Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes

Anything with chocolate in the name is sure to please in this house! This week's recipe was chosen by Clara of I Heart Food4Thought.

It seems lots of people had problems with the cupcakes being dry so I decided to use greek yoghurt instead of buttermilk and used a very rounded 1/2 cup of it for extra moisture. I also kept a really close eye on them while baking. They ended up need only 18.5 minutes instead of the 22 to 25 Dorie suggests.

While I toyed with the idea of Halloween style decorations I decided against it for a few reasons. Firstly that Halloween isn't recognised here at all so there aren't a whole lot of orange and black anything and secondly, I'm very anti food dye at the best of times but particularly now which limited my choices even further!

So I went with toasted flaked almonds both for flavour and crunch and it was perfect.

The taste test ...

Oh my god. These were anything but dry! I found them rich, fudgy and intensely chocolatey ... and that was before I added the glaze. Hubs loved them too, managing to eat 2 of them after a slice of pie and a slab of steamed pudding (both of which I will be posting about in the coming days)!

Next week another first for me - Rugelach

Perfect Ginger Cookies

Being Australian we would call these biscuits not cookies but seeing it's not my recipe, cookies it is! These really caught my eye when I saw them on Priscilla's blog. I absolutely love anything with ginger and in fact have a big mug of ginger tea first thing every morning (and not just because i'm pregnant!).

I changed the recipe slightly, using golden syrup instead of molasses and adding a little baking powder to give them some lift. I also made them smaller, getting 16 out of the mix instead of 12.

The smell of these freshly out of the oven was intoxicating ... warm, sweet and spicy. I ate 3 while they were really to hot to handle and they were fabulous broken up over vanilla ice cream or just with a cup of ginger tea.

You can find the recipe at Priscilla's Baking Adventures. Yum!

TWD: Pumpkin Muffins & an Announcement!

You may have noticed posting has become a little scarce of late. This has been partly the result of blog fatigue but mostly because there has been something much bigger and much more exciting happening ... i'm pregnant! N and I are thrilled to be able to announce that come April we will be parents.

I've been very lucky not to have had any morning sickness but my tastes have definitely changed and I haven't been cooking much lately, at least nothing blogworthy anyway. I'm planning on remedying that starting this week.

I had to sit out last week's TWD. Apologies to Gretchen of Canela & Comino, the biscotti looked great but I just didn't have the time or energy. I did however, get to this week's recipe for Pumpkin Muffins chosen by Kelly of Sounding My Barbaric Gulp.

Whenever I hear pumpkin in a recipe it sounds very American (with the exception of our very Australian pumpkin scones of course!). You can't buy canned pumpkin in Australia so I steamed and mashed my own.

I decided to follow the recipe exactly as I am one of the seemingly rare TWDers who actually like raisins! They came together easily but I generally prefer the melt and mix type muffins where you simply add the liquid to the dry ingredients. Creaming butter and sugar is what you do for cupcakes in my opinion.

The taste test ...
I really enjoyed these though I have to say they smelt divine while baking but weren't as fragrant in the mouth. Next time I would increase the spices considerably. I ate mine warm out of the oven with butter and marmalade and it was the perfect morning tea. Due to an unfortunate misunderstanding the rest of the batch got left out on the bench overnight and weren't edible the next day. Boo. N hates pumpkin so it was doubly disappointing because he was actually going to try these! Oh well. I'm sure there will be a next time.

Next week we have the scrumptious sounding Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes.

Jam Doughnut Muffins

Oh. My. God. I'm actually a little worried that I made these because now I know how easy it is I could make them all the time! I've had doughnuts on the brain for the past week or so and while I considered making some the whole vat of hot oil thing does scare me a little. Then I remembered these little beauties that I bookmarked months ago and voila ... doughnuts! Well doughnut muffins to be exact but the end result is truly awesome.

The recipe says it makes 6 and I made 6 jumbo sized ones. It is telling that I ate a whole one but take my advice and make them smaller ... your hips will thank you!

Jam Doughnut Muffins
recipe from Taste.com.au

300g (2 cups) self-raising flour
2/3 cup caster sugar, plus 1/3 cup extra to coat
80ml (1/3 cup) vegetable oil (I used melted butter)
1 large egg
175ml buttermilk (I made my own with 1 tbs apple cider vinegar topped up with milk)
1 tsp vanilla extract (I just realised now that I forgot to add this!)
6 tsp good-quality strawberry jam
100g unsalted butter
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180°C and grease a 6-hole muffin pan. Sift the flour into a medium bowl, then add a pinch of salt and the caster sugar.

In a jug, combine the vegetable oil, egg, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Add to the dry mixture and stir to only just combine.

Place a spoonful of the mixture in each muffin hole and make an indent in the centre. Fill each indent with a generous 1/2 teaspoon of strawberry jam. (I misjudged slightly so my jam ended up in the bottom third of the mix). Cover the jam with the remaining muffin mixture and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, melt the butter. Combine the extra sugar and the cinnamon in a large bowl. When the muffins are cool enough to handle, brush each muffin with the melted butter, then roll in the cinnamon sugar.

Serve while still a little warm (the jam in the middle really holds its heat so watch out!)

Tuesdays with Dorie: Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake

This week's recipe was chosen by Tammy of Wee Treats by Tammy and what a great choice! Considering how decadent Dorie's picture looked I decided we didn't need a whole cake, so I thirded the recipe and made 3 muffin sized cakes.

The cake mix worked perfectly. I lined a jumbo muffin pan and baked them for 25 minutes at 150 deg C. The texture was probably more cake than brownie but very soft, moist and intensely chocolaty. Maybe a few minutes less would have given a more fudge-like middle but I was totally happy with these.

The taste test ...

The cake was delicious! I will definitely be making this again. The muffin size works really well and I love doing individual serves. My only issue was with the caramel.

It took about 15 minutes to get a beautifully clear, deep amber toffee (I was tempted to make toffee apples at this stage) but when I added the cream and butter it all went wrong. The caramel went really milky and cloudy looking and cystalised as it cooled. The end result looks dull and uninviting. It tasted nice but a bit sugary rather than smooth as I had envisinged. While I did halve the recipe I've never had any trouble working with sugar before.

So if anyone out there can tell me where I went wrong I would be very grateful! My taste testers didn't care but the perfectionist in me really wants to make it, well ... perfect!

The price of gluttony is $12.95

This is all that remains of a bag of mini Reese's. Despite my best intentions we ate the entire bag in 24 hours!

A few years ago (actually 7 but it makes me sound old) I spent a summer at Marquette University in Milwaukee finishing off my law degree plus some extra time travelling around. The food was definitely a highlight ... real bagels in New York, deep dish pizza in Chicago, frozen custard in Wisconsin. Yum!

But the real highlight for me was the discovery of these addictive little chocolate and peanut butter treats. I ate them by the bagful. The problem is here in Australia they are obviously imported and considered 'gourmet'. While we were out shopping yesterday I spotted a bag in the window of a lolly shop and had to have them despite the fact it was $12.95 for a tiny 340g (12oz) bag. Aaah!

On the way out the guy told he was about to get much bigger bags in. Bags that would be much better value. Double aaah! For the sake of my thighs we will not be going back there anytime soon. *sigh*

On a happier note Nigella has a copycat recipe that is the closest thing to Reese's I've tasted. We'll be making them again for Christmas this year (and giving most of it away). Bring on Christmas!

Anzac Biscuits in October

So Anzac biscuits are normally baked in April on Anzac day to commemorate the Australian and New Zealand troops landing at Gallipoli in 1915. I always make them then but really they are fantastic to make any time.

Part of their appeal is they they contain ingredients that I always have in the pantry and can be whipped up at a moment's notice.

There is a lot of debate as to how they should end up - soft or hard, chewy or crunchy. Personally I go for crunchy on the outside and slightly chewy in the middle. I mounded these up a bit and didn't cook them for quite as long as I normally would. But follow the instructions and you will get thinner biscuits perfect for ice-cream sandwiches!

Anzac Biscuits
Recipe from the Australian Women's Weekly Original Cookbook, 1977, p187

1 cup traditional rolled oats (not instant)
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar (I like raw sugar for these)
1 1/2 ts bicarb soda
2 tbs boiling water
125 g butter
1 tbs golden syrup

Combine oats, sifted flour (I generally don't bother sifting), sugar and coconut. Melt the butter and golden syrup together over a gentle heat. Mix bicarb with boiling water and add to the the butter mixture. It will froth up like a crazy science experiment. Stir this mix into the dry ingredients.

Spoon dessertspoonfuls of mixture onto greased oven trays, allowing room for them to spread.

Bake at approx 150 deg C for 20 minutes or until they are a deep golden brown. They will be very soft straight out of the oven so don't try to move them until they are cool.

Makes approx 30.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Classic Crème Brûlée

To say I was excited about this week's recipe is an understatement. Crème brûlée is one of my favourite desserts to order when we eat out and when done well, takes custard to a whole new level.

I have to say I was sceptical about the cooking method. I'm used to baked custards cooked at a higher temp in a water bath. I was also thrown by just how low the temperature was. 200F sounds low but when you convert it to celsius it's almost ridiculous!

Anyhoo, I baked my 4 little ramekins at just under 100 deg C but it took much, much longer than stated to set. After 60 minutes they were still liquid. I ended up giving them 1 hr 40 minutes and then left them in the switched off oven with the door open to cool down to room temperature.


The taste test ...

Sublime. This may be the best tasting baked custard I have ever had. The slow cooking seems to do amazing things for the texture. It was rich, lucsious and incredibly silky. Each serve looked really small but I couldn't have eaten a bigger one! We borrowed a blow torch to do the tops and it worked really well. I think we may end up buying one!

A big thank you to Mari of Mevrouw Cupcake for this week's choice. Now that I know how easy it is I will definitely be making these again, probably using some of the playing around ideas.

Next week - Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake!

Daring Bakers September - Lavosh Crackers with Pesto Rossi

Yay for a savoury DB challenge! I know this is only my second challenge but I was delighted to be making something savoury this month. I was equally delighted to have an 'alternative' challenge. I've had lots of problems with food allergies over the years and I know how frustrating it can be trying to find something you can eat at parties etc. This was a two-part challenge - first to make Lavosh crackers (either regular or gluten-free) and then to create a vegan dip to go with the crackers, and that was a little trickier!

I decided not to go for a gluten-free cracker here purely because I didn't have the ingredients. The regular flour recipe was an absolute breeze. I even kneaded it by hand (usually I cheat and use the dough hook in my mixer) and it took a full 15 minutes to meet the stretch and windowpane tests.

I used my pasta maker to roll out the dough which allowed me to get a really even end result. I took it down to the second thinnest setting which made it a little easier to manage, then used a pizza cutter to make rectangles. The only frustrating part was having to do so many batches and waiting for the tray to cool down in between.

I decided to keep them pretty plain, just sprinkling the tops with sesame seeds and some sea salt, as the dip I chose has a bit of kick. I don't make dips very often and it was quite difficult to find something that was actually vegan (meaning no animal products whatsoever) rather than just vegetarian. In the end I just decided to do Pesto Rossi, which means red pesto in Italian. It is actually a pasta topping but I though it would work well with the crackers.

Pesto Rossi
(this is not my recipe but I can't remember where I got it from)

3 chargrilled red capsicum (roasted using whatever method works for you)
3 slow roasted roma tomatoes (again everyone has their own way of doing this)
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup extra virgin oilive oil
1/4 cup ground hazelnuts

Blitz all ingredients in a food processor and serve. It really is that easy! To make a non-vegan variety you can add a 250g block of cream cheese into the mixer and process until smooth. This is great as a dip or over pasta.

All the taste testers absolutely loved this and everyone wanted the recipe!

A big thank you to Natalie from Gluten A Go Go and Shel of Musings From the Fishbowl for this month's challenge. I really enjoyed it and will definitely be making these crackers again!

Banana Buttermilk Muffins

I love muffins. When I used to work in the city my bus stop was right next to a Muffin Break and believe me there is nothing more tempting at the end of a horrible day than a big fat muffin! These days I don't make them very often but after today's taste test that might change. I couldn't find a recipe that exactly suited the ingredients and quantities I had so I made up my own. The combination of raw and brown sugars gives a rich caramel colour and flavour that complements the banana perfectly. Next time I plan on making them with a proper streusel topping but for a shortcut, the extra brown sugar makes a lovely crunchy top.

Banana Buttermilk Muffins
A food. baby original

2 cups plain flour
3 ts baking powder
1 ts bicarb soda
pinch of salt
3 ts cinnamon
1/2 cup raw sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
125g butter, melted
1 1/2 very ripe bananas, mashed
approx 1/3 cup brown sugar, extra

Preheat oven to 200 deg. Line a 12 cup muffin tray with paper liners.

In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt, raw sugar and brown sugar. Stir to combine. In a small bowl combine the buttermilk, egg and melted butter and whisk to combine.

Add the liquid ingredients to the flour mixture and stir with a fork a few times. Then add the mashed banana and continue to stir until it only just comes together. Be careful not to overmix!

Spoon the mixture in the prepared trays. I used jumbo trays and filled each cup just barely halfway. Using the extra brown sugar, sprinkle a little (or a lot!) on top of each muffin.

Bake at 200 deg for 10 mins then swap the trays if you need to and bake for a further 10 minutes at 180 deg.

Cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out onto a rack.

Enjoy!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Dimply Plum Cake

I was absolutely thrilled with this week's pick. This is exactly the type of recipe I love to make and the type of cake I love to eat! I'm also a big fan of fruity desserts and cakes in general so a big thank you to Michelle of Bake-en who chose Dorie's Dimply Plum Cake!

Unfortunately it's not stone fruit season here in Australia so I had to make do with tinned plums instead. They worked surprisingly well but were a little mushier than I had hoped.

The taste test ...

Fabulous! I baked mine the day before we were going to eat it. This type of cake tends to keep well and actually taste better the next day anyway. It was moist and buttery and gently flavoured with orange and cardamom. I can see myself making this cake often, just switching around the fruits and flavourings. I will definitely be trying it with fresh fruit come Christmas time. I think nectarines would be brilliant.

We had this as part of an afternoon tea for family and it got a big thumbs up from all the tasters. The other treats were chicken sandwiches (with the crusts cut off because otherwise it's not proper afternoon tea food just lunch!), an apple and cinnamon bun and this month's daring bakers challenge which I will be posting about next weekend. Overall a wonderful spread!

Next week - I'm so excited I can hardly type! - Creme brulee!!!

Caramel Heaven

I think I love caramel even more than chocolate. It's a big call I know but when you feel like drinking a whole jugful of caramel sauce it's pretty clear you're a caramelaholic!

Last night we had pancakes with icecream, homemade caramel sauce and crushed peanuts for dessert. Yum! The perfect Saturday night dessert really - easy, fun and delicious.

Best Ever Pancakes
From Modern Classics No 2 by Donna Hay, p 56

2 cups plain flour, sifted
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups milk
3/4 cup buttermilk
75 g butter, melted

Place the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. In a separate bowl place the milk, buttermilk, butter and egg and whisk until combined. Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Pour 1/3 cup mixture for each pancake into the pan, doing as many per batch as your frypan will hold. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface then turn and cook for another minute or until golden.

Keep the pancakes warm while you cook the remaining batter. Makes 15

Caramel Sauce
From Modern Classics No 2 by Donna Hay, p 96

3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup pure cream

Combine in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until sugar is disolved. Increase the heat and simmer rapidly for 8 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Allow to cool until thick enough to spoon over cake or icecream.

Easy and absolutely heavenly! Probably best NOT eaten regularly :)

Bread and Butter Pudding for One

For me lunch is the trickiest meal of the day. As I work from home I generally have lots of time to think about and plan meals. Mostly I try to make enough dinner so there are leftovers to eat the next day. But when that doesn't happen I spend ages gazing into the fridge and pantry to find something yummy that won't take ages to make. Lately I've resorted to noodles or baked beans on toast and that just won't do!

Today I decided to make one of my favourite things in the world. While it feels incredibly decadent just to have dessert for lunch, this is actually pretty healthy (no cream!) and has carbs and protein and even fruit if you count the marmalade! Or at least that's what I keep telling myself :)
Bread and Butter Pudding for One
A food.baby original

2 slices of white bread
1 egg
1 tbs caster sugar
1/2 cup milk ( I use reduced fat)
2 ts soft butter
1 tbs orange marmalade (or any other jam you like - 100% fruit is best otherwise you might find it too sweet)

Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

Remove the crusts from the bread and spread one side of each evenly with butter (I actually left the crusts on this time because we had really yummy bread). Slice into quarters or whatever shape will work best for your baking dish. Layer into a greased ramekin or small baking dish. Make sure you leave lots of pointy edges facing up as these will get nice and crunchy.

In a small bowl beat the egg, sugar and marmalade together and set aside.

Place the milk into a small saucepan and bring to the simmer. Once the milk is hot pour over the egg mixture, beating constantly to ensure there are no lumps.

Pour the milk and egg mix over the bread and let sit for about 15 minutes to absorb. This will make the pudding lighter and not stodgy.

Place the ramekin into a larger baking dish and pour enough hot water to come half way up the sides of the ramekin. Bake for approx 20 minutes or until the top is crunchy and golden and the pudding feels set. Allow to cool for a few minutes before digging in. It will firm up as it cools. Delicious!

Beef and Sweet Potato Samosas

It's been ages since we had Indian food. I'm always a little wary of trying new places because I have a major sensitivity to MSG and food dyes, and so many supposedly reputable restaurants cram their food full of artificial rubbish. It drives me crazy!

Ok, rant over.

Making your own Indian food can be a little time consuming but the results can be amazing. We have a Butter Chicken recipe which is out of this world good (I will definitely be posting about it soon!) that requires marinating overnight. This time around I was looking for something quicker but still with great flavours and that would be good for lunch the next day. These Beef and Sweet Potato Samosas fit the bill perfectly!

You can definitely play around with the type and quantity of spices here. I prefer warm, aromatic spices to anything that makes your mouth explode, so this recipe is tailored that way. It also makes a LOT of samosas, so they make wonderful party food.

Beef and Sweet Potato Samosas
A food.baby original

500g beef mince
1 large orange sweet potato, diced finely
1 large onion, diced finely
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
1tbs mango chutney
2 ts ground coriander
2ts ground cumin
2 ts tumeric
4 ts garam masala
1/4 ts chilli powder
500 ml chicken stock
2 tbs plain flour
7 sheets puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
salt and pepper

Heat a large frypan over medium-high heat and add a tablespoon of ghee or vegetable oil. Once hot, add the onion and fry for a few minutes or until translucent. Add the garlic, ginger and the sweet potato and fry, stirring constantly for around 5 minutes until the sweet potato starts to soften slightly. Remove the mixture from the pan.

Add a little more oil if you need to, then add the beef mince and fry until cooked through, breaking up the lumps as you go. When it is about half cooked, add all the spices and continue to cook, stirring until the beef is done.

Return the vegetable mix to the pan and stir to combine. Sprinkle over the flour and stir well for a few minutes to cook out the raw flour. Pour over the chicken stock. This will deglaze the pan, picking up all the yummy spices and flavour stuck on the bottom. It will look like far too much liquid at this stage. Reduce the heat to low, stir in the chutney, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.

If a lot of liquid remains, increase the heat and remove the lid. Cook stirring occasionally until the mixture is thick. This is basically like a pie filling and if it is runny your pastry will go soggy.

Once you are happy with the consistency, remove from the heat and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes.

To prepare the samosas, preheat the oven to 220 deg C. Place a sheet of puff pastry on a board and cut into 4 equal squares. Place about a tablespoon of filling into the centre of each square. It is always a bit of trial and error to see how much filling will fit. Using a pastry brush, brush beaten egg over the cut edges. Fold each square into a triangle, pressing down on the edges with a fork to seal in the filling. Place on a lightly greased baking tray. Brush the tops with beaten egg.

Bake for approx 20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden brown.

This amount of filling will make about 30 samosas which is more than most people need. You can freeze the samosas uncooked. Just thaw in the fridge overnight before baking as usual.

Serve with your favourite sauces. We used spicy tomato and yoghurt & garlic. Yummy!

2 Blog Awards! (but no TWD)

While I was away in Sydney I picked up not one but two blog awards! A big thanks to Laura from She's Cookin' Now and Lisa from Magic Sprinkles who presented me with the Brilliante Weblog Award.
I still feel like such a newbie, this being only my third month of blogging, but there's a real sense of community and support in the food blogosphere. So thank you to everyone who is reading and commenting!

Here are the rules of the award so that I can pass it on to others:

1. when you receive a diamond, make a post about it on your blog,
2. name the blogger who gave you the award,
3. award the diamonds to seven other bloggers,
4. link to them in your post and
5. let them know that you are passing this fab award onto them

Hmmmm which seven to pass it on to? I check in with literally hundreds of blogs, all of whom are wonderfully unique. Seeing I got the award twice I'm going to choose 14! In no particular order:

1. Linda from Butter Sugar Flour

2. April from Abby Sweets

3. Melissa from Made By Melissa

4. Laura at Hungry and Frozen

5. Cakelaw from Laws of the Kitchen

6. Bridget from The Way the Cookie Crumbles

7. Caitlin from Engineer Baker

8. Lisa at Spicy Icecream

9. Beth and Nathan at Our Sweet Life

10. Priscilla at Priscilla's Baking Adventures

11. Krista at Goodies First

12. Tammy from Wee Treats by Tammy

13. Rebecca from Ezra Pound Cake

14. The gang at Little Foodies

I haven't been around to tell everyone yet but I will be doing that at some point today.

Now you'll notice there are no Chocolate Chunkers here today. For a number of reasons I decided to opt out this week, including the fact I ran out of time but also the fact I couldn't face yet another chocolate biscuit. Sorry to Claudia of Fool for Food! I'm definitely not a chocoholic but I am SO excited about the next 2 picks. First up is Dorie's Dimply Plum Cake. Yum!

Back to chocolate for a moment, I froze most of my Whopper Drops after the last challenge and was curious how they would be. Well, they are insanely good straight out of the freezer. I thought they would be rock hard but they actually were quite soft and ready to eat immediately. They'd be perfect for an icecream sandwich because they would help the icecream stay cold and not run everywhere. Brilliant!

Next week: Dimply Plum Cake. Woohoo!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops

Through the wonders of technology this post should be appearing on Tuesday (fingers crossed). I am away in Sydney this week and made these yummy biscuits on Saturday.

Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart chose this week's recipe for Chocolate Whopped Malted Drops, which is a bit of a mouthful but were easy to make and absolutely delicious! I actually made mine without Malteasers (which I think are the same as Whoppers in the states), instead using up a block of Whittakers Dark Ghana and a few mini Crunchies.

The taste test ...

These are rich, sweet and intensely chocolatey! Despite the lack of malteasers the malt flavour did come through from the malted milk powder. Due to the sheer volume of chocolate (I think I went a little overboard) they needed a lot longer than 2 minutes to rest when they came out of the oven. As soon as I tried to move one, the melted chocolate oozed out the bottom, stuck to the lifter and the whole thing broke apart in a gooey (albeit tasty) mess. The next lot I left for about 15 minutes and they were perfect.

I froze most of the batch but left a few out to snack on before we leave as well as some for the lovely people who are coming to look after our furbabies while we are away. Enjoy!

I have no idea what's coming up next week as I couldn't find it anywhere, so I look forward to being surprised!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Birthday cake instead of cookies!

It was my birthday on Saturday and I turned the big 3-0. Being somewhat contrary I am actually excited about entering my 30s and can't wait to see what they bring! I also share my birthday with my husband which makes it a pretty special day :-)

As a result of overindulging all weekend though I decided to sit out TWD this time around. There's only so much sugar, butter and chocolate a girl can take. First there were the mountains of profiteroles with leftover chocolate pastry cream and sauce. Then for our birthday we made the mother of all cakes ... Dorie's Cocoa Buttermilk Birthday Cake!

I know it's a bit sad making your own birthday cake but this was totally worth it and was surprisingly little effort for a big result. I'm also pretty fussy and would never want a mass produced, artificially flavoured cake, particularly for such a special occasion.

This cake was so impressive but a lot bigger than I expected. I couldn't actually get the lid on the cake container so it ended up in the fridge naked (so to speak).

The cake was rich, chocolatey and almost fudgy while still being perfectly cooked and somehow light at the same time. I love yoghurt in cakes and the buttermilk gives the same effect. The chocolate malt buttercream came together easily and was absolutely divine. I could eat it with a spoon! And did in fact as we had a bit left over. We topped it with a swirl of malteasers which was the perfect accompaniment.

I am leaving for a week in Sydney on Sunday but am looking forward to making next week's recipe, Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops, ahead of time and eating them on the plane!

Daring Bakers August: Chocolate Eclairs

You should probably grab a cup of tea ... this is going to be a long post!

This month Meeta from What’s For Lunch, Honey? and Tony Tahhan challenged us to make Pierre Hermé’s éclairs. My first thought ... yum! However, my first Daring Bakers Challenge was an almost complete disaster as I didn't get a single edible eclair from the recipe.

First of all I knew I was going to have oven issues. My two choices are a 30 year old electric oven with base elements that cooks unevenly and lets a lot of heat escape. Or the convection setting on our microwave (the only time we use it) which is fan forced, has limited temperature settings and tends to cook very quickly.

I decided I would follow the recipe exactly, and as it stated that after a certain amount of cooking the door had to left ajar, clearly I had to use the older oven. I don't know of any microwaves that start with the door open!

I prepared all 3 chocolate components first thing Saturday morning and they were a breeze. At the time I thought the quantities were excessive and I was right. I definitely should have halved (or third-ed?) the amounts.

Eclairs Round #1

I was keen to try out my new piping bag and nozzle and carefully piped out 9 chubby lengths onto the baking tray. The mixture seemed a bit thinner than I thought it would be and some oozed out the end as I filled the bag. They also spread a lot on the tray once they were piped.

After 7 minutes baking as instructed, I propped the door open and continued to cook. After 20 minutes, they were puffed and slightly golden and I felt quite chuffed! It didn't last long though. As soon as I removed them I noticed the bottoms were very dark, almost burnt, and they weren't as golden on top as I had thought. They also began to sink before our eyes and within minutes were as flat as pancakes.

Once they were cool I attempted to slice off the top (the whole thing was only about 1cm high so it wasn't easy!) only to discover a stodgy middle that released a disgusting scrambled eggs smell. Ewww! Not cooked!

As I naively thought this batch would work, I had piped the rest into rounds to make profiteroles. I decided to check online for other eclair/profiterole recipes to see if there were any tips. This is a summary of what I found:

1. a cooking time of eat least 30 minutes, whereas this one said only 20
2. prick the tops with a knife once the cooking was finished to release the steam and prevent them from going soggy
3. leave them in the turned off oven for at least 15 minutes to dry out before removing them to cool

All of this is logical so I decided to incorporate the advice.

Profiteroles Round #1

This time I decided to use the convection setting and fiddle with the time and temps. I put them in for 10 minutes at 180 deg C then dropped it to 160 deg for 20 minutes. At this stage they were puffed and beautifully golden so I left them in the turned off oven for 15 minutes and then left them to cool for another 15.

When I came back they were again flat as pancakes and when I sliced the top off one I found more doughy, stodgy, egginess. Aaaaaah!!!!!!

In a fit of temper I threw them back in the oven at 180 for a further 15 minutes not really caring what would happen.

Yet again, when cooled and sliced, they were still eggy and uncooked.

Clearly there is something going on here and I think it was that there was just far too much egg to begin with. Perhaps if I wasn't a choux pastry virgin I would have been able to assess it and leave 1 or 2 eggs out and make it work. The mixture did come together beautifully, it folded in thick ribbons at the end but still it didn't work for me. (the photo below was about half way through - it was thicker by the end!)

By this stage it was nearly 5 pm and I was totally over it. I also had 3 separate containers filled with chocolate glaze, chocolate sauce and chocolate pastry cream and nothing to do with it. What was annoying me more was having to throw all of those eclairs in the bin. Such a waste of ingredients!

Having now almost run out of eggs I hunted online for another recipe. I decided this was a better option than trying to doctor the original recipe which I have never been able to do very well. This time ... success!

Choux Pastry
recipe from Taste.com.au

80ml water
40 g butter, cubed and at room temperature
50g plain flour
2 eggs, at room temperature

Place water and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes or until butter melts and mixture just comes to the boil. Add all the flour to the butter mixture at once and use a wooden spoon to beat until well combined. Place over low heat and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until the mixture forms a ball and begins to come away from the side of the saucepan. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly.

Whisk 1 egg in a small bowl and set aside. Whisk the remaining egg in a small bowl, then add it to the flour mixture, beating well with a wooden spoon. Gradually add a little of the reserved egg and beat until the mixture just falls from the spoon but still holds its shape.

Preheat oven to 200°C. Brush a baking tray with oil to lightly grease. Spoon 25-30 teaspoonsful of the mixture onto tray, about 3cm apart (I made 15 larger ones). Alternatively, use a pastry bag fitted with a 1.5cm-diameter plain piping nozzle to pipe the profiteroles onto the baking tray. Brush the tops with a little of the remaining egg. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until the profiteroles are puffed and golden.

Remove from oven and turn the oven off. Using a skewer or a small knife, pierce the base (or top) of each profiterole to release the steam. Return the profiteroles to the oven and leave them for 15 minutes to dry out. Remove the profiteroles from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

The results of the 2 recipes could not be more different. This time around the mixture was a lot thicker and didn't ooze out of the piping bag. They were puffed, golden brown and dry to the touch. They also felt as light as air when cooked, whereas the others were heavy and solid.

Having said all that there are about a thousand other Daring Bakers and from reading the forums it seems this recipe worked brilliantly for 90% of them, so make sure you check out their results!

Overall this was a major challenge. But that's why I joined the Daring Bakers ... to stretch myself, try new things and not ignore recipes that look too hard. The fact is I can now add choux pastry to my repertoire, even if it is not Pierre Hermé’s éclairs. Bring on September!

Chicken Pie

I love pie. There is something so homey, so comforting, so rustic about a pie. At least the way I make them anyway! They never taste the same twice but you can't go too far wrong whatever filling or flavours you decide upon. Buttery, flaky shortcrust pastry encasing a warm, savoury filling. Yum!

Basic Shortcrust Pastry
Recipe from Modern Classics No1 by Donna Hay, p155

2 cups plain flour
145g (5oz) cold butter
2-3 tbs ice cold water

Blitz the flour and butter together in a food processor until it resembles course breadcrumbs. With the mixer on low, drizzle in enough cold water to form a smooth dough.

Turn out onto a floured board and knead very lightly. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. When ready to use, roll out until 3mm thick. This quantity will line up to a 25cm (10in) pie dish.

(I normally need 1 1/2 times this quantity for my pie dish)

Chicken Pie
A Food.Baby original

There really isn't a recipe as such for this. You choose whatever vegetables and herbs you like. The only thing to watch is that you cook the filling until it is thick enough and cool it slightly before using. Here is what I used for this particular pie:

750g chicken thigh fillets, cut into small chunks
6 large field mushrooms, diced
2 large carrots in small dice
1 onion, chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic
2 leeks, quartered and chopped finely
500ml chicken stock
1 tbs plain flour
1 bouqet garni
corn flour to thicken

Heat some oil in a heavy based pan over medium-high heat. Toss the chicken pieces with the flour and then cook until they are browned on all sides. Remove and place the pan back on the heat. Add a little more oil if needed and fry the onion, garlic, carrots and leeks until they are starting to soften.

Return the chicken to the pan with the vegetables. Add the bouquet garni and any other herbs you like. Pour in the stock. Bring to the boil then reduce heat to low and simmer for around 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, add the chopped mushrooms and stir well. Simmer for another 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. If the mixture is too liquid at this stage, add a few teaspoons of cornflour mixed with a small amount of water. When you are happy with the taste and consistency, remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Preheat the oven to 200 deg C. Roll out 1/2 the pastry to line the base of your pie dish. Pour in the cooled filling then roll out the other half of the pastry to cover. Pinch the edges to seal and make a few slits in the middle to allow some steam to escape. Brush lightly with beaten egg.

Bake for approx 45 minutes or until the pie is puffed, bubbling and golden. Cool for 10 minutes before serving with a green salad or vegetables.

Serves 6.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte

To be honest my torte doesn't really have bands as such, more wobbles, swirls and waves!

This recipe really caught my eye when I first flicked through my copy of Baking. Dorie's torte is stunning in its simplicity, precision and colour. I guess 1 out of 3 isn't bad? Only raspberries can give you that shocking pink colour!

This happened purely because I tried to cheat by not freezing the layers as long as recommended (I was too tired to stay awake that long) and the results speak for themselves! When I placed the icecream layer on top and smoothed it out it pushed the chocolate to the edges. But if I hadn't made it when I did it wouldn't have been made at all.

The taste test ...

I LOVE the combination of chocolate and raspberries and the colour was fabulous. It just wasn't as pretty as it could have been :)

Thanks to Amy of Food, Family and Fun for choosing such a great recipe. I will definitely be making this again in the future and next time will follow the directions exactly.

Next week we have Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters. Try and say that 3 times fast!

(Almost) Perfection Pound Cake

I was inspired to make another Dorie recipe this week in honour of some visiting relatives. I thought a pound cake would be ideal as it is simple, not too sweet and lovely with tea or coffee.

The cake was really easy to prepare but I was wary of overcooking it. When this cake was made as a TWD recipe lots of people found it very dry. Once it cooled I wrapped it in gladwrap and left it overnight before slicing it which I'm sure improved both the taste and texture.

As it was a bit on the dry side, I made a lemon simple syrup to brush over it (1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water and zest of 1/2 lemon brought to the boil and cooled). I then topped each with a smear of good raspberry jam and a dollop of pure whipped cream. Delicious!

Perfection Pound Cake
from Baking: From my Home to Yours, p222

2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
230g unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup of sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 150 deg c (fan forced). Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan and line the base with baking paper.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Beat the butter and sugar on high speed until pale and fluffy, a full 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and beater and reduce the speed to medium. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 to 2 minutes after each egg goes in. As you are working, scrape down the bowl and beater often. Mix in the vanilla extract.

Reduce speed to low and add the flour, mixing until it’s incorporated- DON’T OVERMIX. In fact, you might want to fold in the last of the flour, or even all of it by hand with a rubber spatula.

Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and smooth the top. Put the cake into the oven to bake, and check on it after 45 minutes. If it’s browning too quickly cover it loosely with foil. Depending on your pan size, your cake might need to be in oven from 70 to 95 minutes (Mine took 75 minutes).

The cake is baked properly when a thin knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean. Remove cake from oven, and transfer the pan to a rack and allow to cool for 30 minutes. Run a blunt knife between the cake and sides of pan and turn the cake out, then turn it right side up on the rack and cool to room temperature.