Pear, Walnut & Dark Chocolate Crumble

A new recipe for you courtesy of work I did with Walnuts Australia towards the end of last year – incidentally perfect for Melbourne’s current ‘polar blast’ iciness and the dark evenings. It’s one of my favourite winter crumbles: thinly sliced pears in brown sugar, vanilla and lemon with a buttery, oat-y walnut studded topping, dark chocolate melted and oozing through the crevices. Previous iterations had involved cooking down the pears in a buttery caramel – which whilst delicious and still a recommended alternative, churns up significant time and dishes when you’re probably at the point of just wanting to get dessert in the oven. 

The walnuts themselves were outstanding: I’d never quite appreciated how good freshly cracked buttery walnuts could be compared to the almost-turning-rancid ones left at the back of the pantry. You can find the rest of the walnut recipes over on their website: a walnut raspberry frangipane slice; my favourite walnut cinnamon scrolls with cream cheese frosting; walnut and maple granola; cheese platter worthy spiced tahini walnuts with comte; and the gooey centred brown butter & dark chocolate walnut cookies. 

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White chocolate, rhubarb and raspberry cake with almonds, a hint of orange and topped with cream cheese frosting. Jump to recipe.

Apparently you can expect recipes to be a rarity from me this year – cake has slid further down the priority list than I would like. It seems like a fact of life that every year gets busier (with a brief pause there with lockdown baking time), but the addition of exam study and attempts at research on top of work has really tipped it over. I’ve always wished I was one of those people who could be incredibly productive until the small hours of the morning and survive on less sleep than the rest, but sadly sometimes fatigue means only a meaningless phone scroll (maybe an episode of euphoria) and bed is possible.

I am still eating (and therefore cooking) so maybe badly lit iphone photos of a thrown together risoni salad is all I can offer – but maybe that’s all you are out there making too? The reintroduction of social lives and the end of WFH really spelled the end for sourdough projects and time to page through cookbooks. 

In better news, the New Zealand borders finally opened and I managed to escape back for a few weeks of annual leave. This white chocolate, rhubarb and raspberry cake was a product of Mum’s successful rhubarb plants (we also had rhubarb and raspberry tart for those with similar crops). It’s a variation on a theme – my favourite cakes are buttery, moist and rich, often nut based (almonds, pistachio, coconut or walnuts) and full of seasonal fruit, whether that’s apricots, plums or berries. It’s one layer (cleaning up 2 cake tins is just too much) and hastily dressed with a swoop of citrus-y cream cheese frosting. This one is studded with chopped white chocolate which partially melds with the batter – normally I find white chocolate too sickly (dark all the way) but it stands up to the sharp rhubarb and raspberries here perfectly.

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Baked spinach and ricotta gnudi in roast tomato eggplant sauce. Jump to recipe.

Gnudi: Tuscan dumplings, akin to extra large ricotta gnocchi without the shaping and boiling steps. It often takes people aback when you say it, like they might have just heard you suggest nudes of some variety (gnudi does literally mean naked in Italian). The name apparently comes from the fact that they are similar to ravioli filling, only disrobed without their surrounding pasta. The term gnudi is more commonly used in areas near Florence, whereas they are also known as malfatti (meaning badly made) in Siena. This version were born of a day during COVID isolation when a friend dropped off a care package including ricotta, cherry tomatoes and a sourdough baguette (a friend that knew me well, clearly). True comfort food in a bubbling dish, and much easier than either ravioli or gnocchi – less potential for mishap.

As a sidenote, friends dropping off coffee and treats really got us through that home isolation period and I would highly recommend it to anyone else (especially New Zealanders right now who are in the midst of a COVID outbreak). Who knew how exciting a door knock would become when you weren’t allowed to leave the house – our days were bookmarked by what might come through it.

These baked gnudi are soft and pillowy, reliant on good ricotta with wrung out spinach, lemon and parmesan then nestled in a simple roast cherry tomato and eggplant sauce and baked for half an hour. They can be prepped ahead right up until the baking step (just keep covered in the fridge in the baking dish) if you’re short on time later. It’s the sort of meal where you end up having done all the dishes by the time you’re ready to serve it straight from the oven, ideal for both weeknights and easy entertaining. 

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Lemon-y apricot, pistachio and cardamom cake. Jump to recipe.

I’m definitely a stuck record but I can’t believe its already been three months since a recipe here! Life is busy etc etc. To sum up – Victoria emerged blinking from lockdown, life outside of home resumed, everyone got covid (myself included, very mildly) and it has been a strange summer of lots of hospital work, cancelled plans because of isolation requirements, retail and hospitality closures with staff furloughs and everyone trying to reach this elusive “new normal” (I realise this is what the rest of the world probably went though a long time ago – we are a little behind). It still beats lockdown. The last hurdle left is border closures – NZ and WA remain the last islands standing, having somehow (luckily for them, unluckily for us) kept out omicron. 

Baking has been a little neglected in the interim, but I’ve prioritised a version of my favourite summer cake (basically anything involving stonefruit and nuts in combination). It’s a lemony apricot, pistachio and cardamom cake, moist with an almost caramelised exterior and not too sweet. The apricots roast and soften on the surface, the cake just sturdy enough to keep them afloat. It’s also low maintenance, which is all I can really tolerate currently – one (to two) bowls, no mixer, no creaming butter, no frosting – just a few lashings of lemon glaze to decorate. Rave reviews received all round. 

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I know I’ve published three banana bread recipes before (a basic version fancied up with espresso mascarpone, a slightly alternative tropical passionfruit coconut version and a healthy-ish tahini heavy version) and there are literally millions to be found on the internet. Maybe even billions, who knows. I still think you need this recipe. It’s the only one I ever make anymore, and whenever anyone asks for the recipe I struggle because it only exists as an ingredients list on my iphone notes. It’s a one bowl mix frequently made the night before work and might be the only reason they kept me around (adjectives used included life changing).

It’s extra moist thanks to oil, tahini and yogurt, heavy on the banana with a thick sugar caramelised top (crucial) and studded with dark chocolate and toasted walnuts. Tahini delivers an extra subtle nuttiness, but you can substitute with extra vegetable oil if you don’t have any. The recipe originated in Violet Bakery’s buttermilk banana bread and has metamorphosed into this over a few years – I never have buttermilk on hand but always have yogurt, like the additional depth of tahini, and have changed quantities around a bit so it works in a standard size loaf tin. Walnuts and dark chocolate also never hurt.

Key points for optimal banana bread making 

• EXTREMELY ripe bananas. Almost black. A few spots doesn’t cut it. It also works perfectly with frozen bananas, so leave them to go almost black on the counter then freeze and defrost in the microwave when you want to use (make sure to use all the liquid that leaks out). Make sure to mash them very thoroughly until silky and shiny (warming them a bit in the microwave can also help here). Big chunks of bananas tend to sink to the bottom and don’t deliver the even moist bread you want. 
• Loaf tin size: somewhere along the way in making this recipe I lost my grandmother’s loaf tin, and then realised when finding another one that it was a bit larger than standard size, and really there is no standard size anyway. This recipe works well in either an 8.5 x 4.5 inch tin (21.5cm x 11.5 cm) or a 9 x 5 inch (23 x 12 cm) tin (won’t be quite as tall and will cook a bit faster).
• If tahini isn’t your thing or you don’t have any, sub in the same weight vegetable oil. 
• Dark brown and demerera sugar–  important! You could sub in regular brown sugar and caster sugar respectively, but the originals are worth it for the caramelised interior and dark sugar crusted top. 
• Cooking time: the last thing you want after going to all this effort is to overbake your loaf (my literal nightmare). When cooked, the top will spring back to touch with a firmness you wouldn’t associate with liquid batter underneath BUT a skewer may still come out with crumbs or even a little gooey batter attached (I put this down to hitting chocolate chunks / banana on the way down). I like to leave it to cool completely in the tin overnight and have never ended up with runny insides. I’ve suggested 40-50 minutes in a 180°C oven on fanbake as mine takes about 45 minutes, but it will all depend on the oven and tin that you’re using. 

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