I've only ever deep fried churros and Camembert before, so it was very exciting to break the oil out again and try something new!
I tossed some of these in cinnamon and sugar and dipped some in a simple lemon glaze. One of my favourite parts of making these was frying the doughnut holes - they started off as flat circles and puffed up to gorgeous spheres!
Recipe adapted from: Handle The Heat
Ingredients
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast (one packet)
50g white sugar
250mL milk
2 tbsp butter (28g)
1 egg
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
360g flour
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp salt
For frying - about 5 cups of oil (vegetable or peanut)
For dressing - white sugar and cinnamon or lemon juice and icing sugar
Method
1. Microwave the milk until it's lukewarm, then mix the milk with the yeast and about a tablespoon of the white sugar.
2. Let the yeast proof for a few minutes. Melt the butter and set it aside.
3. Once the yeast as activated and started to foam up, mix the rest of the sugar, butter, egg, nutmeg, flour, vanilla and salt in with the yeast. I used my KitchenAid with the dough hook attachment.
4. Knead the dough (or let the mixer run) for about 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and soft.
5. Place the dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl in cling wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place for 1.5 - 2 hours.
6. Punch the dough down and tip it out onto a lightly floured surface. The dough is so soft!
7. Roll the dough out to less than 1cm thick (1/4 inch), then cut doughnut shapes. I just used a large circle cookie cutter and a smaller one. I did some big doughnuts and some small; I recommend doing larger ones (about 9cm diameter).
8. Transfer the doughnuts to a baking tray covered in baking paper, spread them out, cover with a tea towel and let them rise for about an hour.
9. When you're ready to cook the doughnuts, heat your oil to 175C (350F) in a large wok or saucepan. Prepare a plate or baking tray and cover it with paper towel to soak up excess oil.
10. Gently fry the doughnuts about 1 minute per side (for large 9cm doughnuts), until golden. I use chopsticks to turn the doughnuts - tongs or a slotted spoon would work too. The doughnut holes will take a shorter time.
11. Once done, lift the doughnuts out of the oil and place on the paper towel, turning to soak up all of the excess oil from both sides.
12. If you're dressing the doughnuts in cinnamon and sugar, it's best to coat them while the doughnuts are warm.
Another option is a simple lemon glaze, made by mixing icing sugar and lemon juice - if you're doing this, make sure that the doughnuts have cooled.
Enjoy!
...with chocolate chips, because almost everything is improved with chocolate. Despite being packed with caramel, chocolate and sugar, the oats make these bars seem almost - dare I say - healthy!?
Recipe adapted from: My Baking Addiction
Ingredients - 21 x 31 cm (8 x 12 inch) brownie tin
290g butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
310g flour
2 cups rolled oats
277g brown sugar
1 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup pecans
1 cup caramel (recipe here)
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 175C (350F). Line your brownie tin with baking paper.
2. Melt the butter in a large heatproof bowl. Add the vanilla essence.
3. Mix the flour, rolled oats, brown sugar, bicarb soda and salt into the melted butter until all is combined.
4. Press half of the mixture evenly into the lined brownie tin - this is your base.
5. Bake for about 8 minutes, and chop your pecans into rough chunks.
6. Take the base out of the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips and pecans over it. Then pour the caramel on top.
7. Using your fingers, break the rest of the oat mixture over the top of the caramel.
8. Bake the slice for another 15 minutes until the top is golden.
9. Let the slice cool before slicing into bars or squares or whatever shape you like. I dug straight in with a fork and let me tell you, it was amazing! However, it's much easier to cut the slice up when it's completely cool.
Enjoy!
I always love trying new choc chip cookie recipes - they're such a staple cookie and each recipe brings different results. My favourite part of this particular recipe is the dough - it has a great blend of brown and white sugar, and the corn flour makes the texture really smooth (it tastes amazing!)
Recipe adapted from: Clockwork Lemon
Ingredients
125g butter
90g brown sugar
65g white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
195g flour
2 tbsp corn flour
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 175C (350F). Beat the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add the egg and vanilla, beat until combined.
3. Add the flour, corn flour, bicarb soda and salt - mix until fully combined.
4. Finally, mix the chocolate chips into the dough.
5. Create tablespoon sized balls of dough and bake for about 10 minutes. The cookies should be golden on top.
6. Let the cookies cool for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool further. Or...enjoy them warm!
Cinnamon rolls are a classic food, and so delicious! These ones come with a nut option and plain cinnamon sugar. Either way, they're fantastic - soft, sweet and yummy!
Recipe adapted from: Joy The Baker
Ingredients - dough (8 large buns)
1 sachet active dry yeast (7g)
63mL water
125mL milk (at room temperature - just heat it in the microwave for a few seconds if it's straight from the fridge!)
62g white sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
1 egg yolk
426g flour
Pinch of salt
113g butter (at room temperature)
Ingredients - filling
125g white sugar
46g brown sugar
1/4 cup pecans
1/4 cup walnuts
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp maple syrup
40g butter
Method
1. Warm the water so it's just lukewarm - about 45C/115F. In the bowl of your mixer, combine the yeast, water and half a teaspoon of white sugar. Let the yeast proof for a few minutes until it's frothy.
2. Add the milk, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, egg and egg yolk to the yeast mixture, mix with a whisk until combined.
3. Add the flour and salt to the mixture, and mix with the dough hook attachment for your mixture. Mix the dough (or knead if you're not using a stand mixer) for a few minutes so it all comes together.
4. Add the butter (113g) and keep kneading the dough until everything's combined and smooth.
5. The dough may be sticky - if it's too sticky, you can add up to 1/3 cup more flour and knead it in.
6. Grease a bowl (I just use the mixer bowl I've been doing everything in) with some extra butter, then plop your dough in. Cover the bowl with cling wrap or a tea towel and let the dough rise in a warm place for about 2 hours, until the dough has doubled in size.
7. When the dough's nearly finished rising, you can start making the filling. Finely chop the pecans and walnuts (I only used about 1/8 cup of each type of nut because I wanted to do half the buns with nuts and half without).
8. Combine the white sugar, brown sugar, nuts and cinnamon then work the maple syrup into the mixture. I just used a spoon for this. Also, melt the 40g butter.
9. Once your dough has risen, punch the air our and knead a bit more flour in if needed.
10. Flour your clean work surface and roll the dough out into a large rectangle about 25cm x 50cm (10 inches x 20 inches). It seems like this will be way way too big but trust me, the dough can go the distance!
11. Brush the dough generously with the melted butter, then evenly spread the filling onto the dough. Leave about 5cm at one of the short edges of the dough without filling - this is so you can seal the edge down when you roll the dough up. Press the filling down gently with your hands to make sure it's stuck down.
I only sprinkled the nuts on half of the dough.
12. Roll the dough up, starting with the short side that has filling all the way up to the edge. Try to do this as tightly as possible, press the seam down to adhere it to the rest of the dough.
13. Cut the dough into 8 even slices. Line a brownie tin (mine is 23cm x 32cm) with baking paper and place each bun slice into the pan, evenly spacing them out. As the rolls do rise more, they squish up and become more rectangular - if you want them to be more circular, you can use two trays and spread them out.
14. Cover the tin with cling wrap or a tea towel and let the dough rise again for another 2 hours.
15. Preheat your oven to 190C (375F) after the dough has risen again, and bake the rolls for about 30 minutes. If you insert a toothpick into the bread part (not the filling) it should come out clean. When you touch the tops of the buns, the top should be crusty but they should be soft in the middle - I initially thought they might not be fully baked but fear not, they were perfect!
16. If desired, brush the tops of the rolls with melted butter. Let the rolls cool in the tin for a bit, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool a bit more.
17. When you're ready to eat, peel the rolls away from each other and consume them. They're amazing when warm from the oven!
Hello all!
Last weekend I took the Decadent Chocolate Biscuits class at Savour Chocolate & Patisserie School - 'decadent chocolate biscuits' only scratches the surface of the amazing desserts I learnt how to make! The class was instructed by Paul Kennedy and together we learnt 5 recipes and lots of new skills including tempering chocolate, dipping, breton biscuits and fruit marshmallow.
This is the 'Almohada', a lemon crumble biscuit base with blackberry jam, pistachio praline and blackberry marshmallow - all dipped in chocolate. When I first saw the recipe and the combination of flavours, I was a bit dubious; but everything came together and turned out to be absolutely delicious! Using real fruit puree in the marshmallow made for wonderful taste.
This is the 'Drunken Raisin'; gianduja, hazelnut crunch, chocolate sponge and rum-soaked raisins in a bar shape. It's finished by being dipped in chocolate and brushed with copper lustre dust.
I'm a sucker for gianduja and hazelnut praline paste! (And the lustre dust was so much fun to play with...)
Next is the 'Menta', a shortbread base with mint-infused caramel and mint ganache.
I'm so glad that I learned how to make nice, chewy caramel.
These are the 'Circle Your Wagons' - coconut jelly and pineapple and ginger marshmallow sandwiched between gingerbread biscuits.
So delicious! The pineapple and ginger flavour was so beautiful!
Finally, the 'Pacana', the simplest of the desserts! They have a pecan breton base with caramel and a toasted pecan, dipped in chocolate.
I'm so glad I was able to attend the class, I had so much fun!
I recently watched and loved the TV show Pushing Daisies starring Lee Pace, who plays a sweet, socially awkward pie-maker. Naturally, there were many pies featured on the show and I have never baked a pie other than lemon meringue.
My family is decidedly not a pie family; I haven't had a wide range of pie experiences, so I decided to tackle apple pie first. It seemed like a good place to start.
The first time I tried this, I went straight from the recipe and it was a pretty big disappointment. Putting uncooked apples in the pie resulted in, basically, a pie shell with slightly softened apple slices inside. I wanted something with more of a soft, squishy apple filling, so I played it by ear and did my own thing.
I'm pleased to say that my round of pie-baking was a success! The crust has a great texture with a hint of lemon that's not overpowering; and the innards of the pie are sweet, soft and lightly spiced.
Recipe heavily adapted from: Jamie Oliver
Ingredients - crust (20 cm (8 inch) pie)
250g flour
50g icing sugar
Pinch of salt
Zest of 1/2 lemon (use the zest from the other half in your filling)
125g cold butter
1 egg
1 tsp milk
Ingredients - filling
4 cooking apples (I used Granny Smiths)
1 eating apple (I used a Pink Lady)
5 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
Zest of 1/2 lemon
Squeeze of lemon juice
Ingredients - egg wash
1 egg
Splash of milk
Method - crust
1. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).
2. Mix the flour, sugar, salt and lemon zest in the bowl of a food processor.
3. Add the lemon zest and cold butter and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Add the egg and pulse until the dough starts to come together. Add the milk and pulse until the dough is smooth.
5. Form the dough into a flat rectangle and wrap it in cling wrap. Leave it in the fridge and get on with making your filling!
Method - filling
1. Peel your apples and cut them up into eighths.
2. Place the apples into a saucepan along with the brown sugar, ginger, lemon zest and lemon juice.
3. Mix the ingredients together and cook over medium heat until the apples are softened. Cook longer if you want a softer filling, or cook for a shorter time if you prefer more texture.
4. Take the filling off the heat and let it cool.
Method - baking/assembly
1. Take the crust dough out of the fridge. Flour your clean work surface and split the dough into two portions, about 2/3 and 1/3 each. The bigger portion will be for your base and the smaller for the top of the pie.
2. Roll the larger portion out into a circle about 1/2 cm thick (make sure to flour your rolling pin and the top of the pastry so nothing gets sticky). You want it to be big enough to drape over the sides of your pie dish.
3. Carefully roll the pastry over your rolling pin then unroll it over the pie dish. Gently manipulate the pastry so there are no air bubbles and the pastry is flush with the entire base and sides of the dish.
4. Pour your apple filling straight onto the pastry and make sure it's packed in evenly.
5. Whisk the egg with a small splash of milk (egg wash). Brush some of the egg wash around the edge of the pie crust.
6. Roll the other portion of pastry out to 1/2 cm thick. Roll the pastry over the rolling pin and unroll it over the top of the pie.
7. Fold the edges of the pastry in and crimp them together with your fingers.
8. Brush the top of the pie with the egg wash.
9. Cut a few slits in the top of the pie - to let steam escape as it bakes. I also sprinkled the top of my pie with some white sugar.
10. Bake the pie for about 40 minutes until the crust is golden and firm.
Let the pie cool, then enjoy!
