Chat 10 Looks 3's Crack

I made Crack for my book club on the weekend and several people asked for the recipe.  This post is dedicated to my beloved book club members.

I joined a Facebook group called Chat 10 Look 3 a couple of months ago when a recommendation popped up on my Facebook feed.  It had a picture of Leigh Sales and Annabel Crabb.  It caught my attention straight away as I had watched their "When I get a minute" on ABC iview a while ago and absolutely loved it.  It also said "If you liked Helen Garner and Yotam Ottolenghi, this was a group for you."
As it happens, I was reading Helen Garner's "Everywhere I look" at the time and have been a fan of Yotam for a couple of years.  I thought, I obviously qualify to join this group.

So, I joined and immediately realised that I have found "my people".
There are over 26,000 members and they are constantly posting their book recommendations and showing off what they have baked.

These were also post after posts of Crack.  It seemed making Crack was a kind of initiation to become a true Chatter.  So, I downloaded the recipe and have baked it.  I loved it so much, I have made it may be about 5 times since.

Recipe (slightly altered by me)

One packet of Salada (there are two packets in a box)
200g butter (salted)
1 cup brown sugar
200g dark chocolate
nuts, dried cranberries, freeze dried raspberries, salt flakes

Line a large baking tray with baking paper.
Place single layer of salada crackers on the tray.
Heat butter and brown sugar in a saucepan.  Let it boil and whisk until emulsified.
Pour over the crackers and smooth all over with a spatula.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.  Bake for approximately 15 minutes taking care not to burn the caramel.

Whilst the caramel is still hot, sprinkle chocolate chips or finely chopped chocolate all over the caramel and leave to melt for a couple of minutes.  Use a spatula to smooth the chocolate all over.
Sprinkle nutes and dried fruit of your choice and a good pinch of salt flakes.

Gingerbread Man Biscuits

We usually spend Christmas with my husband's parents, but we are not able to travel to the Barossa Valley and they can not travel to us in the Mountains this year.  Thus a request for my Gingerbread Man came from my mother in law.
She brings her traditional German touch to our Christmas celebration each year and we shall miss it this Christmas.

125g butter (salted)
100g brown sugar
125ml golden syrup
1 egg yolk
400ml plain flour
1 tbs ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice

If the dough feels a little sticky, dust plenty of flour when rolling it out.
bake in 170 degrees celsius oven until golden brown.

Rocky Road

I meant to post this before we for Far North Queensland, things got rather hectic..
So, finally I am home in time for your to make it for Christmas.

Ingredients
200g  Dark Chocolate
100g Butter (I used cultured butter and added half a teaspoon of salt)
1 cup  Rice bubbles
Half to three quarter of a packet of Marshmallow
1 pannet Raspberries or a cup of pitted cherries or both
Nuts of your choice (almonds work well)

Melt chocolate and butter together.  You can put them in a bowl over a pan of simmering water or stick it in the microwave like I do.

Then put the rest of ingredients and give it a quick mix.
Pour over a prepared tray lined with baking paper or cling wrap.

Chill in the fridge until set.

Enjoy!

Moist Fruitcake

Today I was very proud to be asked for no less than 3 recipes at my Choir's Christmas lunch.

After abandoning this blog for a long time, I decided to resurrect it as a method of sharing my recipes  with my English speaking (reading) friends.

1. Moist fruitcake (this post)
2. Decadent rocky road (next post)
3. Chocolate cake (I realised that I have already posted this one.  It's the one before this post)


'
I discovered this recipe over 10 years ago in my American Cake book.
As I do with most recipes, I make all kinds of alterations and by the time I am satisfied with it, it hardly resembles the original.

A
Mixed dried fruit 500g
Dried apricots  100g
Marmalade  100g
Water 300ml
Cultured butter 180g
Salt 1tsp
Raw sugar 300g

B
90ml brandy or rum
3 eggs

C
Plain flour 375g
Baking powder 1tsp

Nuts for decoration

Put all ingredients A in a medium sized saucepan and put on medium heat.
Once everything dissolves and it begins to boil, turn down to heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Put it aside and let it cool down a little.

In a large bowl, put B and half of A together and whisk.
Add C into the bowl and mix till smooth.  Add the rest of A and mix again.

Pour into a prepared cake tin and decorate with pecan nuts or walnuts.
I usually divide it into two or three smaller tins.

Bake at 170C until for approximately 40 minutes.
Depending on the size of your tins or your oven, the baking time differs.
Always check with a skewer to see if the cake is cooked through.


I wish you Blue Mountains ladies a nice cool baking day between now and Christmas.

My Best Chocolate Cake

I have tried a great number of different chocolate cake recipes over the years.
Since I started baking when I was about 10 years old, that's a lot of chocolate cakes.
Of all the cakes I experimented with, this is the best one.

It was originally a stout beer chocolate cake recipe.
The original recipe was perfectly good, but it went through several metamorphosis and has settled into what it is today a few years back.

It no longer uses stout beer at all, but molasses, which to my mind has similar dark and somewhat bitter quality.   It also uses less sugar.


1 tbs molasses
110ml hot water
125g butter
35g good quality cocoa (unsweetened)
150g brown sugar
70ml sourcream
1 egg
140g self raising flour


Combine molasses, hot water, butter, cocoa and brown sugar in a saucepan and stir over low to medium heat till butter has melted and cocoa dissolved.

Add sour cream and stir.  When it has cooled down a little, add an egg and stir.

Mix 1/3 of the liquid with the flour, then mix the rest in.  You need to do it this way as the batter is very runny.

Bake in a 20cm cake tin in a moderate oven.  How long it takes to bake depends on the oven.  Anything between 20~50 minutes really.  Shake the cake tin and if it does not wobble on top, insert a bamboo stick and see if it comes out clean.

Strawberry and Green tea cake

This year, I baked three cakes for my daughter's birthday.
One for her class at school, one for the family, and this one for the party on the weekend.

Every year, I agonise over what sort of cake to make.  I spend far more time procrastinating on the design and structure than the actual time making it.

From the bottom, green tea sponge, strawberry mousse, plain sponge, whipped cream and sliced strawberries, green tea sponge, ganache, plain sponge, cream, strawberries and a chocolate decoration.

I used a dozen eggs, about 600ml cream, 200g chocolate, and about a kilo of strawberries.

I was happy with the flavour, but if I make it again, another layer of ganache would be good and the strawberry mousse could be a touch sweeter and with less cream and gelatin.

To be honest, I thought the finished product looked a little rough around the edges, but the kids didn't care and my friends, who are the parents of the children (all 12 of them) liked it and that is all that matters.

Opera Cake

It has been a while, quite a long while since my last post.
Maintaining three blogs turned out to be a little too ambitious for me.
However, if I bake something noteworthy, I decided to keep Baking Mad on the Mountain going from time to time.

Every year, towards the end of August, we either buy or I bake an Opera Cake to celebrate our wedding anniversary.
I must say that choosing the opera cake as our wedding cake was an inspired choice.

This is my third attempt at making the cake myself.
It doesn't look as pretty as the store bought ones, but I can honestly say that it tastes better than the ones from the D# or the L#.

The cake consists of Biscuit Joconde, coffee butter cream, coffee syrup, ganache, and tempered chocolate.

It is incredibly rich and just beautiful.

We have a real incentive to keep our marriage in good order so that we can indulge every year till death do us part.