Happy birthday to Top Ten Tuesday! 10 years this week. That's quite a run. Top Ten Tuesday originally started at The Broke and the Bookish but then moved to The Arty Reader Girl in 2018. This week there are a couple of suggested topics, but there is also the freedom to improvise a bit.
While I had been aware of Top Ten Tuesday, I didn't actually start participating until this year, and even then it isn't every week. So, in total, I have participated eleven times. So I thought that what I might do is post one book from every Top Ten Tuesday I have participated in, so in effect a Top Eleven of Top Tens!
The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan - This was one of my choice for the first time I participated when the theme was most anticipated releases for the first half of 2020. I picked this book for today's because it is one that I have read and loved.
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - Featured on my 10 newest additions to my TBR pile post back in February. It also featured on a couple of other lists which is why I have included it today.
The Sweet Life by Kate Bracks - For the book cover freebie topic in February I chose to spotlight some cookbooks off my shelf. This book has one of my favourite recipes in it - Lemon Syrup Cakes. So lemony. So delicious..
The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley - The theme this time was the books on my TBR I think will be 5/5 reads. I am currently listening to this book so the jury is still out. It's definitely good though. The question will be how good.
Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes. by Elizabeth Bard - This was a love freebie and I chose to do books with a variation of the word love in the title. And the reason I chose this today? Because I would love to be having lunch in Paris today. Even though it isn't possible for many many reasons.
Circe by Madeleine Miller - Featured in my list of books with one word titles. So good.
The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley - Just one of the many books I highlighted in my post about the top 10 reasons I love historical fiction. One of my favourite books of all time.
The Lost Love Song by Minnie Darke - The theme for the week that I chose this book was opening lines and I am sharing it today as this is probably my favourite book of the year. The opening line for this book is
The love song began it's life, not with a fanfare or a crash of cymbals, but instead with a knock at a door.
The Lost Pearl by Emily Madden - my theme for this post was I want to go there. In this case, there was Hawaii which has been on my visit list for a long time.
Henrietta's War by Joyce Dennys - This book featured in my list of books which had been lingering unread on my bookshelves and I couldn't remember why it was there. My post title was Maybe I should read it. And guess what. I did. And it was good!
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo - This was one of my books on the winter 2020 TBR pile. It's still there, but I will get to it!
So there you go. A selection of books I have mentioned in the eleven times I have participated in Top Ten Tuesday.
We are getting towards the end of a very hot Aussie summer but it would seem as though the heat is not going away any time soon. I have watched the start of the Sochi Olympics not only with the hope of enjoying the sport and the spectacle but also with the idea that maybe looking at other people playing around in the snow will trick my brain into feeling a bit cooler! So far it isn't really working!
Summer means barbecues and socialising, long days and going to beach and there has been plenty of that this summer.A couple of weeks ago I went to a friend's house for a barbecue. They have just moved into a gorgeous house that is literally five minutes from the beach - living the dream really. I was a tiny bit jealous. One of the treats that they had for dessert was a pavlova which is a quintessential Aussie dessert (okay, it is another one that we fight with New Zealand about, but for the purposes of this post we will go with Aussie!). There was one bought pavlova but the other was a home made one.
For those who don't know what a pavlova is, it is a meringue style dessert which is baked in a low oven so you end up with a crispy shell but a soft and fluffy interior. It is usually covered in whipped cream and fruit for serving. It is basically a lot of sugar so some times it can be too much, but if you get the right mix of sugar and texture and topping...mmmm yum! It's a fine line between delicious and sickly sweet.
Before I went to the barbecue, I watched a segment on TV where they made a pavlova where they said a couple of things that surprised me. One was that it was okay to put your egg whites and caster sugar into the benchtop mixer bowl and walk away for 10 minutes, by which time you should have the right consistency of mixture. The second was that because it is cooked in such a low oven for a fairly low time is that you can cook it directly onto the china serving platter, and that you can have a free form shape if you want! It doesn't have to be a perfect circle!
Now, I have to confess that I have never made a pavlova before. It is on my list of things that I would like to make one day, but it is fair to say that it is something which actually intimidates me a little. First there is getting all those egg whites, which I am not convinced I would be able to do without wasting numerous eggs. And then there is the question of what to do with all those egg yolks, and getting the shell crisp on the outside but still fluffy on the inside. Oh, the pressure.
There are a number of other things that I would like to try one day that I either just haven't gotten around to yet or I am a bit intimidated by. So here is my first question to you all. Are there recipes that you have thought about trying to make but you just haven't or those recipes that you are intimidated by. For me, other examples of recipes that I would like to try one day but I am a bit daunted by include classic sponge cakes and baked cheesecakes. I love cheesecake and make a good no bake cheesecake, but a baked one? Not sure I am brave enough to try.
One of the things about watching the tip about the mixer prompted me to suddenly NEED... not want, need.... to go and start researching benchtop mixers. It is a bit absurd really as I don't have hundreds of dollars sitting around to buy kitchen equipment and I don't really have the benchtop space to have it just sitting there not being used on a regular basis but it doesn't really matter, especially after my handheld mixer started making terrible noises last weekend too. I think I am going to be either saving up to buy one or put one on layby so that hopefully by the end of the year I will have one. But the big question is what to buy. I have been looking at some of the cheaper models that are probably more affordable but the user reviews on those are pretty dire. There is a mid range model by Breville which looks like it might be alright and then there are the big names of the household market - Kenwood Mixmaster and Kitchenaid. So my question is, with apologies to those who already saw me ask this question on Facebook at the time, do you have a benchtop mixer? Which brand is it? Do you use it regularly? Or like me, do you really want one or is it just another gadget to take up space in the kitchen?
Seeing as I have talked so much of pavlova in this post it would be remiss of me not include a recipe. This is a posh version which comes from Kate Brack's book, The Sweet Life, which I have posted recipes from before and is a book that I refer to quite regularly for baking!
Balsamic Pavlova with Strawberry Cream
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
+ cooling in the oven
1. Preheat the oven to 150°C. Use a pencil to draw a 20cm round onto a sheet of baking paper (trace around a plate). Grease a baking tray, and place the paper onto it, pencil-side down.
2. To make the meringue, place the egg whites, salt and a couple of spoonfuls of the sugar into the bowl. Begin whisking the egg white at medium speed until it begins to foam. Increase the speed to high and whisk for 1–2 minutes, until it turns white and forms soft, smooth peaks when you dip a finger in. With the mixer running on medium speed, gradually add the remaining sugar a spoonful at a time until it’s all incorporated.
3. Scrape down the sides of the bowl then increase the speed to high again for 5 minutes, or until the meringue looks glossy, holds its shape when you lift the beaters and is without any gritty sugar feel.
4. Reduce the speed to low. Add the balsamic vinegar and mix well, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Sift the cornflour and icing sugar over the mixture and whisk again until incorporated.
5. Using a spatula, pile the mixture onto the baking tray inside the drawn circle. Keep it tall initially, then spread it evenly to the edges, creating a cake shape.
6. Place into the oven. Immediately reduce the oven temperature to 140°C and bake for 1 hour. Turn the oven off but leave the pavlova in there until it has cooled to room temperature. Don’t worry too much if it cracks as it will be smothered in strawberry cream!
7. Meanwhile, to make the strawberry cream, hull 1 punnet of the strawberries and cut them into 1cm pieces. Place into a bowl, sprinkle over the icing sugar and stir to coat. Set aside for 15 minutes.
8. Whip the cream and vanilla to soft peaks. Stir through the chopped strawberries and up to 1 teaspoon of any liquid from them.
9. Quarter the remaining strawberries. Spread the strawberry cream on top of the pavlova and scatter with the quartered strawberries.
Note: Using pure icing sugar keeps this recipe gluten-free.
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.
A few months ago I posted about Kate Bracks' book The Sweet Life in a Weekend Cooking post and included a recipe for Lemon Syrup Cakes which were totally delicious! Kate Bracks won the Australian version of Masterchef and when we met her at a local book signing event she was incredibly generous with her time.
When I posted about this book I mentioned that there were quite a few different recipes that I wanted to try and one of those recipes was Bung-In Chocolate Cake. Now, to explain a colloquialism before we get too further much further on, to "bung in" means basically to throw it in, so you might bung a cake in the oven or in this case you bung in all the ingredients in a bowl together.
We have now made this cake several times, and it is just so easy, and it tastes soooo good! There is no melting of chocolate or anything complicated and it comes out with a beautiful dark chocolatey colour and flavour.
It's so easy to make that the little chef (who suddenly is much taller than I am...how did that happen?) has made this all by himself. There were a couple of small mishaps. The first was that he iced it while the cake was still hot and still in the tine which made it a bit awkward to get out of the tin when I got home. When I was cleaning up the mess all the mess, I took a look at my sieve and was wondering what the stuff stuck to the bottom of it was. Turns out that he added the vanilla essence to the icing sugar while he was sifting it which I must confess made me laugh, but even despite those mishaps the cake still turned out pretty well!
We are at home on a Saturday night tonight, and I think that we are going to try her Choc-Chunk cookie recipe next.
If you happen to be looking for a really easy, really tasty basic chocolate cake recipe, then look no further as this one fits the bill!
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Grease a 23cm (base measurement) square tin and line the base with baking paper.
2. Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and add the wet ingredients. Whisk gently, gradually taking in the dry ingredients from the side of the bowl. Keep whisking until the mixture is smooth.
3. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then run a knife around the edge to separate the cake from the tin. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4. To make the icing, sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder into a bowl. Add the melted butter and vanilla extract, and enough milk to get it to a paste consistency, stirring vigorously until smooth. You may not need all the milk. If it is too thick, add more milk. If it is too runny, add more icing mixture.
5. Once the cake has cooled, smother the top with chocolate icing.
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.
A few weeks ago now, our local bookstore held an event with Kate Bracks, the winner of the last series of Masterchef here in Australia. I actually didn't watch any of that series of Masterchef, so only had a vague idea of who she was but the event was a chance to catch up with friends and there was an inference that there would be cupcakes on offer so I was happy to go.
I also try to support the bookstore and buy something whenever they do have an event, so I purchased this cookbook. As I was driving home I did contemplate how wise that was given that I really didn't know much about Kate Bracks, but having now spent time going through the cookbook a couple of times, I don't think it is a purchase that I will regret.
Kate was incredibly generous with her time. We (being Bree and I) spend a lot of time talking to us about several topics. One was getting your kids involved in cooking which was clearly something that she is passionate about. Our kids are at different stages but I talked bout the little chef and the fact that he loves to cook things but not necessarily to try the things he cooks (except what he cooks at school apparently) and Bree talked about engaging her younger children. We also talked about the process she went through when creating the cookbook which was actually really fascinating to listen to. She had roughly organised the chapters, tested the recipes repeatedly until she was happy with them, then sending the recipes off to friends/volunteers who tried the recipes to see if the instructions were clear and then to a professional recipe editor - who knew there was such a thing?
One of the other things we touched on was her future plans include her website which will include a kids club section with recipe videos which sounds fantastic as the little chef and I like to sit down and look at cooking videos together. At this stage the website isn't up yet, but I am looking forward to when it is!
In this video, Kate talks about the cookbook including some of her family's favourite recipes from the book.
I should probably talk about the book itself which focuses on sweet treats of all types, hence the title The Sweet Life. There has clearly been a lot of thought put into how to put this book together. There are nine chapters touching on different techniques: syrups and sauces, meringues, custards and sabayons, ice creams and sorbets, frozen desserts, gelatine, pastry, cakes and puddings and baked treats. Each chapter is then broken into two parts. There are the basics and then beyond the basics. For example, in the gelatine chapter the basics includes recipes for Strawberry Mousse, Blackcurrant Jelly and Earl Grey Panna Cotta and then in beyond the basics there is Turkish Delight, Plum and Red Wine Mousse and Mango Panna Cotta with Orange Blossom Jelly.
Every recipe has been photographed (which I love in a cookbook), many of them includes suggestions for variations and the other thing that I love is that each recipe has been given a visual rating as to how difficult it is to make. If the recipe has one spoon, then the recipe should be "simple and relatively quick to master" ranging through to a four spoon recipe which is for "the avid home cook who wants a bit more of a challenge". The other thing that I was really impressed by is that, in addition to your normal recipe index, there is also a page that specifically lists which recipes are suitable for those that deal with food intolerances which is a great idea!
The final chapter in the book brings together all the techniques in the book and gives us some of those four spoon recipes that would be at home in a restaurant; Chocolate Terrine with Spiced Praline, Mandarin Oil and Creme Fraiche (yum), Buttered Popcorn Ice Cream with Bitter Caramel and Salted Almond Crumb and Raspberry and Hazelnut Tarts with Poached Meringue and Frangelico Syrup! Yum! I don't think I would be making any of these recipes any time soon but they are very pretty to look at.
There are however lots of other recipes that I could see myself making ranging from Bung in Chocolate Cake, Baked Honey and Rosemary Apples, Little Lime Meringue Pies, Blueberry Croissant Pudding, Lime Curd and Coconut Slice, Raspberry and White Chocolate Puddings and.....well, lots more. If the little chef didn't have a hazelnut allergy I would be making Embarrassingly Simple Chocolate Hazelnut Pastries all the time!
Today though, I am making Little Lemon Syrup Cakes, so I am including the recipe for that below.
In my experience there are a couple of different types of cookbooks. There are those that are pretty objects - gorgeous presentation, yummy looking recipes but when it comes to picking a recipe to cook they are not all that accessible. The other type is a cookbook that you can find numerous recipes that you want to cook out of. The best type though is one that combines both of these, and I would think that this book is one that I will cook out of time and time again!
Preheat the over to 170 celsius. Grease and flour 8 holes of large (1/2 cup capacity) muffin tins and line the bases with a small round of baking paper (Alternatively you can line the tin with paper muffin cases.)
Use electric beaters to cream together the butter, sugar and zest until pale. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the flour and salt, followed by the lemon juice.
Divide evenly among the muffin tins. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre of a cake cakes out clean.
Meanwhile, to make the syrup, combine the lemon juice, zest and sugar in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat without boiling until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat until medium and simmer for 1 minute.
As soon as the cakes come out of the oven, loosen them from the edge of the tin. Prick them with with a skewer all over and then spoon the syrup evenly over each cake (you may not use up all the syrup).
All the cakes to cool for 5-10 minutes in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack, discarding the small round of baking paper.
Yum! They smell and taste delicious! The photo above is from my own efforts today. I should clarify and say that I actually used a friand tin to cook them in because I have had that darn tin in the drawer for years (no exaggeration) and had never used it, so I decided today was the day. Also, the little chef was assisting and forgot the rule about only filling the tin up three quarters so they are a bit overfilled but that has meant that there are some really tasty crunchy bits. He did taste the batter and then the finished cake and exclaim that it was very lemony. Ummm..... yes.
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.
