Kouign Amann

Photo by Steve Shanahan

First published Canberra Times 8 August 2012

Move over macarons and cupcakes, it is the Kouign Amann that is taking the US by storm and infiltrating bakery shelves here in Australia. It’s been seen loitering in some of the trendy Sydney and Melbourne bakeries and it seems in the US the demand is outstripping supply. Just quietly, the French are way ahead of us by a few hundred years, but don’t worry all good things come to those who wait.

Unless you’re a competent cook, then waiting is something you might have to do, because this little slice of heaven is a tad time consuming, but not impossible to do. 

What is Kouign Amann you might ask? It’s sometimes been described as a cake or a pastry, but always sublimely addictive. It originates in Brittany, France and the pronunciation is something like ‘kween amon.’ The dead give away, is that in the Breton language it translates to ‘cake butter.’ Getting the idea now? In around 1860, pastry cook Yves Rene-Scordia opened a bakery in the coastal Breton town of Douarnenez and his speciality so impressed the locals that it soon grew into an obsession. 

If like me, you find a flaky, pure butter croissant or a pillowy and light brioche simply irresistible, expect to find yourself hooked on Kouign Amann. It is partly about the texture, but it’s more the crisp caramelisation of the outside shell of the cake with the flaky buttery layers that creates the desire to further indulge. It takes considerable willpower to stop at one piece.

You will need to set yourself an afternoon aside to create these buttery gems, and find a warm spot in the house to allow the dough to rise for a couple of hours before baking. If you don’t have a warm corner to allow them to rise, I placed the two dough-filled cake tins, covered in plastic wrap, under the doona in the spare bed with the electric blanket on low. This worked a treat. In actual fact they kept my rye mother company which was fermenting and bubbling away between the sheets.

Don’t be put off by the difficulty, Kouign Amann is not only incredibly satisfying to make, it is even more satisfying to eat.

500g plain flour
320ml cold water
15g salt
8g of dried yeast
350g unsalted butter at room temperature
300g sugar

In a large bowl, place the flour, water, salt and dried yeast. Mix the dough until it forms a combined mass. Alternatively, you can use an electric mixer with a dough hook. Form the dough into a ball, cover with plastic film and refrigerate for about one hour.

On a floured bench, roll the dough out flattened to a square about one centimetre thick and dust with flour.

Place the butter between two sheets of baking paper and using a rolling pin, bash the butter to flatten to about one centimetre thickness and place it centrally on top of the rolled out square of dough, so it doesn’t quite reach the sides of the pastry. Fold the four edges of the dough into the middle to completely envelop the butter. Roll the top of the dough slightly to seal the folded edges to stop the butter from escaping.

Roll the pastry out to a rectangular strip about one centimetre thickness. Take the shorter and lower end of the strip and fold it up one-third of the way toward the top. Now fold the top down to fit over the first fold to form a neat rectangle with no overlapping sides.

Place the folded dough onto a baking tray and cover with baking paper, and again refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. Remove from the refrigerator and with the outside fold facing to your right, roll it out again to a long rectangle about one centimetre thickness.  Sprinkle with a generous amount of sugar, then fold it again as before, coating all sides with sugar. Place in the refrigerator to rest for 30 minutes.

Repeat the previous step of rolling, coating with sugar and folding one more time, then rest the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. For each roll, place the outside folded seam to your right before rolling. This technique will give you the flaky and buttery layers.

When refrigerated, roll the pastry out to a rectangle of one centimetre thickness. Cut it in half, then fold the four corners of the dough to meet in the centre, so you have a smaller square. Roll lightly over the folds to seal and sprinkle with a little more sugar. You should have used most of the 300 grams of sugar. Place the two pieces of dough in two buttered cake tins, pressing slightly so the dough fits the tins well.

Cover the cake tins with a tea towel and leave to rise for two  hours in a warm place. Or place in your heated bed with the electric blanket on low.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for about 30 minutes, then carefully turn out onto a rack. Don’t undercook the Kouign Amann, it needs to be very dark and caramelised. The outside should be dark

Paris brest

Paris Brest. Photos by Steve Shanahan

It’s that time of year when glazed-eyed cycling fans are glued to late night telly watching sweaty fellas on two wheels toughing it out through the impossibly picturesque and often steep French countryside, competing in the Tour de France. 

For those of us who are non-cyclists, don’t despair. You can get into the quintessentially French spirit of this event by providing tempting sustenance to those devotees of the be-spoked wheel,  in the form a Paris Brest. 

The traditional Paris-Brest is a bicycle wheel shaped choux pastry creation, filled with patisserie cream and topped with almonds and icing sugar. It was originally created in 1891 in honour of the Paris to Brest bicycle race, by a pastry cook whose shop was situated along the route. This spare wheel was filled with high calorie cream to provide sustenance to the race participants.

The patisserie cream filling can be substituted with fresh whipped cream and strawberries, which is a lot less work and much more economical. It also gives a lighter and fresher result.

You will need a large pastry bag, with a wide nozzle about 18mm wide and strong arms to mix in the eggs. Alternatively, you could use an electric mixer with a dough beater, to mix in the flour and eggs, being careful not to over-mix the paste. I still prefer to do the mixing with a wooden spoon, this little bit of exercise eases my guilt before indulging.

For flavour variations, add a few drops of liqueur to the cream, such as, Frangelico or Kahlua. If chocolate is more your thing, you could drizzle the top with melted chocolate, then decorate with toasted almonds.

This popular dessert is found in good patisseries all over the world, but is an easy and impressive one to make at home. It’s a standout sweet that will provide calorific encouragement while watching the famous race and guaranteed to cheer on celebrations at your Tour de France parties.

The quantity makes a 23cm round pastry that can be sliced into six to eight portions.

150g unsalted butter

225g plain flour, sifted twice

pinch of salt

7 free range eggs, medium size

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 extra egg, lightly beaten

30g flaked almonds

600ml pure cream

scraped vanilla bean or ½ tsp vanilla bean paste

2 tbsp caster sugar

punnet of strawberries, hulled and sliced

icing sugar for decoration

Preheat the oven to 200C. Draw a 20 centimetre circle on the back of a piece of baking paper in a dark pen so that the circle shows through onto the other side. Using a baking tray that will take the size of the paper. Spray a few dots of oil onto a baking tray to help the paper stay in place. Place the paper on the baking tray, pen side down.

Melt the butter with 375ml of water in a saucepan, then bring it to a rolling boil. Transfer the saucepan to a heat-proof work surface, such as a silicone mat. This will provide a non-slip surface for mixing the paste. 

Add the flour all at once to the butter and water mixture in the saucepan. Add the pinch of salt. Return to the heat and beat continuously with a wooden spoon to make a smooth shiny paste that comes away from the sides of the pan. Once it does this, remove from the heat and cool for a few moments.

Beat in the eggs one at a time until shiny and smooth, the mixture should drop off the spoon, but not be too runny. Beat in the sugar.  

Standing the pastry bag in a tall jug, open the top up and fold it back, filling the pastry bag with the paste. Pipe a pastry ring over the circle guide you have drawn. Now pipe another ring of pastry directly inside this one so that you have one thick ring. Pipe another two circles on top of the first tow and continue until all the choux pastry has been used. Brush the choux ring with the beaten egg and sprinkle with the flaked almonds.

Bake the choux ring for20 minutes, then reduce the oven to 180C and bake for a further fifteen to twenty minutes. Remove from the baking tray and place on a wire rack. Immediately slice the ring in half horizontally, using a serrated bread knife. Make the base twice as deep as the top. Lift off the top and scoop out any uncooked pastry from the base. Leave to cool completely.

Whip the cream, vanilla and sugar until very stiff. Fill the pastry base with the cream and top with sliced strawberries. Cover with the pastry top and dust with icing sugar.

Strawberry powder puffs

Photo by Steve Shanahan

First published 9 May 2012 Canberra Times.

Not only does Mother’s Day provide the opportunity to lavish attention on Mum, it’s also an excuse to showcase your cake baking skills.

These gorgeous little powder puffs are incredibly quick and easy to make, and they can be produced at very short notice, perfect for the kids or Dad to cook for Mum on her day.

This cute old-fashioned English recipe dates back to when the vicar would drop by for afternoon tea. The cakes were baked in advance and stored in an airtight container, then filled with whipped cream and jam, sprinkled with icing sugar and put aside. They rise again slightly when filled and left for an hour or so. By the time the vicar came to call, the powder puffs were ready to eat.

2 eggs

½ cup caster sugar

½ cup plain flour

½ cup cornflour

2 tspn baking powder

½ cup strawberry jam

¾ cup whipped cream

Icing sugar for dusting

Makes about 15

Preheat the oven to 220C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Beat the eggs with an electric mixer until well mixed, then gradually add the sugar, beating for 8 minutes or until thick and creamy. Sift the flour, cornflour and baking powder together and fold in lightly by hand.

Put the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a plain 1cm nozzle and pipe into rounds, placing them well apart on the trays. If you don’t have a piping bag, spoon teaspoons of the mixture onto the trays.

Bake for 4 to 5 minutes until evenly but lightly coloured. Remove from the oven and lift the cakes carefully with a spatula, onto a wire rack to cool. When cool store in an airtight container, separating the layers with sheets of baking paper to stop them sticking together.

An hour or so before serving, join the cakes together in pairs with strawberry jam and whipped cream. Dust them with icing sugar and place them in a covered container until they become light puffs.

A big hug of a scone

First published Canberra Times 25 April 2012

Photo by Steve Shanahan

If you aren’t part of my Aunt Maw Maw’s extended circle of friends, or a pal of my many cousins, or belong to the Life Activities Club of Geelong, then you might not have tried Aunt Maw’s date scones. She is a legend in that wide circle, and her date scones are her pièce de résistance.

She’s one of those cooks that hail from the Margaret Fulton and Australian Women’s Weekly era of baking, with a consuming belief that eating cakes, biscuits and slices, with a nice cup of tea at the kitchen table, can make the world right.  Her baking skills are widely known, with classic jam tarts, lamingtons and lemon slices the order of the day.

Although tiny in stature, Aunt Maw Maw’s convictions and generosity are larger than life. She has a strong belief in the good of everyone, and conversations always start with a joke. In all the years of knowing her, I can’t ever remember her having a cross word with or about anyone. If you’re looking for something that sums up what she is truly, uniquely like, you don’t need to look past her role in the Life Activities Club as chief Hugger. She hugged everybody.

Her repertoire of recipes has grown with her years of involvement in charity shops around Geelong. It was a reflection of her generosity, her capacity to hug and perhaps, the quality of her date scones, that made it a sad privilege to be part of the standing-room-only crowd at her funeral recently.

When Uncle Harold went searching later for her recipe for the date scones, he found it tucked into a copy of the Australian Women’s Weekly cookbook, covered in flour, food stains and dog-eared. No prizes for guessing this was the right one.

Well, Aunty Maw, I only hope you forgive me for the height of my scones. They will never be like yours.

Preheat the oven to 230C.

2 cups of self raising flour

½ tspn salt

60g butter

¼ cup sugar

¾ finely chopped dates

1 egg

½ cup milk, approximately

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl, rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the dates and sugar. Beat the egg and add to the dry ingredients with sufficient milk to make a soft dough. Place on a floured surface and knead lightly.

Pat out to approximately ½ inch thickness and cut into squares with a knife.

Place into a greased 28 x 18 centimetre lamington tin butted together closely. Glaze the tops with milk. Bake in a very hot oven for approximately 12 to 15 minutes. Makes about 12 scones.

This was Maw Maw’s recipe, but I used a food processor to rub in the butter and added the dates, sugar, eggs and milk until it was mixed to a dough ball. I then tipped it out onto a floured surface and followed the instructions in the recipe.

Boiled Citrus Cake

Boiled Citrus Cake Photo by Steve Shanahan

First published Canberra times 9 December 2011

Po of Masterchef has done one like it, so has Maggi Beer. I think Maeve O’Meara has created one as well. You might have guessed, it’s the boiled orange cake. Or in my version, boiled orange and lemon cake. This is slightly different to the original, adding lemon for sourness. This cake is based on a classic Middle Eastern recipe where almond meal and citrus fruits are abundant and form the basis for the ingredients.

This is an interesting recipe, as the structure of the fruit changes by boiling it whole, reducing the bitterness produced from the skin and pith. It’s a modest looking cake, even rustic, that packs a huge punch with its strong citrus flavour that lasts in your mouth long after it’s gone.

The recipe became popular many years ago by the well known cook and author Claudia Roden when it was published in her A new book of Middle Eastern Food back in the late 1960s. The classic Italian Olive Oil cake is a similar version that uses this technique, although I am not a fan of the strong olive flavour. This classic cake has recently re-emerged and now makes regular appearances on café and bistro menus.

I think it is one of my favourite food finds for the year, because of its unexpected flavour and the need for limited use of utensils, as it’s completely prepared in a blender.  This is a cake that improves with age and retains its moist texture without drying out.

You do need to prepare this cake in advance in order to cook the citrus fruit for 2 hours. If you don’t allow this time, the skin on the fruit will still be bitter. I like to cook the fruit the night before, having the fruit cooled and when I’m ready to bake the cake the following day.

After making this cake regularly, I recently experimented with the recipe and substituted a lemon instead of an extra orange. It gave the cake a cheek pinching sourness that was balanced by the honeyed mascarpone. This is worth a try if you like sour lemon flavours. Another variation to the original recipe is to pour warm chocolate ganache over the cooked cake, giving it a jaffa flavour.

The cake is great served warm or cold and is absolutely perfect with mascarpone, honey and almonds. It really is a wonderful cake to take to any occasion and its citrusy flavours makes it an ideal festive cake. It will appeal to the gluten intolerant and those watching their carbs, just watch out for the mascarpone that goes with it.

  

2 oranges, or 1 lemon and 1 orange

7 whole eggs

250g caster sugar

270g almond meal

1 tspn baking powder

1 tbsp of extra caster sugar

icing sugar for dusting

Wash the citrus fruit and cook unpeeled in a pot of boiling water for 2 hours. Drain the water, allowing the fruit to completely cool. Do this ahead of time.

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line the base of a 20cm spring-form cake pan with baking paper.

Break the eggs into a food processor or blender, add the 250g of caster sugar and blend together.  Over a bowl, break up the two cooled oranges, removing and discarding any seeds. Place the oranges including the juice and skin into the egg mix in the blender. Blend together to a smooth consistency. Add the almond meal and baking powder and blend again till smooth.

Pour the cake batter into the greased pan and sprinkle the top with the extra caster sugar. Bake for about 1 hour to 1¼ hours until the cake is golden brown.

Remove the cake from the pan when cool. Dust with icing sugar to serve with a dollop of mascarpone, a drizzle of  warm honey and roasted, slivered almonds.

Hazelnut Torte

Hazelnut Torte Photos by Steve Shanahan

First published Canberra Times 9 December 2011

The Hazelnut Torte is an extravaganza of hazelnuts, cream, coffee and chocolate and is probably my most favourite cake of all. The recipe has been my companion for many years and it was one of the first cakes that I really became besotted with.

It was in the 1980’s during my student years, well before husband and kids, I worked nights in a popular Newcastle restaurant, when the Hazelnut Torte first crossed my lips. Newcastle University was located close by and this cake was a favourite of students, coming in to buy it by the slice to take away. It was the most popular cake on the menu and it would frequently sell out.

The tortes were made by Mrs Rozen, an Austrian woman, who delivered frozen batches of the cakes to the restaurant each week. Her grey hair was tied in a bun and she always wore a full-length apron tied around her rotund girth. I held my breath as she teetered with her tower of tortes, while she negotiated the step into the restaurant.

After a particularly busy night, I was finally given a slice of the torte by the restaurants chef. I was instantly smitten and I pursued Mrs Rozen for the recipe. Looking back now, she probably thought I was quite mad, maybe a little obsessive. She refused to share it with me, saying it was a secret recipe from her home-town in Austria. Quite frankly it was a good little earner for her.

Many years later when I owned my own restaurant, I was determined to recreate the Hazelnut Torte, to produce the flavour just as I remembered it. I made numerous attempts and versions and had others test tasting to ensure its authenticity.  

This is a cake that everyone loves and I’ve had many requests for the recipe. It’s been a big seller in both of my restaurants and ticks the boxes for decadence, and it’s perfect for birthdays and special desserts.

The best thing about this cake is that it can be made in advance, frozen whole, thawed and the flavour improves. If you don’t want to freeze it, it tastes best if made the day before you need it, as the rum penetrates the cake and intensifies in flavour after it’s left overnight in the fridge. I usually make two at the time to have one on hand in the freezer. This is a truly memorable cake and another perfect cake for a festive celebration. Serves 12.

Cake

4 egg whites

½ cup caster sugar

½ cup self raising flour, sifted

¾ cup ground hazelnuts

2 tbsp melted butter, cooled

4 tbsp rum

15 whole hazelnuts, toasted

Cream

600mls pure cream (divided into 2 lots of 400mls and 200mls)

¼ cup castor sugar

2 tbsp castor sugar extra

2 tbsp dutch cocoa powder, sifted

¼ tsp vanilla bean paste

4 tbsp brewed espresso coffee

Preheat the oven to 140C. Whip the egg whites till stiff, add castor sugar slowly to make a meringue mixture. Fold in the sifted flour, melted butter and ground hazelnuts. Mix lightly until just combined. Pour into two 23cm baking paper lined and greased cake tins and cook for approximately 15 to 20 minutes or until just cooked but not coloured. Remove from the oven and when cooled slightly, remove paper and cool to room temperature. Brush both layers with rum.

Whip 200mls of cream with the 2 tbsp of the sugar and vanilla until very stiff. Place one cake layer on a serving plate, rum side up and cover the top surface with a layer of vanilla cream about ½ cm thickness.  Place the second cake layer on top, rum side down. 

Whip the remaining 400mls of cream with the ¼ cup of sugar, cocoa powder and coffee liquid until very stiff. Spread top and sides with the chocolate and coffee cream and dot the top with toasted hazelnuts. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. 

This cake can be frozen whole in a container and thawed with the lid off to alleviate the condensation dripping onto the cream.