to be a challenge in many ways! To start with I had never heard of "Biscuit Joconde Imprime" or "Entremets". The only recognisable word was "biscuit" which in Australia is a cookie but there didn't seem to be any of those in this challenge! So it was a little lesson in French with the help of a fellow Daring Baker, Audax Artifex, that helped me figure out exactly what we were baking this month!

According to Audax, the three elements of this challenge are:-

1. The decorative paste in this challenge is called Patterned Joconde-Décor Paste this is the mixture that you make into a pattern on the silicone mat and freeze.
2.The sponge in this challenge is called Joconde Sponge this is the mixture that you spread over the frozen décor paste and then bake.
3. When you have baked the patterned paste and the sponge it is called a joconde imprime (sometimes called joconde or décor; imprime means prints) this terms means a decorative design baked into a light sponge cake providing an elegant finish to your product.
4. An entremet is a dessert with a joconde (imprime) outside filled with layers of various mousses, purées, sponges, cakes and biscuits etc.
5. The art of making joconde imprime is called décor skills in many place also.

So after all this I realised the challenge recipe only made the decorative external layer of the finished dessert, it was up to us how to fill and complete the dessert or entremet.

For the printable PDF of the challenge recipe click here.

As I had two special family birthdays to celebrate during the month of January, I decided this would make a wonderful birthday cake if the birthday message was written into the cake. I could then fill it however I wanted.

To begin I coloured and flavour the Patterned Joconde-Décor Paste with cocoa and wrote my message on baking parchment. Then flipped the parchment over and piped the paste on backwards before proceeding with the recipe.

As you can see, once baked and flipped over the message read correctly. This cake was then cut to fit a 23cm springform pan which I had lined with cling film.

The first cake was to celebrate my father's 80th birthday. In honour of my late mother whose specialty dessert was the Italian classic "Zuppa Inglese", I recreated a Zuppa Inglese-style Entremet.

The layers were cherry brandy soaked savoiardi biscuit (ladyfingers), chocolate bavarian, more cherry brandy soaked savoiardi, vanilla bavarian and black cherry gelee.

The second cake was to celebrate my daughter's 16th birthday. She chose a black forrest style Entremet.

First layer is a thin chocolate mude cake, chocolate bavarian, cherry bavarian topped with fresh whipped cream and fresh cherries. It was meant to have a layer of cherry gelee but that didn't set properly so I removed it before topping with whipped cream. Oh well! Not everything works out!

Vanilla Bavarian

recipe provided by our host Astheroshe

250 g milk

60g yolks

75 grams white sugar

8 grams gelatin ( bloomed in cold water)

250 grams heavy cream whipped to soft peaks

vanilla to taste (can also use a bean)

Combine milk, and vanilla and bring to boil

Whisk egg yolks and sugar until combined.

Temper milk into eggs.

Return to heat cooking slowly until it is nappe ( coats the back of a spoon)

Add bloomed gelatin , Strain, and stir over ice bath to cool quickly.

Fold in heavy heavy cream when mixture reaches 80F/ 26 C

For chocolate bavarian:- add 100g dark chocolate.

For Cherry bavarian: add 400g tin drained, black cherries - half pureed and half whole

and also a little pink food colouring.

Cherry gelee

recipe provided by our host Astheroshe

This makes a shiny glazed top. A beautiful finish!

125 grams dark cherry purée

35 grams sucrose (sugar)

4.5 grams gelatin (bloomed, i.e. soaked in some water for a few minutes)

Mix the sugar with the purée, warm slightly. Add soaked gelatin. Cool . Pour over entremet in one pour. Use off spatula set to make even on top.

Many thanks to our host Astheroshe of accro for an amazing challenge that I would never have done on my own or even dreamed of! Take a look at what these clever Daring Bakers created in January - Testado, Provadoe, Aprovado, Bake in Paris and CakeWalk!

Move over Nigella - New Domestic Goddesses have arrived!

2011-01-23T19:47:00.001+10:00

How does a girl celebrate her 16th birthday? A barbecue with friends? An all girls sleepover? Well, not my daughter! Always one to think of something different, my daughter decided she would like to invite a group of friends to a Masterchef-style challenge to celebrate her recent 16th birthday.

"Sure, honey!"

I just wondered how we would manage this one!

So, the invitations were sent but the actual challenge remained a mystery. All the girls accepted the challenge and although most had little experience in the kitchen, all were fanatical followers of the TV reality show.

A cupcake challenge would be the easiest in many ways. We decided on a basic muffin recipe because it is easily made without an electric mixer but can still be flavoured in many ways and iced and decorated creatively. The recipe cards were printed and some crazy, fun rules were made up. Ingredients were bought - spices, nuts, dried fruit, spreads, syrups and various forms of chocolate and sweets along with food colourings and assorted sprinkles- and displayed on the day of the big event.

The eight contestants were paired to make 4 teams and each received purpose made aprons in their team colour along with a wooden spoon and a measuring cup to help complete the challenge. Once the challenge was announced and the quite ridiculous list of rules read, the ingredients were unveiled. The teams were given 3 minutes to check out the ingredients and 2 minutes to brainstorm with their partner before the one hour challenge began in earnest. This is when the flour began to fly and the eggs and milk poured from the table onto the floor!

Cupcakes (muffins) were baked and carefully checked!

And then the decorating began....

.....Precision,

....expertise,

...and concentration was required!

Finally the proud result but the judging was still to come! My husband paraded as George Colombaris while my son became Matt Preston. But wait there was more... Maggie arrived! My sister threw herself fully into her roll as Maggie Beer discussing with her fellow judges the attributes of each entry, the crumb, the texture and the presentation. Matt threw his plate to the floor saying "That is disgusting......disgustingly good!"

Certificates were given in various categories - Best Plating, Most Creative Cupcake, Most Likely to Succeed and The Grand Prize which also took out the coveted trophy!

Everyone had a fun day and more food colouring, butter and chocolate was used in one single batch of cakes and icing than I thought possible!

Most Likely to Succeed - "Chocolate Insomnia"

( espresso and chocolate)

Best Plating - "Contagious Choc Cherry Cupcake Creations"

(Chocolate and Cherry Ripe)

Most Creative - "Heaven Delight"

(white chocolate and butter)

Grand Prize - "Chocolate Extravaganza"

(Mars bar and chocolate fudge)

Basic Muffins

2 cups self raising flour (or all purpose flour plus 4 teaspoons baking powder)
3/4 cup fine white sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup canola oil
vanilla

Sift flour and mix with sugar. Combine egg, milk, oil and vanilla and add to dry ingredients. Spoon into large cupcake trays. Bake at 200C for 15 minutes.
Variations are totally your discretion!

Chilli Mud Crab

2011-01-17T16:57:00.003+10:00

At the moment the southern part of Queensland is cleaning up and recovering from the most devasting floods for many years. An area said to be the size of France and Germany put together has been affected. Lives have been lost and still more are missing.We watched our television in horror as cars were overturned and swept away by the flash flood, trees bent and twisted as if they were toothpicks and steel and concrete structures destroyed. A flood relief appeal was immediately set up to help the many Queenslanders left homeless by the force of Mother Nature. The bad weather and floods have now moved further south and are now affecting New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania while bush fires have raged in Western Australia. Such is the land "down under" that we call home, Australia. A land of extreme diversities.

Many dear friends have asked about mine and my family's welfare and for that I thank you for your care and concern. But even though I live in Queensland, we are over 1000km north of the disasterous floods and are enjoying our tropical North Queensland lifestyle.

Relaxing on the beach, fishing and eating good food are what our lifestyle is all about. Recently my husband and son brought home a wonderful catch of three, glorious mudcrabs. Mudcrabs (scylla serrata) have a wonderful, delicate, sweet meat. Usually, we simply boil or steam the crabs and pick out the meat to be enjoyed with an olive oil and red wine vinegar dressing. But this time I tried this recipe with great results!

Mudcrabs are large crabs with a found in the northern tropical to temperate waters of Australia. They inhabit sheltered estuaries, tidal reaches of some rivers mud flats and mangrove forests. Crabs favour the soft muddy bottom. Their two hind legs are flattened for swimming. But the two front nippers are large and strong for crushing and cutting their prey.

Now onto the recipe! It may seems a lot of work but I promise you it's worth it!

Once you have your live mudcrabs (2 or 3 crabs for four people is about right) you will need to clean and prepare them for cooking. Kill them by placing in the freezer for an hour or two. Then you are ready to clean them.

1.Clean the outside of the mud crab with a brush under running water.

2.If you want to keep the top shell to place back on the crab when you plate it up, lift the flap on it's belly and pull the top shell from the back of the crab forward, then halve the crab with a knife.

(You can cook the top shell in with the rest of the crab)

4.Remove the guts and feathery lungs from the body.

5.Brush out any muck from the inside of the crab.

6.Crack the shells of each portion before cooking to let the flavors in (one tap on each with a knife sharpening steel will do the trick). You can cut each half in half again quartering the crab - if that makes sense!

Now the fun stuff! Warm up a wok with a few spoonfuls of canola oil, 2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic, 2 teaspoons grated ginger and chilli. The chilli is up to you, your taste and the strength of your chilli. I used 8 of my home grown, dried chillis, ground up finely. When the aromatics are letting you know how great they smell, toss in the portioned crab. Stir fry until the crab is starting to change colour but don't allow the garlic is burn.

Toss through 1 finely sliced, red capsicum.

At this point it is time to add in the ingredients which will become the sauce.

Puree a 400g tin tomatoes, mix with 3 tablespoons black bean sauce, 4 tablespoons soy sauce and 4 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce. Pour over the crab and stir through.

Add 2 tablespoons sherry, 2 tablespoon white vinegar and 2 tablespoons grated palm sugar. ( You can also use brown sugar)

Stir through 140ml coconut cream and allow to simmer absorbing the flavourful sauce until the crab has completely changed colour and is tender and cooked. Toss through a handful of sliced, spring onions.

Arrange on a deep platter of steamed jasmine rice placing the pieces in the appropriate position to reassemble the crab crowning it with the top shell! Sprinkle with another handful on sliced, spring onions.

Provide plenty of napkins and enjoy with a salad!

Coffee, Walnut and Amaretto Cake

2011-01-08T18:01:00.000+10:00

Marcellina in Cucina welcomes 2011! This is going to be a great year! I haven't made any New Year's resolutions as I usually do but I know I don't need to. I have many goals that I know will be achieved this year. Have you made a New Year's resolution? If you have, I really hope it works for you. Goals and ambitions are what motivates us to be better people.

Here in Australia we are in holiday mode. This is our summer holidays. School is out for at least 6 weeks. Families take annual vacations. Factories and workshops take annual leave so not much can be done on the work front. Australia slows down a little and enjoys the sun, sea and surf.

It's times like this that we might have an impromtu get together to share a meal maybe a glass of wine or a icy cold beer. I still like to bake but something simple and delicious. This cake ticks all the boxes. I particularly love the topping of Amaretto flavoured mascarpone. So easy!

Coffee, Walnut and Amaretto Cake

1 cup (100g) walnuts

1/4 cup (20g) ground espresso coffee

150g butter

3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup (60ml) Amaretto

3/4 cup (110g) self raising flour

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons Amaretto, extra

250g mascarpone

extra walnuts and/or coffee beans to decorate

Heat the over 180C. Grease a 20cm round pan and line the base with baking paper.

Process the walnuts and the coffee until finely ground.

Beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in the Amaretto. Mix in the walnut and coffee mixture. Sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder. Add to the butter mixture and mix until just combined.

Spoon into prepare pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Remove from the oven and drizzle over 1 tablespoon Amaretto. Cool in pan. When cool remove from pan and place on serving plate. Mix remaining Amaretto with mascarpone and spread over the top of the cake. Decorate as desired. Chill the cake for 30 minutes before serving.

Pina Colada to welcome in 2011 Tropical Style!

2010-12-31T15:54:00.001+10:00

Here in tropical Northern Australia, the sky's are cloudy and the rain teems down intermittently so the only way to welcome in the New Year is with a Pina Colada! Tonight as we sip our Pina Coladas, we can think of more sunny times ahead which 2011 is sure to bring.

As this is my last post for 2010 I would like to thank all my readers, who have become dear friends over the year or so of my commencing this blog, for taking time to read and comment on various posts. Thank you for your interest. From you all I have learnt so much in not only in the cooking world but of friendship, values and traditions. May you all be blessed in 2011 with joy, laughter and love.

Now you must try my Pina Colada. It's not too late for tonight. My recipe is great because you can make it in advance and pour it into a jug. It will probably serve about 10. You just need a few ingredients.

Pina Colada

250g fresh pineapple chunks, pureed in the blender

5 cups pineapple juice ( I used sweetened - it's up to you)

270ml coconut cream

1 x 50g sachet of coconut milk powder (to give an extra kick of coconut flavour - you could use essence or Malibu)

1 1/4 cups white rum

Mix all the ingredients well using the blender. Pour into a jug. Refrigerate until cold. Serve over ice.
Enjoy Pina Coladas and don't get caught in the rain! ( I couldn't resist - love that song!)

December 2010 Daring Bakers' Challenge - Stollen

2010-12-27T16:05:00.000+10:00

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

What a wonderful challenge we were given this month - German Stollen. It was always something I contemplated baking. I love the whole idea of the traditional representation of a babe in swaddling clothes. However this stollen was to be prepared as a Christmas wreath and the photo's showed by our host Penny were beautiful and festive.

The crumb texture was superb

During the month as Daring Bakers prepared the given recipe reports of huge wreaths were abound. So I decided to prepare the dough but then divide it in half and flavour each half differently and make one wreath and one traditional "babe in swaddling clothes" loaf. The wreath was made with the given recipe making only a few minor changes which I have marked in red. I also made Almond Marzipan to be enclosed in the wreath. This was a delicious addition. With the other loaf I left out the fruit and nuts and replaced it with toasted, chopped hazelnuts and chopped, dark chocolate.

Chocolate and Hazelnut Stollen

This is a very good recipe for stollen and the version given was a favourite among the family. The Hazelnut and Chocolate version seemed a little dry in comparison. Thank you Penny for a great challenge.

Stollen Wreath

Makes one large wreath or two traditional shaped Stollen loaves. Serves 10-12 people

Ingredients

¼ cup (60ml) lukewarm water (110º F / 43º C)

2 packages (4 1/2 teaspoons) (22 ml) (14 grams) (1/2 oz) active dry yeast

1 cup (240 ml) milk

10 tablespoons (150 ml) (140 grams) unsalted butter (can use salted butter)

5½ cups (1320 ml) (27 ozs) (770 grams) all-purpose (plain) flour (Measure flour first - then sift- plus extra for dusting)

½ cup (120 ml) (115 gms) sugar

¾ teaspoon (3 ¾ ml) (4 ½ grams) salt (if using salted butter there is no need to alter this salt measurement)

1 teaspoon (5 ml) (6 grams) cinnamon

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

Grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange

2 teaspoons (10 ml) (very good) vanilla extract

1 teaspoon (5 ml) lemon extract or orange extract

¾ cup (180 ml) (4 ¾ ozs) (135 grams) mixed peel (I made my own here is the link)

1 cup (240 ml) (6 ozs) (170 gms) firmly packed raisins

3 tablespoons (45ml) rum

12 red glacé cherries (roughly chopped) for the color and the taste. (optional)

1 cup (240 ml) (3 ½ ozs) (100 grams) flaked almonds

Melted unsalted butter for coating the wreath

Confectioners’ (icing) (powdered) sugar for dusting wreath

Note: If you don’t want to use alcohol, double the lemon or orange extract or you could use the juice from the zested orange.

Directions:

Soak the raisins

In a small bowl, soak the raisins in the rum (or in the orange juice from the zested orange) and set aside. See Note under raisins

To make the dough

Pour ¼ cup (60 ml) warm water into a small bowl, sprinkle with yeast and let stand 5 minutes. Stir to dissolve yeast completely.

In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup (240 ml) milk and 10 tablespoons (150 ml) butter over medium - low heat until butter is melted. Let stand until lukewarm, about 5 minutes.

Lightly beat eggs in a small bowl and add lemon and vanilla extracts.

In a large mixing bowl (4 qt) (4 liters) (or in the bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment), stir together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, orange and lemon zests. I omitted the zests at this stage.

Then stir in (or mix on low speed with the paddle attachment) the yeast/water mixture, eggs and the lukewarm milk/butter mixture. This should take about 2 minutes. It should be a soft, but not sticky ball. When the dough comes together, cover the bowl with either plastic or a tea cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.

After the 10 minutes rest I divided the dough in half and proceeded to add into one half in the zest and the mixed peel, soaked fruit and almonds and mix with your hands or on low speed to incorporate. Here is where you can add the cherries if you would like. Be delicate with the cherries or all your dough will turn red! I also added additional spices - 1 teaspoon cardamon and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg.
With the other half I mixed in 1 cup chopped dark chocolate and 3/4 toasted and chopped hazelnuts.

Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading (or mixing with the dough hook) to distribute the fruit evenly, adding additional flour if needed. The dough should be soft and satiny, tacky but not sticky. Knead for approximately 8 minutes (6 minutes by machine). The full six minutes of kneading is needed to distribute the dried fruit and other ingredients and to make the dough have a reasonable bread-dough consistency. You can tell when the dough is kneaded enough – a few raisins will start to fall off the dough onto the counter because at the beginning of the kneading process the dough is very sticky and the raisins will be held into the dough but when the dough is done it is tacky which isn't enough to bind the outside raisins onto the dough ball.

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling around to coat it with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Put it in the fridge overnight. The dough becomes very firm in the fridge (since the butter goes firm) but it does rise slowly… the raw dough can be kept in the refrigerator up to a week and then baked on the day you want.

Shaping the Dough and Baking the Wreath

1. Let the dough rest for 2 hours after taking out of the fridge in order to warm slightly.

2. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

3. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 with the oven rack on the middle shelf.

4. Punch dough down, roll into a rectangle about 16 x 24 inches (40 x 61 cms) and ¼ inch (6 mm) thick. At this point I made marzipan (recipe follows) which I formed into a long sausage shape and placed along the long side.

Starting with a long side, roll up tightly, forming a long, thin cylinder.

Transfer the cylinder roll to the sheet pan. Join the ends together, trying to overlap the layers to make the seam stronger and pinch with your fingers to make it stick, forming a large circle. You can form it around a bowl to keep the shape

Using kitchen scissors, make cuts along outside of circle, in 2-inch (5 cm) intervals, cutting 2/3 of the way through the dough.'Twist each segment outward, forming a wreath shape. Mist the dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap. The second chocolate and hazelnut dough was rolled out spread with hazelnut marzipan (recipe follows) and grated dark chocolate and then folded into thirds to resemble a babe in swaddling clothes.

Proof for approximately 2 hours at room temperature, or until about 1½ times its original size.

Bake the stollen for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees for even baking and continue to bake for 20 to 30 minutes. The bread will bake to a dark mahogany color, should register 190°F/88°C in the center of the loaf, and should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.

Transfer to a cooling rack and brush the top with melted butter while still hot.

Immediately tap a layer of powdered sugar over the top through a sieve or sifter.

Wait for 1 minute, then tap another layer over the first.

The bread should be coated generously with the powdered sugar.

Let cool at least an hour before serving. Coat the stollen in butter and icing sugar three times, since this many coatings helps keeps the stollen fresh - especially if you intend on sending it in the mail as Christmas presents!

When completely cool, store in a plastic bag. Or leave it out uncovered overnight to dry out slightly, German style.

The stollen tastes even better in a couple of days and it toasts superbly…. so delicious with butter and a cup of tea….mmmmm

Storage

The more rum and the more coatings of butter and sugar you use the longer it will store.

The following is for the recipe as written and uses the 45 mls of rum and two coatings of butter and icing sugar

1. Stollen freezes beautifully about 4 months

2. The baked stollen stores well for 2 weeks covered in foil and plastic wrap on the counter at room temperature and

3. One month in the refrigerator well covered with foil and plastic wrap

Marzipan Recipe supplied by Daring Bakers member Audax Artifex
slightly adapted

1 cup ground almonds
1 cup powdered sugar
almond essence to taste
1 tablespoon Amaretto liqueur
1 egg white

Mix almonds, sugar, essence and liqueur. Add enough eggwhite to bind.

For Hazelnut Marzipan substitute ground hazelnuts for almond, omit almond essence and substitute Frangelico for the Amaretto.

Delicious Chocolate Hazelnut Stollen

Calabrian Christmas Speciality - Petrali

2010-12-25T01:52:00.003+10:00

I dedicate this post to my beautiful Calabrian relatives whom I can't be with but think of often and this Christmas I am with you in spirit.

Petrali are a traditional Christmas Calabrian sweet filled with figs and almonds. This may sound almost Sicilian and in fact the two areas are separated only by a ocean strait. However these are fervently Calabrian, actually to be precise more so from Reggio Calabria. The recipe comes from my dear cousin who loves baking sweets as much as I do. I have only slightly adapted the recipe and also halved it. They are wonderful with a thin coating of dark chocolate but they can also be icing with glace icing. With this recipe I made about 60 petrali with some filling leftover.

Firstly you must prepare the filling a few days before hand. This is the most delicious fruit mince I have ever tasted. I eat it by the spoon in an uncontrollable fashion.

I can't buy vin cotto so my cousin told me what she does. First take a one litre bottle of white wine, an apple, a pear, an orange, 50g sugar and a cinnamon stick. Put the whole lot (fruit is left whole) in a saucepan and simmer until reduced to about 250ml.

Filling

300g figs, finely chopped

100g sultanas

250ml reduced wine (as above)

125ml strong black coffee

100g sugar

150g almonds, toasted and finely chopped

150g walnuts, toasted and finely chopped

3 teaspoons cinnamon

100g dark 70% chocolate

Marsala to moisten

Combine in a saucepan figs, sultanas, reduced wine, coffee and sugar. Heat gently and stir to combine and allow the fruits to plump and absorb the liquid. Cool. Add the remaining ingredients, adding Marsala if needed. Store in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours adding more Marsala if needed. Taste and add more sugar also if needed.

Pasta Frolla ( Pastry)

500g flour

1 sachet of raising powder for cakes ( or 1 teaspoon of baking powder)

100g butter

200g sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

grated rind of one lemon

3 eggs

Heat oven to 180C.

In the food processor place flour, raising powder and butter. Pulse until crumbly. Adds sugar. Pulse to mix. Add vanilla, lemon rind and eggs. Pulse to combine. I needed a dash of sweet sherry to bring it all together but that might have just been the weather. Only add a drop of milk or sweet sherry if you need it.

Roll the dough out to about 5mm thickness and cut circle of about 6 or 7 cm in diameter. Place a teaspoon of filling in the middle of the rounds, dampen the edges with water and fold to close. Place the semi circles on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Bake in 180C oven until golden about 12-15 mins. Cool and coat the tops with melted dark chocolate and sprinkle with decorations of choice.

Enjoy your Christmas with your family and friends, give thanks for God's gift of his Son Jesus, and let's be grateful for our many blessings.

May God bless you all!

Snowflake Sugar Cookies

2010-12-24T22:34:00.018+10:00

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve and the weather is gloomy! Our wet season has arrived early and tomorrow we may be separated from our family due to flooding. All the preparations are on hold at the moment. At times like this we should be grateful for what we have and know that even if we are not together with family, we are together in spirit.

This week my daughter and I decorated snowflake sugar cookies to be shared with family and friends. So I'm sharing them with you

It was my daughter's first time using a piping bag and royal icing.

Didn't she do great work?

I hope you enjoy them and have a wonderful Christmas!

I hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed making them.

Have a Happy Christmas!

Marcellina in Cucina

JANUARY, 2012 CHALLENGE: Back to Basics:Scones (a.k.a. Biscuits)

Steamed Pork Buns

Pasta Estiva! My "go to" summer pasta dish.

DECEMBER, 2011 CHALLENGE: LETTING NATURE DO THE WORK...Sourdough Bread!

A Tribute to a Wonderful Lady

Chocolate, Apricot and Hazelnut Panforte

Ingredients

NOVEMBER 2011 - FILIPINO DESSERTS

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DARING BAKERS OCTOBER 2011 CHALLENGE - Povitica

Strawberry cake

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THE DARING BAKERS’ SEPTEMBER, 2011 CHALLENGE: FRESH, FLUFFY, FRENCH CROISSANTS!

Croissants

Conserva di Pomodori - Homemade Tomato Paste

August 2011 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Candylicious!

Milk Chocolate, Coffee & Hazelnut Praline Truffles

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The Daring Bakers July 2011 Challenge: FRESH FRAISER!

Basic Chiffon Cake:

Variations to the Basic Chiffon Cake:

Lemon Chiffon Cake

Orange Chiffon Cake

Coconut Chiffon Cake

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Pastry Cream Filling:

Simple Syrup:

Fraisier Assembly:

Christmas in July

Dulce de Leche Brownies

THE DARING BAKERS’ JUNE, 2011 CHALLENGE: FROM PHYLLO TO BAKLAVA!!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

THE DARING BAKERS MAY 2011 CHALLENGE: MARQUISE ON MERINGUE

La Pastiera - for Easter and Beyond

Macaron Tower for Our Own Royal Wedding

Tortellini d' Erbetta

A Sourdough Bread - Pane Calabrese

The Daring Baker's Challenge March 2011 - Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

February 2011 Daring Baker's Challenge - Panna cotta and Florentines

Nigella's Churros with Chocolate Dipping Sauce

Surviving Cyclone Yasi

January 2011 Daring Baker's Challenge - Biscuit Joconde Imprime

Move over Nigella - New Domestic Goddesses have arrived!

Chilli Mud Crab

Coffee, Walnut and Amaretto Cake

Pina Colada to welcome in 2011 Tropical Style!

December 2010 Daring Bakers' Challenge - Stollen

Calabrian Christmas Speciality - Petrali

Snowflake Sugar Cookies