Rosemary, check! Olives... check!

Pecan... check! Parmesan yes, tasty cheese... in! Mix these into dry ingredients, add buttermilk, transfer dough into a loaf pan. A few rosemary sprigs here and there, some extra chopped pecan for crunch, flakes of sea salt strewn on top, et hop in the oven.

Especially! If you have an army of kitchen fairies who will do the chopping, grating and slivering for you, I encourage you to give this one a go! I on the other hand, hand chop everything myself... no kitchen fairy around only a cat who prowls about observing my knife technique. Still! I would make this again and again for it is simply scrumptious.


Quick Pecan, Olive & Buttermilk Bread

Makes 1 large loaf

325 gr plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp mustard powder
70 gr grated parmesan
1/2 cup (60 gr) grated good-quality tasty cheese or gruyere
120 gr pecans, toasted and roughly chopped plus extra pecans, sliced, for topping
80 gr pitted black olives, slivered
2 tsp finely chopped rosemary leaves, plus extra sprigs for topping
2 1/2 tbsp olive oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten, plus 1 extra yolk mixed with 2 tsp water
1 1/4 cups (310 ml) buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a large (6cm-deep, 13cm x 23cm) loaf pan and line with greased baking paper.

Sift flour, baking powder, soda, mustard and 1 tsp each of salt and pepper in a large bowl. (Personally I used slightly less salt than 1 tsp)

Add cheeses, nuts, olives and rosemary, and mix well with a wooden spoon.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, 2 eggs and buttermilk.

Make a well in flour mixture, add oil mixture and stir to form a thick batter

Scrape into pan and smooth top.

Brush top with egg-yolk mixture, then scatter with extra nuts, rosemary and sea salt.

Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean (cover loosely with foil if browning too quickly).

Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool on a rack.



Belinda Jeffery says... that eventhough it is tempting to eat this bread straight away, it tastes better after it has cooled. This is Belinda's recipe by the way... taken from Australian's edition Delicious magazine (Aug 2006, page 40).

hmmm... Salt-kissed eh?

But it's a raspberry cake! I thought... and Oh! How beautiful!

Quite intrigued by the title, and enchanted by the photos, I made a mental note to try it out one day. Now I'm new here and don't yet know the etiquette of musing on one's recreation of someone else's recipe for one's blog. So ! For everyone's information, I took this recipe from 101 cookbooks.

Maybe wholemeal flour isn't quite the same as whole wheat pastry flour specified in the recipe... my cake turned out a tad dry. Otherwise, the lemony scent, the slightly crunchy top, the wholesomeness, the prettiness, and Oh! the (barely there) salty kiss...

I sipped my tea and took a bite

with a look of quiet contentment on my face as the effect of tea and madeleine permeates my system. Occasionally seen, me sitting in my little cubicle at work in front of my monitor, having a Proustian moment.

I prefer to bake madeleines in the morning so that I can take some to work to share, as one shouldn't be too greedy! (and one (self) certainly doesn't need nor want to pound on the extra kilo...) They are very easy to make, requiring only the most staple baking ingredients. It takes about an hour to concoct from the moment the eggs are cracked open until the batch comes out of the oven.

My favourite madeleine recipe comes from the mighty Larousse des Desserts by Pierre Herme, nature with only a hint of lemon zest. They are beautiful little things, lightly crusted shell shaped bottom with golden risen tops. I like peeking into the oven just to check that every one of them blossoms into lovely domes.


Madeleines

makes 12

2 eggs
125 gr caster sugar
100 gr plain flour
3 gr baking powder
100 gr butter
grated zest of 1/4 lemon

1. Preheat oven to 230 C.
2. Melt butter gently in a small saucepan, leave to cool slightly.
3. Sift flour and baking powder into a medium bowl.
4. In a larger bowl, crack the eggs and to it, add the sugar.
5. Whisk egg and sugar energetically for around 5 minutes.
5. Add the flour 'en pluie' and then the melted butter
7. Lastly add the lemon zest.
8. Butter madeleine mould well! Fill each one with batter right up to almost the brim
9. After 5 minutes reduce temperature to 200 C. Bake for another 5 minutes or so until golden brown.

I want to be a one of them

The Daring Bakers.... notoriously passionate, delicious lot of people (or so I have heard).