I only discovered hot crossed buns about 10 years ago. They were not part of my childhood growing up in America so it wasn’t until I met Stuart that I learned about this traditional bun served at Easter. He loved them but they are a minefield for migraine sufferers. I had to completely re-dux every recipe that I found and it’s taken me a good five years to finally perfect it. I’m delighted to share it with you.
It’s that time of the month my friends for the Recipe Redux Challenge. Drum roll please….Bake Some Bread. Turn on your ovens! Be it tried and true traditional yeast bread, or one of the new trendy protein-added breads, show us what you’re baking.
Bwahahaha.
Seriously, it’s summer in Australia. It’s like 38 degrees (nearly 100 F) and my house does not have air conditioning. The last thing I’m going to do is turn on the oven. That’s one excuse. The other is that I happen to live less than 100 m from two of the best bakeries in Sydney. I am spoilt for choice with Maggio’s Italian Bakery and Victoire Boulangerie serving up my daily bread. I don’t have to bake bread. Other than cinnamon scrolls, you can’t get a decent cinnamon scroll in this country so I make my own but that’s a story for another time.
Just some of the delicacies at my local bakery. Lucky me I have two to choose from!
Ah, the humble lamington; stale sponge soaked in chocolate sauce then coated in coconut. Made by CWAs and Scouts for fundraisers across Australia and loved by all. This iconic treat is always served in this house on Australia Day. Since we’re a week out it’s time to make the sponge 😉
My mom, Pat, and I making Lamingtons. It isn’t often that I get to cook with her any more as this year marks 20 since I moved to Australia. I taught her how to make these so watch out Riverlanding.
There’s a bit of a game going around and I wanted to play. OK, I was bored in the lead up to Christmas as I finished all my prep work for the upcoming holidays on Friday, go ahead hate me. Typical of Sydney weather it was going to be stinking hot on the 24th with a cool change making the temperature on the 25th more suitable for a roast dinner and warm desserts. So there I was trying to avoid the heat, reading through blogs about 2017 Recipe Redux Challenges.
It was really very simple. Pull out a cookbook, find a recipe on pages relating to 2017; such as 20, 17, 201, 217 etc., modernize the recipe, or in my case make it Migraine-friendly. Ooo, what fun I thought. I pulled out one of my “Ladies Groups” cookbooks. You know the ones that are just chock full of recipes contributed by the woman’s group of some organization. The thing with these books is that they are a bit of trash and treasure. Sometimes you hit the jackpot with Auntie Bess’s Banana Bread, but mostly the recipes are questionable.
This class was independently paid for.
My birthday present this year was a pastry making class at the Sydney Cooking School. It was a gift from Stuart, that I chose and sent him the details to book, which was also a gift for him. You see I never learned how to make proper pastry. It just wasn’t a skill that anyone had that they could pass down to me.
My lack of pastry making skills has been a challenge in the Aussie household. One of the staple ways of using leftovers is to slap them in some pastry and hope for the best. This country loves a meat pie. My fillings were good, but the frozen pastry I used left, well something to be desired. I tried learning from the Internet to no avail. Pastry is just one of those things you need some expert guidance to get the texture right. Read More
I love a sausage roll. Let me rephrase that, I have learned to love a sausage roll. These are quintessentially Australian, I’ve never encountered them on my global travels anywhere else. The closest thing that I ever had to one was a “pig in a blanket”. But those do not hold a candle to a well made sausage roll. Savoury, slightly sweet sausage mince is baked encased in pastry, either puff or a flakey short crust. The best ones are found at the local bakery and you should get there around 11 am to get them fresh from the oven. The worst are either the frozen nuggets doused in sauce (ketchup) served at kids birthday parties or the ones sold at the counter of the servo which have been sitting in the warmer for untold hours. You should just walk, no run, away from those. Keep on reading!
This weekend we are celebrating #1 step-son’s 21st birthday. 21st’s are a very big deal here in Australia. They are a cross between a wedding, graduation celebration and a bucks/hens night. The party provides an opportunity for those who helped you reach adulthood to be acknowledged and celebrate the young person’s achievements. It then devolves into the young folks drinking far too much. It’s the way this culture celebrates. Keep on reading!
I love pizza. I grew up on homemade pizza. My mom would make the dough just after lunch and by dinner we would be diving into thick “Sicilian-style” pizza. The crust was very thick, like bread and it was covered with a thick sauce of tomato and sausage with the obligatory topping of mozzarella. We never ordered pizza or, deep gasp, had frozen. Keep on reading!
Headache Free Foodie 
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