My Grandma's Pavlova (Gluten Free)

In my last post I talked about the concepts of fressing and heirloom baking. This recipe is my ultimate recipe from my heirloom collection and I think fits very nicely into the idea of fressing as it is so enjoyable to eat. This was the dish I got excited about every time we went to my Grandparent’s for dinner. I would be desperately disappointed if it wasn’t the dessert of choice for that evening, and would ask my Grandma in a sad voice ‘but why didn’t you make a pavlova?’ as if the world had now come to an end. 

If I was in luck and pavlova was made for dessert, before (or sometimes during) dinner I would reach up onto the bench and pick off little bits of the meringue that had formed little peaks on the edges of the pavlova. I always remember being served my piece of pavlova on its own or only with ice cream. There probably was other fruit to go with it, I was just to picky to want it sitting on my piece. 

This recipe makes a crisp meringue and despite my childhood fussiness, does go well with cream and fruit. I have left this out of the recipe, purely because I wanted to make it as I remembered it. However, feel free to top the pavlova with some freshly whipped cream and fruit (such as passionfruit, raspberries, strawberries, banana, blueberries etc), just before serving. 

Ingredients: 

x4 egg whites 

250g caster sugar 

1 tsp vinegar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

20 g cornflour 

Method: 

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line a large baking tray with baking paper. 

Whisk the egg whites with a mixer on a medium to high speed, and gradually add the sugar. Whisk until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick, glossy and holds its peak. This process should take around 5 minutes. Whisk in the vanilla and the vinegar once this process is almost complete. 

Once the mixture is holding its peak and the sugar has dissolved, sift in the cornflour and gently fold in with a metal spoon or a spatula. 

Gently spoon the mixture in to the centre the prepared baking tray and smooth out until you have a circular shape. Keep the edges of the circle high and don’t smooth out too far. The circle should be around 24-26cm in diameter. It isn’t necessary to be overly precise, you just don’t want a really flat pavlova! 

Turn the oven down to 125 degrees Celsius, and bake the pavlova for 1 hour 30 minutes, no longer. Once the cooking time has elapsed, turn the oven off and leave the pavlova in the oven to cool. You can remove the pavlova immediately but be prepared for it to crack and sink a little (this will also depend on the weather, Summer may be the ultimate time to eat a pavlova, however the humidity does not do baking it any favours!). 

Originally Posted July 16, 2014.

How to Make Traditional Australian ANZAC Biscuits

Just a short post today, I’ve been trying to update the site and am finding my lack of IT knowledge very unhelpful! Luckily, these biscuits are easy to make, and don’t require any technical IT knowledge or technical baking knowledge for that matter. 

This is a recipe that my Grandma made often, and I copied down when I was about 11. They are a nice combination between chewy and crisp, and work well with either caster sugar, golden caster sugar, and I have also tried brown sugar as well. It doesn’t matter what type of coconut you use. Desiccated is more traditional, however shredded or flakes are really nice to use as well. 

This recipe is really easy to make and can be easily doubled if you need lots of biscuits for a event or party. I made them for the bake sale I did last year with Confessions of a Glutton and they were probably the easiest and least time consuming thing I made. 

So as ANZAC Day isn’t too far away, try making these instead of buying the packet ones and I think you’ll really notice the difference! 

Ingredients: 

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup plain flour

1 cup sugar (caster or golden caster)

3/4 cup coconut (desiccated, shredded or flakes)

1 tbsp golden syrup

100 g unsalted butter

1 tsp bi-carb soda

2 tbsp warm water 

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius and line two large baking trays with baking paper. 

Mix the oats, flour, sugar and coconut in a large bowl. Melt the golden syrup and butter on a medium-low heat, then mix the bi-carb soda and warm water together and add to the butter. The butter mixture should froth a little. 

Add the butter mixture to the dry ingredients and mix together. 

Place teaspoon sized balls of the mixture on the trays, leaving room for the biscuits to spread. Bake for 10 - 20 minutes, until golden. 

Makes approx. 32 biscuits.

Originally Posted April 6, 2014.

Grandma's Shortbread Biscuits

This recipe is very special to me. That might sound strange as it really just comprises three ingredients, but this is probably my favourite thing that my Grandma used to make. I have great memories of making these with her and of course, eating them! The last time I remember she made them was for my twenty-first birthday. I called her and told her that I was having an afternoon tea for my birthday, and she asked whether she could provide any food for it. I immediately said no, as my Mum and I had been busy organising all the things we would need and probably didn’t need anything else. I instinctively felt bad saying no, as I knew Grandma probably wanted to bring something. My Grandma always brought food to everything, that was the way she contributed to things. A couple of days later I suddenly realised that I definitely DID want Grandma to bake something for my birthday! No birthday, and certainly not one that was an afternoon tea, would be complete without shortbread! I rang her up, and asked if she would bake some and she was happy too. I’m so glad she did as, though we all still had a few years left together at that stage, it was, I realised after she died, the last time she ever made my favourite shortbread for me.

This recipe for shortbread is quite easy but, the temperature of the butter will determine how crumbly the dough becomes. I find that butter at around room temperature is best. My Grandma never iced her shortbread, she always cut a red glacé cherry in half and placed it in the centre of the biscuit before baking. They are very nice this way, and quite festive for Christmas time. But of course, I could never only make them at Christmas! 

Shortbread the way Grandma used to make them.

Ingredients: 

160 g unsalted butter  

60 g caster sugar 

250 g plain flour

Method: 

Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees Celsius and line two large baking trays with baking paper.

Place the larger quantity of butter and the sugar into a food processor and pulse until combined. 

Add the plain flour, and pulse until the dough looks like the breadcrumbs. At this stage, if the dough does not start to come together well, add the extra butter and pulse until it is combined and the dough comes together. 

Tip the dough out onto a floured work surface. The dough may still look crumbly at this stage, but once brought together with your hands, and rolled out with a rolling pin, it will become a more consistent dough. Shortbread is a dryer dough than others so don’t worry if the edges of your dough are particularly brittle.

Once the dough is rolled out, cut out shapes with biscuit cutters. To ensure the shapes don’t break when you transfer them to a baking tray, slide a spatula under the biscuits to help lift them to the tray. 

Space biscuits evenly on the trays and bake for about 20 minutes. If your oven, like mine, doesn’t cook evenly on each tray, you might like to swap the trays over or turn them around half way through the cooking time to ensure the biscuits cook more evenly. 

Cool on trays or wire racks. 

The quantity this recipe yields is dependent on the size of biscuit cutters you use. When I used this recipe for the biscuits I made in the photo above, the recipe made twenty-two biscuits. 

Shortbread are lovely on their own, or once cooled you can ice them. When I first started icing biscuits, I used the royal icing that can be bought in a packed at the supermarket. It is quite good to use if you are just starting out and one packet will ice more than one batch of shortbread. If you want a more smooth and glossy finish of icing however, the packet mix royal icing isn’t the one to use. For such a finish it is best to make your own royal icing. I have been using the recipe from ‘Sweet Bake Shop’* and have found it to be fantastic.

*Sweet Bake Shop website has now changed (last checked 10/10/14). Website previously contained recipes and instructions. The website now represents the evolution of Sweet Bake Shop, which is now an actual store front in Vancouver, Canada. The website no longer contains recipes, however there are some video tutorials by Sweet Bake Shop owner Tessa. 

Originally Posted January 8, 2014.