One of my simple pleasures during the week is getting up early on a Saturday morning – before the rest of the household has woken – to browse the international papers on the ‘net. I usually confine myself to the Melbourne Age – where I come from! – then the UK papers - The Guardian, The Independent and The Telegraph, and then across the pond to the US – The New York Times, The LA Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.
What distinguishes all these papers - aside from their extensive coverage of international affairs from various perspectives – is that they all have brilliant food and dining sections.
Apart from sporadic coverage in all papers at various times during the week, the Saturday edition is when they all post more in-depth articles and recipes about food and travel-related stories from around the globe.
One of the columns I eagerly look for in The Guardian is that of Dan Lepard, a London-based baker, photographer, cooking teacher and writer. Funnily enough, Dan Lepard was originally from Melbourne but has lived in the UK for many years.
“Short & Sweet” is a comprehensive compendium of baking and is on par in its depth with Stephanie Alexander’s “A Cook’s Companion” (see my earlier post) and Nigella Lawson’s first book “How To Eat”. It’s index covers the whole gamut of baking – breads, cakes, biscuits, desserts and suppers – and its wide reaching and original recipes and concise and clear delivery are truly impressive.
Jammy Lamingtons
I had to make these as the first recipe to try in the book as they are an Australian classic – well some would say ‘cliché’ but I would say ‘retro-classic’! Lamingtons are one of those iconic Australian recipes that our mother’s used to cook for afternoon teas in the 1950s and ‘60s. They were subsequently lampooned mercilessly by Australian comedian Barry Humphries’ alter ego Dame Edna Everage during his/her stage shows in the 70s and 80s.
Basically a lamington is a sponge cake cut into brownie-shaped squares with fruit jam in the centre and rolled in chocolate and coconut flakes. Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients:
For the cake: 3 Indian-sized eggs, separated 150g caster sugar 75g butter, softened 1 t vanilla essence 200g plain flour 2 ½ T cornflour 2 t baking powder 150ml milk
For the coating: 4 T cocoa 125g icing sugar 125ml boiling water 25g chocolate, chopped 125g fruit jam 100g desiccated coconut
Method:
1/. Heat oven to 180C or 160C fan forced. Line 17cm square tin with baking paper.
2/. Beat egg whites & 50g sugar to soft meringue stage. In another bowl beat remaining sugar, butter, vanilla and egg yolks for 3 mins.
3/. Sift or mix flour, cornflour and baking powder together & then beat into the sugar, butter and egg yolks alternating with the milk. Then beat in the meringue and scrape into cake tin. Bake for 35 mins.
4/. For the coating, whisk together cocoa, icing sugar and boiling water then stir in chocolate and put aside. Trim cake into 8 rectangles, slice though the middle and spread jam across one side. Put back together and then dip in chocolate on all sides then roll in coconut & rest on a plate.
Bourbon Pecan Brownies (my Indian version!)
I followed the basic recipe for these brownies but swapped the bourbon and pecan nuts for more readily available ingredients in India - dark rum and almonds; they still turned out very moist and chocolatey!
Ingredients:
200g cooking chocolate 125g butter 2 eggs (I used 3 Indian-sized eggs) 125g brown sugar 100g caster sugar 75ml of bourbon (I substituted dark rum) 2 t vanilla essence 175g plain flour 1 T cocoa 125g pecan nuts (I substituted unpeeled almonds), roughly chopped
Method:
1/. Heat oven to 190C or 170C fan forced. Line a 20cm square cake tin with foil. (Note: this saved on buttering or papering the pan and worked really well.)
2/. Melt chocolate with butter and mix (I used a microwave- pulsing for 20 secs at a time and stirring at the intervals.) Beat eggs with the 2 different sugars until mix has integrated and become creamy beige. Beat chocolate and butter into egg & sugar bowl & mix. Add rum and vanilla essence.
3/. Sift flower & cocoa in a bowl (I just stir them together several times), and beat into chocolate mixture. Then mix in chopped almonds.
4/. Scrape into the cake tin and cook in oven for 25 mins. Rest for 15 mins before turning out and cutting into square bars.
Hope you enjoy them!
Tony saab/Hyderabad June 2012
What distinguishes all these papers - aside from their extensive coverage of international affairs from various perspectives – is that they all have brilliant food and dining sections.
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| Dan Lepard |
One of the columns I eagerly look for in The Guardian is that of Dan Lepard, a London-based baker, photographer, cooking teacher and writer. Funnily enough, Dan Lepard was originally from Melbourne but has lived in the UK for many years.
Aside from his regular weekly column(s) in the newspaper, Dan has written a number of books on baking including “The Handmade Loaf” – about various European artisanal bread styles, and most recently “Short & Sweet: The Best of Home Baking”.
Two recipes I have tried just in the past week are the ‘Jammy Lamingtons’ and the ‘Bourbon Pecan Brownies’ (which I altered slightly ingredients-wise); both recipes were easy to follow and the results - according to my kid’s taste/level of interest index- were outstanding.
I had to make these as the first recipe to try in the book as they are an Australian classic – well some would say ‘cliché’ but I would say ‘retro-classic’! Lamingtons are one of those iconic Australian recipes that our mother’s used to cook for afternoon teas in the 1950s and ‘60s. They were subsequently lampooned mercilessly by Australian comedian Barry Humphries’ alter ego Dame Edna Everage during his/her stage shows in the 70s and 80s.
Ingredients:
For the cake: 3 Indian-sized eggs, separated 150g caster sugar 75g butter, softened 1 t vanilla essence 200g plain flour 2 ½ T cornflour 2 t baking powder 150ml milk
For the coating: 4 T cocoa 125g icing sugar 125ml boiling water 25g chocolate, chopped 125g fruit jam 100g desiccated coconut
Method:
1/. Heat oven to 180C or 160C fan forced. Line 17cm square tin with baking paper.
2/. Beat egg whites & 50g sugar to soft meringue stage. In another bowl beat remaining sugar, butter, vanilla and egg yolks for 3 mins.
3/. Sift or mix flour, cornflour and baking powder together & then beat into the sugar, butter and egg yolks alternating with the milk. Then beat in the meringue and scrape into cake tin. Bake for 35 mins.
4/. For the coating, whisk together cocoa, icing sugar and boiling water then stir in chocolate and put aside. Trim cake into 8 rectangles, slice though the middle and spread jam across one side. Put back together and then dip in chocolate on all sides then roll in coconut & rest on a plate.
Bourbon Pecan Brownies (my Indian version!)
I followed the basic recipe for these brownies but swapped the bourbon and pecan nuts for more readily available ingredients in India - dark rum and almonds; they still turned out very moist and chocolatey!
Ingredients:
200g cooking chocolate 125g butter 2 eggs (I used 3 Indian-sized eggs) 125g brown sugar 100g caster sugar 75ml of bourbon (I substituted dark rum) 2 t vanilla essence 175g plain flour 1 T cocoa 125g pecan nuts (I substituted unpeeled almonds), roughly chopped
Method:
1/. Heat oven to 190C or 170C fan forced. Line a 20cm square cake tin with foil. (Note: this saved on buttering or papering the pan and worked really well.)
2/. Melt chocolate with butter and mix (I used a microwave- pulsing for 20 secs at a time and stirring at the intervals.) Beat eggs with the 2 different sugars until mix has integrated and become creamy beige. Beat chocolate and butter into egg & sugar bowl & mix. Add rum and vanilla essence.
3/. Sift flower & cocoa in a bowl (I just stir them together several times), and beat into chocolate mixture. Then mix in chopped almonds.
4/. Scrape into the cake tin and cook in oven for 25 mins. Rest for 15 mins before turning out and cutting into square bars.
Hope you enjoy them!
Tony saab/Hyderabad June 2012
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