BWJ - Summer Vegetable Tart

This week's Baking with Julia recipe is Summer Vegetable Tart.  It comprises a phyllo pastry shell filled with mushrooms, garlic, capsicum, onion and goats cheese.  I made one mini tart just for me.

I thought this tart was fine taste-wise, although I had a fight with my very old phyllo while making it (hence the dishevelled appearance of my tart). 

To see what the other BWJ bakers thought, visit the LYL section of the website.

This will be my last Baking with Julia for now, as I want to clear some space to concentrate on other things for a while.

BWJ - Baked Yoghurt Tart

This week's Baking with Julia assignment is Baked Yoghurt Tart, being a continental European-style tart based on non-fat yoghurt and topped with berries or fruit (I chose blueberries). 

This tart was easy enough to make - a flaky pastry dough, baked into a tartshell, and filled with the yoghurt-based filling and topped with fruit.  It tasted like a light cheesecake.

I liked this tart, but I didn't love it.  I think I'd prefer a cheesecake for something of a similar type, but this does have the advantage of being lower fat.

To see what the BWJ bakers thought, visit the LYL section of the website. 

BWJ - Cheese and Tomato Galette

Congratulations to Harrison Craig from Melbourne who was announced last night as The Voice Australia for 2013.  Harrison has a voice that is smooth like honey and deep and rich like chocolate, which is especially wonderful because he has a stutter in his speaking voice and is only 18 years old.  He is marvellous - I'll be watching this space for Harrison's next career move.

This week for Baking with Julia, we take a walk on the savoury side, and make Cheese and Tomato Galette.   For the uninitiated, a galette is a free form pie.  This one is made with sour cream dough, and contains cheese, tomato and basil.

Here is a peek inside:

I used low fat tasty cheddar cheese, as I refused to buy any extra cheese - I am not a huge cheese eater, and it is rather wasteful to throw out cheese that has gone mouldy or hard from lengthy periods spent languishing in the fridge.  I added salt to the filling and sprinkled it on top of the dough because I thought that it needed it.

I took this to work, and much to my surprise, it disappeared.  Lovely Lisa even complimented me on it in the lift going home - yet I was worried that no-one would want it because the dough was below par as I made a boo boo when halving the recipe and ended up having to add way more flour than was desirable.    I am happy that people liked it anyway.

To see what our other merry members of BWJ thought of this galette, visit the LYL section of the website.

BWJ - Savarin

Two months ago, I had no idea what a Savarin was.  Fast forward to now, and I have made two of them.  My first effort was for Daring Bakers in April.  Now I have made a Savarin again, this time for Baking with Julia.

The Baking with Julia version of Savarin was much less of a production than the Daring Bakers version.  Instead of six hours of rising time, there was just under an hour of rising time all up.   The finished product was smaller, but was therefore easier to work with.  Instead of soaking the cake in cooled syrup while the Savarin was hot, in this recipe, the hot syrup is spooned onto the cold cake until it can't hold any more fluid.  I found that the Savarin was moister and spongier than the Daring Bakers version because it was smaller and therefore it took less syrup to saturate it.  For the syrup, I added a tablespoon of Chambord to give it a slight raspberry flavour.

Although the recipe called for whipped cream to fill the middle, I used the same crème patisserie as we used for the Daring Bakers version.  This time, I used blueberries and cherries to top the Savarin.

Here is the end result:

While this Savarin is not on such a grand scale as the Daring Bakers version, I liked it better because it was much easier to make, and the Savarin itself was softer and moister because of its smaller  volume versus the amount of syrup.  I had dreaded making another Savarin so soon because I knew the amount of effort that went into the last one, but I needn't have feared it this time - I could have easily made the entire cake, filling and all, in an afternoon.

To see what the other BWJ bakers thought, visit the LYL section of the website.

BWJ - Savoury brioche pockets

It's Baking with Julia time again, and this week, our recipe  is Savoury Brioche Pockets, hosted by Carrie of Loaves and Stitches.

These pockets are comprised of a brioche dough, filled with potato, caramelised onion and asparagus, with a sage leaf on top.

I thought these were quite tasty, and they look cute.

To see how the other BWJ bakers  went, visit the LYL section  of the website.

BWJ - Rhubarb Baby Cakes

Last night, I watched an amazing performance on The Voice by Kiyomi Vella singing Paloma Faith's Upside Down.  I had never heard of this song before, but after seeing Kiyomi's performance, I was sold. 

For Baking with Julia this week, we turned our own worlds upside down and made Rhubarb Baby Cakes, hosted by Erin of When in Doubt - Leave it at 350.  I had thought this would be similar to the Ginger Baby Cakes we have already made, and except for my own laziness, I was going to make these in mini muffin tins.  Now that I know how these cakes go together, I know that would have been a huge mistake - phew!

I made my baby cakes in a 12 hole muffin tin and got 12 cakes out of the recipe.  These cakes are comprised of a nutty caramel topping (I used macadamias instead of pecans),  followed by a layer of sliced rhubarb, and topped with a butter cake batter.  There seemed to be so much rhubarb packed into the tins, I was not sure that the cakes would hold together, but they did.  And they were amazing!!!  The sweetness of the caramel, the crunchiness of the nuts, the tartness of the rhubarb and the soft, tender cake make for a magical dessert.  I ate one of these served warm, and it was fantastic.  I would definitely make these again.

To see what the other Julia bakers thought, visit the LYL section of the website on Tuesday, US time.  If you want the recipe, buy the book, or Erin will have it on her site.

BWJ - Madeleines

This week's Baking with Julia challenge is Madeleines, and is hosted by Katie and Amy of Counter Dog. 

I have made madeleines a number of times before - I am not a madeleine wiz like Kayte, but I have learned a couple of things about them.  First - do not overfill your moulds - underfill them slightly, as they spread like mad when baking, so unless you want barnacles instead of shells, take it easy on the batter.  The other thing I have learned about madeleines is that they bake crazy quick - I often find that if I follow the baking time in the recipe, my madeleines are often darker than I desire - behold the photo above.  These madeleines were only in the oven for 10 minutes, but they went dark underneath.

On the upside, I got perfect little humps in the backs of my madeleines.  What is it about French baked good - feet on macarons, humps on madeleines.  Heck, maybe they'll be sprouting arms next.

I didn't find these madeleines particularly dry, as some Julia bakers did, although I found the batter to be rather more solid than I am used to working with.

To check out what the other Julia bakers thought of this madeleine recipe, visit the LYL section of the BWJ website.

BWJ - Rustic Potato Loaf

For Baking with Julia this week, our recipe was Rustic Potato Loaves.  Our host for this week is Dawn of Simply Sweet.  This bread involves the unusual technique of incorporating mashed potato into the dough.

Initially, I thought that the dough was never going to come together, but thanks to the patience of my stand mixer, it eventually did.

My loaf never rose particularly high - in fact, it seemed to deflate in the oven, despite the steam I created.  However, it tasted really good - I am not a huge bread fan, so this is high praise.  The taste was slightly nutty, perhaps because the potato skins are combined into the mix.

To see what the other Julia cooks thought, visit the LYL section of the Baking with Julia website. 

BWJ - Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's time for Baking with Julia again, and this week's recipe is Rick Katz's Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies, hosted by  Peggy of Galettista.

These cookies are, as their name suggests, coffee flavoured cookies jam packed with a whopping amount of chopped chocolate.  I only made half a batch, and I think that would be plenty to fill the average cookie jar (it made 23 cookies).   They taste pretty good, provided that you like coffee - and chocolate.

My photo is at a weird 90 degree angle because Blogger in its wisdom decided it looked better that way, and I do not have the time or the energy right now to fix it.

To see what the other Julia bakers thought, visit the LYL section of the website.

BWJ - Croissants

This week's Baking with Julia challenge is Croissants.  Our host is Amanda of Girl + Food = Love.  I had made croissants in September 2011 for The Daring Bakers, using Julia Child's recipe from Mastering The Art of French Cooking, so I was interested to see how this recipe went by comparison.

I will be honest - I liked Julia Child's recipe way better than this one.  It was less fussy (although by no means not fussy), and the end result was a lot better.  I found the Baking with Julia recipe to take longer (the recipe suggested 8 hours just for resting the dough before laminating), and the resulting croissants were overly buttery somehow - they just weren't as good taste-wise, and certainly appearance-wise, for me.

I filled my croissants with almond filling, and topped them with flaked almonds so that you were not left guessing as to what flavour they were.  The paleness results from my oven, which is useless at browning things on top.

I still have half of my croissant dough in the freezer, but I sadly won't be in a hurry to use it.

To see what the other Baking with Julia bakers thought, visit the website.

BWJ - Boca Negra



Last night, I went to see Neil Finn and Paul Kelly in concert at The Palais in St Kilda. It was a stiflingly hot night, but no-one seemed to mind with the class acts that we had come to see.  My favourite song was Neil singing Split Enz's Message to My Girl - I was shivering with delight. Other great moments for me were Paul singing Before Too Long, and the Neil-led sing-along of Fall At Your Feet. Magic!

This week's Baking with Julia assignment was the very decadent Boca Negra (literally, "black mouth" which is what you will have after taking a bite), hosted by Cathy of A Frederick Food Garden.

If you are a chocolate fan, you will love this cake.  If you eat it warm, it is kind of like a chocolate self-saucing pudding, but  if you refrigerate it, the cake turns into a fudgy delight that will take you to heaven.  Here is my heart shaped version:

Eat this cake with icecream and raspberries to cut through the dense chocolate.  Enjoy!

To see what the other Baking with Julia bakers thought, visit the BWJ website.

BWJ - Foccacia

This week's Baking with Julia challenge is Foccacia, and our host is Sharmini of Wandering Through.

I made only a third of the recipe because I didn't want all of that bread just lying around.  I sprinkled my foccacia with dried tarragon, as fresh herbs are expensive, and Persian blue salt that I bought out of curiosity at Gewurzhaus.  In the end, it didn't taste any different to ordinary salt.

The author kept talking about the bubbles in the dough, and there certainly were lots of those, although the dough didn't rise much in the oven:

On day 1, the foccacia was delicious - crisp and chewy and flavoursome. However, the foccacia didn't last well, and tasted stale the next day, which was a little disappointing.

To see what the other bakers thpught of this recipe, visit the LYL section of the Baking With Julia website.

BWJ - French Apple Tart

This week's Baking with Julia assignment is French Apple Tart from pp379-381, a recipe by Leslie Mackie of Macrina Bakery.  I am honoured to be the host of this challenge, so this week, I have set out the recipe to make this tart below.

This tart looks very pretty, and it tastes fabulous while still just warm.  The pastry, which contains shortening, is crisp and light, allowing the apple filling to star.

However, if you would like to make this tart,  be warned - unless you want to go to bed in the wee small hours, you can't whip it up straight after work unless you have done some serious prep work first.  I made this on a Sunday, and from go to woe, it took all morning on and off.   The dough has to chill before it can be rolled out, then it has to chill again in the pan.  You have to peel, core and slice a lot of apples, and bake some of those apples for the filling.  I used a food processor to make the crust, and although you don't have to, it certainly saves some time.

This tart was definitely worth the effort, as the end product was absolutely delicious - the mashed apple filling was  almost custard-like in nature, it being so creamy, and the sliced apples on top give the tart its beauty and "wow" factor.

Without further ado, here is the recipe:

Flaky pie dough (p31)

(I have converted the original recipe into metric and quartered the amounts, as required for the tart.  I have also stated the recipe for a food processor only.)

154g pastry flour or all purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
44g cold unsalted butter
75g solid vegetable shortening, chilled
1/4 cup ice water

Place the dry ingredients in the food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse just to mix. Take the top off, scatter the chilled cubed butter and shortening over the flour, cover, and pulse again, working only until the fats are cut in and the mixture resembles slightly moist cornmeal. Add a little of the liquid and pulse a few times, then add more liquid and pulse again. Continue until the mixture has curds and clumps and sticks together when pressed between your fingers. 

Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or for as long as 5 days.

When the dough has chilled, roll the dough on a lightly floured surface (or between two sheets of baking paper, as I did) into a circle about 1/8 inch thick and fit it into a 9 inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Let the crust chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

For assistance on making your tart shell look good, refer to the Baking with Julia video.

To blind bake the tart shell, preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit/200 degrees Celsius/gas mark 6. Fit a piece of baking paper or foil into the tart shell and fill with pie weights, rice, or dried beans, and bake the tart for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Transfer the crust to a rack to cool while you make the filling. (I removed the rice at 20 minutes and let it bake for another 5 minutes without the weights so that the inside of the tart shell could brown up; cf the recipe which states that the weights should stay in even while the tart is cooling.) 

Reduce your oven temperature to 375 degrees Fahrenheit/190 degrees Celsius/gas mark 5.

Filling

6 Granny smith apples
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
pinch of cinnamon
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
2 teaspoons (approximately) fresh lemon juice

Peel and core the apples, obtaining 10-12 slices from each apple. ( I cheated and used my corer-slicer tool, which gives 8 slices per apple.)  Place the apples in a bowl and toss with the sugar, flour, cinnamon, vanilla, and bread crumbs. Add a squeeze of lemon juice. Spread the apples on a jelly-roll pan and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the apples give up their juices, start to form a sauce, and are soft enough to mash.

Scrape the apples into a bowl and mash with a potato masher or a fork. Taste and add more lemon juice if you think it needs it, then cool the filling for 15 minutes.

Spoon the filling into the tart shells, ensuring that the filling remains below the rim of the tart shell.

Topping

2-3 granny smith apples
1 tablespoon  fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

Peel and thinly slice the apples. Toss the apples with the tablespoon of lemon juice to keep them from browning. Arrange the apples in a circular pattern starting from the outside, slightly overlapping the slices.

Work around the pie until the filling is completely covered. Brush the apple slices with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake the tart for 25-30 minutes or until the top is glazed and the apple slices are edged in black. (My oven was never going to darken the tart on top, so I just baked the tart until the nominated cooking time was over.)

Serve the tart dusted with powdered sugar (icing sugar) if desired (I didn't bother).

Leslie says that this tart is best served warm from the oven.  Most of my tart is currently chilling in the fridge, so the proof of the pudding will be revealed tomorrow. 
To see what the other Baking with Julia participants thought, visit the LYL section of the Baking with Julia website.

BWJ- Pizza with Onion Confit

Welcome to Baking with Julia for 2013!  Our first recipe is Pizza with Onion Confit, hosted by Paul of The Boy Can Bake.

I was in two minds about making this one - I am not a huge fan of onions, and I remember that the onion pizza from FFwD was a little meh.  However, I  needn't have worried - these onions pack a flavour punch, as the onions are slow cooked with red wine, red wine vinegar, cassis and thyme.

What can I say?  This was really fabulous straight out of the oven.  The crust, baked on a pizza stone in a very hot oven, was crispy and light, and the topping of onion confit, and in my case, goat's cheese (coated in ash) and cherry tomatoes was just the ticket.

My only tip is - don't leave this til the last minute, as the dough has two risings over three hours, and the onions are supposed to take an hour to cook (I ran out of liquid twice so I stopped sooner).

To see what the other BWJ bakers thought of this recipe, visit the LYL section of the website.

BWJ - Finnish Pulla

This week's Baking with Julia recipe was bread - Finnish Pulla, to be exact.  This bread is on the sweet side of the spectrum, being decorated with sugar and almonds, and flavoured with cardamom.  Our host was Erin of The Daily Morsel.

My heart sank a little at this choice, because bread is never an instant gratification baked good.  Yeast needs time to do its work, and at this time of the year, time is at a premium.  I also found the thought of making a braided bread a little daunting - in the end, I had to go in front of a mirror and braid my own hair before I could translate it to the strands of bread dough.  Another catch is that I have a tiny kitchen with minimal bench space, and each of the bread strands had to be 36" long - definitely a challenge in a small kitchen.  However, after a false start with the braiding, I managed to make it work. And boy, I am a glad I did - the end result is rather impressive looking, as well as rather massive, and tastes really good - crusty on the outside, fluffy in the middle, perfect with just a slather of margarine.

To see how the other BWJ bakers went with Finnish Pulla, visit the LYL section of the website.

BWJ - Gingerbread Cake - Definitely Not a Baby

This week's Baking with Julia recipe, hosted by Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories, is Gingerbread Baby Cakes.  Now until this recipe cropped up, I had never heard of "baby cakes" before.  Apparently they are little cakes about 4" in diameter, not mini muffins as I first thought.  No baby cake tins - no worries.  I made two x 9" cakes, one of which I froze for later.

I substituted golden syrup for molasses (it used up an entire bottle!), and subbed much of the brown sugar for white sugar as I had run out of brown.  I don't see that it made much difference in the end - I ended up with a very full bodied gingerbread cake that was moist  and flavoursome.  That fresh ginger added quite a bit of kick!

If I was hankering for gingerbread, I'd make this again - it was good.  I think it would be terrific iced with a lemon glaze.

To see what the other BWJ bakers thought, visit the LYL section of the website.

BWJ - Buttermilk Crumb Muffins

It's Melbourne Cup Day here in Melbourne, so Melburnians have a public holiday for a horse race.  Pretty cool, yeah?  I am not going to the races this year, but it is obligatory to watch the Cup on the telly - the big race is at 3pm EST.  Apart from The Cup itself, the fun of the races is watching everyone all dressed up - the best time to do this is first thing in the morning, before everything falls into tatters, like Cinderella after the ball.

This Tuesday is also a Baking with Julia Tuesday, and this week's recipe was Buttermilk Crumb Muffins, hosted by Alisa of Easier Than Pie.  As I am not at work today to share, I only made a quarter recipe of these muffins, yielding just four.  I don't use shortening in general, so I substituted the same quantity of butter, and didn't seem to have any issues.

These muffins were easy to make, and delicious while warm - making them perfect in my book.

You can check what the other BWJ bakers thought of these muffins at the website. 

BWJ - Bagels

Baking with Julia this week, hosted by Heather of Heather's Bytes,  has taken me to new territory - making bagels.  I have never made a bagel before, and I was a little wary of the boiling then baking process.  However, it wasn't as scary as I thought, and I was very happy with the end result.

I wanted sweet bagels, so I topped mine with cranberries, chopped walnuts and sugar:

I slathered a bagel in fig jam for the taste test:

Passed with flying colours!

Visit the LYL section of the Baking with Julia website to see what the other bakers thought of these bagels.

BWJ - Whole Wheat Bread

For Baking with Julia this week, we were asked to put on our bread baking boots to make Whole Wheat Bread, with our hosts being Michelle of Vegie Num Nums and Teresa of The Family That Bakes Together.


I was initially a little unexcited about this recipe, as I am not what you would call "a bread person".  However, this bread pleasantly surprised me - it was soft and light and delicious, not heavy and chewy like some of the home bread recipes I have tried.  I made this bread to the recipe, except that I left out the malt extract.

I liked this bread toasted, I liked it sliced fresh off the loaf with peanut butter - I just liked it.  Which is saying a lot, as I really am not a bread person.

To see what the other BWJ bakers thought of this Whole Wheat Bread, visit the LYL section of the website.

BWJ - Nectarine Upside-Down Chiffon Cake

 This week for Baking with Julia, the challenge recipe was Nectarine Upside-Down Chiffon Cake, hosted by Marlise of The Double Trouble Kitchen and Susan of The Little French Bakery.

This is the fourth recipe that I have been called on to make in the last month or so requiring nectarines - but it's winter in the Southern Hemisphere, so no nectarines here guys.  Once again, I used canned peaches in place of the nectarines.

The highlight of this cake was the streusel, which is placed in the middle of the cake and doesn't get a guernsey in the title of the cake:

 

Just look at that heavenly, crunchy, spicy ribbon!  The rest of the cake was good, but man, the streusel lifted it into the extraordinary.  I reckon that this cake would be terrific served warm with icecream.

 

Visit the Baking with Julia LYL section to see other gorgeous Nectarine (or some other fruit) Upside-Down  Cakes.