SLIDER

rhubarb, ricotta and hazelnut loaf

22 Jul 2024


One of my work colleagues asked me how I choose what to bake. I replied that sometimes the recipe comes straight out of a book or magazine but often times I use a recipe as a starting point and then think but what would happen if I made a few little changes. Sometimes it works out fine. Sometimes I have to do a bit of tweaking before it works. 

Leftover ricotta that I didn't want to waste and in season rhubarb that I wanted to use, inspired this recipe. I used the Strawberry, spelt ricotta loaf recipe by Danille Alvarez as my starting point and used rhubarb instead of the strawberries. Rhubarb pairs very well with orange and hazelnut so I used a bit of hazelnut meal instead of flour and changed the lemon rind to orange rind.




It's a thing with me, but I don't like the texture of rhubarb when it's baked on top of a cake. I find it way too dry for my liking but I didn't want to go through the time consuming process of oven roasting the rhubarb, my usual go-to method. Instead I looked for a microwave version and found this recipe online, which I adapted. Please note you just fold uncooked rhubarb into the cake batter, the poached rhubarb is just for the topping but if you don't mind the texture of baked rhubarb stalks, then you can forgo this step entirely.

Here’s the recipe for you inspired by a Danielle Alvarez recipe, which makes a small loaf cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.




Rhubarb, ricotta and hazelnut loaf
Poached rhubarb
125g rhubarb stalks, chopped into 9cm lengths (the dimensions of the tin)
2 tsp honey
1 tbs orange juice or water

Cake
110g plain flour 
1 tsp baking powder
pinch fine sea salt
40g hazelnut meal
40 ml milk
65g ricotta
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
90g rhubarb stalks
115 g unsalted butter, at room temperature or slightly warmer (but not melted)
3 tsp orange rind
150g caster sugar
1 tablespoon raw sugar

To finish (optional)
1 tbs raspberry jam, thinned with 1 tbs boiling water, then heated in the microwave for 1 minute

Poached rhubarb
Combine rhubarb, honey and the orange juice in a microwave-safe bowl, cover with baking paper. Microwave mixture on medium for 1 minute or until the stalks are just starting to soften but not falling apart
. If not quite ready, cook for another 30 seconds Set aside to cool completely before using.


Cake
Preheat the oven to 180°C conventional. Line a small loaf tin with baking paper, allowing the sides of the paper to extend past the edges of the tin.

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, then stir through the hazelnut meal. In a separate bowl, combine the milk and ricotta. Set both bowls aside.

Crack the eggs into a small bowl (do not whisk) and add the vanilla extract. Set aside. Chop the reserved rhubarb into 1 cm pieces.

Add the butter, orange rind and caster sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on a high speed until the mixture is light, fluffy and almost white in colour. This will take about 5–7 minutes. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides as needed.

With the machine running, add the eggs, letting one slide in at a time, and waiting until each egg is fully incorporated before adding in the next.


Stop the machine, add in half the flour mixture, and turn the machine on to low speed to just combine. Add in the milk-ricotta mixture and mix until combined. Finally, stop the machine again and add in the remaining flour mixture. Return the machine to a low speed and mix until it all just comes together. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and gently fold in the chopped rhubarb.



Spoon the batter into the tin, level the batter with an offset spatula then top with the slices of poached rhubarb. Sprinkle the raw sugar over the rhubarb and bake on the centre rack of the preheated 
180°C conventional oven for 70–80 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Let the loaf cool in the tin before tipping it out. 


Just before serving, if you like, you can glaze the rhubarb by brushing with the thinned out jam then slice and serve.




This is a lovely cake, almost pudding like in texture, redolent with orange and rhubarb.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian
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macadamia and caramelised white chocolate chunk cookies


I bake a batch of cookies every few weeks for my own personal consumption, so when the biscuit tin starts looking a bit empty, I start searching for what to make next. 
The biscuits, however, don't always make it in front of my camera. 


A few months ago, Delicious magazine devoted a feature to Natalie Paull and her latest cookbook, Beatrix Bakes: Another Slice. I ordered the book from the library and after leafing through a few pages, I went out and purchased my own copy. There were just too many recipes I wanted to make. So far, I've made the pistachio and lemon buns and for my second bake I whipped up a batch of her Macadamia and white chocolate chonky chip cookies. No doubt there will be more Natalie Paull bakes to follow.

Natalie always has a section in her recipes known as Adaptrix, where you can make changes to the recipe. Well, I adapted the hell out of the recipe to make it my own. Whilst I do like an after-dinner treat served with my cup of tea, a 165g cookie is way too much for me so I made the cookies a third of the size. I'm a big fan of caramelised white chocolate so I swapped that for regular white chocolate, and I reduced the quantity a bit because white chocolate can be a bit too sweet for me.

Here's the recipe for you, which was adapted from here. I made a half batch of the recipe which made twelve 56g cookies rather than the nine whopping 165g cookies the original recipe made. If you do make the 165g cookies, then double the bake time. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.


Macadamia and caramelised white chocolate chunk cookies - makes 12 cookies
Ingredients 
165g raw whole macadamias
80g unsalted butter, cold and diced
60g light muscovado (or brown) sugar
60g raw sugar
7g vanilla bean paste
165g plain flour
1 slightly heaped ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarb soda
½ tsp fine salt 
115g chopped white or caramelised white chocolate
50g egg (approx. 1 egg), fridge cold
Cooking oil spray
Sea salt flakes, to sprinkle

Method
Heat the oven to 150°C, conventional. Chop each macadamia in half. (If you bought macadamia halves, skip to the toasting.) Place on a shallow baking tray and toast in the oven for around 30-40 minutes until the colour of pale honey. Low and slow toasting is imperative with macadamias, given their high oil content. I like the toasted nuts to match the dough colour for maximum cookie aesthetic. Cool the nuts quickly in the fridge.


Place the cold butter, sugars and vanilla in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on speed 2 (above low) for about 5 minutes, until the mix looks like sugary mash – no need to go to pale and fluffy. Scrape the sides down once during this process. I keep this base mix cold and mashed rather than warmer and fluffier so my cookie dough texture is closed and dense rather than porous with air. They will also spread less when baked.

Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt into a small bowl and set aside. Weigh the caramelised chocolate chunks with the cooled chopped nuts and set aside.

Keeping on speed 2 (above low), add the egg to the butter mix in one go and beat for 5 minutes, scraping side of bowl once or twice during this stage. The butter/sugar/egg mix will be brown with a wet porridge consistency.

Reduce to speed 1 (low), then add the dry ingredients and mix just until no flour is visible. Tip the chocolate and nuts in and mix until only just incorporated. Take the bowl off the mixer, scrape the dough off the paddle and tip the dough onto your work surface. Give the dough a thorough mix so any buttery seams from the bottom can be mixed in well. Buttery seams can cause funny-spreading cookies. Good to eat, just not a nice round cookie.

Lightly grease a baking tray with cooking oil spray. Weigh 12 balls of dough to 56g each, or about 2 tbs of dough.


Roll each ball gently but don’t compact the dough – it should be a lumpy sphere. Place closely together on the tray. I like to cover and chill for a minimum of 12 hours, but you can also bake these straight away. The overnight hydrate/rest makes a better textured (a little less spread, more hump and no external greasy feel post-bake) cookie, but you can bake these straight away, too but they will take a little less time to cook, 9-10 minutes.



When you’re ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Spray a flat baking tray with cooking oil and line with baking paper. Arrange the dough balls on the tray, spacing them a roomy 5-7cm apart, then sprinkle the tops with salt flakes (totally optional). Bake for 12-15 minutes until the cookies have settled with a mild dome, have a crisp butterscotch-coloured upper crust and soft sides, but are squidgy just under the top crust. You can take an internal temperature – 75°C will give you doughy interior perfection.



Cool the baked cookies on the tray for 10-15 minutes for optimal eating – the warmest, stickiest, softest cookie dough joy! When the cookie cools completely, it’s also good, just not GOOD good.


Well, I can attest that these are very good cookies, eaten while still a little warm from the oven. A crunchy exterior and a caramelly slightly soft interior, studded with toasted macadamias. What's not to love?

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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eton mess cake


It's the middle of winter here in Sydney and the only saving grace, fruitwise, are the berries. 
I loaded up my trolley with berries at the fruit shop, and brought them home with me. But what to make?


I had any number of berry and cream laden cake recipes that I could have chosen but I decided to make an Eton Mess Cake. This cake is a play on Eton Mess, a classic English dessert made from broken meringues, whipped cream and berries. In a case of happenstance, I had a plastic container filled with mini meringues that I wanted to use up and I couldn't think of a better way to use them.


You can make the cake 1-2 days in advance but please don't decorate the cake ahead of time. If you do, the meringues will soften and dissolve and you'll lose the contrast between the soft billowy cream and the crunchy meringue.


Here’s the recipe for you, which makes a 17cm square cake that I adapted from here. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.


Eton Mess Cake - makes a 17cm square cake, which serves 6-8 people
Ingredients
125g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
1 tsp lemon rind
125g room temperature unsalted butter, plus extra for the tin
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
100g self-raising flour, sifted with a pinch of salt
50g almond meal
50ml full cream milk
45mls cream
50g strawberries, hulled and diced into 1 cm pieces
50g raspberries, fresh or frozen
1-2 tsp caster sugar, extra

Topping

250ml thickened cream
75g strawberries, halved
50g fresh raspberries
3-4 baby meringues, roughly broken up
Baby mint leaves

Method

Heat the oven to 190°C, conventional. Grease and line a 17cm square tin with baking paper (leave some overhanging to help lift the cake out once done).

Place the sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer and using your finger tips, massage the lemon rind with the sugar. Add the room temperature butter and the vanilla to the bowl and beat together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Crack in the eggs, one by one, and mix between each addition until combined. Mix in the flour followed by the ground almonds and gently stir in the milk and the cream. Using a spatula, gently fold in the strawberries and raspberries.



Pour the batter into the prepared tin, spread out evenly and sprinkle with a little extra sugar. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean. Once cooked, remove from the oven to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then lift from the tin onto a wire rack to cool completely. When cooled, place the cake on a serving plate.


Topping
Using a hand mixer, whip the cream until it forms soft peaks. Just before serving, roughly spread the cream over the cake then scatter with the strawberries, raspberries, broken meringue pieces and a few mint leaves. If you make this ahead the meringues will soften and dissolve and you'll lose the contrast between the soft billowy cream and the crunchy meringue.


Well this went down a treat at work - the combination of whipped cream, fresh berries and a hint of mint was declared a winner.



See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now, 

Jillian
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double chocolate sour cream pound cake

11 Jul 2024


I recently borrowed a few cookbooks from the library, including a copy of Alison Roman's book, 'Sweet Enough'. I trawled through the book and bookmarked a few recipes, including this one for her Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake.

I am not a chocolate person but my next door neighbour's daughter is. After a few weeks of fruit and citrus based cakes, I decided to make something with Minnie in mind. I had a scraping of sour cream left in the fridge, and some long forgotten chocolate chips so a chocolate sour cream pound cake it was.

I made a small loaf cake and normally I'd just halve the recipe but I would have ended up with a very tiny loaf cake so I had to tweak the proportions a little.

Here’s the recipe for you, which makes a small loaf cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.


Double Chocolate Pound Cake
Ingredients
100g plain flour
45g cocoa 
¾ tsp baking powder
pinch salt 
85g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
135g sour cream or whole-milk yoghurt
112g chocolate chips or chopped up chocolate bar (optional)
1 tbs raw sugar

Method
Preheat oven to 190°C, conventional. Line a small loaf pan with baking paper and put to one side.

Sift the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder into a medium bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer place the butter, caster sugar and vanilla and beat for 4-5 minutes or until extremely pale and fluffy. Scrape down sides. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each to incorporate. Continue beating 2-3 minutes or until mixture is smooth, fluffy and well incorporated.


With mixer on low, add about half the flour mixture, followed by the sour cream, followed by remaining flour mixture. Just before everything is incorporated, add three-quarters of the chocolate, if using.


Scrape batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate (if using) and the  raw sugar. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until the cake is puffed, considerably taller and pulling away from the sides of the pan. Due to the melted chocolate pieces in the batter, this is a difficult cake to test for 'doneness' using a skewer. Cool entirely before removing from pan.


I wasn't sure if I'd overbaked the cake due to the cake testing issues but no-one seemed to complain. As this is a sturdy cake I decided to dunk my slice into my cup of tea, something I've never done before. The hot tea melted the chocolate chunks in the cake and it was delicious.



See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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pumpkin and orange spice cake

1 Jul 2024


I borrowed Philip Khoury's new book, A New Way to Bake, from my local library. While I have done a great deal of gluten free baking the last few years, plant based baking is a bit of a mystery to me. I knew Phil had designed the book to be made with easy to access ingredients. I've pored through the recipes and discovered most recipes rely on plant based milks, in particular soy milk which I loathe, but the notes suggested I could just use water.


I went to Dungog for the Kings Birthday weekend and came home with a pumpkin from my brother, Farmer Andrew's garden. I've made a batch of oven roasted pumpkin soup but I still have half the pumpkin left, so the first recipe I made from the book was this pumpkin spice cake. I baked the cake in a bundt tin rather than a loaf tin and decorated the cake with a few pepitas and some candied orange rind made with the remainder of the orange. If you make the candied peel, you'll need to make it ahead of time.




Here's the recipe for you, which you can see Phil make here, which makes a small bundt or loaf tin. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon although most of the ingredients in this recipe are by weight. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 


Pumpkin and orange spice cake
Cake
150g pumpkin, peeled and deseeded 
60g brown sugar  
80g caster sugar
40g extra virgin olive oil 
1 tsp grated orange rind 
112g plant-based milk or water, at room temperature 
1 tsp apple cider vinegar  
150g plain flour (gluten-free plain flour will also work) 
1 tsp baking powder 
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp ground cinnamon 
pinch ground nutmeg 
½ tsp ground ginger  
¼ tsp ground cloves 
pinch sea salt flakes
 
Bundt cake icing 
100g icing sugar, sifted
1-2 tbs orange juice 
½ tsp grated orange rind

Loaf cake icing
165g icing sugar
45g orange juice
¼ orange, grated

To decorate
1-2 tbs pepitas or pumpkin seeds
candied orange rind (optional)

Candied orange rind
½ orange, rind removed and finely sliced
40g water
40g caster sugar
Additional caster sugar for coating

Method
Grease and flour a small bundt tin or line a small 600g loaf tin with baking paper and set to one side. 

Cut the pumpkin into 3 cm chunks, add the chunks to a saucepan large enough to just cover them with water and simmer for 12-15 minutes or until a sharp knife meets no resistance when you poke a piece of the pumpkin. Strain the pumpkin, discarding the water. Leave the pumpkin to chill for 30 minutes in the fridge until it has cooled to room temperature. (I used 150g of oven roasted pumpkin).


Preheat the oven to 180°C fan. (I baked the cake at 190°C conventional). Add the cooled pumpkin, sugars, the oil, orange rind, milk and vinegar to a large bowl and blend them with an immersion blender until smooth. You can also do this step in a blender or a food processor.

Add the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda, spices and salt to another large bowl and mix with a whisk. Add the blended ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a whisk until combined. 

Pour the batter into the greased bundt or lined loaf tin and place in the preheated oven on the centre rack. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before inverting the cake and removing from the tin.  If baked in a loaf tin, using the baking paper remove the loaf cake from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack with a rimmed baking sheet underneath.



Bundt cake icing
Combine the icing sugar and grated rind in a small bowl. Add enough orange juice to create a thick but pourable icing. Drizzle over the cake still on the cooling rack or placed on a piece of greaseproof paper. Leave for 30 minutes to set a little before decorating with the pepitas and the candied orange rind, if using.




Loaf cake icing
If making the loaf cake, make a thinner icing. Drizzle over the cake still on the cooling rack or you can use a pastry brush to brush the glaze over the cake. Leave for 30 minutes to set a little before decorating with the pepitas and the candied orange rind, if using.



Candied orange rind
Place the orange rind in a small bowl. Cover with boiling water and leave to soak for 30 seconds before draining. In a small saucepan combine the water and sugar and bring to the boil. Add the orange rind and lower the heat to a gentle simmer. Cook for 10 minutes before removing the pan from the heat and leaving the rind to cool in the syrup. When cool pour the mixture through a fine sieve to drain. Remove the peel and toss through some caster sugar. Place on baking paper and allow to set before storing in an airtight container.



The cake will keep for up to 5 days at room temperature in an airtight container.


I shared the cake with my workmates and didn't tell them it was plant based until after the cake was eaten. The cake disappeared in record time and it was declared delicious. Now I can't wait to bake another recipe from Phil's book.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian
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