What trending on…/-/No bake honey macadamia nut blondies

Trending, re- blogging, pins, tweets and notes. If you familiar with social media lingo, you will know what these mean. These are things that we have loved and decided to make viral. In food of course we all know the ideas of confetti, cookie dough and usually hybrid foods (croughnut) are currently hot topics. While I love the trends and it makes it easy for creative juice to flow; I feel that bakers and cooks are being held back from discovering new things for the sake of hits. 



While cookie dough is great, there are only so many desserts you can stuff with it before gets… well… annoying. Now do not think I am only attacking this trend, anything can get repetitive. I think I may blow a vein if I see another cauliflower being disguised as pizza base. Sorry but cauliflower is not the same as a pizza base; no matter how many exotic ingredients are added.



Sometimes I understand why some food or food related stories go viral. I am externally grateful for wide use of alternative whole-wheat flours in pastry and desserts as a flavour enhancer. However a majority of the time I am confused on why they are constantly posted. For instance, how many times have you seen the Starbucks cup in photos which are popular on the net. Most of them are those arty, alternative photography shots (which in itself is lovely style) but is it really necessary to have the paper cup there? It is not like star bucks needs anymore help with integrating its mermaid label in to common culture. Also do not get me started on the bowls of oatmeal…. However I am bias on this one because I have a GREAT dislike for the wet stuff.



Maybe we should take trends as a sign that new things need to be developed. We can still be inspired by the humble sprinkle cake but do not just reproduce the same thing over and over again. Wonderful example of this can be seen by Christina Tosi’s desserts, Jenni’s recipe for ice cream, and Zumbo’s extensive range of macaron flavours. Food has such a rich history, filled with wonderful forgotten flavours that are just waiting to be rediscovered by you cooks out there. How about we forget trends for a bit in baking and make something truly different this weekend? We all need a bit of adventure in the kitchen right?



I have been sceptical of no bake desserts especially one which claim to be just as good as the bake thing. No amount of fruit is going to cut it as a brownie for me, but I stumbled upon this recipe on Food52 and I could tell this book will help me change my mind. These are my hack at a no bake Blondie.


Inspired by the triple chocolate no bake brownie by Faith Durand, these simple blondies combine the wonderful properties of the classic baked verison. Through the use of honey, toasted nuts, white chocolate and wafer crumbs; these are the no baked blondies of your dreams. These are no baked honey roasted macadamia nut blondies, as I used the nut butter I made a few post back. The floral sweetness of honey is a perfect complement to the buttery nut and toasted almond meal base. The crush wafers add crunch but also help give it malted flavour. Too simple and easy, you just have to try this at least once this season.

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No bake honey macadamia nut blondies

Adpated from Food 52


200g crush wafer cones or wheat biscuits

80g toasted almond meal

32g malted milk powder

250g Honey roasted macadamia nut butter, warmed (here for the recipe)

110g white chocolate, melted

1tsp pink seas salt

Optional: 100g crushed mixed nuts


In a large bowl mix your wafers, almond meal, pink sea salt and malted milk powder.

Line 24cm by 20cm pan with grease proof paper, make sure the edges come up the sides by 5cm.

Mix your white chocolate, nut butter in to the dry mix bowl. Scrape mix into the pan and press down with oiled hands to smooth out.

OPTIONAL: You may also push 100g crushed roasted, salted mixed nuts into the top like I did

Cover with cling film and fridge for 1 hour.

Lift the bar out of the tin and cut into desired shape. Store in the Fridge up to one week.

Drawing blanks /-/Chewy salted chocolate cookies

I know I have not been blogging for a long time, so I have no right to whine about having nothing to talk about; but ironically this does give me some inspiration(if you can call it that) to write. The most annoying thing for beginning any kind of writing, whether it be your Final essay, wedding speech or weekly blog post has to be the blank page.




The blank slate is taunting you with its pure untouched surface, both a curse and virtue at the same time. You dare to begin to write the first sentence but then draw away at the last minute thing it is not good enough. If you typing on the computer the stupid blinking line sets the rhythm to your heart, as you sweat and stress over the first word you type. This is my experience every time I begin to write anything, I maybe using a little more drama in this passage but the feelings are still the same.



I have problem with writing the first sentence any kind of writing. I think it is a combination of fear of failing and me thinking it is wrong. Do ask how this can be possible when I am only one see it but that is the only way to describe it. If you are a writer and can explain it to me, Please comment below; I like to know I am not the only one with writing anxiety.




What is it about that first sentence that is so hard? Once I get past the first sentence, sure I am fine from there, but a majority of time when I start a piece is spent not actually writing anything. For insentience I have just spent the last month writing up 3000words essays (give or take) for 4 subjects. Not a lot of words I know, but that makes it even harder. Anyway I think for a solid three weeks, I actually wrote nothing. Yep, I spent days sitting at my computer looking at the blank page with hundreds, hundreds of book marked information. However one I found the right sentence to beginning my essay, BOOM I was off like rocket (I actually find it hard to stick to the word count once I start too).





So what should you take way from my experience with writing blanks? Most of all do not stress about deadlines. Totally an inspiration killer. Do not stop once you get an idea. I cannot stress this enough, Inspiration is such a wonderful thing; so do not disturb the though pattern. Finally this one is probably the easiest to implement, is if you write the first sentence wrong, you can always delete it and start again. No matter what form of media you use, nothing is set in stone (unless you are a cave man).





Well I have just finished writing up all my essays so I feel the need to write about cookies today. In Australia we do not have a large cookie culture (an non American influence one I mean); we often refer to them as biscuits like the British. However I am inspired by the feasting on the net that I have dip and dabbed in the American cookie pool. I am not big on chewy cookies (more of crunchy girl) but for this post I found one which I really like. While it chewy on the inside it is very crisp around the edges, and once baked, actually gets better. Hard to believe I know, but the flavour is deeper for some reason.




I treated myself to few bars of salted lindt this week, so it only seem fair to use them in this recipe but whatever chocolate you have use. Also I have pushed milk chips into the top because sometimes I am after a bit of child hood goodness. This tired and tested recipe from Alton Brown, so I take no credit for these. Maybe one day I can try and develop a new one. Until then if you are after a chewy, tender but crisp and fragrant cookie give it a go. You may be converted like me.




Chewy salted chocolate cookies
Adapted from Alton Brown’s :the chewy recipe


225g unsalted butter

225g bread flour

130g cake flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

20g granulated sugar

220g muscovado sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

39ml whole milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Zest of one orange

240g salted dark chocolate

100g milk chocolate chips for topping



Directions

Melt the butter in saucepan over low heat. Set aside to cool slightly.

Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda onto a paper plate. Pour the butter into your stand mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar and beat with the paddle attachment on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the whole egg, the egg yolk, milk, zest and vanilla extract in a measuring cup. Reduce the mixer speed and slowly add the egg mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds.

Using the paper plate as a slide, gradually integrate the dry ingredients, stopping a couple of times to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Once the flour is worked in, drop the speed to "stir" and add the chocolate chips. Chill the dough for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375F/ 185 C and place racks in the top third and bottom third of the oven.

Scoop the dough into onto parchment-lined half sheet pans, leave gaps of 5cm between each cookie. Bake 2 sheets at a time for 15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Remove from the oven, slide the parchment with the cookies onto a cooling after 5 minutes.

My macaron affair /-/ Caramelised White Chocolate Macaron

I have a love hate relationship with these little French cookies. Sure I love them because all my friends and family cannot get enough of them. I mean it is their favourite cookie like ever. Maybe because here in Australia to get a decent price, good quality macaron is hard to come by. Either they are $5 dollars a pop, or they are poor quality ones. Even super markets are stocking packaged macarons and do not get me started about Macca’s selling the delicate cookies. They are not the worth the packaging they come in.



I love them because they are so very pretty when they are stacked up in a big tower. Have you ever made a macaron tower? I have and it was the greatest kitchen experience in my life to date. I highly recommend try to make one when you get the chance because you feel great afterwards. Sorta like an exercise high but without the sweat.



However I still have issues with macarons; let me compare them to children. I am deadly afraid of children. They are unpredictable, volatile and they are prone to crack at any moment. So many things can go wrong with these cookies; oven too hot, oven too cold, hot spots, the egg white mix, TPT ratio… it is enough to make your head spin. I have spent many hours cursing and red face when they crack, sink or fail to develop feet.





If that is not enough, even after they are baked without cracks and with feet there is the issue of hollows. For those who are not familiar with this term, it is the when you macaron insides have big gap where the batter has sunk to the bottom. This results in a non-chewy macaron thus a bad macaron. I remember reading on Brave tart macaron's  tutorials not many people show the insides due to this problem. Ever since reading that I have wanted to do a successful no hollow macaron and in this post I have done it! LOOK, LOOK MUM!! NO HOLLOWS! 

 My Tips

•  HIT HIT HIT THE PAN HARD, and bake for a bit longer (like 2 minutes). 
• Make sure you use good heavy baking trays which have even heat distribution. 
• Have a good egg white mix before you fold it in, this means no sugar crystals in the meringue and has a glossy finish. 

While I am still try to get it right, I find these things affect the hollows most for me.

Go to Bravetart's website (I linked it above) for all the information you need. 

All I can say to people looking to create macarons is to keep on practicing. Any time you have egg whites save them and use them for macarons. Any time you come across cheap Almond meal, buy a lot and freeze it for mascarons. This way you have all the materials on hand, all the time. I cannot count the number of failed macarons I have made. Moral of all of this do not give up!



I have been harbouring these babies for a while. I recently posted a picture of what I do to procrastinate (again) essay writing, make foods which are considered “unnecessary”. Caramelised white chocolate is sure require a lot of attention but inspired by Poires au Chocolat post on it I had to try it. This white chocolate is not sickly sweet but allows the bitterness of slightly burnt cocoa butter to offset the sugar in your chocolate. Also the addition of salt to chocolate is always needed; I am surprised I do not have sodium problem from my love of salted chocolate. If you can resist the urge to eat it from the pan, try to place in it in a macaron for a unique flavour.





Caramelised White Chocolate Macaron

Chocolate recipe from Poires au Chocolat via Food 52 and Valrhona)

Macaron recipe from Tartelette



110gram almond meal

90g egg whites

25g raw caster sugar

200g icing sugar

If you want to colour you may I used a combo of yellow, brown and skin colour.

In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites to a foam, (think bubble bath foam) gradually add the sugar until you obtain a glossy meringue (think shaving cream

Place the powdered sugar and almonds in a food processor and give them a good pulse until the nuts are finely ground. Add them to the meringue, give it a quick fold to break some of the air and then fold the mass carefully until you obtain a batter that falls back on itself after counting to 10. Give quick strokes at first to break the mass and slow down. The whole process should not take more than 50 strokes. Test a small amount on a plate: if the tops flattens on its own you are good to go. If there is a small beak, give the batter a couple of turns.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip (Ateco #807 or #809) with the batter and pipe small rounds (1.5 inches in diameter) onto parchment paper or silicone mats lined baking sheets.

Let the macarons sit out for 30 minutes to an hour to harden their shells a bit. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 280F/150C. When ready, bake for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on their size. Let cool. If you have trouble removing the shells, pour a couple of drops of water under the parchment paper while the sheet is still a bit warm and the macarons will lift up more easily do to the moisture.

Don't let them sit there in it too long or they will become soggy. Once baked and if you are not using them right away, store them in an airtight container out of the fridge for a couple of days or in the freezer.








Caramelised white chocolate ganache

300g white Chocolate

5g pink salt

200g cream

10g butter



Pre heat oven to 130C.

In a rectangle shallow dish, break up chocolate into small pieces.

Place in oven, stir after 5 minutes until the white is a deep brown. This will seem really useless and it seem the chocolate is getting worse rather than better; but have faith it WILL loosen and start to colour. Mine took 1 hour.

Allow to cool and stir in salt.



To make ganache

Bring your cream just below boiling point in a small sauce pan.

Pour on top of Chocolate in steel medium bowl. Gentle fold the chocolate until it all combined.

Stir in the butter until it is melted and fully combined. Allow to cool and store in fridge for 1 hour. Take out 30mintues before filling macarons



Assembly

Pipe your ganache and sandwich them with two macaron shells. Fridge for one day before serving in an airtight box.

Fridge reading /-/ Retro Coffee cake cucpakes

What is the best way of finding out the personality of a person you have just met? I believe I have the answer. Just look in their kitchen. No seriously, I think you can figure out the quirks of a person from what is in their fridge and pantry.

I have thing for looking into people’s fridges and pantries ever since I was little. I was the little kid who always took out the pots, pans and kitchen kit to use with play doh or as a drum kit. Anyway, the fridge and pantry are place where people can not lie, hide or pretend to be someone that they are not. Of course this can work with an empty and full fridge. Not just the inside can tell you think about a person, the outside decorations can also tell you a bit about a person. The organisation and plan of a kitchen is not a fluke it is a reflection of your life and what I treasure most.

Sure maybe if you live in IKEA world or Home living, you have a spotless, perfect kitchen with no pictures or magnets on your fridge. In reality I highly doubt anyone lives like this, even the most organised kitchen has a bit of naff personality shining though. For instance my fridges (yes I did say fridges, we have an industry refrigerator which freezes everything to an artic crisp and two conventional fridges). Now those two conventional fridge are filled with pictures and magnets; child hood images of me at my first birthday party, “save the date cards” of my two sister’s weddings, pictures of my mum and dad at parties and numerous travel magnets. Of course theire is the odd quirky magnet my favourite is the “ mi so hot” one. Hehehe will never get tired of that joke.



So by looking just on the outside of fridge you see, my family is centre to function and happiness of my household. What do you have on your fridge? Can you see the personality in the way you organise your kitchen? 



On that note I made you cupcakes today! Yep the humble cupcake can be the best thing to make when you want to be adventurous in the kitchen or have a bit of retro cooking therapy. This is a coffee cake cupcake, model after that famous butter cream 60s walnut crusted classic.

The cupcake is made with combination of Whole wheat pastry flour and walnut meal which imitate the nutty flavours of the classic with the presence of the little brains to ruin the appearance. This cake this then soaked, and I mean Soaked in a mixture of walnut liquor, espresso and light sugar syrup and covered in a thick layer of French butter cream. While coffee cake may have gone out of style, the flavour will never fail to impress. The cupcakes are best served at room temp which allows the butter cream softly yield against the flavoursome cake to produce feeling of nostalgia and Sunday afternoons at grandma’s. 

Coffee cake cupcake with French butter cream

Yield 12

Adapted from Katie Brack’s Coffee cake



125g unsalted butter, soften

90g raw caster sugar

15ml vanilla extract

2 eggs

100g Whole wheat pastry powder

1.5 tsp baking powder

0.5 tsp baking soda

50g walnut meal

90ml milk

60ml espresso coffee

100g grated dark chocolate



Pre heat oven to 180C.

Beat butter and sugar till pale and creamy.

Add in eggs one at time. Add vanilla and beat until combined.

Alternating between flour, walnut meal and milk and espresso; beat until just combined.

Scoop into your muffin tin lined with muffin cases.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until tooth pick inserted comes clean.

Leave in till for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack.



French butter cream

From Joe pastry



60ml hot water

6 egg yolks

220g caster sugar

450g soft unsalted butter

Pinch of salt

2tsp espresso instant



Beat egg yolks in your electric mixer until foamy and pale yellow.

In a sauce pan on low heat, combine sugar and water and bring to 248F or hard crack stage 121C.

With the motor on medium, drip in your hot sugar syrup.

Whip this mis until it is glossy yellow foam.

Using the creaming head on your electric mix, beat in your butter a little at a time.

Continue to mix until it becomes a pale, yellow cream. (note it may look it is separating but keep beating!)



Soaking liquid

300ml of hot water with 2 tsp instant espresso

60ml walnut liqiuor

sugar syrup(200g sugar in 250ml water)



Combine all these.



Assembly

In a large shallow sided tray place your muffins with cases removed.

Pour over your soaking liquid and place in the fridge to soak over night.

Next day top with butter cream and top with chocolate.

Not so super/-/ Brown butter Sweet potato doughnuts with cinnamon brown sugar glaze.

If you know me, I think all food is super. Even the food we all think of as junk food is super in my mind. While they not be most nutritionally dense food stuffs on the plant they provide benefits that a bowl of oatmeal cannot deliver (Unless that bowl of oatmeal has equal amounts of butter and sugar in it).



This term ‘Superfoods’ is over used and has too many meanings. In the beginning when the medical professions used it loosely as term to describe multiple health benefits which are not normal that macro nutrient (eg. Carbohydrates, protein, fat). However I feel it is being over used, to describe anything in order to sell it. Any new discovery of ancient type of grain, fruit or vegetable, tag it with super foods and it causes a surge of health nuts running out to go buy tons of the stuff. We all know how the Quinoa has been affected by this sudden surge in popularity, we almost had a “Quinoa crisis” from the over consumption of it.



Also who has notice the connection between the price and label super foods? Marketing at its best.



Nothing against using the term but most foods we describe as super foods are not really super foods, they are just nutrient dense. Who going to argue with you if you tag a new vegetable as a super food? Aren’t vegetables meant to be “super” for you anyway? Along with all the nuts, seeds, fruit and grain? The thing that makes them supper is that they are in most natural state. What is factor they share? Minimal processing equals super food. As long as you keep the food in the most natural state, I believe it is going to be good for you.



Every food should be super! Not everything is about physical health when it comes to food you know? A mixed ball of dried fruit is not going to cut it as brownie sometimes.



Now sweet potato is one of those foods that seem to cross the line between healthy and not so healthy. However the sweetness of roasted sweet potato is irresistible in these baked doughnuts. We all love doughnuts, I have done several recipe mocking doughnuts and using doughnuts like my doughnut bread pudding and Golden Spudnuts.



I love the use of whole wheat atta flour, it provides the nuttiness that matches the brown butter so well. The sugar glaze is a nice touch which is why the doughnuts have reduced amounted of sugar. I topped it with dry, smoked almonds because I love the crunchiness. You may add more spices if you wish but I have an addiction to cinnamon.



Brown Butter Sweet potato doughnuts

Adapted from Pastry Affair
Yields 13 doughnuts

85g brown butter (In a small sauce pan melt butter on low, stiring occasionally, until it develops nutty aroma and turns a light brown. REMEMBER it will continue cooking after you take if off the heat. SO it will darken as it cools)

90 ml milk with tsp. lemon juices

2 large eggs 

 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

94 grams all-purpose flour 

90 grams Atta flour 

70 grams granulated sugar 

1 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

 
150g puree cooked sweet potato

Optional :Smoked almonds chopped for toppping



Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease doughnut pan with oil.

Add 1 teaspoon of lemon in milk. Let stand for 5 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sweet potato, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and browned butter until combined

Shift flours ,baking soda ,baking powder, and salt.

Alternate between milk and flours mix, mixing until combined.

Divide batter evenly between 13 doughnuts and bake for 20minutes, or until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for a few minutes before serving.



Brown sugar cinnamon glaze



100g brown sugar

120g icing sugar

1tsp Saigon ground cinnamon

30ml thicken cream

15g butter



In small pan combine all ingredients until combined and dissolved.

Leave to cool for 5 minutes before using.

First week in review /-/ Lazy Croque monsieur for one

I don’t know if you still remember but I have spoken about my problem with the new Masterchef series on Australia free to air. For those who have just joined WELCOME! ^_^; so a bit of back ground for you guys. The concept of this years Masterchef competition is to see which gender “rules’ the kitchen”, the issue here is it plays to all the gender stereotypes and frames as “factual” observations ( aka. Television editing).



Anyway one week of it and I think I have almost burst a vein in my head from the amount of smugness among the contestants, the gender discourses and just overall feeling I get from the show. This is why I cannot watch reality television I become more stressed than I ready am! And with my exam going on right now >_< not helping!





Now there is nothing wrong with being confident in yourself; in fact I advise you feel confident in your kitchen ability not matter how many times you have burnt water. However there is a fine line between the need confidence and just pain egoistic pride. For this year’s contestants, I feel master chef has just picked the big personalities to be on the show. You know the ones; over confident, cocky, smug and have a big mouth when they boast about their knowledge of food. I find these people very frustrating as they always blame something or someone else for their failures. In this case anything that goes wrong in the kitchen; it the stoves fault. Also they seem to be the one to have the biggest fights and biggest reaction to things (aka. Ratings gold)



Also I am disappointed in the editing team, since they are playing to gender stereotypes such as women can not handle money. In one scene they showed the intense, crazy cat fight between the girls team over what should go back to say under budget. Even after all that they were still over by 40 cents. While on the boys team, no worries! Going through like everything is breeze, however they did play on the fact boys take longer to food shop than girls but that’s a different story.



As you can see I am opinionated but with good reason to be. I will not let cheffing become a form of mockery! Maybe too passionate…. Oh well



I have spark a new passion for bakes though. You know the types; pasta bake, rice bake, pudding bake. The warming comforting glow of the oven highlights my kitchen this winter. Bakes also make for great hangover meals, or when you have a group of hungry 20 somethings after a night bender. I made this the first time on the day after I first went out purposely have some “night fun”. Brunch food is great but often involves a certain level of cognitive ability, also hangovers and open flames do not work.



Cheese, ham and bread are the things I need after a long night. Inspiration by Nigella Lawson’s relaxed cooking, her Croque Monsieur Bake is the best thing for this situation. The combination of melting gruyere, sourdough baguettes and slices of smokey ham; sitting in an egg custard; really what can go wrong? Oh and do not forget the mustard!

I love the traditional sandwich but like I said flames and hangovers; not good. This is an easier version of the French classic but provides almost the same satisfaction (less butter but that means I can eat more).



Lazy Croque monsieur for one

Barely adapted from Nigella Express.



50g sliced day odd sourdough baguette

20 grams dijon mustard

3 slices gruyere cheese

3 slices smoked ham

1 large egg

1 teaspoon maldon salt (or ½ teaspoon table salt)

50 ml full fat milk

4 tablespoons grated Parmesan

1 good sprinkling of worcestershire sauce



Spread each slice of bread with mustard.

Layer a slice of cheese then ham on each sandwich.

Place each sandwich in your dish, with the crust edges facing upwards.

Beat together the eggs, salt and milk and then pour this over the sandwiches tightly packed in the dish.

Cover the dish with cling film and leave in the fridge overnight.

Next morning, preheat the oven to 200°C Take the dish out of the fridge and remove the cling film.

Sprinkle with the grated cheese and Worcestershire sauce and bake in the oven for 15 minutes