Rough Puff

I first learned of this technique while watching Britain's Best Bakery. Have you ever seen how difficult, lengthy and technique sensitive it is to make your own puff pastry from scratch??? As soon as I saw there was an easier way, it definitely caught my attention.

Appropriately named, "rough puff" - to put it bluntly, is basically a half-assed effort of making real puff pastry! It takes a fraction of the time and there isn't such an urgency for visual perfection.

I attempted a small portion for my first time - to use as a pastry lid on a fish pie. I was quite happy with the ease of making it, and with the final result - rustic, imperfect, golden, gorgeous.

ROUGH PUFF

Bring 1/2 a block of butter to room temperature.
Break into lumps and mix into 125g plain flour with a pinch of salt.
Use a knife or a fork and a cutting motion.

Note: using your hot hands at this stage tends to melt the butter and just smoosh everything!

Add a couple of tablespoons of ice cold water to "wet" the mixture enough to form a ball.
Wrap the ball in cling film and refrigerate for 20 minutes (or for longer on hot days).

Take out of the fridge and roll into a long rectangle.

The butter and flour should look marbled

Fold in thirds (like an envelope), turn 90 degrees so the seams are vertical, then roll another long rectangle.
Fold in thirds again, then wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

When ready to use, roll out and treat as you would any pastry.
Because I only used it as a lid for my pie, no blind baking was required.

I baked my pie at 200 C for about 25 minutes.

No aiming for perfection here!

The surface puffs up and blisters beautifully

Audi Owners Sydney 1 Year Anniversary

The brownies from the previous post were created for a purpose - to be eaten by the Audi Owners Sydney members at a meet up in beautiful Stanwell Park Beach just a little south of Sydney. After meeting in Sutherland (to the dismay of many bicyclists!) we drove through the Royal "Nasho" Park in a Volkswagen-Audi Group convoy - yes, it's vag for short. Vag. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day! Teddy had the time of his life and even got some sausages. Lucky dawg.

Brownies

Just a quick word before I get into this recipe - it tastes best fresh! Obviously it won't last very long after coming out of the oven - but for those of you that actually have self-control, it's best kept in an airtight container in the fridge.

I prepared this for the Audi Owners Sydney car club 1st anniversary last weekend - they got eaten over the course of 2-3 hours and while they were still irresistibly delicious, they were a little drier than when they were fresh.

BROWNIES

Make a bain-marie and melt together 1/2 block of butter with 200g dark chocolate.

Set aside to cool - use this time to gather the other ingredients.

Into the cooled chocolate mix, add 2 eggs & 1 cup dark brown sugar.
Fold in 1/2 cup plain flour, 1/4 cup self-raising flour and 2 tbsp cocoa.Finally, swirl in 1/2 cup sour cream and mix.

Chop up 100g dark chocolate and sprinkle in, before spreading it gently into a lined brownie tin.

Use a very sharp knife. I cut along the block diagonally, turn the block 90 degrees and cut diagonally again

 Bake at 160 C for about 35 minutes - whenever it feels firm

Coffee Cake

If there are 3 culinary loves I have, it's chocolate, wine and coffee. Followed very closely by caramel.

Coffee would have to be the one vice I have - I get an extreme migraine if I go for a period of time without it, and it is often the "activity" I occupy myself with to pass time.

Break in between patient appointments - make a coffee. 

Past breakfast but not quite lunchtime yet - make a coffee. 

Eating a sweet dessert - balance it with some coffee. 

Haven't seen you in a long time! Let's have coffee! 

My feet ache from shopping - sit down to a coffee.

Because chocolate takes my heart first, I don't often use my favourite caffeinated beverage in baking. But here's a recipe sure to please any ristretto lover.

I experimented with the texture to be a balance between light, soft and moist. Whipping the egg whites makes it lighter than air - while the butter and egg yolks pull it back down to Earth.

COFFEE CAKE
Extract a small cup (like about 80ml) of espresso, or prepare instant coffee.
Set aside to cool.

Cream together 1/2 a block of soft butter with 1 cup dark brown sugar.

(Save the other 1/2 block for the icing later)

Mix in 3 egg yolks one at a time.
Pour in your coffee, reserving a tablespoon or two for the icing.

Alternate the addition of 1 1/3 cups self-raising flour with 1/3 cup cream
(Adjust the amount of flour and cream according to how wet or dry the batter is)

The mixture should resemble sloppy peanut butter

In a separate bowl, place the 3 egg whites and add a pinch of cream of tartar.
Beat until strong peaks form.

Slowly and extremely gently, fold your fluffy whites into the batter.
Bake at 160 C for about 35-40 minutes - when a skewer comes out clean!

Just gorgeous.

Coffee Icing

This will make just enough icing to make a little hat for your cake. Double the recipe if you wish to cover it all and sandwich with it in the middle.

Beat together 1/4 block of soft butter with 1 cup icing sugar until pale and fluffy.

Add the leftover coffee.
Because only a small amount of coffee is added, the icing will remain a light shade of beige.
I like to keep things organic/earthy/rustic/hipster (all synonyms for what I'm really trying to say - ugly!)

So, add food colouring if you desire.

Not a big colour change after adding the coffee

Dollop onto the top and centre of your cake then gently spread, and try not to drag the cake surface or you'll get crumbs all over your icing.

I'd better try a bit. You know, to make sure it's not poisonous.

Banana Crumble Muffins

I think banana cake is the very first thing I baked as a teenager. It's so easy to put together, and you almost always have the ingredients for it at hand. I'm not one to waste food - so it's the perfect way to use those black bananas!

BANANA CRUMBLE MUFFINS

Mash 2 ripe bananas. The riper the better. These guys are probably the minimum ripeness you should use.

Beat together half a block of cubed room temperature butter with 1/2 cup white sugar & 1/2 cup brown sugar

The resulting mixture is so good I could spread it on my toast

Beat in 2 eggs, then fold in 1.5 cups plain flour and 1 teaspoon baking soda, followed by 150ml sour cream

Finally, fold in the smooshed bananas

Makes enough batter to fill a 12-hole muffin tin or a small cake tin

CRUMBLE

In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons plain flour, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and a handful of oats

Grate 20g cold butter over top then smoosh with your fingertips, creating delicious lumps

Sprinkle the crumble over the muffins

Bake at 160 C for about 25 minutes - whenever a skewer comes out clean

Try to share it with your friends...