RecipeMuncher

Recently, it occured to me that I seem to have some weird connection with P words.
-I have a ‘thing’ for certain words. Pony, for example.
-A good friend of mine from high school used to call me Penfold (from Danger Mouse). Apparently I look like Penfold!
-My sister and I grew up reading [...]

Wednesday lunch buddy (WLB) and I met at Black Star Pastry this week, for a change of scenery and some coffee and pastry treats (quiche for her, mini banana cake for me - delicious; loved the fresh banana bits). Talk meandered from babies who hug with their whole bodies, to men who haven’t been hugging [...]

I probably should be telling you about how good these crackers were. How easy they were to make, and how thrilling it was to pull them out of the oven, puffed up like little pillows for chipmunks. How, after they were assembled, you could bite into one and warm cheese would flood instantly into your [...]

Another birthday.
(Not mine! I’m not ageing that quickly. I hope.)
This one celebrates another year with a salted caramel chocolate cake. Based on Pierre Herme’s Faubourg Pave, with extra caramel shards flecked with cocoa nibs and vanilla salt, and truffles.
(Because life should get sweeter and richer, as you get older. )

Cocoa Cake [...]

(clockwise, from top left corner : chocolate macaron (a strawberry crumble tart hiding underneath), cannele, chocolate brownie, ginger ninja cookie, another cannele)
I was going to tell you about the glorious twice-bitten cannele I had sitting in front of me. Another two bites later however, and it’s suddenly all gone. Caramelised on the outside, custardy on [...]

I have been threatening to make this tart by Helen for months now, ever since she first posted about it. It was the novel (to me) idea of having a healthy carrot and oat crust, that attracted me to the recipe. Also, with a filling of silverbeet (she used rainbow chard in the original), eggs [...]

So. I’ve been in a bit of a mini baking frenzy recently. The restaurant was closed for a few days to do some renovations (the floor in the hot part of the kitchen is badly cracked and split, for example), and I gleefully seized the opportunity to absolve myself of any responsibilities for those days [...]