David Lebovitz's Cheesecake Brownies and other deliciousness

Cheesecake brownies (the original, gorgeous recipe is here)

A conversation between myself and my friend Alistair at Karaoke a few weeks back...

Al: Sarah, are you guys coming up to my holiday house in July?
Me: Yeah, of course! Maybe I'll bring...
Al: CHEESE STARS?!
Me: ...I was going to say Family Guy DVD's, but I guess I could...
Al: CHEESE STARS!!

My friend Allstar (who I seem to have cooked for quite a bit over the years) is, for some reason, obsessed with my cheese stars. (Which are, in fact, Nigella's cheese stars, from How to Eat). When we went up to his holiday house last weekend for general mayhem (of the guitar hero variety), I brought a quadruple batch of cheese stars with me. I wasn't feeling particularly energetic, so instead of rolling out the dough and cutting out stars, I decided to roll the dough into a big log and slice off rounds to bake. (Like what I did at my mum's birthday last year!) I forgot to take any photos, but I'm sure I've made them enough for you to get the gist.

Of course, that shortcut gave me a bit of extra baking time... and I knew this would be the perfect excuse to make David Lebovitz's Cheesecake Brownies. I saw the recipe some months ago on his blog, and, after prising my jaw off the floor, bookmarked the recipe. And even though I could have made them for any old weekend, I knew that such intense double deliciousness would be best shared amongst a large group.

The recipe was quite simple to make, but I found it a bit difficult to swirl the soft cream cheese mixture through David's stiff (heh) chocolate batter.


The given quantities make a rather alarming amount of cheesecake swirl, and although I was a bit apprehensive about it, the chocolate batter does expand in the oven. The cream cheese taste is quite dominating, so I'd reduce it by about 1/4 ~ 1/3 if you're not a fan of the sour taste.

I packed ze gorgeous swirly brownies in a Tupperware to transport up to Al's place and then stacked them up in a rather resplendent brownie pyramid.


As you can imagine, these babies are incredibly rich, and best enjoyed in small pieces with a cup of tea or coffee. The richness didn't seem to stop my friends however - I ate a couple after I arrived, had a short nap, and when I came back the plate was empty!

Book Report: Snowflakes and Schnapps

Check it out peoples! Flaky flaky flaky puff pastry, woo-hoo!

A short time ago my Dad surprised me with a copy of Snowflakes and Schnapps, an absolutely gorgeous new cookbook from Jane Lawson. Thank-you to Dad! The book is Winter-themed, and features recipes from the cold-climate countries of Europe - Germany, Austria, Russia, Scandinavia and so on. Right up my alley!

Snowflakes and Schnapps is stunningly presented, from the white patterned cover, to the cute embossed snowflakes dotted throughout the pages, to the gorgeous photographs. They are heavily styled - linens, candles, coloured glasses and fake snow abound - but this is pleasing, rather than pretentious. My style hero Colin Cowie would no doubt approve. Cookware addicts such as myself will enjoy spotting the different products - the Chilewich placemat, the Bodum double-wall thermo glasses, the Essential Ingredient teardrop bowls, to name a few. But most importantly, the food looks seriously delicious and inviting. On my first flick through, I bookmarked at least 15 recipes as "must try soon".

A couple of shots from inside the book - gorgeous! Coffee and Walnut Potika with Coffee Glaze, and Bacon Rösti with Poached Eggs and Thyme Hollandaise

The chapters are arranged, surprisingly, not by region or type of food, but by the vibe. We have Baby It's Cold Outside (small bites, soups, hot drinks); Warmed to the Core (breakfasts, slow-cooked recipes); Diamonds and Fur (luxurious and glamorous dishes - think blini and caviar); and Dreaming of a White Christmas (explanation not necessary). I love the commitment to the concept.

My only criticism of the book is that apart from a brief introduction to each of the chapters, Snowflakes offers very little in the way of explanation or text. This can make the book feel, for want of a better word, cold. Whilst many recipes are easily recognisable, like cherry strudel and beer-cooked bratwurst, some recipes seem to be Lawson's modern interpretation of cold-climate deliciousness - for instance the pannettone, chocolate and marshmallow melts. I would have loved to read what her inspiration for this recipe was, as well as explanations of the many unfamiliar recipes, like the Karelian open pies (rye pastry filled with a risotto-type mixture), the garlicky pelmeni dumplings or the poppy seed and walnut potica with coffee glaze. Imagine, at a dinner party, being asked, "Ooh, where are these pelmeni from?" And answering, "I dunno, Europe somewhere?" Hehe. Well, I've got Google.

Now, the first recipe I tried was veal cutlets with wheat beer sauce and winter vegetable strudel. Ya-huh, how good does that sound?? It was a special dinner for the whole family, where we all - OMG - actually had an evening to sit down and eat together. Yay!

Puff pastry, covered in goat's cheese, some finely sliced winter veggies and herbs...

...rolled up like a strudel and brushed with butter. It was a bit too big for my tray, but never mind.

While it's baking, you fry the chops and make the sauce - simmering wheat beer (I used Redback - yum!) with honey, stock, sage and raisins. It becomes a kinda sweet-and-sour caramelised syrup.

I was nervous that the pastry would collapse, or that the strudel wouldn't cook through, but luckily there were no crises, and it came out flaky and golden. Use a sharp serrated knife to slice it though, or you'll just mush it up.

And - here we go... dinner!

I actually used pork chops instead of veal chops, because the pork chops at the market (free range Otway, thank-you-very-much) just looked beautiful. And they were only $2 a kilo more than the conventional pork chops. Win win! You'll see that the fat on the side of the chop kinda crisped up a little in the pan, but I didn't get attractive crackling on the side. Maybe a blast under the grill would help?

This was an absolutely wonderful meal, well balanced in flavours and textures. It was quite a bit of work, especially for a Wednesday evening, but y'all know you don't have to make your own puff pastry. I just happened to have it on hand. And I felt more than a little beam of pride as we placed it all on the kitchen table. I can't wait to try more recipes from Snowflakes and Schnapps.

Puff Pastry - Pâte Feuilletée

Those of you who follow my Twitter will know that I spent the greater part of my Saturday evening making puff pastry. I had a few spare hours, and quite a bit of that French butter that needed using. The aim, by the end of the evening, was to have a batch of delicate butterfly-shaped palmiers to snack on, plus a few patons of pastry to keep in the freezer. Things didn't quite eventuate that way, but the evening wasn't a total loss. Let me explain.


Disclaimer: What follows is merely a summary of the steps I took when I had a go making puff pastry - definitely not an instruction guide! Here and here are the most useful online guides that I found.

I followed the Roux Brothers' recipe for puff pastry, which is quite similar to their croissant recipe, except that the dough is not yeasted. Again, like croissants, the process is long and fiddly - you will probably want to give up more than once. Due to all the waiting and resting times, I recommend having a mindless DVD to watch in between - Blades of Glory for us.

Mixing the dough.

The dough. I should have kneaded it a bit more, to get it "completely homogeneous", but I was erring on the side of caution and didn't want it to get tough.

Once the dough has rested for 2-3 hours, you commence the rolling and turning process. Unlike most recipes I've seen, where you make a beurre manié (mixture of flour and butter) to roll between the layers of dough, the Roux brothers just ask you to put a block of cold butter in the middle of the dough, wrap it up and start rolling. (Although they do ask you to whack the butter with a rolling pin a few times, to make it "supple" - great after work stress reliever!)

The pastry needs 6 turns in total before it is ready to use, but for some reason, once you've done the last 2 turns it needs to be used within 3 days. If you plan on storing it, you only do 4 turns, and complete the final 2 turns just before you use the pastry. With this in mind, I took about an eighth (1/8) of the pastry to make palmiers, and did the final 2 turns. I then let it rest in the freezer for the specified time (10 minutes), and tried to roll and shape it.

FAIL!

Yup, I failed. The dough was super-sticky and kept breaking. Argh! I tried persevering and rolling it back together, but this also failed. In frustration, I shunted the dough back in the fridge and did some serious Googling. This is where the second article I linked really came in handy - unlike certain fancy shiny French books *ahem* - it has a troubleshooting guide.

There was no point mooshing the dough back together, because once the integrity of the layers is compromised, the dough is stuffed. I learned that throughout the whole pastry-making process, it is important to keep the dough cold to prevent the butter melting and oozing out. You also need to keep the worksurface clean, scraping away the flour and dough after every single turn, so that the dough doesn't stick and tear. Oops. So, the main problems were that I didn't let the dough rest long enough after the 6th turn - had no probs up until then - and that I didn't keep scraping the board completely clean of flour/dough, so it kept getting stickier.

Just for curiosity, I baked a couple of scraps of the messed-up dough to see how they'd turn out...

"Not very well", is the answer. Those 250 grams of dough that I wanted to make into palmiers ended up in the bin. *Sob!* Thank goodness I still had the majority of the pastry still sitting, untroubled, in the fridge!

I just couldn't let those burnt lumpy pieces of dough be the rewards for a whole evening of rolling and bashing and turning. I scrupulously scraped and cleaned the bench, and got another small piece of pastry from the batch, carefully did the last 2 turns on it, and let it chill for a good 30 minutes before rolling it gently into a square. Like Mary J Blige says, no more dramas. Phew!

Following Nigel Slater's recipe from Appetite, I traced a 1-cm border around the square, pricked the centre with a fork, and layered thin slices of apple on top. A brush of melted butter, a sprinkle of sugar and 15 minutes in a super-hot oven and...


Ta-dah! A real pie! A tarte aux pommes, if you will. I cannot tell you how pleased I was with this. The pastry even puffed up on the sides like it was supposed to. What a fab little late-night snack! (To share with my family, of course). I was so relieved that the majority of the pastry was still ok, and that I hadn't wasted all that time and butter. I have carefully divided and wrapped up the remaining dough, labelled it and put it in the freezer. I now have 6 patons of puff pastry, and quite a few ideas on how to use them! (Including, yes, another attempt at palmiers).

Mamorkuchen - German Marble Cake

My second attempt from the Dr. Oetker Backen Macht Freude book was a classic Mamorkuchen (marble cake), which we baked late one night while waiting for Conan O'Brien's first Tonight Show to be aired. (Conan rules!) The Mamorkuchen happens to be the Titelfoto of the book (which you can see in my previous post). In the photo, the cake is baked in a loaf tin, but I prefer my marble cakes in a ring shape. I couldn't find my half-sized bundt tin (used here and here), so I dug out my mum's full-sized ring tin and made a full batch of the recipe.

Now, mum's ring tin is probably older than me, and was made before non-stick surfaces were popular. (Or perhaps before they were even invented???) I buttered and floured the tin well.

See Thanh? I can do it!

The cake is in the Rührteig (literally: "mixed dough") chapter of the book, which means it is a standard creamed-butter cake. The main difference between this German Mamorkuchen and what I would call an ordinary butter cake is the use of Vanillezucker instead of vanilla extract, and Rum-aroma. (These, and other German baking goodies are available at The Polish Deli in Vic market, as well as other Delis around town).

The cake took a bit longer to cook than expected, and we were unmolding it just as Conan was making his epic run from New York to LA.

Ta-dah! It didn't break! Yay!

Tin straight after unmoulding. I felt very proud of myself, heh.

I almost considered slicing off the top, to give the unmoulded cake a flat base to sit on, but then I realised that that would have been most of the chocolate part. And the crusty parts of the cake are always my favourites. Yum!



The Mamorkuchen was so delicious straight out of the oven, and I loved the smooth and even texture. I was a bit suss about putting 3 tsp of baking powder in there, but it didn't seem to affect the finished product negatively. The only thing about the cake I didn't like was the rum aroma - I wasn't accustomed to the taste, and found aroma a bit strong. However, my suggestion of leaving it out next time was flatly denied - "that's what makes it smell like the real Mamorkuchen my Mama makes!" Maybe I'll just reduce the quantity: a few drops, rather than half a Fläschchen.

Macaron madness

Pink: Coffee macaron filled with white chocolate & coffee ganache
Purple: Mandarin macaron filled with gelatine-set mandarin cream
Green: Violet macaron filled with gelatine-set violet cream

Last weekend saw myself, Sandra and Thanh descending on Duncan's home for an afternoon of crazy macaron making. Now, as many of you will know, Duncan is the macaron master, so I am not even going to attempt to provide you instructions on how to make them. Click here for a proper guide.

Sandra & I provided a mostly storebought picnic lunch - including baguettes, cheese, Brazillian guava paste, cornichons, salami, and avocados (only $1.25 for a big bag of 'em at Aldi!). Don't worry, gentle readers, I also brought a lovingly homemade dip - Eggplant, yoghurt and saffron, from Nigella's Feast. (I last made it 4 and a half years ago!!!) The guys seemed to like it, so I was relieved!
Thanh supplied the ricotta!

The cheese was an organic Paris Creek Nuage blanc - it was a mild tasting, easy eating cheese. Interestingly, we picked it up at Safeway for $6 on sale (well before the use by date), but we saw it at Leo's for $12!!

Then it was time for sugar overload. We made white chocolate and coffee (I wanted a "normal" flavour), mandarin (also "normal"), and Thanh really, really, wanted violet. The bizarre colour choices were Thanh's too, hehe. Purple for the mandarin flavour, green for the violet flavour. I think Duncan said they were cognatively dissonant.

Baking in such a precise manner was very new for me - who knew you were supposed to weigh egg whites? (Check out my previous ramshackle attempts at macarons here and here.) The macarons were a lot of work, but so rewarding. The white choc & coffee were my favourite flavour - and they happened to be the strongest, structurally. Mandarin was also delicious, and *gasp* I actually liked the violet! The mandarin and violet shells turned out quite wet (I think because we mixed them too vigorously?), and over time seemed to absorb liquid from the filling, becoming more wet and breakable, whilst the fillings became firmer and jellied. Boo. We made about 30 of each flavour, which is an insane amount of macarons to have. No, we didn't eat them all at once, but we were on a massive sugar high, hehe.

Thank-you to Duncan for great instruction and to everyone for a super-fun sugary afternoon!

Muttis

Muttis
118 Elgin St
Carlton 3053 VIC
(03) 9349 5008
Website

On Monday, Hookturns commented on my post about the North Fitzroy Arms, asking if I'd tried Muttis, the new-ish mod-Austrian restaurant in Carlton. I hadn't, but I certainly wanted to, and made a booking for the following Saturday. Thanks for the heads up!

Muttis is located near the corner of Elgin and Rathdowne streets, where the old Chinta Ria R&B used to be. (It then became Gardenia's, I think, and has changed hands a couple of times since.) They serve a mix of modern European and traditional Austrian fare, just like your Mutti used to make. The restaurant section is located at the back, whilst the front is a bar. There are some outdoor tables too, which will be mighty inviting once it stops being so cold! (There are heaters though, so fear not, committed smokers).

They have Austrian and German beers on tap (wahey!!!), but I was driving, and we were most definitely there for the food. The restaurant is quite spacious and modern, with red leather banquettes and dark wooden tables. I loved the round water glasses and big bowls of salt (see picture above) - very cute.

We decided to skip entrees, to leave room for dessert. There were some interesting entrees - goulash soup and pork rillette, for instance, which I would have liked to try - but there is only so much one can eat.

Giant steak knife!

Porterhouse steak with garlic beans and Bratkartoffeln (we asked for these as a substitute to plain chat potatoes) - $28.

Fazit: lecker! The Bratkartoffeln looked different to what I remember as Bratkartoffeln - the version I know and love consists of thin slices of potato fried with bacon and onion. This version, however, had the potatoes in chunky pieces, with a sprinkling of Hungarian paprika over. Also delicious. I don't think you can go wrong with fried potatoes.

Goulash with Spaetzle and Kaiser bread roll - $21

I went for the more traditional goulash mit Spaetzle. The meat was a little too fatty for my liking, but very tender. The sauce was spicier than expected, in a good way, and the Spaetzle were amazing! Tender and buttery and flecked with chives. The serving was huge too - even I couldn't finish all that meat.

Now, dessert. There was a choice of four desserts: apple strudel, Omas Buchteln, affogato and assorted ice-creams. We chose the first two.

Apple Strudel served hot with vanilla cream - $9.50

Apple strudel can often be dissapointing, but Muttis version was very nice, and served warm. The vanilla cream was a good accompaniment, with flecks of real vanilla bean throughout.

I went for the more exotic (well, it sounded exotic to me) Omas Buchteln (literally Grandma's dumplings). These were an Austrian brioche dough, filled with plum jam and served with hot vanilla custard. (Wikipedia article!)

Omas Buchteln - $12

The Buchteln were lovely, and I especially liked the soft dough. I definitely want to try making this at home one day. However, the serving was just too big for me, and I was defeated about halfway through. It could have easily been shared between 3. (That plate you see it sitting on was the size of a dinner plate!)

***EDIT: Found a recipe for Buchteln in my Dr. Oetker's Backen Macht Freude book!! Score!!***
Utterly defeated.

Muttis was a great find, and I recommend it for anyone who is into this type of food. Prices are reasonable, and the service was very friendly and professional. I overheard a waitress say that they will be open for lunches soon, and are about to change their menu. Can't wait!

Match Bar & Grill, revisited

The Nicola Six - A girl's best friend - Stolichnaya raspberry vodka shaken with lemon juice, summer berry cordial, strawberries and cucumber topped with local fizz

Match Bar and Grill
247 Lt Lonsdale St
Melbourne 3000
(03) 9654 6522
Website

You may remember that I had my birthday drinks at Match Bar and Grill earlier this year. And what a lovely evening that was. Shortly after, I received an email from the owner, Chris, who wrote:

As you mentioned you haven’t tried the bar and wine side of our business, I would like to invite you back so you can try some of our famous cocktails...

It took a while for me to organise a suitable time to visit - work commitments and a nasty bout of (non-swine) flu stood in the way - so it was only about a month after that email that we got to go. We (that is, myself, Su and Sandra) arrived on a Friday evening, after a hellish week of work, and bought ourselves a round of drinks as we waited to meet Chris.

I had a Silver Angel (left), Su had the Grapefruit Julep (right), and Sandra asked the bartender to make "something non-alcoholic", which turned out to be a refreshing mix of different fresh juices.

Silver Angel - Zubrowka vodka shaken with passion fruit, peach and fresh apple juice, topped with Champagne
Grapefruit Julep - Finlandia grapefruit vodka shaken with fresh pink grapefruit, lime and pomegranate juices and a drizzle of honey syrup

A short while later, we did indeed meet the lovely Chris, and had a short chat with him as he ordered us even more cocktails (eep!).

That massive glass you see at the top of this post was definitely my favourite of the evening, the Nicola Six. Champagne and strawberries, how could you go wrong? You can also get it in a regular single-serve size, if the big one is just too much for you.

Fa'afafene - 42 Below vodka shaken with lime and apple juices, honey and passion fruit syrups and a dash of grenadine
Match Spring Punch - The infamous Champagne punch - Wyborowa vodka, shaken with lemon juice, raspberries, cassis and framboise, topped with Champagne
Sosho Cooler - Finladia mango vodka and sauvignon blanc shaken with muddled red grapes, lemon and apple juices
Big Appleberry - Cognac shaken with muddled red berries and pressed apple juice

My favourite cocktails were definitely the champagne-based ones, followed by the Sosho Cooler, as I love anything refreshing and clean-tasting. I wasn't a fan of the Big Appleberry, but only because I'm not keen on Cognac. What we tried was only a small selection of their extensive cocktail and drinks list - click here for the drinks menu.

We also had dinner there - the pork chop for Su, beef burger for Sandra, and Leon's Original Superfood Salad for myself. That's right - I hear you gasp in disbelief - Sarah ordered a salad. It was delicious and, surprisingly, filing. And all the antioxidants must cancel out all the cocktails, right? Right...? Guys?

.... tumbleweed rolls past...

Well, maybe not, but it's a great salad regardless. I have since googled the salad recipe and have been making it endlessly, but that is a story for a future post!

The "chocolate something" on the menu turned out to be, again, a chocolate fondant with coffee ice-cream, and I was super-excited that I got to have my own one this time!
Deliciousness.

Match Bar is getting really popular - at least 3 people I know have had their birthday drinks there in the last couple of months - and it always gets packed on the weekends. It's easy to see why.

Sarah Cooks dined & drank courtesy of Match Bar & Grill, with thanks to Chris.