Tag Archives: sweets

Melbourne Foodie Day Part 1: Pie Face, Little Cupcakes and pre-loved books

8 Aug

Multicultural Cuisine of… Melbourne!


It was another relaxing, but uneventful Thursday night in our household, Sous-Jeff, Kitchen Bug and I curled up on the couch watching Master Chef, and drooling over the guest chef’s creation on our TV screen. “Maybe we should have a foodie weekend, just around Melbourne…” I say out loud, more to myself than the other two. But Sous-Jeff nods at this suggestion, and that’s all the encouragement I need. Within 5 minutes, I have a path to follow on Saturday morning, that will lead us from Flinder St station to Movida Next Door, HuTong Dumpling Bar, and finally, La Belle Miette. I show Sous-Jeff and explain what each place is all about, he nods along patiently and waits for me to finish. He has only two questions: “Can we go to a pub somewhere in between?” Sure thing. “Can we please try Pie Face?” Yeahh, sure, why not?! Around rolls Saturday morning, and after a biiiig workout and a tiny breakfast, onto the train we go!

We hop off at Flinders St station, and come almost immediately face to face with Pie Face, a franchise pie bakery that seems to be sprouting new stores all over the Melbourne CBD. The Pie Face bakeries and cafes were founded by the founders of fashion label Paablo Nevada, who fell into the pie business after serving little pies at a fashion show of theirs. We’ve been noticing stores popping up all over the place, resulting in Sous-Jeff calling me “pie face.” I must resemble one of the pie faces or something… I dunno. Anyway, he felt it was high time we finally tried out one of these pies, and I agreed. “But only a small one, we’re going to Movida first and I want to be hungry and ready to eat!”

Pie Face
See website for locations



“24 hour pies?! Are you joking?!” Sous-Jeff is immediately impressed. In we walk to find a line of young people already desperately ordering coffees (it was only 11am…) in strengths ranging from “Tingle My Toes” (a gradual rise for morning avoiders), to “Open My Eyes” (your standard coffee), to the more extreme “Start My Heart” and “Kick My Arse” blends, to really jolt you awake. Being non-coffee drinkers, however, our eyes went straight to the pies…

There were adorable little pie faces everywhere! Luckily for us, there were only two types of mini pies left, so we didn’t have to make the tough decision of which cute little face to say yes to. Sous-Jeff was famished by this point and couldn’t wait much longer for Movida, so he got 2 little pies, and I got the third and last one in the window.

Sous-Jeff’s Special Thai Chicken Curry pies were by all accounts delicious. Boasting fresh chicken and a spicy Thai green curry flavour, Sous-Jeff was excited to jump right on in. While it wasn’t all that spicy, the chicken was certainly fresh and very tasty.

My pie face was of the Mince Beef and Tomato Chutney variety, filled with premium Australian lean beef, and tomato chutney. The pastry was perfect – golden and crunchy, and the filling was flawless. Starting to see why these franchises are so popular! Very yummy!

Would rate it 8 out of 10.

“Hey, honey…. since we’re already on Degraves St…. and Movida doesn’t open for another 30 minutes…. do you think we could maybe….”

The sign of a good marriage – I don’t need to finish this sentence. Sous-Jeff pulls out his wallet and says, “just grab me a carrot one.” With those words, I start running down Degraves St to Little Cupcakes. I know that with tapas, dumplings and macarons to come, I really don’t need cupcakes as another appetiser, but I justify the visit with the following: they are the best cupcakes in Melbourne, and I’m not in the city all that often, so when I am here, I owe it to myself to get a little cupcake. And besides, they’re only little.


Little Cupcakes
7 Degraves St
Melbourne
(03) 9077 0413
Visit Website

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – if you have not been here, please go. Immediately, if not sooner. The cupcakes truly are that good. And even more exciting, they have my favourite flavour this morning – Lamington! It’s a vanilla cake topped with a chocolate ganache like frosting, coated in coconut. Mmmm chocolate and coconut… my favourite :) I also grab myself a Teddy Bear cake (yes, I am secretely still a 5 year old child deep inside, and I love Teddy Bear biscuits.), which is a moist chocolate cake, topped with white chocolate frosting, and a little chocolate Teddy Bear on top. Amazing. Sous-Jeff goes for his standard Carrot Cake (his favourite type of cake), which is your traditional carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Since trying a pistachio macaron a few months ago an falling in love with the flavour, he also decides to try a Pistachio Heaven cupcake, which is a pistachio cake topped with sweet pistachio frosting – unfortunately, he wasn’t as impressed by this one. May be because he still had the dreamy taste of the carrot cake in his mouth.


Any how, no matter how many times I eat here, I’m still impressed. Go there now. You know you want to.

Would (still) rate it 10 out of 10.


Little Cupcakes on Urbanspoon

We check the time, and discover we still have 20 minutes until Movida opens, so we check out a second hand book shop on Flinders St…

… and pick up these little steals, for a grand total of $13.00! Win!


With new treasures in hand and only 15 minutes left to kill, we stroll on down to Hosier’s Lane…. part two to come!

Cooking Class Sneak Preview!

27 Jun

Multicultural Inspiration from…

Italy


 

For those of you who don’t know, I’m about to embark on a new and exciting adventure – teaching my very own cooking classes!!! I’m soooo excited to be teaming up with the lovely Agata from Amore Cucina to bring some of my favourite dishes to others! I’ll be teaching a lot of Italian home cooking, as well as some Spanish food, and lots of sweets and desserts.

 

I’ll be teaching my very first classes in a few weeks, on July 30th and 31st – “Italian Christmas Cooking,” where I’ll be teaching you how to add a little Italian to your Christmas lunch, with antipasti, mains and of course, desserts!

 

Here’s a little sneak peak at one of the desserts I’ll be teaching – “cuzzupa,” or, Christmas sweets. They’re delicious little citrus flavoured, scone like biscuits, coated in a lemon glaze, and are traditionally used in the Italian region of Calabria as gifts to loved ones at Christmas time. Can’t wait to teach them, because they are soooo yummy! You can enrol on Agata’s website, here, and hopefully I’ll see you there :)

Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cookies

21 May

Multicultural Inspiration from…

America

You know that food you absolutely must have after those big nights out? Those nights where you maybe have a bit too much to drink, not enough to eat, stay out wayyy too late, and get home only to realise that your driver has somehow by-passed Maccas and now you need to find that food to round out the night and help you get a decent sleep? Well, mine is toast. With crunchy peanut butter. Nutella too, if there’s any in the house.

 

So I have a radical idea. A chocolate cookie. With peanut butter filling. Like a baked version of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Sous-Jeff is excited. So is the Kitchen Bug (although he’s not really sure what he’s excited about exactly, he just knows that people in the kitchen is always a good sign). I quickly Google peanut butter filled cookies, as I’m not really sure how to tackle the peanut butter filling, and find a stack of recipes. Some advocate mixing the peanut butter for the filling with flour, others recommend corn flour, others still suggest castor sugar. A few recipes advise the addition of icing sugar; that’s that one that grabs me the most. My intuition says that the saltiness of the peanut butter would benefit from the sweetness of the icing sugar, toning it down a little and making it more cookie friendly. So, I whip out my 1 Dough, 100 Cookies book for my fail safe chocolate cookie recipe, recruit Sous-Jeff, and here’s how it’s done…

First, to make the filling, spoon three quarters of a 375g jar of crunchy peanut butter into a bowl and microwave for 15 – 20 seconds. Then, add 3 tsp of icing sugar, mix to combine, and refrigerate until ready to use.

For the cookies,

  • 225g butter, softened
  • 140g castor sugar
  • 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 225g plain flour
  • 70g cocoa powder

Preheat your oven to 190°C and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon. Then, beat in the egg yolk and vanilla extract. Sift together the flour and cocoa, then mix in thoroughly until combined.

Next comes the hard part – putting them together. Scoop out a tablespoon-sized ball of dough, and gently flatten it on the baking paper.

 

Take the peanut butter mixture out of the fridge, and spoon a little bit (about a teaspoon worth) into the middle of the flattened dough.

Next up, gently cover the peanut butter ball with the cookie dough, ensuring you cover the peanut butter completely, carefully smoothing the dough over.

This is a little tricky and time consuming – it works best if you wash and completely dry your hands in between every few cookies. Once that’s done, into the oven they go, for 15 minutes.

In they go…
… and out they come!

Warning: the smell of warm cocoa and peanut butter wafting through the air is damn near impossible to resist, but it’s best to leave them to cool on their tray for 10 minutes or so. Then, get involved!

The chocolatey cocoa hits you first, they the stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth gooeyness of the peanut butter… just really, really yummy! Also had one very, very happy friend who was visiting from Hepburn Springs, who went home with a box full of these bad boys. Next time I’m planning a big night out, I’ll be sure to have a batch of these on stand by!

So, what are your favourite post-big-night-out comfort foods?!


Hazelnut Choc Chip Cookies

14 May

Multicultural Inspiration from…

the world of baking!

It’s a cold, rainy, Melbourne day. I’ve already dragged myself out of bed for an early morning gym session, and now I’m back in my PJs and ugg boots, curled up on the couch. The heater on high, working it’s magic and I’m warm and cosy under a blanket, with my furry, faithful companion snuggled up by my side; it’s a text-book doona day, and the only thing that’s missing is something chocolatey to nibble on…

Sitting on the coffee table in front of me is Mrs. Fields’ Best Ever Cookie Book, which I subconsciously find myself flicking through. I’m feeling like chocolate, not just my standard favourite milk, but white chocolate as well… and something a bit crunchy and nutty… so with a little inspiration from Mrs. Fields and a mish-mash of my own ideas, I settle on making a sweet, chewy hazelnut choc chip cookie.

Here’s my recipe for these yummy doona day delights…

  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 150g butter, softened
  • 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
  • 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1 cup chopped/crushed hazelnuts

Here’s how I put them together…

Preheat the oven to 150°C

Lay a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray – spread the hazelnuts out over the sheet and place in oven for 20 minutes.

Freshly toasted hazelnuts… just let them cool down for a few minutes before sneaking a few in!

In a small bowl, sift in the flour and baking powder, and stir to combine.

Place the butter and sugar in a medium bowl, and cream together with an electric mixer. This is my furry companion, we’ll call him the Kitchen Bug, comes in. The Kitchen Bug is named thus because he is like a moth to a flame when it comes to all things prepared in the eating arena. The Kitchen Bug is native to the kitchen, uses his cuddly charm to get close to food, and is quite partial to butter cream frosting and raw cake mixture.

Once combined, add in the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined.

The Kitchen Bug waits for his share of the cookie dough

Next, beat in the flour until just combined – be very careful not to over mix.

Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and hazelnuts, then drop the cookie dough by rounded tablespoons an inch or so apart on the baking tray. They will flatten themselves and spread out, so don’t make them too big or put them too close together.

Bake for 15 – 18 minutes, or until just starting to brown on top.

About 5 – 8 minutes away from being completely done!

Once cooked, let them cool on the tray for 10 minutes or so before transferring them to a wire rack – they’re a very soft cookie, so they’ll fall apart if you try to move them around too quickly. I would however recommend eating 1 (or 4) while they’re still warm – AMAZING!!!

The actual cookie itself is super sweet, as are the warm, semi melted chocolate chips, closely followed by the crunchy, earthy taste of the hazelnuts, and very, very moorish! Note to self – must go to the gym tomorrow morning!

So, with my cookies baked and the Kitchen Bug whimpering by my side, desperate for a bite, it’s time to settle back down on the couch with a few cookies in hand and a few episodes of Iron Chef on Foxtel IQ to inspire my next culinary experiment!

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