Healthy grain bread.

What makes you feel the most like yourself? I know for me its when I'm in the kitchen, or when I'm having friends over for a dinner party. Everyone seems to have a place, or something that just makes them feel completely happy or at ease. And then there are those who seems to be comfy in there skin (lives, clothes, jobs, and relationships) all the time. Gosh I envy these people. I'm sure you know the ones I'm talking about. They just don't seem to care what anyone things, and fit in everywhere. They are unafraid of everything and are just so unbelievable cool. I've always wondered what these people have.....what their magic trick is that makes theme so at ease.

Lately I've been learning, that you can only get to this place in life when you truly stop caring. When it doesn't matter what people think, or say, you become free to do whatever you like, and well.....thats unbelievably cool. Recently I spent the decent part of my night trying to explain to a friend everything I was doing. They wanted to know why I was shaving my head (EEEkkkk its only one week before I shave my head for 'Be brave and Shave')? Why I spent time with the people I spend time with? Why I spend my free time baking bread (ok I get that shaving your head is a little out of the ordinary at times....but who the hell questions why you make bread from scratch....my question for you is: Why aren't you making bread from scratch)? Why I felt the way I felt about life. I tried to justify every single one of these questions, and by the end of the night went away feeling sad. Everything I wanted to do had to be explained, and I really started to care what this person thought. 

The more I think about it, the more I'm sure that the only person in life you really need to impress is yourself. Everyone has different standards, and everyone has a different idea on whats important in life. You however are the one making the rules for your life. So get comfy. Settle into your skin, settle into your decisions, settle into your believes, because there is nothing quite so unbelievable awesome as doing whatever makes you happy no matter how quirky that is. 

So really the secret is kind of a contradiction. The less cool you get the more awesome you get. Well I must be getting pretty fantastic....... because some days, I'm just such a dag. 

Also, do yourself a favour........make some bread. Its so good for your soul. It makes you feel good inside (unlike how you feel when you steal your housemates beers.....again. I'll buy you new ones I swear! Or at least pay you back in heaps and heaps of baked goods!) 

Healthy Grain bread.

I've been making this recipe and eating it for my breakfasts every morning. Its such a good way to start the day. Its so very healthy that it wouldn't even matter if you layered peanut butter and honey on top of it.......every morning....not that I do.....but just say you did.......I don't think it would be a bad thing, and I wouldn't judge you. 

What you will need:

• 1/8 cup of warm water
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 packet (7g) of dried yeast
• 1/2 cup of milk
• About 1/3 cup of water
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1 tbs golden syrup
• 1/8 oil (I used olive)
• Half an egg
• 1/2 tbs of lemon juice
• 1/2 cup of oats
• 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds
• 2 and 3/4 cup of wholemeal flour
• Pinch of salt

What to do: 

1. Firstly, take a big breath. Making bread isn't scary....its easy.
2. Place the 1/8 cup of water with yeast and sugar in the bottom of a bowl and leave for 10 minutes until it turns bubbly.
3. Add the milk, water, honey, egg, syrup, oil lemon juice, oats, seeds, and a bit less than half the flour. Give it a good mix. Place a damp towel over the bowl and leave for 30 minutes to rest.
4. After its had its nap, add the rest of the flour, and knead. If you have a kitchen aid it will only take about 4 minutes with the dough hook attachment, if not you will be doing it by hand for about 10 minutes. Its good therapy. Knead the mix until its elastic and smooth. If you need to add more flour so it isn't too sticky go ahead.
5. Place dough back into bowl and cover with towel again. Place it in a warm spot and let it double in size.
6. Once it has doubled punch it in the middle to knock all the air out of it. Give it a 30 second knead.
7. Roll the dough into a log shape and place in an oiled bread tin.
8. Cover it again, and let it double in size (this will probably take about one hour to one and a half hours.)
9. Once it has doubled in size bake in a preheated oven at 180 for 25 to 35 minutes. It will be golden on the top when its ready and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. 
10. Eat it. 

Little light things

So if you haven't noticed from my most recent posts, I've been doing a wee bit of thinking (of the serious calibre) lately. I believe its so important to stop in life every once in a while just to reflect on what we are doing, and where we are heading. Unfortunately all this thinking has been keeping me up late at night, and I am yet to discover the meaning of life (but if I do, you'll be the first to know.)

To counteract all this seriousness, I have been making sure I do plenty of light hearted things. Sometimes its just making friends with the boy who sells me coffee, sometimes its talking to my best friend back home. All these little things make life so very beautiful. Today I rearranged my "pastry section" of my kitchen. All my flours and labeled in jars, next to all my cookie cutters and cake tins. I understand that arranging my pantry is not going to effect the world on any fundamental level. I understand that if the world ends, a neat pantry will be of no use to anyone. I understand that when I am eighty and I look back over my life, a neat pantry will not be something that makes me smile fondly with love and recollection. Right now though, having my rolling pin handy and accessible is defiantly putting a smile on my face.

Is this strange? Maybe it is. But if so.......I think I'm ok with that. I hope your doing something light and lovely today that makes you feel good. xxxx

Wholemeal barley and linseed bread

Turning 22 this year had made me feel a tiny bit more serious about life. It seems like everyone is getting on with growing up this year. Most of my friends are either married, moving in with their boyfriends, or getting into serious relationships. Also I've been watching as everyone around me is turning there uni degrees into proper careers, or going on to study something else. One of my friends is completing there masters this year, while one is starting there business as a freelance graphic designer. One of my best friends who has been studying journalism has even been lucky enough to cover Melbourne Fashion Week for one of Australians best selling fashion magazines. Its crazy. We are all turning into adults and doing grown up things..............and its kind of made me wonder what the hell I'm doing?

Somedays in this crazy city I have no idea what I'm doing. For the past week I have been fighting the urge to 'grow up' by sleeping in late and watching too much gossip girl. Don't get me wrong, its not that I don't want to....its just sometimes I don't know how.

I think we all have days (weeks, or even years) where we're just not sure what we are doing this our lives. It seems like everyone has a different idea of what 'making it' in the world means, which makes it hard to pick which standard to live up to. Some believe its all about your work life, love life, and social life, while others believe its religion. I have a friend who had disregarded all of these, in order to find inner peace and happiness.

So I've taken on a big topic here....the meaning of life and all that. Its what I have been thinking about today (in between napping and watching gossip girl) and unfortunately I didn't work it out. I also didn't work out what my next move should be, or how to go about it.

What I did work out though, is how to make an amazing new bread recipe. Although this wont fix my love life, career, or give me inner peace, it will provide breakfast for at least the next few days. So while all my friends continue on with there fantastic love lives, and blooming careers I will be happy for them, and continue to bake loaves of bread.

And you know what? For now, I think I'm ok with that.

Wholemeal Barely and and linseed bread

You will need:

1/3 cup of pearl barley
3 and 1/3 cups of wholemeal plain flour
2 x 7g packs of instant yeast
2 tsp of sugar
1 tsp salt
50ml olive oil
225 to 250 ml walm water
1tbs linseed meal
2 tbs sunflower seeds

What to do:

1. Place pearl barley in a pot and cover with water. Simmer with lid on for 20 minutes, then drain. 
2. Mix together flour, yeast, barley sugar, and salt. Stir
3. While mixing slowly drizzle in oil and water. The dough should be firm and a little sticky. Use all the water if needed.
4. Knead the dough for 5 to 10 minutes, until soft.
5. Place in an oiled bowl, in a warm place and cover with a damp tea towel. 
6. Let the dough rest until it has doubled in size
7. Punch the dough down, and knead for 2 minutes.
8. On a clean bench sprinkle linseed meal, and sunflower seeds.
9. Place dough onto bench with seeds, and shape into a loaf size.
10. Place in an oiled loaf tin, and cover with a damp tea towel until it has again doubled in size.
11. Place bread in a preheated oven at 210 for ten minutes, then turn down the heat to 180 for 15 to 20 minutes. The loaf should be golden brown on top and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. 

Blue berry and dark chocolate Scones

Do you ever have those moments where you look at a movie, a photo, or film clip and think "gosh that look like so much fun, I wish that was me!" Lately I feel like everyone is pasting pictures all over face book of there new husbands, new babies, and chic jobs........and Im not going to lie, IM ENVIOUS!!! It all looks so wonderful and charming.


Today one of my friends came over for afternoon tea (because I'm fancy like that) and brought with her some photo's of my 22nd birthday party. I had this surreal moment while looking at the pictures where I felt completely detached from them. "Look at that little pixie girl opening a present from her friends," I thought. "She looks so happy! And look at that cute boy she is sitting next too. He is a total babe. I bed she has a crush on him. They look cute together don't they? Such a pretty setting. So many nice looking friends." It all looked so good. Then I realised.......they were pictures of my life. That wee pixie was me, and the boy was someone in my life, and the friends were my friends. The whole beautiful setting belonged to me. It was lovely. I just wanted to go back and relive that night over and over.....because it was mine, and it was beautiful.


On a more serious note however, here is something you really can relive over and over....... Blueberry and dark chocolate wholemeal scones. Yep you heard me! and Yes they are as amazing as they sound. Full of delicious berry goodness, wholemeal flour and just a touch of chocolate (ok a heap of chocolate) you will want to eat these bad boys for afternoon tea....or breakfast every day. 


I know I have been going on and on about scones a little bit lately, but there is a reason............Its because they are excellent! So bake them. It will make your day.


Blueberry and dark chocolate Scones


You will need:

• 3 cups of self raising wholemeal flour (this makes them healthy right?)
• 1 cup of cream
• 1 cup of mineral water
•  2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tbs melted butter
• 2 tbs sugar
• 1/2 cup of blueberries
• 1/2 cup of chopped up dark chocolate (you can use choc chips but I prefer to buy a block and cut it up....the quality is usually better and its more rustic, which we like.)

What to do:

1. This is super easy.... Just combine flour, blueberries, and chocolate
2. Make a well in the middle of the mix, and add vanilla, cream, and mineral water. 
3. With a knife mix everything together, you don't want to work the dough too much or it will make it tough.
4. Turn mixture onto a floured surface.
5. Shape into 9 small balls
6. Place on a lined baking tray.
7. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.
8. Bake at 200 for 15 to 20 minutes. 
9. Eat them. Be happy.  

P.s...... How super cute is my life!

Blueberry Birthday cake with Rosewater Butter cream

Something about this cooler weather just makes me want to stay in bed. The season is changing from summer, and the leaves are starting to fall. Often at this time of year I take a step back from my life, take a few days off and have a good think about things.......or just stay in bed. This is really fine, as long as you have no where you need to be, or nothing to get done.

This monday however neither of these were the case. I set my alarm at 6.30 a.m. to give myself enough time to get some baking done before work. One of my best friends was having her 21st birthday dinner that night and I promised a truly amazing cake. I had baked two thirds of it the day before to save the time, but still had one layer to bake, butter cream to make and the assembly.

I decided waking up at 6.30 would give me plenty of time considering I didn't have to be at work till eleven. It was a wonderful plan.......until I woke up at 8.30, having slept through my alarm. Panicked, and tired I threw on my dressing gown and ran to the kitchen. Would I have enough time? The cake would have to cook, then cool, before I could even start to think about butter creams. Blurry eyed and confused, I weighed out ingredients and started mixing and sifting. It was a miracle the quantities were right. The cake went into the oven, and I started brewing a big pot of coffee (I have no idea how I got any of this done pre coffee.)

While crunching on peanut butter toast I started whipping up the buttercream. "It wont work!" I told myself. It had to work! I had no time to get new ingredients for a new batch. I hate making new recipes when I'm stressed. You just cant trust them. This butter cream recipe was especially strange. It used some techniques I had only ever seen used in a white sauce...........not an icing. Strange. Very strange!

I was stressed. The cake wasn't going to work. I was running out of time. It would be an awful waste of some very expensive ingredients. I assembled the cake ten minutes before I ran out the door to work. It looked pretty and would do the job. Eleven hours later when we sat down to desert I looked at my huge cake. I was so disappointed. How could I have slept in. The cake would be awful. I knew it.

I refused a piece, not wanting to have to eat a bad cake along with everyone else. Curiosity got the better of me though. I took a tiny nibble. IT WAS AMAZING. So so so yummy.

There is no moral to this story at all. Its just about me being melodramatic and needing to buy an alarm clock.

This cake is amazing though. I really really recommend you make it.

Blueberry Birthday Cake with Rose water Butter cream!

This recipe makes a four layered cake, I made an extra half batch to get mine to six layers of wonderful blueberry glory.


You will need: 

• 226g butter
• 1 3/4 cups of sugar (I just used white)
• 4 eggs (free range please!)
• 1 cup of milk
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 and 2/3 cups of plain flour
• 1 and 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• half a tsp salt
• Blue berries (as many as you like.)

What to do:

1. Cream together butter and sugar with electric mixer, add vanilla. Mix until pale.
2. Add eggs one at a time, beating well in between each addition.
3. Sift together flour, salt and baking powder
4. Grease and line two cake pans with baking paper. 
5. Mix in flour and milk, in three batches, starting with flour and ending with flour (flour, milk then flour....get it!)
6. Pour evenly into the two tins,and poke blue berries into the cakes. 
7. Bake at 180 for 30 to 40 minutes. 

Rosewater Butter cream.

I love this recipe. It makes me so so so very happy!

What you will need:

• One cup of unsalted butter (softened)
• One cup of sugar (I used half brown sugar, and half white)
• 1/4 cup of plain flour
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 tsp of rosewater (I think I may have used more than this..... just taste it as you go.)

What to do:

• Cream together your butter and sugar with electric beaters. This will take about seven minutes. Remember to scrape down the sides if any flicks up.
• In a pot add the flour and 1/4 of the milk. On a low heat whisk together so no lumps form. 
• Gradually add the rest of the milk. Turn to medium heat and continue to whisk until the mixture comes to a low boil
• Turn down heat and continue to whisk until the mixture thickens slightly.
• Take off the heat and add rose water
• Place the mix in the freezer to bring it down to room temperature. If any lumps form just put your muscles into it and 'whisk em out'
• Once the mix has come down to room temperature slowly add to the butter and sugar mix, while the beaters are on. 
• Whisk until light and fluffy (for about 2 to 4 minutes)

To assemble:

You can do whatever you like really. I have seen pictures of this cake completely covered in buttercream. I however like to stack it up and leave the sides open so you can see all the berries and what not. 

I simply cut the cake in four, spread each layer with the icing, added some berries, and then continued on with the next layer. Its nothing too fancy or hard but it tastes great! 

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I give a lesson on business.........really I do, and its wonderful!

As some of you may know, I have recently been studying (failing) a business course that is compulsory for my diploma of hospitality. So far I have been loving every aspect of pasty school.........up until now. I loved learning how to bake bread, I loved the teachers, I loved the uniform, I loved making cakes and I could even put up with the early starts. Business class, however, came along and wrecked all this for me. Its not so much that I don't like math, its more that I just don't understand it. I often struggle to comprehend things that I don't find relevant to my own life. I know that business is fairly simple, I know I am capable of understanding it, but I just don't 'get it'.

I have been staring blankly at my computer screen all day trying desperately to pump out this assignment (which may just have been due today.) It involved picking out a business, finding information on their assets, liabilities, profit, and loss, and then interpreting this information. Next I needed to find out how this information would effect the business and also how it would effect the individual share holders. To me, this was gibberish. They may as well have given me a french assignment (I don't speak french.)

From 10.30 am to 4 pm I sat reading information. Information that had no reverence to my life. How could I make myself understand this? How could I make myself enjoy this? And then it clicked. I made a balance sheet for my life, and suddenly I understood how balance sheet for big business's work. Its a little quirky, but it totally worked for me.

It got me thinking, maybe these big corporations are onto something. They are constantly reassessing where they are at in order to make sure there liabilities (money they will have to spend) don't out way there assets. Its a system to keep the business in check, to make sure they can sustain there spendings, and run smoothly. I started to wonder why we as people aren't doing the same thing, with our lives too.

Some days I feel like there are too many liabilities in my life that are draining from my owners propriety (overall happiness) and its making my balance sheet (life) not balance.

So here is my Balance sheet at the moment:

ASSETS:

My family (who always have my back)

My friends (who are super supportive)

My lovely little unit, and living with caring people (you know who you are)

Having enough money to buy a coffee from the coffee shop

Feeling good about life

Kitchen Aid (totally an asset, as it makes baking so easy)

Eating yummy healthy food

Writing

My cozy red jacket which I stole of an ex boyfriend

Red lipstick

Liabilities:

Not getting enough sleep

Drinking too much red wine (oh how it makes my head hurt some mornings)

Feeling a little blue

Stockings with holes in them

Business assignments that I just don't understand.

Ex boyfriends (at one point in my life I thought these were an asset.....totally wrong there)

My high waisted pants........why are they always one size too small for me!!!!!

Cakes that don't turn out

Owners propriety: This is basically just you. Its what you bring to the plate. Your awesomeness, that your naturally born with. Your everyday existence.

So this is the rule with balance sheets........ Your assets - your liability = your owners equity.

For example, say your liabilities are crazy high, and your liabilities are super low, it means your balance sheet will be out of balance and this will in turn effect your owners equity. Are you following me here?

I think the important thing in life is not to let your liabilities get out of hand. If you have too many, you need to start culling a few of them. Work out what is effecting your overall happiness, and work on that. Some liabilities we simply don't need!

So thats how I understand business.....and life.

I bed you didn't see a business lesson coming? Just keeping you on your feet.

Chocolate chip and cranberry cookies.......seriously good

Some of you will find what I'm about to say a bit shocking. Today someone told me that I was too serious. Yes you heard me right..........TOO SERIOUS! The tiny pastry chef, with half a head of hair, red lipstick, and a ridiculous dating life is too serious! The strange thing is, this is not the first time I have heard this. I have an awful habit of thinking everything in life is insanely important.

When I was fourteen my grandmother sat me down and said "Cherry, you must stop taking love so seriously, your'e just a young girl." She told me my boyfriend at the time was just a passing faze, and assured me that there would be plenty of other boys to enter and exit my life in the future. Aspects of this was true........... people do come and go at times, but the boy she was talking about is still one of my closest friends. Turns out eight years later he was still content with hanging around, checking in on me, and also making sure I don't get too serious.

I've been thinking about this whole serious thing.......very seriously, and this is what I have decided:

• Sometimes life is serious
• Its ok to take things a little bit seriously at times too
• Its also important to have a good laugh at yourself from time to time
• Its important to have good friends that keep things light hearted
• If things get much much too serious, all you can do is bake some cookies.

Here are some seriously good cookies, that have been keeping my life pretty light hearted. Let me know what you think.

Dark chocolate and cranberry cookies.

You will need:

• 150g softened butter
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1tsp of vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 and 3/4 cups of self raising flour
• 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

What to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 160
2. Cream together butter and sugar
3. Add vanilla and egg
4. Sift in flour.
5. Add chocolate and cranberries, mix everything together.
6. Roll into balls
7. Place on a tray with grease proof paper
8. Bake for 15 to 18 mins