Recently in Bakery Category

Last Monday would have been just another girly catch-up dinner at CeCi in Strathfield had I not discovered Hello Happy (to which I squealed with excitement).

As you may have noticed, I'm a regular at Strathfield. With a growing South-Korean, Chinese, and Sri Lankan population, it has become a trusted suburb for authentic Asian cuisine. However, there has always been a missing piece to the culinary puzzle when it came to dessert. There was waffles at Beauty & The Beast cafe on the corner of The Boulevarde, Gelatissimo just outside the plaza and now, there's Hello Happy, offering a cute selection of cakes, pastries and good coffee!

The interior featured hand-draw graffiti characters across some walls and had a really calming and welcoming jungle touch. Hello Happy is only in its second month of operation so everything looked brand-spanking new. It was a breath of fresh air in an aging street.

New to Strathfield: Hello Happy patisserie

My tart was fruit paradise! The thin glaze made each piece look plastic and perfect. It consisted of blueberries, raspberries, grapes, a strawberry, a slice of kiwi fruit, 3 generous slices of sweet pineapple and a quarter of a peach. Beneath the fruit was a beautiful sweet pastry crust which held together, a classic custard.

Mixed fruit tart

Tracey has the strawberry mousse dome which looks more like a work of art. It is sponge cake coated with a light fluffy mousse and wrapped in strawberry slices then strawberry jelly, and last but not least, adorned with crushed pistachios. It was a blissful taste of heaven.

Strawberry mousse dome cake

Our chai lattes were fantastic too. They were frothy and sweet, but not sickening sweet, allowing the natural spiced aromas of cinnamon, cardamom and ginger to stand out.

Chai latte

Korean-chic interior

Hello Happy is a lovely new find that I hope many will appreciate.

Hello Happy
22 The Boulevarde Strathfield (next to NAB)
Phone: 9715 6259

I'm a big fan of Time Out. I would never visit a city without first consulting the local Time Out guide.

Time Out Sydney's Food Awards 09 winners were announced this week, so let's see who made the cut:

People's Choice
Winner: Glebe Point Diner, Glebe
Runners-up: Bodega, Surry Hills; Quay, The Rocks; Marque, Surry Hills; Longrain, Surry Hills

I'm a bit ashamed that I haven't yet dined at Glebe Point Diner. There are all round positive reviews from other food bloggers, namely, The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry, Double Cooked, Lemonade Land and Steph's Food Journey and along with mountain loads of press and editorial reviews, Glebe Point Diner is an obvious people's choice.

Best New Restaurant
Winner: Rockpool Bar and Grill, Sydney
Runners-up: Sepia, Sydney; Spice Temple, Sydney; Etch, Sydney; The Beresford, Darlinghurst

Rockpool Bar & Grill in Melbourne is an absolute favourite. While I haven't been to its Sydney sister, can anyone tell me if it's any different?

Etch is simply full of pretty spaces and their macaroni is to-die-for. The revamped Beresford trattoria is also a clear winner (runner-up in this case) with the locals.

Best Cafe
Winner: Cafe Sopra, Waterloo
Runners-up: Deus ex Machina, Camperdown; Wall, Surry Hills; Ruby's Diner, Waverley; Kazbah, Balmain

Anyone who has been to Kazbah's breakfast banquet will be an advocate. Hmmm, why isn't Dank Street Depot a runner-up?

Best Desserts
Winner: Universal, Darlinghurst
Runners-up: Pier, Rosebay; Quay, The Rocks; Longrain, Surry Hills; Rockpool, The Rocks

I haven't been to Universal, nor Pier or Longrain. But if Quay is any benchmark for the winner, I have to get myself to Universal. I adore Quay's eight texture chocolate cake and their pear creme caramel, sauterne jelly, pear icecream and caramel cream!

Best Steak
Winner: Fix St James, Sydney
Runners-up: Bistro Moncur, Woolahra; Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sydney; Tabou, Surry Hills; Mad Cow, Sydney

Wow, I haven't been to any of these places. What about Prime? Chophouse?

Best Fixed Price Menu
Winner: Bentley Restaurant and Bar, Surry Hills
Runners-up: Assiette, Surry Hills, Atelier, Glebe; Vini, Surry Hills; Marque, Surry Hills

Best Seafood
Winner: Sepia, Sydney
Runners-up: Tetsuya's, Sydney; Manta, Woolloomooloo; Fish Face, Darlinghurst; Pier, Rose Bay

Am I the only one who hearts Flying Fish, Masuya and Ocean Room?

Best Burgers
Winner: Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sydney
Runners-Up: Plan B by Becasse, Sydney; Ruby's Diner, Waverley; The Burger Joint, Darlinghurst; Paul's Burgers, Sylvania

You will have no doubt seen my recent list of where to find the best burgers in Sydney. I still stand by it -although from reading the comments, I need to get myself to Rockpool Bar & Grill and Counter Burger!

Best Cheap Eat
Winner: Black Star Pastry, Newtown
Runners-up: Din Tai Fung, Haymarket; Guzman y Gomez, Newtown; Mamak, Haymarket; Gumshara Ramen, Haymarket

Seriously, how can anything beat Mamak? OK, maybe #chronic ramen is close, but a pastry shop? It must be bloody good, and I have yet to try. But the bigger issue here, is how 6 xiao long bao (soup dumplings) for $8.80 can be considered a cheap eat!

Best Sandwiches
Winner: Malibu, Surry Hills
Runners-up: Pilu Kiosk, 'On the Beach', Freshwater; Big Bite, Sydney; Hong Ha, Hurstville; Plan B by Becasse, Sydney

Best Patisseries
Winner: Adriano Zumbo, Balmain
Runners-up: Croissant D'Or, Potts Point; Yellow, Potts Point; Bourke Street Bakery, Surry Hills; Sweet Belem, Petersham

Ah, Zumbo. Post-Masterchef, Zumbo appears to be the real winner with endless queues and requests for his macarons, croquembouche and the chocolate mousse cake.

Best Noodles
Winner: Gumshara, Haymarket
Runners-up: Pho An, Bankstown; Twisted Noodle Bar, Sydney; Menya Noodle Bar, Sydney, Tan Viet, Cabramatta

I think ramen should be in its own category. But regardless, you'll still find me every fortnight slurping up $7 noodles at Dong Ba in Bankstown.

Best Thai
Winner: Spice I Am, Surry Hills
Runners-up: Longrain, Surry Hills; Sailor's Thai, The Rocks; Chat Thai, Sydney; Crocodile Senior, Sydney

Best Yum Cha
Winner: Fisherman's Wharf, Pyrmont
Runners-up: Marigold, Sydney, Sunny Harbour Seafood Restaurant, Hurstville; Sky Phoenix, Sydney; Golden Unicorn, Maroubra

Best Tapas
Winner: Bodega, Surry Hills
Runners-up: Ash St Cellar, Sydney; Delicado, McMahons Point; Sean's Kitchen, Pyrmont, Catalonia, Kirribilli

Bodega, can anything beat it? I think Spanish Terrazas, Velero and Cantina may be close contenders for runners-up.

Best Pizza
Winner: Lucio Pizzeria, Darlinghurst
Runners-up: Pompei's, Bondi Beach; Rosso Pomodoro, Balmain; La Disfida, Haberfield; Pizza Mario, Surry Hills

Errr, Pizza e Birra anyone?

So what do you think? Are these the winners or losers?

The Aussie in me has never experienced a cold wintery Christmas. I'm used to the barbecues, the fresh seafood, chilled fruity drinks and spending the morning watching a repeat of Christmas cartoons followed by a balmy afternoon at the beach.

My dear friend Sarah decided to host a Christmas In July afternoon tea last week. There was no roast turkey or presents for each other. Instead, we used this occasion as an excuse to kick the boys out of the house and bake. Then instead of swapping presents, we brought along gifts and donations for kids in need and burnt off the calories wrapping some rather difficult open shoe boxes.

I took this opportunity to bake lemonade scones -I have always been fascinated by the simplicity of the ingredients required; and lemon meringue tarts, from my newly bought cook book: Patisserie (Le Cordon Bleu Home Collection), which was only $5.95 from Basement Books!

Lemonade Scones
(From Nigella's website)

Ingredients

3 cups self raising flour
1 cup thickened cream
1 cup lemonade

Method

1. Place all ingredients in a bowl and combine gently. Knead and pat out until 3cm thick and cut out with a 5cm scone cutter.

2. Place on lined tray, brush with milk and bake at 200 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes until top is browned.

Lemonade scones in the making

Lemonade scones

The scones were so quick and easy to bake! It's a great recipe for the young ones to be involved in too. The result were these delicious fluffy scones, which were accompanied with homemade mulberry jam and cream.

Scones with homemade mulberry jam and cream

Lemon Meringue Tarts
(From Patisserie (Le Cordon Bleu Home Collection))

Ingredients

Shortcrust Pastry
200g plain flour
Large pinch of salt
Large pinch of caster sugar
100g unsalted butter, chilled
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 - 2 drops of vanilla extract or essence

Meringue
4 egg whites
200g caster sugar
2 tablespoons icing sugar

Lemon Filling
6 egg yols
250g caster sugar
4 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind
Juice of 4 lemons
60g unsalted butter

Method

1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt and sugar. Cut the butter into 1cm cubes and place in the flour.

2. Rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

3. Make a well in the centre and pour in the combined egg, 2 - 3 teaspoons water and the vanilla.

4. Slowly work the mixture together with a palette knife or pastry scraper until it forms a rough ball. If it is slightly sticky, add a little more flour. Turn out onto a lightly floured cool surface, gather the dough into a ball and flatten it slightly. Wrap the pastry in plastic wrap and chill for 20 minutes before use.

5. Brush two 12-hole muffin tins with melted butter. Preheat the oven to moderate 180°C.

6. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to a 3mm thickness. Cut 22 circles of pastry to fit the tins, then ease them into the tins and chill for 20 minutes. Cut 22 circles of baking paper slightly larger than the pastry cases and place in the cases. Fill with baking beans or rice. Bake for about 10 minutes. Remove the baking beans or rice and paper from the cases and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven, leave to rest for 2 minutes, then cool in their tins on a wire rack.

7. To make the lemon filling, half-fill a pan with water and heat until simmering. Using electric beaters, whisk the egg yols and sugar in a heatproof bowl that will fit over the pan without actually touching the water, until light and creamy. Add the lemon rind, juice and butter and sit the bowl over the pan of simmering water. Whisk continuously for 10 - 15minutes, or until the mixture is thick and creamy and leaves a ribbon as it falls from the whisk. While the filling is still hot, pour into the cases.

8. Preheat the grill to medium. Place the egg whites in a clean dry bowl and beat them with a balloon whisk or electric beaters until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, beating well between each addition, until stiff glossy peaks form. Spoon or pipe onto the lemon filling in the pastry cases and swirl attractively with the top of a spoon. Sieve the icing sugar over the surface of the tarts and grill for 1 - 2 minutes, or until the meringue is just tingled golden, then serve as soon as possible.

Shortcrust pastry

Lemon meringue tarts in the making

Lemon meringue tarts

These tarts were tangy, sweet and divine. They were totally worth the effort it took to make the pastry and filling from scratch. (Although you may notice from my pics, that I did forget to add the icing sugar in the final step :-\)

Half section of lemon meringue tart

Afternoon tea at home

Wrapping boxes for a charitable cause

I'm not a regular baker and am definitely not the neatest. This challenge has led me to appreciate the hard work that goes on behind any scrumptious work of art but it has also triggered a new desire to perfect my baking skills! So stay tuned for more ;)

If you follow me on twitter, you will know that I was out with some food bloggers tonight. While I'd love to share with you the smell of the all-you-can-eat mussels at Bungalow 8 (which I will eventually blog about), i have something more pleasant and actually very comforting and exciting to share with you.

That's right, believe your eyes. I was sent this bottle of aromatherapy oil which smells exactly like freshly baked pastries. Now this is something I would love as perfume or even a room air freshener. What's better than the soothing smell of freshly baked goodies? And guess which company has diversified into aromatheraphy? None other than McDonald's McCafe! Smelt first by their test kitchen bakers, I am tonight sniffing this stuff up!

Who would have thought it were possible?

McCafé's baking aromas are now on sale!

My very own bottle of oven fresh aromatherapy oil

The Essential Oil will be available online at www.mcdonalds.com.au for an initial trial period before becoming a regular item of demand is strong. What are your thoughts?

[Edited: 01/04/2009]

When you're starving, any food is good food. But watch what happens when you put one hungry person, a busy day at work -meaning lunch at 3pm, and this divine salad of smoked trout, roast potatoes, capers, roast red onion, dill, celery, parsley, rocket, tomato, almonds and a lemon verjuice dressing?

This is the end result:

All I can say, is that this was quite simply one of the best salads I have ever had! It had the right consistency and a delectable variety of texture and flavours.

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Bourke Street Bakery on Broadway
130 Broadway, Sydney

I was going to wait until I had eaten all 5 salads this week before I blogged about it, but why wait? The best thing about blogs is that you readers get the latest pics and info with minimal turnaround time.

I actually had this salad for lunch today... and less than 12 hours later, here you have it:

Since Bourke Street Bakery started the email subscriptions, I have been obsessed! In winter, it was their hearty soups which were reinvented daily. Now, I'm stuck onto their salads -all of which are served with a generous slice of their delicious crusty sourdough. There's nothing better than receiving an email reminder of the daily specials every morning... it keeps my mind set til lunch time!

I found that the dressing in the roast beef salad (I had this last week, pic is above) to be too heavy, but the mix of lentils made it a scrumptious gourmet lunch that was extremely filling. Today's bresaola salad was a lot lighter and just as tasty, although I would have loved more than one zucchini flower...

Are you hooked yet? Here are some of the recent salads that were on offer:

• Pork with chat potato, chick pea, baby spinach, mint, basil and coriander, with a lemon, cornichon and spring onion dressing
  


• Duck with roast potatoes, roast beetroot, goats feta, parsley, celery, lentils, baby spinach, and a red wine dressing


• Roast chicken with white beans, croutons, braised fennel, parsley, and rocket and a lemon dressing


• Smoked salmon with potato, capers, roast red onion, basil, hazel nuts, tomato, witlof and a lemon and verjuice dressing


• Roast pork with chick pea, potatoes,baby spinach, mint, corriander, basil, and a light lemon mayo dressing


• Roast lamb with crispy pancetta, roast pumpkin, green beans, parsley, baby spinach, anchovies, goats feta and a balsamic dressing

Bourke Street Bakery on Broadway
130 Broadway, Sydney

I've made my own baklava at home plenty of times. While it's fun mixing and matching different nuts, syrup to pastry ratio and wacky shapes, nothing beats walking into a baklava pastry store. The huge display here offers more varieties of baklava than you can imagine.

Here's what I ended up with:

The long ones in the back-right are lady's fingers cashew baklava... these are crispy, buttery and not overly loaded in syrup. Splendid. The round disc of pastry with cream has been an all time favourite of mine... the soft fluffy cream balances out the sweetness so well. Ah, and my second most loved baklava would have to be the king's crown of long kounafa pastry which resembles a bird's nest full of whole pistachios. It's pure heaven.

Auburn Baladna Pastry
Opens 8am - 10pm daily!!!
150 South Parade, Auburn
Phone: 9649 2324

Every time I'm in the Broadway area, which isn't often... I cannot resist stepping into Bourke Street Bakery. Yesterday was no different.

However, I think I ate the bad batch. Is there really such a thing, you ask?

I left the 5 megapixel point and shoot camera at home to charge... so here's my proof, taken with the handy 2 megapixel camera on my Nokia 6110.

The tart, clearly becoming a signature item has increased to $4.40. The case and custard was still as I had remembered... divine. The brulee was unfortunately a bitter, burnt toffee.

So, this visit wasn't as satisfying as my previous... but it's not going to stop me from trying another batch, another day.

Bourke Street Bakery on Broadway
130 George Street / Parramatta Road Broadway
Near Kinkos & Mountain Street
Phone: 9281 3113

Also at:
633 Bourke Street Surry Hills
474 Gardeners Road Alexandria (on the corner of Ellis Ave)

I love this place with passion. Bourke Street Bakery has delicious savoury breads, sourdough of all sorts and my favourite tarts.

They used to do an amazing pistachio and ginger brulee tart which seems to have been replaced by this vanilla brulee tart with strawberry puree. (A good thing since strawberries are in season now)

The tart was gorgeous. A delicate layer of crystalised sugar floated lightly above the creamy vanilla filling. The buttery case was rich & just as satisfying!

I also picked up a plain croissant to munch on... it was light and flaky.. mmmmmm :)

Bourke Street Bakery on Broadway
130 George Street / Parramatta Road Broadway
Near Kinkos & Mountain Street
Phone: 9281 3113

Also at:
633 Bourke Street Surry Hills
474 Gardeners Road Alexandria (on the corner of Ellis Ave)

It was Friday lunch, but I felt the weekend vibrations already. Or perhaps it was an early Three Thirtyitis attack. Whatever excuse it was... feel free to drool.

Cupcakes on Pitt
Shop 2, 323-327 Pitt Street Sydney
Phone: (02) 9264 4644
Web: http://www.cupcakesonpitt.com.au

On the 31st July 2006, I turned 22.