Banana and Chocolate Muffins!

Yes, this is another chocolate and banana recipe! Bear with me here though, because I guarantee you won't regret making these bananalicious babies! Unlike our previous banana and chocolate post, this one is a lot sweeter, it really makes your sweet tooth - or if you're like me: sweet teeth - ecstatic.

My father should be awarded a prize in the category I just made up in my head called 'Person who buys ALL the bananas when they're on special at Woolworths' category.  It is literally impossible for us to eat all the bananas he buys before they go bad and go all oozy and sugar-spotted and blech.  Bad for my brothers' school lunches but perfect for my 'let's get rid of these festering things in the fruit bowl and turn them into cake' recipes.  When I created this recipe on the spot while trying to get rid of the gross bananas, it was originally a loaf cake.  I made it a few times as a loaf cake but it became really obvious that the cake was WAY too moist and crumbly to slice, so while I was trying to cut it it turned into a pile of crumbs and squish. A delicious pile of crumbs and squish though, to be more accurate.  Just for convenience I decided that to avoid destroying nice things in the future, I'd make them into muffins instead.

Banana and Chocolate Muffins:

100g of caster sugar
150g of butter, softened 
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
2 eggs
1/4 cup of milk
1/2 cup self-raising flour
3 brown bananas, well-mashed
100g of chopped good-quality dark cooking chocolate

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.  Line a muffin tin with paper cases.
Mix butter and caster sugar on high speed until light, pale and fluffy. Add vanilla essence.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Add a little of the milk, alternating adding flour to the mixture, until you achieve a light and fluffy batter, similar to the consistency of the mixture in the first photo in this post.
Add the mashed banana to the cake mixture, folding it in well with a spatula. Don't use the electric mixer for this or you'll over-work the flour.
Add the roughly chopped chocolate and mix through.

Spoon the mixture into prepared muffin tin and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the muffins comes out clean.

And that's it! Next time you forget about including fruit in your diet because you've been baking too much, just chuck the gross bananas into a cake! Fruit and cake - here at Smorish, we aim to keep your diet balanced.

Enjoy!

Lemon, Pistachio and Coconut Slice

As we mentioned in this post, we recently tried a delicious homemade lemon, pistachio and coconut slice at Tartine Cafe.  Inspired by the delicious treats we devoured, we got home and decided to recreate the beautiful citrus slice and hope that it was as good as the one they serve at Tartine. 

Our lemon trees at the moment are overflowing with big, bright yellow and impossibly juicy lemons, so the opportunity to take advantage of the fresh fruits was too good to pass up! Here is S'morish's version of a lemon, pistachio and coconut slice!

Lemon, Pistachio and Coconut Slice:

For the biscuit base - 

1 cup of all-purpose flour

1 cup of caster sugar

1 cup of desiccated coconut

125g of butter, melted

Zest of half a lemon

2 teaspoons of lemon juice

Combine ingredients in a large bowl, and mix until the mixture forms a ball.  

Evenly spread the biscuit base in the bottom of a 32x20cm slice tin til about half a centimetre in thickness. Bake the biscuit base at 160 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes or until firm and golden.

For the lemon and coconut filling - 

2 x 395g cans of condensed milk

Juice of 5 - 6 lemons depending on your personal tastes

100g of desiccated coconut

4 eggs, lightly beaten

Zest of one lemon

Mix together the condensed milk, coconut and lemon zest until well combined.
Add the lemon juice a little at a time until fully incorporated into the mixture.
Add the lightly beaten eggs a little at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Pour the filling on top of the prepared biscuit base and bake at 160 degrees Celsius for 20 - 25 minutes or until firm to the touch and golden.  Set aside to cool completely before pouring the topping on top.

For the topping - 

500g of confectioner's sugar
Juice of 3 lemons
Pistachios to sprinkle on top, roughly chopped
Zest of half a lemon

Mix together the confectioners sugar and the lemon juice, making sure there are no lumps and the mixture is smooth. Add the lemon juice gradually to make sure you get the desired consistency.
Pour the lemon icing over the cooled slice filling and set aside for 5 minutes to set slightly.
Sprinkle pistachios, lemon zest and desiccated coconut over the icing sugar and set aside to allow icing to set the rest of the way.

Enjoy and if you tried let us know your thoughts on this recipe! Til next time!

Cafe Review! Tartine Cafe, Perth City!

Today, we popped in to this little gem found on the corner of Wellington St and William St, Perth, for a beautiful morning tea after a productive morning of retail therapy as a celebration of the beginning of the summer holidays. 

(We are not sponsored by Tartine and this is not a commissioned post).

Walking into this gorgeous warm, homely European-style cafe, you immediately feel as though you've stepped into a miniature Europe.  Immediately welcomed by the friendly and enthusiastic staff, you're overwhelmed with the choices you can make about what the heck it is you're going to spend hours being emotional over. The counter is abundant, overflowing with homemade baked deliciousness like the moistest looking slices of pear and raspberry loaf, banana bread, jars of caramel-filled shortbread, fresh danishes and pastries - literally, they spoil you for choice.  Once we had finally ordered from their glass cabinet display of goodies - lemon coconut and pistachio slice ($3.75), a humungous pear tartlet ($5.50) and a hazelnut caramel slice ($3.50) plus cappuccinos ($4.30) - we sat at a lovely polished wood table and chairs and patiently waited for our orders. We didn't have to wait very long because literally three minutes later our orders arrived at our table together.  One thing I've always hated about ordering a slice and a coffee at a cafe is that the slice or  cake always arrives at your table before the coffee does, so I was so happy to find that at Tartine, they wait for your coffees to be made and then serve your sweet snack along with the coffee. The coffees at Tartine are delicious, served extra hot, full of strong coffee goodness. 

I  couldn't refrain from tasting before we took a photo. Not even sorry.

The pear tartlet has a smooth, light, creamy and fluffy moist filling, topped off with sliced pears and a clear glaze, in a perfect delicate shortcrust pastry, which was thoroughly enjoyed.  The filling had an ever-so-slight hint of amaretto and almond, reminding us of Nonna's biscotti.  As you can see, we weren't able to wait to eat it til after a photo had been taken. Sorrynotsorry.

The lemon, pistachio and coconut slice was amazing!  From the first bite you're hit with an explosion of lemon and coconut in an incredibly refreshing slice.  The filling had the perfect balance of lemon and coconut, topped off with an incredibly lemony icing layer, giving the slice an overall perfect lemon flavour balance.  The only thing I will say about this is that the base was almost impossibly hard to cut through.

Next up is the decadent chocolate, caramel and hazelnut slice. The filling was the highlight - creamy, sprinkled through with roasted hazelnut with a deep rich, nutty, caramel flavour. The hard base seemed to be another problem in the chocolate, caramel and hazelnut slice, though the chocolate base was almost painful to cut through this time, as well as being dry. The chocolate topping complemented the caramel really well, and it wasn't overly rich.



Overall, we had a really good experience with Tartine Cafe and we highly recommend paying them a visit! We will definitely be revisiting!

Happy foody-ing!

Chocolate lace cookies

Monday afternoon, after a long day at university, I visited a lovely place, full of relaxation and happiness.  This perfect little place is called Procrastination Station, and I visit it with stunning regularity.  It is so easy for me to visit Procrastination Station, because often it's situated in my own house, and 9 times out of 10, it's in my kitchen. It's not my fault I'm always at Procrastination Station. I blame it on assignments and unenthusiastic lecturers and a sore brain.

Anyway, on Monday, mid-assignment, I decided that this blog had a depressing lack of chocolatey indulgence and it needed to be fixed, so off I went to Procrastination Station.  I've made these beauties quite a few times now, and they've always been a hit, mainly because they're the perfect "I'm-eating-away-my-feelings-leave-me-alone" food, which is what stress forces me to do. They are amazing, the perfect pick-me-up.  Rich, sweet, powdery, chocolatey perfection.  So I thought I'd share these pretties with you to make me feel better about myself.

Chocolate Lace Cookies

Makes about 52 - this is not accurate, due to the fact greedy family members stole some away whilst I was baking

225g of dark courveture chocolate
1 1/4 cups of plain/all-purpose flour
1/2 cup of pure cocoa powder
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
8 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1 1/3 cups of caster sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/3 of a cup of milk
Extra caster sugar for rolling
Icing/confectioner's sugar for rolling

Preheat your oven to 180˚C.  Roughly chop the chocolate and melt in a bowl over a pot of simmering water.  Make sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl the chocolate's in.  Once it's done, set aside to cool.  Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa into a bowl.

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until well combined.  Add the melted chocolate.  Put the mixer on low speed and add the milk and dry ingredients, alternating between the two, until just combined.

Divide the dough into halves and wrap with plastic wrap.  Chill in the freezer for about 2 hours or until firm.

Once the dough is done chilling in the freezer with its icecream homies, scoop teaspoon-sized portions and roll them into balls with clean hands.  I found it helps to dampen your hands with water for this bit as they roll more smoothly and less mixture sticks to your hands.  Roll the balls in caster sugar and then toss them in the icing/confectioner's sugar.  Be liberal with the confectioner's sugar as this is what gives the cookies their gorgeous white shells.  Dont be afraid to pile a bit of icing sugar on top of the balls for extra powderyness.

Place the balls onto a tray lined with baking paper, spaced about 2-3 inches apart as they will spread as they cook.  Bake them until the icing sugar splits and the cookies have flattened - about 10-15 minutes.  You can gauge when they're ready by feeling the edges of the cookies.  Once the edges start to harden, it's time to take them out to cool.

When families attack.

Let the cookies cool and enjoy with a tall glass of milk!

A printable version of the recipe can be found below!

Macarons!

 

Well, it's been a while and I can only apologise, though there are other things in life that require your attention more than a blog post at times.  But, this post is about something so good that I think we can forget about the lack of posts and enjoy a stroll down the road towards diabetes together with this super sweet one.

Over this past weekend I was put in charge of making some cupcakes for a First Communion.  As soon as this was decided there was no shortage of ideas in my magnificent mind. First, I knew there absolutely had to be super rich chocolate cupcakes somewhere in this project and second: there had to be macarons involved as well. Yep. Macarons and cupcakes. Together.  A match made in heaven, seriously.

So, I took to my Zumbo book again - a little nervously - and made his macarons.  The first time I tried Zumbo's macarons - or "Zumbarons" as he refers to them - was for Easter of this year.  Let's just say that they weren't very pretty.  I didn't use a stencil to make sure each macaron was perfectly round and were all the same size like I did this time (which I highly recommend you do if you're a macaron newbie like me.  It really makes a difference) so they were as big as the palm of my hand and all weird shapes.  The chocolate ganache that I made was runny and just flooded out of the macarons, not to mention I wanted to make the macarons a lovely lime green colour but what really happened was a putty green disaster. If there's one thing I hate most in the world it's putting something you're not very proud of up in front of your family to eat and you know your creation is yuck and you know they think so too but they're too nice to say what they really think which I think is something along the lines of, "what the heck is this, you failure?! BACK TO THE KITCHEN."  So you can see why I was a bit nervous travelling down macaron territory again.  I wasn't looking forward to getting gang bashed by desserts while they screamed in my face how inadequate I was.  But it's okay. I've learned and it's in the past now.

This time round, they were glorious and I was so so happy with the small chubby macarons that I produced.  The prettiness and yummyness boxes were all ticked.

Macarons - recipe from Zumbo by Adriano Zumbo

300g of almond meal
300g of pure icing (confectioners' sugar)
110g of egg whites, room temperature (the amount of eggs you'll need will vary depending on their size)
75mL of water
Food colouring (make them pretty)
2g of powdered egg white (because I'm lazy, I didn't bother with this. It just seemed redundant and they turned out perfect without it)
110g egg whites, extra, at room temperature

Grease 3 large baking trays and line with non-stick baking paper.  I drew small circles 2cm in diameter on the back of the baking paper as a guide.  You don't want the circles to be much larger than that for small macarons because the batter will relax after you pipe it and spread a little. 

Sift almond meal and icing sugar together into a large bowl.  Put the egg whites into an electric mixer and set aside while you complete the next step.

Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved (after about 7 minutes).  While you're doing this make sure to wash down the sides of the saucepan with water on a pastry brush to avoid crystallisation.  Increase the heat and bring to the boil.  At this stage, add the food colouring.  Cook until the mixture reaches 118˚C.  When it gets close to this temperature add the powdered egg whites (if you're using them) to the egg whites in the mixing bowl and whisk on medium speed until frothy. 

Once the sugar syrup is at the right temperature, increase the mixer speed to high and pour the syrup in a steady stream down the side of the bowl.  Whisk until warm, about 8 minutes.  Add the extra egg whites to the dry ingredients and then add the meringue.  Using a spatula, fold the mixture together until well combined and until it begins to loosen, softening the meringue.  When the mixture falls slowly off the spatula, you've got the right consistency to start piping. 

Transfer the mixture to a piping bag and pipe straight down onto your prepared baking trays.  Make sure you leave a substantial gap between your macarons.  If you have the right texture, the macaron will soften again slightly and the tip on top of the macaron will drop leaving a smooth top. 

Leave the macarons at room temperature for 30 minutes or until a skin forms.  This skin will lift when they are cooking, giving the macarons their distinctive foot at their base.  Preheat the oven to 135˚C.  To test if the macarons are ready, gently touch one with your fingertip to check that a light skin has formed - the macarons should not be sticky.

Bake the macarons for 16 minutes, until they have a firm outer shell. Remove from the oven and set aside for 2 minutes, then carefully remove one macaron with a spatula to check that the base is also cooked and dry.  If the base is still slightly sticky, return the macarons to the oven for 2-3 minutes and then check again.  Cool the macarons completely on the trays.


Now that your shells are ready, you might like to match up likely pairs of macaron shells to sandwhich together before you make the ganache!  For the filling, I just made a simple dark chocolate ganache.

Simple Dark Chocolate Ganache

150g of pouring/whipping cream
200g good quality dark chocolate
60g unsalted butter, softened

Put the cream in a small saucepan and bring to the boil.  Remove from the heat and add the chocolate, set aside for 3 minutes.  Stir until the ganache is glossy and smooth.  Set aside and let cool for 5 minutes.  Using a stick mixer, blitz in the butter until smooth.  Set the mixture aside to cool until it becomes firm enough to pipe.

Pipe the ganache on the bottom of one macaron shell and sandwhich it with its pair.

Enjoy!!

If you would like to check out more of Adriano Zumbo's amazing creations (which, trust me, you do) then click here to go to his website.  If you'd like to buy a copy of his book Zumbo where this macaron recipe is from plus many many more delightful recipes click here.

First Post & Cupboard Brownies!

Welcome to S'morish! Here we will be posting delicious treats for you to make at home, so you too can experience the happy rush that slightly elevated blood sugar levels bring. There is no doubt that you can see through this whole blog facade and know that the real reason we're doing this is to justify making "diabetes bombs" every week.

This first post will be a quick little background post plus a yummy snack to follow! We're two cousins who grew up cooking with our Nonna from a very young age. In the traditional Italian style, we were being trained to become housewives from two years of age, helping cook pasta, biscotti and sugo... while also watering the garden for Nonno. 

Growing up, we were constantly surrounded by yummy food, having free reign over fresh ingredients from Nonno's garden and having piled plates shoved in front of us because Nonna thought we weren't eating enough.  One of the most vivid memories we have of our early childhood is running through Nonno's towering tomato vines, mini-Natasha snacking on freshly picked tomatoes and mini-Alexia assuming the role of bee magnet amongst the basil.  As you can imagine, this is where the fun began...

And now we find ourselves starting this blog.  We thought a blog was a great way to keep a "cooking journal" of all the recipes we've tried and loved and maybe even some we didn't love so much.  We love inducing a sugar coma upon our families and so we thought we'd share our little baking escapades with you so you could do the same.

So after our short and sweet little intro comes a short and sweet little recipe.  This recipe is from Natasha's collection of goodies she loves to make and they're always a fudgey hit with everyone who gets a chance to try them.

 

Cupboard Brownies

125g unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, cold
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons cocoa
Pinch of salt
Dash of vanilla


Preheat oven to 180˚C and grease brownie tin (a square 19cm pan).

Mix together melted butter and sugar.

Add 2 eggs one at a time beating well after each.

Add vanilla.

Mix in flour, cocoa and salt.

Bake until almost done (~20mins)

Leave to cool in tin for 5 minutes.

When cool dust with icing sugar. The look above was achieved using a stencil.