Major delays

If my life this week was a traffic report, it would say "Major delays in the baking area, with available time backed up until at least Saturday evening.  Hopefully cleared by Sunday.  We urge all commuters to be patient with the unfortunate delay."

Thus said, this week's Baking Day shall appear sometime this weekend.  And just in case you may think I'm resting on my laurels (and so what if I am!) I can confirm that I have purchased the quinces, and a tarte tartin awaits.  Oh golly, bring on Sunday!!

xx Leah

Ode to Apple* Slice

When I was a girl, so small and wee,

My family would visit the bakery.

My father would lean down to my height,

And ask me which sweet treat I'd like.

Now Dad, he liked the chocolate eclair, 

And this is a fondness I still do share.

But yet, another treat won out,

My mother and I, as one, would shout:

Apple Slice! Apple Slice!

Perhaps two squares would be quite nice!

The apple so sweet, the sugary pastry 

That crumbles so badly, but's oh so tasty!

Today I gave it a red hot go,

And baked and apple slice - although

I didn't have any apples about, 

So I used pears.  Now there's no doubt

That my results - though not precise

In replicating that Apple Slice,

Were still delicious, and I dare say

They'll appear in my kitchen again someday.

xx Leah

Queensland Cornflake Crunchies!

This week is about all things simple.  I'm on holidays at the beach (yippeeee!) and life is revolving mainly around sleeping, eating, some swimming and bushwalking - feels like a slice of heaven! 

So I'm taking it as a good sign that I only remembered it was baking day at 4pm this afternoon.  We have no real baking ingredients in the house, so the answer was...Cornflake Cookies!!!!  I adore these biscuits, blending a yummy doughy mixture with sweet sultanas and crunchy cornflakes (I opted for the Crunchy Nut variety - holidays are for splurging, right? Of course.)

So we picked up some flour and cornflakes, used the magarine that's in the fridge (holidays, remember?) forgot about caster sugar and used the raw sugar in the pantry.  I didn't even think twice about not having any vanilla - and must admit, embracing the "anything goes" baking mentality was quite refreshing!

And you know what?  They turned out great!  Not the perfect cookie, but the perfect holiday cookie.  And let's be honest, perfection isn't really commonplace in this blog.  So join me next week for some more Enthusiastic Amateur Adventures!

xx Leah

Cherry Love...

And the Great Pastry Road-Test continues!!

This week of baking provided me with some interesting confirmations:

• There's a reason my Mum always always always uses lard pastry.  It's so easy to handle!!!  You don't need to keep it cold, you can knead it over and over without it losing texture, you can fling it around without it falling to pieces...Frankly, if butter pastry were a woman, she would be super high-maintenance. 

• Lard Pastry tastes different.  Awesome different.

• I like pastry better without sugar in it, even if the filling is sweet.

• Pitting cherries is messy and time consuming (even with a cherry pitter) but sooooo worth it.

• I love love love my french rolling pin with no handles.  This is not a new discovery, just a re-confirmation.

Ok, so onto the photos - oh, I haven't yet mentioned that today I baked a cherry tart with pastry cream filling (very similar to a thick vanilla custard).  Surprisingly, nothing really went wrong, so there's not much more to write about!  I tweaked the filling with more egg yolks to make it more custard-y, and my taste buds later threw a party in my honour.  

Well this week concludes my pastry experimentation for a little while.  See you next Wednesday for another baking adventure!

xx Leah

Rhubarb! Rhubarb!

I love rhubarb season!!  I'm utterly addicted to the stuff.  I have it on porridge for breakfast, or with yoghurt for a snack, or custard for dessert.  I'd like to have a go at rhubarb ice-cream sometime too.  But today I decided to take a week off from The Great Pastry Experiment and treat myself to a simple cake: Rhubarb and Hazelnut.  Mmmmmm!!!!!!!
 

 

Today was a beautiful sunny day in Melbourne, and as I pulled on my apron at 8am (I know, I know - impressive right?  Or just plain nuts...) I had the delighted grin of expectation on my otherwise weary face.  But this recipe wasn't going to make life easy for me.  For starters, there simply wasn't enough batter to cover the tin in two layers.  So I made another half batch.  And then the rhubarb started dripping through the springform tin, where it promptly burnt on the bottom of the oven.*

The result, though, was a deliciously rustic-looking cake that in fact behaved more like a dense, cakey slice.  No matter!  The caramelised rhubarb along the edge was well worth it.  Wednesday Baking Day wins again! 

                                                   

So it's back to pastry next week - this time with Mama's lard recipe.  Yumbo!

xx Leah

*On a side note, the bottom of my oven seems to be the happening place to hang out for renegade ingredients of my baking endeavours.  Croissant butter, stewed apple and melted chocolate have all been sighted there at various times.  And frankly, once they make an appearance, its very difficult to get them to leave without heavy negotiations and sometimes, even physical force (only when strictly necessary, of course).                                                                          

Loud face

One of my favourite people in the world has a phrase called "loud face":  It's when your face speaks the truth before your brain or mouth have time to censor it.  For example, I wandered into her room one day and casually asked if my outfit looked ok.  Before a polite and diplomatic, "Umm...yes" could even form on her lips, her face was screaming, "Nooooooooooo. I think I'd go back to the wardrobe and spend a bit more time on it this morning, friend."  Welcome to loud face.  It cannot lie.

But not all loud faces are negative.  One rainy day in Geneva in 2008, I ate a slice of chocolate tart.  The crust was salty, the filling was rich and sweet.  It must have activated a loud face potent enough to strip the mind of concious thought, because I literally stopped my conversation mid-sentence and couldn't remember what I had been talking about.  Again, loud face never lies.

Which brings me to week three of pastry/tart crust trials, and today's bake-off: Chocolate tart. 

I combined a Swedish pastry recipe (a sweet dough that uses melted buter) with a chocolate filling from my Tartine book, and the result was a SUPER-rich tart with a crumbly crust that tasted almost like shortbread.  Although somewhat different to my Geneva experience, it was pretty darn tasty! 










Now in true Wednesday Baking Day style, things still went wrong.  The filling was slightly undercooked and consequently had some wobble-tendencies. To photograph it, a quick shutter speed was of-the-essence, so as to snatch the shot before the tip of the wedge slumped over to leave a rather unattractive brown smudge on the plate...
  





And in an act of anti-buttering arrogance, I had proclaimed myself 'above' need to grease the pie tin.  Which of course meant that large chunks of the pastry stuck fast to the bottom of the dish, and gentle encouragement to remove it only resulted in instantaneous crumbling.

Which brings me to my final thought: I am thinking of renaming this blog "The First Pancake".  You know how the first pancake is always a bit of a flop, in spite of all that joyous expectation?  But you still eat it, and they all get better from then on, of course.  But it seems to kind of fit with my Wednesday baking experiences.  Thoughts?

Have a great week friends!

xx Leah

Temptations...

It's a question I've been struggling with for a long time.  Some days I'm convinced it needs to happen.  It's for my own good, right?  While other days I'm happily humble and content with what I already own.

The question is...should I, or should I not BUY A KITCHENAID.

Sure, some of you might now be rolling yours eyes.  What a first-world problem!  Send in the violins!  Yes yes I agree, but nonetheless, every year I can't help but ponder the advantages versus the very expensive cost.  But this year, in a stroke of pure genius, I decided to borrow a Kitchenaid from my sister-in-law to see if it really makes a difference.

In short, it really makes a difference.

This week I baked Frangipani tarts.  (For some reason 'Frangipani' refers to an almond flavoured cream in french patisserie).  They turned out reasonably well.  Here are some photos:

But the real interest in this week's baking day was found in the simple act of creaming butter.  I think I actually swooned.  So easy!  So effortless!  My hands danced from ingredient to ingredient as I tossed them into the bowl.  My heart sang a little tune as the pastry, and later the cream, combined in the bowl to become beautifully smooth.  So it looks like now I have two questions...how quickly can I save up the money, and how long will it take my sister to notice I still haven't returned her machine yet...


Lastly, these tarts were made with a sweet pastry, quite different to last week.  My homies really liked it.  I think I prefer flaky pastry, and a little less sweet.  Maybe there's a happy medium somewhere...

See you next Wednesday!

xx Leah