Category Archives: Baking

Rituals: Choc Chip Cookies

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I’ve been baking Choc Chip cookies for as long as I can remember.  The recipe I use is from the Australian Women’s Weekly and it’s a fairly standard recipe.  Over the years I’ve tried different types of flours and even added peanut butter to the mix and the cookies always turn out delicious.  But I was bored with this recipe and so I started to look around for a variation.  It didn’t take me long to find what I was looking for on one of my favourite blogs; A Cup of Jo, and the best part is that the recipe is gluten free – bingo!

Jo’s recipe came from Aran Goyoaga from Cannelle et Vanille, a delightful food and photography blog that you simply must visit if you haven’t already.  The photography and recipes are so beautiful and inspiring.

So I couldn’t possibly blab on about these incredibly tasty cookies without giving you the recipe, right?

The Best Chocolate Chunk Cookies You’ll Ever Have
By Aran Goyoaga from Cannelle et Vanille

Recipe: Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Muscovado and Fleur de Sel (I used Maldon Sea Salt in lieu of not having Fleur de Sel in my pantry)
Makes 2 dozen cookies

If you don’t have issues with gluten, you can use 8 ounces (230g) of all-purpose wheat flour in place of the gluten-free flours. (I used whole wheat Spelt flour)

You’ll need:
1 stick (110 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (100 g) packed light muscovado sugar
1/4 cup (50 g) natural cane sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, at room temperature
1 cup (140 g) brown rice flour
1/2 cup (60 g) amaranth flour
1/4 cup (30 g) tapioca starch
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel, plus more for topping
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (170 g) chocolate chunks or chips

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, muscovado sugar, natural cane sugar and vanilla extract. Mix with the paddle attachment on medium speed for 2 minutes until light. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the egg and mix until combined.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the brown rice flour, amaranth flour, tapioca starch, fleur de sel, and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture and mix on medium speed until the dough comes together.
3. Add the chocolate chunks and mix until thoroughly incorporated.
4. Scoop the dough onto a piece of parchment paper. With the help of the parchment, roll the dough into a log that is approximately 2 inches in diameter and 12 inches long. Wrap the log with the parchment and refrigerate for 1 hour.
5. In this time, preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Cut the log into 1/2-inch disks. Place them on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or silicone mats leaving 2 inches in between the cookies.
6. Sprinkle the tops with a bit of fleur de sel. Bake for 11 to 12 minutes or until edges set and start to turn golden. They might look a bit underdone, but this is fine. They will harden as they cool and slightly under-baking them will keep them chewy and moist.
7. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before trying to lift them. Store them in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

These are definitely the best choc chip cookies I’ve ever tasted. They are a smidgen more involved to make, but the results are more than worth it!

Rituals – Making Bagels

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A few months ago I took to making bagels for my girl’s lunch boxes for school.  Let’s face it, sandwiches can be monotonous. I remember my mother giving me what felt like the same thing for lunch day in and day out for all my years of schooling – a Vegemite sandwich, a muesli bar, an apple and a frozen drink, if I was lucky.  Needless to say many times I chose not to eat my lunch and bought from the school canteen instead. School lunches these days are a high priority in the morning routine.  My girls’ school requests that there be an emphasis on no pre-packaged foods and never any chocolate, lollies, or chips, (not that I would) and no packaging, so a litter-free lunch box must be provided each day. The children police this between themselves often coming home from school telling me where I went wrong.  I was not to use plastic wrap ever! I wasn’t supposed to give them cookies – I mean, home-baked chocolate chip cookies – really?  So we came to a compromise, I still put in the home-baked cookies, but now I alternate with home-baked slices, muesli bars and their absolute favourite – bagels. 


A fresh batch of home-baked bagels cooling down.

The bagels have become something of a ritual for me, and for the family too.  Usually I bake them once a week, sometimes twice, and they always get devoured by my husband and children.  I have to make sure I save some for myself – I love them toasted with either Vegemite or peanut butter and washed down with a nice cafè latte of course.

The bagel recipe I use is full-proof because it is a recipe from Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess cookbook.  What makes these bagels so good is they are based on a traditional Jewish recipe, so that involves poaching the dough before baking in a super hot oven.  The recipe makes about 15 or so, depending on how big or small you want them to be.  My girls’ love to roll out the dough and make them with me, so it’s nice to do with family around.  

The recipe calls for strong flour, my flour of choice is organic unbleached Spelt.  The gluten in Spelt ensures a perfect dough, but it is different to wheat gluten, so it doesn’t upset my daughter Chloè’s gluten intolerance.   



Bagels
1kg strong flour, plus more as necessary for kneading
1 x 7g sachet of yeast or 15g fresh yeast
1 tablespoon of salt
2 tablespoons of sugar (I use an organic raw variety)
1 tablespoon of plain oil (I use Rice Bran oil)
500 ml warm water
2 tablespoons of malt or sugar (I use organic brown sugar) for poaching the bagels
2-3 baking sheets 

Combine flour, salt and yeast together in a bowl.  
Add the sugar and the oil to the warm water and pour into a well in the centre of the flour and then mix to combine into a dough.  You can do this by hand or with a dough hook, whichever you prefer.  It doesn’t take long to do and I love the feeling of the yeast coming to life in the dough, so I do this by hand.

The dough will be very stiff and quite hard work, but keep kneading until it becomes smooth an elastic, about 10 minutes.

Form the dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl, turning once to coast all round, then cover the bowl with cling film and leave it to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  A warm spot with no breeze is best.

Now punch the dough down, then give it another good knead.  Then divide the dough into 3 equal sized pieces.  Roll each piece into a rope, then cut each rope into 5 equal sized pieces.  Roll each piece between the palms of your hands into a ball, and then roll into another rope, circling it round to form a ring.  Seal the ends by overlapping them a little and pinching them together.

At this time, put on a large pan of water to boil.  When it boils, add the malt or brown sugar.

Sit the bagels on the baking sheets, cover with tea towels and levee for about 20 minutes, by which time they should be puffy.  Now preheat the oven to 240C or your maximum oven temperature. 

Now you can start poaching your puffy bagels.  Drop a couple at a time into the boiling water and poach for 1 minute, turning them once.  As you poach them, put them back onto the oiled baking sheets, well spaced, then bake for 10-15 minutes or until they’re shiny and golden brown.  Makes 15 bagels.

Once cool enough to touch, dig in!
Heidi 

P.S.
*Please note that I have not added all of Nigella’s recipe commentary, you can find the recipe in detail in her book.


Sources: How to Be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson (p.304) from Nigella.com and my own photograph taken with Instagram.

Intellectual shenanigans? Sounds like fun to me!

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I decided to make my famous wholemeal spelt brownies today so that my children can have something to share at their after school play-date this afternoon.  
Publish Post

While waiting for these decadent and delicious goodies to bake, I started to read my dailies on the internet when I came across a story on the Port Eliot Festival which was held in Cornwall last weekend.
 
Described by UK Telegraph’s Sophie de Rosee as a “hotbed of intellectual shenanigans”, the festival describes itself as “the UK’s most original and inspirational and downright decadent garden party.” The words hotbed of intellectual shenanigan just cracks me up… what exactly would intellectual shenanigans entail I wonder? 
The literary festival is in it’s 9th year and is held in one of the grandest homes in England.  It is here where some of the finest writers, performers and artists come together to share their work in what is quite a unique event.  It features stylish activities and even Martin Scorsese has lent his vision to their Paradiso Outdoor Cinema, selecting some of his favourite films to be screened each evening of the festival.
The Hermès horsebox was on site for those interested in being styled up in a fabulous scarf to be photographed, and next door was what looks like the most fantastic airstream trailer I’ve ever seen, the ‘Kiehl’s on Wheels’ offering facials and products – bliss! Doesn’t this sound like the most stylish and heavenly of festivals?
 
 An art installation at the festival.
If you’re a parent and your children are still at the story before bedtime stage, then seeing and hearing Kate Winslet read children’s book Mr Gum by Andy Stanton at the festival would, I think, have been the cherry on the cake.  
“The audience, consisting of young children and hung-over adults in equal measure, were transfixed by her animated 90-minute storytelling, giving each character in the book its own pitch-perfect accent. After the standing ovation Winslet said, ‘I really should thank my kids, Mia and Joe, for making me read this to them practically every night,’ and blew kisses to where they were seated in the front row, before urging all parents to buy Stanton’s other, equally mad, books.” 

Accommodations for some of the festival-goers.
 
Well the brownies are out of the oven – looking like perfection and smelling like heaven!  This weekend marks my youngest Annabel’s 6th birthday which we are celebrating with a few friends, a jumping castle and ice cream cake.  I cannot wait to see the look on her face when the castle is pumped up and ready for action!

H

Sources: UK Telegraph, Port Eliot.

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