I almost typed in Anzac Cookies, but that would have just been SO wrong as these biscuits were originally baked during WWI by wives and mothers for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) soldiers. Luckily I caught myself in time and wisely used the term ‘biscuits’ instead. Anyway, a rose by any other name and all…these taste pretty good!
There’s an ongoing debate as to what exactly is a brownie - a cake, a cookie, a sheet cookie, a bar, a slice? But a brownie sits in a separate category all together. It should be denser than a cake and fudgier rather than light and fluffy.
I trawled through a large handful of recipes trying to decide which would produce a great brownie but most of the recipes I came across used baking powder. How could this produce a dense and fudgey brownie? Dissatisfied with the results of my search, the only solution was to create my own recipe.
Using a few of the recipes as a rough template, I reduced the amount of flour and sugar and left out the baking powder altogether. The chocolate and butter was melted over simmering water and the rest of the ingredients mixed in with a wooden spoon. By not beating the eggs, sugar and butter, I managed to avoid aerating the batter and this resulted in a dense, fudgey, amazing brownie…oops, blondie. I forgot to mention that I mainly used white chocolate instead of milk or dark.
It was great straight out of the oven and we’ll find out tomorrow how it tastes after sitting overnight.
Cin’s Blondie
200g white chocolate, roughly chopped
150g butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups pl flour
1/4 tsp salt
50g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1/2 cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped1) Melt 1/2 white chocolate & butter in bowl over simmering water. Remove from heat.
2) Stir in sugar, eggs and vanilla essence
3) Mix in flour&salt mixture
4) Fold in rest of chocolate and almond pieces
5) Bake in 20cm square tin at 160C until skewer comes out clean but with crumbs. Don’t overbake.
Of course, you can’t enjoy brownies or blondies on your own so I have to share this recipe with the rest of the Brownie Babes over at Myriam’s place.
Walking around Shanghai one evening we came across a place that was grilling lamb kebabs over a charcoal fire. We looked up at the shop frontage to see the shop name appearing in Arabic script next to the picture of a mosque. The music that wafted towards us along with the smoke was definitely Arabic although the workers looked just like extremely fair Chinese. Following some research, I realised that there is actually quite a rich Islamic heritage within Chinese history.
Towards the evening, long queues snaked across the street waiting for the lamb kebabs to come off the grill. Not wanting to wait, we just picked up some interesting-looking bread. The dough is mixed with pieces of lamb (chewy for the most part) and fat and baked into a fragrant flat loaf with a crusty exterior.
Next to the bread is an egg custard tart from Lilian Bakery, a franchise that has several branches scattered around the city. A connoiseur of egg custard tarts, A has decided that this is best one we have had so far and I am inclined to agree. The custard, which is wobbly and just eggy enough to lure me but not put A. off, is held together by a flaky pastry shell. Utterly divine!
Somewhere between a roti and a naan, this sesame seed-coated bread is fried in a large flat pan which gives it a crispy shell. We had a great version the first time then had a lot of trouble finding elsewhere. The second one turned out to be too soft and mushy to be enjoyable.
This is a Chinese delicatessen! Every second shop in Shanghai seemed to sell a variety of preserved and dried foods, biscuits and sweets, as well as herbal ingredients. Most of the preserved meat were vacuum packed in foil wrappers, making it difficult for non-Chinese reading people like us to determine what each contained - feet, chicken wings or tongue, just to name a few. This shop made it somewhat easier although I can’t imagine buying that porcine face mask. It reminds me rather creepily of Hannibal - eeeuughhh.
Adventures in Shanghai - Part 1
Adventures in Shanghai - Part 2
Images of Shanghai
Further along the same bustling street, we encountered dessert of a different kind. The base, when we got to tasting it, was like claggy batter but the top was prettily studded with dried and glaced fruits and nuts. There was a HUGE and I mean HUGE line waiting to get a cup of this but my recommendation is ‘watch the guy making them - the pan is an interesting shape - but don’t go out of your way to try’.
Thsi vendor was making four different types of filled pancakes but I could only understand what two of them were - red bean and chesnut paste. My recommendation is ‘Skip these - sticky (undercooked?) and bland’.
These grilled scallops created the most heavenly smells and I would definitely try them next time.
Can you see the hand just to the right of the photo? Well, they weren’t too pleased with us taking photos. Maybe they thought we were about to run away with their secret traditional method of making these fairy floss-like sweet (I’m thinking, surely there is a less labour-intensive way).
Funnily enough, I saw a lady making the exact same thing in the exact same way in London’s Chinatown a week later. Too late!
Adventures in Shanghai - Part 1
Adventures in Shanghai - Part 3
Images of Shanghai
Is there anyone out there who doesn’t have good memories of Nutella, seriously. I’m sure that I don’t know any of them. My memories of Nutella stem not only from my childhood, but from our subsequent travels in Europe.
But, we will start from the beginning when I used to bring Nutella sandwiches made with thinly sliced Sunblest white bread to primary school. In around Grade 5, a new loaf came along in the form of the extra soft, light and airy Country Split loaf. Suddenly, it seemed, every sandwiche was made with these thicker slices so, of course, my Nutella sandwiches HAD to be made with this bread too. Even at that time, I was always quite particular about how my sandwiches were made and eaten. My sandwiches had to have a thick, oozy layer of the chocolate goodness - forget that thin smear just in the middle of the bread versions that my dad preferred. Nope, it had to be spread right to the edges of the bread. When I brought out the sandwich at lunch time, I would then hold the sandwich in both hands and squish it down between my fingers and thumb until the cross section revealed equal proportions of the white, brown, white layers. Occassionally, I would then roll it into a cigar shape before nibbling away at the sandwich.
Later on, I discovered that Nutella paired beautifully with both vanilla or chocolate ice cream. I would soften the Sara Lee Ultrachocolate ice cream in the microwave until it had the consistency of soft serve, then swirl in teaspoonfuls of Nutella - how’s that for a chocolate hit! What a joy it was then to spoon the creamy concoction into my mouth and pressing the hardened Nutella chunks with my tongue against the roof of my mouth causing it to melt gradually.
There was then a lull in my Nutella enjoyment until my first trip to Europe, when my memories of it again come into sharp focus. Paris and the ubiquitous crepe stalls - need I say more? The wafting, glorious scent of hot crepes spread with nutella…the thought of which can still cause me to swoon. Needless to say, A. & I had a few of these during our time in France. It seems that Nutella is not only enjoyed in France but also in Italy, where large families (or so I assume) can purchase 3 kg jars of this stuff from the supermarket. You should’ve seen the amazement in my eyes when I first came across one of these bottles. I cradled it in my arms with hopes of carrying it away with me, but alas, the (im)practicality of lugging a 3 kg jar of Nutella across Europe wouldn’t allow for this.
There is one memory of Nutella that makes me laugh instead of drool however. We were having a chat with some American friends during our time in Italy about Nutella. As with many othe words (like Adidas), they had a way of pronoucing it that quite clashed with everyone else’s and one friend insisted on pronoucing it as new-tella rather than nut-ella. There was no way she was backing down from this being the correct pronouciation until A. asked “So do you eat hazel-newts?” 
Nowadays, we often have a tiny bottle sitting in the fridge as A. likes to have a spoonful every now and then (I prefer it at room temp myself). In honour of the many happy memories that Nutella has provided, I’m celebrating World Nutella Day with these chewy macaroons in which Nutella plays a starring role. I was actually after a slightly lighter cookie with a crispier shell but these Gordon Ramsey macaroons did well enough…all gone now.
Technorati Tags:nutella day, nutella, macaroons
This is one of Nigella’s creations, a muffin dressed up as a jam doughnut. I’m too lazy to give you the recipe here but I can tell you that there were extremely popular at work. They had cooled a little so I heated them for about 15 seconds in the microwave. Great with a cup of tea!
Oh, and they were baked in my recently acquired mini cake tin. Aren’t the shapes lovely?
Just a quick photo-less update on our New Year’s Eve celebrations for today. We invited some close friends around for dinner and drinks to usher in 2007.
To start with, we dipped into smoky babaganoush flavoured with lemon juice, salt and pepper then lightened with a dollop or two of sheep’s yoghurt. This was accompanied by homemade pinenut and parmesan wafers that tasted actually better on their own than with the dip.
Unsure of how many would turn up early for dniner, I prepared the ever delicious chicken, olive and preserved lemon tagine using our own preserved lemons, a lamb, nut and rice dish, stewed chickepeas, duck bisteeya and basmati rice scattered with jewel-like dried cherries, apricots, pistachios and slivered almonds.
I chose to replace pigeon with duck in the bisteeya so that I could purchase an already roasted duck from Chinatown instead of cooking the fowl from scratch - a useful time-saving measure. The chickpeas were stewed for over an hour with onions, garlic and cumin, rendering them exquisitely and meltingly tender.
For dessert, we enjoyed baclava, bought from our usual place on Sydney Road, and cheese from Simon Johnson, including a Roquefort, a pungent ewe’s milk blue cheese, Livarot, a soft washed-rind cheese made of cow’s milk, and my favourite, a Beaufort. The latter is a Gruyere-style, hard cheese made from cow’s milk and this one had a streak of blue mould running through.
We almost managed to see the fireworks from the living room but our plans were thwarted by the presence of a single tall building that managed to block most of the action. At least we had the television though…
Hope that you have all enjoyed the festive season and are looking forward to a blessed New Year!
Here are my Christmas trees!
I’m not going to post the recipe, which is from the special Christmas Cookies edition of Better Homes & Gardens, because although I love the way they look the cookies themselves are too sugary sweet. You can use any recipe that allows you to make cookie-cutter cookies, then all you have to do is ice them and decorate. I used the usual silver ball bearing-looking decorations that you find in supermarkets as well as some pearl sugar which I picked up from The Essential Ingredient in Prahran. The sugar does not absorb moisture and therefore will retain its shape. Reminds me of snowflakes and Christmas in Europe - sigh!
A forest of Christmas trees…
Next year, I have to find some of these cutters…unfortunately so many of these are not imported into Australia and most companies will not send out of the US 
I promised, in my previous post, that I would write about some chocolate desserts that I recently made so here they are. I’m also hoping that these two recipes will prompt some of you to buy a ticket for the $100 koko Black voucher that I’m offering as part of the Menu for Hope campaign. As Neil has urged in a recent post, we should support the companies that have generously donated their products to help make this event a success. To date, we have already exceeded last year’s efforts by more than US$4,000 and still have almost a week to go. Isn’t that fantastic? Anyway, who wouldn’t want to make a dessert that looks this beautiful? Especially with the berries that we have in season at the moment.
I bought Alice Medrich’s ‘Bittersweet‘ cookbook at least 6 or 9 months ago and it’s been sitting on my shelf instead of my kitchen bench. I was reminded of its existence at the opening of the new DFO at the renamed Southern Cross station. The bookshop had it on sale for measly $25.00! And I had paid $75 for it at Borders - don’t you hate that! Having tried out a couple of recipes now, I can tell you that it’s worth the price because these desserts will knock your socks off.
This roulade consists of a a thin layer of flourless chocolate souffle rolled up like a jam roll and simply filled with whipped cream, shavings of white and dark chocolate, and fresh raspberries. The recipe for the souffle sheet calls for a 70% bittersweet chocolate so I visited Koko Black to get their 74% house dark chocolate. As you will see from the recipe below, the souffle sheet is easy to make and don’t worry about the cracking as you roll it up. This produces the most pleasing effect, especially when dusted with some icing sugar and surrounded by the most luscious-looking selection of summer berries. The Koko Black chocolate was absolutely perfect for creating a dessert that was big on chocolate flavour but not overly sweet due to the high percentage of cocoa solids.
Bittersweet Roulade
185g Koko Black 74% chocolate, coarsely chopped, 1/3 cup freshly brewed espresso, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 6 large eggs, separated, 1/4 tsp cream of tartar, 3/4 cup sugar, 2 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1. Melt chocolate with water in a bowl set over a pot of barely simmering water, stirring frequently until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in vanilla and set aside to cool slightly.
2. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Gradulally sprinkle in sugar and beat at high speed until whites are stiff but not dry.
3. Whisk egg yolks into melted chocolate then fold 1/4 of egg whites completely into chocolate mixture to lighten it. Add the remaning egg whites and fold in gently but completely.
4. Spread batter evenly into lined jam roll tin and bake at 190C for 8 to 10 minutes until cake springs back when pressed lightly with fingertips and skewer comes out moist but not gooey. Cool completely in the pan on a rack.
5. Unmould cake by inverting pan onto a piece of foil dusted with cocoa powder and peeling off baking paper.
6. The recipe suggests using a cocoa bean cream or whipped chocolate ganache in place of cream but I thought this would be too rich. Instead, I filled it with whipped cream and shavings of 74% Koko Black chocolate (just to add a little more chocolatiness, sprinkled with fresh raspberries then drizzled swirls of melted white chocolate because I like the combination of white chocolate and raspberry. Using the foil to help, start rolling up the cake from one long edge. The cake will crack but, don’t worry, this decreases as the roll gets fatter. Place seam side down on platter, dust with icing sugar and surround with fresh summer berries of your choice.
This is the sort of cake to make for friends you love. It looks great and has just the right level of bittersweet flavour to not be overpowering.
I had enough of the Koko Blakc chocolate to try my hand at the Bittersweet Decadence Cookies as well and am I glad that I did (and more importantly, so is A.). As described in the book, these are ‘ultrachocolatey…crunchy on the outside with a divinely soft center…irresistable.’ I have tried to capture the gooeiness of the chocolate chunks inside but the photo probably doesn’t do it justice. Of course, this means that you will just have to try it out yourself!
Bittersweet Decadence Cookies
1/4 cup flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1.4 tsp salt, 250g semisweet chocolate, 30g unsalted butter, 2 large eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 cups pecans (chopped), 185g 74% Koko Black chocolate (chopped into chunks)
1. Melt semisweet chocolate and butter together over a pot of simmering water, stirring frequently until just melted and smooth. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla well together and set bowl over pot of simmering water. Stir mixture until lukewarm to the touch. Stir eggs into the warm (not hot) chocolate.
3. Mix flour, baking powder and salt together and stir into the chocolate mixture. Add nuts and Koko Black chocolate chunks.
4. Spoon rounded tablespoons of batter onto baking tray and bake at 175D for 12 to 14 minutes until surface of cookie looks dry and set but center is still gooey. Cool on rack.
We only spent 1.5 days there but I think we manage to fit an admirable amount of food in during this short period! On our first night, we visited Guerney Drive. It was pouring with rain so we wandered through the shopping centre next door until the skies let up. As soon as the rain eased, we were out of the shopping complex and in amongst the stalls. Good timing because we managed to get seats just before the crowd descended.
We started with Assam Laksa, one of A.’s favourite dishes, and boy was it good. Fantastically sour and spicy, the only thing it was missing was the black sauce - what’s that called again? We also tried a cuttlefish salad (Ju Hu Eng Chai) and I cannot recommend this dish highly enough - I just couldn’t get enough of it!
Of course, after reading so much about Poh Piah, we had to try this as well. Nyeh, wasn’t the greatest poh piah that I’ve had. A little on the soggy side.
This was washed down with soya bean milk, which we kinda had to order whether we liked it or not because the tables belong to that stall. Good thing that we did like it. I was told off at another table because I didn’t want to order freshly squeezed fruit juice and the guy grumbled that I couldn’t just sit there and not order from them! Ooops!
A. decided that he couldn’t leave without tasting the satay too so here’s the picture.
We came back to Guerney drive another night, after spending a couple of days in Langkawi, and ordered the Assam Laksa from another stall. This one did come with the black sauce but A. thought that the Laksa from the first stall was better.
The ice kachang served in Penang is also slightly different, made more decadent with the addition of ice cream. The one you see here had peanut icecream. Yum, I love ice kachang. I used to just eat the shaved ice sweetened with rosewater and evaporated milk from the top and leave the other stuff at the bottom of the dish for dad. Naughty, huh? I didn’t like all that red bean, corn and attap although the grass jelly was okay. Now, I’m happy to try some of it but my favourite part is still the flavoured ice.
One of my other favourites is Ban Chang Kueh, a pancake sprinkled with crushed peanuts and sugar. I had a really hard time tracking them down both this trip and the last, especially the thin crispy ones, so when we came across this stall selling Apong Manis and Apong Balik, we got a serve of each. The Apong Manis just consisted of batter spread very thinly over the little wok so it’s very light and airy. Didn’t love it. The Apong Balik was better though and I think it was filled with corn and coconut.
A. loves anything with peanuts so we tried these thingys as well. I cannot remember what they are called although I’m sure some Malaysians could help me out with this. We really liked this version cos the pastry was really thin and it was choc full of peanuts (makes it sound like a Snickers bar, doesn’t it?).
