Ingredients

125g unsalted butter, room temperature
200g (1 cup) white sugar
2 eggs
240ml (1 cup) buttermilk
1 tbsp lemon juice
250g (2 cups) all-purpose (plain) flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
250g raspberries

2 – 3 tbsp pearl sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 175°C. Grease and flour a square or rectangular cake tin.

Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy.

Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated.

Whisk in the buttermilk and lemon juice. It won’t want to mix in yet, but will come together when you add the flour.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, then beat into the wet ingredients, just until you have a smooth batter.

Pour into baking tin and scatter the raspberries over the batter, pressing them in a bit. Sprinkle the top with pearl sugar.

Bake for 50 – 55 minutes, until golden on top and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Quorn sausage rolls

Makes 16

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
450g Quorn mince
140g tomato paste
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp Vegemite or Marmite dissolved in 1 tbsp water OR 1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp corn starch dissolved in 2 tbsp water
salt & pepper
2 sheets puff pastry each 42 x 26cm
1 egg, lightly beaten for egg wash

Directions

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and cook the onion until it starts to soften, then add the garlic and cook for about 3 minutes.

Add the Quorn mince, tomato paste and oregano and mix well over low heat.

Add the Vegemite and corn starch mixtures and mix well.

Season to taste and cook over low heat until thickened, about 5 minutes.

Remove saucepan from heat and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 220°C and line a large baking sheet with parchment.

Cut the pastry sheets in half lengthwise. Put a quarter of the filling lengthwise down the centre of each piece of pastry, then fold the sides tightly over the filling and pinch closed. You can use some egg wash to seal it if you like, but I found it unnecessary. Use a sharp knife to cut each long roll into four. Place the rolls seam-side-down on the parchment. Brush with egg wash.

Bake the rolls for about 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Serve with french fries and ketchup!

Asparagus en croûte

Makes 4

Ingredients

500g young asparagus spears
1 tbsp olive oil
zest of 1/2 a lemon
salt & pepper
120g Gruyère, sliced
2 sheets puff pastry each 42 x 26cm
1 egg, lightly beaten for egg wash

Directions

Trim the bottoms of the asparagus spears as necessary.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the asparagus and cook until soft and lightly browned, 15 – 20 minutes, depending on their size. Toss through lemon zest, season to taste and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 210°C and line a baking sheet with parchment.

Cut the pastry sheets in half crosswise. Put a quarter of the asparagus across the middle of each piece of pastry, top with a quarter of the sliced cheese, then fold the sides over the filling and pinch the ends closed. You can use some egg wash to seal it if you like, but I found it unnecessary. Place the parcels seam-side-down on the parchment. Brush with egg wash.

Bake for about 30 minutes, until golden.

I served these with lemon-pepper roasted potatoes.

*****

Daring Cooks blog checking lines: Our lovely Monkey Queen of Don’t Make Me Call My Flying Monkeys, was our May Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to dive into the world of en Croute! We were encouraged to make Beef Wellington, Stuffed Mushroom en Croute and to bring our kids into the challenge by encouraging them to create their own en Croute recipes!

Download the printable .pdf file here.

Of course, there was no way three of us could finish this loaf in one sitting, so I extended the shelf-life of the leftover bread by turning it into biscotti to munch on with a cold drink on a warm spring afternoon.

Ingredients

375g Type 0, bread or all-purpose (plain) flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp instant dry yeast
30ml extra-virgin olive oil
240ml cold water

Filling

120g Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated

Topping

olive oil
coarse sea salt

Directions

Mix all dough ingredients together and knead until smooth, about 10 minutes. Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place for 4 hours.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface, knead lightly and stretch and fold into a ball, tucking the seams underneath. Return to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rest another 2 hours.

Line a baking sheet with parchment.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and stretch out to a large rectangle about 1cm thick. Sprinkle with half the Parmigiano Reggiano then fold the dough with 4 folds into a tight package from one of the short ends. Press out again to a rectangle about 2cm thick, sprinkle with the remaining cheese then fold with 3 folds into a package again. Place the dough onto the baking sheet, press out to about 2cm thick, cover with a clean, dry tea towel and let rest for another hour.

Preheat oven to 250°C.

When ready to bake, use your fingertips to make indentations all over the top of the dough. Drizzle generously with olive oil and sprinkle with course sea salt.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until golden. Serve warm.

Biscotti

Preheat oven to 150°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

Thinly slice the focaccia (about 1/2cm thick) and lay the pieces on the parchment.

Bake for about 30 minutes, flipping once or twice, until dry and crisp and golden brown. Your baking time may vary (my oven is slow at drying things) so check them frequently.

Cool completely on a wire rack before serving with a cold drink.

Store in an airtight container.

*****

Submitted to YeastSpotting

Submitted to Barbara and Sandra at Panissimo

Take this cake, for instance. I saw this recipe and knew I had to make it immediately. But then I thought, “Oooh, honey would go well in that!” so I added “honey” to my search string and found this recipe. But it didn’t have syrup. So I added “syrup” to my search string and found this recipe. And then I took my preferred elements from all three recipes and this is the result.

And it’s delicious,. even if I do say so myself! :p

By the way, that line around the cake is from my stupid cake tin. Time to go shopping, methinks!

Ingredients

For the cake

250g all-purpose (plain) flour
80g semolina flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
250g Greek yogurt
4 tbsp honey
5 eggs, separated
150g butter, room temperature
250g white (granulated) sugar
zest from a lemon

For the syrup

250g white (granulated) sugar
250ml water
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Grease and flour a 23cm x 23cm square springform cake tin.

Whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

Stir together the yogurt and honey in a small bowl.

Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks in a separate bowl.

In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, until fully incorporated. Add the lemon zest and the yoghurt and honey and mix well.

Add the flour mixture and mix just until there are no traces visible. Add half the egg whites, folding gently with a rubber spatula until they are well mixed. Fold in the remaining egg whites gently, then pour the fluffy batter into the cake tin.

Bake for about 50 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool to room temperature. When cooled, transfer to a plate.

Put all the syrup ingredients together in a medium saucepan, bring to a simmer and stir until the sugar is dissolved, about 3 minutes, then allow to cool slightly.

Prick the top of the cake all over with a toothpick and spoon the warm syrup very slowly over the cake, then allow to cool completely. You may need to baste it repeatedly, but it will soak up any syrup that pools around the base in the plate.

These pizzas were topped with…

fresh tomatoes, black olives and basil, and

fresh spinach and ricotta.

Makes 2 x 28cm pizzas

Ingredients

150g 100% hydration starter
400g Type 0, bread or all-purpose (plain) flour
180g water
30g olive oil
7g salt

Note: I took 100g mature starter, brought it to room temperature for an hour, fed it with 25g each of flour and water and let it ferment for 3 hours.

Directions

Mix the starter and water together in a large bowl then add the flour and mix to a shaggy dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutes.

Add the oil and mix in, then add the salt and knead until dough is soft and elastic, 8-10 minutes by hand or 5 minutes in a stand mixer.

Place dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled – about 3 hours, depending on ambient temperature.

Turn dough out and cut in half, being careful not to degas it too much. Gently form into balls and let rest, covered, for another hour.

Gently pull the dough out to size and make your pizza as usual.

The sourdough starter I used to make this was a “sweet” starter, like the one I used in the Tuscan orange cake. The starter takes about 2 days to prepare (see below for directions) then you should allow one full day for the cake.

Ingredients

For the cake

120g “sweet” sourdough starter
30ml lukewarm water
350g Type 0, bread or all-purpose (plain) flour
6 large eggs, room temperature, separated
20g granulated sugar
75g butter, room temperature
zest of 1 lemon
6g salt

extra butter for greasing the work surface, hands, dough scraper & baking pan

For the syrup

1 cup water
1 1/2 cups honey
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (4 medium lemons)

For the pastry cream filling

1 cup whole milk
2 tbsp cornstarch
6 tbsp sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
30g butter
1 tsp vanilla

1 punnet strawberries

Directions

For the cake

Put the egg whites into a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer and, working with a wooden spoon or paddle attachment, gradually add enough flour to form a soft, sticky dough, reserving about half a cup of the flour. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.

Mix together the starter and water and add to the mixing bowl and combine. Add the lemon zest while mixing at low speed.

When the dough starts pulling away from the sides of the bowl, add one egg yolk. As soon as the yolk is absorbed, add one tablespoon of flour and combine.

Add the second yolk and the sugar. As soon as the yolk is absorbed, add one tablespoon of flour and combine.

Raise the mixer speed a little and add the third yolk and the salt. As soon as the yolk is absorbed add scant tablespoon of flour and combine.

Keep on adding one yolk at the time and a tablespoon of flour, reserving a tablespoon of flour.

Mix the dough until is elastic and thready.

Add the butter and as soon as the butter is adsorbed, add the remaining flour.

Keep on mixing till the dough passes the “window pane test”.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it proof until it has tripled in volume, about 4 hours.

Grease your dough scraper, your hands and your work surface and put the dough on it and stretch and fold several times. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest 15 minutes on the bench.

Lightly grease a savarin ring mold.

The original instructions said to use the dough scraper to gently form it into a ball, make a hole in the centre and put it in the prepared pan. In practice, my dough wasn’t going to stay in any kind of ball shape or allow itself to have a hole poked in it, so I sort of stretched and wrestled it into the pan.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot until the dough almost reaches the top of the pan, about 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 175°C.

Bake savarin for about 40 minutes, until the top is golden.

Cool the savarin in the mold for 10 minutes then remove from the mold onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

If left to dry out, the savarin will absorb more syrup, so I returned mine to the mold, covered it and left it overnight, then soaked it the next day.

For the syrup

Bring the water, honey and lemon juice to a boil in a small saucepan, boil for 5 minutes then allow to cool.

Return the cooled savarin to the ring mold and ladle the syrup over it until it reaches the rim.

Allow it to absorb as much of the syrup as it can, topping up as necessary, then carefully move it onto a wire rack positioned over a pan to let the excess syrup drip. Transfer to a serving plate before filling.

For the filling

Dissolve cornstarch in 1⁄4 cup of milk in a bowl.

Combine the remaining 3/4 cup milk with the sugar in a saucepan, bring to boil and remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg and the yolks into the cornstarch mixture.

Pour 1/3 of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.

Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream while continuously whisking.

Continue whisking until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.

Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

Rinse, hull and halve or quarter the strawberries and pile on top of the pastry cream filling.

*****

For the sweet sourdough starter (takes ~2 days)

First feeding – mix 40g 100% hydration starter with 20g flour. Ferment for 4 hours.

For each subsequent feeding (except the final one), discard all but 30g starter and add 20g flour and 10g water. Ferment for 4 hours. Repeat three times a day for 2 days. Keep the starter well covered at room temperature or in a warm place the whole time.

For the final feeding on the morning of the third day, combine 60g starter, 40g flour, and 20g water. Ferment for 4 hours. You will need 120g starter for this recipe.

*****

Daring Baker’s blog-checking lines: Natalia of Gatti Fili e Farina challenges us to make a traditional Savarin, complete with soaking syrup and cream filling! We were to follow the Savarin recipe but were allowed to be creative with the soaking syrup and filling, allowing us to come up with some very delicious cakes!

Download the printable .pdf file here.

*****

Submitted to YeastSpotting

Submitted to Barbara and Sandra at Panissimo

It was M’s birthday and he’s a Monster fiend, so D and I made him a cake that he would never forget! No need for energy drink after consuming all this sugar, though!

This one would definitely not be filed under “healthy” but it’s only once a year lifetime that I would do something this crazy!

Ingredients

For the cake

175g all purpose (plain) flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
220g butter, room temperature
200g caster sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 – 2 tbsp milk, as needed

1/2 cup strawberry jam for constructing

For the fondant

80g butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
350g powdered sugar + plus extra as needed
Black (30g+) and fluoro green (about 1/2 tsp) food colouring

Directions

For the cake

Preheat oven to 165°C. Butter and flour 4 x 10cm wide x 6cm high soufflé dishes.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together at medium speed until pale and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Add the vanilla and beat until smooth.

Fold the flour mixture into the butter mixture using a large spatula, adding a tablespoon or two of milk to loosen the batter if necessary.

Divide the mixture evenly between the soufflé dishes and gently smooth with a spatula.

Bake for 25 – 30 minutes, until lightly golden on top and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Trim the tops with a large serrated knife so they are flat and take a thin slice off the bottoms to expose the crumb for better sticking.

Warm the strawberry jam and remove any lumps, then use a silicon brush to spread it fairly thickly onto the flat faces of the cakes that you will join together. Stack the cakes and trim if necessary so it is a smooth cylinder.

For the fondant

Mix butter, sugar syrup and vanilla together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon. Add the powdered sugar and stir until combined and smooth.

Remove 150g of fondant to a small bowl and set aside.

Into the large portion, knead enough black food colouring to achieve the desired shade. Of course, you are aiming for black, so the desired shade will be black. I used one and a bit 30g tubes of gel colouring. You may need to add more powdered sugar to compensate for the colouring liquid. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, pressed onto the surface of the fondant and refrigerate until ready to use.

Take the fondant you removed and remove 50g of it to a small bowl, knead enough fluoro green food colouring to get the desired shade for the M and set aside.

Into the 100g remaining, knead enough black food colouring to get a metallic grey colour. A few drops should do (mine’s a bit dark).

Cover both small bowl tightly with plastic wrap, pressed onto the surface of the fondant and refrigerate until ready to use.

Assembly

When you’re ready to cover the cake, take the three bowls of fondant from the fridge and knead until pliable.

Roll out the green fondant to 3mm thick between two sheets of parchment, remove the top sheet and use a small, pointed knife to cut out the M. With the remaining green fondant, fashion the ring-pull.

Divide the grey fondant in 2 and roll out between two sheets of parchment about 3mm thick and cut into circles big enough to cover the ends of the cake. Remove the top sheet of parchment.

If you’re not constructing the cake straight away, you can refrigerate the green and grey parts until ready to use – just take them out a few minutes ahead.

Roll out the black fondant between two sheets of parchment to about 3mm thick in a rectangle that is wide enough to cover the length of the cake and long enough to completely wrap the cake – about 20cm (depending on how much your cakes rose and how much you trimmed off) x 32cm. Remove the top sheet of parchment.

Spread one side of the constructed cake with jam.

Place the cake on its side on the black fondant towards one end, jam side down.

Spread the rest of the cake with jam.

Roll the cake carefully using the parchment to help you, pressing the fondant around the cake and smoothing the join with a damp finger and trimming the ends of the fondant (I tucked mine over but I would trim them in future for a flatter surface). If the fondant has softened too much to handle easily, wrap the whole thing in the parchment and lie it down on a towel in the fridge for 30 minutes, until it has firmed up a bit.

Gently press the M into place, brushing the area extremely lightly with a few drops of water or sugar syrup if necessary to make it stick then allowing it to dry in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Press the grey circles onto the ends of the cake.

Stand the cake up, use a sharp knife to score the tab and put the green ring-pull on the top.

Voila!

I served it with a wild garlic Alfredo sauce… only to discover that 3G doesn’t like wild garlic… now that was disappointing!

Serves 4

Ingredients

300g Type 00 or all-purpose (plain) flour
2 large eggs + 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten
60g mature 100% hydration starter

Directions

Put the flour in a mound on the bench-top or in a wide, shallow mixing bowl and form a well in the centre.

Pour the beaten egg and the starter into the well and slowly incorporate into the flour with a fork. At this stage, you may need to add a touch more flour or a teaspoon of water to form your dough – it depends on the size of your eggs, humidity etc. The dough should be quite stiff.

Knead the dough on the bench until it is smooth and springs back when lightly pressed, about 10 minutes. Wrap well in plastic and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Cut the dough into 4 pieces, leaving the others wrapped in plastic while you work with one. Flatten the dough out a bit with your hands, lightly dust it with flour, then either use a pasta roller or rolling pin to form sheets.

On the widest setting, pass the dough through the roller five or six times, folding it into thirds and very lightly dusting with flour each time, until it’s satiny and smooth. Now turn the dial one place and (without folding the dough again) pass it through again. Repeat this process (dialling down/up, depending on the numbering system on your roller, and rolling) until you get to the second-last setting on the dial. The pasta sheet should be about 1mm thick by now. If the sheet gets too long to handle, just cut it in half with a knife.

Using either a cutting attachment on your pasta roller or a knife/pizza cutter, cut the dough into strips the desired width, drape over a broom handle/back of a chair/whatever your preferred system is and let the pasta dry for a couple of hours.

Cook pasta in plenty of well-salted boiling water until al dente. The cooking time will depend on how dry the pasta is, but I usually find about 4 – 6 minutes to be sufficient.

Makes 24 thicker or 32 thinner sticks

Ingredients

200g warm water
440g all-purpose (plain) flour
30g extra virgin olive oil
230g 100% hydration starter
7g salt
60g freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Note: I started with 150g mature starter and fed it with 40g flour and 40g water about 2 hours before I started the dough.

Directions

In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the water and flour to form a shaggy dough. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Add the olive oil and starter to the dough and mix in well, add the salt and knead until smooth and elastic.

Knead in the parmesan.

Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 3 hours.

Preheat oven to 175°C. Lightly oil 2 baking sheets.

Turn dough out and knead it lightly then gently stretch and pat out to a rectangle of about 30 x 20cm.

Using a dough cutter or sharp knife, cut the dough in half lengthwise and across, then cut each quarter lengthwise into 6 to 8 strips.

Take a strip by the ends, pick it up and twirl it like a skipping rope while gently pulling, until it’s about 40cm long. Place it on the baking sheet – it will shrink back a bit in length. Repeat with remaining strips of dough. Space them about 1cm apart – the shouldn’t puff too much but if they stick to each other at all while baking, they can be snapped apart quite easily.

Bake for about 60 – 75 minutes, depending on the thickness of the sticks, swapping and turning the baking sheets every 15 minutes for even baking and removing any that are done. They should be deep golden.

Transfer sticks to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

*****

Submitted to YeastSpotting

Submitted to Barbara and Sandra at Panissimo

But these macarons? Success. In every way. We are happy once again 

*sigh* For some reason, foodgawker has decided to change the spelling of “macaron” in some of their posts to “macaroon”. I really do know how to spell “macaron” – that’s what I typed in the title and description in my submission, it was correct in the preview, but when it was published… the word “macaroon” was there, taunting me, making me look daft. I asked them to fix it. They did. I *heart* them

Anyway, back to the goodies…

Ingredients

The shells

140g ground almonds
140g confectioner’s (icing/powdered) sugar
100g egg white (from approx. 3 eggs), room temperature, divided 50/50
100g granulated (white) sugar
40g water
1 tsp lemon zest
a few drops of yellow food colouring (optional)

Lemon-lime curd

1 lemon
1 lime
1 tbsp corn starch
80g granulated (white) sugar
2 eggs
100g butter, diced, room temperature

Directions

The shells

Prepare 2 parchment lined baking sheets.

Mix the ground almonds and confectioner’s sugar together then grind in a food processor until you have an extra fine texture. Transfer to a large bowl.

Add the lemon zest and 50g egg whites and mix thoroughly into the almond mixture. Set aside.

Beat 50g egg whites to stiff peaks.

Meanwhile, put the granulated sugar and water into a small saucepan and heat to 118°C.

While whisking constantly on low speed (to avoid splashing hot syrup), slowly add the cooked sugar mixture to the beaten egg whites, pouring it down the inside edge of the bowl. Whisk at high speed until the mixture is cool, about 3 minutes. The mixture should increase in volume and become firm (you should get a beak when you lift the whisk) and shiny. Add the food colouring, if using, while mixing.

Scrape the meringue onto the almond mixture and incorporate with a rubber or silicone spatula until you have a homogenous batter that runs from the spatula in a thick ribbon and a trail in the batter melts back into itself within 20 seconds.

Transfer the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 7 – 9mm plain tip (this is best done in two batches, so you don’t overfill the bag). Pipe 60 equally sized rounds, about 3cm, in staggered rows onto the prepared sheets. Hold the piping bag upright with the tip just above the sheet and pipe without pulling upwards or swirling in circles, so the batter comes out in a round blob around the tip, and give a little sideways flick at the end to break the stream.

Tap the baking sheet firmly on the bench several times to release air bubbles and obtain a smooth surface. Leave the tray to rest at room temperature for at least 20 minutes until a slight skin forms. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 150°C.

Bake the macarons for 18 minutes, one sheet at a time, turning the tray half-way. Check them by nudging one very gently – if it moves on its foot, they will need another minute or two.

Remove from oven and remove the parchment from the tray with the shells still on it and place on a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes, until completely cool, then remove macaron shells carefully to a plate for filling. If they stick, you can spray the underside of the parchment with water, let sit for a minute then remove to a rack to dry completely.

The filling

Wash and dry the lemon and lime, grate the zests into a small bowl and juice them, straining the juice well.

Mix the zest, juice and corn starch in a small saucepan then add the sugar. Heat over a low flame.

Beat the eggs then add to the saucepan. Increase the heat to medium-low and stir continuously until the mixture thickens, about 4 minutes.

Remove from the heat, transfer the mixture to a bowl and beat in the butter.

Allow to cool, then cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Pipe or spoon a generous blob of filling onto the flat side of half the shells, top with the remaining shells and press gently until the filling reaches the edges.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge.