He first started with following the recipe to a T, found in the Edmond’s Cookery Book, then he tried a few variations, and this one has come up as the winner.  It’s a temperamental beast though - you have to keep an eye on it and take it slowly, otherwise it’ll turn into a grainy, crumbly-concrete-like mess.  If it’s done right it should be completely grainless, with a fine melt-in-the-mouth quality. It’s not like a russian fudge, creamy and sticky – it’s more like a candy-style fudge. quite firm, and when cut it’s a little flaky. Infact, that’s one way it’s been described – like a Flake chocolate bar.

I’ve never (successfully) made this fudge. I tried once and it was a complete disaster (see description above) , and since then I’ve left it to the Fudge Maste…Expert Darren has this fudge down to a fine art, and I show you all the steps he now takes.

Ingredients

2 cups caster sugar

2 heaped tablespoons cocoa

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup cream

25g butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

100g dark chocolate (about 70%)

Method

Grease and line a large tin with butter

Pour sugar and cocoa into a saucepan.

mix to combine.

add milk and cream and stir to combine – leaving for 5 – 10 minutes to help start dissolving the sugars

and butter and the candy thermometer

Heat RIDICULOUSLY slowly on the stove top, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved and butter melted. (this could take 20 minutes – you want it to have NO grains of sugar whatsoever before it starts to boil) Wet the sides with a pastry brush to get all the crystals.

Bring to the boil. DO NOT STIR! Watch it carefully.

To ensure there are no crystals of sugar forming on the edge (sugar crystals are your enemy) dampen a pastry brush and wipe the sides gently.

Ask your wife to chop the dark chocolate into fine shards (It’s the only part of the process I’m game to help with!!)

Darren will station himself in front of the stove, never taking his eyes off the candy thermometer! He’s rather particular about his fudge.

Let mixture boil until the soft ball stage. Darren now uses a candy thermometer – and this is definitely the way to go. It has a ’soft ball’ marking on it.

Have a folded teatowel on the bench ready, then remove saucepan from heat, place on teatowel and wait a moment or two

carefully pour in the vanilla and add the chopped dark chocolate.

whip it with an electric beater on a fast setting in the saucepan until the fudge becomes thick. If you don’t whip it long enough, it won’t set firmly, too much and it will stay put in the saucepan!

Quickly pour the fudge into the prepared tin.

Score the top and let it cool on the bench, then in the fridge.

So I’ve done a handful of baking projects recently and find it quite dissimilar to cooking. That sounds odd, but it’s definitely its own art. I feel like an alchemist weighing out each ingredient and adding it at the exact right moment. It’s really not my usual kitchen style – I’m a bit rough and ready. So, I just can’t help myself when it comes to playing around with a recipe.

I found a recipe, but didn’t have half the ingredients! So I winged it, and added other things instead. It turned out perfectly! The people at work thought it was pretty good too – they’re my baking guinea pigs! Mwah Ha ha ha! I’m sure they don’t mind – and it stops me from eating a whole kilo’s worth of cake in less than a day if I share it!

We seem to go through dozens of bananas a week these days – Josie is a fruit fanatic and it’s great to have them in a bowl in the middle of the house where we can grab a piece of fruit when we’re hungry – fruit is a really cheap snack too! So, when I get any sad, brown bananas I’ve been simply popping them straight into the freezer and letting them build up until I had enough for this recipe.

Ingredients and Method

Mix all these together in the biggest bowl:

1 cup flour
3/4 tsp bi-carb soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp psyllium husk (if you want to be a hippy like me, if not, just omit this and add a little less milk)

And then in another bowl chuck this together:
All chopped:
40g crystallised ginger
35g walnuts
20g almonds
40g choc chips

And in another bowl, whisk this together:

3/4 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup olive oil

And yet another bowl mash:
3 very ripe bananas.

Now, into the first and biggest bowl mix together gently all the other mixtures one by one. Pour it into a greased and floured baking tin and chuck it in a moderate oven (180 degrees) to bake for about 60 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Share with friends.

So when my sister suggested we make a trip to the Gold Coast to go to Max Brenner I jumped at the chance. I had heard to expect a wait – 30 minutes or more. This is how popular he is. How exciting, I thought! We got there, and thankfully didn’t have to wait at all. We ordered at the counter and were served by a cute happy gay fellow who happily took our order. In fact, all the staff seemed to be really glad to be working there. Not one of them looked like they didn’t want to be there. They were all positively glowing whenever they gave us our order, or even when being asked for a bottle of water.  I guess when you’re working for a chocolate company this would be fairly easy, but it certainly was refreshing.

The fit out is dark – chocolatey-brown dark, hence why all my photos are blurry! But it was a great place to sit and enjoy the food.

They had huge vats of warmed chocolate in the middle of the cafe with thick tubes to make it look like the chocolate was being siphoned off into the kitchen at the back.

When we received our order of Fondue, both dark and milk melted chocolate with portions of marshmallow, banana bread, banana and strawberries,  my daughter, 20months old,  almost lost it – “OOOOHHH!!” and grabbed for the plate. I immediately thought she would grab for the big pots of melting chocolate (as I would have done) but she quickly grabbed a strawberry and popped the whole thing in her mouth! (Yay! My kid digs fruit – over and above chocolate!)

The ‘Chocolate Souffle’ was delicious, but really it wasn’t a souffle, more like a chocolate fondant, or Lava cake. I ordered a peanut-butter chocolate thickshake, the flavour was fantastic, but SO rich, like drinking pure cream! It was served in a specially designed milkshake ceramic cup with a hole for the straw, very cute!

My sister ordered a white chocolate chai and it came out in a plastic teapot with no spout. We asked for help with pouring it: this fancy contraption fits over the top of the glass and when you press it onto the lip the tea pours through a filter and out through the bottom of the pot. Genius! But not at all intuitive. I had a taste of the chai, and it was definitely my favourite of what we had ordered.

Max also stocks a number of take home chocolates in gorgeous and fun packaging. I purchased a simple slab of semi-dark chocolate. I actually found that Max Brenner chocolate is a lot nicer as a melted version (as in the fondue) than a solid block.

If you’re a fan of chocolate and design you’ll love Max. But I was hoping for a little bit more mystery. I was hoping to need a secret handshake or a nod and a wink to enter through a heavy wooden door, but really, it was a great experience, one I would like to try again, but maybe next time not order so much!

There is a Max opening in Southbank very shortly, and… there are whispers that we may be blessed with another at Chermside… but that is just a rumour… they are just so irresistible!

COMPETITION REMINDER!! We have a mixed case of 24 bottles of Apple and Pear Cider to give away from Punt Road Wines. To enter, all you have to do is write a comment on ANY post on iatebrisbane and add your suburb name in the comment. Open to Brisbane (and surrounds) entrants only (could you imagine the international shipping fees on a case of cider?!). Check out the details and the tricky little fine print here.

This recipe follows along similar lines to the Musk scented Berry Tartlets and it finally gives me a different way to use figs than my stock standard Maple Figs with Savoiardi Biscuits.

 Ingredients

90g Byron Bay Cookie Company Chocolate and Almond Biscuits (or use any dry chocolate biscuit – The Arnotts Choc Ripples would be perfect
40g Melted Butter
50g dark chocolate melts

1 fresh fig – per person
1 tsp Dulce De Leche - per person
Sugar
pinch of salt

Raspberries

Method

1.Grease a mini-muffin tin

2. Crush the biscuits – there are a few different methods
Put it a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin/mallet/brick wall/cricket bat
Put in a food processor.

My favourite method is the old rolling pin… do you like my zip lock bags?

3. Mix the biscuits and butter together. It will still be crumbly
4. Press a small amount into each muffin tin until it forms a cup shape. Use a teaspoon to press it around the edges
5. Freeze until firm

6. Melt the chocolate and with a brush (even an artist’s brush) coat the inside of each tartlet shape with chocolate.
7. Freeze or refridgerate again. This will make a number of tartlet cases. Take out the ones you need by edging a paring knife into the edge – it should pop straight out – and keep the rest in the freezer until you require them.

8. Cut the figs almost to the bottom in a cross pattern and let it fan out on the plate. (I was planning to have them sit up like little flower buds but they collapsed!) You may want to do this on a heat-proof surface and then transfer it onto the plate.

9. Get a kitchen blow torch and have it ready to go. Sprinkle a pinch of sugar over the fig flesh and immediately torch it with the flame. The idea is to turn it into hard caramel before it dissolves into the fig flesh. Keep doing this until you have a thin crispy coating over most of the flesh.

10. Pop the fig and tartlet case onto a plate, drop a small dollop of Dulce De Leche into the tartlet case and then add a pinch of crushed salt (Fleur De Sel if you have it) onto the dulce de leche. Crush some frozen raspberries into their little pods and arrange around the plate.

I had other plans, but unfortunately my body had spoken and put it’s foot down. So I must accommodate it I guess. And I’m feeling better for it. It took a long time to work out what was causing the issues – to the point where I went to a gastroenterologist. They did a huge number of nasty tests, but never asked me about my food intake. Why not? They found ‘nothing wrong’ with me and sent me on my way. They symptoms persisted, so I’ve had to work this all out on my own. I’m still working it out. And from speaking to others about food intolerance, most often the ‘patient’ has to work it out themselves.

I’d love to hear how other people have dealt with food intolerances in the comments section.

So no more milk on my weet-bix in the morning, I’ve started to drink soy milk. No more icecream – soy icecream. Well… soy everything. I’m yet to try rice milk and oat milk. I’ve heard it’s ok – I should give it a go. And so this is how I came to making this recipe. My dear friend Josie created a little recipe book for her very extensive family for christmas last year – one recipe for each family member. She thought I might like a copy too. Her mum is vegan so she put this recipe in here for her. It’s really easy and very tasty.

I could only find ’silken firm’ tofu in the 4 shops I checked in. I thought that was a contradiction in terms! It worked ok, but was a little grainy. I’ll endeavour to find the silken stuff next time.

Serves 4-6. This stuff is SERIOUSLY rich. You won’t need much.

Ingredients
1 pack of Silken Tofu
1 block of dark chocolate
2 capfuls of liqueur eg. Tia Maria, White chocolate liqueur

Method
1. Blend the tofu until it becomes smooth
2. Melt the chocolate and add it to the Tofu
3. Add the liqueur
4. Blend again until it comes together
5. Spoon into serving dishes and pop in the fridge for 1 hour to set.

I served mine with a drizzle of golden syrup – that was because I used VERY dark chocolate. Next time I’ll use a lighter chocolate.

Sometimes we all want a little bit of devilish food.  And, like most people, give me a plateful of tasty food and I’ll eat more than I really need to. This is where this little dessert is perfect! It’s sweet enough to satisfy any sweet-tooth craving, but not big enough to make you need to loosen your belt by the end of the dish. The berries are a high antioxidant blend of wild blueberries, bilberries and blackcurrants, and 80% dark chocolate was used!

JUSTIFIED.

OK, so on the naughty side – there is coconut biscuits and butter. But let’s not dwell on the negatives.

The (not so) secret ingredient in this tartlet is the Musk liqueur made by the local Tamborine Mountain Distillery. This boutique distillery creates a myriad of flavours from their small still on the top of Mt Tamborine – about an hour’s drive from Brisbane. I picked this bottle up from the Good Food and Wine Show, but you can buy it any time from the ‘cellar door’ or – “still door” in this case, or online at www.tamborinemountaindistillery.com . I do recommend going up there for a Sunday drive to experience the place for yourself. It’s a beautiful place to visit. They grow a lot of their own ingredients themselves and source them from the local community.

The next secret ingredient is sourced from over the Tasman. Griffin’s Krispie Biscuits http://www.griffins.co.nz/by-name/krispieare perfect for making tart and cheesecake bases. They truly are crispy – with a good amount of toasted coconut (and saturated fat!). And lucky enough – New Zealanders (and their Aussie wives) can breathe a sigh of relief as many Brisbane stores are starting to stock Kiwi products. I got these from Supa IGA in Mitchelton. I’ve also seen them in the lolly store in Anzac Square in the CBD. Get them! They are awesome!

Ingredients:

1/2 pack Krispie biscuits
about 50g Butter, softened

small amount of Dark Chocolate, melted (we used 80% dark – it added a great bitterness to it to even out the sweet)

Handful of frozen berries (use anything – Cherries, raspberries, but we used these ones http://www.creativegourmet.com.au/products/high-antioxidant-berry-mix-details.htm

Splash of Musk Liqueur from TMD

Icecream, to serve

Method:

1.Grease a mini-muffin tin

2. Crush the biscuits – there are a few different methods
Put it a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin/mallet/brick wall/cricket bat
Put in a food processor

3. Mix the biscuits and butter together. It will still be crumbly
4. Press a small amount into each muffin tin until it forms a cup shape
5. Refrigerate until firm

6. Melt the chocolate and with a brush (even an artist’s brush) coat the inside of each tartlet shape with chocolate.
7. Refrigerate again

8. Throw the berries and liqueur into a hot saucepan and swirl around until warmed through

To Serve:
Put a tartlet case on a plate, add berries and icecream.

You will be able to make about 10 tartlet cases with this mix. Keep the others in the fridge for another time. It’s a really quick way to make a dessert.
Why not try:
lemon curd and cream
or
summer fruits and custard
or
chocolate ganache and raspberries
or
Cherries with port and vanilla spiked mascarpone
or…

oh man! I want to try all of these now!
Right – back into the kitchen I go!

Ingredients

1 cup Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Sugar (I used Raw Sugar)
1 egg

That’s it.

Method
1. Preheat oven to 160 celcius
2. Chuck everything into a bowl and mix together (I used my hands)
3. At this point Lady Bakerella puts the mix into the fridge for 30 minutes. I cooked these up on the hottest winter’s day on record (35.4 degrees) and I thought it was unneccessary. But please do it if you wish.
4. Roll into 1.5cm wide balls, place on ungreased tray, and press down in a criss-cross pattern with a fork.

5. Pop in the oven for about 15-20 minutes.
6. Cool on tray for 5 mins, then cool completely on a wire rack.

7. Grab about 100g of dark chocolate, break it up and put it in a zip lock bag. Heat in the microwave in short bursts. Massage the chocolate around in the bag until it is all melted.
8. Close up the zip lock bag and squeeze out any air. Snip a tiny corner off the bag with a pair of scissors and with a swift hand, squeeze it over the peanut cookies in lines – back and forth. Now go the other way.

9. Wait for for chocolate to set… now DEVOUR!

Hold on a minute! There is an even easier way to make these cookies! Roll em up, press a Nestle dark chocolate melt on the top – and pop them in the oven. DONE! no mucking around, it’s EASY! Whoo Hoo! This second batch took me literally 5 minutes from grabbing the ingredients from the cupboard to chucking them in the oven. Love it!

The 6-pack

Lamington Goodness

The long and complicated history of Lamingtons can be found here, but I don’t want to get into that here. Lamingtons are delicious and bloody Australian, and that’s all I need to know! 

The other wares on sale at the stall

So what I’d like to know, do you have a favourite lamington?  Where is it to be found? Please share with me the secret location of YOUR favourite lamington.

It was truly one of those comfortable wintery experiences — there was snowboarding, crackling open fires, a quaint town by the side of a lake, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and filled with with historic stone architecture… But just when you thought Queenstown couldn’t possibly contort itself into being any more delightful, along came the food.

And by gum did we ever eat. I had always intended to find some nice eateries whilst we were visiting, but it was my wonderful Mother who thrust a photocopied page from a Gourmet Traveller entitled, “24 hours in Queenstown”, who truly delivered us unto gastronomic splendour.

Our visit was 8 days long, so we had plenty of time in between hikes up and down the slopes to explore all the delights Queenstown had to offer.

We kicked off our adventure with a visit to The Cow, a rustic-looking stone building about the size of your Nan’s granny flat. The Cow had been touted by GT for its pizza, and boy did it deliver! With a roaring fireplace to set the scene, guests share wooden booths and tables throughout the restaurant, with pizzas served on heavy wooden boards. You ought to start off by devouring the most freshly-baked whole loaf of crusty-on-the-outside-soft-and-warm-on-the-inside bread served up with a dish of garlicky butter, before moving on to the most sensationally heartwarming pizza, “Her Majesty’s Pleasure”. This is really just a fancy name for “the lot”, but it’s the surprising addition of celery that gives this slice an interesting kick – it was really quite unexpectedly enjoyable. With a sizable wine list, and a great selection of beers on tap and by the bottle, The Cow was a great all-rounder, with a pizza fit for two costing around NZ$25. We loved The Cow so much we came back for seconds AND thirds on subsequent evenings! By the end of the week, we’d tried all bar one of the pizzas, and let me tell you — they’re all winners. This place gets packed, so get in early (before 6pm) or be prepared to wait (hint: it’s well worth it!).

The Bunker was a deviation from our GT to-do list, but came recommended to us by a winter local of more than 30 years, so who were we to argue? Hidden behind a battered wooden door, and with minimal signage, The Bunker is on the upper end of the scale and was our one big treat to ourselves whilst in Queenstown, and it certainly proved to be a worthwhile visit. Its menu sports a variety of local Otago and New Zealand produce, with a focus on all that is fresh and seasonal. We enjoyed the rich wintery indulgence that was the Cardrona Valley Lamb with Garlic Mash, along with a side of broccoli, mushrooms and fried yams (which were so wonderfully pillowy and crunchy at the same time!). The wine list was extensive, and featured an array of international wines, including many from Australia. We selected the 2006 Ata Rangi ‘Celebre’ Merlot Syrah Cabernet from Martinborough. Syrah is a variety very similar to Shiraz, and the sommelier informed us that New Zealand does blends very well. The Ata Rangi was rich and full-bodied, and well-liked by all (and as an interesting aside, the Chard Farm Finla Mor 2007 Pinot Noir goes for NZ$74 here). We finished off the night with pannacotta that Matt of Masterchef would be proud of.

Under GT’s guidance, we sought out Joe’s Garage, which proclaimed a hearty breakfast and great coffee, and we were not disappointed. We actually visited Joe’s, which appears to be a bit of a Queenstown institution, for lunch to begin with. I enjoyed a perfectly grilled blue cod with Joe’s chips (which are actually delectably haphazard little nuggets of soft, potatoey goodness), aioli and salad.  Jean tells me the coffee was amazing (I’m not a coffee drinker myself), and we were so sated by lunch that we popped in for breakfast on our final morning in Queenstown. Joe’s is reasonably priced, and has wholesome, filling options for all budgets and tastes. It’s all about casual dining here, with an assortment of tables, benches and counter seats, where you can watch your meal being lovingly prepared before your eyes.

And last, but certainly not least, comes Patagonia. Situated on the foreshore of Lake Wakatipu, Patagonia is a chocolaterie with a difference, although damned if I know quite how to elocute just what on earth that difference is. Perhaps it’s the the sheer gooeyness – caramels, ganaches, fondants – perfected in many of their wares; or maybe it’s all about the subtle flavours they include – citrus peel in dark chocolate, ginger hot chocolates; or perhaps it’s just that they have such a considerably huge range for such a small town boutique chocolate shop that you’re literally left feeling like a kid in a candy store, with so many mouth-watering options that you don’t quite know how to decide who makes the cut. My suggestion is to start with the ginger hot chocolate, and then try to pick between the richness of the golden gooeyness of the Caramel Peak, and the creamy ganache layered between soft, crumbly cookies in the Alfajors (all pictured, eat your heart out!). Let’s just say that the variety kept me coming back 5 out of 8 days in Queenstown. How embarrassment.

Suffice to say that my culinary journey through Queenstown was pretty amazing.  I really don’t know what I expected prior to my arrival, but it certainly wasn’t the diversity of flavours and quality that was served up to us. I’ll definitely be back again soon.

I have used Almond Meal in this recipe. I make my own Almond Meal by pulsing whole almonds (with the skin on) with a stick blender. This is the cheapest way to get almond meal, as you can buy whole almonds for about $10kg, whereas the meal can be $5 for 50g! If  you want them with the skin off, you can blanch them in boiling water for about a minute or two, then put them into a ziplock bag for 10 minutes. Then, while they are still in the bag, squeeze them and the kernel will pop out of the skin. It’s lots of fun!

In this photo, I served it with an icing made of yoghourt and icing sugar that had chopped beets soaking in it. It looks cool, but I don’t recommend it, it was a little icky tasting. I’d serve it with Chocolate icing, or vanilla icecream.

Don’t worry about getting the beetroot stain on your hands, most of it washes off straight away, and unless you have a hand-modeling job to get to the next day, it’s really not a problem. And it’s so much fun, it takes me right back to my childhood, playing with poster paint and squelchy mud!

Ingredients

300g Finely Grated Fresh Beetroot

3 eggs

1/4 cup Cocoa

160g Plain Flour

1 1/2tsp Baking Powder

1/2 cup Caster Sugar

1/4 cup loosely packed brown sugar

35g Dark Chocolate, melted

50ml Olive Oil

60g Almond Meal

 Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, grease and lightly flour a cake tin (I used a Kugelhopf tin… I love it!)

2. Sift all the dry ingredients into one bowl

3. Add the Beetroot, Oil,chocolate, and eggs and mix to combine

4. Pour into the cake tin, and place in oven for about 30-40 minutes, or until it springs back when touched AND when a skewer is inserted into the middle, it comes out clean.

5. Rest on bench for 10 minutes in tin, then invert onto a cooling rack.

6. Serve.