Fresh Start...

After being MIA for 2 weeks, Wednesday Baking Day is officially BACK!  I was lucky enough to be in Kuala Lumpur for the past two Wednesdays, and wasn't able to coordinate myself to post anything.  However! I did eat a piece of possibly my all time favourite cake (well, I have a few of those...): the Tirimasu cake from Alexis cafe/bar.

This photo doesn't really do it justice, but the nuts on the outside are coated ever-so-lightly in toffee, giving the perfect crunchy contrast to the smooth layers of cream and cake below.

Oh Goodness Gracious. 





Anyway, on to today's task.  It started with these cheery guys I received from some awesome friends.

Now don't be fooled - they're limes, not lemons.  What woulda thunk it?  But they're ripe and smell great, so I decided to go for mini lime cream tarts.

Some quick background info here:  I. LOVE. PASTRY.  How much?  This much! (And she stretches out her arms until they wrap around the world twice.) Unfortunately I'm not great at making it.  I have a number of recipes I've been wanting to compare, some savoury and some sweet; some with butter or melted butter, some with lard (the latter of which my Mum uses to make fabulous pastry).  So today I tried a shortcrust (unsweetened, using chilled butter) recipe with the lime tarts - I didn't want the whole thing to be sickly sweet.


Soooooo it turns out I didn't weigh the mini-tarts down enough when blind-baking the pastry.  Poof!  They kind of looked like the puffiness you get around your eyes after a late night and not much sleep.

(Ok ok, I didn't actually weigh them down at all.  How the heck do you fit pie weights in them?  Or rice?  Well that stuff just seems to get everywhere...)  

To make matters worse, I left the filling in too long, and well, the photos here kind of explain it all. 


 Happily, the larger size worked out better:

 Now nothing hides imperfections better than a healthy dose of meringue, so out came the egg whites!

Clearly the tart-to-meringue-ratio is bit extreme in favour of meringue here, but overall I'd call today a sort-of-success.  The pastry was deliciously flaky, so texture gets a 10/10.  I wasn't convinced on taste though - may a little sweetness in the dough could have helped.  Not to worry though - that's what next Wednesday is for!


See you then,

Leah xx

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

Wed, 25 April, 2012

For all those who are not from Australia, today was Anzac Day.  And I made Anzac biscuits.

This is going to be a very short post, as I also had three rehearsals today and it's currently 11:51pm.  But despite the fact that lately I have often been burning things in the oven, I was pleased that these beauties turned out, well, beautie-ful!

I'm hoping to get a little more creativity back into my photography soon, but on days like these it's more a "just-get-the-job-done" situation.   Still, my leaning tower of Anzacs does make me smile.  They fell over about 0.1 seconds after I took the shot.  (The tiny sound of the shutter release was all the vibration required to topple such a precarious foundation.  Don't build your house on oats and brown sugar, I say.) 

The lucky guys in the tins at the back made it to rehearsal to feed the masses.  The irregular shaped guys at the front were reserved for housemates.  I don't think they minded. (The biscuits or the housemates, that is!)

Oh! And since next week will be May, I've decided to start themeing my months.  For example, gluten free month, tart/pastry month etc.  I have some ideas for May, but would love to know yours!  Please comment and let me know!

xx Leah

Wed, 18th April, 2012

Last Sunday I went to Bendigo to see the Grace Kelly exhibition.  While it was very enjoyable, I must confess that the highlight of my day actually turned out to be...a cookie.  And not just any cookie, let me tell you.  It was a Kahlua Cream-filled Melting Moment.  Out. Standing.

Inspired for this week's baking day, I put out the call to all my biscuity-friends to volunteer for a  kahlua-cream trial.  I was really happy with the turnout.  At least 20 biscuits showed up!  Some of them were a little burnt on the bottom, but beggars can't be choosy I guess.

Here they are arriving the door in the early afternoon.  A good looking bunch overall, don't you think?

So we got to work.  I adapted a Womens Weekly recipe for Monte Creams, substituting the delicious coffee-flavoured liqueur for the milk and vanilla in the filling.  Not only flavour, but consistency and texture were very important variables in this trial.

Never having conducted a trial before, I clearly did not plan well and only had time for one go at the filling.  The biscuits and I all agreed that it was a great first attempt though!  Just enough kahlua, and a nice smooth texture.  It lost a few points on consistency - I would have liked it a little firmer, but didn't want to risk adding more icing sugar and overbalancing the sweetness-factor. (Oh, and did I mention I ran out of time?)

Anyway, a fun afternoon was had by all, and everyone crowded in for a group photo before heading home.  It was a privilege to meet such a great bunch of biscuits.

Till next Wednesday,

xx Leah

Wed, 11th April, 2012

Madeleines!

Who knew these sweet little shell-shaped morsels could taste so delectable? 

This week two wonderful friends both contributed to Baking Day - one by lending me a madeleine tray, and the other by spontaneously loaning me two gorgeous cookbooks on tea-time treats.  What a lucky girl I am!

In amongst the glossy, mouth watering pages of "High Tea: Recipes With a Sense of Occassion" I found a recipe for lavender and honey madeleines.  Now I'll admit, I was dubious about the lavender.  I like the concept, and it suits our current season of harvest and dried herbs etc, but taste-wise? Really?

So it turns out that LAVENDER TASTES AMAZING.  I left the madeleines in the oven a little too long so they browned a bit more than I would have liked, but the combination of almond, honey and lavender kicked my tastebuds up off the couch and inspired them to throw a party in their honour.  Light and refreshing, perfect with a cuppa...need I go on?  These are definite repeaters.

 

You might ask, "Why the featured piano accordion in this shot Leah?"  Well, the simple reason is that I have a habit of naming instruments or objects that are dear to me, and my baby accordion's name happens to be Madeleine.  This combined with a distinct lack-of-any-further-inspiration for my photo shoot meant that she gets to have her 5 minutes of fame here on my blog.  See? Simple.

See you next week!

xx Leah

Fri, 6th April 2012

It's Good Friday, and today I made Hot Cross Buns (aka Rock Cakes)

Yup that's right, no prolonged build up this week, I'm cutting straight to the chase.  The flavour of my buns was GREAT - mixed spice with a little extra cinnamon, and I opted for dates and apricots rather than the traditional sultanas.  De-lic-ious. 

It's just that they were also, well...dense.

I suspected at first that the dough was a little dry, but after bit of kneading, it felt fine.  I believe this to have been a major culprit in the density-factor: Overkneading.  A classic trap for young players. They didn't rise all that much either, and as far as I know that's not a great sign of things to come.

So here is how they turned out.  I should reiterate, they were VERY tasty, so overall I'm pretty happy.  They just need a reheat and a good strong mandible to enjoy them fully!
 

My lovely friend Amy accompanied me on baking day today.  Here she is considering thoughtfully whether or not she likes the tops or bottoms of her rock cakes better...

Here's a shout out to Alexis for the recipe, John for the baking tips, Amy for the comradery and Linda who told me she will be simulbaking with me from Malaysia.  This has made me smile all day.

Happy Good Friday everyone!

xx Leah