Wed, 16th May, 2012

Welcome back to Wednesday Baking Day!  My week off certainly delivered the goods as I sampled some of regional Victoria's best baked delights.  Unfortunately I was so engrossed in sampling as much as possible (once again, for "research") that I forgot to take any pictures.  You'll just have to take my word for it that they do a mean apple slice at the Horsham Bakery. 

Anyway, onto this week's Comfort Food project.  The name of this dish makes my laugh nearly as much as the Clafoutis I baked in the first entry of this blog.

Introducing....Berry Grunt.

Seriously?  Grunt?  Yes friends, it's basically a comical alternative name for dessert dumplings. Yummy doughy dumplings swimming in a warm lake of berries.  Perhaps it's name derives from the affirmative sounds made by the lucky few that get to sample such goodness on a cold wintery night. 

Here are the little tikes bubbling away happily on the stove...

Now, I'll admit the final result isn't that attractive...although with the generally manic state of life happening at the moment, I'm not really taking my photography far beyond the, "Well, let's click 'er as she lies!" philosophy, which isn't doing anyone any favours.

But then again, this dish is called a Grunt, so I wouldn't be expecting Gourmet Traveller-glamour now, would you?  (Well, to be fair I'm sure Gourmet Traveller could make a Grunt look like the veritable Miss Universe of desserts.  But this is beside the point.)

Wishing you all at least one happy Grunt this winter season...

xx Leah

Wed, 2nd May, 2012

 May: Cobblers, Crumbles & other cold weather comforts...

 

Today's recipe: Apple and Rhubarb Buckle

 

Hello.  My name is Leah, and I am a Comfort Eater.

My friends and I often joke around about our comfort-eating tendencies, especially now that Melbourne weather is getting colder.  But in all seriousness, I really do think I have a little problem.  I've started noticing some of the warning signs:

• Finding myself convinced that I consider and rationalise issues easier when I have a cup tea in my hand...
• Finding myself believing that I think even more clearly and make better decisions when I have a cup of tea in my hand and a little cake or cookie on a plate...
• Finding myself assured that things will simply be better once it's mealtime.  Just gotta make it through to lunch.  Or dinner.  Or afternoon tea.  Or dessert.  Or miscellaneous snack-time.

Now these may seem minor, but lately they've stepped up a notch:

• When cold, my thoughts immediately run to "What could I eat?" rather than "What could I wear?" in order to get warm...
• Eating a peanut butter sandwich at 9:30am...when I've had a massive bowl of porridge at only 7:30am (This happened this morning...it's been an intense couple of weeks)

Ah, I could continue, but I'll only embarrass myself further.  Anyway, suffice to say, I have devoted the month of May to desserts with a distinct "Cold weather comfort" feel.  Crumbles, cobblers, and other warm fruit desserts with fun names like Buckles, Grunts and Pandowdys.  How could I resist when they sound like they come straight from an Enid Blyton book??

So tonight I tried my hand at a Buckle.  This dessert is pretty much a soft vanilla-cake base, with a fruit crumble on top.  Cake and crumble in one?  Yes please!  I chose apple and rhubarb.  Can't go wrong.

Buuuuuut it kinda went wrong.  

It cooked through really well, the cakey base was delicious, the crumble was perfectly buttery and crumbly (it didn't get it's name for nothing!)

But I didn't use enough fruit, and the whole thing was a little dry.  There was none of that delicious fruit goopiness that crumbles have - it probably soaked into the cake.  And although I'm a fan of tart rhubarb, I really could have added some sugar.

Still, my housemates and I managed to eat the whole thing (see above paragraph on comfort eating) so all in all, not a bad first attempt at the buckle.

I'm sad to say next week there will be no baking day.  I'll be touring the countryside in a tour bus hitting the hot spots of regional Victoria.  Unfortunately our contracts do not include confirmation of access to cooking facilities, so I'll devote the week to "research" (aka tasting lots of yummy things).  See you all in two weeks!

xx Leah