quite quickly and will keep you on your toes.
Have warmed plates at the ready. Place 1 large or 8–10 little pancakes on each plate with a mound of richly caramelised apple slices, a generous swirl – make that a pool – of caramel sauce and a dollop of Greek yoghurt (at last, a semblance of sanity!). Stop the world and eat without delay, a smattering of chopped pecans on top.
Blueberry Friands with Warm Blueberries
No cookbook from Australia would be complete without these. It is my fervent hope that they will make it on to the shelves of British coffee bars and cake shops everywhere, the way they do here. And I hope it will be this version, light and moist and eaten still warm or even just warmed. They knock the socks off muffins any day. You can store them in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge for several days, where they keep surprisingly fresh, then reheat them, lightly wrapped in foil.
MAKES 8
200g icing sugar
50g plain flour
130g ground almonds (almond meal)
6 egg whites
grated zest of 1 lemon
170g unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus a little melted butter for greasing
2 punnets (about 300g) blueberries
2 teaspoons caster sugar
crème fraîche, Greek yoghurt, double cream or vanilla ice cream, to serve
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 6. Brush 8 oval friand moulds (or a muffin tin) with melted butter and dust with flour, shaking out any excess.
Sift the icing sugar and flour into a bowl and stir in the ground almonds (almond meal). In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Gently fold them into the dry ingredients. Add the lemon zest and then fold in the cooled melted butter.
Fill each friand mould or muffin cup three-quarters full with the mixture and put 3–4 blueberries on top of each one, so that they are lightly embedded but still visible. Bake for 20 minutes or until the friands spring back when touched.
Meanwhile, place the rest of the blueberries in a small pan with the caster sugar. Crush a few of them with the back of a fork, bring to the boil and simmer until quite syrupy.
Place a warm friand in the centre of each plate with a good spoonful of warm blueberries on top and some crème fraîche, Greek yoghurt, double cream or vanilla ice cream.
Mofleta
I have a fond nostalgia for these simple, bready pancakes, and badgered my mother, friends and family for the recipe for years (‘It’s nothing, darling,’ my mother would say, ‘just a simple bread dough . . .’). The Mimouna is a singularly Jewish Moroccan tradition to celebrate the last day of Passover, where the dietary restrictions of the previous 8 days (no leaven of any kind) are lifted. It’s a child’s idea of heaven – only sweet things are served. There were fancier things by far than mofleta but I always adored these, served oozing with butter and honey. Now, as a seasoned tradition breaker, I suggest serving them for breakfast.
MAKES 10
1 teaspoon dried yeast
a pinch of sugar
about 125ml warm water
250g strong white bread flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus a little extra for frying
butter and honey, to serve
Dissolve the yeast with the sugar in about half the water and set aside for about 10 minutes, until it froths. Put the flour, salt and a tablespoon of the olive oil in a large bowl and mix well. Add the yeast mixture and enough of the remaining water for the dough to form a soft ball.
Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for about 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Return it to the bowl and pour the remaining tablespoon of oil over it, rolling it in the bowl till it is oiled and glossy all over. Cover with a tea towel or cling film and leave in a warm place for about 1½ hours, until doubled in size.
Divide the dough into 10 pieces and roll them out as thinly as possible on an oiled work surface. Then pull and stretch them to make them even thinner. Carefully lower one of the dough rounds into a lightly oiled frying pan set over a medium heat and cook for about 2 minutes, until lightly coloured underneath. Turn over and cook the other side for about a minute, then remove from the pan. Repeat with the remaining dough. To keep the mofleta soft and pliable, cover them with a cloth, placing each new one under the previous one. They quickly go hard as they cool, so precautions are necessary. You can reheat them in the oven, if necessary, as long as you wrap them in foil first, but eat them warm you must, copiously buttered and honeyed.
Medjool Dates with Toasted Almonds, Feta and Rose Petals
My childhood accompaniment to this was fresh walnuts rather than almonds, the flesh tender, sweet and white, the skin fine and easy to peel. Toasted almonds make a lovely alternative, and toasted pecans would be gorgeous, too. You can glaze them with a little of the orange blossom syrup, if you like, poured hot over the hot nuts.
As for the feta, all you need is a good, fat chunk of it – I neaten it up with a very sharp knife but you could do the opposite and break it up roughly. The scattering of a few dried rose petals on top and a drizzle of the orange blossom syrup confirms it in its Middle Eastern place, despite using the milder, Danish feta.
SERVES 6–8
60g blanced almonds, slivered
18–24 Medjool dates
150g–180g Danish feta cheese
1 tablespoon Orange Blossom Syrup
a few dried rose petals, if available
Toast the almonds in a large, dry, frying pan over a gentle heat for about 8 minutes, until pale gold. Arrange the dates on a plate, pyramid like, with the toasted almonds scattered over them. Put the chunk of feta on a separate plate and drizzle the orange blossom syrup over it, then add a scattering of dried rose petals, if using.
Serve with the shortbread biscuits on, replacing the lemon myrtle with the finely grated zest of 1 orange and a few drops of orange oil, if available.
Mascarpone-stuffed Figs in Orange Blossom Syrup
This is one of my dream breakfasts. I’ve even converted my blokey man (for which read Antipodean Neanderthal – his words!) to it. Drier figs will need longer cooking to soften them up. You can cut corners by using the glossy, semi-dried ones that come in vacuum-packed foil-lined bags.
SERVES 6–8
20–24 dried Turkish figs
250g mascarpone cheese
1 tablespoon icing sugar
1 tablespoon orange blossom water