Breakfast at Queenies & Crumpets with Lemon Curd & Mascapone

I had breakfast at Queenies Lunchroom in Freemans Bay last week with Sasa, Sasasunakku and Sue, Couscous & Consciousness, it was to be a brain storming session for the conference in November but also turned out to be a bit of a farewell breakfast with Sue since she has decided to move to Nelson. Sue and her partner have been our neighbours for the past few months, literally next door and we will miss having them around but look forward to visiting them in Nelson particularly since I have never been before.

Queenies is a funky little cafe with a colourful mural painting covering one wall. They have a small but varied menu but it was the crumpets served with lemon curd, Mascapone and blueberries that caught my eye. And they were perfect, so much so I had to make my own lemon curd this week just so I could recreate the experience. It’s a nice decadent breakfast but a quick one to put together if you have your own lemon curd already or pick up a store bought one. I didn’t use blueberries as they aren’t in season but once berries are back I will be eating it again with berries.

No recipe for it as you see it but here is a Lemon Curd recipe if you want one.

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Sticky Walnut & Coffee Scrolls

This is a a twist on Chelsea buns or fruit buns but with a kick of coffee to get you started in the morning and a sweet hit of green walnut confiture (jam) which I brought back in my suitcase from France last month. If you can’t get hold of the walnut confiture I have offered an alternative with a mix of whizzed walnuts, sugar and butter which is a similar method to making Chelsea buns. I have used fresh espresso coffee grind as I am quite fond of those chocolate covered coffee beans and don’t mind the crunch of the bean. I suppose you could substitute it for coffee essence or instant coffee blended into the confiture but neither of those ingredients would be found in my pantry, we are coffee snobs you see and only do ‘the real stuff’.

Ingredients – makes 12

3.25 oz sugar

1 tsp salt

2.75 oz butter, soft

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

16 oz bread flour

2 tsp yeast

1 cup warm milk

2 tsp espresso coffee grind

2 tbsp walnut confiture (or 70g walnuts, 50 butter, 50g sugar whizzed together)

1tsp sugar for glaze & 2 tbsp water

Method

Heat oven to 180C and line a baking sheet with parchment.

beat sugar and butter together.

Add egg and vanilla extract.

Add the flour, yeast and milk and bring together to form a tacky but not wet bread like dough.

Knead dough for 10 minutes and then allow to rest in a warm place till double in size.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 2/3 inch thick, 14 inches by 12 inches.

Spread the walnut confiture over the dough then sprinkle evenly with coffee grind. or evenly

spread the butter, walnut and sugar mix if using this method and then sprinkle with coffee grind.

With seam side down slice the dough into 1 inch thick buns and place 1/2 apart on the baking tray.

Lightly spray with oil and cover with a clean plastic bag.

Allow to prove till double in size and the buns are now touching each other.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown

Mix sugar and water for glaze in a small pan and bring to the boil. Glaze buns while still warm.

Rarotongan Coconut Rolls

As Robert Oliver says in his book Me’a Kai “the Rarotongan Coconut Roll is what the Hot Dog is to the American”. Unfortunately I only discovered this on our last day in Raro, we obviously hadn’t been visiting the right Dairy’s (corner shop for non Kiwi’s) and only managed to sample one. It was very tasty with the coconut shredded through the swirl of sweet dough but it was lacking in the sticky coconut sauce I later discovered the traditional ones are baked with. Never one to miss out on anything, particularly when it is food related, my mission this weekend was to make the true coconut rolls with lashings of coconut and coconut sauce and since it was so close to Easter I decided we would have these instead of hot cross buns this year. I have used the recipe from Me’a Kai.

The coconut sauce the rolls are baked with really does complete the bun, giving it a sticky sweet exterior so don’t skip this bit thinking you might want to reduce the coconut content, if you are going to eat them you have to have them with their full calorie count to appreciate them. I found them quite irresistible, perfect breakfast food with a strong coffee.

Ingredients – makes 12 large rolls

4 cups flour
1 cup of grated fresh coconut (or 1 cup of desiccated coconut mixed with 1/2 cup of coconut milk)
2 tbsp soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp active yeast (8g sachet)

Ingredients – Coconut Glaze
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup grated coconut ( or 1/4 cup desiccated coconut)
1 tsp cornflour

Method – Roll

Pre-heat oven to 180C
Mix the yeast and sugar with 1/4 cup warm water and put aside for a few minutes.
Put the flour, butter and coconut in a large bowl and combine.
Add the yeast, sugar and water to the flour and knead for 8 minutes. If the mix is too sticky add some more flour. It should be like a bread dough.
Shape dough into a log and divide into 12 pieces and roll each piece into a 20m log.
Coil each one into a roll shape and place onto a deep floured baking tray a few centimeters apart.
Cover with a cloth and rest in a warm place till doubled in size.
Meanwhile make the coconut glaze by putting all the ingredients in a small pan and whisking together to combine the cornflour.
Place pan over a low heat and cook for a few minutes until the liquid thickens.
Once the rolls have doubled in size, pour over half the coconut glaze and place in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and pour the rest of the glaze over the rolls and serve warm.

Baked Jam Doughnuts

 

Doughnuts are something I associate with the fairground from my childhood, the smell of them brings back memories of the Big Dipper rides, the Haunted House and the Dodgem Cars. They were a treat that we savoured, it was a special occasion to be bought food while out on a day trip, we normally had our picnic lunch all packed to sustain the whole day. Moving into my teenage years I worked weekends in a hotel near to the fairground and we used to go their in between ‘shifts’ and buy a big bag of doughnuts for lunch, I think once I had my own money I went potty for all the food I wanted to buy as a little girl! Then I started to cook my own while still living at my parents house, then I moved into my own house and realised I didn’t want the lingering smell of fat in MY house so doughnuts became a neglected friend of the past. Then I stumbled on this recipe in The Gourmet Traveller for baked doughnuts last week, I was a bit dubious about it at first, how could they possibly compare to my memories? As the first batch was cooking they smelt just how they were suppose minus the cooking fat of course. Dipped in sugar and cinnamon while hot I had to use all my will power to wait a few minutes so I didn’t burn my mouth while eating them. The verdict? Perfect yeasty, sugary, fluffy doughnuts and I now have old friends back in my life, maybe not every weekend, after all I wouldn’t sell them to you as a healthy treat but they have got to be better than deep fried with the added bonus of no fat frying smells!

Ingredients

• 750g plain flour
• 140g castor sugar
• 7g yeast (1 sachet)
• 330ml luke warm milk
• 2 free range eggs
• 150g butter, melted
• 1/2 cup strawberry jam for filling
• 1 cup of castor sugar for coating doughnuts
• 100g butter, melted for coating doughnuts
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Method

1. Combine the flour and sugar in a bowl.
2. Add the yeast to the milk and put aside for a few minutes until it starts to ferment. Then whisk the yeasty milk together with the eggs and melted butter. Add to the flour mix and combine into a dough ball.
3. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes then lightly oil the dough and place it back into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to prove for 1-1.5 hours or until more than double in size.
4. Preheat oven to 190C. Lightly flour 2 baking trays.
5. Knock the air out of the dough and turn onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 12 or 16 depending on whether you want regular or smaller doughnuts.
6. Roll into balls, trying to keep a smooth top and sides and only a seem underneath. Take the underside (less smooth side) and press your thumb into the dough and work it into a ‘well’ to fill with jam. Make sure there is enough dough to bring up over the jam without it squeezing out. This takes a bit of practice.
7. Place a teaspoon of jam in the well and bring the dough over the jam and pinch it together. Place seam side down on prepared baking tray.
8. Give the doughnuts plenty space to double in size without touching each other.
9. Cover with glad wrap and stand in a warm place until they have risen double in size.
10. Bake for 10 minutes until golden.
11. Melt the extra butter in a bowl and mix the extra sugar and cinnamon in another bowl.
12. Once the doughnuts come out of the oven dip them while hot in the melted butter, then dip them into the cinnamon sugar and serve hot.

Lemon Almond Bread

It’s Sunday morning and a rather late start to the day for me after a lively night with Friends. I’ve still managed to get my morning swim in before breakfast, albeit a slow crawl across the pool as the others keep lapping me. I’m starving on my return home but after a sausage workshop and a Bavarian festival yesterday all I find in the fridge are the leftovers; sausages, sauerkraut and potato salad, not really what I had in mind, the body is craving a sugar injection. Luckily I had made a double batch of sweet bread dough last week and pulled that out of the freezer to make something not so sausage like for morning tea. A quick rummage in the cupboard delivered ground almonds and lemon peel, if I bound them together with egg I though  it might make a kind of citrus marzipan filling. I’m please to say the results did offer a light bread with a not too sweet citrus marzipan style filling, very satisfying and now it was time to put my feet up and have a wee siesta after all that hard work!

Ingredients – makes 1 loaf

• 400g high grade flour
• 40g sugar
• 80g butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp dry yeast
• 1 cup warm milk
• 150g lemon candy peel
• 140g ground almonds
• 1 large egg
• sprinkle of slivered almonds for decoration

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C and line a baking sheet with parchment.
2. Add the yeast to the warm milk to allow it to dissolve.
3. Place the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the middle.
4. Add the yeast and milk, sugar, vanilla and melted butter to the well and bring together to form a tacky bread like dough.
5. Knead dough for 10 minutes and then allow to rest in a warm place till double in size.
6. Place the candy peel, ground almonds and egg into a bowl and beat together.
7. Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 2/3 inch thick, 14 inches by 12 inches.
8. Spread the almond mixture over the dough to completely cover and then roll across the narrowest width.
9. With seam side down place the roll onto a baking tray for a ‘free form’ loaf or into a loaf tin.
10. Lightly spray with oil and cover with a plastic bag.
11. Allow to prove till double in size.
12. glaze with a little egg wash and sprinkle with slivered almonds
13. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown

Walnut & Poppy Seed Scrolls

I discovered this week that my local morning pit stop on the way to work for coffee and scones has been sold and taken over by new owners. That can always be a bit of a worry when your favourites places change hands, particularly when you have just done a review in the local about it…are they going change all your  favourite dishes…will it be the same……will they keep the same coffee brand. After two weeks of running the place, to my relief everything seemed to be ticking along as normal, my scones are still fresh first thing in the morning and the coffee and team are still the same. Until that is on Friday when I turned to walk out the door and noticed something new on the counter top. It looked very much like a cake I used to buy when living in Germany, a sweet bread twisted with poppy seeds. I already had my scone in hand so didn’t want to be a pig and buy a slice of that too, there is always next week I thought, to try it out. Well, I’m the impatient type, particularly when it comes to cakes and can’t wait till Monday so I embarked on making my own this weekend. I couldn’t remember what it was called or find the exact recipe so I opted for creating my own and will see next week how mine fares next to the real thing. As it turns out, one of the owners is German so I could be in for some more nostalgic treats! All that worry for nothing hey?

Ingredients – makes 12

• 400g high grade flour
• 40g sugar
• 80g butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp dry yeast
• 1 cup warm milk
• 100g walnuts
• 100g poppy seeds
• 1 large egg
• 60g sugar

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C and line a baking sheet with parchment.
2. Add the yeast to the warm milk to allow it to dissolve.
3. Place the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the middle.
4. Add the yeast and milk, sugar (40g), vanilla and melted butter to the well and bring together to form a tacky bread like dough.
5. Knead dough for 10 minutes and then allow to rest in a warm place till double in size.
6. Blend the second lot of sugar (60g) and walnuts together into a fine powder.
7. Add the egg and poppy seeds and beat together.
8. Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 2/3 inch thick, 14 inches by 12 inches.
9. Spread the poppy seed mixture over the dough to completely cover and then roll the across the narrowest width.
10. With seam side down slice the dough into 2 inch thick buns and place 1/2 apart on the baking tray.
11. Lightly spray with oil and cover with a plastic bag.
12. Allow to prove till double in size and the buns are now touching each other.
13. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown
14. Mix some icing sugar with some lemon juice to make a runny icing and glaze buns while still warm.

Quick Easy Ciabatta Recipe

This quick easy ciabatta recipe was shown to me by the lovely Rafaella of Al Dente, who put the recipe together for her husband while on his sailing trips so that he could enjoy fresh bread on his journeys. It’s such a great recipe and the ‘beating’ of the dough rather than kneading it produces lovely big air pockets. The upside to the recipe is that it is so quick and easy and always turns out light and airy so we are making at least 3 loaves a week at present, the downside of that is we are eating far more bread than we normally do!

You can make this dough the night before you wish to eat it and leave the dough proving overnight in the fridge. Dough will always rise in the fridge, just at a slower rate. If you do make it the night before you just need to bring the dough out of the fridge an hour before baking it to allow the dough to come to room temperature.

Ingredients

• 500g High grade flour (strong flour)
• 450 ml Luke warm (room temperature)
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoon dry Yeast
• 1 ½ teaspoon salt
• Olive Oil

Method

1. Pre heat oven to 200C
2. In a large bowl mix with your hands flour, sugar and yeast.
3. Pour in the water.
4. Add salt and ‘beat’ in the bowl with your hands for 5 minutes. The dough should be like a very thick pancake paste not like a regular bread dough. To beat the dough you need to pull at parts of the dough and stretch it up high and then slap it down again. This pushes air pockets into the dough to create the airy texture. If you have a food mixer, beat it with a dough hook but still finish off with the hand method to push air pockets into the dough.
5. Pour about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil over the dough so the oil covers the top and goes down the side of the dough.
6. Allow to rise covered with plastic wrap for about 1 hour or until it doubles in size.
7. Pour the dough onto a well floured work surface (without kneading any further) and fold over like an envelope length ways to create the ciabatta shape.
8. Lift dough onto a floured baking tray and bake for 30-40 minutes, until golden and when tapped sounds hollow.

Focaccia Bread

I apologise for being so remiss with my postings this past week but I have been busy surfing the NSW coast, Byron Bay to be precise. I had full intentions of posting while I was away and even had posts prepared but after a days surfing and lounging in the sun I was too exhausted to plug the laptop in (which I only had with me because the first few days I was working over in NSW) and was more inclined to spend my last vestiges of energy on food and wine!

I can see why people move to North East Australia, the weather is perfect, the surf made me cry it was so perfect (see below for those who care for surf) and the produce is in abundance. I am pleased it isn’t too far away so we can pop across for a fix whenever we need it. Apart from surfing I managed to go to Matt Moran’s Aria restaurant, which I have been wanting to visit for a long time, unfortunately it was closed for the public holiday.. boo..hoo so I only have a photo of me outside and we had to eat elsewhere, although the restaurant we went to was excellent and I was no longer dissapointed. Maybe next time we are in Brisbane or Sydney I will have better luck.

Anyway, enough of Aussie and back to NZ. A few weeks ago I went to an Italian pizza and bread course run by two lovely ladies, Raffaela and Patricia, at Al Dente who not only worked wonders with pizza dough but also showed us how to make a quick easy focaccia which was incredibly light and airy. For those who live in the Auckland area I highly recommend their classes, not only was it informative and hands one, the ladies are so hospitable and welcoming and there was no rush to finish the course. Rather you were invited to stay longer, chat with their Italian friends they had invited over to share the huge amount of pizza we created and enjoy an Italian family atmosphere.

I have made the bread three times now and also shown my class how to make it and each time it turns out perfect. The difference with this dough is that it is more like a wet ‘poolish‘ and not one you knead. Next time I make it a I will photograph the dough before baking and add it to this post, in the mean time here is the recipe and feel free to ask any questions.

Ingredients

• 500g High grade flour (strong flour)
• 500 ml+ Luke warm (room temperature)
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoon dry Yeast
• 1 ½ teaspoon salt
• Olive Oil
• Emulsion : olive oil and water
• Sea salt

Method

1. Pre heat oven to 200C
2. In a large bowl mix with your hands flour, sugar and yeast.
3. Pour in the water.
4. Add salt and knead in the bowl for 5 minutes. Eventually add more water.
5. Pour in about 3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil and mix it so the oil covers the dough and goes down the side of the dough.
6. Allow to rise covered with plastic wrap for about 1 hour or until it doubles.
7. Pour the dough onto a well floured work surface (without kneading any further).
8. Grease with plenty of Olive Oil a shallow oven dish or a baking tray with edges.
9. 6.         Emulsion: in a small bowl whisk olive oil and warm water until well mixed.
10. 7.         Pour onto the focaccia and press with your fingers to create multiple wells.
11. 8.         The focaccia does not need rising at this stage (but it does not harm it. It will just make it thicker).
12. 9.         Bake for about 20 – 30 minutes.

Easter Hot Cross Buns

This weeks cooking class was bread making and since Easter is just around the corner I thought hot cross buns would be appropriate. In addition to the hot cross buns we also made a Sicilian style Focaccia bread which is more like a poolish dough and was taught to me by the lovely ladies at Al Dente and I will post that also in the next few days.

I love making bread dough by hand, I just couldn’t imagine using a bread maker or a dough mixer, there is something very satisfying and personal about creating bread that you don’t get when using machines to produce it. Or is it maybe I am a gluten for punishment, watching the clock tick away the minutes I have been kneading? But with a class group the ten minutes for kneading just flew by as we all chatted and shared our latest news.

I used Peter Reinharts cinnamon bun dough for this recipe which I made my Chelsea Buns from and just added the fruit and spice into the mixture.

Ingredients

These can be easily adapted to suit vegan’s by using a vegan margarine (I use Olivani) and water instead of milk.

• 100g castor sugar
• 80g butter
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 450g high grade flour
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 1 cup warm milk (approx)
• 100g fruit (mixed, sultanas or raisins)
• Cross Paste (2 tbsp flour & 4 tbsp water)
• Sugar glaze (2 tbsp sugar & 1 tbsp water heated gently to dissolve)

Method

• Heat oven to 180C and line a baking sheet with parchment.
• Beat sugar and butter together.
• Add egg and vanilla extract.
• Add the flour, spice, yeast, fruit, salt and milk and bring together to form a tacky but not wet bread like dough. Adjust with additional flour or milk if not right.
• Knead dough for 10 minutes and then allow to rest in a warm place till double in size. Spray with oil and cover bowl with a plastic bag.
• Divide the dough into 9-12 pieces and shape into buns.
• Place dough buns ½ inch apart so when they swell they will join. Cover again with a plastic bag and prove until double in size.
• Meanwhile, for the topping, mix the plain flour & water to a smooth paste that you can pipe.
• Spoon the paste mixture into a piping bag and pipe a cross on each bun.
• Bake for 15-25 minutes depending on size of bun, or until pale golden-brown.
• As soon as you remove the buns from the oven, brush them with the hot sugar glaze, or warmed syrup, then set aside to cool on a wire rack.

Panettone – The Bread Bakers Apprentice

I have set myself a challenge to work through Peter Reinhart’s Bread Bakers Apprentice book and make a new loaf each week. I am not working through the book very methodically as both P and I have completely different preferences, P’s requests so far have been the French bread, Sour Dough and Grissini but I jump straight to the sweet section and pick out the Panettone which I made last weekend. I know it is meant to be a celebration cake but I thought I should practice and perfect it before Easter or Christmas came…..it sounded logic to me! I have always loved Panettone, with it’s aromatic fruit flavours and light airy texture, it is so light I can easily eat a whole loaf myself, and have done on many occasions.

Each time I make a bread from the BBA book I am always surprised how well they turn out, granted they have a lot more steps than any other bread I have made before using this book but taking the time for the dough to ferment definitely creates a superior loaf. Peter Reinhart’s recipe for Panettone takes two days to make and starts with a sour dough barm, which in itself takes four days to create. Lucky for me I have my sour dough barm still brewing in the fridge.

I have not added the recipe here as I do not have sufficient patience to write a two page recipe down which means I could miss something critical out  and if you are serious about cultivating a sour dough I would seriously recommend buying the Bread Bakers Apprentice book which offers lots of technical tips also.

I did quite well with this Panettone, the two loaves actually lasted me over a week and I even gave some away!

Here are some other stories and photos from other people who have made the Panettone.

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