bill's Coconut Bread

I got so excited when baking this one that I forgot to take photos! (Also, I was running late for Easter Sunday lunch and I was determined to finish making this so I could take it with me (and score a return invitation!) With or without photos - this is a winner.

Rumour has it that this is so popular that it cannot be taken off the menu at bill granger's restaurants in Sydney. Having lived a block away from bill's 2 I can only lament that my undying obsession with scrambled eggs meant I never even looked at anything else on the menu - I have learnt my lesson.

bill granger's coconut bread

From Bill Granger, via smitten kitchen, via Wednesday Chef, via The New York Times ...

I made roughly 1 1/2 batches ( to serve as 1 1/2 hostess gifts ... I ever so politely stay long enough to ensure I'm served some!) with the amounts as below.

4 very small eggs

1 cup coconut milk

7/8 cup (I know ... why bother? ... but that's what I did) 

     semi skimmed milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 3/4 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
210g dessicated coconut
125g melted salted butter

Heat oven to 180 (I used fan-forced this time so had it down at 160).

Whisk together eggs, coconut milk, milk and vanilla.

In a larger bowl whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, cinnnamon and sugars, before adding the coconut. Then gently fold in the contents of the other bowl before adding the melted butter.

Pour mix into one regular and one small loaf tin. This time I buttered and floured and it came out wonderfully. That said, the crust on this is pretty amazing so I have a feeling it'd probably be fine to leave any non-stick tins as is.

Now, the bit that made me late ... bake for and hour, or so, until a skewer comes out cleanly. I pulled the smaller one out just before the hour was up and after 1 hr 10mins I cranked the oven up to 180 (fan forced, remember) for another 10 minutes or so. Not ideal, but I had roast lamb waiting for me, and any 30-something Aussie girl knows that a lamb roast is better than a date with Tom Cruise (oh, how the times have changed!).

Let cool in the tins for 5-10 minutes then wrap up loosely in a teatowel and hurry off to Easter Sunday lunch! (As an aside, taunting people with the smell of freshly baked cake/bread on the train may be my new favourite pasttime!)

Next time: I'd soak the coconut in the coconut milk, and maybe use a higher proportion of coconut milk; I'd use more brown sugar (I ran out this time); I might brown the butter, or replace it with coconut oil; I think I'd add some sort of tropical fruit somehow ...; and mainly I'd like to convert it back to a cake. If nothing else (but trust me, this is so good it doesn't need anything else) I'd like to use this as a springboard to creating my very first cake recipe ... we'll see...

Defrosted Rustic Loaf

Way back when I last blogged I froze half a  batch of dough for use on a rainy day. It's not exactly rainy at the moment but with a long weekend just starting and the cold weather never-ending the timing sounded good enough to me!

I pulled the batch out of the freezer two days ago and left it on the drainer to defrost. At some point between then and this morning I realised that the bag had expanded and the dough was obviously rising again in my absence. I gently deflated and popped the defrosted dough in the fridge for a bit over a day. It rose a little again in the meantime before I rather neatly dropped it out of the bag, ready to roll.

I rolled it out as previously:

"Shape ... into a rough square and roll into a cylinder, then roll from one end into another cylinder before resting for 5 minutes.

Gently roll into a log, tapering at the ends, place on a floured baking tray, cover with cling wrap or a tea-towel and leave to double in size again."

It didn't rise as well as I'd hoped, but I'll assumed that was because of the way I defrosted it.

Nevertheless, the neat little loaf went into the oven which had been heated to 260 and then dropped to 220. As before, I had a steaming tray of water on the shelf below, which I think really made the difference this time. I turned the oven down to 170 after 15 minutes and then cooked for another 20 minutes before pulling out to cool.

At this point I was so absorbed with my spring cleaning that I didn't check the base of the loaf and when I went back to check a while later there wasn't quite the hollow sound that I'd been hoping for. Even so, the loaf wasn't a complete loss - though not as dense as I would have hoped. Still, incredibly tasty, especially served warm with lashings of salty butter - oh yes.

Back to bread basics

I'm going to get to grips with this bread baking, but at the moment I'm just enjoying getting the hang of how all the ingredients and processes work ... I think baking is the only time I manage to find science interesting ...

When I prepped the (considerably fresher) yeast this time around I realised what might have gone wrong last time ...

And I also tried to (unsuccessfully) mix it up with sesame seeds this time, and I've got my heart set on a lovely salted rosemary loaf in the near future ...

Rustic White-ish loaf again

Once again, based on this recipe and I should also note that my cup and spoon measurements are US sized ... don't ask!

150ml + 350ml warm water
1 tspn sugar
1 tbspn dried active yeast
1 3/4 cups strong bread flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
2 1/2 cups plain flour
Additional plain flour for kneading and dusting

Dissolve sugar in 150ml of water and whisk in yeast. Leave to rest in a warm place for about 10 minutes until the surface is covered with bubbles. Lots of bubbles. Top up with the remaining water and pour into a large bowl. Add all the flour and stir until mixture comes together then tip out onto floured surface.

Knead for 8-10 minutes - or longer if you feel that way inclined - until the dough is elastic. Try not to add too much extra flour. Even if you end up with dough all over your hands and your sleeves seem to be continuously falling down while you knead. Flour is not the answer. Put the dough into an oiled bowl, cover with cling wrap and leave in a warmish place until it has doubled in size ... I think this time I left it about an hour, which was probably longer than necessary.

Tip the dough back onto a floured surface and gently press all the air out of it before splitting in half. At this point I put one half in the freezer to use at a later date. Apparently this is the time in the process to interrupt ... we'll see how that one goes! Shape the remaining half into a rough square and roll into a cylinder, then roll from one end into another cylinder before resting for 5 minutes.

Gently roll into a log, tapering at the ends, place on a floured baking tray, cover with cling wrap or a tea-towel and leave to double in size again. This time I sprinkled with sesame seeds (though I'm sure there are some rules about the best way to do this ... probably ways which mean the seeds stay put!) before slashing the top three times.

Somewhere in here was when things went wrong. Not wrong wrong, just not perfect. I think the loaf had developed a bit of a skin, which made all the efforts I made next to allow it to keep rising, a little redundant.

Pre-heat the oven to 260 degrees celsius and lower to 220 when you put the bread in. Place a tray with water on the lower shelf to create some steam which apparently allows the loaf to rise fully before the crust begins to form. After 20 minutes remove the water tray and turn the oven down to 180 for another 20-30 minutes. If it's anything like mine it should be more like 20 ... 

Put the loaf straight onto a cooling rack and wait as long as possible before slathering with butter. Then sit back, enjoy and feel wonderfully smug.

Flashback: Grannie's biscuits

There was something funny in the air yesterday.

From what felt like out of the blue I had a yearning to bake some biscuits that I used to make with my grandmother when I was a little girl. I made a tenuous link from the red of the cherries to the celebration of Chinese New Year; I had friends visiting and needed something to share and to thank them for coming to see me; and I had - for the millionth time - re-discovered the little book my grandmother gave me so that I could make her recipes even when she was far away.

Much later in the day, as i thought about this last point, I remembered it was the anniversary of my grandfather's death. That day was a Sunday too, and it tore my world apart like I never imagined it would.

So here's to memories; to family and friends of the past, present and future; to staying close, even when you're very, very far away.

Grannie's Biscuits

This is how big walnuts are. Honest.

I made a minimal tweak, because I forgot I needed chopped mixed nuts, so I threw a few walnuts and macadamias in the food processor. I also used bottled lemon juice. I'm sorry Grannie, I won't do it again. So here's the recipe as it was written down for 6 year old me.

8 oz margarine or butter
4 oz caster sugar
10 oz plain flour

Finely grated rind of one lemon (or a good squeeze of lemon juice
1 oz chopped glacé cherries (roughly 9 or 10)

1 oz chopped mixed nuts

Cream all together then form into balls the size of a walnut. 

As an aside, when making these I realised that I learnt the size of walnuts, not from actual walnuts but from the size i learnt to roll balls of biscuit dough when you're told to roll them the size of walnuts.

Exactly how Grannie did it - in case you were wondering

But on with this terribly complex recipe. 

Put onto baking trays - space out nicely, press each one out a little to flatten then dip fork into flour and put lines on each one - here's the tricky bit - "like you did with Grannie."

I can see where some of you might struggle with that step. Don't put too much pressure on yourselves, I'm the only person in all of eternity fully qualified to do it properly.

Bake for 15-20 mins or until nicely browned. 325°

Bread Take Two: Rustic white-ish loaf

This time it was a combination of completely running out of bread (which was worse than usual because I was roasting a ham and thus had no way of making sandwiches with the leftovers!), and a desire to get this bread thing right.

I returned to old reliable, remembering that Deb had gone through a bit of an obsession with bread a few years back. There were two posts which she then simplified a little here and all three are filled with recipes I'm now feeling a bit more confident about trying out!

I based my recipe on this post though, wanting to make a loaf which was as simple as possible. It turned out well despite my experimentation although I still struggle with timing - I really like to cook at my pace rather than when the food decides it's ready, which isn't the ideal attitude for bread!

The loaf didn't end up quite the shape I was hoping for - it eventually proved quite well, but the final loaf didn't rise. I think this was a combination of my lack of attention and also the shape I made for the final prove. I guess time will tell if I've got the knack of this. It was however delicious, seemed to be the right consistency and had a lovely crust.

As is now habit, I'm telling it like it is, not necessarily as it should be!

Rustic white-ish loaf

1 cup warm water
1 1/4 tspn dried active yeast
1/4 tspn sugar
1 1/2 cup plain flour
3/4 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 cup white bread flour
Additional plain flour for dusting the loaf

Mix the warm water, yeast and sugar in a jug and leave for 5 minutes or until foam appears over the surface of the liquid.

Place all the flour in the food processor and pour in the liquid. Pulse until mix has formed into a ball and then leave to rest for 5-10 minutes. Let me machine run for about 20 seconds and then check the consistency to see if it's sufficiently kneaded -I gave mine another 20 seconds.

Place ball of dough in an oiled bowl, cover with clingwrap and leave to prove until it has doubled in size.

Place dough on a lightly floured surface and gently press to deflate creating a square roughly 10 x 10 inches. Roll up tightly, then roll up again in the other direction before leaving to rest for 5 minutes. Gently roll out to elongate and move onto lightly dusted baking tray seam side down.

Cover with clingfilm and leave to prove again. About 20 minutes into this i decided I didn't like the shape of the loaf and repeated the rolling process. Leave to prove for around 30 minutes.

As you leave the loaf to prove preheat the oven to 260.

Before putting the loaf in the oven, dust the top with some more flour and slash the top a couple of times (I snipped it with scissors). Turn the oven down to 230 and place the loaf in also placing an empty baking tray on a lower shelf to absorb some of the heat.

After 20 minutes, turn the oven down to 180 and bake for another 20 minutes before removing and cooling on a rack.

Absinthe Cookies: yes, they really are a thing.

Wholefoods and generous friends to the rescue! Right?!

Except that they're not. 

Or they weren't until I invented them. Or , more correctly, until I invented 'Absinthe flour-free chocolate cake mushed up with a bit of cream cheese frosting (cake pop style) then pressed and cut into cookie sized shapes before being dolloped with a generous portion of Channel Islands cream flavoured with Cointreau and then smothered with green edible (but not digestible!) glitter'.

And despite getting a 'special mention' by the judging panel, they are unlikely to be a thing ever again.

I had a flourless chocolate cake flavoured with Absinthe. "I know! I'll cut it into stars and serve that as a course," I thought. "Everyone likes chocolate; Absinthe will make me look really glamorous, exotic and adventurous; and cutting dense cake into shapes with cookie cutters is dead simple."

I had a minor panic when I realised that I couldn't get enough servings using the cutter I'd chosen. Then, while I contemplated what to do I nibbled at some crumbs. That was when total and utter disaster struck - turns out, I really don't like Absinthe.

For reasons that seemed sensible at the time, I crumbled up the cake, stirred in a basic cream cheese frosting with a big of cocoa, mushed it all together and then rolled it out until it was about 5mm thick. Then I froze it briefly to make it easier to cut. After a bit I pulled it out if the freezer, cut into stars and layered it into a box with greaseproof paper to separate.

Stolen from little swallow : china doll with many thanks

When serving up I laid the 'cookies' on the plate and tried to smother them with the ridiculously delicious Cointreau cream I'd impulse bought while waiting for a delivery earlier in the evening. Then sous chef B took control and enthusiastically smothered them in green glitter.

I have never felt so uncomfortable as I do when serving people something I've made which I don't like. It's just not right.

They were really difficult to pick up and they were horrid. Well, they were horrid to someone who doesn't like Absinthe. But I totally would have licked the cream and glitter off each and every one of them!

Jamie Oliver's Banana & Honey Bread

As I sat at home on on a Saturday night, sick for the second weekend in a row, I had three serendipitous thoughts. 

The first was that I had no bread in the house. No bread meant no toast to have with my scrambled eggs in the morning - the only thing that would redeem not having been out the night before. The second was that while I was stuck in I might as well try to finish my list of new year's resolutions before it turned into a thesis. The third was that there was an obvious solution linking both of them, so I procrastinated a while longer and decided to make Jamie's Banana & Honey Bread for breakfast.

As usual, I made compromises. I used defrosted bananas; I think my yeast was a little old and I totally miscalculated; I forgot to add the honey; I ended up proving it about 3.5 times; and finally my breakfast was ready at ... well ... dinnertime.

I haven't quite worked out the best way to blog these things, so below is how I baked. I'd recommend sticking to Jamie's recipe.

Lizzie's Banana & Honey Bread

400g strong bread flour

100g wholemeal flour

3 bananas (defrosted)

0.5 tbspn dried active yeast

1/2 tspn + 2 1/2 tspn sugar

1/2 tbspn salt

4 tbspn runny honey

Knead, knead, knead, knead, knead and knead again ..

Whisk the bananas until there's no lumps and top up with warm water to make 325ml. Add the yeast, 1/2 sugar to the mix, stir and leave for 10-15 mins until the top is covered in foam.

In a large bowl mix the flours, remaining sugar (2 1/2 tspn) and salt, then make a well in the middle. Pour in half the banana and yeast mix and stir with a fork until it becomes too sticky. Then, add the remaining banana liquid and mix with your hands until it all comes together. Jamie said to knead for 4-5 minutes, thought that really wasn't enough for mine. A wise woman once told me that it's nearly impossible to over-knead by hand so I've believed that ever since. The dough is ready when it's pliable and elastic. One day when I've made enough bread I think this this'll come naturally, the same way I've learned to tell if a mix is right or a cake is baked properly.

This stage is not highly attractive.

Then put the round into a bowl covered with clingfilm and leave in a warm, moist place for 30 minutes. Mine didn't rise properly so I panicked and googled and kneaded again for 5-10 minutes before putting back in the bowl to rise for another 30 minutes. At this point I realised I'd completely forgotten the honey so I kneaded half of it in and left it to prove again for a while ... Finally (nearly) I pounded the air out of the mixture, shaped into 6 buns and placed in a round tin dusted with flour. At this point things looked really sticky and messy and highly un-photogenic. Seeing as though I am typing this blog in real time I appear to have committed myself. Unless I declare them inedible (which would really be saying something for me). So, prove them again for a bit - 30 minutes seems to be the favourite number. This proving is the important one as  this is the one that goes to bake. Once they've doubled(ish) pour over the remaining 2 tbsps of honey and put into the oven preheated to 190 degrees. Bake for about 25 minutes - I opened the oven at 20 mins to see how it was going and decided to squeeze some more honey over the top. Serve while warm. Eat them all. By this point you've earned them!

I was prepared to be disappointed but this... well, once you remember that you've just made bread, not the cake-like delicacy that I think of as 'banana bread', it's heavenly. It was a little heavy and stodgy and I know I can improve on it, but seriously, this stuff is great. And the wholemeal makes the lashings of butter so very acceptable!

What I also learnt today: An Australian tablespoon is bigger than a UK/US tablespoon by about 1/3 again (20ml vs 15ml). I always know there's differences in cups but i don't think I realised the tablespoon measurement was so drastically different. Must remember for when I'm called upon to make my godson's birthday cake. Please feel free to remind me.