Dorie Greenspan's Carrot Cake

Salutations! Once again, I've somehow allowed months to lapse in between posts. It's not like I've been super busy or anything. Despite being back at uni for almost a month now, I'm still getting my full 8-hours of sleep each night, and taking the time to go for walks, and baking two-layered carrot cakes. Isn't that just disgusting? I should be ashamed to call myself a student.

Photo courtesy of the UNSW Baking Society

I've posted a recipe for carrot cake before, but that particular one has nothing, NOTHING on the one I share with you today. THIS is the mother of all carrot cakes. Once I had my first bite, I knew for certain that this would be the start of a beautiful and complex relationship - between myself, and the most perfect, most gorgeous, most sublime carrot cake on earth. I know that bakers (especially ones who blog about their handiwork) have a tendency to throw in superlatives like they're going out of fashion, but merely calling this the "best" carrot cake recipe would be to do it a supreme injustice (and there I go again...)

I made this cake for a very special occasion indeed. Did you know that the University of New South Wales, my residence away from home for the past three-going-on-four years, has it's own baking society? It's mind-blowing, isn't it. A baking society, dedicated to all things cake and baked, right there on my doorstep. Well, BakeSoc, as it is known, had it's first event of the year a few days ago; a Welcome Brunch for the members. We were invited to bring something (preferably home-baked, of course!) to share with one another. Dorie Greenspan's recipes are always a safe bet when it comes to taste and presentation, and so it was her "Bill's Big Carrot Cake" that I offered up to my fellow cake-lovers.

And the rest is history. This cake features toasted nuts and dried coconut slivers in the batter, which makes for an exciting mouthful. I used mixed nuts - a combination of walnuts, macadamias, cashews, brazil nuts, hazelnuts and almonds. By all means, stick with one type, but that was what I had lying around. 

Photo courtesy of the UNSW Baking Society

If you compare the inside of this cake with that of my previous carrot cake recipe, you'll immediately be able to tell that this one is a lot fluffier and less dense. The reason for that, I believe, is the fact that I grated the carrots more coarsely this time round. I suspect that I grated the carrots too finely for the other cake, resulting in a dense, pudding-like texture. Don't be alarmed by the size of the carrot pieces when you use a coarse grater on them! Yes, they'll show up quite visibly in the baked cake and yes, people will be able to tell there are carrots in there (a potentially alarming concept for the uninitiated). But for those who have experienced the wonder that is a well-made carrot cake in the past, cutting into this cake will prompt all those fond memories (of tea at Grandma's, of cafe brunches, of chillaxed afternoons sipping tea at a girlfriend's place) to re-enter into their consciousness and, awash in the waves of nostalgia, the will turn to you with shining eyes and whisper "what a marvelous, marvelous thing it is you have done."

Photo courtesy of UNSW BakeSoc

Okay, so maybe I've been indulging in one too many Jodi Picoult novels. But bringing the cake to a dinner party or afternoon tea will guarantee you a dramatic entrance. Double-layered and generously covered with thick, cream cheese frosting, it's home-baked charm at it's best. Dorie's version consists of three cake layers, but I chose to go with two because my cake pans are slightly larger and there wasn't even batter for three. I also halved the amount of icing sugar that went into the frosting. Dorie, you've made me a fan for life with this recipe, but a whole pound of icing sugar?! Trust me on this, guys - go with half a pound (250g) lest your teeth fall out :D

Bill's Big Carrot Cake 2.0

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: from my home to yours

Ingredients

(Makes a 2-layered 23cm cake)

For the cakes:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups coarsely grated carrots

1 cup coarsely chopped toasted/roasted mixed nuts (unsalted)

1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup dried cranberries

2 cups white granulated sugar

1 cup vegetable oil (anything mild-flavoured is fine; I used olive but canola or safflower is also okay)

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the frosting:

250g cream cheese, at room temperature

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

250g confectioners' or icing sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For decoration:

8 walnut halves

Method

To make the cakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius (or 325 degrees Fahrenheit). Place the baking rack towards the lower one-third of the oven. Prepare two round cake pans (23cm in diameter) by lining with baking paper or aluminium foil.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, stir together the grated carrots, chopped nuts, coconut and dried cranberries.

3. Cream together the oil and sugar until smooth with a hand electric beater, or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix in the vanilla extract. Add the eggs one by one, and continue to beat until the batter is smooth and thick. Add the flour mixture, and stir into the egg mixture by hand until just combined. Add the carrot, chopped nuts etc., and stir in until everything is combined.

4. Divide the batter between the two cake pans. Place into oven, and bake for 50-60 minutes. Cake is done baking when a skewer or cake tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Allow cakes to cool in pans for 5 minutes, before inverting onto cooling racks. Allow cakes to cool completely before frosting

To make the frosting:

5. Using a hand electric beater or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the softened cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract. Gradually add in the sifted icing sugar and continue to beat until the frosting is smooth and aerated.

To assemble and serve the cake:

6. Put one cake layer on a cardboard cake round or plate. Dollop on half the cream cheese frosting, and smooth over the cake evenly with a spatula. Put the second cake layer on top, and on top of that dollop on the rest of the frosting. Smooth evenly with a spatula. Decorate with the walnut halves.

7. Chill the cake in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (preferably overnight) to firm up the icing. Take the cake out of the fridge 15 minutes prior to serving. The frosted cake will last for 5 days in the fridge, and the oil in the batter means that it won't dry out if covered. Cake tastes the best 1-2 days after it's made!

'Festive' Cranberry-Pistachio Shortbread Rounds

We were gifted with a huge bag of craisins (i.e. dried cranberries) a while ago. My mind immediately started racing with possibilities for its use: cranberry and white chocolate chunk cookies, plumped up with rum for a fruit cake, and...well, the cranberry and pistachio combo is always a good one! Particularly during the festive season. I mean, just looking at these red and green-studded shortbread rounds conjures up images of Christmas-time.

The most fiddly part in the recipe is making sure the dough doesn't break apart when you slice through the pistachios. Once the dough is made, it is rolled up into logs, wrapped in cling film, and chilled in the fridge for an hour or so, until hard. It is then sliced into discs approximately 1cm thick, arranged onto a baking tray, and stashed into the freezer for a final firming-up. The reason why it is so important to have the dough frozen solid before baking is because of the high butter content of these cookies. If you try baking these right after making up the dough, the cookies will spread and you'll end up with palm-sized mounds, instead of nice shortbread rounds.

I think these would look lovely packaged in clear cellophane bags tied up with a golden ribbon, to be given as party favours or used as table settings. I simply cannot get over how pretty the colours are!

Recipe for Cranberry-Pistachio Shortbread Rounds

Makes 22 cookies, approximately 5cm in diameter

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (or 175g) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup shelled pistachios
1/2 cup dried cranberries

1. Make the dough by stirring together all the ingredients, until a soft dough forms.

2. Divide the dough in two portions. Roll each portion into a log, and wrap each log with cling film.

3. Place the logs into the fridge and chill for an hour, or until solid.

4. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius (or 350 degrees Fahrenheit). Don't put the baking rack too close to the top, because your cookies will burn!

5. Take logs out of the fridge, and slice into round 1 cm thick. Put the dough rounds on a lined baking tray, and stash that away in the freezer for around 15 minutes, or until the dough is frozen solid.

6. When ready to bake, take the tray out of the freezer and put into oven immediately. Bake for 13-15 minutes. Don't wait for the cookies to brown, otherwise the colours won't be as pretty.

7. When done baking, take tray out of the oven. Allow cookies to cool on tray for 5 minutes, before transferring cookies onto a cooling rack. Let cookies cool completely before packing it away in an airtight container (that's if you don't eat them straight away!). Cookies will keep in an airtight container in a cool part of the house for around 5 days.

Easy not-at-all-dry Panettone!

I'm back!!! Back to updating this blog, back to catching up with friends, and back to waking up each morning without the imprint of a medical textbook across my face. I'm done with uni for the year, and the first thing I did once I got back home from my final exam was to assemble the ingredients for this Panettone.

I love seasonal baking, and there is no other time in the year as euphoria-inducing as the Christmas season for bakers. Christmas cookies, fruit cakes, mince pies, gingerbread houses, and...panettone! Baking funsies all around. Panettone is a fruit-studded bread loaf, enriched with eggs and butter and leavened with yeast. It has its origins in Milan, Italy, and is traditionally prepared for eating at Christmas and New Year functions. I've seen them being sold all year round at small grocers, and recently popping up at the bigger supermarkets.

I baked this panettone at my brother's request. He studies Italian at school, and they must have been learning about the country's cuisine at the time, because he came home one day with an empty panettone box (a learning tool from his teacher, I presume), and lamenting over the fact that he didn't actually get to eat its contents. My grandmother offered to buy him one the very next day, at which point I intervened with the promise to make one from scratch. Homemade always tastes better!

Even though I've accumulated somewhere upwards of fifty baking texts, it was to the internet I turned for a panettone recipe. The keyword in the search box? "Easy". An easy panettone recipe was what I wanted; one which didn't require a sourdough starter, or 16 hours of proofing in the fridge. I found this recipe, and as you can see from the pictures, the result was fantastic! It still took me around 5 hours to make, but for panettone, that really is nothing. Especially considering how good it tasted.

Most of the sweetness of the panettone came from the dried cranberries and raisins, which I'd soaked in rum for two days (you can omit this step). The bread itself was buttery and soft. I was very happy with the texture of the crumb, and I give all the credit to my KitchenAid mixer, which transformed the lumpy wet mixture into a satiny, elastic dough in no time at all. I used to knead all my bread dough by hand, and I can tell you that it is almost impossible to achieve the "gluten windowpane" manually. So for y'all without nifty mixers or bread machines...just try your best :D


Recipe for Raisin & Cranberry Panettone

Makes one panettone, around 15 cm high and 10cm in diameter

Adapted from Maison Cupcake

Ingredients

7g dried instant yeast
400g strong white bread flour
75g white granulated sugar
2 large eggs plus 2 egg yolks at room temperature
3 tablespoons lukewarm water
half teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons of finely grated orange zest
half teaspoon salt
175g softened unsalted butter
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 tablespoons rum diluted with 2 tablespoons water
40g butter to finish
1 egg for the egg wash

Method

1. (optional step) Two days before making the panettone dough, soak the raisins and dried cranberries in the rum+ 2 tablespoons water mixture in an airtight container. Store in fridge. Take out of fridge and bring to room temperature 30 minutes before incorporating it into the dough.

2. Mix 125g of the strong bread flour with the yeast and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add two whole eggs and 3 tablespoons lukewarm water and stir until thoroughly combined. Sprinkle a little dry flour over the surface (to stop a skin from forming). Cover the bowl with cling film, and leave in a warm place for an hour.

3. Once the hour is up, stir in the two egg yolks, vanilla extract and grated orange zest. Gradually stir in 175g of strong white bread flour until a soft sticky dough (more like putty!) is formed.

4. Transfer the putty-dough into the mixer bowl and, using the dough-hook attachment, mix on medium  speed for 30 seconds. Add in the softened butter, and mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Add in the remaining flour and mix for another 6 minutes. You may have to stop the mixture and scrap down the sides of the bowl now and then. Dough is done mixing when you can stretch it out so thinly that light can shine through (as seen in this image).

5. Cover the mixer bowl with cling film, and leave the dough in a warm place to rise for 2 to 2.5 hours, until doubled in size.

6. Uncover the dough and punch it to deflate it. Add in the dried fruit (if you've soaked them in rum, make sure you drain and dry them with a paper towel before adding). Using your hand, incorporate the fruit into the dough by mixing and folding.

7. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a panettone tin (or some other deep round tin) lined with foil. Using a knife, cut a shallow cross into the top of the dough. Cover the tin loosely with cling film, and place in a warm place to rise for 1 hour, until doubled in size.

8. 15 minutes before you put the dough into the oven to bake, turn the oven on to preheat at 200 degrees Celsius (400 degrees Fahrenheit). Put the baking rack towards the very bottom of the oven. When ready to bake, brush some melted butter over the top of the dough, and put a 2cm x 2 cm knob of butter at the centre of the cross.

9. Put the panettone dough into the oven and bake at 200 degrees Celsius (400 degrees Fahrenheit) for 10 minutes. Turn oven down to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit) and bake for another 40 minutes. You may have to cover the top of the loaf with a piece of foil 20 minutes into baking to stop it from burning. 10 minutes before you take the loaf out of the oven, quickly brush the top of the loaf with egg wash, and remove the foil covering the top so that the heat will turn the egg wash into a nice, bronzed glaze.

10. When panettone is done baking, take it out of the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes, before tipping it out onto a cooling rack and letting it cool completely before slicing into it.

Best Banana Bread recipe!

I love banana bread. Always have, always will! And no matter how many times the health-conscious out there remind me that its sugar and fat content qualify it more as "cake" than any recognisable form of bread, I still prefer to call it by its alliterative moniker.

The humble banana bread has seen me through some stressful times indeed: a particularly taxing day at school (i.e. PD/H/PE classes!) would be incomplete without a trip to the canteen for a thick slice of warm, toasted banana bread. And because calories simply didn't matter when you're a grubby teenager like I was, I would ask for it to be spread with margarine. The margarine (far inferior to butter, but that was what was available) would melt and seep into the airy pores of the fragrant banana bread, and I would savour it bit by bit from the greasy paper bag, breaking pieces off with my fingers.

I unashamedly consider myself to be an expert on banana bread, having eaten and indeed baked so many different versions. I've encountered some truly disgusting permutations (apple sauce! oatmeal! flaxseed!) to an absolute gem like this recipe. I can say with confidence that this is the best banana bread I have ever tasted. No, really, I've made this recipe three times now, and each time it has gone like a flash! And, despite my best of intentions, this banana bread has been the reason why I keep falling off my 'diet'. One taste of it and I'm a goner. I won't scare you with how much of the most recent loaf I ate by myself, but suffice it to say that the only reason I'm holding off on the next loaf is because I'm, er, running out of pants that fit ;D

I should mention that I used coconut oil and macadamia oil to bake this loaf of banana bread. However, I have also made it using only coconut oil. And they've all turned out great. The subtle scent of coconut was present only in the loaf made with purely coconut oil. What I'm saying is that please don't go out of your way to purchase coconut oil especially for this recipe. Any oil will do, and you may even experiment with stronger flavoured oils like hazelnut or olive oil. Do let me know how they turn out :) It's the proportions of ingredients in this recipe that matter.


Best Banana Bread recipe


Adapted from Served with love

Makes one 22cm x 12cm loaf

Ingredients

2 cups mashed bananas (use overripe ones)
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup of oil (I used 1/4 cup coconut oil and 1/4 cup macadamia oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste)
3 cups cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line the loaf tin with greaseproof paper or aluminium foil.

2. Mix together cake flour, ground cinnamon, baking powder, and salt.

3. Beat together the eggs and sugar until fluffy and a pale yellow in colour. Whisk in the mashed bananas. Sprinkle the baking soda over this mixture and whisk it in.

4. Drizzle in the oil and mix it well into the batter. Whisk in the vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste. Fold in the flour mixture in three additions.

5. Pour batter into the lined loaf tin and bake for around 1 hour and 45 minutes, checking with a skewer for doneness around 1.5 hours into baking, and every 10 minutes thereafter (since baking times vary with ovens). If you find that the top of the loaf is browning very quickly, you may have to cover it with a piece of foil an hour into baking to stop the top from burning. The banana bread is done baking when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean (no wet batter).

6. Remove from oven and cool slightly in tin before cooling completely on a baking rack. For best results, wrap with cling wrap once completely cooled, and let it sit for two days before serving in order to allow flavours to fully develop.

Chicken Feet, or Dim Sum-style "Phoenix Claws"

I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm a terrible cook, but I definitely lack the balls to be a good one. My grandmothers on both sides are good cooks - they've got the burn scars to show for it. Due to my ineptitude, I've accumulated a few scars as well, but they were mostly from stupid, rookie mistakes like plunging something dripping wet into a wok of smoking oil *shivers*. My paternal grandmother recounted this horrible story of how she got her whole face splashed with hot oil in her youth after carelessly dropping something into the wok from a height. See a theme emerging? I hate hot oil. And, by extension, deep-frying. Which is why I'm so darn proud of myself for these Dim Sum-style "Phoenix Claws".

I'm delighted with the way they turned out. From the acquisition of ingredients (maltose syrup, what's that?) to the dreaded deep-frying part...all those added roadblocks only made the final result appear more impressive. To me, at least. My sisters took one look at the raw chicken feet and refused to touch the cooked ones with a ten-foot pole.

I guess they do look vaguely...grotesque.

Why chicken feet? Well, they've always been a firm favourite amongst the adults in my family whenever we go out for Yum Cha. And since I rarely cook Chinese food for my family, preferring to leave the job for our more seasoned chefs (i.e. the grandmas), I want to make something that's not usually on the weekly menu when I do get the opportunity to wear the apron. I spotted the chicken feet at the Saturday Flemington Markets, and they were so cheap (around $2 a kilo) that I impulsively bought 2kg of them without a clear idea of what I would do with it all. I'm glad these turned out so well, because I still have a kilo stashed in the freezer!

!!!They have nails!!!

Maybe I should have given a warning before that picture. Whoops.

I used to dismiss Chinese cookery as the same old mish-mash of soy sauce, ginger, garlic and spring onions (and, ahem, MSG). Hopefully this won't sound too much like a reflective essay but: my eyes have genuinely, genuinely been opened by trying out Chinese recipes for myself. The careful balance of the "suan tian ku la" (sour, sweet, bitter, spicy) flavours, the use of all parts of the animal, the ability to transform something as unyielding as tendons into this wondrous chewy, gelatinous gustatory delight - it's anything but boring. Far from it. These "Phoenix Claws" weren't perfect, but because I had made them from scratch, and because of everything I've mentioned in this post, they tasted like the best chicken feet dish I've ever eaten. And judging by the way my family polished off the whole kilo I'd cooked, I'd wager that this recipe is a winner :)

Dim Sum-style "Phoenix Claws"

Recipe adapted from Yum Cha !

Ingredients
1kg chicken feet
2 cups vegetable oil (to fry them in)
4 litres water (or enough to cover the chicken feet for boiling)
60g fresh ginger, cut to 2mm slices
6 pieces star anise
1 small bunch coriander/cilantro roots
120g maltose syrup*

For the marinade:
4 tablespoons oyster sauce*
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons shaoxing wine*
4 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 tablespoons black bean sauce*
1 teaspoon sesame seed oil*

*Available from most Chinese grocery stores

Method

1. Wash chicken feet thoroughly, and chop off the tips of toes to remove nails. Scrap off any remaining bits of scaly yellow skin.

2. Dry the chicken feet with a paper towel. Toss the chicken feet in maltose syrup (you may have to melt the maltose syrup over heat to soften it) to coat.

Maltose syrup (right) and black bean sauce (left). 

3. Heat vegetable oil in wok over high heat until smoking. Fry chicken feet in batches, until the skin is a nice deep, mahogany colour. 

My ineptitude resulted in some burnt bits, but I simply scraped those bits off and carried on :)

4. In a pot, boil water and add ginger, star anise, and cilantro/coriander roots. Add the fried chicken feet. Bring everything to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 90 minutes. Drain.

Boiling the fried chicken feet.

5. Combine the marinade ingredients. Marinate the feet overnight, or at least 12 hours. Before serving, steam the chicken feet and marinade for about 15 minutes.

Sour Cream Lemon Pound Cake

All the bakers out there - have you ever made something that looked fine and smelt fine, but disappointed in the taste department? I had one such experience with a caramel cake. The darn thing looked perfect, all nicely risen and golden on top, and had that titillating and irresistible smell of caramelised sugar and butter. It held such promise...I took a bite, and disappointment set in as the cake was so depressingly bland. It tasted nothing of caramel. Indeed, it didn't even taste sweet, an impossible situation given how much sugar (and vanilla sugar at that!) I had invested in the thing. And even though I knew from that first bite that it was a total flop, I kept going back for more, hoping that the taste would improve on standing. All those wasted calories...which could have been spent on this Sour Cream Lemon Pound Cake instead.

I had a good feeling about this cake as soon as it came out of the oven. The intoxicating scent of lemons  permeated the whole kitchen, and even though it was the dead of winter and near midnight, I felt like I was swathed in a comforting blanket of warmth and sunlight...*ahem*, yeah creative writing and figurative expression have never been my forte; why don't I simply let the pictures do the talking?

I have made many-a-pound cakes before, and I've had consistently better results with a combination of cream cheese and butter, instead of a "pure butter" pound cake. Problem is, cream cheese is so expensive. And it seems such a waste to use it in anything except a cheesecake, where it can truly shine. And this is where sour cream comes in, because it produces a result indistinguishable from that made with cream cheese - for less than half the price! A quick search on the interweb found a pound cake recipe involving sour cream, courtesy of Cooking with Tanya and Epicurious.

The recipe makes a lot of batter, which is why you should use the 16-cup tube pan that both recipes recommend. I went with a loaf pan, and had about 2 cups of batter left over. One cup I put into a smaller pan and baked for 45 minutes, and the other I microwaved for 3 minutes. The microwaved version was...interesting. Good to eat straight away, but became very dry almost immediately afterwards.

The baked version, on the other hand, is very moist, and will probably stay moist and improve in flavour over the next few days. Simply wrap it with a few layers of cling wrap, and leave it at room temperature for 1 or 2 days before eating. The fragrance from the lemon juice and peel is very pronounced, and goes perfectly with the tang from the sour cream. Serve as is or toasted, with a tall glass of cold milk on the side.

Sour Cream Lemon Pound Cake
Recipe adapted from Epicurious and Cooking with Tanya

Makes 1 10-inch cake (in a bundt pan or chiffon/angel cake pan)

Ingredients
3 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
250g unsalted butter, softened
3 cups white granulated sugar
6 eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Finely grated peel from one large lemon
300ml sour cream

Method
1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius (325 degrees Fahrenheit).

2. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Grease and dust the pan with flour.

3. In a separate bowl, beat the butter with an electric beater until creamy. Gradually add the sugar, and continue to beat for 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time. Beat until incorporated.

4. Stir in the lemon juice and grated peel.

5. Fold in the dry ingredients from step 2.

6. Mix in the sour cream.

7. Transfer the batter into the greased and floured pan. Alternatively, you could simply line the pan with foil.

8. Bake for 1 hour and 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted near the center comes out clean. You may have to cover the top of the cake with a piece of foil an hour into baking to stop the top from burning. Remove from oven, and allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes before turning onto a cooling rack. Let it cool completely before serving. I recommend wrapping it in cling wrap (once it's completely cool!) and letting it stand at room temperature for 1 or 2 days before eating it, to allow the flavours to develop.

Margaret Fulton's Apple Crumble Muffins

Guess who is now officially on holidays! That's right, yesterday was the last day of uni for this semester. You'd think I'd be out there partying like an animal and getting inebriated, but the embarrassing truth is that my idea of the perfect end-of-semester celebration is watching random Youtube videos in my "slob" clothes while mindlessly chowing down on Lindt Excellence 85% dark chocolate. And reading cookbooks! I am currently making my way through one of Margaret Fulton's, and indeed, this was where I got the recipe for these awesome Apple Crumble Muffins from.

The recipe looked so promising that I simply could not wait till the holidays started to try it out. Which was how I ended up lugging more than a dozen muffins to share amongst my colleagues in the middle of the week. From the way they rapidly disappeared, I'm confident to pronounce these a success. The sour cream (which the recipe calls for in lieu of milk) and the ample amount of apple chunks in the batter made these muffins extremely moist. The crumble on top was crunchy like a cookie, and deliciously buttery.

There are so many recipes in Margaret Fulton Baking that I want to try over these holidays, including the sour cream chocolate cake, and the Bienenstich (German bee sting) cake. I went on a cookbook shopping binge a few weeks ago, and came home with an impressive array of texts:

Whee, fun times ahead!

The apple crumble muffins are extremely easy to make; no need to get out the electric beaters or mixers. In fact, you don't even need to leave the butter out to soften in advance. The beauty of making muffins is that you can pretty much dump all the ingredients in one bowl (although some texts recommend mixing the dry ones together first, the wet ones in another bowl, and then combining the two). The butter can be melted in the microwave, and then stirred in. The most time-consuming part was chopping the apple into chunks, but even that didn't take very long. The crumble requires that you work fast in order not to melt the butter with your hot little hands while you rub it into the dry ingredients (ala. making a shortcrust pastry dough).

The muffins before baking, with the crumble mixture sprinkled on top.

The muffins can be eaten hot, straight out of the oven (or with a few minutes to cool out of consideration for your tongue), with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. Unsurprisingly, it tastes like an apple crumble xD However, I would recommend you to allow them to cool, and then store them in an airtight container at room temperature for a day in order to allow the flavours to develop. And then if you want to have it hot, just zap it in the microwave for 20 seconds. Instant pudding!

The muffins, fresh out of the oven.

Apple Crumble Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

For the muffin batter:

1 1/4 cups (185g) plain flour

1/2 cup (110g) white granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 cup sour cream

60g butter, melted

2 large Granny Smith apples, roughly chopped to 1cm chunks

For the crumble topping:

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons plain flour

2 tablespoons cold butter, diced

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius (375 degrees Fahrenheit). Line muffin tin with grease-proof cupcake liners.

2. Into a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt.

3. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream,  and melted butter until blended. Stir in the apple chunks.

4. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and fold until combined, but do not over-mix. Fill the lined muffin tin.

5. To make the topping, put all the ingredients into a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the muffin batter, dividing the crumble mixture evenly between the 12 muffins.

6. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until browned. Cool on wire racks, or eat it warm with ice cream!

Crumbed lambs' brains with herb sauce

I should probably issue a warning right now that this post contains GRAPHIC IMAGES of...BRAINS.

Lambs' brains, that is. As opposed to, say, human brains. [Insert your fave Hannibal Lector joke here]. Although, human brains would probably be easier to come by. I remember a time when my grandmother would habitually boil up some lambs' brains with star anise and Sichuan pepper every few weeks, and serve that for dinner. My favourite way of eating the brains was to smush it up on a piece of toasted white bread, put a slice of processed/plastic cheese on top, and microwave it until the whole thing was one, gooey mess. Gosh, I was a disgusting kid.

These days, lambs' brains are much harder to come by. When I spotted some frozen ones at Bush's Meats at the Miranda Westfield, I immediately bought a box for $10 without any idea of what I would do with them. And so they stayed in the freezer for the next few months; out of sight, but constantly on my mind (pun intended! xD)

As Fate would have it, a recipe requiring lambs' brains appeared in a recent issue of the Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine. The photo of the dish looked really good, and the name sounded quite delectable: "Crumbed lambs' brains with piquant herb sauce". I assembled the ingredients, and made it for dinner that night.

The onion, celery and carrot is for boiling the brains in, while the parsley, dill and mint is for the herb sauce. You really only need around a tablespoon each of the dill and mint, and around 2/3 cup of the parsley. I don't use fresh herbs much in cooking, relying on the dried stuff as it keeps much better, but I really should incorporate more fresh ingredients into my meals because you simply get so much more flavour out of it! For the sauce, you basically melt some butter, chuck in the herbs, capers and mustard, and it's done within a minute.

Making the 'piquant' herb sauce.

The brains have to be soaked in iced water for an hour to draw out some of the blood, and then boiled alongside the onion, carrot and celery for 5 minutes, until just cooked.

Boiling the lambs' brains.

The just-cooked brains are then chilled in the fridge for an hour, before they're coated with flour, egg, and breadcrumbs:

Onto the frying! As always, I got a grandparent to help with this stage because working with hot oil still freaks the shit out of me. I'm sure I've already shared with you the story of how a flying bit of oil got me on the right cheek, and I ended up with cellulitis. If I haven't...well, I just did, so take heed and do be careful when you fry stuff!

I guess crumbing and frying in oil makes anything taste good, but the gorgeously oozy texture of the brains made eating this a sensory delight. A sprinkle of salt, and they can be eaten just as they are, but I reckon it's well worth the effort to make the herb sauce.

Crumbed lambs' brains with herb sauce

Adapted from Australian Gourmet Traveller

Ingredients

6 lambs' brains, brainstem removed and lobes carefully separated

1 each of carrot, celery stalk and onion, diced

2 dried bay leaves

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp black peppercorns

Vegetable oil for pan-frying

Plain flour, for dusting

2 eggs, lightly beaten

150g bread crumbs

Coarse salt for seasoning

For the herb sauce:

50g butter

40g of baby capers, rinsed if preserved in salt or vinegar

2/3 cup of finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 tbsp each finely chopped mint and dill

1 tbsp 'provence herb mustard' (Dijon mustard is fine)

Method

1. Soak brains in a bowl of iced water for an hour. Drain, and set aside.

2. Bring 1 litre of water to the boil with the carrot, celery, onion, bay leaves, vinegar and peppercorns. Add brains, and simmer gently over low heat until just cooked through (4-5 minutes). Remove brains with a slotted spoon onto a plate and refrigerate to cool (around 1 hour).

3. Heat around 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a fry-pan. To test whether the oil is hot enough, drop in some bread crumbs. If it starts sizzling, you're good to go. Coat brains first with flour, then egg, then bread crumbs. Pan-fry in batches, turning occasionally, until golden and crisp. Drain on absorbent paper, then season to taste with coarse salt.

4. To make the sauce: Heat butter in the fry-pan over high heat until foaming. Add the capers, parsley, mint, dill and mustard. Stir to combine, then take off heat and spoon over the brains, or serve separately for dipping.

Super Moist Carrot Cake

Could it be that "retro" is making a comeback in the baking world? Maybe it's the influence of a recent delightful visit to The Tea Parlour for a friend's 21st (review soon to follow, hopefully!), but lately, I've been craving simple tea cakes, scones, and slices - basically, the stuff you find in a Australian Women's Weekly cookbook. And so it was in the spirit of "everything old is new again" that I made this delicious and super moist carrot cake.

The carrot cake and I go waaay back. In fact, it was the first cake that I baked from scratch, as the final assessment for a Design and Technology course in Year 8. I remember that class very clearly. In the weeks leading up to it, we'd been put through the paces in basic cookery with various old-school Aussie favourites: chocolate chip cookies, butterfly cakes, etc. For our assessment, we were given an hour and a half to complete a recipe of our choice, working in groups of threes. Come to think of it, it was kinda like a Masterchef team challenge!

Anyway, the carrot cake turned out fantastically, and the cream cheese frosting left so deep an impression on my naive palate that it remains my favourite type of frosting to this day. My fellow team members and I proudly presented a generous slice of cake to the lovely ladies down at reception. The rest we split between the three of us. As I recall, it was a GINORMOUS cake that we made, and my share lasted for days.

And so I have very fond memories of the carrot cake. This particular one wasn't frosted due to time constraints, but I imagine that the maple cream cheese frosting I made for my browned butter apple pound cake a while back would have been perfect for this. The recipe I used for this carrot cake utilised ghee instead of the usual vegetable oil. I do believe that either choice would be fine in the cake. I would describe the texture of this cake as extremely moist; almost pudding like. I was worried that it would be too sweet when I tasted the batter (raw eggs don't scare me! xD), but the baked cake was not very sweet at all. Which means that you can pile on the cream cheese frosting extra thick!

Recipe for a Super Moist Carrot Cake

Adapted from Guilty Kitchen

Recipe yields one 22cm x 12cm loaf AND 7 cupcakes, OR one 9-inch two-layer cake

Ingredients

2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 cup ghee, melted
1/3 cup buttermilk (or 1/3 cup whole milk + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 1/2 cups finely grated carrot (I used five carrots)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius (or 350 degrees Fahrenheit). Grease and flour a 22cm x 12cm loaf tin, or line it with aluminium foil. You can reserve leftover batter for another thinner loaf, or make cupcakes out of it.

2. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir in the brown sugar, white sugar, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, powdered ginger and salt. Use the back of the spoon to break up any lumps formed by the brown sugar.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs into the melted ghee, one by one. Whisk in the buttermilk, vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste. Stir in the grated carrots.

4. Combine the dry and wet ingredients, and mix until incorporated and smooth. Be careful not to overmix.

5. Pour the batter into the loaf tin, filling it 3/4 full.

6. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until skewer inserted into centre of the loaf comes out clean. If the top of your cake gets too brown, cover the cake loosely with a piece of foil for the final 10 minutes of baking.

7. Once done baking, remove from oven and allow cake to cool in tin for 10 minutes. Remove from tin, and let cake finish cooling off on a cooling rack.

To make cupcakes:


1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius (or 350 degrees Fahrenheit).

2. Line muffin tray with cupcake liners.

3. Fill liners 3/4 full with batter.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.

5. Allow cupcakes to cool in tray for 10 minutes, before attempting to move them onto cooling racks.