Bibliocook - All About Food

Award-winning blog of Irish food writer and broadcaster Caroline Hennessy.

Category: Bake

Bibliocook.com - Anzac BIscuits 0

Bake

Better-late-than-never Anzac Biscuits

Anzac Biscuits Being back in Ireland now, I nearly forgot all about Anzac Day this year on 25 April and it wasn’t until a few days later that I got round to making the traditional batch of Anzac Biscuits for the Boyfriend. Although late for the day itself, this baking stint was perfectly timed for the weekend as we’re about to embark on a camping trip – the first one of the year (we hope to remember the sleeping bags this time!) – and it’s good to have some oaty biscuits to stave off starvation, or “for morale,” as the Boyfriend puts it.

2

Bake

Gingerbread for tea: Sticky Gingerbread

Sticky Gingerbread As I finished up at work on Friday, I suddenly, as I looked out into the showery evening, got a yearning for gingerbread. No fancy stuff, I just wanted a damp and aromatically spicy loaf, the sort of teabread that would go perfectly with a cup of tea on a weather-swept Saturday. When I was younger, this kind of longing would be easily satisfied with a squashed loaf in a packet that said “Jamaica Gingerbread” but now, with a well-stocked baking cupboard, spur-of-the-moment cooking decisions aren’t too much of a problem.

2

Bake

A happy accident: sesame vs sunflower seeds

Brown Soda Bread with sunflower seeds Last week the Boyfriend decided that it was time to move on from making bagels which, though gorgeous, are very time-consuming to something a little faster. As we both take our lunches to work, we’re going through a lot of brown bread at the moment (mostly McCambridge‘s…especially nicely nutty when toasted) so he decided to make a couple of loaves of my Brown Soda Bread. After a few minutes hovering and being more hindrance than help, I decided to leave him to it. I curled up on the couch in the living room with a book as he worked away in the adjacent kitchen – close enough to help if asked but far away so that I wouldn’t be interfering!

11

Bake / Food Events

Hay Hay, It's Donna Day #2: Chocolate Almond Macaroons

Can you see the cow-pat similarity? Having missed the first Winos and Foodies Hay Hay, It’s Donna Day – and you all know about my love of Donna Hay! – I had every intention of making a real effort for the second episode in what looks like becoming a long-running series of worldwide bake-ins. Glutton Rabbit at Pearl of the Orient chose Macaroons for Hay Hay It’s Donna Day #2 but I’m not a huge macaroon fan. Besides, I was down home and my little sister took one look at the recipe that I’d printed off from Pearl of the Orient and went “ugh! There’s coconut in it.” I have memories of making coconut macaroons when I was a child and they were never a great success – unlike anything involving chocolate. Then I remembered a recipe for Chocolate Almond Macaroons that I had come across in Taste: Baking with Flavour by Dean Brettschneider and Lauraine Jacobs. Although the book is back in New Zealand, there’s still the internet and the Cuisine website came up trumps with just the recipe that I had noted in the cookbook.

11

Bake / Food Events

Hay Hay, It’s Donna Day #2: Chocolate Almond Macaroons

Can you see the cow-pat similarity? Having missed the first Winos and Foodies Hay Hay, It’s Donna Day – and you all know about my love of Donna Hay! – I had every intention of making a real effort for the second episode in what looks like becoming a long-running series of worldwide bake-ins. Glutton Rabbit at Pearl of the Orient chose Macaroons for Hay Hay It’s Donna Day #2 but I’m not a huge macaroon fan. Besides, I was down home and my little sister took one look at the recipe that I’d printed off from Pearl of the Orient and went “ugh! There’s coconut in it.” I have memories of making coconut macaroons when I was a child and they were never a great success – unlike anything involving chocolate. Then I remembered a recipe for Chocolate Almond Macaroons that I had come across in Taste: Baking with Flavour by Dean Brettschneider and Lauraine Jacobs. Although the book is back in New Zealand, there’s still the internet and the Cuisine website came up trumps with just the recipe that I had noted in the cookbook.

0

Bake

Baby Jesus in His Blanket: Caroline's Kerstkrans or Baby Jesus in His Blanket

My sister's idea of Baby Jesus in His Blanket I was home down the country last weekend and, when I was investigating the fridge, I discovered a chunk of almond paste. It had originally been made by my little (in age, not so in height) sister to cover the Christmas Cake and the leftovers got abandoned in the fridge. I couldn’t pass it by – I must admit I love almond paste. When I was a child, I’d take a piece of Christmas Cake just for the almond icing and try to trade the cake part off against someone else’s icing. Many’s the Christmas Cake, much to my mother’s annoyance, that was denuded of its tasty almond coating ever before the royal icing came near it!

0

Bake

Baby Jesus in His Blanket: Caroline’s Kerstkrans or Baby Jesus in His Blanket

My sister's idea of Baby Jesus in His Blanket I was home down the country last weekend and, when I was investigating the fridge, I discovered a chunk of almond paste. It had originally been made by my little (in age, not so in height) sister to cover the Christmas Cake and the leftovers got abandoned in the fridge. I couldn’t pass it by – I must admit I love almond paste. When I was a child, I’d take a piece of Christmas Cake just for the almond icing and try to trade the cake part off against someone else’s icing. Many’s the Christmas Cake, much to my mother’s annoyance, that was denuded of its tasty almond coating ever before the royal icing came near it!