The Sweet Escape Issue 02

ISSUE 02 - MAY/JUNE 2013

the swe et esca p e

A UNSW BAKING SOCIETY PUBLICATION

(C) 2013 UNSW BAKING SOCIETY All Rights Reserved.

The text, images and graphics used within this publication have been reproduced with permission where applicable from their original owners/writers. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or used in any manner without the prior approval of the publisher.

The UNSW Baking Society is proudly sponsored by ARC

http://www.unswbakesoc.org

http://www.facebook.com/unswbakesoc

info@unswbakesoc.org

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WELCOME A place for bakers, tasters, writers and photographers to come together and share our love for the sweeter side of life...

WITH THANKS TO editor-in-chief Katherine Eugenio

unsw bakesoc president Ahmad Shah Idil

graphics & design Hugo Chan

special contributors

recipes and tips

Chantalle Duffin Nouha Elmasri Katherine Eugenio Veronica Mazourova Lee-Helena Rosolen Andrew Shim

Daniel Aubry Katherine Eugenio Natalie Fung Veronica Mazourova

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Hello everyone! The smell of delicious cake continues to waft through campus and you can be sure we’ve had a pretty big part in that!

The year was off to a rolling start, with our Annual Welcome Brunch a huge success, as it always is.

With an event every week (minimum!) in addition to our weekly meetings, our society’s popularity continues to grow, and we as your executive team will continue to cater to your demands.

The weekly meetings have been a huge success this year, with more interest than ever before, with on average about 50 members attending a week. Who can blame them, with such great company on offer (not to mention free food).

Get excited for more baking events! We hope to see you there.

The President, Ahmad Shah Idil

a note from the editor

the baker in command Whenever I check and upload posts onto the UNSW Baking Society Facebook page, I love to look through the photo albums filled with some of the pictures from our recent events. I think to myself, ‘What an awesome society I’m part of! Look at all the crazy, exciting places we’ve been to and the things we’ve done!’ I hope each of you who joined the society this year feel exactly the same way.

Be prepared, because we definitely have a lot more going on this year. The excitement has just begun.

Since the launch of our first issue, we’ve received a few new contributions for this issue of The Sweet Escape. You’ll love the stories and experiences some of our members have to share which most of you might be able to relate to. We might not have a story on why people choose to bake, but we sure have one on what it’s like to live with someone who does. Perhaps most of you will relate to the excessive eating of cake, tasting icing or helping out with the decorating. As an avid baker, I opened my eyes to a completely new perspective and realised I shouldn’t expect my family to eat everything I bake in one day, especially when I bake two days in a row.

We hope you enjoy this issue of The Sweet Escape.

It’s definitely much sweeter and you’ll discover why!

Katherine Eugenio, Sweet Escape Editor

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contents

2013 BEGINS

BakeSoc @ O-Week 2013 p. 09 The Welcome Brunch p. 13

HANGING OUT WITH BAKESOC

BourkeSt Bakery by Andrew Shim

Black Flower by Veronica Mazourova

CAKE CRITIQUES

Bay Vista by Nouha Elmasri The Gardener’s Lodge by Katherine Eugenio Words of an Excessive Baker by Chantalle Duffin Science is a Treat by Lee-Helena Rosolen

p. 16 p. 16

p. 19 p. 21 p. 23 p. 25

PROCRASTIBAKE

Lamingtons p. 29 Orange Poppy Seed Cupcakes p. 31 Melting Moments p. 33 Russian Brownies p. 35 Hot Cross Buns p. 37 ANZAC Cookies p. 39

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies p. 41

BAKING 101

Butter Cookies by Natalie Fung Brown Sugar Baking by Daniel Aubry

KNOW OUR MEMBERS

How do you like your Butter?

p. 43 p. 45

p. 47

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BakeSoc started off the year with a little stall on the main UNSW walkway during Orientation week. During the entire week, we offered new and existing members a treat and a sticker to ease them into joining the society.

Each day, with a new flavoured treat, we drew in more and more members and interest in the society. We won people over with our talks about baking classes, patisserie trips and an excessive amount of cake they should be expecting during the year. Over the entire week, our society grew from 391 in 2012 to 1050 in 2013!

Our final menu came down to: Monday: Croquembouche, Pink Vanilla Cupcakes and Salted Caramel Cupcakes Tuesday: Choc Mint Cupcakes, Peanut Butter Melting Moments, Lamingtons, Vanilla Cupcakes and Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Wednesday: Orange and Poppy Seed Cupcakes, Salted Caramel Cupcakes, Lamingtons, Salted Caramel Macarons, Earl Grey Macarons, Vanilla Cupcakes with Nutella Buttercream.

Thursday: Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes, Cherry and Walnut Brownies, Lamingtons, Red Velvet Melting Moments.

Friday: Strawbery Meringue Cupcakes.

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BAKESOC WELCO

OME BRUNCH 2013 Our first society event for the year was the BakeSoc Annual Welcome Brunch. Falling on the second Wednesday of the semeter, we started off with an event that would welcome our new and returning members with free food to share and a chance to meet and mingle with other members.

This year, we worked up our appetites with three active games for some fun and entertainment.

'Cupcake Roulette' was first up, with six out of 24 cupcakes filled with vegemite.

Our members were asked to come out one by one, introduce themselves then take a cupcake at random and find out their fate- safe from the vegemite surprise or not!

We took a journey back to when bowls and whisks were all that were available to stiffen egg whites. Some members utilised their skills in the 'Egg Whisking' game, versing each other to see who would be brave enough to hold beaten egg whites over their head and be crowned the fastest egg whisker.

Our last game took some group effort and five groups were given the chance to master the art of cake decorating. Each group fought for icing, sprinkles, food colouring, piping bags and other decorations to decorate their cakes in order to impress our BakeSoc members and win a giant sized macaron.

Overall, the Welcome Brunch stands as one of our most popular BakeSoc events and we thank everyone who brought a dessert along to share with fellow members and showed us their baking skills.

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HANGING O U T WITH BAKESOC we at bakesoc love visiting patisseries around sydney, sampling new flavours of cakes and treating ourselves to other svoury goods as well. patisserie trips are a fun way for members to mingle and get together to ravish over the delicious pastries we’re served with. this year, we started off with two patisserie trips - blackflower patisserie and bourke st. patisserie. we even got a few exclusive treats from these visits, which you can read about in our new section.

Bourke St. Patissierie

By Andrew Shim

Bourke Street Bakery was not located in the easiest of venues. Nestled in an odd corner of Pott’s Point, the bakery was only accessible through the labyrinthine King’s Cross. The journey to this place was therefore rather surreal. When we finally found the bakery and ordered the $45 tasting platter, the first dish that the place served us was baked breads with fig jam. And it was indeed perfect. Fluffy in the inside, with an earthy crust, the bread married gorgeously with the fig jam’s sweetness. Although the bread was also served with duck liver pâté, the jam and the bread were the winners of the entrée round.

The second course of the tasting platter was butterflied spatchcock with green beans and snapper en papillote, with a side of “special lettuce”. The snapper was tender, while the spatchcock impressed: normally, chicken breast or any poultry can be as dry as cardboard, but the spatchcock avoided that fate, thankfully. However, the “special lettuce” consisted of little more than lettuce with grated parmesan cheese and anchovies.

Bourke Street Bakery redeemed itself on the desserts front, however. The waiter - a friendly guy who took care to explain the ingredients in each of the dishes - served us these chocolate mousses that had been frozen, moulded, and sprinkled with grated dark chocolate. These mousses tasted like a paddle pop, but silkier and sweeter, without being cloying. The inclusion of a champagne and cherry jelly in the middle of the mousse definitely helped. Finally, we were given assorted, homemade confectionaries, including a caramel fudge, raspberry jubes, and dark chocolate morsels which were not bitter at all. We didn’t particularly like the raspberry jubes, which reminded us suspiciously of something from the Natural Confectionary Company.

All in all, though, we were pretty happy. Especially when the Bourke Street Bakery gave away more of that fluffy bread as a take-home treat. We may have looked like idiots, walking down King’s Cross on a Friday and gnawing at bread like a toddler. However, a journey begins with a single step - and those steps we made to visit Bourke Street Bakery will most definitely not be our last.

Blackflower Patisserie

By Veronica Mazourova

Blackflower, a spacious patisserie located in the branching streets of Chinatown, was the first patisserie trip to kick off 2013. With around 15 members attending the trip on a typical Tuesday afternoon, it was a successful day of mingling with members and trying a range of Asian inspired desserts.

The storefront was completely opened up to the road, with benches along the edge to enjoy the breeze during a hot day. Inside this modern café were contemporary cakes, macarons and quiches, as well as treats with distinctly Asian-inspired flavours of sweet miso and caramel, green tea matcha and Thai milk tea. The cakes were rectangle and layered, topped off with decorations of macarons and piping. There were also dome shaped treats which were perfectly round and bright with colour.

Macaron towers, all different in size and colour, were set up on top of glass cabinets next to macaron cookbooks. The menu allowed the patisserie to fit very well into the atmosphere of Chinatown, setting it apart from other patisseries in the area.

The owners of Blackflower were very friendly and provided the society with three complimentary cakes to share between us. We were even greeted with a new creation from the chefs in the kitchen- a white chocolate shortbread filled with a green tea marshmallow and yuzu jam, as well as a generous helping of liquid white choclate on the side- in which a few fortunate remaining members got an exclusive taste.

The cakes we tried and shared were all delicious.

We bought cake after cake (and of course a few macarons) and stayed and chatted to the managers and fellow members for well over two hours. The friendly and modern atmosphere of this patisserie is enough to motivate us to drop in for another visit to enjoy some more delicious treats they have to offer.

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We’ve expanded our sweet escapes in this issue with reviews on living the sweet life in cafes across Sydney and exploring ways life can get sweeter through the people and confectionary innovations around us. In this issue, Nouha Elmasri reviews Brighton Le Sand’s Bay Vista while our editor Katherine hits closer to the CBD with High Tea from The Gardener’s Lodge. Chantalle Duffin talks about what it’s like to live with an excessive baker, while Lee-Helena Rosolen discovers how life can be sweeter by consuming edible candy wrappers. Let us know your thoughts by emailing us at publications@unswbakesoc.org!

CAKE CRIQITUES

Pancakes, ice cream and drizzles of delicious, gooey caramel sauce: what could be more indulgent?

In this review, Baking Society member Nouha Elmasri takes a trip to Brighton-Le-Sands to savour the sweets of one of the popular spots of Grand Parade, Bay Vista. by: nouha elmasri

“Sleep till you’re hungry, eat till you’re sleepy.” It’s pretty much my life motto and apparently it is dessert bar Bay Vista’s too. Located along Brighton-Le-Sands’ Grand Parade, Bay Vista boasts a beautiful view and a menu that would appeal to even the most discerning dessert connoisseur.

Bay Vista is one of the most popular spots in Brighton.

While open all day, the café comes alive at night. The eclectic décor is inviting and the warm, ambient lighting casts a shadow over the entire café, leaving just enough light to decipher the amusing homage to dessert plastered across the back wall.

The vast menu boasts everything from decadent Belgian waffles, crepes with masses of fillings from fresh and fruity to rich and sickly (Snickers crepe, I’m looking at you) to ice-cream bowls the size of my head. The dessert bar also showcases a cabinet loaded with multi-coloured macarons, cheesecakes, pies and a towering chocolate fountain.

As it was stifling on my most recent visit I decided on ice-cream. My dessert of choice, ‘Africa Wild’, was three scoops of toffee ice-cream layered with honeycomb chunks and peanuts, topped off with whipped cream and finished with lashings of caramel sauce.

Sadly, fearing I’d soon find myself in a lactose induced coma I was forced to stop eating a little over half way through. This however did not deter me from stealing a bite of my friends’ desserts. First up, pancakes, light and fluffy and doused in maple syrup and secondly, warm sticky date pudding floating in a puddle of butterscotch sauce.

While the desserts are delectable there are a few off putting aspects to the dessert bar and, seeing as I’m not being paid by Bay Vista to write this (although I’d happily lie for money) I shall now point them out. As I mentioned before, Bay Vista is very popular. This popularity means long queues and slow service. It is always noisy and to add to this there is always club music loudly pounding throughout the café – even if you happen to visit at three in the afternoon.

Secondly, I’m a bit of a caffeine fiend. I especially love coffee with my dessert, I find it cuts through the sweetness and cleanses the palate so I’m disappointed to say that the coffee is not great.

In saying this though Bay Vista is an experience in itself and the desserts are amazing. The half hour wait for a table is well worth it in the end.

Bay Vista Dessert Bar & Cafe 83 The Grand Parade Brighton-Le-Sands NSW 2216 Australia

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High tea wasn’t traditionally an elite social gathering.

In fact, the origins of high tea simply come from the same ideals of ‘afternoon tea’. After a hard day at work, working class people would sit at a table and consume heavy dishes of meat or fish and heavy baked goods.

Our editor Katherine reviews one of Sydney’s heritage sites, transformed into a café as a perfect place for high tea. Just like the history of The Gardener’s Lodge, the café also brings us back to the traditions of high tea.

By: Katherine Eugeino

The Gardener’s Lodge isn’t just all sweet treats or high tea. Sit down and order a pie or two.

For me, high tea screams petit fours, scones with jam and cream and finger sandwiches with the crust cut off, all served on a three-tiered platter. Since I’ve never had the opportunity to have a high tea experience, I’ve always had this image wedged in my mind, until the day I set foot in The Gardener’s Lodge.

This stone-wall cottage stands as a heritage-listed building and was transformed into a modern café for the enjoyment of having a cup of coffee after a stroll in the nine-hectare Victoria Park. People can come in and read of the cottage’s history on plaques set up across the walls or enjoy treats using some of Australia’s native ingredients such as warrigal greens and wattle seed.

The inside of the cafe is beautifully decorated with white walls, light wooden tables with chairs with intricate designs. On a sunny day, the outside setting would be perfect to indulge in treats and overlook the garden in the park. The treats in the glass cabinet range from cheesecakes of coffee, blueberry and passionfruit flavour and other small cakes and muffins for the sweet tooth.

The Gardener’s Lodge isn’t just all sweet treats or high tea. Sit down and order a pie or two.

With unlimited tea and coffee to kick off the high tea experience, the first course was Buttermilk Pancakes with Wattle Seed and Ricotta. The buttermilk pancakes were very soft and fluffy and if I came for breakfast, I would happily order a larger serving. The wattle seeds weren’t sweet, so pairing it up with the ricotta cheese, the two ingredients balanced the sweetness from the pancakes and the maple syrup that was drizzled over them.

With the first course done, the tiered plates slowly made their way to the table. Three tiered plates were placed on the table- a savoury course, a sweet course and a tiered plate of salad dressed with balsamic vinegar dressing.

On the top level of the savoury plate were Smoked Salmon and Sweet Potato Roulades. The filling was encased in a flaky sweet potato wrap and the salmon was just full of that beautiful smoky flavour. The second tier had Spinach and Ricotta Tarts. The pastry was rather sweet, almost like a sweet shortcrust pastry, but nevertheless, the texture made the tart very crumbly and soft. Spinach and ricotta is always a great combination. The last tier on the savoury plates were Lamb Skewers with Tzatziki. This was something that I found really unexpected in high tea, but I think it’s good that the cafe is breaking out of the norms and moving back to the origins of high tea.

The dessert plate was served the same time as the savoury plates but unlike the savoury dishes, we had to share the cakes between each of us. We were given Carrot Cake, Creme Brulee Cheesecake, Coffee and Caramel Cheesecake, Blueberry Cheesecake, Passionfruit Cheesecake, Chocolate Mud Cake and an Orange Syrup Cake.

For my first high tea experience, it definitely exceeded my expectations. Not only was I able to try a range of new food, but I was also able to just indulge in a little social gathering that comes with the experience of high tea. High tea isn’t always what you think it is and I think The Gardener’s Lodge did a fantastic job by taking a modern and contemporary twist in a classic food dining concept.

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WORDS OF AN EXCESSIVE BAKER: “EAT THE DAMN CAKE!” By: Chantalle Duffin

Most of us know what it’s like to be the baker, but what about being the one who lives with a baker?

Who cleans the pans, takes photos and tests out the icing?

Chantalle Duffin reveals all about what it’s like to live with an excessive baker.

I love to eat. I love to eat so much that I could pretty much tuck in to anything shoved in front of me without a second thought about what’s in it - questions later right?

But I do start to question my love for all things that is food when I internally groan at the sight of a Kitchen Aid. I once loved cupcakes, cake and pretty much everything else that falls in the baked goods category, but now I shudder at the thought of even eating one voluntarily.

I knew my life was in store for a radical change when butter, flour and icing sugar were suddenly bought in bulk (and when I say bulk, I mean in bulk). You start to question things when Costco starts becoming your weekend hang out, when various shaped baking pans and measuring spoons are left scattered throughout the house, and when every waking moment is spent discussing some sort of icing (who knew there were so many types?). Ladies and gents, welcome to the not so secret life of an excessive baker’s daughter.

Living with a baker means that you suddenly become the resident photographer. You involuntarily learn about things that would otherwise hold absolutely no appeal to you, but you hold back that sigh because you want to be that supportive encouraging daughter and you don’t fancy having pans thrown at you.

You also start to familiarize yourself with what sort of lighting and at what time of the day you need in order to take a winning photo (afternoon to early evening I’ve learnt is a no go). You know the difference between fondant and fondue, that red velvet cake is secretly a chocolate cake playing dress ups with red colouring, and that Wilton is more than just an ordinary name.

Then slowly everything you once knew becomes a lie - crumb coating is no longer about battering a piece of chicken schnitzel, dental floss can be used to cut dough, and zip lock bags can be more than just a zip lock bag.

Living with a baker also means that you must put up with whatever crazy invention they come up with. In my house, every week brings around a new project of some sort.

This week it was arranging cupcakes in a flower bouquet.

Now let me just say I am a very patient person. I can handle slow readers, annoying children, nagging customers, but I cannot handle arranging already iced hydrangea cupcakes onto toothpicks into a Styrofoam ball. That seriously requires a new definition of patience!

But for those who don’t have one, they believe living with a baker is a blessing in disguise. The most common (and annoying) phrase that I hear thrown around my group of friends is about how lucky I am that my mother conjures up glorious baked goods for me every other day. You hear things like, ‘Oh you’re SO lucky that your mum bakes for you!’ or ‘Oh it must be SO much fun baking all the time!’

I smile and nod but roll my eyes inwardly. Oh you naïve people, so little do you know!

But I up with it all because at the end of the day I love my mum and will do whatever she asks me, even if it means abandoning my assignment that is due at 5pm that day to check how sweet her icing is, or test out how moist her cake is. Just watching how happy she gets when her new project is a success is enough to stop me from throwing in my apron and declaring my resignation as apprentice/ slave worker.

Being the non-baker can be fun at times, and it can be quite fascinating watching the whole process come alive. And sometimes it’s fun getting icing all over my shirts without realising how the hell it got there in the first place. Living with a baker does have it perks. It means I never have to buy a birthday cake ever again, so that’s a plus right?

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Science is a Treat:

A pun-filled, soft-centred chocolate affair By: Lee-Helena Rosolen Imagine using chocolate for your brownies and instead of throwing away the plastic, you simply chop it up and add it to your baking. Lee-Helena Rosolen takes a look at the innovation of edible sweet wrappers that could possibly turn chocolate lovers into candy wrapper lovers too.

Carefully, she removes the delicate wrapping. Her tiny fingers hasten at her eagerness. The rustling intensifies.

She salivates at the thought of such decadence, her face animated. The heat of her fingers melts slight oval indentations in the chocolate cube. Cracking into the hard coating, she releases the caramel filling; an emulsion of flavours dance upon her tongue in a theatrical masterpiece. Licking her lips with utmost satisfaction, she picks up the shiny wrapper and walks over to the bin. She hesitates. Then, in one swift movement she slips it in her mouth and chews until there is nothing remaining.

With greener options on everyone’s agenda, it is timely that scientists from a major U.S. company, possibly an alias for Willy Wonka himself, have introduced new viable methods for edible sweet wrappers.

For centuries, chocolate has grown to be synonymous with the word indulgence. Who do we call during periods of sheer laziness? Chocolate. Who do we call at times that we deem to be our ‘end of the world’, cataclysmic and mood intensifying moments, mimicking that of a Gossip Girl finale? Chocolate. Who are you going to call if there’s something strange in your neighbourhood?

Everybody together now! Ghostbusters! Yeah, don’t call chocolate for that one. You really do need to send in the experts for that.

The pouches, dubbed the WikiCells from WikiCell Designs, are ultra-thin membranes that mimic that of fruit, similar to a grape skin.

These ideas dominated the 245th American Chemistry Society’s National Meeting and Exposition on April 7 this year. Although this technology has been around for some time, it seems that is now more likely to hit the commercial and possibly, even the global market.

This could eliminate any potential ‘rocky roads’ ahead for chocolate enthusiasts. You can now savour the taste of your sweet without worrying about what to do with the packaging.

Clean Up Australia estimates that Australians use an excess of 6 billion plastic bags per year. Add this to the fact that it takes anywhere between 20 to 1000 years for plastic wrapping to decay.

However, is this innovative notion going to be as readily devoured by the public? Something so foreign and possibly costly could be off-putting to a consumer, leading to a meltdown of (licorice) all-sorts.

These figures when weighed against the few seconds it takes to dissolve these edible wrappers, is a sweet substitution for a sustainable environment.

This move could potentially put the manufacturing of plastic wrapping and their employees under the chocolate block, I mean, chopping block.

Want to try this at home?

There is also a much easier and adaptable recipe for edible wrapping. All you need is a petri dish, glycerine and powdered gelatin. In a warm saucepan, add 1 drop of glycerine and 5g of powdered gelatin to 400g of water, stirring until all is melted. Pour a very thin layer (about 5g) of mixture into the dish. Leave it covered in a warm and dry place for 24 hours. When it is dry, peel away and twist them around your treats. This novel idea will guarantee entertainment and praise from all your guests!

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With the success of some of our baked goods from O-Week, Welcome Brunch and our weekly meetings, we’ve decided to share our recipes in this issue of The Sweet Escape. Prepare to ‘procrastibake’ with a range of moist cakes, slices and crumbly treats.

We’ve also provided you with recipes from our Baking Classes so those of you who missed out will be able to recreate these amazing treats at home!

lamingtons

in chocolate and desiccated coconut Desiccated coconut, chocolate icing and a super moist vanilla sponge cake.

Whether you make them large or small, these are surely the ‘moistest’ lamingtons you will ever try.

Cake

Icing

125g softened butter 1 cup caster sugar ½ tsp vanilla extract 3 eggs 1 ¾ cup self-raising flour ½ cup milk

3 ½ cup icing sugar ¼ cup cocoa powder 1 tbsp softened butter ½ cup boiling water 2 cups desiccated coconut

Preheat oven to 160 degrees, grease a 20x30 cm baking dish and line with baking paper.

Add all ingredients together and whisk until smooth.

Place the coconut in a separate bowl.

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time. If you melt your butter beforehand, this may make the mixture curdle so make sure you give the butter plenty of time to soften by itself.

Add the milk and flour in two batches.

Spoon into the baking pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Let it cool completely, wrap in cling wrap and freeze.

Cut up the frozen cake and cover in the coco mixture, then cover in coconut. Place on wire rack until the mixture has dried enough to either serve or put into a container.

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orange poppy seed cupcakes with white icing and orange zest Elegant and perfect for tea time, this classic orange and poppy seed combination is ideal for sweet cupcakes needing a fresh, fruity, citrus punch.

Cupcakes

Icing

130g butter (at room temperature) 3/4cup white sugar 2 eggs 1¼ self-raising flour 1/2 cup cornflour 1/3 cup milk 2 tbsp poppy seeds 1 tbsp orange zest

250g butter (at room temperature) 3 cups icing sugar 2 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 180°C. With an electric mixer, beat together the butter & white sugar until well-mixed. Add the eggs and beat until wellcombined and pale in colour.

Add the self-raising flour, cornflour, milk, poppy seeds and zest and beat until well-mixed, scraping down the sides of the bowl halfway.

Line a standard twelve cupcakes pan with patties and spoon the mixture in until half full, and bake for 12-15 min, rotating halfway through if oven heats unevenly. Leave to cool on wire rack before icing.

Mix butter, icing sugar & milk with a mixer until it begins to pale in colour and is light and fluffy.

Chef’s Tips: Make sure your butter is at room temperature before you begin or you will have a hard time mixing everything together well. Plan in advance!

Do not attempt to ice your cupcakes before cooling them. You will be tempted by the delicious smell, but you will cry as the icing melts into a puddle of oil.

For the professional look we achieve with our BakeSoc cupcakes, we ice them using wide star pastry tips and a piping bag.

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melting moments peanut butter & nutella

Soft and delicate, these biscuits in peanut butter and nutella will surely melt your heart as well as your tastebuds.

Peanut Butter Cookies

200g unsalted butter, softened 50g peanut butter ¼ cup icing sugar ¼ cup cornflour 1 ½ cup plain flour

Filling

100g unsalted butter, softened 2 cups icing sugar 50g peanut butter

Nutella Cookies

200g unsalted butter, softened 50g nutella ¼ cup icing sugar ¼ cup cornflour ¼ cup cocoa powder 1 ½ cup plain flour

Filling

100g unsalted butter, softened 2 cups icing sugar 50g nutella

Method

(Use for both Peanut Butter and Nutella Cookies) Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Line two baking trays with baking paper and set aside.

Cream together the butter, peanut butter/Nutella and icing sugar until all combined. Add in the cornflour then the plain flour (and cocoa powder if making Nutella cookies), continuously beating after each addition to combine.

Place cookie dough into a piping bag fitted with a flower nozzle. Evenly space out and pipe rosettes, roughly 3cm in diameter, onto the tray. Place in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before filling.

To make the filling: Beat together butter, icing sugar and peanut butter/Nutella in a large bowl until it reaches a good, spreadable consistency.

To assemble: Pipe the filling onto half the cookies then sandwich together.

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russian brownies cherry & walnut

A recipe brought to the BakeSoc members by one of our executives, these will prove to be moist, crunchy and just plain delicious!

250 g unsalted butter 200 g dark chocolate (cut into rough chunks) 75 g dried sour cherries, optional 50 g chopped nuts, optional 80 g cocoa powder, sifted 65 g plain flour, sifted 1 teaspoon baking powder 360 g caster sugar 4 large eggs Preheat your oven to 180°C and line a 25cm square baking tin with baking paper.

In a large bowl over some simmering water, melt the butter and the chocolate and mix until smooth.

Add the cherries and nuts, if using them, and stir together.

Allow to cool in the tray, then carefully transfer to a large chopping board and cut into chunky squares.

Chef’s Tips:

In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and sugar, then add this to the chocolate, cherry and nut mixture. Stir together well.

Do not overcook them! Unlike cakes, you do not want a skewer inserted to come out all clean. The brownies should be slightly springy on the outside but still gooey in the middle.

Beat the eggs and mix in until you have a silky consistency.

Good quality chocolate makes for good quality brownies!

Pour your brownie mix into the baking tray, and place in the oven for around 25 minutes.

hot cross buns

plain sultana | cinnamon apple | double chocolate Our first BakeSoc class involved creating these lovely Easter treats.

Try out one of our three delicious flavours: Cinnamon Apple, Chocolate and Sultana.

Making the Buns

Flour Paste & Glaze

1 x 7g sachet dried yeast 150ml milk/soy milk ¼ cup caster sugar 2 cups plain flour pinch of salt 1 tbsp oil 1 egg, lightly beaten

2 tbsp plain flour 2-3 tbsp water (B) ½ tsp cinnamon (C) 1 tsp cocoa

(A) ½ cup sultanas (B) 1 tsp cinnamon (B) ½ cup diced apples (C) ¼ cup cocoa powder (C) ¼ cup choc-chips Preheat oven to 190°C and line a baking tray with non-stick paper.

Warm the milk/soymilk in a saucepan or microwave and stir in a teaspoon of the sugar. Place in a bowl and sprinkle the yeast over it and wait 5-10 minutes until it begins to foam.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, remaining sugar and salt. (B) Add the 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

(C) Add the ¼ cup cocoa powder.

Add to this dry mixture the oil, egg and yeast mixture and mix with hands until it comes together into a soft dough.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for ~10 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.

(A) Add the sultanas and knead in until well distributed. (B) Add the diced apples and gently knead in (taking care not to pulverise the apples.

(C) Add the choc-chips and knead in.

Form dough into a ball, cover it in oil (to prevent drying) and place back into the bowl. Allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in volume. Punch dough down and knead gently until smooth.

Divide into 6 even portions, and shape them into balls. Place balls onto the tray approximately 1 cm apart and allow to rise again until doubled volume.

½ cup icing sugar 1 tbsp milk/soy milk (B) ½ tsp cinnamon (C) 1 tbsp cocoa

Making flour paste and baking buns Mix the flour, water and (B)/(C) to form a paste.

Add extra water if too thick. Pipe over the buns to form crosses (use a piping bag, or a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off). Bake for 20-25 minutes until done.

Making the glaze In a cup, mix together the icing sugar, milk/soy milk and (B)/(C). Microwave for 30 seconds until it begins to warm, and mix well. Pour or brush over warm buns.

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white macadamia & choc-chip cookies 137g butter, softened 1/2 cup vegetable oil 3/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1 egg 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (if making white macadamia cookies) 200g white chocolate chips 1/2 cup macadamia, coarsely chopped (if making chop-chip cookies) ½ cup milk choc chips ½ cup dark choc chips

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the oil. Beat in egg. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.

Divide the dough in half and stir in either the white macadamias, or choc chips. Cover and chill dough for 1 hour. Place tbsp. amounts of dough in the shape of balls onto baking tray 3 inches apart from each other.

Do not flatten them out.

Bake at 175° for 12-14 minutes or until lightly browned.

Let stand a few minutes before removing cookies to a wire rack to cool.

anzac cookies 1 cup (150g) plain flour 1 cup (90g) rolled oats 1 cup (85g) desiccated coconut 3/4 cup (155g) brown sugar 125g butter/margarine, softened 2 tbsp golden syrup 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 2 tbsp water

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Stir in the oats, coconut and brown sugar.

Put the butter, golden syrup and 2 tbs water in a small saucepan. Stir over a medium heat until melted. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda. Pour the butter mixture into the flour mixture and stir until combined. Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls. Place on the trays, about 5cm apart.

Press with a fork to flatten slightly. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside on the trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack so it cools completely.

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BAKING 101 the anti-disaster guide for all

Ever wondered what type of brown sugar is best to use in your baking?

Or what butter cookie should you use with royal icing decorating?

In this issue, we’re going back to the basics, starting with a simple butter cookie tutorial that will surely be the start to creating new flavours of cookies and can be used as a base to practise royal icing decorating.

Natalie Fung from ‘What’s in the Box’ is back to give us a step by step tutorial on how to create these beautiful cookies.

Check out Natalie’s BLOG at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Whats-in-thebox/227135894081352 We’ve also got special guest, Dan Aubry, food blogger from Dash of Dan, to give us some tips on what makes sugar, brown sugar.

Be sure to check out his Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/dashofdan or his blog at http://dashofdan.com

This recipe requires: • 1/2 block or 125g of unsalted/salted butter at room temperature • 3/8 cup of caster sugar (more or less depending on preferences) • 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract • pinch of sea salt (eliminate if using salted butter) • half an egg yolk • 1 cup of plain/ all-purpose flour

Step One: Make the Dough!

First you need to beat the butter on low speed using an electric mixer. Add the caster sugar to the butter and continue beating until combined, then beat on high speed for another 2 minutes. The butter mixture should now be pale and fluffy! Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract to the mixture and beat on medium speed until well-combined. Sift in the flour all at once.

Now it is time to pull out your spatula and work that bicep! The mixture will be too thick for the hand mixer to handle! You want to ‘cut through’ the dough and fold in. This will help the flour to slowly merge into the butter mixture without knocking out any air that will help the cookies turn out airy and crispy.

Keep folding the dough until it forms a ball and doesn’t stick to the mixer bowl anymore.

Step Two: Chill the Dough and Shape!

At this stage, there might be different ways you want to construct your cookies. Here are just a few ideas.

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Roll the dough in a log. When chilled, slice the log with a sharp knife to create thin, perfect circle cookies.

Chill the dough as a ball, then roll out and cut shapes with cookie cutters.

Press the center of the cookie and add small amount of jam in the centre. The jam will turn out to be a little chewy and add a very nice texture and flavour to the already crispy and airy butter cookies.

Add chocolate chips to the dough and turn them into choc-chip cookies.

Add around 50g of melted dark chocolate to the dough to get some nice moist chocolate cookies.

We need to chill our dough in the freezer for at least 15 minutes. Chilled dough is much easier to work with. If it gets too hard after chilling just leave it in room temperature until you can easily shape it with your hands.

Step Three: Bake the Cookies!

Line your baking pans with baking paper and gently place the cookies, making sure you leave space between them. Since this recipe involves quite a large proportion of butter, the cookies will spread! If you like to keep the shape, add more flour as well as a little egg yolk, but the cookies will be slightly stiffer and not as fluffy.

In a preheated oven, bake the cookies at 170 degrees Celsius (150 fan-forced) until the edges turn golden brown. Watch closely as it doesn’t take long, especially if you are making small cookies!

Cool them completely on a cooling rack. Be patient as the cooling is crucial!

Make sure they have enough room to breathe or the moisture will be trapped in the cookie and it will no longer be crispy. And after the elongated pain... take a good bite or two of these cookies. You deserve them! Store them in an air tight container with a few paper towels just to absorb the moisture, so the cookies stay crispy for longer!

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BROWN SUGAR BAKING By: Daniel Aubry (Dash of Dan)

One of the most common questions I come across while baking is “What makes sugar, brown sugar?”

Truthfully, I didn’t know until I investigated. And since many baking recipes call for it, it helps to know the differences.

So let’s take a peek, pictured below from left to right, Granulated Brown Sugar, Dark Brown Sugar, Light Brown Sugar. Plus I’ll share some tips for storage, use, and reviving hardened brown sugar.

Granulated Brown Sugar Texture: Dry, loose Color: Light Brown

You’ll often find this sugar along with the others in the baking aisle. Firstly, I would not suggest using it for substitution in baking recipes where brown sugar is called for. It contains no moisture, so creaming it with butter is not an option. But if you do happen to have it in the house, it is a welcome addition on top of cookies, or scones, to get that brown sugar flavor. And when all else fails, throw it in your coffee or tea.

Tips Measuring brown sugar: Always pack the brown sugar into a measuring cup, using the palm of your hand.

Storing your brown sugar: Invest in clear, air-tight canisters. This will ensure you can see the sugar while also keeping it away from air exposure (which will harden the brown sugar). Store in a cool, dry place.

If your brown sugar becomes hardened: Place the brown sugar in a bowl and drape a damp paper towel or kitchen towel on it, let sit overnight. The next morning you’ll have useable brown sugar. If you’re in a pinch… break up the brown sugar as best you can, place on a rimmed baking sheet and place in the oven on a low setting, just enough to get the sugar pliable and to break up. Careful, you don’t want to burn the sugar!

I hope this helps in your future baking adventures!

This article was originally retrieved from: http://dashofdan.com/post/15356642747/baking101-brown-sugar

Dark Brown Sugar

Texture: Very moist, dense, clumps together easily Color: Dark Amber What makes this sugar dark is the increased amount of molasses. It has a much denser feel, and is more moist than regular light brown sugar. Most baking recipes don’t specify what brown sugar you should use, so the choice is entirely up to you. Want a stronger brown sugar flavor or darker pigment? Go with the dark brown sugar. Once in a while a recipe will specify, and if you have dark brown sugar handy, you’ll get a flavor that cannot be replicated.

Light Brown Sugar

Texture: Moist, dense but breaks apart easily Color: Light Amber It’s the most common brown sugar and standard bearer. This sugar features a slight addition of molasses and has a very subtle flavor. Always my go-to for baking, I commonly replace white sugar for brown in cookie recipes, or go half-and-half or a chewier texture. A must have for any baker.

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Butter is considered a staple ingredient when it comes to baking, but just how do our members feel about using it in their baking? We put some of our members under the spotlight and found out how they feel about butter. Here are just some of their responses.

What question do you want our members to answer next?

Send us a tip at publications@unswbakesoc.org!

SAM Aviation I love butter!

JACKY Engineering/Commerce It’s Fat!

AHMAD E M I L Y PHOEBE BakeSoc President If it was legal, I would marry butter.

Commerce I love butter with sugar and bread.

EILEEN & ERICA International Science It’s made for cows.

International Science If I run out of butter, I’d use margarine.

International Studies I love butter!

JACK

Computer Science If I were to choose between butter and margarine, I would choose butter.

CLAUDIA NADAV Engineering It’s messy!

Engineering I would love to roll around in it.

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feel like contributing to the next edition of the sweet escape? drop us an email

publications@unswbakesoc.org

(C) 2013 UNSW BAKING SOCIETY No part of this publication including all images, graphics and text may be copied or reproduced without first seeking the approval of UNSW Baking Society