Well. It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?

I’m not sure it’s necessary to bore you with details, but since some concerned friends did actually email/text/tweet me asking if I was okay after such a long silence on my blog, I thought I owed everyone some sort of explanation.

When I left a previous job, B and I planned to travel overseas, but I got side tracked by an offer to work in a restaurant for a couple of weeks, covering the Pastry Chef’s shifts while he was on holiday. The couple of weeks turned into something like 5 months (the PC did come back, but he spent some time at the stoves, being the multi-tasking genius that he is). During the 5 months, I discovered the meaning of the words complete+and+utter+exhaustion and why a physiotherapist can be your new best friend. I also rediscovered the true meaning of teamwork. The dedication, passion and camaraderie that this kitchen team bring to the workplace every day, is incredibly unique and is what I will miss most now that I have left.

That said, it’s very exciting to finally be on holiday. We’re off to New York and San Francisco, where a lot of eating is planned and I’m looking forward to meeting up with fellow baking enthusiasts like Anna, Caitlin, Hilda and Aran.

While I reacquaint myself with my kitchen at home, here is a cake recipe I’ve been meaning to share. I made Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra’s Torta de Tres Leches a few months ago and fell instantly in love with it. So much so that I was spurred to come up with a dessert inspired by its flavours and textures. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of this dessert, but if you ever come across it in a particular restaurant, you might recognise it straight away. It is a dish that is meant to be soothing, soft and yielding to the palate and that celebrates the flavour of milk in its many forms : milk, butter, buttermilk, sour cream, condensed milk, evaporated milk, powdered milk and yogurt all feature, as well as white chocolate. I think the end result almost comes close to replicating that sense of wonderment I got when I ate my first slice of :

Torta de Tres Leches :
(recipe from Warm Bread and Honey Cake by Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra)

Cake :

3 eggs
150g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
150g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons milk

Milk Mixture :

200g condensed milk
125ml sour cream
150ml evaporated milk
125ml milk

Preheat the oven to 180’C. Line a 20cm (8 inch) tin with baking paper.

Use an electric mixer to whisk the eggs, caster sugar and vanilla extract until thick and pale.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, then fold into the mixture. Next, gently but thoroughly mix in the milk. Scrape the batter into the baking tin and level the top. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until dark golden brown. It will be cooked through before that, but the extra browning – slight overbaking – adds to the flavour in this case.

While the cake is baking, combine the condensed milk and sour cream thoroughly. Add the other two milks and set aside.

Turn the baked cake out onto a cooling rack and immediately cover the bottom and sides generously with tinfoil. Re-invert into the baking tin so that the tinfoil lines the tin. Prick several holes in the cake with a skewer and slowly pour the milk mixture over the warm cake, from the centre outwards. Do this in three batches, allowing the previous additions to be absorbed. It will look like too much liquid, but don’t be alarmed : the cake will soak it all up. Leave to cool. Chill until ready to serve.

Have you ever tried doing a skillet cookie, she asked.

Well no, actually I hadn’t, and was kicking myself that I didn’t think of it sooner. It seems almost a logical conclusion to reach, from skillet cakes to cookies. I suspect skillet cookies are the ultimate lazy but impressive dinner party dessert, brought to the table in all it’s piping hot glory, and served straight from the pan.

Try baking your favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe in a skillet by pressing the cookie dough into the skillet and baking for about 30 minutes or until just set. A standard chocolate chip recipe yielding roughly 24 cookies should be sufficient for a large 9 inch skillet. Or try my recipe below, which is based on Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito’s Black Forest Chocolate Cookie recipe as appears in Baked.

This skillet version of their cookie is best described as an amplified version of a brownie. A brownie cookie on ‘roids, if you will, with a crackingly good crust (my favourite part of any brownie) and slightly oozy interior (especially if you dig in while it’s still warm). Serve with vanilla ice-cream if you have no hips to speak of and would like some.

Black Forest Skillet Cookie :

220g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
75g unsalted butter
85g brown sugar
120g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
55g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
80g dark chocolate chips (60% – 70% cocoa)
80g milk chocolate chips
80g dried sour cherries (or dried cherries/cranberries)

Preheat the oven to 175’C. Arrange a rack on the lower third of the oven.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together into a bowl and set aside.

Melt the 220g dark chocolate and butter together in a bowl over a bain-marie (or in the microwave). Stir and set aside to cool.

In an electric mixer, whisk the eggs and sugars on high speed until the mixture is pale and thick. Add the vanilla extract and cooled chocolate mixture and beat until just combined.

Fold the flour into the chocolate/egg mixture, then both the chocolate chips and dried cherries.

Scrape the mixture into a 7 1/2 inch skillet (if your skillet is larger or smaller, adjust baking time accordingly) and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the edges are well browned and the top is set. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve straight from pan.

Yesterday I flipped through David Lebovitz’s Ready for Dessert and came across a recipe for Apple Red Wine Tart. That was the beginning of the end.

In the beginning, I marched down to the shops for a bottle of red wine and a bag of apples.

Somewhere in the middle, I burnt my red wine reduction and wished I could blame David for this. Actually I had been distracted by Twitter, but never mind, start again, because it’s only the middle of the end.

Finally, I pulled the tart out of the oven, flipped it onto a plate, cut a slice, bathed it in custard, and that. That was truly

The End.