Tortillas (wraps)

I hate the word 'wrap' for a wheat tortilla.  If I see wraps on sale in sandwich shops or delis I turn right off.  Nothing is appealing about a stale, stiff circle of flat bread filled with uninspiring ingredients.  However...

Unleavened flat breads like tortillas could not be simpler to make, and they taste much better than 'wraps' wrapped in plastic with anti-mould sachets which have sat on your supermarket shelves for months.  Tortillas take minute to make, and when fresh, are a revelation.  I won't be tempted to eat a wrap any time soon, but tonight I am going to have fresh tortillas with spiced lamb meatballs, dill and mint yoghurt sauce and some fresh tomatoes from the garden.

Ingredients:

225 g organic white flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
40 lard, vegetable shortening or olive oil
150 ml warm water


Mix all the ingredients and knead for a couple of minutes until you have a light dough.  I needed to add some more flour to achieve this.  Cover and leave for about 15 minutes.  Divide into 12 equal portions, and roll out into 15cm rounds.  Cover to prevent them from drying out.  Cook for 1-2 minutes per side in a hot heavy based frying pan.  Wrap in a tea towel to keep warm and eat immediately.  You can also reheat them in a microwave.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Although I did go to New York recently, I did not make it to visit "Bubby's Pie Shop".  A couple of years ago I found a great booked called "Bubby's Homemade Pies" by Ron Silver and Jen Bervin.  It's full of those sorts of pies you imagine cooling on a window ledge in an American farmhouse.  So finally, I decided to try something spectacular from it.

There are three basic steps.  Make a short crust pie shell, put in the filling and bake it, then cover with Italian meringue.  I won't give the short crust recipe, you could even buy a pre-baked shell to make it easier, but the authors give wonderful tips on how to prepare and roll out short crust pastry, over several pages, and I think I've made my best attempt ever following their rules.

To fill the pastry shell:

6 large eggs
1.5 cups sugar
3/4 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp lemon zest

Whisk eggs and sugar until frothy.  Add the lemon juice and the cream, whisk in.  Strain through a sieve then add the lemon zest and mix.  Pour into the pastry shell and bake at 150 C for 1 hour.  Cool on a rack and then cover in fridge overnight.

Italian meringue topping

This was fun!

4 egg whites
3 tbsp water
1 cup light brown sugar tightly packed
2/3 cup castor sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Add the sugars to a heavy based saucepan and cook without stirring until it reaches 253 F on a sugar thermometer.

At this point, beat the egg whites on a medium speed until frothy and slightly increased in volume.  Add the cream of tartar.  Turn off mixer, and a little of the hot sugar, and mix on medium for a few seconds.  Repeat, adding more syrup with the machine off, and then beating again.  Turn to high speed and beat until it holds a peak when lifted with a spoon.

It frothed up into the most amazing meringue!

Spread the meringue full to the edges of the pie shell, apparently if you leave any gaps the meringue will weep fluid later.  Lift into peaks with a spoon or spatula while it is still warm.   I then browned the top with a kitchen blow torch, but you can put it in an oven at 230 C for 5 minutes as an alternative.

Here's the result - amazing!

Visit to the USA

Today I made a very nice seed bread.

I went on a holiday to the USA and Canada for 5 weeks, so have not had a chance to write anything or cook anything.  I get really sick of eating in restaurants on holiday.  Not only the expense, but the lack of good home cooked food.  I only had 2 home cooked meals during the entire time.

On the other hand, it was a great experience.  I had some very nice bread, and I think overall bread in the USA is better than bread here in Australia or the UK.  The cookware shops were amazing, the prices unbelievable.  One of the main things I learned was that we a ripped off left right and centre for prices in Australia.  The service in shops was amazingly good too, compared to the ignorant, uninterested or just plain rude service you get here.  People did find it hard to understand my accent though.

Anyway, I'm going to buy things from the USA where possible from now on.  Many shops have recently started selling produce to Australia:

http://www.fiftyone.com/clients

A really good cookery store, probably the best I have seen, is Williams-Sonoma - soon they will be able to take Australian orders.  The prices for electrical items were about one third of what we would pay here.

Under cover bread baking attempt

This weekend I tried something a little different.  I used my standard loaf recipe and instead of cooking it in a hot oven or hot container, I put it in a cold oven and then turned the heat on.  It took longer to cook, but it  rose incredibly well and I ended up with a much lighter loaf than normal.

Ingredients:

Strong white flour 400g
Wholemeal flour 100g
Water 300ml
Olive oil 1 tbsp
Salt 1 dessertspoon
Dried yeast 1 dessertspoon

Knead it in the usual way and leaf to proof covered for 1-2 hours.  Knock back down and shape into a ball.  I let this rise in a floured banneton for 30 minutes, then tipped it gently onto the base of the cloche, upon which I had sprinkled some polenta.  If the receptacle is hot you don't need polenta, but for this method the dough would stick.  I put the dome on, let it sit for about 10 minutes, then put it in a cold oven.  Then turn the oven on at 230C for 45 minutes.  The dough rises further within its container, protected from the heat initially both due to the cover and the fact the oven starts off cold.  Take the dome off at 45 minutes, then leave for 20 minutes.

What I managed to produce was a loaf at least twice the size of previous efforts, and nice and light - very happy with this method.

Hot Cross Buns

Easter is almost here, and although I usually make hot cross buns during Easter, this year I will be travelling.  I'm making them this week instead, as they've become a bit of a ritual and they taste so nice I don't want to miss out.  Hot cross buns appear in Australian supermarkets straight after Christmas, which is ridiculous.  By the time Easter arrives I'm surprised people aren't sick of them.  The home made ones are much nicer than factory made ones.

Ingredients


500g flour
15g dried yeast
125g dried blackcurrants
1 tsp salt
60g brown sugar
60g butter
2 tsp mixed spice
2 eggs
280ml milk

Paste for the crosses


1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup water

Glaze

2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp castor sugar

Warm the milk slightly to room temperature.  Mix flour, salt, yeast and mixed spice together.  Make a well in the centre, add milk, eggs and softened butter and mix by hand.  Add the currants and mix them in.  Leave to rise for about 2 hours, covered, in a warm place.  Knock the dough down, knead briefly and shape into 12-16 round buns.  Place on a non-stick oven tray, or a greased tray, and leave covered for 45-10 minutes until they double in size.

For the crosses, mix water and flour into a smooth paste and pipe onto surface of buns when they have risen.

Bake in oven at 200 C for 15-20 minutes.

Just before they are ready to leave the oven, heat the sugar and milk in a small saucepan and boil until thick and syrupy.  Take the buns out of the oven and immediately brush the top of each bun with the syrup, and then brush them each again a second time.  Leave to cool.

Mixed spice


As I only seem to use a jar of this at Christmas and Easter, the spice will probably have gone stale if you have some hidden in the cupboard.  Buy a fresh jar, or you can make your own by mixing these together:

2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cassia
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp green cardamom seeds

Hot cross buns, and most other spiced fruit buns are an English tradition dating from Tudor times.  They were only allowed to be made and sold on special occasions, decreed by the crown.  This eventually lapsed and they became very popular, but now seem to have reverted to the special occasion of Easter.

Pumpkin scones

Pumpkin scones are are a Queensland tradition.  I don't think I thought of them as anything other than a joke before I came to live here.  I had certainly never seen any before.  I remember going to a morning tea at work and there they were - pumpkin scones.  They were much nicer than I thought they would be, and I'm making some for our Japan earthquake fundraiser tomorrow.

They are a bit different from normal scones.  My grandmother made superb scones, in fact both grandmothers did, except that the penny-pinching one served them with the cheapest possible margarine she could find.  Yuck!  My other grandmother made scones when she was near the end of a 300ml bottle of cream.  She would rinse it out with milk, and use that.  She barely mixed it with the flour until it just came together, and no more, otherwise they were overworked and wouldn't rise.  She also patted out the dough very lightly and didn't roll it.

This pumpkin scone recipe is from Stephanie Alexander.

Ingredients:

250g pumpkin in large chunks
300g self raising flour
pinch of salt
20g butter
1 beaten egg
Milk

Stephanie says to steam the pumpkin, but I've had better results baking the chunks in the oven at 180 C until they're soft, about 45 minutes.  I've tried steaming them but they make the scone mix too wet.  I suppose you could always microwave them too.  Let them cook, and then puree them.

Sift the flour and salt, rub in the butter and then the pumpkin puree.  Be warned, it's a sticky mess!  Don't rub or compress too violently, just try to amalgamate as gently as possible.  Add the beaten egg and mix to a soft dough.  It will be very soft and sticky.  If for some reason it's too dry, add up to 1/4 cup of milk, but I have never had to use any milk at all.  Tip onto a floured surface, sprinkle with more flour and pat into a square shape.  Cut into scone sized portions and brush the tops with milk.  Cook in oven for 15-20 minutes at 200 C until golden.  I had to turn the trays around in the last 5 minutes because the ones at the back cooked more quickly.

Serve with BUTTER!

Chocolate cupcakes for Max's 16th birthday

I had a lot of positive comments about my recent cupcake effort, so I thought I would try another version.  This time, chocolate cupcakes - just to be healthy.  I'll take most of them into work, but the main reason I am cooking them is because Max, our dog, turns 16 today and one of these will be his birthday cake.

Ingredients


100g dark chocolate
250ml water
125g Danish unsalted butter
255g brown sugar
3 eggs
225g self raising flour
75g white flour (cake flour)
30g cocoa

300g dark chocolate
300g creme fraiche or sour cream

This makes 18 cakes.

Preheat oven to 160 C.  Use 2 paper cupcake cases per cake.

Melt chocolate and water in a saucepan over low heat, stirring for 5 minutes until smooth.  Leave to cool.
Beat the butter and sugar in a mixer until fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, until just incorporated.  Add the sifted flours and cocoa and stir until just combined.  Add the cooled chocolate and mix until combined.  Spoon the mixture evenly between 18 cupcake cases.  Bake for 20 minutes then set on a wire rack to cool.

For the frosting, place the creme fraiche and chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.  Melt and stir for 5 minutes until smooth and shiny.  Let it cool and thicken then spread over each cooled cake.

Here is a video of Max eating it.  Somehow I don't think these will be light and fluffy, as he nearly choked halfway through it.