Pop Up Store

We are hosting a valentines pop up shop next to the bakery. I am making confectionary, Kamisha from Little Wren Flowers is selling her beautiful flower bunches, and Kyle from Cheese Mongrel will be putting together cheese boxes. This will be the first of I hope many exciting uses of this space over the next year.

Still Baking

I have been thinking I should pull this blog down for a while. It looks stale and very unloved. I just turned to Joe (who I am sure you will meet if I start posting again) and asked “What I have been doing over the last year?”  “Why did I stop blogging my exploits?”. His joe-ish response accompanied by his deep chuckle and cheeky grin was: “We sold shit loads of bread.” You see, Joe is the man who among other things, delivers the bread and cakes we make in Uprising Bakery. Oh yeah I did open a bakery.

Uprising is no longer a baking hobby that I run from my tiny home kitchen, things got a little out of hand, like 23-people-on-the-payroll out of hand. Uprising is now a warehouse kitchen and bakery, it’s become something else and something a lot bigger. The experiments, the new recipes and the love of baking remains the same. Maybe it’s time to start posting again. It would be cool to share some of what happens behind the scene with you all, the recipes, the stories, a touch of drama and flour covering just about everything.

Instagarm Egg Whites and Macaroons

Yesterday I was admiring a friends pictures on Instagram she had been using up her egg whites and had made some almond bread. When I commented that I had built up quite a collection in my freezer she suggested a few other things that I could make with my egg whites. One idea was the less popular cousin to the french macaron… coconut macaroons, I was instantly sold by the idea. The only thing that topped off this suggestion was a generously emailed copy of her favourite recipe. I have to say these are the best dam coconut macaroons I have ever had, even Christo who said he didn’t like macaroons polished off a few before suggesting I should make these again. This is a post from lemonpi’s blog on macaroons a few years ago…

Saturday Baking With My Levain

ANZAC Day

It has been a few years since I made ANZAC biscuits.                They are something I remember my mum used to make often when I was little. When I made my first batch this year as ANZAC day approached, I felt quite patriotic watching my Instgram feed as there was a collective posting of everyones version of ANZAC biscuits across the country. I made two types a traditional and one studded with my current obsession cocoa nibs. I didn’t have a copy of mums recipe so I adapted one that Jill Dupleix shared in the weekend paper last year.

COCOA NIB ANZAC BISCUITS

Recipe Makes 45

INGREDIENTS

300g rolled oats

150g desiccated coconut

600g white flour

390g dark brown sugar

150g cocoa nibs

375g unsalted butter

180g water

240g golden syrup

3 tsp bicarb soda

1 pinch of sea salt

METHOD

In a large bowl combine the oats, coconut, sugar, flour, cocoa nibs and salt. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C, and line two baking trays with baking paper. Melt the butter water and golden syrup together  in a pot over the stove, remove from the heat and stir through the bicarb soda pour this frothy mixture onto the dry ingredients and mix well. Use an ice cream scoop to divide the mixture onto the trays, then press the tops to flatten slightly. Place the trays into the oven and bake for about 20 min. Remove the trays and allow the biscuits to cool on racks until crispy on the outside and a little chewy on the inside.

 

Fennel Rye and Fruit Loaf

Things are moving along with the bakery build, and I am taking every opportunity between my current baking schedule to road test some loaves I may bake once we move. Today I made a Rye Fennel and fruit loaf. I think I will eat it with bresaola and a sharp hard cheese. 

Chocolate Meringue Ice Cream Sandwich

It is February already and things seem to be progressing rather slowly with the bakery.  However there is no shortage of planing to do while we wait for architects, engineers and builders to pull together the bits they need to do so we can truly get under way.  The other day when I was having one of those “my brain doesn’t want to think about spreadsheets, costing or invoicing any more” days,  I streamed a couple of episodes of Nigella Lawsons new Italian cooking program Nigellissima.  In one of the episodes Nigella made a frozen chocolate meringue ice cream.  This inspired me to procrastinate a little further and make an ice cream cake with some of the meringues left from my stall at the markets.

Each week we make a huge batch of meringues that I put in a large glass bowl and perch on top of my market stall.  Most of them are sold to people who munch on them straight from the bag looking for an instant Sunday sugar hit.  Though some of my customers buy a bag of them when they are having a dinner party to turn into a trifle or Eaton Mess.  I thought this frozen dessert was another incredibly simple way to use meringues.

Recipe

Adapted from Nigella Lawsons Meringue Gelato Cake featured in Nigellissima

For the meringue ice cream

Ingredients

400 ml cream

60 ml rum

2 x Chocolate pistachio meringues broken into pieces (approx 180 grams)

65 grams chopped pistachios

(If you only have plain meringues also add chopped dark chocoalte)

Method

Whip the cream until it holds medium peaks then whisk in the rum. Then fold through the meringues and pistachio nuts. Spread into a rectangular cake tin (110 x 350mm) lined with baking paper or cling wrap and freeze for several hours.

You could stop here and serve the ice cream with Chocolate sauce and berries like Nigella did, but I sandwiched my ice cream between two slabs of brown sugar chiffon cake.

For the brown sugar chiffon cake

155 grams flour

150 grams brown sugar

5 grams baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

60 grams sunflower oil

60 grams egg yolk (approx 3)

80 grams water

5 grams vanilla extract

150 grams egg whites

2 grams of cream of tartar

Method

Preheat the oven to 165 degrees celsius. Place two rectangular cake tins (110 x 350mm) onto a tray lined with baking paper. Do not grease the side of the tin as you want the cake to stick so it doesn’t collapse too much when removed from the oven.

Combine the flour and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. Whisk together half the sugar, egg yolks, vanilla and water. Whisk this into the flour and mix until well combined. Place the egg whites in a bowl and whisk until they hold soft peaks and then add the cream of tartar. Then slowly add the sugar and continue until they hold stiff glossy peaks. Fold the whites into the yolk mixture in two batches. Spread into the cake tins and cook in the oven for 25-30 min.

Rum Syrup

65 grams of water

65 grams brown sugar

30 grams of rum

Boil the water and sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat allow to cool slightly and then pour in the rum.

When the cakes have completely cooled brush the top of one with the rum syrup then place the ice cream slab on top. Brush the top of the other cake with the remaining syrup and invert onto the ice cream. Place the whole cake back into the freezer until it is ready to be served. Dust with icing sugar and slice.