Bake IN BED
Photography by Amy Colla
Last weekend, we hosted our first ever bake sale, Bake IN BED at our Paddington flagship store, raising over $2,000 for Women's Community Shelters. While our doors opened at 10am, our bakers had been up before sunrise preparing a selection of sweet treats for our IN BED community. Caffeinated with Artificer coffee, they enjoyed Salted Dark Choc Black Sesame Tahini Cookies from Vege Mamma's Valentine Fodor, and from a talented bevy of bakers at Buffet Digital; Torta di Riso and Choc Chip Raspberry Cookies, plus Added Sugar's Rosie Meehan's Ginger & Cherry Swiss Roll. We're delighted to share these recipes (and more) with you here to inspire some baking of your own - and thank you again to our favourite foodies and to those who joined us in eating cake for a good cause!
(Left) Vege Mamma's Salted Dark Choc Black Sesame Tahini Cookies
Valentine Fodor’s (Vege Mamma) Salted Dark Choc Black Sesame Tahini Cookies
Makes 20
Ingredients:
240g butter (room temp)
150g caster sugar
150g brown sugar
2 whole eggs + 2 egg yolks
200g tahini paste
2 tsp of vanilla paste
300g plain flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup black sesame powder
400g dark chocolate chips
Toasted sesame seeds
Salt
Method:
- In a bowl connected to a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat 240g softened room temp butter, 150g caster sugar & 150g brown sugar until creamy and lightened in colour.
- Add in 2 egg yolks and 2 whole eggs, mix on high speed until combined.
- Add in 200g tahini paste, 2 tsp of vanilla paste & a pinch of salt.
- In a separate bowl, sift together 300g plain flour & 2 tsp baking soda.
- Into the dry mix add 1/2 cup black sesame powder. add the dry mixture into butter mix. Mix on low until just combined.
- Lastly, add in 400g dark chocolate chips.
- Cover mixture with plastic wrap & place into the fridge to harden for 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 170°C and line a baking dish with a silicone mat or baking paper.
- Roll cookies into balls and lay them out on the tray, leaving some room between each one to spread.
- Sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds on top.
- Bake for 9-12 minutes until golden brown around the edges.
- Once baked, sprinkle with flakey sea salt.. & eat!
(Right) Taylor Clark’s Spelt Matcha Biscuits with Strawberry Cream Cheese
Taylor Clark’s Spelt Matcha Biscuits with Strawberry Cream Cheese
Makes 10
Ingredients:
Matcha Biscuits
125g butter (room temp)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla paste (or 1 vanilla bean, scraped)
3/4 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup spelt flour (can sub for more self raising flour but I like the added flavour this adds)
1/2 custard powder (I made my own my mixing 2/3 cup milk powder and 1/3 cornflour)
2 tbsp matcha
Strawberry Filling
25g freeze dried strawberries
115g cream cheese (room temp)
115g butter (room temp)
100g icing sugar
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C
- With electric beaters, mix butter and sugar until pale and creamy.
- Add egg, vanilla and matcha and combine.
- Fold in flours and custard powder and tsp of baking powder with a spatula.
- Refrigerate mixture for 20-30 mins.
- Once chilled, roll out in batches to a 5mm thickness cutting out your desired shape and placing on a lined baking sheet. Repeat for the remaining mixture.
- Bake for 8-10 mins. Remove from the oven.
- If the cookies spread, reshape with your cutter and remove any off cuts. Cool completely.
- In a food processor add the icing sugar and freeze dried strawberries and pulse until combined.
- With electric beaters mix the cream cheese until combined.
- Chop the butter into chunks and mix with cream cheese until combined.
- Once combined add the icing sugar/strawberry mix in a bit at a time.
- Keep mixing until smooth and creamy.
- Take 2 cookies and scoop approximately a heaped tablespoon of strawberry filling on one side and place the other cookie on top to close.
- Dust with extra matcha.
Rosie Meehan's (Added Sugar) Ginger & Cherry Swiss Roll
Gingerbread Sponge
Ingredients:
4x eggs, yolks and whites separated
65 g dark brown sugar
50 g treacle
50 g golden syrup
100 g plain flour
2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄4 fine salt
50 g caster sugar
Method:
- Preheat your oven to 180°C
- Line a 25x38cm baking pan with parchment paper, then grease the paper with butter
- Whisk the egg yolks and brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy
- Add molasses and golden syrup to the mixture and whip until combined
- Sift in the flour, ground ginger, baking powder and salt directly onto the egg yolk mixture into the bowl and mix at low speed until just combined
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form and then add the white sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time. Whisk the egg whites until you get stiff, glossy peaks. Be careful not to over whip
- Add 1/4 of the whisked egg whites into the batter and fold through to loosen the mixture. Gently fold through the rest of the egg whites
- Pour the batter into the pan and use an offset spatula to smooth out the batter to the corners. Tap to release any air bubbles
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes
- Once baked, remove the pan from the oven and set the tray on a wire rack for ten minutes exactly
- While the sponge is cooling, lay a clean tea towel down and dust with icing sugar
- After ten minutes, flip the sponge onto the prepared tea towel and peel off the parchment paper
- Roll sponge up from the short end with the tea towel in it. Set aside with its seam side down and let cool completely
Golden Syrup Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Ingredients:
110g egg whites
250g butter at room temperature
90g caster sugar
85g golden syrup
1 pinch salt
Method:
- Whip butter in a stand mixer until light and pale, transfer to another bowl and set aside
- Wash and dry stand mixer bowl ready for meringue mix
- Add egg whites, sugar, golden syrup and salt in a bowl and whisk until combined
- Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water.
- Whisk the egg whites continuously over the heat until it reaches a temperature of 75°C or until you can’t feel any sugar granules between your fingers
- Pour the meringue mix in to the clean stand mixer and whisk on high a speed
- Once the mix has cooled to room temp, start adding the whipped butter, 1 tablespoon at a time
- When all the butter is in the meringue mix make sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl so that the butter and meringue mix are fully incorporated
Assembly:
- Un-roll the sponge gently and spread about a 1 cm layer of buttercream, leaving an inch gap on both short ends
- Spread a thin layer of jam of your choice over the buttercream, I use cherry
- Gently but tightly, roll the sponge back up and allow to set in the fridge for 1-2 hours
- Once set, remove from fridge and cut the ends off then into slices with a serrated knife
- Allow the roll slices to come to room temperature before serving
(Top Left) Added Sugar's Ginger & Cherry Swiss Roll
La Nipotina’s Ada’s Slice (Caramel Slice)
Makes up to 48 pieces
Ingredients:
Base
1 ½ cups plain flour
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
¾ cup desiccated coconut
190g unsalted butter, melted
Caramel Layer
120g unsalted butter
4 tbsp golden syrup
2 x 395g cans sweetened condensed milk
Topping
2 x 180g blocks Nestlè Plaistowe milk cooking chocolate
10g unsalted butter
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Grease and line a 33cm x 23cm slab tin.
- To make the base, sift flour into a mixing bowl, then add sugar and coconut and mix well. Add melted butter and stir until ingredients are crumbly and well combined. Press firmly into the tin and smooth with a spoon. Bake for about 15 minutes or until lightly golden.
- To make the caramel layer, melt butter in a small saucepan. Stir in golden syrup and condensed milk until combined. Pour over the partially cooked base, then return to the oven and cook for a further 15 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 1 hour.
- To make the topping, fill a saucepan with 3cm of water and bring to a boil. Place a heatproof bowl on top of the saucepan so it fits snugly without touching the water.Break up the chocolate and add to the bowl with the butter, stirring regularly until melted, about 4 minutes. Stir in oil. Alternatively, melt chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl for 20-30 seconds at a time, stirring well between intervals, until smooth (be careful not to burn the chocolate). Pour chocolate over cooled caramel base and refrigerate until set.
- To cut the slice, remove it from the fridge and stand for 10 minutes. Run a large knife under hot water, wipe dry and then cut the slice into rectangles to serve.
Notes:
- The caramel is done when you start seeing a moderate amount of bubbles (spaced apart, not touching) and it has started to darken slightly. If it’s too bubbly or dark, it might be overcooked and will come out chewy. Remember it will continue to cook after you take it out of the oven.
- Plaistowe milk chocolate is of premium quality and melts well, leaving you with the smoothest top layer with a rich velvety taste. If you can’t get your hands on it, any milk cooking chocolate is fine to use.
- To keep the chocolate from cracking when cutting, add 1 tbsp of oil to the melted chocolate (thanks Aunty Ju!). I suggest using vegetable oil because of its neutral taste and scent.
(Left) La Nipotina’s Ada’s Slice
Lina Macgregor's (Buffet Digital) Torta De Rosa
This is my own personal riff of my dad’s notorious recipe and Gourmet Traveller’s classic.
Ingredients:
450 ml milk
300 ml pouring cream
160 gm arborio rice
Scraped seeds of 1 vanilla bean
50 gm dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), coarsely chopped
40 gm hazelnuts
4 egg yolks
Finely grated rind of 1 orange
100 gm raw caster sugar
100 gm butter, melted and cooled
50 gm finely chopped glacé orange
1 egg
¼ tsp finely grated nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Brown sugar pastry
250 gm plain flour (1⅔ cups)
60 gm brown sugar
120 gm cold butter, coarsely chopped
3 egg yolks
For dusting
Icing sugar
Method:
- Brown Sugar Pastry: Toss the flour, sugar, and a pinch of salt into a food processor. Blend in the butter until the mix looks like coarse crumbs. Add the egg yolks and pulse until it just comes together. Dump it on a floured surface, knead it together with the heel of your hand, wrap it up, and chill it for an hour.
- Roll out the dough on a floured surface until it's 3mm thick. Line a 22cm tart tin, trim the edges, and refrigerate it for another hour.
- In a saucepan, bring milk, cream, rice, and vanilla seeds to a boil. Lower the heat and let it simmer, stirring now and then, until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed—about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 180°C. Freeze the chopped chocolate. Roast the hazelnuts on a tray until they're browned—about 4 to 5 minutes. Rub them with a towel to remove the skins, chop them roughly, and set them aside. Whisk together the egg yolks, orange rind, 80 gm of sugar, and half the melted butter. Stir this into the rice mixture and let it cool slightly. Mix in the glacé orange, hazelnuts, and chocolate. Spoon this filling into the pastry case, stopping about 5mm from the rim. You might have a bit of leftover filling.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, spices, remaining butter, and sugar. Drizzle this over the rice mixture in the tart. Bake until the top is golden and the tart is firm to the touch—about 45 minutes to an hour. If it’s browning too quickly, cover it with foil. Let it sit for 15 minutes, then dust with icing sugar before serving. Keep it refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 days, and bring it to room temperature before serving.
There you have it. A bit of patience, a touch of finesse, and you've got yourself a tart that’s more than just a dessert—it’s an experience.
(Left) Lina Macgregor's Torta De Rosa
Ismat Awan's Fudgy Chocolate Cake with Cream
Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Cook: 25 minutes
Prep + chill: 1 hour
Serves: 12 mini fudge cakes or 1 loaf
Need: 12-hole mini loaf tin and patience
Ingredients:
Fudgy chocolate cakes
200g dark chocolate (I love Whittakers Ghana dark chocolate) (the rest of the pack I snack on while I make this recipe lol)
150g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing at room temperature
140g caster sugar, plus ½ cup for greasing
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp cardamom powder, plus ½ tsp extra for greasing
60g almond meal
½ tsp salt
Vanilla cream, to serve
300ml thickened cream
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Method:
- To grease the tin, begin with a small bowl and mix the ½ cup of caster sugar + ½ tsp cardamom powder. Using a pastry brush or your fingers, grease the mini loaf tins with the extra butter liberally. Dust each buttered mini loaf tin with the cardamom sugar and shake the tin so that each mini loaf is fully and evenly coated in the sugar. Place in fridge until it's time to fill the mini loaf tins*
- *If you want to avoid this whole step feel free to use muffin cases (this will also avoid the potential panic of turning them out later once baked. No judgment, if you decide to do it this way!).
- Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler (a pot with simmering water, and a heatproof bowl sitting over it to gently melt the chocolate). Once melted, remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
- In a separate bowl with a whisk or in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs and sugar on high speed until the eggs are fluffy and the sugar has dissolved. The volume of the eggs should increase about ¼ when you beat them well. Not to worry if you don't know what this looks like: if you have pale, fluffy eggs and when you pinch the egg sugar mix between your finger tips and don't feel any sugar granules: you’re good to go.
- Gently fold the slightly cooled chocolate butter mix with the egg mix.
- Add in the cardamom powder, almond meal, salt and gently fold until just combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared tins and freeze for 20-30 minutes (this is what makes them fudgy!).
- Preheat the oven to 160°C convection/140°C fan forced and place mini loaf tins in the center of the oven.
- Bake for 25 minutes until the edges look set but the center has a very slight wobble to it. Fear not if you over bake this, I’ve made them all ways and regardless: they still taste delish!
- While the cakes are baking, it's time to make the vanilla cream. In a bowl with a whisk, whip the thickened cream, caster sugar and vanilla bean paste until you have soft peaks. Keep in the fridge until it's time to serve.
- Once the cakes are baked to your liking, remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before confidently unmoulding them.
- Serve with vanilla cream or your preferred topping!
Serving suggestions:
- These beauties are wonderful with vanilla cream, icecream, caramel sauce or stewed fruit (cherries are my favourite).
- This recipe is customizable so feel free to make them your own with different spices or without.
- They are gluten free
(Left) Ismat Awan's Fudgy Chocolate Cake with Cream
Kaleela Lauder's (Buffet Digital) Choc Chip Raspberry Cookies, with credit to Alexis Dunlap of Hot Jam Preserves
I'd love to credit the brilliant creator, Alexis Dunlap (AKA Hot Jam Preserves) for this recipe, which she wrote in collaboration with Vermont Creamery)
The full recipe can be found HERE, I simply swap the Vermont Creamery products for whatever I can find at my local supermarket and add about 30g of freeze-dried raspberries into the dough and top with some extra freeze-dried raspberries blitz in the food processor (which I would like to suggest is a non-negotiable, really helps balance out the heavy chocolatey-ness).
For me, the steps are:
- Open up your preferred web browser
- Head to www.vermontcreamery.com > recipes > Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Follow the instructions EXACTLY (this recipe is perfect, have complete faith) all the way to STEP 7
- Pause, run to the supermarket and find yourself some freeze-dried raspberries (I often find health food and bulk-food stores are the best for stocking this, but if you're struggling freeze-dried strawberries also do the trick and are sometimes easier to get your hands on), chop about 30g (or whatever feels right, think about 1-2 little pink chunks every square cm of dough as a rough guide) of these up as finely as you can and throw them in with your chocolate chips
- Proceed to step 9 as planned, do commit to the overnight rest if you can, it's worth the extra wait
- Proceed to step 13 as planned, throw another 10g or so freeze-dried raspberries in your blender/Nutra-Bullet and blitz for a second or two, a rough powder (I like to stop when I have a mix of textures from fine powder to small chunks) and sprinkle a little across each cookie then follow up with the flaky salt (my pick is pink Himalayan if you too like to stay *on theme*)
- That's it! Enjoy x
Complete recipe copy-pasted below, but translated into Aussie measurements and lightly annotated with my variations:
Ingredients:
170g Unsalted Butter, browned (professionally, I would recommend sticking with unsalted, personally I think salted is way more fun but I'll leave that choice in your hands)
1 ½ cups (325g) packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons (25g) caster sugar
2 ¼ cups (270g) all-purpose flour
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon (17g) Crème Fraîche
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon baking soda
heavy pinch of sea salt
225g chopped dark chocolate + extra fine shavings for post-bake topping
30g (or whatever feels right, trust your gut here) finely chopped freeze-dried raspberries + extra freeze-dried raspberries blitzed to a rough powder in a blender/food processor (I like to stop when I have a mix of textures from fine powder to small chunks) for topping
Flaked salt for topping (or flaky pink Himalayan if you, like me, enjoy committing to *the theme*)
Method:
- Brown your butter and set aside, allowing to come to room temp.
- Add your sugars to the butter and mix until combined - about 30 seconds.
- Add the egg and mix to combine. Then add the egg yolk and the vanilla bean paste. Mix to combine.
- Add the crème fraîche and mix to combine
- Sift your flour and baking soda together and add to the mixture. Add your sea salt as well.
- Mix only until dough just comes together. Over-mixed dough will result in a dryer, tougher cookie
- Add your chocolate and chopped freeze-dried raspberries and mix to combine.
- Using your scale, measure 80g-85g balls of dough, trying to include an even amount of chocolate in each. Shape into balls and put in a sealable container or bag
- Store sealed dough balls in the refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours, or preferably overnight (it's worth the wait if you can, these only get better with time).
- Preheat oven to 160°C and line baking sheet with parchment.
- Place 4-6 balls of dough on the cookie sheet, depending on size.
- Bake 9 minutes and remove from oven. Turn cookie sheet 180° before adding back to oven. Cook an additional 3-4 minutes, until tops become only slightly brown.
- Remove cookies from oven and top with a sprinkle of freeze-dried raspberry powder and flaked salt. Heavier on the salt the better.
- Allow to cool (or not) and enjoy!
@hotjamnpreserves
