The Humble Crouton

So day two strikes and how do I tackle it?  With the humble crouton.  The delicious little chunks of bread found in soups and Caesar salads all over the world.  But I wanted to do something different to jazz up my salad this evening.  So here are three different recipes for croutons - and one is gluten free!

Garlic Croutons - my personal favourite!

Using a bread knife slice up a baguette into pieces about half a centimetre thick.  Place slices without overlapping onto a non-stick baking tray.  Cover with a good drizzle of good quality olive oil - enough to make sure that each crouton gets at least a little.  Then cut a head of garlic in half and scatter amongst the croutons - to get a really strong taste try squashing garlic cloves onto a chopping board with the back of a knife.  Place in an moderately hot oven - between 180 and 200 degrees and let them toast in there for about 10 minutes or until crunchy.  Leave to cool on tray.

Brown Butter Croutons

Same as above in preparing the bread.  Brown a good dollop (at least a tablespoon) of butter in a saucepan on high heat and allow the butter to change from a yellowy colour to brown.  This process is called browning the butter.  Doing this makes the butter have a more nutty and solid flavour.  Place croutons in the butter and toss quickly to make sure they are covered on both sides - they will absorb the butter very quickly!  Allow to cook slightly in the pan before removing croutons and placing them on a non-stick pan.  Repeat this step enough times to cover and cook all your croutons.  Sprinkle croutons with Herbs De Provence Sea Salt - a mix of salt, thyme, rosemary, basil, tarragon, lavender and fennel (you can get this at most supermarkets or at specialty food stores).  Bake croutons in a moderately hot oven - between 180 and 200 degrees for 10 minutes or until browned and crunchy.  Leave to cool on tray.

Gluten-Free Croutons with Sea Salt

When I make anything gluten-free I try to find great products.  Gluten-free baked goods have a reputation of tasting and having the texture of cardboard - if you do a little research and are happy to spend a few extra dollars there are some great gluten-free alternatives out there!  For this recipe I used Lifestyle Bakery's White loaf.  Rip up approximately 6 slices of the bread into smaller chunks and place on a non-stick baking tray.  Cover bread with good quality olive oil and a very generous pinch of coarse sea salt and dried rosemary.  Place the tray in a moderately hot oven - approximately 180 to 200 degrees for approximately 15 minutes or until golden.  My experience with gluten-free croutons is that they tend to take a little longer in the oven - so keep an eye on them!

Tonight I had the Brown Butter Croutons with a very basic and thrown together Caesar Salad.

Basic Casear salad with Brown Butter Croutons.

Marshmallows are Sticky Business!

So like many foodies, I see a cookbook or a magazine and before I know it it has made it's way into my carry bag and having coffee spilt on it while I indulge in every recipe from the ingredients list through to it's storing instructions.  I saw this recipe in the "Gourmet Traveller; Annual Cookbook 2013 Collectors Edition" I picked up earlier in the week while grocery shopping.  My ritual for new books and magazines is to wait until I have enough time to be able to read large chunks of glorious pages at a time.  Last Wednesday I had the day off -- perfect! I packed it in my handbag and walked down to my local coffee shop and I slowly made my way through all 250 pages of delicious sounding recipes and mouth-watering photographs.  I write down all the recipes I want to try and ideas I get while I turn all the pages in a little notebook - safe to say this book is already overflowing with ideas and things I want to try.

Homemade Vanilla Marshmallows

Before Wednesday I had never made marshmallows before.  As of Wednesday I now know that I might not be making them terribly frequently.  Though the recipe is delicious and not particularly hard to whip together - the mixture is SO incredibly sticky.  I am still finding sticky sections on the kitchen benches 3 days later!!  The recipe for the marshmallows actually comes from a larger recipe for "Dolce de Leche Marshmallow Biscuits", a 'love child of the Spanish alfajore and the good old Wagon Wheel'.

So what I have for you is a wonderful recipe that I recommend you to try.  I am certainly and going to try and make them again as they were delicious - I'm just going to factor in that they take three times longer to clean up as they do to make! I have taken the recipe out of the magazine and added a few little tips that I found useful while whipping them up (my tips will be in red) - Enjoy!!

Marshmallows - Gourmet Traveller, 2013 Annual Cookbook

2 tsp liquid glucose
375g castor sugar
3 egg whites
9 titanium-strength gelatine leaves, soaked in cold water for 5 minutes
Seeds from one vanilla bean
Icing sugar for dusting
200g dark chocolate - optional

To start with, I recommend getting all the ingredients ready and measured before even starting heating anything up.  Depending on your cooktop you could find yourself with a very hot sugar syrup and egg whites still snuggled up with the yolks in the fridge!

• Stir the liquid glucose, 250g of sugar and 100ml of water in a small saucepan over a medium-high heat until sugar dissolves.  Bring to the boil and cook until sugar syrup readers 118°C on a sugar thermometer (if you don't have a sugar thermometer then wait until the sugar syrup starts to boil with very thick bubbles - it then has another 5 or so minutes before it reaches 127°C). 
• When syrup reaches 118°C, whisk egg white and a pinch of salt with an electric beater until soft peaks form, then gradually add remaining sugar and whisk until glossy (to test whether it has been whisked enough, rub a small amount of mixture between two fingers it should be smooth and not grainy).  Continue cooking syrup until it reaches 127°C.
• Squeeze excess water from gelatine, stir into syrup, then gradually add syrup to egg white mixture, whisking continuously on medium speed.  Add vanilla seeds and whisk at high speed until mixture is cool and thick (10 minutes) (This is the super sticky part.  Gelatine is kind of like a cooking glue, as you are mixing it it sticks to itself as the beaters go around and around gradually picking up more and more mixture - if you don't keep an eye on it before you know it the marshmallow mixture is up onto the top of your hand mixer and slowing taking over your arm.  Beat on an angle and move the mixer up and down to stop this from happening). 
• Spoon into a 20cm x 30cm cake tin lined with baking paper, smooth top with a wet rubber spatula and stand at room temperature until set (approximately 2 hours). Turn out of tin and cut into desired shape with a biscuit cutter dipped in icing sugar (I used a small love heart).  Coat marshmallows in icing sugar.  If desired melt chocolate and allow to cool before dipping or coating the marshmallows.

They will keep for up to a week in an airtight container at room temperature.

The Busy Baker/Blogger

Busy... I feel as if the word busy doesn't even begin to describe how the last few weeks have been for this little baker/blogger.  So let me explain my absence from the blog-osphere...

In early September a wonderful little email popped into my account from the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation - a great organisation that I donate to every year.  This email was announcing that L'Oreal Paris and The Australian Women's Weekly were joining forces to raise money for the foundation by holding high teas all over Australia.  This sparked an ambitious idea.  After discussing with my boyfriend, housemates and other tenants in my apartment building, my very own high tea event was to be held at the end of the month.  I began researching and trying new recipes, invitations were sent out, florists were approached and donations started streaming in.

However, all the sifting, measuring, melting and whisking was doing something to me... and all of a sudden my one little high tea event exploded into four.  Yes... Four!  It all started when I approached my brother to see if he could hold a "high tea morning tea" at work and ask for donations - the idea behind it was that I could just do double batches and with recipes that made large quantities (such as macarons) I could divide them and not have any leftovers.  However, due to him moving offices his high tea needed to be the week BEFORE the one held in my building.  So I approached a family friend and she agreed to have one at her work too.  But while I was on this ambitious roll I approached one of the schools I work for and before long my humble high tea for 25 people all of a sudden was catering for well over 120 mouths!

What had I done?  The stress started to build.  Kilos of almond meal were purchased, dozens of eggs were separated, cups upon cups of flour were sifted and turned into biscuits, meringues, cakes, muffins, macarons, slices - you name it, it was baked!  And as each high tea event approached and passed the donations grew!

The original high tea in my building was the last event to be held.  Most of the baking was done the day before. The iced tea and champagne were chilling in the fridge over night and all that was left to prepare were the few recipes that are best served on the day they are baked (ie scones and friands) - easy!  All the preparation, trial baking and the helpers I had on the day meant that I got to actually enjoy my high tea event and not run up and down the stairs checking the oven and being a frazzled hostess.

Thank you to everyone that donated and were able to attend my high tea events.  I am happy to announce that I am one of the top-fundraisers for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation in Australia and there are still donations being processed!

So what does that mean for "The Oven Runs Hot"?  A whole lot of new recipes!  Meringues with vanilla cream.  My Mother's traditional scone and spongecake recipes.  Caramel Pecan Cookies.  Peanut Butter Shortbread Hearts.  Lemon Slice.  Chocolate Hazelnut Slice.  Chocolate-Orange Macarons.. And this is just to name a few!  I promise to have two up by the end of the day and keep them coming more frequently!

If you wish you donate please follow the link below:

worthit.everydayhero.com/au/lizmitchell

Oh - and to top off the crazy few weeks.  I got a new job.  More about that later!

Love always,

The Oven Runs Hot