Pretzel Mania...

If you have been to Westfields, I am sure you would have at some point been lured by the heavenly scent of the cinammon and sugar pretzels stall... they hand out samplers of fresh out of the oven soft hand rolled pretzels... so tasty... and before you know it, you are handing over money so that you can have your very own piping hot pretzel, all to yourself. Though the beauty of them is getting them fresh, hot out of the oven, they just aren't as good if you take them home... Though you can't really pop into Westfields on every pretzel whim...

The texture is so light and fluffy... though it would be bad to eat more than one.. wouldn't it... ? ;)

So next best thing.. make your own! I have tinkered with a recipe over the last couple of weekends, and this comes pretty close - enough to satisfy that craving.

A yummy balance of chew to fluffy softness, and a light crisp crust... Give it a go, it's so simple, you only need patience whilst the dough is left to rise, otherwise the whole process of actually kneading and cooking takes no more than 20 minutes tops!

 Recipe:
Makes 12 large pretzels, or 15 palm sized 

4 cups plain flour
1 cup strong bread flour
2x 7g sachets of instant yeast
1/2 cup of sugar (granulated is fine)
1 1/2tsp salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 3/4 cup of warm water (slightly warmer than tepid)
Glaze:
1/8c Bicarbonate Soda dissolved with1 cup hot water


Stir together all the dry ingredients together with oil, then stir in warm water - start with around 1 1/2 cups and then add little by little until there is enough moisture to bring all the flour together to a slightly sticky dough... turn it out onto a clean surface, and start kneading the dough till smooth. This took me around 6mins. When ready,press your finger into the dough, the indent should bounce back.

LIghtly oil a large bowl (this should be at least twice the size of your ball of dough). Place your dough into the bowl, and roll it around to thinly coat with oil. Cover with cling film and let rise in a non drafty warm place to rise for 1-2 hours, until doubled in size. (I leave mine in a closed oven)

When the dough has doubled, preheat the oven to about 240 degrees C. Dissolve your bicarbonate of soda in the hot water. 


Turn out the douhg on a lightly floured clean surface, and divide into about 12 portions.  Roll out into a long rope- approx 20 inches, or thereabouts, twist it into your pretzel shape and then place on a baking try lined with baking parchment. When all the dough is shaped onto your tray, brush them generously with the bicarbonate glaze (this gives them their signature pretzel shine) and then bake for 8 minutes till browned. 


For cinammon sugar pretzels:
Melt approx 50g of butter, when the pretzels come out of the oven, brush them with the melted butter then dip the pretzels into a bowl of cinammon sugar to cover (cinammon mixed with caster sugar)


Poppy Seed:
Sprinkle poppy seeds over the glazed pretzels just before they go into the oven. You can also sprinkle them very sparingly with some good quality sea salt

Glorious Cupcakes...

I have to admit, I have never really been a big cupcake fan. Never really thought I do them very well, just not the light bouncy sponges that I like. BUT ! I have a recipe that I now love... unlike the traditional victoria sponge recipe I use, with equal amounts of butter, sugar and flour, this uses a lower proportionate amount of butter, and uses milk instead and only 1 egg! Surely that must be healthier! The result is a moist light sponge, keeps pretty well too! 
Try for yourself:
120g caster sugar
40g butter (room temperature)
120g Self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
120ml milk
1tsp vanilla extract
1 egg

Preheat the oven at around 160 degrees, and line a muffin tin with large cupcake cases. 

Mix together sugar, butter, flour, salt together till it is well incorporated and sandy like... You can do this with a hand mixer on a low speed. Mix the milk with the vanilla extract, pour into the dry ingredients and mix till just blended, then crack in an egg, and mix in with a spatula till JUST incorporate. Do NOT overmix.  Divide into 12 cupcake cases and bake for about 17-22 minutes depending on your oven. Test after 17mins, cakes should be lightly browned and bounce back when pressed.  Cool and then add desired topping and decorations!

Topping suggestions:
Cream cheese frosting
Marscapone Vanilla Cream
Passionfruit cream topping


Variations: 
Coconut Cupcakes:
Substitute milk with coconut milk for a lush coconut cake cupcake, top with a coconut topping with toasted dessicated coconut...YUM!
Chocolate Cupcakes:
Take out about 20g of flour and substitute with cocoa powder
Walnut Coffee:
Take out 20g of flour and subsitute with roughly crushed walnuts, substitute the vanilla extract with about a tablespoon of coffee.  Top with frosting flavoured with coffee, or Tia Maria for a grownup kick and extra walnuts on top.

Springtime baking for mums and dads...!

How long has it been since I updated... too long I have to admit... 

I have been keeping busy though, working through a few Birthday commissions, a tropically fruity Mango and passionfruit birthday cake for my friend's dad, with the trickiest (Chinese) birthday message to date!  Then i got a VERY last minute request for a birthday cake for a mum - only guidelines "she loves green"... Green??!?!? I am not keen on green cakes, apart from Pandan, green in cake isn't particulary appealing... though I cheated a bit and made two tone green-white chocolate surround for the strawberry gateau. :)

Festive Macarons

Oh, I know... I have been slack in updating the blog - though I have been taking a baking break :)  Anyways, so I come back with avengence ! Holiday Macarons, with oodles of festive cheer and filled with Cranberry and Raspberry cream and/or dark chocolate ganache...

I am not usually a fan of sugarcraft, though had a flash of inspiration and topped them with these cute holly leaves and berries, I love the way they look against the dark chocolate macaron biscuit ! The pinky ones were topped with shiny edible confetti hearts.. :)

Glorious gals...

So... remember a few months ago, Y came over to get some baking tips and try her hand at gracie styley celebration cakes...?  Well, last weekend, my old flatmates wanted in on the act too and came over to tool up and give their spin on the cake I made for D's birthday last month.  

The proof as they say... is in the cake... :)

It was a lovely, lazy afternoon of baking fun. With the gals learning some new techniques, and having a girlie giggle in the process... they ended up making a sumptuous passionfruit and mixed berry cream cake... very fresh and surprising light for A, who was at one point a bit shell-shocked at the sugar that goes into it. (there wasn't really that much.. it was a very big cake ! ) :)

Layzee Lunch and lounging...

Birthday girl's brief: just simply, simple flavours, sponge, maybe some jam and cream. Nothing fussy...   

So here we have it, I stuck to the brief, a simple vanilla sponge, layered with homemade jam, vanilla cream dotted with strawberries and surprise honeycomb fizzles... and then a second layer of raspberry cream... topped with fresh berries and chocolate pralines. So my confession, whilst foraging for inspiration, I came across Lindt mini pralines... In a shiny pinky box. Oh, they are cute, just the normal lushious Lindt, all miniturized... can you spot them hidden amongst the berries... :) 

A change of seasons...

Autumn is definitely here... I just bought myself a 13.5tog duvet ready as the chillier nights draw in and my first official bake to mark the change in season?  What could be more comforting than good old fashioned Apple Pie... Encased with a crisp light flakey crust and filled with chunky apples and warming cinammon with just a hint of nutmeg. 

I am not a big pie baker, usually more cakes rather than puddings... though I thought I would make the effort this weekend, as last weekend I brought over a Spanish tortilla over to my parents' house - and as soon as I got through the door, dad caught a quick glimpse of my dish, and exclaimed that I had made him apple pie!  As he trailed me into the kitchen, he was somewhat disappointed that it was a tortilla and no pie. (Yes! He is to blame for my sweet tooth!!!)  So of course, I felt bad, just from his sheer enthusiasm to lukewarm realisation that I was only armed with a savoury snack. 

Yesterday, I stocked up on a bounty of apples (Bramleys, Cox's, Granny Smiths and threw in a couple of Pink Lady's too!) . Got myself a pie dish, well, if you are going to do it properly... ;)  And I was ready to go!

The pastry was flakey and crispy, no soggy bottom which was my main fear - I par-cooked the apples in a mixture of sugar, cinammon and cornflour before filling the case, it looked very proud as I tucked them in with their pastry duvet. Though after cooking, the apples had shrunk back a bit.   This didn't really affect the quality of the pie, though wondering if it's an apple thing. Maybe if I stick to Bramley's there will be less shrinkage? Or is there always going to be a gap between finished pie crust and apple filling inside? hmm...? Answers on the back of a postcard... :)

A passion for fruit ...

Mango passionfruit, raspberry passionfruit... are you getting the hint that I am really loving the passionfruit right now?  Teamed with lemon for a bit of extra zing to balance the fragrance of the passionfruit, it's definitely been my flavour of the season, especially when further enhanced with the last of the fresh lush berries of summer...