A few weeks ago I bought the last of the cheap and flavoursome blueberries from the shops and stored them in the freezer for future consumption (a bit weird I know, but I like snacking on berries and grapes while they’re still semi-frozen).

Now that the days have gotten cooler, and the short sleeves have gone back into storage, I’ve been thinking of things I can bake with fleshy persimmons, custard apples and new season apples. This is the season when the dreamer in me also hopes to spend an afternoon at an apple farm, picking sweet and impossibly crisp apples to be later transformed into a hot pie or crumble.

In the meantime, the reality is that as I rarely have time to cook at home and usually obtain most of my produce more locally. It’s hardly romantic to enthuse about the bag of apples and limes you bought from the supermarket, but that’s what I ended up with the last time I went shopping. With the lime zest, I made a tangy and creamy yogurt pudding. The juice was reserved for a curd which I’ll feature in a future post.

We had the pudding with spoonfuls of apple compote, frosted blueberries and wheat-free Finnish cookies. A nice way to segue into a season of scarves, cups of tea, fallen leaves and if truth be told, also the season to find yourself side-stepping spiders!

Lime yogurt pudding :
(serves 6; based on a recipe in Wild Weed Pie by Janni Kyritsis)

4 sheets gold strength (10g) leaf gelatine, soaked
200ml 35%-fat cream
80g caster sugar
zest 2 limes
600ml plain yogurt

Combine half the cream with the sugar and lime zest in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring. Meanwhile, whip the remaining cream and keep chilled. Squeeze the gelatine to remove as much water as possible, then add to the heated cream and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool a little before whisking in the yogurt and finally folding in the whipped cream.

Divide the yogurt mixture between 6 greased dariole moulds or cups and refrigerate until set.

[NB : I set the whole mixture in a large bowl from which we scooped as much or as little as we wanted]

Finnish Barley Cookies (Ohrapiparit) :
(makes about 4 dozen cookies ; recipe from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas)

1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups barley flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

In a large bowl, whip the egg and sugar. Add the melted butter and cinnamon. Combine the flour and baking soda and mix in until a smooth dough forms. Chill until firm.

Preheat oven to 200’C.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to about 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into 2-inch or 3-inch rounds, then cut each round into halves to make half-circles. Place on lined baking sheets and bake until lightly browned, about 8 to 10 minutes.

[NB : Instead of cutting into rounds, I cut the cookies with a rectangular cookie cutter]

Apparently we have a ban on cheesy 80’s music in our house. Wish he’d mentioned it before we agreed to move in together. Or perhaps you never truly know someone until you start living with them and discover their little quirks. Such as belting out Whitney Houston classics into a hair brush or eating ice-cream at midnight. That would be me, guilty on both counts.

I’ve discovered many interesting aspects about the boy over the years. Some things being more surprising than others. He :

-Has the annoying tendency to return from business trips with nothing but a load of laundry.
-Is very brand specific about his breakfast cereal and toothpaste.
-Doesn’t put toilet seat down.
-Needs regular feeding or will get grumpy and complain about feeling weak.
-Needs dessert (this last point actually works quite well in both our favours).

Forget chalk and cheese. We’re like chocolate and cheese. Seemingly disparate but surprisingly not such a bad combination.

Which is why when Alice Medrich described these tuiles being “as addictive as potato chips”, I somehow managed to put 2 + 2 = 5 and decided what was needed to garnish these tuiles were some crushed potato chips and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese. Potentially a bad idea in theory, but the salty potato chips and hint of cheese worked well together to enhance the texture and flavour of the chocolate wafers. These are also good dipped in caramel sauce.

If your stomach turns at the thought of chips and chocolate, make the tuiles with a different garnish, or dispense with the garnish altogether and enjoy them as they are. They have a lovely snap and true to Alice Medrich’s word, they are very addictive. The entire batch I made was gone in no time, because we kept reaching for just one more wafer.

So 2 + 2 = 5 = 0? Bad math, great snack.

Cocoa Bark :
(from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy by Alice Medrich)

4 tablespoons butter, melted and still very warm
100g sugar
20g natural (non-alkalized) cocoa powder, sieved after measuring
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon plain flour

Preheat the oven to 175’C. In a small bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sugar, cocoa and salt. Whisk in the egg whites. Add the flour and whisk only until combined. Let rest for at least 10 minutes or cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days.

To bake, use an offset spatula to spread half the batter onto each of two cookie sheets lined with silicone mats. Each sheet of batter should be about 9 by 13 inches wide and less than 1/8 inch thick. [Sprinkle each sheet with your topping of choice. I used crushed potato chips and grated cheese. You can even use nuts or crushed peppermint candies as suggested by the author]

Bake each sheet for 11 to 13 minutes until the batter turns a faintly darker shade of brown. Rotate the pan from back to front halfway through the baking time to ensure even baking. Cool completely on a rack before breaking the cookie into random shards.

Julie Andrews can have her cream-coloured ponies and whiskers on kittens. My personal list of favourite things largely feature comestibles. Cake crusts, warm oatmeal with dried cranberries, and breakfast.

Having breakfast is like pressing the Start button to my day. Sometimes I wonder if it’s possible to eliminate lunch and dinner altogether and just stick to breakfast three times a day. That way, if you happen to be stuck in the middle of a particularly bad day, you could potentially ‘reboot’ your day by having breakfast again – a theory I’ve yet to truly test out, even though I have been known to eat cereal for dinner, in another (student) life.

On days-off when I get to indulge in late and long breakfasts, my day will typically begin with a yawn and a stretch as feet finally hit the ground. It continues as a slow shuffle across the tiled kitchen floor and concludes with emptied mugs of tea and a plate of crunchy toast crumbs.

Even in the past when I’ve had to get up at 3 or 4am to get to work, I’d attempt to keep the breakfast dream alive by legging it to the station with a stash of warm toast in hand, to sleepily nibble at on the train platform.

So it’s no surprise that the idea of a breakfast themed biscotti really appealed to me. Alice Medrich’s version is chock full of oats, very light on added sugar and perfect to have on the go. I recently cracked open my copy of Alice Medrich’s latest book to bake from and have been truly loving the results. You’ll definitely be seeing more Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy inspired posts in the near future!

Breakfast Biscotti :
(from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy by Alice Medrich)

85g plain flour
85g whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
generous 1/4 teaspoon salt
100 – 130g brown sugar
130g rolled oats
78g milk
60g melted unsalted butter (or safflower or canola oil)
2 large eggs, lightly whisked
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
100g walnut pieces
70g dried currants [For the walnuts and currants, I used a combination of sunflower seeds and dried cranberries]
1 teaspoon cinnamon sugar

Preheat the oven to 160’C. Position a rack in the center of the oven.

Combine the flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk or fork.

In a large bowl, mix the brown sugar and oats. Heat the milk and butter in a small pot or microwave-safe bowl until the milk is hot and the butter is melted. Combine the hot milk with the oat mixture. Let stand for 10 minutes. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture. Stir in the nuts and currants. The batter will be very thick and sticky.

Scrape the batter onto the prepared pan. Spread it to form a 5 x 12 inch rectangle about 3/4 inch thick. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until firm and starting to colour around the bottom edges. Rotate the pan from front to back halfway through the baking time to ensure even baking. Set the pan on a rack to cool for at least 15 minutes. Leave the oven on, turning it down to 150’C.

Transfer the loaf carefully to a cutting board. Using a sharp serrated knife and a sawing motion, cut the loaf crosswise into 1/2-inch slices. Transfer the slices to an unlined baking sheet, standing them at least 1/2 inch apart. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes to toast without overbrowning, rotating the pan from front to back halfway through the baking time. Set the pan on a rack. Cool the biscotti completely before wrapping or storing.