Many, many moons ago, when I was an unfortunate-looking teenager, my dad went on a holiday to France. My envy was palpable – growing up in a run-of-the-mill Sydney suburb all one ever heard about France was the chicness of the population, the deliciousness of the food and the classic style of the clothing. Continue reading
I receive umpteen cookbooks to review in my day job at the Fairfax community paper where I work. It is one of the highlights of my job and I love reading through them and seeing what brilliant cooking minds are coming up with. Some books are incredible, some mediocre but the ones that stand out are the books that have that something extra. Continue reading
You’d think by now I would have learnt my lesson regarding taking photos of my baked goods but nope – I still tend to bake then serve the item to friends before I’ve had a chance to take any photos.
Such was the situation with this ooey, gooey, decadent pie. When The Hungry Mum family descended upon America last year we hit many a supermarket, stocking up on all manner of baking goods unavailable in Australia. One of my fav purchases was ginormous marshmallows, the kind of which simply aren’t seen in the Antipodes. I’d been stashing them away, waiting for the perfect recipe and it soon presented itself. Thanks to Sally’s Baking Addiction and her delectable s’mores brownie pie my packet of behemoth marshmallows got cracked open. See her fab recipe here: http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/05/06/smores-brownie-pie/
I made this for a recent gathering of friends and managed to snap a few pics before it was cooked. Afterwards was a blur of people almost charging each other over in order to get a slice. As this desert is so rich a teeny sliver goes a long way.
I do also have a box of the legendary graham crackers which this recipe called for but decided to keep these for another day. I used plain sweet bickies so didn’t need the sugar as called for in the original recipe used. I also reduced the amount of sugar in the brownie as I knew the marshmallows would make the pie very sweet.
In any case this was such a hit that I reckon I’ll be called upon again to serve this delish creation.
GATHER:
*Crust
10 plain biscuits [such as Marie], snapped in half
90grams melted butter
Place biscuits in bowl of food processor and wizz until it looks like big crumbs. Add butter and combine until it resembles wet sand. Press into a glass pie dish and place in fridge while you prepare the brownie filling.
*brownies
150g diced butter
¾ cup caster sugar
¾ cup sifted cocoa powder
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
½ cup plain flour
25 large marshmallows
LET’S GET TO IT:
Melt butter, sugar and cocoa in a microwave-safe bowl for 30 seconds at a time until melted and smooth when stirred. It will look gritty. Allow to cool for a few minutes.
Stir in vanilla, then eggs, one at a time.
Add flour, gently stirring, until fully incorporated. Ensure you don’t overbeat.
Tip into pie crust and use a spatula to level the top.
Bake for about 25 minutes, then remove from oven and neatly decoare the top with marshmallows. Bake for a nother two minutes but watch closely to ensure it doesn’t burn.
Allow to cool before serving.
So, this is a very basic recipe and the only reason I’m even posting it is that I often have a surplus of two egg whites when I’m baking or making the Hungry Dad’s favouritest ever sweet, custard. I was stashing the whites in the freezer but decided to actually bake with them recently.
This recipe is sooo simple that my kids [even Miss6] could make this without any supervision. The choc bottom takes them from meh to marvellous.
Gather:
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 egg whites
2 cups desiccated coconut
150g dark chocolate, melted
Let’s get to it:
Preheat oven to 180C and place non-stick baking paper on a baking tray.
Mix everything except chocolate in bowl using a silver spoon.
Place golf ball size mounds on the trays, leaving space to spread.
Bake for between 10-13 minutes, until pale gold.
Cool completely before using a butter knife to swipe the melted chocolate across their bottoms.
Allow chocolate to set before eating.
Firstly let me apologise for the [lack] of photos. I made this obscenely rich passionfruit semi-freddo to serve to some friends who came over yesterday. Between setting up all the desserts and ensuring everyone had a plate and making sure things didn’t melt the photo thing pretty much didn’t happen.
Use your imagination – cool, rich ice cream studded with swirls of passionfruit, itself sunshine in a mouthful. Don’t you just want some right now? Continue reading
If you’re reading this in the northern hemisphere the title of this post may seem nonsensical. Australia readers [and maybe New Zealanders] will get it: this cake pays homage to a biscuit that many of us grew up with. Made by Arnotts it is plain vanilla bickie with puffy pink marshmallow topping and a river of raspberry jam down the centre. The whole creation is then sprinkled with desiccated coconut. Sickly? A bit. To children of a certain generation they were the ultimate in lunchbox treats.
With Australia Day looming Miss8 and I decided to do a riff on this old fav, using cake instead of cookie, as the base. Continue reading
Merle Parrish is a legend in Australian baking circles – not only has she been baking [and winning] at country shows since a teenager but she has endeared herself as a judge on MasterChef Australia.
I received a copy of Merle’s Country Show Baking And Other Favourites in my day job as a journalist at The Leader newspaper, where I review cookbooks as part of My Hungry column.
I instantly loved the book as it is crammed full of nostalgic baking recipes. Continue reading
So I was trawling Twitter one day in lieu of doing some chores and found a cookie swap hosted by the creative types at Real Housemoms, {I love} My Disorganised Life, and White Lights on Wednesdays. This had my name all over it so I jumped on board!
So I have come late to the pumpkin party but boy am I an enthusiastic participant!
I have always loved pumpkin but in Australia it is eaten primarily as a savoury dish. I only discovered its use in baking from the many, MANY cooking blogs I follow. You may have noticed I have a recipe for pumpkin pie on my blog [sooo very delicious] but as canned pumpkin isn’t readily available here it means chopping/cooking/mashing pumpkin before you can even contemplate baking with it.
We recently returned from a US holiday, where we visited Disneyland [oh! So much happiness], San Fran [can I please move there?] and Hawaii. I dragged my poor family to every supermarket we passed [and many others that we had to make long-winded detours for] in order to stock up on baking provisions that aren’t available here in Australia. The legendary graham crackers. Pumpkin spice kisses. Hersey bars. And tins of pumpkin.
I couldn’t wait to get home and start baking with my imported loot and the first thing I made was Tartlette’s pumpkin semifreddo. Oh, what a revelation! Silky, creamy, and pumpkiny. Devine. All I did was change some of the spices to mixed spice & increase the cinnamon because I’m all about the cinnamon. Here’s her recipe: http://www.tarteletteblog.com/2009/11/recipe-pumkin-semifreddo-with-side-of.html
Then, as I had leftover pumpkin, I made a batch of Baked By Rachel’s pumpkin snickerdoodles. Without exaggeration I would rate these as some of the best bickies [or cookies, to speak in the parlance] I have ever made. Here’s the original: http://www.bakedbyrachel.com/2012/10/pumpkin-snickerdoodle-cookies/comment-page-1/#comment-94230
I served the two together because – well, why the hell not.
Pumpkin semifreddo
Gather:
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons (25gr) sugar
2 tablespoons water
3 large egg yolks
1/2 cup tinned pumpkin puree
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon mixed spice
Let’s get to it:
Spray a loaf tin with non-stick spray then line with plastic wrap, allowing for overhang.
Using whisk attachment in a stand mixer beat cream to soft peak stage then put in fridge.
Place honey, sugar, and water in heavy saucepan, stir, then bring to a boil over medium heat until it reaches 114C on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat.
In a clean bowl beat the egg yolks for a few seconds, then slowly but steadily pour in the hot honey mix. Don’t muck around – the honey mix will begin to solidify if you wait. Whip until the mix is airy and fluffy and incorporated.
Fold one third of chilled cream in, then beat the rest in along with pumpkin and spices.
Gently scrape into loaf tin, cover with plastic wrap and place in freezer overnight.
Pumpkin snickerdoodles
Gather:
225g butter, diced, at room temp
1 egg
2 ¾ cup plain flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup caster sugar ( I reduced the original recipe)
¾ cup pumpkin puree
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon mixed spice
½ teaspoon vanilla
sugar mix:
¼ cup caster sugar
2 tablespoon cinnamon
Stir together in small bowl
Let’s get to it:
Grease and line two baking sheets with baking paper.
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy then add egg, vanilla and pumpkin (do not over-mix).
Sift dry ingredients into a medium bowl and add to butter bowl, mixing until everything is combined.
Place in fridge for around an hour, then preheat oven to 180C.
Using your hands make golfball-sized biscuits, then dip into sugar mix.
Place on tray then gently squash down with a fork (I tried skipping this step and they came out too fluffy and big).
Bake 12-ish minutes; allow to cool on tray for a minute then place on wire rack to cool completely.
Oh Donna, you’ve done it again. I reckon that Ms Hay’s eponymous magazine is just getting better as time goes on. There’s a wider variety of recipes and they are all just so tempting that I every time a new edition appears in my letterbox I want to race to the kitchen and bake. That’s surely a sign of a fab mag.
The recent issue 68 had a cheesecake special, which totally had me drooling. The recipe that most caught my eye was dark chocolate coconut mini cheesecakes with pomegranate syrup. Not being a pomegranate fan I omitted this but don’t think mine were any the poorer for it. Continue reading
the hungry mum 