I hit peak isolation baking this week – finally joined the sourdough party, then got even more quarantine cult and used that precious discard to resurrect neglected bananas into golden sugar-crusted loaves. I resisted sourdough for a long time. I imagined it to be a time-consuming endeavour that would only yield an inferior product to what I could easily buy from my local. I was turned off by the multitude of starter tuturials filling my instagram feed. And I’ll now admit I was wrong. Time wasn’t an issue – a few minutes feeding in the evening, and a couple of hours intermittently folding the dough the day before you bake. What I didn’t factor into the equation was the level of satisfaction a bakery-worthy loaf would achieve (sorry, yes that’s a shameless brag). A bubbled browned crust shattering on slicing, a wide open ear (sourdough language, ok?) and a soft, open crumb with much more flavour than most store-bought bread would ever dream of. Best eaten with generous slabs of salted butter. At the very least, a new and very gratifying skill.

(And if you’re also interested: I relied heavily on recipes by Ed Kimber (over at The Boy Who Bakes) and Hannah (at The Swirling Spoon) the first couple of times, and they both have great step-by-step tutorials on their blogs and video tutorials in instagram highlights.)

Banana bread using sourdough discard was clearly the obvious next step (I used a recipe by Izy over at Top with Cinnamon (incidentally also vegan)). I don’t know quite why, individually and together, banana bread and sourdough have emerged as the popularity contest winners of social isolation. Sourdough is complex and takes time, a little more challenging but the ultimate stuck-at-home project; banana bread is basic and comforting, a forgiving, versatile but perhaps equally satisfying venture. Both are therapeutic, especially when puzzles and zoom calls just aren’t doing the trick. Sourdough in its routine, in the stretches and folds of that increasingly elastic dough, in the magical transformation of just flour and water. Banana bread in the ease with which its smell fills the house, the productive use of those gross bananas you bought and never got round to eating, and the small (ok, large) joy of sitting down to warm cake and tea. That probably doesn’t explain the phenomenon entirely – maybe more comes down to the viral properties of social media (a la #thecookies, or #thestew). If everyone else is doing something, how much more do you want to experience it too?

If you’re not on the sourdough bandwagon, my other favourite banana bread recipes include:

• The most luxurious version I’ve ever baked, more like dessert than bread, by Violet Bakery. Add chocolate chunks and it really is dessert.
• A never fail tahini, olive oil and honey version, studded with toasted walnuts and topped with sesame seeds. A little sturdier, also delicious.

Stepping away from bananas and bread for the moment, let me introduce you to my new favourite cookies – equally deserving of emerging from your oven. Spiced brown butter pecan dark chocolate cookies, specifically. (A good mouthful, ok). They lie toward the chewy end of the cookie texture scale, all fudge-y interior and just crisp outer edge, helped along by nutty browned butter and an all-brown sugar dough. A hint of cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and ginger makes your house smell like holiday season without overwhelming the cookie, and they’re studded with toasty pecans and puddles of dark chocolate. It’s also a one bowl mix with no creaming required, and just a 30 minute fridge rest time – you’re less than an hour total from pulling these out of the oven, promise. And for small batch isolation purposes, halving the recipe gets you nine perfect cookies (and if even that’s too many, pop some of the unbaked cookie dough balls in the freezer for next time you need a cookie *asap*)

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I’m not sure what to say here that you haven’t already heard, read or thought about. It feels a bit like the world has turned upside down – hitting refresh on the news only brings up more headlines that would have been unfathomable only a fortnight ago. This level of uncertainty is unprecedented and unsettling, and the scenes being beamed across the world from Italy are difficult to comprehend. Like much of the world, Victoria is now locked down with only non-essential services allowed to remain open. Despite this, it’s the headlines and the supermarket trips that are more anxiety-producing than actually being at work: the hospital thus far has retained a semblance of normalcy – the calm before the storm, some have labeled it. Wardrounds, phone calls and paperwork continue, although large meetings are now conducted by video and more and more patients require full glove, gown and mask precautions. Those higher up prepare for the worst case scenarios – ways to reallocate staff based on skillset and post-pone non-essential surgical procedures, for example.

Though the announcement of lockdown was absolutely necessary and warranted, it was simultaneously devastating for the hospitality industry. It’s hard to imagine many favourite cafes and restaurants recovering from indefinite closure – though we’ve witnessed many scramble to organise takeaway services in the past few days, it could never make up for the regular stream of food loving Melbourne patrons.

To describe the next few months (or year) to be challenging would be an understatement. One thing we can all do with the closure of the hospitality industry and extended time at home is to cook and bake more – satisfying and productive and hopefully a little therapeutic. I will continue to post new recipes, and if you have any ideas or suggestions of what you’d like to see please let me know.

These brown butter passionfruit meringue bars are one of my favourite bakes in a long time – judging by the reactions at work, it wasn’t just me. They’re also much easier than they look: a very simple crisp, nutty browned butter shortbread base is topped with a tangy baked passionfruit curd and a layer of torched Swiss meringue. The curd is a 5 minute whisk together affair, and the meringue utilises a technique of heating the egg whites and sugar over simmering water to dissolve the sugar and partially cook the eggs whites to make a more stable meringue. Then you get to break out the blow torch – what else could you want for while you’re stuck at home?

If passionfruit aren’t in season where you are, you could try frozen or canned passionfruit pulp or substitute lemon juice (though you may need to increase the sugar slightly with the latter option).

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Hello again! I can’t quite believe it’s already March and this is my first post of 2020. Work as a junior doctor started in January and it’s been a whirlwind learning curve. As much as medical school prepares you (largely to know when to ask for help), there are huge gaps which can only be picked up on the run – or three coffees deep on a Saturday evening when your pager continues to buzz.

Despite the increase in responsibility and the inability to skive off at 2pm, it’s 1000x better than being a student. The stress-induced exhaustion of the first week or two has faded – it’s incredible how an increase in workload becomes the new normal. My job isn’t exactly House of God (though elements of it continue to ring true – a good buff or turf absolutely exists), and some days feels more like administration with endless faxes, phone calls and electronic discharge summaries (can report that typing speed has also improved), but being part of a team and a useful cog in the wheel is hugely satisfying.

And this recipe! A nectarine, blueberry and walnut cake with passionfruit cream cheese frosting. It’s a favourite combination of fresh summer fruit and a nutty, moist cake – this time helped along by toasted walnuts and juicy nectarines. The cake itself isn’t too sweet, relying on pockets of stone fruit and a tangy passionfruit note to the frosting. I brought it into work the other day and it quickly disappeared – would love to hear what you think too.

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When it comes to cake, I will always go for moist and full of flavour over spongy and vanilla. Biting into outwardly stunning layer cakes at events to find a slightly dry, cardboard-like interior plastered with inches of sickly buttercream is not ok. Small is cute, but I’m also not a huge cupcake person – maybe it’s the memories of high school bake-sales with the same dryness issues or the associated girliness -and why should cupcakes seem in any way more “girly” than cake, anyway? I read this interesting article recently about how steak evolved to be “manly” while salad and dainty deserts became “feminine”, starting in the late 1800’s with specific restaurants for women to lunch and increasing magazine space dedicated to dietary and weight loss advice (which also simultaneously peddled steak recipes to please the men in your life). In some ways those prawn cocktails and trifle have just been replaced by kale and green juice and açai bowls, all under the guise of ‘wellness’. I will admit there’s also huge male wellness industry equivalent now too, heavy on the protein and keto – but those gendered food stereotypes remain pervasive. Food for thought, anyway.

Obviously these mini hazelnut, coffee and chocolate cakes are neither dry or vanilla. Freshly roasted and ground hazelnuts are the star ingredient (so please please make sure yours aren’t rancid), boosted by coffee and two types of sugar for texture (demerera and brown) then topped with a silky chocolate ganache that drips from the sides. I’ve had nothing but glowing feedback thus far – they last well for at least a few days, are rich without being overkill, and are incredibly soft and moist in texture thanks to all the ground hazelnuts and yogurt. If you don’t have mini loaf tins, you could also easily make them in muffin (regular or Texas muffin tin size) or a friand pan. I haven’t personally tried it as a cake but I think it would work in a 20cm round cake tin also – let me know if you give it a go.

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Pear, ginger and hazelnut cake with maple cream cheese frosting. Jump to Recipe

I recently realised that although there are plenty of stacked up celebration cakes around here (this lemon, almond & raspberry cake, this chocolate hazelnut cake and this rhubarb, caramel & pistachio cake are a few of your favourites), there are fewer options for those erring on the side of simplicity. As much as I love sky high cakes as an opportunity to pull out the stops, the majority of the time a single layer is what I choose. Maybe frosted, maybe dusted with icing sugar – the kind of cake you make on a slow Saturday morning, or for when friends are stopping by. To take to work, to use up those pears ripening on the counter, or just because you feel like it. This is one of those cakes: a pear, ginger & hazelnut cake with maple frosting. I couldn’t help myself with the embellishments – salted caramel drizzle, toasted hazelnuts and dried pear – but you could equally give it a simple dusting of icing sugar and call it a day.

It’s a cake that required more than a few tests (and significant oven frustration) to reach what I envisaged – dark, caramelised and richly spiced with fresh ginger and cardamom. Toasted hazelnuts are ground to a slightly chunky meal, and, along with the olive oil, keep it moist, nutty and give texture. Full of fresh pear chunks, it’s got satisfying height. It’s also not a super sweet cake, but that’s balanced by the tangy maple cream cheese frosting. Dark brown sugar is crucial and definitely worth seeking out (it’s stocked in most supermarkets). Would love to hear what you think!

Baker’s notes

• Seek out dark brown sugar if you can – it’s crucial to the dark, caramelised interior.
• To decorate, I used dried pear, chopped hazelnuts and a half batch of the salted caramel recipe here. Leftover caramel freezes well for future cakes or desserts. Dried pear can be found at specialty bulk food stores in Australia.

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