(clockwise, from top left corner : chocolate macaron (a strawberry crumble tart hiding underneath), cannele, chocolate brownie, ginger ninja cookie, another cannele)

I was going to tell you about the glorious twice-bitten cannele I had sitting in front of me. Another two bites later however, and it’s suddenly all gone. Caramelised on the outside, custardy on the inside. The stuff deep sighs and satisfied smiles are made from. Today I tried to convince my Wednesday lunch buddy to make the trip to Newtown to visit Christopher The’s new shop, Black Star Pastry. She was reluctant to spend a portion of her precious lunch hour on a train, so we settled on sandwiches and coffee from Luneburger before I said goodbye to her and hello to Newtown and those canneles.

I read about his shop in Good Living yesterday (ah, so that’s what he’s been up to!), and what got me really excited was spotting the little canneles at the bottom right hand corner of the picture accompanying the blurb. In case you’re wondering what the fuss is all about, well, I can’t remember the last time I saw a cannele in a shop in Sydney. The last cannele I had was in Tokyo. We stumbled across a stall selling vanilla and chocolate versions, bought some even though we weren’t hungry, and later were filled with regret at not having bought more. So yes, you could attribute part of their appeal, to their elusiveness. I have never attempted making them myself, and perhaps it’s about time I did!

In the meantime, I think everyone should visit Black Star Pastry. It’s a small shop located on Australia Street, right next to Oscillate Wildly. It has a simple, rustic, pared back (budget friendly) set up that reminds me of sixsevenate in Chippendale, when George Sinclair and Lorraine Godsmark were running the place. I worked with them for about a year, and always longed for a similar sort of cafe/pastry shop in my own neighbourhood. The kind of place you could go to and be assured of decent coffee, a quality pastry or two, and friendly, personable service.

Black Star has the advantage of being in a good location (even if someone apparently told them that the shop was cursed), opposite the train station. Their pastries are reasonably priced and very reasonably sized as well. I like small bites with coffee, and am definitely going back next week to have something savoury, this time with my Wednesday lunch buddy in tow.

Black Star Pastry
277 Australia St
Newtown 2042.

Also inspired by my love of small things, I made these burnt orange and elderflower creams based on a dish by Dan Hunter, which appeared in the Sept/Oct 2008 edition of V.EAT. The pineapple and macadamia polvoron are his recipes, but I based the cream recipe on another one I’ve used before. The original intention was to make passionfruit flavoured creams. I recently ate a passionfruit brulee that was out of this world – and this is coming from someone who isn’t usually terribly fussed about brulees (or passionfruit, for that matter). But passionfruit brulees certainly work for me. Passionfruits were horribly expensive that day, so I used orange juice and elderflower cordial instead. Surprisingly, the end result was quite passionfruit-like!

This is a dish that could easily be converted into a dessert canape, especially if like me, you love the shape of small things. 🙂