Sydney’s weather has eased slightly, and I’ve leapt at the opportunity to turn the oven on!
This kamut, potato and beer bread comes from Tessa Kiros’ Falling Cloudberries. The loaf was soft and slightly cakey, with a pronounced but not unpleasant bitterness from the Guinness. It was very tasty smothered with Pete’s homemade butter, and topped with fresh tomato and sheep’s milk cheese.
The bread only used 60ml of stout, and I was loathe to waste the rest of the can, so I made a Chocolate Guinness Cake (topping up the shortfall in beer with 60ml of water). It was moist, dark and very grown-up, and baked particularly well in my extra-large bundt pan.
Some more experiments with choux pastry – this time chocolate fondant covered éclairs and mini Paris-Brest wheels…
Finally, a comment left by Deb reminded me that I had half a carton of buttermilk in the fridge that needed using up. I baked an old standby, the Buttermilk and Almond Cake, and dressed it up with a generous swirl of Pete’s freshly made white nectarine and raspberry conserve.
Pete, who was mildly miffed at only getting three slices of Guinness cake, declared that this one was all his…
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Celia, you are a genius baker! Well done.
The last cake is stunning!
Sue, thank you! You’re very kind, but I think I’m actually more of a persistent baker… :)
Mamatkamal, thanks for dropping by! I’ll be checking out your blog – I love Moroccan food! :)
You have been busy. It all looks lovely.
In particular, the chocolate glaze on the Guinness cake looks wonderful. I’m a little scared of ‘all over’ glazes – they always slip right off the cake when I try to do it.
Next time you have leftover Guinness check out the Guinness cake without chocolate, on my blog – it’s citrussy and spicy and not at all what you’d expect from such a dark beer.
Wow, that’s quite the baking fest! I love the moist, tender crumb in a chocolate guinness cake! :D
Lorraine, it was quite an eating fest too! :)
Suelle, the glaze was a bit fiddly – I kept smoothing it on in thin layers until it set, then transferred the cake onto a board. I’ll check out the citrus Guinness cake – thanks!
The Kamut bread looks and sounds great. Your baking always looks a treat. Could you suggest how to find kamut flour. I bought a kamut sourdough the other week but I can’t find the flour retail anywhere here in Melbourne. I’d nevetheless be interested in Sydney as I visit my hometown regularly.
Many Thanks,
Craig
Cheers, Craig! I buy my kamut online from Santos Trading in Byron Bay. Just had a look, and they now have it listed under its other name, Khorasan. The shipping is usually about $14 to Sydney, but I usually place a big order, as there’s lots of interesting stuff there – organic spelt flour, fabulous herbal teas and it’s also the only place I’ve ever found unblanched almond meal. http://www.santostrading.com.au/bulkfood/intro.html
I also wrote about baking kamut sourdough here, in case it’s of interest. :)
Cheers, Celia
Gosh when you get baking you really bake! What a feast. That chocolate cake looks fab…and I love the idea of a swirl of jam through the other cake. You have become quite the choux pastry experty there – those eclairs and paris brests look pretty damn fine.
I’m soooo smitten with the choux pastry! I’ve just put a whole lot of pre-formed eclairs and profiteroles in the freezer, ready to bake at a minute’s notice! :)
Thankyou Celia, I think I’ll invest. By the way, I understand Australia is almost out of spelt and it will all be imported for the next year. I have a little bit of organic supply left (from Powlett Hill). The Canadian spelt I’ve played with was harder to handle, a little red and gave a more dense loaf. Thankyou again, for this and all your blog, Craig.
Craig, be warned – you might end up spending a fortune at Santos, I know I have! :D Here’s a photo of a typical order..
I didn’t know that about the spelt, thank you. I tend to now bake hybrid loaves – 10% spelt or rye with bakers flour – makes the more expensive flours go much further, while still giving me a “not quite all white” loaf. I’ve had great success with a 50/50 spelt/white loaf, but find anything more than 10% rye too heavy for my tastes.
Glad you’re enjoying the blog, I really appreciate the support, thanks! :)
This is all very lovely and interesting. I’ve not baked with Kamut as I’ve not come accross the flour but have used the wholegrains in other cooking. The icing on the guiness cake is amazing – I find sides really difficult so generally don’t bother, but this does look rather stunning. And choux pastry too – I haven’t tried making that for years.
Choclette, the choux is remarkably easy – I can now make it without looking at the recipe! And the icing on the chocolate cake was fiddly – I spooned just a tiny bit over first, let it set, then spooned more over. Then I used a spatula to smooth all the the icing that had run off the sides up and over. But most of the time, I just pour the icing over and let it dribble down the sides.
Oh, and you might find Kamut in the UK under its original name of Khorasan?
@ Choclette – try Shipton Mill http://www.shipton-mill.com/ for all the hard to find flours, they have kamut/khorason and emmer flour and a very nice flour called Swiss Dark and they also stock chestnut flour I buy a box or two from them every few months of various flours. Jo
Chestnut flour!!!! Wow… :)
Thanks Jo. I know about Shipton Mill, but didn’t know they did quite such a diverse range of flours. I’ve been wondering where to get chestnut flour from, so that’s great.
I came across chestnut flour….only days after reading about it and I was shocked that it even existed. It was a bit pricey though and since I didn’t have a recipe to make, I decided to leave it.
I loveeeeeeeeeee the baked cakes and bread!
Thanks Oz! :) I must go and google chestnut flour – it’s not readily available here. It might be one of those funny import things – certain food stuffs just never make it into Australia…