Happy New Year!

I'm still somewhat jet lagged and didn't manage to stay up to ring in the new year last night. I think I conked out around 10pm. But the trade-off is that I woke up around six this morning, so I was able to get a nice early start!

This worked out well since we polished off the last of the banana bread yesterday. So I was able to get up and make some French toast for everyone for breakfast. Reiver was definitely pleased to wake up to a hot breakfast. The Kidlet was somewhat more subdued. Apparently the neighbours were having a bit of a party last night and the noise kept her up so the poor dear hadn't gotten much sleep and is looking a little worse for wear this morning. Still, she did seem reasonably enthused about breakfast, even if she was somewhat less chipper than usual.

The recipe called for making these with either walnuts or pecans. I would honestly be somewhat reluctant to go with walnuts; I think they could be a bit overpowering. And apparently pecans are somewhat hard to come by in New Zealand, so I settled for some chopped almonds instead. I do think that pecans would have been nice. That said, I also think the almonds worked quite well.

Nut-Crusted French Toast with Blueberries

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 c. milk
• 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1/2-3/4 c. almonds, chopped
• 6-8 slices bread
• ~1 Tbsp. butter
• ~1 c. blueberries
• ~1/4 c. maple syrup
• whipped cream (optional)

Directions

1. Beat the eggs with the milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
2. Chop the nuts and place them on a plate.
3. Dip the bread in the custard, then press it into the nuts to coat one side in chopped almonds.
4. Melt a bit of the butter over medium-low heat and place the bread, nut-side-down, into the pan.
5. Cook until the nuts begin to brown and the custard on that side sets.
6. Flip and cook until heated through and browned on both sides.
7. Top with blueberries and maple syrup and garnish with a bit of whipped cream.
8. Repeat dipping and cooking with remaining bread and custard.

I am continuing to work my way through the various combinations of waffle batters, mix-ins, and toppings in the Breakfast Bible. Today I decided to try the "classic" batter with coconut and macadamia nuts mixed in. And, since we still have a surplus of mascarpone, I decided to top it with that (and a bit of maple syrup). It made for a very nice combo! Although I've scaled up the inclusions here as I didn't feel like 1 Tbsp. each of the nuts and coconut was sufficient.

Coconut-Macadamia Waffles with Lemon Mascarpone

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 190g all-purpose flour¹
• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 2 Tbsp. unsweetened dried shredded coconut
• 2 Tbsp. chopped macadamia nuts
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 c. milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 c. unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 150g mascarpone
• 2 tsp. grated lemon zest
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla sugar
• maple syrup, to serve (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat your waffle iron.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, coconut, macadamia nuts, and salt.
3. Sift in the baking powder and mix to combine.
4. Beat the eggs with the milk.
5. Add the butter to the milk mixture and mix in the vanilla.
6. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir to combine.
7. Pour one portion of batter into the waffle iron and cook according to manufacturer directions. Repeat with remaining batter.
8. Meanwhile, mix the lemon zest and vanilla sugar into the mascarpone and stir to combine.
9. Serve the waffles topped with mascarpone and maple syrup (if using).

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¹ I don't have any all-purpose flour right now, so I just used 120g of bread flour mixed with 70g of pastry flour. ^Back

This is my second attempt at making a moulded shortbread. On the bright side, I liked the flavour of this one much better than my previous attempt and the dough was also much easier to work with. Unfortunately, this one fell apart even worse than the last one when I tried to unmould it. Possibly I should have let it cool a bit more first. But I didn't want to leave it too long as my understanding is that they need to be unmoulded and cut while still at least somewhat warm. I guess I'll try going for a 30-minute, rather than a 20-minute, rest next time? Hopefully that will help. Beyond that, I'm not sure what else to do.

The first time around, I tried buttering the pan and the centre stuck and came apart. The second time I tried spraying it with cooking spray and basically the same thing happened. The first time I used the traditional 1:2:3 ratio of sugar:butter:flour. This time I used a different recipe that was closer to 2:5:5. (So, proportionally more butter and less flour than the traditional version.) Still the same result. If anything, I think it had slightly less structural integrity this time! The first time I used all wheat flour. This time I used ~25% rice flour. No joy. I do think that the rice flour improved the texture, but it didn't make it unmould any better than the first time around. So, at this point, I'm really not sure what else to try. Beyond that slightly longer cooling period, I'm pretty much out of ideas at this point. Oh well, at least I still got tasty cookies out of it!

Ugly, but tasty.

Buttery Vanilla Shortbread

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 225g unsalted butter, softened
• 30g icing (confectioners'/powedered) sugar
• 60g sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 55g rice flour
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 170g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease, oil, or spray a ceramic shortbread mould or 23cm (9") loose-bottom tart tin.
2. Beat the butter until light.
3. Sift in the icing sugar and beat until incorporated.
4. Beat in the sugar and cream until light and fluffy.
5. Beat in the vanilla.
6. Add the rice flour and salt and mix in.
7. Add the wheat flour in three additions, stirring to combine between each one.
8. Press the dough into the prepared mould or tin.
9. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 50-60 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 20-30 minutes.
11. Loosen edges and turn out onto plate or cutting board.
12. Cut into wedges and allow to finish cooling.

I've been meaning to try this recipe for ages. I keep telling myself that I'm going to do it and then bailing and making something else instead. For whatever reason, I just find it difficult to motivate myself to cook a steak first thing in the morning. Even though it's not really any more difficult or time-consuming than a lot of the other breakfast stuff that I've made. Not sure why. It just doesn't seem to jive with my brain.

I finally sucked it up and did it though! And, I gotta say, it was pretty tasty. I mean, I don't think it's going to become my new favourite breakfast or anything, but it was good! And TF enjoyed it too. (The Kidlet didn't really like the steak and just ate the eggs and toast, but still... two out of three ain't bad!)

Steak and Eggs

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
• 1 large (~700g) T-bone or porterhouse steak
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt, divided
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground and divided
• 280g cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives
• 1/2 tsp. fresh thyme (or 1/4 tsp. dried)
• 8 large eggs
• 4 slices bread, toasted and buttered

Directions

1. Melt 1 Tbsp. of the butter over medium heat.
2. Season the steak with 3/4 tsp. of the salt and 3/8 tsp. of the pepper.
3. Sear the steak on both sides until it develops a nice colour (3-5 minutes per side).
4. If you like your steak more rare, remove from heat and set aside until ready to serve.
   If you like your steak more well-done, then transfer to oven and bake at 180°C (350°F) while you prepare the sauce and cook the eggs.
5. Melt 1 Tbsp. of the remaining butter in the now-empty pan.
6. Add the tomatoes and season with remaining 1/4 tsp. of salt and 1/8 tsp. pepper.
7. Cook until tomatoes soften and being to break down.
8. Stir in chives and thyme and remove from heat.
9. Melt 1/2 Tbsp. of the remaining butter in a separate pan.
10. Crack in four of the eggs and season to taste with salt and pepper.
11. Cover and cook until whites are set (~3 minutes).
12. If you prefer set yolks, flip the eggs and continue cooking for another couple of minutes.
13. Transfer eggs to plates, add the remaining 1/2 Tbsp. butter to the pan, and cook the remaining eggs the same way.
14. Place 2 eggs and 1 slice of buttered toast on each plate.
15. Slice the steak and place ~1/4 of it on each plate.
16. Top the steak with the tomatoes and serve.

I haven't really made shortbread before. I know the theory. But my mom makes such good shortbread at Christmas-time, that I usually just enjoy hers, so I've never gotten much practice making my own.

It's a simple enough concept: use a 3:2:1 ratio of flour:butter:sugar by mass. Cream the butter and sugar together, mix in the flour, bake until delicious! You can add flavourings in if you want. Shape them. Decorate them. But the foundation is that 3:2:1 ratio.

I believe they are traditionally made with soft flour (aka plain/standard flour in the UK/NZ respectively). Which is usually sold as "cake & pastry" flour¹ here.
Most North American recipes (including my mom's) seem to use all-purpose flour mixed with cornstarch (cornflour). This is something I often see with North American versions of European recipes. If your flour is hard, cutting it with cornstarch will effectively "soften" it. So, you can still have the effect of using a soft flour without having to go out and buy a specialty ingredient. Which suits me just fine. Except I actually have a surplus of soft flour right now, so I decided to just omit the cornstarch this time and make my shortbread with cake flour.

Armed with that knowledge (and my soft flour), I was hoping that this would be a nice, easy dessert to pull off. Sadly, it didn't quite work out.
The flavour was nice enough!, but it didn't unmould cleanly and my cookie came apart when I tried to turn it out. I think I probably should have given it five more minutes in the oven and then let it cool for a little longer before trying to unmould it. I may also take the advice of using ~25% rice flour next time as well. It seems that a lot of bakers swear by it. I just didn't want to make too many changes all at once on my first attempt.

Lavender Shortbread

Adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 125g sugar
• 1-2 Tbsp. fresh or dried lavender
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt (optional)
• 280g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour, sifted
• 90g rice flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and lightly oil a shortbread mould or 23cm (9") loose-bottom tart tin.
2. Cream the butter with the sugar.
3. Beat in the lavender and the salt (if using).
4. Add both types of flour and mix until fully combined.
5. Press the dough into the prepared mould.
6. Dock (prick) all over with a fork.
7. Bake at 180°C (350°F) on bottom oven rack for 50-60 minutes.
8. Allow to cool in mould/tin for at least 20 minutes.
9. Turn out onto cutting board.
10. Cut into wedges and allow to cool.

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¹ I see a lot of discussion online about how cake flour is different than pastry flour and pastry flour is actually closest to British "plain" flour and cake flour is even softer/lower-protein. But I've never actually seen that in the wild. We just get "all-purpose" and "cake & pastry". (Plus stuff like whole wheat, rye, spelt, rice, pasta/00, bread, etc.) But I have literally never seen "cake flour" as a separate and distinct thing from "pastry flour". Not saying that it doesn't exist! Just saying that it doesn't seem to exist here. So, for my purposes, I treat them as the same thing and roughly equivalent to what is sold as "plain" or "standard" flour in other parts of the world. ^Back

I wasn't a huge fan of this salad. I find glass noodles can be pretty hit-or-miss for me. And I think this preparation was more miss than hit. I mean, they were okay they just weren't great. I think I probably prefer my bean noodles in soups rather than as a salad in general.

That said, the Kidlet liked these. And they weren't bad, just not my favourite.

Glass Noodle Salad with Chicken and Shrimp

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 150g bean thread noodles
• 1/2 c. chicken stock
• 200g ground chicken
• 2 green onions³, greens and whites separated and chopped
• 150g shrimp, peeled and deveined
• juice of 2 limes
• 3 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. nam prik pao (Thai roasted chile paste)¹
• 2 large red Fresno chilies², seeded and minced
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh mint
• 2-3 Tbsp. fried shallots (or onions)
• red or green leaf lettuce, to serve
• 老干妈 (Laoganma/spicy chili crisp), to serve (optional)

Directions

1. Soak the noodles in cold water for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, bring the broth to a boil and add the chicken and white parts of the green onions.
3. Cook, breaking up the chicken, until meat is cooked through.
4. Remove the chicken and green onions with a slotted spoon and set aside.
5. Add the shrimp and simmer until cooked through (~1 minute).
6. Remove with slotted spoon and set aside.
7. Add water to the pot with the broth until the pot is at least half full and bring to a boil.
8. Drain the noodles and add to the boiling water.
9. Boil until tender (1-2 minutes).
10. Drain noodles and rise thoroughly with cold water.
11. Combine the lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, nam prik pao, and chilies in a large bowl and mix well.
12. Add the chicken and shrimp and toss to combine.
13. Add the noodles and toss to coat.
14. Add the cilantro, mint, and green parts of the green onions and toss to combine.
15. Top with fried shallots (or onions).
16. Serve on a bed of lettuce and top with Laoganma (if using).

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¹ The original recipe just called for "roasted chile paste" and didn't specify what kind. That could plausibly be any number of things! 辣豆瓣酱 (là dòubàn jiàng/Sichuan spicy bean paste), gochujiang (Korean red chile paste)... possibly even red curry paste or chipotle chile paste. Based on the rest of the recipe and the other ingredients, I'm pretty confident that they wanted nam prik pao for this, but I wish they'd been explicit about that in the instructions! Also, I didn't have any nam prik pao on hand, so I ended up substituting gochujang instead. ^Back
2 I couldn't find any Fresno chiles, so I just minced a jalapeño and tossed it in instead. I used only one, since jalapeños tend to be a bit hotter than Fresnos. That said, the overall dish was still pretty mild, so I think it would have been fine to use two. Maybe I'll add another jalapeño and/or a bell pepper to the leftovers... ^Back
3 The original recipe only calls for 1 green onion and that's all I used, but, having tasted it, I really think it would be better with more. Acutally... Now that I think of it, I think putting one in with the chicken and the rest at the end would be excellent! Or maybe, put the whites with the chicken and save the greens as a garnish for the end... Yes! Brb, updating recipe. ^Back

These are pretty simple, but really good! They're just simple baked meringues with a bit of cocoa and dark chocolate stirred in. But they're pleasantly crisp on the outside and soft in the centre, with just a bit of chew to them. I suspect that comes from using a Swiss (rather than French) meringue as the base. You can get French meringues that are crisp on the outside and soft in the middle, but in my experience, they're normally more fluffy than chewy.

I always find Swiss meringues a bit trickier to get right and somewhat more difficult to get to the stiff peak stage. They never seem to have quite as much structure as a good French meringue. And, of course, mixing them over the double boiler is always a bit of a faff. But sometimes it's necessary to get the desired result. And I was quite happy with the results I got here! Although I did have to adjust the sugar a fair bit. This seemed to be another case of compounded rounding errors. The measurements for the sugar were given as 1 3/4 c. (14 oz./440g). But 14 oz. is only ~392g. And, unlike flour (which can vary a fair bit based on how you measure it), sugar tends to be a fairly consistent 200g/cup. So, 1 3/4 c. should be a neat 350g, not 440 or 392!

Chocolate Meringues

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 7 large egg whites
• 350g sugar
• 30g natural cocoa powder
• 125g dark chocolate, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
2. Bring a pot of water to a simmer.
3. Combine the egg whites and sugar in a heat-proof bowl.
4. Place the bowl over the simmering water and beat vigorously until sugar dissolves completely and mixture becomes opaque.
5. Remove from heat and beat until stiff peaks form.
6. Sift in cocoa powder and add dark chocolate. Carefully fold ingredients together until mixed.
7. Spoon large dollops of meringue onto the prepared baking sheets.
8. Bake at 180°C (350*deg;F) for 9 minutes.
9. Rotate and swapt the trays and bake for another 9 minutes.
10. Transfer to wire racks to cool.