Chocolates

A sample of chocolates we made at school.

I once watched a program which featured a father and daughter artisan chocolatier team from Switzerland. They made tempering chocolate and moulding them look so easy!

Only when we started tempering chocolate at school did I realise tempering chocolate is truly an art. I love tempering chocolate. I am still very new at it so when they turn out shiny with no fat bloom or sugar bloom, I flip upside down and do handstands.

Blueberry Pancakes

Nothing beats freshly baked bread or yummy pancakes for breakfast on a weekend morning. This weekend I tried a new recipe from Serge Dansereau's book, The Bathers Pavillion Café Cookbook. Serge owns a beautiful restaurant at Balmoral Beach in Sydney.



I wanted to try this recipe because rather than the usual 'mix all dry ingredients then add wet ingredients', this recipe asked that we separate the eggs. I followed the recipe to the tee except I substituted the yoghurt with creme fraiche because thats what I had in the fridge.



The Ingredients
6 eggs
250ml milk
150g sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
350g plain flour
2tbsp baking powder
1 tsp yoghurt
1 cup fresh/frozen blueberries
maple syrup

Method
1. Seperate eggs, whisk milk, sugar, vanilla and egg yolks then add flour and baking powder. Mix till smooth.

2. Whisk egg whites till soft peak. Fold whites in with rest of batter in thirds. Add yoghurt and lastly blueberries.

3. Heat non-stick frypan. Brush pan with butter and cook pancakes one at a time for around 2 minutes. Keep warm under a damp tea towel.

4. Serve warm with maple syrup.

YUM!

Hunter Valley Wildlife

A few old classmates, a rented tarago. A day of adventure in the Hunter Valley.