Finally.
It’s here.
My post on english muffins.
You see, I stumbled upon this recipe from Barbara’s Winos&Foodies blog a few years back but never got around to trying it till a few months ago, and which point I became highly impressed with the fact that yes, it is entirely possible to make your own english muffins at home!
Yes!
Yet another goodie that I do not have to buy chock full of preservatives from the supermarket, but can make fresh and tasty in my own kitchen!
I posted a teaser on my twitter account, and I know that there is at least one of you who has been anxiously waiting for this to be posted…so apologies for the delay 
Unfortunately, I occasionally hit the wall when trying to photograph the food I cook, and it wasn’t until this weekend past that I finally got some photos that I liked and thought were worth posting
English Muffins
(recipe adapted from Winos&Foodies)
Ingredients
2 teaspoons dried/instant yeast granules
1/2 teaspoon sugar
250ml warm water
125ml warm milk
350g bread flour
100g all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
rice flour or fine cornmeal/polenta
1. Measure out your yeast and set aside. Combine the flours and salt in a large bowl.
2. Mix together the flours with a fork or whisk, then remove 1 tbsp of the mixture. Add the bicarb/baking soda to the remaining flour and whisk through.
3. Add this to the yeast, add the 1/2 tsp of sugar and 125mL (half) of the warm water, then whisk together with a fork to break up any clumps. Leave this mixture to ‘blossom’.
4. Once the yeast mixture has blossomed, add the remaining warm water and warm milk to the bowl, give it a quick stir to pick up any flour that has sunk to the bottom of the bowl, then add the liquid to the flour mixture.
5. Using a fork, mix together the liquid and flours till it begins to come together. After this point, you will need to use your hand to give the dough a thorough kneading in the bowl – it can be a bit difficult as this is an extremely sticky dough.
6. Once the dough has been thoroughly kneaded, cover with a damp kitchen tea-towel and leave in a warm part of the kitchen to rise for 1 hr, or place in the fridge to let it rise overnight.
7. Once the dough has doubled in volume, use the oil to grease down your cleaned kitchen bench top and pull the dough onto it. Either roll (if you use a rolling pin then it will also need to be liberally oiled) or pat the dough into a rough rectangular shape, then fold and turn 90 degrees and repeat. Do this one more time.
8. Not pictured in the below – after the final turn and fold, lift the dough and sprinkle your bench top liberally with corn meal/polenta, then place the dough down and also cover the top of the dough with corn meal. Using a scone cutter, cut out 10-12 muffins.
Alternately, you can divide the dough into 12 balls yourself, but I prefer the shapes and uniformity that the scone cutter gives. Bear in mind that I am a lunatic who measures out her cupcake batter so that each cupcake liner has the same amount of batter down to the gram!
(The reason it isn’t pictured here is because I was seeing if just oiled surfaces would work. They don’t. Sticky sticky STICKY dough!)
9. Dust a large tray liberally with some corn meal, and also pour some into a shallow dish. Carefully transfer each muffin to the dish to make sure it is well coated with corn meal, before transferring to the tray.
10. Cover the muffins with cling wrap / plastic wrap, and allow to rest for 30 minutes. Heat a heavy frying pan over low-medium heat, give it a spray of cooking spray, then place 3-4 muffins in the pan (allowing room for them to expand). Cook for about 10 minutes each side, or till each side turns golden brown.
Once each muffin is cooked, transfer them into a pouch made from a clean kitchen tea-towel and rest for 15 minutes. Once rested, they can be split and enjoyed however you wish!
The muffins in this photo are from my first attempt, therefore a bit thin. Note to self: do NOT get over-excited when you need to roll out dough. I have a bit of a problem with this…
One of my favourite ways to enjoy these delights is to split them, toast them and spread each side with unsalted butter, a generous helping of jam (in this case, blueberry is a definite favourite), and to top them with a dollop of cream.
The other way I like to enjoy these is in a bastardized version of eggs benedict – english muffins, rindless bacon, spinach, tomato, poached egg and hollandaise!
See, the beautiful part of this recipe is the rising time! It’s actually easy enough that you can come home piss drunk (so long as you’re still able to stand on two feet and not throw up), make the dough and chuck it into the fridge. Then, you crawl into bed, bemoan the fact that you drank so much and fall asleep…the next morning, you can crawl out of bed, shape the muffins, go have a shower, and they’re ready to be cooked on the griddle or frying pan by the time you’re alive/refreshed!
No, I’m not speaking from experience…
In case that sounds a bit too difficult, you can also make these beforehand, split them and wrap them tightly in cling wrap and bung them into the freezer. When you do wake up with a hangover, you can just pop them into the toaster and enjoy them that way with minimal effort and grunting 
[tags]muffins, bread, english muffins, eggs benedict, breakfast, hangover[/tags]
There’s something to be said for a lazy pancake breakfast on the weekend, however it’s usually lazy for everyone except the cook! Which, in my family, means me…
While everyone else in the family gets to lounge about, drinking tea and reading in bed, if there’s to be a pancake breakfast it means that I’m usually working at a flurried pace in the kitchen, trying to get everything ready before hungry stomachs decide that they can’t wait and reach for Friday night leftovers or toast instead…
Dutch baby pancakes (also called German pancakes – though this is not the same as Apfelpfannkuchen), are very different to the fluffier, cakier pancakes that are common in Western cuisine. With no leavening agent and a very different flour : egg : milk ratio, the end result is denser and eggier, but that’s not to say that they’re any less delicious!
These babies are definitely the way you should go if you want a truly lazy pancake breakfast – the hands-on preparation time is all of about 5 minutes (though you can increase that to 10 minutes if you want to serve this with a fresh fruit salad like I do), and once you pop it in the oven you can sit back and relax with the rest of the family till it’s done, at which point everyone can sit down to eat together
Now, that’s definitely my idea of a lazy pancake breakfast!
Dutch Baby Pancake
(Slightly adapted from the recipe at About.com)
Ingredients
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C with a cast iron skillet (or oven-safe frying pan) inside. Break eggs into a large bowl and lightly beat together. Add the milk, melted butter and salt and beat lightly again.
2. Gradually add the sifted flour to the egg mix, beating it in lightly with a fork.
3. Take the 1tbsp unmelted buter and toss into the heated skillet in the oven and give it a few seconds to melt. Swirl it around, then pour in the batter and bake for 20-30 minutes, or till puffed high and golden
Serve however you wish! Traditionally served with lemon juice, clarified butter and sprinkled sugar, I prefer to use it as a kind of fruit bowl with chopped season fruit placed in the middle and dusted with icing sugar! Of course, to make it even more decadent, you can add a dollop of lightly whipped cream and drizzle of maple syrup…if you like
You can serve this baby in the skillet, tossing everything inside and giving everyone a fork, or if you prefer to do things in a more orderly fashion, you can pull it out of the pan (if your skillet is properly seasoned then this baby will slide straight out!) and serve everyone neat little wedges so they can enjoy it however they like
Other recipes for dutch baby pancakes/ German pancakes:
[tags]pancakes, German pancakes, Dutch Baby pancakes, breakfast, recipes[/tags]
So about a month ago, I got sent to Sydney on a 2 day work jaunt, and decided to take the opportunity to put the call out to any Sydney foodbloggers who wouldn’t mind catching up for dinner while I was in town. Luckily for me, Helen (Grab Your Fork), Suze (Chocolate Suze) and Reem (I Am Obsessed With Food) put their hands up, and after a bit of emailing back and forth, we decided to try Bodega Tapas Bar in Surry Hills for dinner (which, luckily for me, was also just up the road from the hotel I was holed up in!)
Part of the reason that I pushed for this choice was that I had only just visited MoVida the week before, and had so thoroughly loved my experience that I was curious as to how other places would do it…
To be honest, the food was pretty fabulous! While the fare was not quite as spectacular as Frank Camorra’s offerings that I’d experienced at MoVida the week before, I really couldn’t fault any of it. However, I did feel a bit let down by both the bread and the dessert – after experiencing two amazing artisan breads at MoVida (which the girls and I had adored so much that we actually got a second plate!), I felt that the bread here was a bit bland (which served to accentuate the olive oil that it was served with, rather than enhance as I had experienced at MoVida).
And dessert? Okay, so I bake a lot, but I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, and I couldn’t finish mine at all (and kept pushing it helpfully in the direction of Reem in the hopes that she’d help me out!). The flan didn’t have the soft, melty texture that I expect with that sort of dessert, and the ginger biscuit it was served with did not give even the slightest hint of ginger flavour. The only redeeming part of the entire dish for me was the dulche de leche ice cream, which delightfully creamy, but melted far too quickly for my ice-cream nibbling ways 
Food aside, it was fabulous to meet all three ladies, and I commend them for not being overly taken aback by the loud, swearing and eccentric Melbournian who visited their home town Thanks for the lovely time, folks!
Also, I took the chance to visit the Sydney Fish Markets on my spare day, which turned out to have a pretty decent yumcha restaurant right in the heart of it! Who knew? Unfortunately all my photos taken there turned out quite rubbish, but I am quite fond of this photo which I nabbed while walking through one of the buildings…
Too true, folks. Too true.
Tune in next time for my own variation on chicken & vegetable wonton soup, and English muffins. Which I’m hoping will prove third time lucky (the recipe turns out perfectly each time.
To all you readers on Facebook – Did you know that the Kitchen Wench blog now has a Facebook group? I tend to be much more active on Facebook than on the blog itself, so please join me as well as other readers to mingle and talk food
I adore banana, I really do…but I have a problem with the texture. That claggy, glaggy throat-clogging texture drives me to distraction in a very bad way, and I find that I just can’t tolerate the fruit in its natural state. However, that certainly doesn’t stop me from enjoying it in any other way possible, which may explain why I am always on the lookout for new recipes to try this fruit in!
When my kid sister bought me this cookbook, I was immediately smitten with this recipe…though why I didn’t try it sooner is beyond me! It’s a very dense and heavy loaf cake, but has an inexplicably moist and delicate crumb that melts on the tongue and keeps you coming back for more.
Banana & Date Bread
(from Donna Hay Simple Essentials – Fruit)
Ingredients
125g unsalted butter, softened & cut into cubes
175g brown sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten together
200g all-purpose flour (recipe originally called for 225g)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda (also known as baking soda)
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (make sure it’s well mashed)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup (not that horrid maple-flavoured syrup nonsense)
1 cup roughly chopped dried dates
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C, lightly grease a small loaf tin and line with non-stick baking paper. Place the butter &sugar in a bowl and beat till pale and creamy. Gradually add the egg while beating, then beat to combine.
2. Sift together the flour, bicarb soda, baking powder, nutmeg and cinnamon twice to ensure the leaveners are not clumped together.
3. Add the chopped dates to the flour and stir well to ensure they’re well coated with flour (this prevents them from sinking to the bottom during baking)
4. Stir the sifted flour & dates into the creamed butter & eggs mixture.
5. Pour the maple syrup into the mashed bananas and mix, then add the bananas to the rest of the batter and lightly mix together (do not overwork as this will make the cake tougher, and you want a nice tender crumb for this cake)
6. Spoon into the lined loaf tin and bake for 70 minutes, or till a skewer inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
Allow this loaf to cool completely before slicing as it has a very moist & delicate crumb, and if you attempt to slice it before it is cool, the sodding thing will fall apart! However, once it is cooled, slices do taste best when slightly warmed…though temperature won’t matter much when you give this a taste!
Even though I’ve dropped the amount of sugar in this recipe, it’s still quite a sweet treat so I highly recommend making a pot of unsweetened tea to accompany it.
Apologies for taking so long since my last update…I’m a bit bulldozed by things happening in my life at present and blogging has taken quite a back seat. However, hopefully things will begin to settle down soon
[tags]banana, dates, bread, cake, baking, recipes[/tags]
Okay, so this guide is more than a few weeks late…and really isn’t the best I could’ve done considering that I put it together out of sheer boredom while in the throes of a head cold…but hopefully some of you out there will find it handy!
When it comes to fondant, I’m hardly an expert. I’ve only dabbled with it a teensy bit, and have had to mostly rely on my experience with Play-Dough as a kid to figure out how to make these. Which really brings me to a point – if you haven’t tried playing with fondant, you should! It’s a legitimate reason to make cute, crazy and whacky figurines – which can be used to decorate cakes or cupcakes, and are entirely edible!
Now, since this guide will show you a step-by-step of how to make all five figures above (bear, puppy, pig, bee and giraffe), it’s quite long so I’m going to put it behind a cut. If you read through it and have any questions, just send me an email and I’ll do what I can to help!
Onwards to the guides!
First of all, the things in my fondant play kit:
1. A decent little knife for cutting fondant
2. Fondant/clay modelling tools (the fondant ones work better, but the clay tools work almost as well and cost a fraction of the price!)
3. Clean, small-tipped paint brushes
4. Colouring pastes and gels (avoid working water watery dyes as they will give you GRIEF)
5. A small rolling pin for rolling the fondant
6. Fondant stamp-cutters
7. Wilton grass icing bag tip (it’s what I used to make the grass in this picture)
8. Frangipani petal cutters – I have these in a range of sizes and use the smallest to cut mouths and bee wings
9. Vegetable shortening – if your fondant becomes too hard or dry, working a little vegetable shortening helps it to become soft and pliable again
10. Tylo ‘glue’ – an edible glue I purchase at my cake supplies store, which is marvellous for sticking fondant pieces together. If you can’t get access to any, you can use natural vanilla extract in a bind (do not, however, use water as I find it doesn’t really wor and just gives you sticky fondant)
11. Gum Tragacanth – a very fine powder which can be kneaded into fondant to thicken it and make it more stable and pliable to work with. Not necessary, but I find that fondant is much easier to handle when I add a little of this in. The down side is that it dries the fondant faster than normal, which means you do need to work quicker and that mistakes are not as easily rectified.
12. Icing sugar or corn starch – the natural heat from your hands will make the fondant sticky, so having this on hand to dust your working surface and your hands will help make the whole task more manageable!
13. Fondant! Whether self-made or store-bought, it’s up to you! I don’t have a mixer strong enough to mix it up, so I buy blocks of premade from my baking supplies store which suits me just fine
In this picture, we have:
