It's winter in Sydney and my gastronomic attention turns to chocolate (did I phrase that sentence right?). Chocolate EVERYTHING! Hot chocolate, chocolate cake, chocolate bars. However, my waistline can only take so much growth, so one needs to curb their winter chocolate addiction. I really needed to think about what chocolate I really want to consume. Mmmm, chocolate crepe cake!

Some of you may remember the sugarfree crepe cake I made for my dear friend Anna, for her birthday last year. It was my first attempt at a crepe cake too. I loved how it's so delicate when you eat it, with the different layers. This time, I'm using sugar and my best friend, chocolate!

After a couple weeks of googling for recipes and trying to motivate myself to make it  - ta da! I finally got there! Oh yummy!!! Sorry work mates, not sharing this one with you.

Ingredients
Crepes
85g butter, melted
3 cups milk
6 eggs
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup hazelnut meal
pinch of salt
oil for frying crepe

cream filling
200g dark chocolate, chopped
200ml thickened cream
1/2 tspn vanilla essence
2 tspn icing sugar, sifted

~1/2 cup hazelnut meal

Method
1. Heat milk in a small pot over medium heat until steaming but not boiling. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. Beat eggs and sugar until pale. Add flour, cocoa, hazelnut meal and salt. Mix well. Add milk and melted butter. Stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate. Best results, refrigerate overnight, but a couple of hours is fine too.

3. While crepe mixture is in the fridge, heat thickened cream in a small pot over low to medium heat until just boiling. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Keep stirring until chocolate melts and mixed well with cream.  Stir in vanilla and icing sugar. Whip mixture until medium peaks.

4. To make the crepes, bring the batter to room temperature. Place a nonstick 9-inch crepe pan (or ordinary fry pan is fine) over medium heat. Swab the surface very lightly with the oil. Using a laddle (about 1/3 cup volume), add batter and swirl to cover the surface. 

5. Cook until the bottom just begins to brown, about 1 to 2 minutes, then carefully lift an edge and flip the crepe. Cook on the other side until golden. Flip crepe onto a cooling rack, trivet or clean tea towel lined plate until cooled, then stack on another plate. Repeat from step #5 with remaining batter. This should make approximately 20 crepes. 

Note: You can either make all the crepes then build the cake or build as you go. If you decide the latter – ensure the crepe is cooled before spread the cream.

6. Place a crepe on a serving plate. Spread about a heaped tablespoon of cream over crepe to cover surface. Sprinkle with hazelnut meal. Place next crepe on top and repeat for remaining crepe layers. Ensure to finish with your best looking crepe.

7. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate overnight until ready to serve. 

Tip: I used a springform cake tin to refrigerate to give the vessel some rigidity.

8. Serve on its own, some whipped cream, berry coulis or fresh fruit.

Growing up, this recipe was one of Mum's regulars. It's actually pretty simple and gluten free. I had it memorised for my Bulla Cream Cook Off weekend, just in case I had to pull out a recipe on the spot. I find the only tricky bit is you need to melt the sugar over the stove. So you'll need a metal pan that's not spring-form. As opposed to those silicone ones. Do take care, not to burn yourself and be patient with the sugar. It will get there.

If you do like the coffee version of Crème Caramel, substitute about half a cup of milk with coffee. 

Ingredients
Base
¼ to ½ cup caster or white sugar

Filling
3 cups milk
4 to 5 eggs
¼ cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

The number of different cheeses in our fridge at one time, you'll need more than a hand to keep count. For the most part, it gets eaten pretty quickly. At times you get the well aged mouldy goodness sitting at the back of the fridge waiting for a special dish, occasion or random craving. However, there are rare times cheese starts going off in our fridge. Thankfully, this wasn't one of those times and I caught this batch just in time. The ricotta and the cottage cheese had both been opened and half used, and I wanted to use it up before I had to throw it out.

I love cannelloni. Stuffed then baked pasta - what's not to love. Italian enchiladas! Or some would argue the other way around, enchiladas are Mexican cannelloni. Whatever - they're both awesome! What turned me off about making cannelloni was stuffing the cannelloni tubes, which involved piping, which is more mess than I wanted. Then I read somewhere (cannot recall where, so long as you know this idea is not unique to me) to use fresh lasagne sheets instead! Brilliant! It makes life with cannelloni so easy and you get to practise your sushi rolling technique without actually making sushi!

So below my recipe to: use up the cheeses (and mushrooms) in my fridge, eat cannelloni, warm the house with the oven on and warm our tummies.


Ingredients
Cannelloni Filling
375g frozen spinach, defrosted
200g fresh mushrooms, 0.5cm diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2/3 cup, freshly chopped parsley leaves, roughly chopped (save the stalks for the sauce)
1 Tblspn dried basil
1 Tblspn dried oregano
Salt & pepper to taste
Total of 250g soft cheese I used a mix of ricotta, cottage, goat’s cheese

Sauce
1 to 2 Tblspn olive oil to coat base of pan
1½ cans of crushed tomatoes (600g)
Stalks from the fresh parsley, finely chopped
½ onion, 1cm diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 Tblspn dried basil
1 Tblspn dried oregano
1 tpsn honey (or sugar)
100g fresh mushrooms, 0.5cm diced

Assembling dish
8 fresh lasagne sheets
175g shredded pizza cheese mix (Mozzarella, Cheddar & Parmesan combo)
Shredded/grated Grana Padano (or aged Parmesan hard cheese) to serve


Method
Cannelloni Filling
1. In a large bowl combine all the above listed ingredients for the cannelloni filling. Set aside.

Sauce
2. Place a medium saucepan over medium to high heat. Allow pan to heat and coat the base with oil. Add onions and cook until onions turn translucent. Stir in bay leaves, oregano, basil, parsley stalks and mushrooms. Add tomatoes and garlic. Stir to combine. Stir in honey. Turn heat down to low and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes to allow flavours of herbs to infuse into the tomatoes. Set aside to cool. In the meantime, assemble your cannelloni.

Assemble cannelloni
3. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a large baking tray with some olive oil.

4. Lay a lasagne sheet on a large plate or chopping board. Place about 2 to 4 tablespoonfuls of the cannelloni filling mixture across the edge of the lasagne sheet and roll until it forms a tube. Slice off the excess lasagne sheet. Place tube in greased baking tray. Repeat for the remaining mixture and sheets.




5. Pour the sauce evenly over the cannelloni. Top with shredded pizza cheese. Cover with foil and place in oven for 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake for a further 15 minutes or until cheese melts and starts browning slightly. Remove from oven and allow to stand for about 10 minutes before serving. Serve with some freshly grated Grana Padano (or aged Parmesan hard cheese).

It looks a bit like slop but it's damn good slop!

With my nephews still experiencing allergies to dairy and eggs, I'm always on the hunt for vegan desserts. My regular email newsletter from the Serious Eats inspired this latest post. Their Chocoholic: Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies was the basis of this creation. These cookies are a little chewy and a little crispy. Best of both worlds. I used 50/50 dark vegan chocolate and white chocolate. I used coconut oil to give that extra coconutty flavour but you can use vegetable oil instead.

Thanks to my friend, for use of her brand spanking new kitchen. I think we christened that kitchen good!

Ingredients
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil (you can also use vegetable oil)
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon treacle (you can also use golden syrup)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
100g dairy and egg free chocolate chips or chocolate chopped up (I prefer to use Sweet William Chocolate)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line cookie tray with baking paper.

2. In large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, oil, honey, treacle, salt, water, and vanilla until combined. Stir in desiccated coconut, flour, oats, baking soda, and chocolate until combined.

3. Scoop onto baking sheet, spacing evenly apart and gently press to about 1.5cm thick. Bake until lightly golden and just set, about 10 to 12 minutes. It will look a little soft when they first come out of the oven. Cool on pan for about 10 minutes and it will harden up. Then transfer to cooling rack to finish cooling. Store in airtight container.

How good is polenta! So simple, easy and tasty! We have always kept a box of the stuff in the pantry. I don't know why, but we rarely used it. 

Occasionally for corn bread or in place of crumbs for schnitzel. Then I get my regular weekly email from taste.com.au suggesting 5 ways polenta. Mmm okay (in my hungry delusional state where everything would just amazing).

I adapted this recipe for the meatballs, and used this recipe as a guide to make the creamy polenta. Below my version of this tasty meal, that's sure to warm you on a cold autumn/winter's day.

Ingredients
Meatballs
400g mince (I used 100g pork mince, and 300g beef mince)
1 clove garlic, minced
100g bread crumbs
1 egg, lightly beaten
~1/4 cup fresh, flat leaf parsley (+ more to garnish), finely chopped 
a few sprigs of sage, finely chopped
2 Tblspn olive oil
1/4 large onion, finely chopped
1 tspn paprika 
1 tspn cayenne pepper
1 tspn whole grain mustard

Meatball sauce
~2 Tblspn olive oil to coat pan
3/4 large onion, roughly chopped
1 cup chicken stock
1 can whole tomatoes
2 Tblspn dried basil
~1/4 cup, fresh, flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1 tspn honey (or sugar)
~1/2 to 1 tspn salt
pepper to taste

Creamy Polenta
1 cup instant polenta
3 cups chicken (or vegetable) stock
2 Tblspn cream
40g butter
1/3 to 1/2 cup parmesan, freshly grated 

Method
Marinate your meatballs
1. Combine all ingredients listed under meatballs (above) in a medium to large bowl. For a more thorough mixture, use your hands to mix. Set aside. At this time you can prep the ingredients of the meatball sauce (chopped your onions, celery and mushrooms, prepare your stock).

2. Using damp hands, roll mixture into balls (around 1 to 2 tablespoons size).

Meatball sauce
3. Over high heat, coat a large, heavy base fry pan with oil. Add about a third of the amount of onions, stir until translucent. Add meat balls. Be sure not to crowd the pan. Fry them in lots if you have to. Brown the meat balls off and remove from pan, set aside.

4. In the same pan, add a little bit more oil if necessary, and fry the rest of the onions. Stir in celery. Stir in mushrooms. Return the meatballs to the pan. Add stock. Bring to a simmer. Add canned tomatoes. Before you put them in the pan, squash them (either with a fork or your hands). Add herbs, honey (or sugar), salt and pepper to taste. If not already, bring to a simmer and reduce heat. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Polenta
5. In a medium pot, bring stock to a boil over high heat, with a wire balloon whisk, gradually start stirring in the polenta in a small but steady stream. Whisk constantly until all the polenta is incorporated into the stock (whisking ensures the polenta is dispersed through the liquid as quickly as possible). Don't add the polenta too quickly or it will turn lumpy.

6. Reduce heat to low (cook the polenta over low heat otherwise it will cook too quickly and you will need to add extra water). Simmer, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or whisk, for 10 minutes or until the mixture thickens and the polenta is soft. (To test whether the polenta is soft, spoon a little of the polenta mixture onto a small plate and set aside to cool slightly. Rub a little of the polenta mixture between 2 fingers to see if the grains have softened. If the grains are still firm, continue to cook, stirring constantly, over low heat until the polenta is soft.)

7. Remove from heat. Add the cream, parmesan and butter, and stir until well combined. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately with meatballs. Top with fresh parsley and freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Last weekend's grocery shopping resulted in a bargain 10 passionfruits for $2! Woo! Hmm... what shall I do with these...? Passionfruit melting moments? Okay!

Credit goes to taste.com.au and cadbury (only for the filling - don't touch the biscuit recipe - twas a fail!)

That's the end of my story - enjoy!

Ingredients
Biscuit
250g butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon lemon essence
1/2 cup icing sugar mixture, sifted
2 cups plain flour
1/3 cup cornflour

Filling
125g white chocolate, roughly chopped 
125g block cream cheese, roughly chopped
Pulp of 3 passionfruit

Method
Biscuit

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Line 2 to 3 baking trays with non-stick baking paper. 

2. Using an electric mixer, cream butter, essences and icing sugar mixture until light and fluffy. Sift in flours. Beat on low speed until a soft dough forms.

3. Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of mixture into small balls. Place on trays. Using a fork dipped in flour, lightly flatten each biscuit until 1cm thick. Make sure there is an even number of biscuits. 

4. Bake for 15 minutes or until firm. Cool on trays for 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Filling
5. Meanwhile, place cream cheese in a small pot and over medium to low heat until melted and smooth. Stir occasionally. Remove from heat and add white chocolate. Keep stiring until chocolate has melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in passionfruit pulp. Set aside to cool.

Construction
6. Spread flat side of 1 biscuit with a thick layer of filling. Top with another biscuit. Repeat with remaining biscuits and filling. Dust with icing sugar. 

Serve.

To celebrate ANZAC Day this year (and a four day weekend), BBQ dinner was at my brother's place. The wonderful thing was everyone had contributed that evening. Even my little 10 year old nephew. 

My sister-in-law wanted to make fresh garlic bread. For me, garlic bread is taking an existing loaf of bread and mixing up a garlic and herb butter, and slapping it on the bread. Then wrap it up in foil, throwing it on the BBQ until it's a little bit crisp on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. But not this time! Crack open the yeast and flour, we're making bread! 

After a little creative chatter, I suggested making it a "pull-apart". None of us had done this before but I was fairly confident. The result was great! This says a lot coming from my folks. They usually have many opinions about how to improve something but few compliments. Fortunately, there were more compliments this time around, including going back for 2nds and 3rds.

I recreated this today to go with OG's clam-less chowder. The first pull-apart was vegan friendly, but today's version was not so friendly. I've given both vegan and non-vegan versions below.

Ingredients
7g dried yeast (2 tspn)
1 tspn sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (3/4 cup milk and 3/4 cup water) [bath water warm]
3 cups plain flour
1/2 tspn salt
4 Tblpsn olive oil (or melted butter)
80g butter, softened (or dairy free margarine) 
1 large (or 2 small) cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tblspn oregano (dried or fresh)
1 Tblspn parsley (dried or fresh)
1 Tblspn basil (dried or fresh)
~ 100g mature parmesan, grated

Method
1. In a medium bowl, combine yeast, sugar and warm water (warm milk & water). Stir and set aside to ferment.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine salt and flour. Make a well in the centre. Add yeast mixture and oil (or melted butter). Using the dough hook attachment and cake mixer, mix until combined and forms a dough. Turn out onto a clean and very lightly floured surface. Continue to knead for about 5 to 10 minutes until dough becomes smooth.

3. Place kneaded dough back into mixing bowl. Cover the top of the dough with cling wrap and place bowl in a warm area. Allow to rise to double it's size. About an hour. 

4. Preheat oven to 180C. Light grease and line the base of a spring form cake tin. (If you don't have a springform cake tin, you can use a regular round one. The Springform makes it easier to turn out later.)

5. In a small bowl combine butter (margarine), garlic, oregano, parsley and basil. Mix until well combined. 

6. Turn risen dough out onto lightly floured surface. Knead for a little bit to get the smooth texture back, then roll dough out. Try to make it as close to rectangular as possible. It should be about 1cm thick. Spread the butter mixture all over the rolled out dough. (See picture below.) Sprinkle parmesan over dough. 




7. Roll dough along the long edge to form a log. Using a knife or clean fishing line, cut cross sections of the log about 3 to 4 cm thick. Turn it upward, place in cake tin close together (see picture below). 




8. Bake for 10 to 20 minutes or until golden on top and the sides are coming away from the tin. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes and remove from tin and cool further. Serve warm.








Other flavour optionals: 
Spinach and feta (cottage cheese) 
Bacon, onion and cheese
Butter and vegemite
Apple and cinnamon 
Jam and cream-cheese
...

Chrysanthemum tea always reminds me of Grandma. I will always remember when I was young, Chrysanthemum flowers would be blooming around this time of year. The colour and smell in the garden would be wonderful! Then Grandma would pick, wash then dry them out in the sun. Then as the weather got cooler, she would brew us a pot of Chrysanthemum tea. Yum! I'd always ask to have mine with some sugar. As always, she would treat me! 

It's been a very long time since I've had that tea party with Grandma but it's a memory that will always be with me with every Chrysanthemum tea I drink. 

For many, Chrysanthemum reminds us of Mother's day. Also known as May flowers - these fragrant, aromatic flowers are known in Chinese culture to have many health benefits. 

Couple this with mandarin season also coming into full swing, what a perfect time for this recipe. The original recipe came from a cupcake book from a friend of mine and was title Camomile and Mandarin Cupcakes. However, I decided to change it up with Chrysanthemum in place of Camomile. And I'm calling them muffins coz they really don't need the icing - it's too good on it's own.


Ingredients
¾ cup milk
5 grams dried Chrysanthemum flowers
150g butter, chopped
2/3 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
2 tspn finely grated mandarin zest (of about 2 mandarins)
2 mandarins, peeled, seeds removed and segmented
½ cup fine semolina
1 ¼ cup self-raising flour

Topped with my chocolate hazelnut truffles

Last weekend saw my oven take on two different types of baked cheesecakes. It was a cheesecake fest! A cheesecake royale! A cheesecake battle!