Rhubarb, Raspberry & Dark Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding cake – rich brioche pudding layered with roasted rhubarb, flaked almonds & dark chocolate chunks. Top with vanilla bean custard for a festive dessert!  Jump to Recipe 

As I type this, I’m sitting on a fold out camping chair with the sun beating down, under a big outdoor umbrella and a wide brimmed straw hat. I burn easily – a jandal tan line is already emerging. But I’m not camping, or looking out at the ocean, or at a barbecue – the view is of a busy suburban street and the chair is on the footpath. Morning traffic crawls past. Red and green buckets line the fences, and even though I’ve just swept the sidewalk, it feels like it is already covered in a carpet of pine-needles again. It’s a Tuesday, so this job is quiet – a few people have stopped by to choose their Christmas tree, and I’ve sold a few dozen homemade fruit mince tarts to bypassers. I wonder sometimes if I look in any way festive to people driving by: face hidden by my hat brim, typing away madly on a laptop, and occasionally donning long sleeves through the heat – scratchy pine tree needles give me a wicked rash!

We get a mix of buyers: my favourite are the families with young children who are dead set on finding a Christmas tree, no matter how pretty it is. They can’t wait to decorate it, and their parents are focused on getting them home as quickly as possible – they’re not picky.  The people on the opposite end of the spectrum are the worst: we have competition down the road, and yesterday someone drove back and forth between the 2 tree sellers about 5 times before finally making a decision. I’m not exaggerating. Let’s be honest, once a tree is covered in baubles and fairy lights, you’d be hard-pressed to tell them apart. It’s a study in human nature – and I think I’d rather be like the easy going folk who make Christmas tree shopping a breeze, than the picky, anxious, fussy people who turn it into an nightmare ordeal in an almost certainly fruitless search for perfection.

At least it’s sunny: I’ve done this for a the past few summers, and sometimes the chair is in the garage as rain buckets down while I’m soaked to the skin from lifting sodden trees. On the other hand, the sun makes the trees droop and gives them a forlorn appearance by late afternoon – so there are downsides to both. It’s a very different job to cafe baking bulk doughnuts last year and accidentally burning huge and expensive batches of biscotti  – much cruisier, really. I just keep reminding myself how much I’m saving for future brunch trips and holidays next year!

Last week I catered a dinner for 12 with chermoula-rubbed butterflied lamb cooked on the barbecue, a lentil pomegranate salad, smoky babaganoush and homemade mottled turkish pide to mop up bowls of the smoothest hummus I’ve ever made. The secret was to make it properly – and by that I mean to soak and boil the chickpeas with baking soda, rather than the quicker option straight from a can. Thank you, Ottolenghi! 

With all that going on, it was a relief to have dessert prepared ahead time with this raspberry, rhubarb & dark chocolate bread & butter pudding cake. It’s a step-up from your traditional casserole pan of pudding, and would make an ideal Christmas day dessert made the night before. Brioche slices (I made my own, but you could buy it) are layered up in a cake tin along with roasted rhubarb, tart raspberries, dark chocolate chunks and almond meal. It’s all soaked in a rich, eggy custard, and then baked until slightly puffy, springy and golden. When cut into, pale pudding is broken up with wavy lines of melted chocolate and raspberries, and the enriched brioche gives a lovely creamy texture, contrasted with the crunchy flaked almond & raspberry topping. Drizzled with a vanilla bean custard, it’s heavenly.

Cook’s notes:

• You need a very tight springform cake tin – mine leaks a little, so I lined it with baking paper that extends underneath the springform rim for a tighter seal, then wrapped the bottom of the tin with foil to catchy any extra drips.
• Brioche is the best bread to use – white bread risks a gluey texture. Make your own, or buy it.
• It’s a big cake , serving 10-15 easily with generous slices.
• Make or buy a vanilla custard, but it is very easy to make a much-better-than-storebought custard ahead of time and keep in the fridge (1-2 days) until ready to use.

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Brioche burger buns, sticky & smoky pulled pork, and a fresh, crunchy lime & coriander slaw.  Jump to Recipe 

Studying and me do not go well together. I’ve got 2 weeks to go until the biggest exams so far in my degree, and case in point – I spent parts of my weekend making a tahini chocolate-chunk banana bread, seeing The Girl on the Train, going out for dinner, staying up late reading books that I couldn’t put down (and probably shouldn’t have started in the first place), researching an upcoming overseas trip, and generally avoiding any prolonged period at my desk at all costs. And writing this blog post today. Just in the last 24 hours, however, I’ve started to notice that little creep of anxiety, that subtle stomach twist when I think about all the topics and information I need to cover before those exams hit. It’s probably a good thing – nerves as motivation always works for me. The competitive streak comes out, let’s say.

All this time at home does mean more time for slow-cooked food, especially since Melbourne’s winter days seem to be hanging around long than usual. This beef cheek ragu was my favourite so far, all rich and intensely saucy, but we also loved Food52’s genius pork ragu last week, coating thick strands of parpadelle. And to be most impressive – this middle-eastern harissa lamb salad is something I could eat again and again. These pulled pork burgers with pineapple & avocado slaw are a close second. It’s an act of transformation: turning a cheap, tough and chewy piece of meat into a supple, tender, almost falling-apart roast. A form of chemistry, with enough heat and time to denature the collagen fibres of connective tissue into threads of silky gelatin. That’s why these cuts work best: maximum muscle and therefore collagen in the strong, working areas of cheek and shoulder – the same goes for brisket and short ribs.

Although it’s science, these transformations that occur when we cook are part of why I love it: that feeling of watching solid sugar gently melt into a golden, boiling syrup to form a caramel; of pulling a cake out of the oven, risen and set; whipping transparent egg whites into a thick, inflated, and pure white meringue; watching yeast transform bread dough into something alive and growing; seeing profiteroles puff up in the oven like a balloon being blown up, as if they might just take off. There’s something new every time, and something to learn from each.

In this slow cooked pulled pork, a caramelised crust develops on the top surface through initial searing and leaving the lid off for the first 20 minutes in the oven, while the cumin, paprika, oregano and hot sauce with apple cider add a rich, spicy smokiness to the finished product. It contrasts with the fresh crunch of slaw, dotted with chunks of sweet grilled pineapple and creamy avocado. Dressed with lime and coriander, of course – if you’re not a coriander person, I’m not sure we can be friends (is it really genetic, guys?!). Hot chipotle aioli binds it all together and takes it over into burger heaven. And don’t miss the brioche burger buns, if you have time – they’re the sort that will make you vow never to buy burger buns again (until it’s a weeknight and you realise you don’t have time for that, of course!).

It’s a hands on, messy deal, all sticky pork and dripping aioli – but that’s how burgers are meant to be eaten.

Cooks notes:

• My brioche burger bun recipe can be found here, or you can buy them. They need to be started a couple of hours before.
• This amount of pulled pork makes enough for 8-10 burgers. You can either freeze half for another time, or increase the slaw to serve more people (the current slaw recipe makes about 4 burgers)

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Golden-brown brioche french toast rest on a thick smear of vanilla bean creme patisserie, topped with citrus roasted rhubarb and roughly chopped pistachios. Jump to Recipe 

Just realised that this is my second week of a sweet breakfast recipe post… hope you don’t mind!

I don’t, but sweet breakfasts are one of my favourite meal categories – french toast, pancakes, brioche, chia puddings, you name it, I’m there (except maybe porridge – but would you class that as sweet?). Cafe trips leave me as indecisive as if I was just asked to make a life or death decision (maybe not quite, but close!), when really I just don’t know whether I want to order the healthy green breakfast with eggs and avocado or the decadent menu option. I often end up ordering both, or forcing my breakfast partner(s) to share with me.. A bad habit to get into, but an irrational fear of missing out on one or the other leaves me torn and completely unable to choose without leaving with serious menu regrets.

It’s strange, as indecisiveness isn’t a problem in other aspects of life – it is just when it comes to food. Whether I am trying to choose what cake to make on the weekend, what to order at a restaurant or what to make for dinner, decisions seem to take much longer and significantly more thought than they realistically should. Part of the problem currently is that I am unable to cook at college, so as soon as I go home I try to fit all my cooking and baking into a week or two of frantic time in the kitchen. Mid-semester break is coming up the week after next, and I currently have ideas spanning twenty or thirty dishes – impossible to fit into an eight day period, but am seriously struggling to choose – because really, how can you say that crumpets are more worthwhile than hotcakes, that strawberry-rhubarb bars are better than lemon-olive oil-sea salt bars, or that an espresso mascarpone banana bread should be prioritised over flaky lemon blueberry scones?

Seriously struggling, I tell you. So if you have any preferences or tips (that don’t include drawing recipes out of a hat…), please let me know!

But back to the recipe. It is based on a dish at a cafe called Three Bags Full that I recreated at home, as getting on a plane to experience it again right when I wanted it was probably a little excessive. The slabs of golden-brown brioche french toast rest on a thick smear of vanilla bean creme patisserie and are topped with citrus roasted rhubarb and roughly chopped pistachios. A partnership of sweet creme patisserie, hot french toast straight from the pan and tart stalks of spring rhubarb with extra nuttiness for texture, it is something I could eat again, and again, and again.

Although the activity levels in our house are such that it is a rarity for everyone to be around on a weekend morning for a lazy midmorning breakfast, I feel like this french toast would be ideal for that situation. It did work well even for different timed meals though, as the creme patisserie and rhubarb can be made well ahead and the french toast just cooked as required. The recipe will make more rhubarb (and possibly more creme patisserie) than you need, but no worries – either make french toast again to use it up, add the rhubarb to your muesli the next day, have it for dessert with ice cream.. I could go on, but the options are limitless! The recipe is also easy to scale up for more people – just use more eggs and milk to dip the french toast in and make a double batch of creme patisserie.

For the brioche loaf, I made my own the night before, left it out to get slightly stale and then used it for the next two days of french toast making – it was absolutely perfect, so if you have time, I would highly recommend Thalia Ho’s recipe (from Butter & Brioche) for brioche loaves. You could also buy a loaf of brioche, challah or similar enriched sweet bread to use – it creates such a different french toast than using a white french baguette or white loaf.

I would also love to try brûléeing the top of the french toast straight after it comes out of the pan with a sprinkle of extra sugar and a blowtorch for extra crispy sugary edges, but that will have to wait until next time!

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A soft, tender enriched brioche dough is wrapped around a sticky, nutty, warmly spiced filling in these Cinnamon, Date and Walnut Brioche Scrolls.  Jump to Recipe 

Hitting week four of the university semester seems to always be hectic: mid semester exam is close (and we are learning head and neck, which is insanely complex – like, I always assumed the skull was made of 4 or 5 bones, but no, there is twenty two!), assignments start piling up, weekends are taken up by various birthday celebrations and events, and all I end up wanting to do is get in the kitchen and do some baking. Which isn’t possible at Mannix, obviously.

I am also just getting over being a walking viral ball of infection (not the best timing), and I have realised that it is nowhere near as fun being sick anymore as it was when I was at school and all you did was stay home for the day and indulge in general laziness. Now not only do I feel awful, but nobody is going to look after you anymore and skipping uni just results in getting insanely behind. One of the sad truths of growing up, I think.

 If I could make something now though, it would be these cinnamon, date and walnut brioche. A soft, tender enriched brioche dough is wrapped around a sticky, nutty filling, warmly spiced with cinnamon and topped with a snow-like dusting of icing sugar. Individual servings mean you get a whole brioche to yourself to pull apart and devour, piece by piece, working in from the crusty outer edges to the pillowy soft centre coated in sweet walnut-date paste.

They have been our family’s routine Christmas breakfast for years, pulled hot from the oven just as presents are opened in the morning. But don’t think I must be waking in the early hours to prep them – Christmas is for sleep-ins, after all (unless you are under eight, in which case you wake up a 4am to try and figure out what Santa brought) – the brioche dough takes about fifteen minutes to prep the night before, then just needs to be left in the fridge overnight to prove. The next morning, dump it on the bench and roll it out into some semblance of a rectangle, smear with the date-walnut-cinnamon filling, form into scrolls, prove on top of the oven for another 20 minutes and then bake. In the next ten minutes the house fills with the smell of warm bread and cinnamon, family and friends gravitate towards the source, and before you know it sounds of appreciation and sticky fingers fill the kitchen as they are devoured.

The filling is my absolute favourite: walnuts, sticky sweet dates and cinnamon sugar combine in a buttery paste that you whiz up in a food processor. If you are prone to eating things (i.e. cookie dough) before they end up in the oven, I would recommend making extra or you might not have much left for the brioche – it is THAT good.

This Christmas talk is not to say they can’t be made year round – remember, in New Zealand Christmas falls in summer (so all you people in the Northern hemisphere have no excuse not to make them now!), but when I made these a few weeks ago it was cold and overcast, in the middle of an Auckland winter, and eating a warm brioche scroll with a cup of good coffee was like a little pocket of perfection.

2020 Update: I now prefer to make these scrolls together in a baking tray or pan as above rather than in individual muffin tins, as the resultant brioche are softer and have less tendency to dry out.

• I usually make a 3/4 batch of the dough below (but still use the same quantity of cinnamon filling), and then space out the cut up brioche in a 20x30cm baking tray or similar. Make sure to leave at least 1.5cm gap between each scroll to allow them to rise in the oven.
• I also add a light cream cheese frosting (instructions below) which takes them to the next level.

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