Strawberries in July

I find it strange, very peculiar indeed, to find strawberries in July. Beautiful, long-stemmed, crimson red, glossy skinned, plump and most definitely, sweet. You see, I wouldn't have a problem with this phenomenon if I were in any other part of the world. But I am in Australia. IT'S MEANT TO BE WINTER!!!

Well, I guess it was announced that the June just past was the warmest it has been for a long time, averaging 16 degrees celcius. Is that why? It's not a good thing I bet since it's obviously a big smack in the face for us about global warming, or as they like to say it here in Australia... "climate change". Such is a euphemism for something so devastatingly horrid. I promise I will turn off the humidifier when I leave the house next time. =)

But in any case, I did succumb to the $2.50 a punnet strawberries and bought myself 3! And all I wanted was to have them in my big bowl of granola in the morning and of course, a tart. A buttery and sweet tart crust lined with my beautiful strawberries topped with a raspberry jam glaze. No curds, custards or cremes. HAPPYHAPPY!

Seeing that this tart would fit in snugly with Joelen's FRUIT FRENZY theme over at her blog, I will join her in her cooking adventure! Head over to her blog to check out future events and the roundup! =)

Tart Crust adapted from Sharing Sweet Secrets by Pamela Moriarty
8 tbsp white rice flour
2 tbsp almond meal
2 tbsp coconut flour (may replace with rice flour)
1 tbsp tapioca starch
1 tbsp potato starch
1/4 cup cornflour
2 tbsp glutinous rice flour
1 tbsp gf custard powder (optional)
2 tbsp caster sugar
50g coconut oil (it will be hard, straight from the fridge)
30ml grapeseed oil
1 egg

1) Place flours, custard powder and sugar into a food processor and whizz.
2) Add in coconut oil (hardened) and oil and whizz again (10-15 seconds)
3) crack egg into the food processor bowl and pulse until combined. It may look wet but keep whizzing. Add 1 tbsp coconut flour if too wet.
4) Add 1-2 drops of water IF NECESSARY
5) Remove pastry from food processor and press* into prepared tin. (20 or 22 cm tin)
6) Freeze in tin for 10-15 minutes before baking at 190 degrees celcius for 18-22 minutes or until cooked through.
7) Cool before filling with strawberries.
* My pastry was too wet from the oil to be rolled out.

To Assemble:
1-250g punnet of large strawberries
3 tbsp raspberry jam, warmed.

1) Remove stems of berries and halve. Arrange on top of baked tart shell and glaze with raspberry jam. Serve chilled or warm. =)

Waiter There's Something In My...Lemon Curd Cake (Glutenfree & DairyFree)

I like lemons. My first lemon meringue pie experience was at Darling Harbor in Sydney. I was there on a trip with the mother, the father and the sisters. I don't remember quite how old I was, but I think I had fully developed my set of sweet teeth and greedy eyes. The greedy eyes saw the many beautiful cakes all lined up neatly in the glass window. Never seen cakes quite that tall before, I stood there, absolutely still, hoping the parents would get the message. Me Want Cake. I don't think I had even seen meringue before, I probably e made didn't even know how to pronounce it really. FUNNY.

So I asked for that one, I pointed and insisted. And I got it. You'd think I'd sink into glorious heaven and announce that I had found a replacement for chocolate. Nah. The crust was really thick and the meringue was just, too much of a good thing. Couldn't they have made the crust a little thinner, a little more delicate and the meringue just enough to allow the lemon curd to shine through just a little bit more? Overload-in a bad way. But hey, for what it's worth, it was a pretty cool first lemon meringue pie to have, it was THAT tall!

So back to me loving lemons, I went completely nuts at the market the other day and bought 10 lemons for 2bucks. So you know, I had to use them up, soon. So when 'Waiter, there's something in my ... layered cake' was announced, I thought I might do something lemony. I've been feeling all sorts of fruity lately. I was adament on using my new gluten-free cookbook 'Gluten-Free Baking' by Rebecca Reilly so I decided on a simple sponge cake and a lemon curd recipe I scrounged from Cooking Light. I'm fussy, I don't like recipes with fat or too many eggs or this or that. So this combination was light AND tasted rich and beautiful, like a lighter lemon cheesecake. But oh so good. I'm not being biased-REALLY!!! It's not a fancy schmancy cake, guess you could always dress it up with strawberries and kiwi. Maybe you could add some matcha powder into the sifted flour for a green tea sponge and layer it with a dark chocolate + ginger ganache. That was my second plan if I didn't have enough eggs. Luckily I had 5, so I halved the lemon curd recipe. It was just right.

Sponge Cake from Gluten-free Baking by Rebecca Reilly (pg 106)

4 eggs, seperated
1 cup sugar (I think 3/4 cup will suffice)
1.5 tsp g.f. vanilla
2 tbsp plus 1/4 tsp lemon juice
pinch of salt
1 cup rice flour

Preheat the oven to 325degrees (160 C). Lightly grease 2 8-inch cake pans or jelly roll pan

Ribbon the egg yolks and sugar until pale yellow (it will look kinda grainy-ish, just ribbon until a thick uniform thread forms on the surface of the mixture, when whisk is lifted). Add the vanilla and 2 tbsp of lemon juice.

Whip the egg whites with the salt and 1/4 tsp lemon juice until soft peaks form. Gently fold in 1/4 of egg whites into the ribboned base. Slide the remaining egg whites on top and sift the flour over. Fold in until homogenous.

Gently spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Tap the bottom of the pans once to remove any air pockets. Bake the cake layers for 20-25 minutes, 12-15 for the jelly roll.

If making the cake layers, invert onto a cooling rack. If making jelly roll, invert onto a tea towel dusted with icing sugar, trim edges and roll up lengthwise. When completely cooled, unroll, fill and decorate.

Lemon Curd recipe from here.
I made half the recipe, yummers! I could've just eaten it with a spoon. =)

Sometimes you just need butter

Sorry for the previous terribly sad post. I promise I'm all sparkly again. Dedicating one day a week at least to baking sometimes I want to eat, I've decided that this week's should be the cashew recipe that I saw on CookieMadness a while back. It's been on my mind for awhile-I mean anything that combines sweet and salty is a winner by me. It's sad how there isn't sweet popcorn here in Melbourne. The people here are definitely missing out, there's nothing better than ordering a bucket of popcorn and having it half sweet and half salty. The best part is rummaging through the layer of sweet to get to a salty popcorn cluster which gets you started on that sweet sugar trip all over again. CAN YOU SAY YUMMY? Too bad, they know not of such pleasures in life. =)

BACK TO COOKIE...
It was from the Betty Crocker round up and while I don't have photos to show because mine are so unfortunately UGLY, you can head over here to take a look. I halved the recipe and made it gluten free and omitted a whole lot of things because I'm such a freak when it comes to 'fat'. I suck the fun out of cookie eating don't I? I wish Anna would send some over so I could try it in all it's glorious yumminess. I like my version, don't really miss the chocolate or the pretzels I left out to make it G.F. I'm not sure but I think I shouldn't have added the baking soda, or maybe halved the already-halved amount because it became too light for me. It is definitely also due to the gluten free flour used. Sometimes I miss normal baking. And I didn't use butter either in an attempt to cut out diary. OHWELLS. here's my version.

1.5 cups raw/dry roasted cashews
2 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp egg white
2 tsp salt
>The method is all on Anna's blog.

1 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 potato starch
2 tbsp almond meal
1 tsp baking soda (I might try 1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp xanthan gum

>Sift all together, set aside

4 tbsp expeller pressed virgin coconut oil, softened
4 tbsp natural peanut butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1.5 eggs

75g dark chocolate, chopped

>Cream the coconut oil, peanut butter and sugar together, until veryvery well combined
>Add in the eggs and vanilla
>Mix in the dry ingredients with a very sturdy spoon, drop by rounded tbsp on a cookie sheet. This part is VERY tricky, because the batter is VERY STICKY. But it puffs up well, and doesn't spread much.

Sugar High Friday: Drunken Apples

I hardly drink alcohol and what I've got lying around does not directly belong to me. Let's see...I've got Kahlua but it's my sisters (yet I use it) and I've got Vodka, the remnants from a girls night in some 4 months ago? And it's still sitting there, in all it's half-drunk glory, untouched since then. So when this SHF rolled around, I was practically spoilt for choice. Vodka or Kahlua? =P And I wasn't about o go out and buy more alcohol only to use 1/2 cup at most and leave the rest of it sitting on top of the fridge. There's a war going on there-and right now the cereal boxes are winning. 4:1.

So I typed in 'vodka + apples' and did a little google search for possible inspirations. All I got was apple flavoured vodka, not much luck there. Sat around and thought about buying some other form of alcohol, cointreau maybe, or maybe a little wine but decided against it when I chanced upon Smitten Kitchen's Boozy Baked French Toast. I could work with that!

I went to the market after uni and got me some apples and craisins. Got home, took my gluten free bread out of the freezer and warmed it up on the jaffle maker. Ever notice how bread never turns crispy in there, only the edges, while keeping the middles moist and squidgy? Might be because of the steam created by the icy bits on the frozen bread, which is a good thing for this sorta 'lazy-i-just-cant-be-bothered-leaving-my-bread-to-thaw-slowly' things. So I decided to halve the recipe, used 2 eggs instead of said 1.5 and hid apple slices & craisins between the bread layers. Left it in the fridge overnight and this morning I had a no-effort-sweet-as brekkie. YUMS! I don't know if I'm drunk yet, but I think you could definitely add more Kahlua (3 tbsps maybe?)

The french toast bordered on the line of bread-and-butter pudding but a lot alot ALOT less fat and alot less sweet, which is why I suggest maple syrup or maybe a kahlua syrup? I tried but failed, luckily I didn't need it too sweet. I reckon gluten free bread soaks up alot more liquid so if you were using normal bread I suggest you stick to Smitten Kitchen's quantity of ingredients. Otherwise, It's really yummy. =)

Baked Drunken Apple French Toast (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients:
6 slices gluten free bread
2 eggs
2 small apples, sliced thinly (I used Sundowner, just because.)
handful of Craisins
1 tsp cinnamon
1.5 cups fat-free soy milk (that's all I had on hand)
2 tbsp raw sugar + 3 tbsp extra
3 tbsp Kahlua

Pyrex Loaf pan

1) Whisk the eggs, sugar, milk, kahlua and cinnamon together
2) Line 2 slices of bread in the pan, and slice another up to fill in the gaps
3) Place the sliced apples onto the bread and sprinkle with craisins, top with one tbsp of sugar
4) Top with remaining bread and pour egg/milk mixture over
5) Let sit for 3 hours or overnight in the fridge. Sprinkle remaining sugar over the top before baking
6) Bake at 190 degrees for 25 minutes and drizzle with maple syrup if desired. YUMMERS!

Fresh Strawberry Tart

I did it, after whining all week about how I missed baking non-fat-reduced treats and delicious traybakes and whatnots, I decided-I love baking too much to care. Seriously, all this no fat this and less fat that and I will get fat things are sucking the fun out of EVERYTHING! And nothing makes me happier really, except a good shopping spree oh and going home.

On another happyhappy note, I got my birthday present (albeit 2 months late) from the girls! 'Breakfast, Lunch, Tea- Rose Bakery' by Rose Carrarini. The book is a striking green with the title in bold right down the middle. No extra fancy schmancy photo or 'melted chocolate dripping down the side of the jar' shot. Just green and black. =) I love the book so much I hugged it to sleep in lecture (SHHH...the video was boring). I was ever so inclined towards this book because it was all about my three favourite meals-breakfast, lunch and tea! No dinner for me, dinner is my least favourite meal-I have issues with it, don't get me started. =) It just goes along the lines of the fact that I really dislike going to bed with a full stomach, makes me feel...heavy.

Back to the tart, I was inspired by the many blogs I have been drooling over and decided that I should bake one myself. I used to have problems with pastry and what's more, this was gluten-free, which made it alot more daunting. Ariana Bundy's book made it simple though and I felt composed and confident which probably helped. Most things go wrong when you're running around the kitchen for ingredients like a headless chicken.

I adapted the recipe a little and instead of using 1/3 cup of margarine, I used 2 tablespoons of Melrose spread, left in the freezer for 10 minutes to harden a little, and 3 tablespoons of expeller pressed coconut oil (from the fridge so it was hard) and blended all the ingredients in a food processor. The flour mix I used was 1 cup white rice flour, 1/8 cup tapioca starch and 1/8 cup potato starch.


The strawberries I got were from Driscolis and being the end of the strawberry season, the strawberries weren't very strawberry-y or sweet but they were big and so I just added a little more glaze to sweeten it up. The crust was pretty good, obviously lacking that rich buttery taste but I'm sure it can be fixed with a butter flavouring (?). It was flaky which could possibly be due to how I rolled it. I rolled it out then folded it in and re-rolled. It was pretty sturdy and didn't crumble too much. OVERALL I say, I'm glad I changed my mind about baking. Else I would be a sad little person. =) Also, I'll be submitting this to Sweetnick's ARF/ 5-a-day roundup so head there to check it out on Tuesday!

ITCHYITCHY

My sister got me my icecream maker for my birthday 2 months ago, and I made one batch of coconut icecream and left it packed on top of the refrigerator since. I feel terribly guilty. Problem is, I find using 5 egg yolks in my icecream slightly excessive and to be honest, a little scary. Needless to say I had been rummaging through countless vegan blogs hoping to find something dairy free and egg free. Might have been me being fussy but I didn't want a sorbet and other recipes I found asked for soy cream and fancy soy milk powders but I didn't know where to get them. Frustrated I declared- I GIVE UP!

But you know there is a cookbook about practically everything out there now. A book all about fish, a book all about chocolate (no, make that MANY books all about chocolate) and whatnot and Vice Cream is probably the IT book I needed. =) Decided to just close my eyes and pick out a recipe, I ended up making a 'raw' strawberry ice cream and mmmmmmm, it's pretty darn good. Different from what I expected since there was no sugar that was used instead, pureed dates stood in as a sweetener. Needless to say the icecream tasted like dates and strawberries which somehow made the flavour deeper. The texture was somewhere in between an icecream and a sorbet. Next on my list is peanut butter with chocolate. Gotta be good huh.

Here's the recipe (modified) from Jeff Rogers' Vice Cream, short sweet and simple.

1 vanilla bean
1.5 cups almond milk (I used fat-free soy milk)
1 cup organic pitted dates
1.5 cup packed hulled organic strawberries

1) Place the dates in boiling water to cover and let sit overnight (I chucked mine in the microwave for 4 minutes since I'm not fussed about being 'raw')
2) Remove the skins off the dates if you mind the specks in the final product, else leave it.
3) Blend the dates with the milk and the strawberries and vanilla seeds until silky smooth
4) Chill well before preparing according to ice-cream machine manufacturer's instructions.
5) Serve immediately or freeze and thaw 10 minutes before serving.

Just in time

I was lucky yesterday to get some blueberries for $2.95 a punnet at Coles and while the Driscolis strawberries next to it looked absolutely stunning, all big, red and juicy, I much preferred the cheaper alternative: blueberries. And, I really really NEEDED to bake some blueberry muffins, it was a craving and went hand in hand with this month's Sugar High Friday-sweetsweet cravings.

Blueberry muffins have always struck me as quite American. Don't know why, don't know how I got that notion but the American kids on TV always had blueberry muffins for breakfast or for tea and their moms always seemed to have a fresh bucket of blueberries on hand, ready to whip up those gorgeous little gems. So I asked my mom when I was a kid, to get the Betty Crocker blueberry muffin mix and I was hooked. Then I outgrew Betty Crocker, the kick wasn't there and moved onto making my own blueberry muffins from scratch and they were amongst my first baking successes, then I had Candida and then I grew up and decided that copious amounts of sour cream and oil in my muffin mix just didn't cut it. Then I fell back in love when I made them healthier for me meaning: gluten-free and dairy-free.

Now, I'm happy. =)

Vic's Gluten-free, dairy-free Blueberry Muffins (makes 12)
(A)
1 cup rice flour (use the finest grind you can find, I get mine from Asian supermarkets)
1/3 amaranth flour (If unavailable, use rice flour instead)
2/3 cup potato flour
2 tsp baking powder (gluten-free)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp xantham gum

*Sift all together

(B)
1/3 cup safflower/canola/sunflower oil
1/2 cup raw sugar
2 eggs
1 cup vanilla flavoured soy yoghurt
250g blueberries
2 tbsp soy/rice milk
3 tbsp raspberry jam, warmed

*Whisk eggs in a bowl until fluffy, slowly add in sugar and oil and whisk madly until fluffy
*Add (A) into egg mixture alternately with soy yoghurt and milk
*Fold blueberries and raspberry jam through and spoon into prepared muffin tin
*Bake at 170 degrees celcius for 18-20 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean.

Good food makes me happy...

So far my liver detox has been going good, well I claim it's a liver detox but I'm not really following any hard and fast rules. What I've been doing is avoiding all red meat (which is easy), avoiding things I'm allergic to (wheat, dairy, gluten) and trying to not eat when I'm really not hungry. So far I'm going...pretty well. Stocked up my fridge with fruits (CUSTARD APPLES and HONEYDEW!) and soy milk and soy icecream. I'm a happy girl!

My sister has this 'Stoneage Fusion' recipe book/file by Lisa Elks and it's been my diary for the past few weeks- I absolutely adoreADOREadore it. Everything in there sounds delicious and superdooper healthy, with tons of helpful substitutions and zillions of low-fat, low-allergy recipes that a girl like me needs! Which is very encouraging as well since i loveLOVE food and cooking. =) So, I've made her banana muffins a while back and this time I decided to try something NEW! the best thing about her collection of recipes is that all the ingredients are very easily available in ANY health food store.=) Here's an adaptation to her 'Beautiful Rice and Amaranth Muffins'

1 cup rice flour
1 cup amaranth flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xantham gum (or guar gum)
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp bicarb soda
4 tbsp soy milk
1 large jar of baby food 'pear and banana' or 'pears' (Heinz has it)
1 cup stewed pears*
1 banana, mashed
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp raw sugar

1)Whisk eggs, honey, sugar and oil together until light and fluffy
2)Add in baby food, stewed pears and mashed banana
3)In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients (rice flour, amaranth flour, baking powder and xantham gum)
4)Combine bicarb soda and soy milk together, set aside
5)Add 1/2 or dry ingredients into oil mixture, followed by soy milk and finish with the remaining dry ingredients
6)Spoon into muffin tin and bake at 200 degrees celcius (fanforced: 190) for 10 minutes then lower to 180 (fanforced: 170) for an extra 15-18 minutes.

*Stewed pears:
-You can use pear halves in natural, unsweetened syrup instead
-to make your own: Dice one large peeled packham pear and place in a pot of simmering water with a little lemon juice and cinnamon. Cook until soft and tender. Drain and use as directed.

Apologies for the lack of photos but they aren't the most photogenic muffins, they keep well and taste awesome when warmed. =)

Liver Detox

My previous post has emphasized on the point that I am now way past my orginal weight and health because I've been gorging myself on wheat (I am wheat-intolerent) and dairy (I am slightly lactose intolerent) and all other things that are going to clog up my arteries. So, while my mom is now reading up on heaps of material about Magnesium and its health benefits, I have started on my new 'phase'. Okay, phase makes it sounds bad, I was meaning to say 'interest'. THE LIVER! I've decided to do a detox to ease the stress I am feeling due to the recent binge and I really do want to feel 'cleaner' hahahahhaa, so yes! I'm trying to do a semi liver detox, a full blown on is too straining and I underestimate my determination to follow through. So I'll start on a smaller hill and see how it goes. =)

Mommy left for home today, so now I'm all alone. Never imagined I'd feel THIS homesick since I've been looking forward to all the stuff I can accomplish this holiday but nonetheless, spent the entire day crying and wishing my mom was still here. I'd drag her on a walk right about now then binge on soy icecream after. But walking along just didn't feel nice today so I did something else that makes me feel happy- being in the kitchen!

Whipped up a luscious thick smoothie for dinner and watched snippets of Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy and BB07. I feel slightly better now, and sleeepy. Here's a rough idea of how the smoothie went! Try it out when you need something luxurious feeling but not too evil on your health.

Tofu Smoothie (serves you, and you only: don't share!)
1/4 pack of silken tofu
6-8 strawberries
1 1/2 bananas*
1/2 apple juice*

1) Mix all in a blender and BLENDDD!
2) Sit in front of the teevee, accompany smoothie with a large handful of dry roasted, unsalted cashews. =)

* I used 1 fresh banana and 1/2 frozen so I didn't add ice, you might want to add crushed ice
* I only had this apple, lemon & lime juice in my fridge, so try it with whatever juice you want to, and you may add more juice if it's too thick coz I didn't really measure the juice.

I am Chunky

There's always that question, are you chunky or smooth? Well, I thought I was smooth that's why I opened the smooth jar first. I've been pinching off that jar, dipping spoon after spoon in it, opening and closing the refridgerator door, then popping my head back in there again. And there it sits, in all it's smooth glory, right at the front of the second top shelf. Then today I decided I wasn't a smooth. After 3 months of peek-a-boo with smooth, I realize I am chunky. And that was what I had for dinner, on a warm thick fresh slice of wholemeal kamut bread. yeap, guys! I'M CHUNKY!=) and if I continue peek-a-boo-ing with chunky, I will be definitely chunky-in the other my-pants-are-becoming-too-snug sense.

and here's a very unflattering photo of my Plum Clafoutis. Trust me, it tastes alot better than it looks. Now I'm sad the photo doesn't do it justice and while I'm at it, Let me whine. I've been meaning to say this in a self-pity, slightly angry sort of way. I don't even know why I'm angry but here goes. WHATS THE POINT OF BAKING AND SELF-PROCLAIMING THE STUFF I BAKE TASTES GOOD WHEN, NO ONE EATS IT. mostly anyway. Okay, there I said it. Now I shall wallow in self-pity and eat more clafoutis. I'm not gonna ask anyone to eat it anymore, it's not a chore eating it anyway-is it?

*grumble grumble*

I will blog more about my clafoutis when I feel better. Today's not a good food day. I need more chunky.

Coffee and Chocolate Walnut Cake

This is probably one of those cakes I find hard to get sick of. Well, okay so I suppose it's unfair to say that since it's the first time I've baked it. But judging by the fact that between me and erm, me, we've almost finished half the cake. So I suppose it's a fair judgement to pass.

Originally called an Italian espresso walnut cake by the creator in Gourmet Traveller, I obviously did not have a cup of espresso lying around (someone tell me whats the difference between normal instant coffee and espresso?) so, I just used one heaping tablespoon of coffee dissolved in water equivalent to the amount I should've had of espresso. Also, figured mixing half the batter with melted chocolate wouldn't hurt so I did just that. Bought me some fresh yummy walnuts from the market and a good bag of organic Spelt flour (because wheat flour is the devil) and TA-DAH!

Let me describe the god-lyness of the cake pretty please...Okay! So the cake baked up beautifully, no lumps or sunken middles. I marbled the cake, so each slice would have ooey-gooey goodness of the chocolate and the lovely depth of walnuts and the scent of coffee. This was unexpected but the chocolate bits turns out chewy and moist, just like a fudge brownie, while the coffee parts were slightly crumb-like, moist still because of the oils from the walnuts but not fudgey. Perfect contrast since too much of either would've made it boring to eat. The top of the cake was brushed with honey so that made the edges of the cake crunchy and chewy, like...BROWNIES! Beautiful rhythmn of flavour, filled with the complementing flavours topped with fresh walnuts and a tint of honey to tease your senses and a slight, ever so slight hint of bitterness to remind you of the fresh walnuts you ground all by yourself. I reckon it'd be purrfect with coffee but you know what, I reckon it'd be perfect with just about anything.

Just Because...

Just because...I've been inconsistent in updates, I shall do one thats filled with pictures today!=) The cookies above are the Alfajores I baked Vee...quite a while ago. I forgot that Adrian had already passed me the photos and only just discovered them. THEREFORE, here are the long overdue photos. Obviously a ton nicer than my usual ones because Adrian's a star and he so kindly took professional shots for me. =) goooodie!

Next! here's some photos of the baking process of my Muddy Chocolate Cake, taken from Donna Hay's Modern Classics 2. It's very much a moist dense chocolate cake, with a flavour that isn't took sweet. Perhaps I might even use darker chocolate next time. I used the Nestle Plaistowe Couverture chocolate but the flavour wasn't as deep and dark as I'd like it to be. Or maybe I might substitute a couple tablespoons of flour with cocoa instead. you reckon?

Muddy Chocolate Cake from Donna Hay's Modern Classics 2
300g dark couverture chocolate, chopped
250g butter
5 eggs, seperated
1/3 caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup plain all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 130degrees celcius (260 fahrenheit)
Melt butter and chocolate over a low heat and stir until smooth, set aside
Place egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beat until thick and pale
Place the eggwhites in a seperate bowl and beat until stiff peaks form
Fold chocolate mixture into egg yolk mixture
Sift over the flour and baking powder and gently fold through
Carefully fold egg whites through as well
Pour into a 20cm (8in) round cake tin lined with nonstick paper and bake for 1 hr 15 mins
Cool in tin and spread cooled cake with a chocolate ganache
*serve this cake at room temperature


Egg whites ready to be folded into chocolate/egg yolk mixture

Next on the agenda is the fruit crumble that I baked to bring to Adelle's house for our little potluck. Happy to report that it was well and it was devoured! I am beaming with pride and guess what! I didn't follow a recipe! hahaahahah! *giggles* I'll try remembering roughly what i put in...

Fruit Crumble, mostly apple.
3 granny smiths, sliced thinly (each quarter into 4/5 pieces)
275g pears from a tub (the fresh pears were insanely ugly so i had no choice), syrup drained and pears slices (not too thinly) and rinsed
handful of blueberries just because I had them in the fridge
handful of raisins just because they were on the counter top

about 1 3/4 cups plain flour
3/4 butter, cold and chopped into tiny cubes
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar (mixture of brown and white is fine)

FOR THE FRUIT:
Mix apples in 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup white sugar and big splashes of cinnamon, stir in 1/2 tsp of cornflour and sautee in a pan until apples are tender

because the pears are soft, just mix in some cinnamon and the raisins and blueberries, set aside while apples are cooling

CRUMBLE:
Rub the flour into the cold butter pieces or process in a food processor until it resembles breadcrumbs. Not ALL have to look fine, some of mine were big splodges. Then, mix in cinnamon and sugar.

PUT IT TOGETHER:
mix the all the fruit toether and place in preferred pan, I used a regular square pan. Sprinkle liberally with the crumble and put into a 180degreecelcius oven for 15 mnutes and check if the crumble is brown. Bake until crumble is golden brown (the blueberries will bubble a bit through the sides but it looks pretty anyway. rustic even! hehe.



ENJOYYYY with heeeeeeeeeaps of vanilla icecream or vanilla custard. yums!