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white choc 003

The amazing, irrepressible David Lebovitz has been making caramelised white chocolate.  It’s just so wrong and yet…I can’t stop eating it.  I made some last night with half a kilo of Callebaut white callets. It is ludicrously good and far too easy to make.  Thankfully it set rock hard in the jar overnight, or I’d be eating it now for breakfast.  Having said that, it microwaved to gooey perfection in under a minute.

In case you’re wondering – the photo above is just white chocolate – nothing added or subtracted.  The chocolate turns a rich toffee brown in the oven as the sugars in it darken and caramelise. Pete wants to make it into icecream, but I reckon we should just eat it with a spoon!

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. . . . .

Tah dah! We’ve turned this into a caramelised white chocolate bar!

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We had a terrific meal at Christina’s house recently and, whilst every aspect of it was superb, these Parmesan cookies  were a standout.  I was content to sit and eat them all night long. Naturally, I had to pester Chris for the recipe the following day.

They’re quick to make, providing you have a strong food processor.  The cookies really highlight the flavour of the Parmesan, so make sure you use a good quality cheese.  Do not, under any circumstances, even contemplate using the packaged unrefrigerated stuff and if you can help it, avoid the stuff in plastic bags in the fridge cabinet at the supermarket.  Try instead to track down some freshly grated Parmesan at a good Italian deli, or, failing that, buy a block and grate it yourself.

  • 125g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
  • 110g finely grated Parmesan cheese
  • 150g plain flour (I used half plain and half spelt flour)
  • 1 teaspoon paprika

1. Place all the ingredients into the large bowl of a food processor and pulse until they combine into a dough and form a ball.  You might need to add a little water if the mix is too dry, but my batch didn’t need any.  It takes quite a few pulses, so keep going, even if it looks like it isn’t going to come together – it will eventually.

2. Tip the dough out onto a work surface and shape it into a log about 5cm in diameter.  Wrap it tightly in cling film or parchment paper and chill for an hour.  Preheat the oven to 175C (with fan).

3. Cut the roll into 5mm thick slices and bake on a tray lined with parchment paper for 12 – 15 minutes.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe

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We have a couple of very grown up cheeses in our fridge at the moment, as opposed to the usual stock of Mozzarella, Pecorino and Jarlsberg.

We’re aging a Stracchino – a soft cow’s milk cheese set with a yoghurt rennet.  It’s locally made and similar to a young Brie.  Left unwrapped in the fridge and turned daily, it will develop a rind and mature in flavour.  Of course, that process isn’t helped by my nibbling at it daily – but despite that, it’s firming up quite quickly.

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This is today’s discovery – buffalo Parmesan. It has a distinct tangy flavour quite different from regular Parmesan, and we’ll serve it at dinner tonight with sourdough bread, Pukara Novello and some wonderful vintage balsamic.

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‘So it is,’ they answered. ‘But we call it lembas or waybread …. One will keep a traveller on his feet for a day of long labour, even if he be one of the tall Men of Minas Tirith.’

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

My breads don’t often fail, but this time I’d been impatient – I hadn’t let my starter reactivate properly prior to mixing up the dough.  Regardless of how brilliant the flour is, an inactive sourdough leaven can’t produce  great bread.  The mixed grain rolls I’d intended for school lunches came out like heavy lumps of clay.  Pete, unwilling to waste food, patiently chewed his way through half a roll and announced that whilst it was dense, it was also extremely filling and satisfying – akin to Elvish bread.   He and Maude declared that I’d created lembas and that half a roll would have been sufficient to sustain an Elven warrior through a day of battle.  It’s just a shame I don’t have any Elven warriors to feed it to – not sure what I’m going to do with the other eight hockey pucks…

. . . . .

Averse to failure, I had to make more grain bread straight away.  I was much happier with this batch, which was made with a ripe starter and given lots of time to prove overnight.  Lesson learnt – patience leads to better bread!

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not lembas 3

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The ever cheerful Han the Delivery Man brought me a parcel today.  We had a funny moment – the package was addressed to “Celia and her band of Merry Men” – and Han wanted to know all about my musical group and where we performed.   He was almost disappointed to find out that it was just Moo’s quirky sense of humour.

Our generous friend had sent us a couple of bottles of vintage Mazzetti Balsamic vinegar – the top shelf “Four Leaves” stuff, as opposed to the “One Leaf” bottle we use for day to day cooking. This rich, syrupy Balsamic  came with a recipe for oven-roasted tomatoes with sage, but I can also see us eating a lot of aged Italian cheese with it.  It will have its inaugural tasting with a loaf of sourdough epi, some good extra virgin olive oil and a slab of Parmesan.  Many thanks, Moo!

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