Three days ago, my boyfriend Z packed up his bags to travel to Baltimore to attend and present at an emergency health conference. It’s only been three days and I miss him already! God, how tragically pathetic. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love him to pieces and we’ve been apart before, but it’s only been three days. Honestly get a grip, Linda. He’ll be home soon.

Not only do I miss him terribly, I’m also rather paranoid. I keep thinking that he’s going to meet a beautiful girl, fall in love with her and leave me… haha, just kidding. I know he’d never do that. I’m just being silly. I even joked warned him before he left, “you better not leave me for some stunning American named Tiffany, marry her and stay in the US!” (If not Tiffany, then she’d probably be called either Cherry, Hope or Faith in stereotypical American fashion, haha).

In my worst nightmares, the ‘other woman’ would have gorgeously shiny wavy brown hair, absolute killer legs at six feet tall and sparkly yet seductive green eyes, with pearly whites and perky boobs like Jessica Simpson. Oh, she’d have sexy curves like Eva Mendes, lips like Jessica Alba and is as sweet and bubbly as Kate Hudson too. Big, big sigh… Although I’m joking, I pray to God he doesn’t meet someone like her!

He’ll be home in a week’s time (yeah I know, he’s only gone for nine days, I told you I was pathetic). So, until he comes home and showers me with love, kisses and hopefully a few awesome gifts, at least I have my muffins and other baked goodies to comfort me…

These following recipe for these muffins are pretty much close to heaven. Not too sweet, fluffy soft on the inside and crunchy on the top. The sweetness of the blueberries are a perfect complement to the tart raspberries. These muffins would be great in a school lunch-box or just as a snack with a glass of milk or cup of tea.

Raspberry Blueberry Muffins

I remember I got this recipe from an old Australian cookery magazine. Can’t exactly recall which one, but I’ve made these muffins so many times now the quantities are permanently etched in my mind!

2 cups (300g) self-raising flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

¾ cup (160g) brown sugar

200g raspberries

200g blueberries

zest from one lemon

1 cup (250ml) buttermilk

1 large egg

¼ cup (60ml) vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

icing sugar, to dust (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper liners or lightly grease with butter/oil.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, berries and lemon zest. In a small bowl, or jug, lightly combine the buttermilk, egg, oil and vanilla.
3. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and gently mix until just combined. When making muffins, I mix until 90% of the flour disappears.
4. Divide the batter into the prepared tin and bake for around 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and the muffins are golden brown and springy to touch. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
5. Dust with icing sugar if desired.

Give them to your daughters.
Or give them to your sons.
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!”

I was a 4 year old in kindergarten when I first learnt this song and I still sing it now each time I bake a batch of hot cross buns.

Hot cross buns are traditionally made in the upcoming weeks to Good Friday as part of the celebration for Easter and they seem to pop up at around the start of March in bakeries.

They are aromatically spicy, full of delicious dried fruit and finished off with a cross and a sweet glaze. The buns are very easy to make and are simply beautiful eaten warm and slathered with lots of butter.

Hot Cross Buns

Recipe adapted from ‘Modern Classics 2′ by Donna Hay.

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

½ cup caster sugar

1 ½ cups (375ml) lukewarm milk

4 ¼ cups plain flour, sifted

2 ½ teaspoons mixed spice

2 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

¼ cup mixed candied peel, finely chopped

50g butter, melted

1 egg

2 cups mixed dried fruit (sultanas, raisins, currants)

Crosses

¼ cup plain flour

2 tablespoons (40ml) water

Glaze

¼ cup caster sugar

30ml water

1 teaspoon powdered gelatine (dissolved in a 1 tablespoon of water)

1. Place the yeast, two teaspoons of the sugar and milk in a jug or bowl and set aside for 5 minutes. The mixture will start to foam, indicating the yeast is active.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, spices, sultanas, mixed peel and remaining sugar. Add the butter, egg and milky yeast mixture. Mix using a butter knife until a sticky dough forms.
3. Knead the dough on a well floured surface for 8 minutes or until elastic. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and allow to stand in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size. Divide the dough into 12 pieces and roll into balls.
   
4. Grease a 23cm (9 inch) square cake tin and line with non-stick baking paper. Place the dough balls in the tin, cover with a tea towel and set aside for 30 minutes or until they rise.
5. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). For the crosses, combine the flour and water and using a piping bag, pipe crosses on the buns. Bake for 35 minutes or until well browned and springy to touch.
   
6. Prepare the glaze in the last 5 minutes of baking time. Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Add the gelatine and cook for 1 minute.
7. Brush the warm glaze over the buns while they are hot.

I have a little confession to make. We’ve all been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, yet I hardly ever eat a proper morning meal. And when I mean hardly, it’s probably once a week!

It’s been drilled in my head for years at university throughout my nutrition classes that it’s crucial as it re-fuels the body after rest and it “switches on” the metabolism to help burn kilojoules, yet I still can’t wake up, sit down and eat something simple as toast or yoghurt everyday. Don’t get me wrong, I do eat “breakfast” occasionally, but it’s usually at 9am and isn’t enough food to sustain me through until lunch. Some days I will eat breakfast, but only when I have had a really really early dinner the previous night and I am totally famished at 6am the next day. I don’t know if it’s the laziness factor or if it’s because my stomach can’t tolerate large amounts of food in the early hours of the morning.

It’s funny, although I studied nutrition, I have no real intentions of following a career as a nutritionist, but if I did, I’d be a huge hypocrite as I cannot even follow my own dietary advice! So, as of yesterday, I have decided to change my ways and force myself to eat a healthy breakfast every morning. I’ll start small and build my way up. I had two crumpets, a banana and a glass of orange juice yesterday at 6.30am and I know it doesn’t sound like much, but for my little morning stomach, it was a feast!

Today’s breakfast was a tub of mango yoghurt and a small bowl of granola with soy milk. It was wonderfully nutty with a mixture of raw nuts and seeds, with a subtle sweet hit from a sticky blend of brown sugar, pureed apples and liquid sweeteners . A few teaspoons of cinnamon and ginger provided a hint of spice and the texture of the raisins juxtaposed well with the crunchiness of everything else. In summary, it was awesome!!

A small bowl of this granola a few times a week in the morning will definitely help me adapt to eating breakfast everyday!

Best Ever Homemade Granola

Adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson in ‘Feast’.

I couldn’t find a small jar of applesauce in my local supermarket, so I substituted it with pureed apples found in the baby food aisle. Also, Nigella’s original recipe uses brown rice syrup, but I used maple syrup instead.

I like mine with soy milk instead of cow’s milk. The nuttiness in the soy complements the granola well.

Dry

5 cups rolled oats

2 cups raw almonds

1 cup raw sunflower seeds

¾ cup sesame seeds

¾ cup light brown sugar

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 cup raisins

Wet

¾ cup pureed apples

¼ cup maple syrup

¼ cup golden syrup

¼ cup honey

1. Preheat oven to 140°C.
2. In a large bowl, combine all of dry ingredients except the raisins. In a small bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix well.
3. Spread the mixture over two baking trays and bake for 45 minutes until golden brown. During baking time, stir the granola every 10 or 15 minutes and rotate the pans.
4. Once ready, remove from the oven and continue to stir well. If you don’t, it will set into a huge slab!
5. Add the raisins and stir well.

Makes 10 cups. Store the granola in an airtight container. Pop it in the fridge as the nuts can go rancid quickly.

Why am I such a complete and total scatterbrain? Three days ago I left my wallet on the train. Yep, I lost my wallet, with all my cards, cash, gift vouchers and a few other bits and pieces.

Let me tell you what happened and you will see why I’m such an idiot…

After my Spanish class in the city on Tuesday, I was running rather late for the train. As I was sprinting to the station, I pulled my wallet out of my handbag, quickly whipped out my ticket, popped it in the ticket machine and kept running towards the train. I made it just as the doors were about to close and I plonked myself on a double-seater in the corner of the train carriage. At this stage, I had my handbag over my shoulder, my wallet in one hand and my books cradled under the opposite arm. Absolutely puffed, I threw my bag onto the adjacent seat and threw the wallet on top. I sat down, opened up my workbook for revision and after twenty minutes of being totally engrossed and half confused with irregular verbs, I picked up my bag and departed the train at my station, leaving the wallet on the seat.

As I got off the platform, I walked to my car in the parking bay and drove to the supermarket. I reached inside my handbag to get take my wallet out and it was at that moment I realised I had left it on the train. My first reaction? “Oh no oh no oh no!” After 5 seconds of thought, “Fuck fuck fuck!!!!!!” (I curse a lot). I was sooooo annoyed with myself for being so careless! Then I suddenly had the brilliant silly idea of driving to the end of the train line to see if I could search the train once it was stationary. I drove sped to the last station of the line and miraculously made it. I searched my seat, but someone had taken it. It was inevitable that someone would take it, but it’s been three days since I’ve lost it and as no-one has handed it in, I’ve had to get everything replaced. Although it has been a hassle to cancel my credit cards, yes I have more than one, and replace the others, it could have been worse. I could have lost my phone, my iPod or my SLR camera (eeek!!) so I’m not too upset. It was my own fault anyway :(

It’s quite odd really, I have an excellent and somewhat freaky memory and I’m very good with quoting facts, lines from movies/television and I always remember people’s names and faces, but I tend to forget the simple everyday things. Other stupid things I have done:

• As a teen, I would often leave the keys to the house still in the lock in the mornings and as I returned from school, they would still be hanging there. I’m surprised no-one has ever found them and stolen everything in my house.
• Twice after cooking, I have forgotten to turn the oven off and it would be on for hours after I had cleaned up and finished. I would only realise it was still turned on when I was back in the kitchen and it would feel strangely warm. The first time I left it on, I actually left the house for a while. I’m simply amazed I didn’t burn the house down.
• I have an old car and it doesn’t have automatic central locking, so I have to manually lock it with my keys or hold the door handle in as I close the door. I’ve locked my keys in the car many times, sometimes with the with the keys still in the ignition (but the car turned off). I’ve called my parents and boyfriend many times to bring a spare set of keys to where ever I am. Let’s just say they get rather annoyed!

See how stupid I can be? Luckily for me, nothing went wrong with the batch of biscuits I made this afternoon. And yes, don’t worry, the oven is switched off! :D

Ginger Biscuits with Lemon Icing

This recipe is a simple one and makes wonderfully spiced biscuits. They aren’t overly sweet and the crystallised ginger provides a really nice subtle peppery aftertaste. The touch of lemon icing provides a hint of sweetness and tang and were absolutely magnificent with a glass of milk.

Adapted from a recipe by Bill Granger in ‘Holiday’.

175g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

100g (¾ cup) icing sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

250g (2 cups) plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

2 ½ teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

100g crystallised ginger, very finely chopped

Lemon Icing

60g ( ½ cup) icing sugar

a tablespoon of lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 165°C. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together for a minute until very smooth. Add the vanilla extract.
3. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and ground spices over the butter mixture. Add the crystallised ginger. Gently combine until the flour disappears.
4. Roll tablespoons of the dough into balls and set out onto the baking trays. Lightly squish the balls with the palm of your hand.
5. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until light golden brown. Allow to cool on a baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. For the icing, combine the icing sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Ice the biscuits however you like and allow to set.

With this post, you’re either going to love me or hate me. You will love me because I’m going to share a recipe for delicious brioche that you can make yourself, but then you will hate me because you’re going to take one look at the loooong list of steps, not even bother to attempt it, then have dreams of freshly homemade brioche for the rest of the week and you’ll simply salivate at the sheer thought of it. Yeah, you will! :)

I have never made brioche before because I am an extraordinarily lazy person and it all seemed like a big fuss which I could not be bothered with . I don’t know where the motivation came from, maybe my stomach, but last night I finally decided to give it a go and you know what? It is a huge fuss! There is a lot of preparation and so much waiting time, but it really is worth it. I actually didn’t think I’d have the patience to complete the recipe, or even type up the method as it’s so bloody long, but I’m glad I did. I really want you to try it for yourself as freshly baked brioche is simply magnificent!

Brioche is lovely eaten on its own, or toasted and spread with good butter and/or jam, but I thought I’d go the extra mile and make Twice-Baked Almond Brioche instead.

Brioche

Brioche recipe adapted from ‘Baking with Julia’ by Dorie Greenspan.

Sponge

2 teaspoons instant yeast

½ cup (125ml) full cream milk, just warm to the touch

½ cup (70g) plain flour

Dough

? cup (75g) caster sugar

1 ½ teaspoons salt

4 large eggs, beaten

3 cups (420g) plain flour

250g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1. For the sponge, place the yeast, milk and flour into the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer. Stir with a whisk until the yeast has dissolved. Cover the bowl with with a tea-towel and allow to rest for 30-40 minutes. During this resting time, it should bubble up.
2. Add the sugar, salt, eggs and flour to the sponge mix. Attach the dough hook to the mixer and mix on low speed until the ingredients come together and begins to resemble a dough. Cover again and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 15 minutes, scraping the hook and sides of the bowl as necessary. During this time, the dough should come together, wrap itself around the hook and ’slap’ the sides of the bowl. If after 8 to 10 minutes, you don’t have the audible ’slapping’ of the dough, add a tablespoon of flour at a time until it comes together.
3. With the mixer on low-medium speed, add the butter a few tablespoons at a time. The dough will look like a huge, lumpy mess, but persevere until all the butter is incorporated. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 5 minutes or until you can hear the dough slapping the sides of the bowl again. The dough should be very shiny and elastic.
4. Transfer the dough to a large, oiled bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise and double in size. This will take around 2 to 2.5 hours.
5. Deflate the dough by folding it over itself several times using greased hands. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 6 to 24 hours in the fridge.

The dough is now ready to be used as you wish. To make two loaves, simply divide the dough, roll each portion out to the length of your tins, rest for an hour, egg wash them and bake until dark golden brown, but I will be using half the dough for Twice-Baked Almond Brioche and the other half later in the month for Sticky Cinnamon Pecan Buns (blog post will follow of course!). So, divide the dough in two and wrap one portion up tightly with plastic wrap and store it in the freezer.

With the other half, here we go…

Twice-Baked Almond Brioche

Instead of flaked almonds, you can use other nuts, or fresh fruit such as sliced strawberries, raspberries, pears, peaches or nectarines. Whatever!

The syrup and almond cream can be prepared a day in advance and stored in the refrigerator overnight.

Almond cream recipe adapted from ‘Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen’ by Clotilde Dusoulier.

½ quantity brioche dough

Syrup

½ cup (110g) caster sugar

¼ cup (60ml) water

¼ cup (60ml) orange juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Almond cream

¼ cup caster sugar

½ cup ground almonds

¼ teaspoon salt

60g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 large egg

flaked almonds, to sprinkle

icing sugar, to dust

1. Grease an 8-hole mini loaf pan, with each loaf measuring approximately 10 x 5 x 3 cm. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a rectangle slightly larger than the loaf pans. With the shorter end of the rectangle at the top, roll the dough into a tight coil. Turn in the ends to seal and place the rolled dough piece, seam side down into the pan.
2. Cover the pan with greased plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature until doubled in size. This should take around an hour.
3. Whilst the loaves are resting, prepare the syrup. Combine the sugar, water, orange juice and vanilla extract in a small saucepan. Cook over moderate heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Allow the syrup to boil or a minute or two. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool completely.
4. Bake the loaves in a preheated oven set at 165°C for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove the loaves from the pan and allow to cool on a wire rack.
5. For the almond cream, beat all the ingredients together until creamy.

Assembly

1. Preheat the oven to 165°C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.
2. Slice the tops off the brioche loaves so that they are level. Dip the brioche loaves into the syrup, ensuring that all sides are coated and moist. Spread two tablespoons of almond cream top of each loaf (you can lightly coat the sides of each loaf with the almond cream if you want, like I did, but the almond cream kind of all melted off onto the tray during baking, so there’s no point really). Sprinkle the loaves with the flaked almonds and place onto the prepared tray.
3. In the bottom third of the oven, bake the loaves for around 15 minutes or until golden brown.

I love stashing things in my freezer, but I’d hate to clean it out because I don’t really know what’s hiding in there half the time. I know there is a huge bag of blackened over-ripe bananas I keep on hand for cakes and muffins (20 in total, eek!), odds and ends of pastry, around five half-empty bags of berries and a roll or two of cookie dough ready to be sliced up and baked. I also have little plastic bags of egg whites hidden in every corner, because when I make ice-cream, custard or anything that uses a heap of egg yolks, I always save the egg whites and stash them in the freezer for another time. I seem to accumulate the egg whites at a much faster rate than I can use!

To use them up, I usually make simple white or brown sugar meringues and fill them with fresh fruit and softly whipped cream, but today I felt like something different, so a batch of mocha meringues was whipped up. The little meringue puffs are flavoured with coffee and cocoa, then sandwiched together with a smear of melted dark chocolate. Yum!

Mocha Meringues

(adapted from a recipe in delicious. magazine, February 2008)

3 large egg whites

180g caster sugar

1 teaspoon cornflour

½ teaspoon white vinegar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

3 teaspoons ground coffee

80g dark chocolate

1. Preheat the oven to 130°C. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. While continuously whisking, add the sugar one tablespoon at a time until stiff and satiny shiny. Whisk in the vanilla, cornflour, white vinegar, cocoa powder and two teaspoons of the coffee until combined.
3. Using a piping bag and a 1cm plain nozzle, pipe 60 small blobs onto the prepared trays around 2.5cm in diameter and 4cm apart.
4. Bake for 25 minutes. Turn the oven off and with the door slightly ajar, allow the meringues to cool completely.
5. Melt the chocolate and the remaining coffee in a bowl set over saucepan of simmering water. Allow to cool, then use to sandwich the meringue bases together.

Makes 30 and will keep for 2 days in an airtight container.