Finishing Salts

Salt is one of the most important ingredients in your sweet baking, intensifying the flavour of chocolate & balancing flavours across the board from cakes to ice-cream. Today I'm looking at "finishing salt", the few grains you add to the top of your frostings, cookies, confectionaries and desserts that add an extra dimension of sophistication.

Here are some of the top choices of "finishing salts"...

1. Maldon smoked salt

Large flaky grain cold smoked sea salt. A subtle smoky flavour that goes particularly well with caramel. 

2. Maldon salt

One of the most recognisable flake sea salts on the market. Large soft flaky grains and pure flavour make Maldon a good all rounder. Use on chocolate frosting, caramel frosting, creamy chocolate desserts, caramel almond ice-cream and do try it sprinkled on berries.

3. Murray River Salt

Pretty pink Australian flake salt. The pink colour comes from natural mineralisation. Use whenever you want a subtle flavour.

4. Halen Môn Vanilla Salt

Stunning black colour from Tahitian vanilla pods. Gorgeous salt with distinctive crunch. Try on shortbreads or berries.

5. Fleur de Sel 

Flower of salt in French. A damp, slightly grey salt, divine flavour and well worth searching out. Use a light sprinkle over toffee, caramel, chocolate, berries, shortbreads, cookies & brulee. 

Caramel Pecan Popcorn

  Candied Caramel Pecan Popcorn. Buttery, sweet & salty.

Butter, sugar and salt, considered by some members of my household "the alternative" food groups ;-)

Caramel Pecan Popcorn

Ingredients
9 cups of popped corn (about half cup of popping corn kernels)
1 cup roughly chopped pecans
1 cup of brown sugar firmly packed
125g of butter chopped (4.4oz)
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

Preheat oven to *180c (360F) 

Method
Combine sugar, butter, syrup & salt in a large pan. 
Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved.
Bring to boil uncovered for 2 minutes.
*Stir in soda.

Pour caramel mix over the popcorn & spread popcorn out in a single layer on greased oven trays.
Cook popcorn in oven for 20 minutes, stirring once or twice, until popcorn is crisp & brown.
Store cooled popcorn 2-3 days in an airtight container.

*Take care when adding the soda, the mixture does foam up.
  I'm using a gas oven with no fan, if your oven is fan forced reduce heat    
  accordingly.

Variations;
Drizzle tempered dark chocolate over the cooled popcorn on trays.

Omit salt from recipe, instead sprinkle a finishing salt such as Maldon sea salt flakes over of the warm popcorn on trays.

Change nuts, macadamias and peanuts work well.

Top a frosted cupcake with a single piece of candied popcorn close to serving time so the popcorn doesn't soften.

Bacon & Egg, Prawn Noodle Omelette

Sunday Brunch; A weekly posting for the men of the house who say they cannot live on cupcakes alone. Though, this is disputed by my step son Dan who thinks he probably could!

After last weeks mini cheese popovers with the works, this Sunday's Brunch was a lighter affair but still with loads of flavour.

Bacon & Egg, Prawn Noodle Omelette

Serves 4

Ingredients

150g *dried prawn noodles (5.3oz)

1 tsp crushed ginger

1 tsp crushed garlic

1/2 teaspoon crushed black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 spring onions shredded into strips

1/2 cup carrot shredded into strips

1/2 cup snow peas shredded into strips

1/2 cup red capsicum shredded into strips

1 tbs of peanut oil

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

4 eyes of fat free bacon shredded into strips

2 whole eggs & 4 egg whites lightly beaten 

Garnish

Sweet Chilli Sauce

*Black Sesame Seeds

*Fried Shallots

Preheat oven to 180c/350F

Method

Put dried noodles in a bowl and cover with boiling water, leave for 3-4 minutes strain & refresh under cold water, separating noodles. Put to one side.

Heat large oven proof frying pan, on medium-high heat, add peanut oil & sesame oil.

Add ginger, garlic & three of the shredded spring onions stir fry 30 seconds.

Add carrots, snow peas, red capsicum, black pepper, salt & bacon stir fry one minute.

Add noodles, lightly mix with vegetables and bacon before spreading evenly over the base of the pan.

Pour beaten eggs over the noodle mixture, cook over over medium heat 1-2 minutes.

Slide frying pan into pre heated oven and cook until just set, 3 to 4 minutes.

Remove from oven, drizzle with sweet chilli sauce, sprinkle with black sesame seeds & fried shallots. Toss over remaining shredded spring onion. Cut into wedges and serve.

Variations; 

Add chopped chillies of choice with garlic & ginger.

Change vegetables, shredded baby bok choy, bean sprouts, baby corn work well. Use vegetable noodles & replace bacon with diced smoked tofu for a vegetarian version. 

*Dried prawn noodles, black sesame seeds & fried shallots, available from asian grocers & some supermarkets

You might also be interested in Chocolate Bacon

Cupcakes: Luscious bakeshop favorites from your home kitchen

Off the shelf

baking book reviews

Cupcakes: Luscious bakeshop favorites from your home kitchen

Shelly Kaldunski

127 Pages (Hardcover)

Shelly Kaldunski was one of the main contributors to Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook and has worked as a food editor for Martha Stewart Living, so it didn't take much persuasion to click on that "buy now" button.

This small format hardback book is divided into five categories: Basic Cupcakes, Fruit & Nut, Chocolate, Special-Occasion and Frostings, Fillings & Finishes. Also included are small sections on presenting your cupcakes, creative cupcaking, hints and tips, plus the photography scattered throughout the book is gorgeous. 

Now for the good part, the recipes; the first cupcakes I baked from the book were the 'Salted Caramel Cupcakes' pictured above... fantastic, I loved them. Then on to German Chocolate Cupcakes, Rocky Road Cupcakes, Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes, Tangerine Cupcakes (I used Tangelo's instead), Chai and Honey and Rum Raisin. 

The Rocky Road Cupcake Incident; I explained to my husband Mark that when he asks "which one can I take?" referring to the freshly decorated Rocky Road Cupcakes and I reply "you choose", it does NOT mean you can choose to eat all of them! Step-son Daniel, voted the Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes "epic", which apparently in teen speak is "good" and the Chai and Honey nudged out the Salted Caramel to become my favourite.

The butter cream frostings and variations are great, try the Chocolate Malt variety it is sooo good.

On my ever expanding "I want to bake" list are Lemon Blueberry Crunch & Mini Sticky Toffee Pudding Cupcakes.

Full of interesting recipes & ideas, it's a great book and one of my new "favourites".

Eggs

                 Eggs collected from our backyard chickens

I'm lucky to have an abundance of fresh eggs daily to use in my baking thanks to our backyard chickens. Here's a few quick eggy tips to ensure your successful baking....

Freshness; A quick test for your egg freshness is to submerge your egg in a bowl of cold water, if the egg sinks it's fresh, if it floats or stands on one end it's past it's best date. Weak shells & hairline cracks can also result in a floating egg. 

A fresh egg once cracked will have a yolk that stands high in a thick white, it will be compact and not spread over a wide area. 

Storage;The best way to store your eggs is in an egg carton, in your refrigerator.  The carton prevents water loss and protects the eggs from picking up unwanted flavours in your fridge. Refrigerated eggs keep up to 7 times longer than eggs a room temperature. 

Freezing; Eggs whites freeze extremely well in a sealed plastic freezer container for up to 10 months, defrost overnight in refrigerator and use as per normal. 

Eggs yolks can be frozen, add one teaspoon of salt or sugar for every six egg yolks, lightly beat in store in sealed plastic container in  your freezer. Whole eggs can be frozen by the same method. However eggs yolks that have been frozen become gluggy and don't bake as well as using a fresh egg. Make sure you label your eggs either "sweet" or "salty". Defrost in your refrigerator overnight.

Aged Egg Whites; Some recipes (particularly French Meringues) call for "aged egg whites", to age your egg whites leave the egg whites in a preferably open bowl overnight.

Room Temperature; Why does beating egg white call for room temperature eggs? Egg whites expand more & faster if the protein is warm. A fresh room temperature egg white can beat 6-8 times it's volume. 

Fat Free Beating; fat molecules are the enemy of beaten egg whites, this includes the egg yolk, make sure you use a clean, dry, metal or glass bowl when beating egg whites. Plastic bowls aren't recommended because fat particles can remain is crevices. Stabilise your egg whites half way through the beating process with a pinch of cream of tartar or a few drops of lemon juice.

Tool Time

                         Lemon & Lime Meringue Cupcake 

Tool Time the kitchen tools and gadgets I love.

Cutters; aspic cutters, cookie cutters & icing cutters. Love them! I use the small aspic cutters a lot, though my favourites are my tin of round cookie cutters, for cookies, cutting the centre out of cupcakes ready for filling, cutting fondant, savoury applications & they can also double as food rings. 

Plastic cutters do the job, tin cutters are less expensive & give cleaner lines, but if you're a regular baker I'd recommend investing in a set of rust proof stainless steel cutters.

Round cutter set; available kitchenware & cake decorating stores

Ready for filling, leave filled cake without the cake "plug" or put a teaspoon of filling in the hole and reinsert the cake "plug", ice/frost as usual.

Aspic cutter set

Cranberry curd fills a vanilla sponge cake

Gingerbread Boys & Chocolate Truffle Cupcakes

I love ginger and chocolate, combined the flavours remind of chocolate dipped Lebkuchen and all those other lovely German Christmas treats.

These lightly spiced cupcakes, with the addition of pumpkin to keep them moist & creamy chocolate truffle centres are sure to become a Christmas favourite. 

Gingerbread Boys & Chocolate Truffle Cupcakes

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plain flour (all purpose)
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp bicarb soda (baking soda)
1 tsp  ground cinnamon
1 tsp  ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar 
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup *pureed cooked pumpkin 
2 tbsp orange juice

Truffle filling
225g dark eating chocolate
175ml cream

Method
Sift together flour, baking powder, bicarb soda, spices and salt into a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil and eggs, beat in pumpkin & orange juice, fold in remaining dry ingredients.

Divide mixture into prepared pan, bake for 22 to 27 minutes. or until tops of cupcakes spring back when gently touched. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, remove to a cooling rack to cool.

Unfilled cakes keep for two to three days in an airtight container or double wrapped frozen for one month.

Truffle filling;
Place chocolate in a large mixing bowl. Place cream in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then immediately pour over chocolate. Mix until chocolate has melted. 

Cut round hole in top of cakes using a small knife or small cookie cutter. Spoon *truffle mix into holes and tap each cake gently on bench to smooth/settle the filling. 

Decorate with gingerbread men sprinkles or as desired. 

*Notes: Steam pumpkin and mash with a fork until smooth. Once the cakes are filled with truffle mix they need to be served immediately or refrigerated in a covered container, bring to room temperature before serving. You may have left over truffle mix, depending on how deep you cut the holes in the cakes, remaining mix can be be made into small balls and rolled in cocoa to make truffles.

Adapted from Pumpkin cupcakes 125 best Cupcake recipes Julie Hasson

Is Bacon Optional? Cupcake

Maple Pumpkin spiced cupcake with Maple Buttercream and Bacon Toffee Topper

My Step-son Daniel looking dubious asked when I was about to make pumpkin cupcakes with bacon toffee topper "is the bacon optional?"

Ha! This comes from someone who made "Bitchin Chocolate Bacon" this year for his high school cooking portfolio. Not only did he make it, but I dutifully tried it... my first meat in 25 years! 

Photography & food styling Daniel Paxton-Zahra

Daniel's Bitchin' Chocolate Bacon

INGREDIENTS

4 slices of bacon, rind removed, finely diced

450g (1lb) milk chocolate

100g (4oz) dark 70% chocolate

I cup of slivered toasted almonds

PREPARATION

1. Preheat oven to 190c - 375 degrees F.
2. Place bacon on a baking tray and bake until crisp, about 15-20 minutes, stirring once. Melt chocolate in double boiler over low heat. Stir crisp bacon bits into chocolate and place back on the baking tray. Sprinkle with almonds and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until ready to serve. Cut into wedges. 

Surprisingly moreish. 

Adapted from Iron Chef Michael Symons Chocolate-Covered Bacon with Almonds

Daniel sits his final ever High School exam today, Food Tech. Good Luck Dan! 

Rognures = Pie Cupcakes

Rognures
French for puff pastry scraps or trimmings

Spent the day making puff pastry or sourced a good butter puff and don't want to waste your scraps? You could make cookies, but how about "pie cupcakes?" Crisp, buttery, sugared pastry tops fruit filling in your favourite cupcake base. 

American as Apple Pie cupcake Vanilla buttermilk cupcake, cinnamon apple filling, whipped cream and crisp sugared pastry triangle. 

Strawberry Pie cupcake Yellow butter cupcake, fresh strawberry jam & sugared puff pastry heart cut outs. 

Blueberry Pie cupcake Sponge cake base, blueberry pie filling, topped with star cut out patterned pastry top.

Mini Cheese Popovers

Sunday Brunch; A weekly posting for the men of the house who say they cannot live on cupcakes alone. Though, this is disputed by my step son Dan who thinks he probably could!

A week ago I didn't know what a popover was, but catching up on my back log of Martha Stewart TV episodes (have I mentioned more than 10 times I love "Martha"?) I saw her make popovers... this is my adaptation of Martha Stewart's recipe. I served them with scrambled egg, bacon, mini sausage & cherry tomatoes. 

If you're of British descent you will know this batter as being similar to Yorkshire pudding batter.

Mini Cheese Popovers

Ingredients
Makes 12
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 cup plain (all-purpose flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1/4 fresh grated Parmesan cheese
• I tsp prepared American Mustard
• 1 cup grated tasty cheese (mature cheddar)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 230c (450F). Spray grease a mini popover tin.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour and salt. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, mustard, parmesan and 1 tablespoon melted butter. Pour over flour mixture, and fold until just blended.
3. Fill the popover cups two-thirds to three-quarters full, divide grated cheddar between cups.
4. Transfer tin to oven, and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 175c (350F), and bake until well browned, about 20 minutes. Remove popovers from the oven, and unmold onto a rack. Puncture the sides with a sharp knife to let steam escape, and serve immediately.

*Notes; Batter can be made in a food processor or with a blender. If you don't a have a mini popover tin, dariole moulds, muffins tins, custard cups all make suitable replacements, however cooking times will vary.