Secret Cake Club (Take Two) - Profiteroles with Camembert Creme Patisserie

So, given that I don't bake a huge amount, I decided to bake a few things to take to the French Secret Cake Club. Just in case my cheesecake was a massive fail. It wasn't, but I still decided to take my back-up dish as well. Having a whole batch of profiteroles in the house just for Lance and I is never the best idea in the world.

My second French dish is an actual French pastry, with a Skamp-twist. Again, I stuck with the cheese theme, and made a Camembert Creme Patisserie to fill my profiteroles. Fragrancing it with a touch of cardamom and drizzling some dark chocolate ganache over the whole affair.

I remember my nanna making choux pastry when I was little. I didn't know back then that it WAS choux pastry, I just remember it being crazy. Pastry, cooked in a pot? What!? Then when it's baked it turns into Chocolate Dog Bones! Or at least, that's what my brother used to call Eclairs. Then when I was in my early twenties the croquembouche as birthday cake and wedding cake really took off in Perth. I know some people were paying $3.50 per profiterole on the cake, and I automatically assumed that must mean that it was difficult to make a profiterole. I know my nanna used to be a great cook, so it made sense that it was something she'd practiced and perfected. Turns out, profiteroles are actually easy. Like, really easy.

The way the pastry is made requires a little elbow grease, but it comes together pretty simply. Boil the water and butter. Stir in the flour. Cool briefly, stir in the eggs. The hardest part is that the eggs won't immediately want to combine, but they do with a bit of stirring. It takes around 5 minutes of stirring with a wooden spoon. The water in the dough does the rest of the work for you, puffing up the balls into lovely airy pillows.

Make the filling first, so it can cool.

Camembert Creme Patisserie

1 3/4 cups milk
3 cardamom pods
80g camembert, rind removed and chopped
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup + 2 tbsps corn flour, sifted

Warm milk and cardamom pods until a simmer, and add the camembert pieces, stirring to melt the cheese. Whisk yolks and sugar together in a bowl. Add the flour and whisk well.

Sieve the milk to remove the pods and any unmelted lumps of cheese. Pour over the egg mix in a thin stream, and whisk to combine.

Return the whole mix to the saucepan over a medium heat and stir for 5 minutes, until mixture thickens. Pour into a glass bowl and cover surface with plastic wrap. Cool in the fridge.

Profiteroles

(makes about 24)

100g butter, softened
1 cup water
1 cup plain flour
4 eggs

Preheat  oven to 200C

Combine butter and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to melt the butter.

Add the flour in one go. Stir with a wooden spoon to incorporate fully and continue beating mixture until it pulls away from the side of the pan. Remove from heat and set aside to cool 5 - 10 minutes.

One by one, beat the eggs into the mixture. Making sure the first egg is fully incorporated until you add the next.

If you'd like you can pipe the balls, but I just form balls with 2 tablespoons, rolling a bit of dough between the two, then placing on baking paper lined trays. Should make around 24 balls. Sprinkle a bit of water on the trays.

Bake for 15 minutes without opening the door. Then remove, pierce the bottom of each one with a knife or skewer to remove steam. Lower the oven temperature to 170C then bake an additional 5-10 minutes  until golden and dry.

Cool on wire racks before piping the filling in through the hole you made with the knife earlier.

Chocolate Ganache

50mL cream
100g dark chocolate, chopped

Heat the cream in a small pot to a simmer. Take off the heat, and drop the chocolate over the top. Let stand 30 seconds, then stir to a smooth mix. Drizzle over the top of your profiteroles.

Secret Cake Club - Brie Cheesecake

My first foray into cooking was through baking. I used to help mum bake biscuits and cakes all the time when I was little, then when I was old enough, I was off and running doing it by myself. I'd generally work my way through a well-used copy of the Australian Women's Weekly Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits. It remains one of my favourite baking books with simple, no-fail versions of a lot of classic cookies. I have yet to meet a better ANZAC biscuit recipe! As I got older and other things got in the way of baking as a hobby, my cookies skills were stretched in a more 'practical' way and meals have become my focus. But I still love baking, I just don't do it as often. And as such, I haven't experimented as much. I'm more a special occasions baker. Realistically, I'm more of a baked-goods eater, than a baker!

After hearing about the Secret Cake Club, I knew it was something I wanted to get involved in. It was the perfect excuse to get my bake on, and dust off some skills. The theme for the one I scored a place in was French. Now, everything I know about French baking is that it's notoriously 'finicky'...and that it's delicious. People get extremely passionate about their patisseries and I wanted to make something worthy of the theme, and the event. I didn't have time to learn the secrets of a perfect macaron foot. And I didn't want to splurge and buy myself Madeleine or financier trays. And the only French things I've had experience with - souffles and French Toast - are best served immediately (although someone brought a French Toast that was fantastic!)

So, me being me, I thought I'd go a little bit out of the box and bake something "French", rather than a traditional French baked good that I probably wouldn't do justice. So, what's French? For me, that's cheese and wine. Specifically, soft cheeses like Brie and Camembert. And red wine, like a Cab Sauv, or a Burgundy. The idea for a French Cheese French Cheesecake was borne. It just needed a little fleshing out.

One of my other left-field ideas was to use French Lentils as my "Frenchness". I toasted (on a tray in an 165C oven for around 10 minutes) and ground some lentils into flour to experiment with and found they gave a lovely nutty flavour, but made for the crumbliest of biscuits. A little bit of reading informs me that pulse flours need to be used in combination with other flours because of the lack of gluten, and some arrowroot powder will help it 'stick' and bind together. Voila! Perfect. I changed a simple Sables Breton into an even more French Biscuit by adding French Lentils. The cheesecake was bake on top, and the crowning glory comes from Cabernet Sauvignon Caramel Figs. Traditional French? No. Skamp's French? Totally!

French Lentil Sable Breton

makes a 23cm cheesecake -serves 10-12
(adapted from Gourmet Traveller)

240g butter, softened

6 egg yolks

260g caster sugar

1/2 tsp ginger powder

105g french lentil flour

10g arrowroot powder

115g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 165C. Line the bottom of a 23cm springform cake tin with baking powder and lightly grease the tin. 

In a small bowl with a handbeater,beat the butter until very fluffy and pale. This will take around 3 minutes. In a standmixer, whisk the egg yolks until creamy, slowly adding the caster sugar until it's all combined. Beat until this is also very light and fluffy. Add the butter in 3 batches, beating until smooth. Then beat in the ginger.

Turn the beater off, then sift the flours and baking powder over the top, then fold until just combined. Spoon the batter into the tin and smooth down the top. Baked until golden and puffed, around 25 minutes. Set aside to cool completely in the tin.

Brie Cheesecake

350g cream cheese, at room temperature

350g Brie cheese, at room temperature, rind removed.

4 eggs

1/2 cup cream

1/3 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 165C

In a medium bowl with a handbeater, beat the brie until light and fluffy. This will alter in time, depending on the softness of the brie you bought, but it could take a few minutes.

In a standmixer, beat the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth and fluffy. Beat in the brie, then the eggs and cream. Make sure it's well-combined, but don't over beat because the cheese can separate.

Pour the cheesemix over the sable breton base and tap the container on your counter a few times to remove air bubbles.

Fill a roasting tray with boiling water and place it on the bottom rack of the oven. Pop the cheesecake on the middle rack. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until set with a tiny amount of jiggle in the centre.

Set aside to cool to room temperature

Cabernet Sauvignon Caramel Figs

150g sugar

1/4 cup water

2 tbsp Cabernet Sauvignon red wine

1 tsp water

6 figs, sliced into quarters

In a small saucepan, heat the sugar and 1/4 cup of water over medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then leave it to boil and become a lovely caramel colour. Stir via shaking the handle here and there to keep the liquid moving. And brush any sugar crystals that form down with a wet pastry brush.

When caramel coloured, very carefully add the red wine and extra teaspoon of water. It will fizz and spit at you. Stir through and mix until smooth. Using two forks, drop the fig slices in the caramel, then place on the cake. Drizzle the remaining caramel over the top. You can briefly reheat the caramel over a low heat if it starts getting too solid.

Serve!

Weekend Away - Skamp's New Car

Late last year, my husband was involved in a car accident. Beyond a little whiplash, he was fine. His car, however, was not. It was deemed ‘uneconomical to repair’, and promptly taken away for scrap. Which given all of the experiences we’ve had in that car, was more than a little sad. Now, I’m not a car person. And Lance is not a car person. We don’t even have a his car/her car set-up. We need two cars, but both cars are ‘ours’. So when it came to buying a vehicle, practicality is the only thing that entered our reasoning. The last time either of us had bought a car was over 10 years ago, so we didn’t really even know what was out there, let alone what we wanted to buy! So we went to car yards. Dozens of them. And looked at cars. Hundreds of them.

We already own a small car, which is perfect for driving to work, and around the place. Our new car had to be a big car, like the recently departed old Fairmont. We needed boot space. Lots of it. For grocery shopping (boxes and boxes of fresh produce from The Nanna Shop. For trips down south. For crabbing and fishing and kayaking. And we needed a decently sized back-seat. We frequently ferry around 5 adults and we’re nice enough to want those adults squished in the backseat to be comfortable. Honestly, those were the two main factors we considered. Then we looked at the more serious things like fuel economy. We eventually settled on the Mistubishi Outlander (or the Mitsubishi Zoolander as we have been calling it). And I am so stoked with it! One of the things that sold us on the Outlander being the car for us was the salesman, Jayke at Southside Mitsubishi. Every car we looked at, we immediately opened the boot, before looking at anything else. It actually seemed to freak out a lot of car salesmen! Jayke asked what sort of things we’d be transporting, that the boot was such a concern. My husband joked, ‘Bodies’. Without missing a beat, Jayke climbed in to show how many people would fit! Now, that is service!

Taken from the back row, with the middle seats folded down

It's not often your kilometres match how hot the day is!

We decided to take the car down for a trip to Molloy Island very soon after buying it. We bought the 7 seat option, which means that we can have less designated drivers in the Margaret River Wine Region. Perfect, right? Especially when I don’t have to be the designated driver!

Our trip consisted of driving down after work on Friday night. 5 people, 5 people's luggage. We wanted to make sure there was enough space to bring home wine! The next morning we stopped for a coffee at Yahava and browsed through the Vasse Virgin store. I absolutely love their Chamomile and Lavender balm. My skin has a tendency towards dryness and irritation with a lot of products, but this moisturiser made from olive oil is beautiful. 

From there, we drove on to Woody Nook for wine tasting and lunch. I'm quite a fan of the Nookery Cafe. Their meals are sort of more "old-fashioned" than a lot of restaurants. The dishes are well made, with lots of fresh local produce, but they haven't bothered jumping on the whatever's trendy bandwagon. They provide classic dishes, at very reasonable prices. The location is lovely too, but I would recommend sitting outside in this weather. It was quite stuffy inside when you order. One of the wines I always find myself buying here is their Velvet Rose. The label is quite fun, as the rose changes colour from white to red, to show that the wine is cold enough to drink! But it's not just a gimmick, the rose is actually a lovely lightly sweet wine that paired well with my ginger duck, Lance's salmon and Justin's ricotta cannelloni.




Velvet Rose

Fish of the Day - Salmon with Baby Chat Potatoes and Asparagus

Duck with Plum and Ginger Sauce with Polenta Cake and Sauteed Vegetables

Garlic Prawns and Steamed Calamari stuffed with Salmon Mousse on Couscous

Pasta of the Day - Vegetarian Cannelloni with salad and fries

The five of us then drove on to Cape Naturaliste Winery. I don't think I need to remind you of how much I love the wines here. We brought along some cheese, venison chorizo, crackers and bought a few wines by the glass to sit on the verandah and watch the sun set. We were mainly drinking the 2013 Sauvignon Blanc - a zesty, passionfruity and very summery wine, before switching to 2011 Torpedo Rocks Shiraz - full-flavoured but still light enough to enjoy on a summer's afternoon. By the time we finished drinking and chatting, our dinner options were severely limited. So we hit Dunsborough for fish and chips, then watched a bride-to-be wrestle her friends to the floor at a Hen's Party at the Dunsborough tavern.

The next morning, we slept in and had a leisurely pack and drive home. We stopped in at the Blackwood Meadery. I particularly like their lemon mead - perfect for afternoon sipping over ice. And then we hit Cheeky Monkey Brewery for lunch. The vibe of this brewery is so laidback and chill. It's always a relaxing experience. The food can be a little hit and miss for me. It goes from incredible to just good. I've never had a bad meal here, but sometimes it's been not as good as it should be. This trip, it was good, though. Lance's ribs were covered in lovely sticky BBQ sauce (nothing irks me more than sauce-less ribs), although the switch from normal chips to corn chips is a little disappointing. Wiping up all the sauce with chips is part of the rib experience! And my Char Sui Pork Salad was overflowing with delicious saucy pork and the crispy shallots topped it off perfectly. The live music was cherry on the top experience. We stopped in to Ferngrove/Killerby Wines on our way out and ended up with another carton of wine.

Pork Ribs in Cheeky Monkey BBQ sauce with Coleslaw and Corn Chips

Char Sui Pork Salad with egg noodles, mixed leaves, crispy shallots and sweet soy dressing

At this point, we had put our new car's space to the test. We started off with 5 people and 5 people's luggage. We now had 5 people, 5 people's luggage and 7 cartons of wine. How did it fit? Very, very well. Lance is a bit of an expert at packing Tetris, but he packed the car such that we had all that gear and STILL had 6 seats available. We didn't need 6 seats, but we had them! So the drive home had one in the back, two in the middle with the arm rest/drink holder down and two in the front. No complaints about being squished at all.

The Zoolander definitely passed our Molloy test. Lance and I are both so stoked with our decision!




Our car even knew it was on the ferry!