Baking aplenty!

These last couple weeks, there has been intense activity in the kitchen, I mean more than usual.  There has been renovation works, still are actually.  Now, I have, after 18 month of cooking on an outdoor stove, a good oven and cooktop and, ceiling lights and power plugs there and there! You can imagine I was pretty excited to get this new oven to the test! In addition to that, I will be managing the food stall at my daughter’s school Halloween Fete and I am trialing a few recipes! A great adventure.  Hence, cooking aplenty at the moment!

Last pears of the year

Pears are nearing the end of their season in Australia and I came across a bunch of them just begging to be used on the seconds trolley of my grocery store.  Of course I could not resist!  I have been willing to do an almond pear tarte for a while.

I ended by using a Donna Hay recipe .  The recipe is easy.  There is no tart shell. The tart consists simply in a cake dough placed in a tarte tin with pears pushed in it. Cool it down it its tin and serve on a long platter.  I would advise to place some baking paper at the bottom, this would make the removal of the bottom part of the tin easy.  Click HERE for the recipe.

Look how we recycled an old laundry wash board!

Bread renewal!

With my new oven which keeps the steam (and the heat), I have made a try at semi-sourdough baguettes.  Mines were quite short, just to make sure they could fit in the oven.  Success!!!

 

These below is the preshape stage.

And another beauty, this one baked Friday night. A semi-rhye sourdough

Halloween pre-taste

For the school fete food menu, I have decided to expand a bit into some creative pieces that the children will beg their parents to get them.   I will speak more about it in a coming post, here is a little pre-taste!

These creatures are madeleines covered in coloured white chocolate. The antennas are pretzels.