Easter Macaroons with Nutella Nests and more

The shops are all but cleared out of Easter goodies as though we can't wait to leave it behind.  Yet my parents tell me that this is Easter week in the church calendar.  So I think it is still the season to talk about my Easter baking and the Easter weekend just passed.  I can't tell you how happy I was at my oven being fixed so I could bake hot cross buns and fun Easter nests.

I followed the recipe I had used last year for Hot Cross Buns (even using up Christmas fruit mince again) but instead of leaving it for 6-7 hours during the day, I left it about 8 and 1/2 hours.  It rose much better this year than last year which probably helped them to be soft and delicious.  As always I did some nice thick crosses because they are chewy and delicious.

Sylvia was keen to make choc chip hot cross buns (a travesty to traditionalists like myself) but I had to keep reminding her that I did not have the ingredients and all our supermarkets were shut on Good Friday.

Sylvia really enjoyed helping out.  Well it was a bit of a bun fight (no pun intended) over who piped the crosses but she loved helping to glaze them.  Then I read her Nevermoor (by Jessica Townsend) and we ate fresh warm hot cross buns.  A perfect lazy afternoon.  Nevermoor has been given Harry Potter style hype and indeed there are similarities in a poorly treated young girl being taken to a new and wundrous world but I really found it hard to put it down by the time I reached the second half and loved lots of whimsy and creativity in to the story.  I can't wait for the next book to be published.

Once we had finished Nevermoor we could turn our attention to our own little whimsical project: Easter macaroons with nutella nests.  They were fun for Sylvia to help with.

I made changes to the original recipe which made it a bit less kid friendly.  Instead of buying sweetened coconut, I used the whole tin of condensed milk and caramelised 2/3 of it.  This meant an incredibly hot bowl with caramelised condensed milk in it.  I had to scrape it into a cooler bowl and run it under lukewarm and then cold water (I am paranoid about the hot glass bowl cracking under cold water).

Once the caramel cooled, it was easy to make the nests.  And deliciously messy to spoon nutella into the nests.  But who can complain about a recipe that uses condensed milk, coconut, nutella and chocolate!  I made 20 nests rather than 10 nests.  They were plenty big enough so I would not make them bigger.   And plenty sweet too.  Sylvia said they were too sweet.

We packaged up most of the nests in tubs.  I had two nests that the nutella did not stretch to filling.  These were specially for my dad.  He is not as keen on chocolate as he used to be and macaroons were his dad's favourites so they are a sentimental choice for him.

We arrived at my parents just as they were heading off to the beach for an ice cream with my brother's dog who was visiting.  It was a perfect afternoon to wade at the waters edge but both Sylvia and I were a little sad not to have our bathers.  I remarked that most of the swimmers had their wetsuits on and my mother scoffed that they were lightweights.  She comes from a different era!

We attended the Easter Vigil mass at my parents' local church.  There was a moment of amusement when the assistants tried to light the pascal candle with a branch from a gum tree, failed, tried again with a smaller candle and narrowly avoided lighting the priest's notes as the candle was passed from the fire to the pascal candle.

The next morning, I helped my mum bake her hot cross buns.  I made my usual thick cross batter and found it was quite hard to pipe through a narrow piping tip but I managed it.  Her buns looks more professional with the thinner crosses but I still love a good chewy thick cross.

My dad organised an Easter egg hunt for the cousins.  There was some fruitless searching until we realised he had hidden 6 eggs for everyone not 7.  But everyone had fun.  Then we had a big roast dinner for Easter lunch.  I took along a nut roast that I will post about later.  Dessert was a luscious black forest cheesecake and Guinness chocolate cake as well as our nests.  Then the cousins rang around the garden a bit more, as kids will do!

I am sending these nests to We Should Cocoa and Baking Crumbs.

More fun Easter recipes from Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Crackers and cheese chicks
Easter caramel and Malteser fridge cake
Easter egg chicks
Easter Scotch Eggs
Hot cross buns (yeasted)
 
Even more Easter recipes can be found at my Easter recipes round up.

Easter Macaroons with Nutella Nests
Adapted from Two Peas and their Pod and Green Gourmet Giraffe
Makes 20 nests

395g tin of sweetened condensed milk
1 egg white
1 teaspoons vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups shredded coconut
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup Nutella
Mini eggs (about 60)

Preheat oven to160 C with fan (180 without fan).

Pour 2/3 of condensed milk into a large heatproof mixing bowl.  Cook on high in the microwave 3 times stirring well after each cooking.  It will smell like boiled milk and then it will curdle and need a good stir to make caramel - it will be thicker in texture but not much darker in colour.  Cool.

Mix caramel with remaining condensed milk, egg while, vanilla, salt and coconut.  It should be a fairly thick mixture.  Spoon heaped tablespoons (about 2 tablespoons of mixture) onto a lined oven tray.  Shape with damp fingers into nests (ie round discs with a dimple in the middle).  Bake for 15-20 minutes until slightly coloured around the edges.  Cool on a wire tray.

Spoon 1 tablespoon of nutella into the centre of each nest and arrange 3 eggs in the nutella.  Keeps for 4-5 days in an airtight container.

On the stereo:
The sound of the Smiths: the very best of the Smiths

In My Kitchen - April 2018 - with an oven repair

April started with Easter Sunday, the end of Daylight Savings and April Fool's Day all bundled into one day.  And the start of the school holidays too.  Now we are well and truly into autumn, the days are drawing in and the weather is cooling but we are still needing more rain (except when I hang out the washing).  My greatest joy in the last week is my oven finally being repaired.  Above is the first loaf of sourdough bread I have baked for weeks.  I also baked rolls to go into the freezer for work lunches.

Here is my oven taken apart by a tradie.  For 4 weeks we had a tradie come once a week, and each week I was hopeful it would be repaired.  It was a long month.  Firstly I rang the gas because the oven had started going out after our gas meters were replaced.  I hassled the guy so much he looked at my oven and said the gas hose at the bottom was pinched.  Then started my four weeks of tradies:

Week 1: I had a plumber look at the oven and replace the gas hose so we had better gas flow.  Which was a relief because our oven has never baked very hot.  The oven went on and we had a day or two of confidence.  Then it reverted to either not staying on once lit or, worse, seeming to stay on until I checked the oven to either put something in or take something out and find it had gone out.

Week 2: the plumber returned.  He diagnosed it was the thermostat.  He said once upon a time he could have bent a pin to fix it but these days the manufacturer had to replace the whole thing.  Curse you, planned obsolescence.

Week 3: the manufacturer sent out someone who was very rude because his phone calls did not reach me (though eventually I got a phone message despite not receiving phone calls).  He said it was the thermostat but he did not have the part.

Week 4: the manufacturer's guy came again and put in the thermostat and - touchwood - since then I have been baking again.  Just in time for Easter and the cooler weather!

As I have mentioned we haven't had a crop of limes and lemons from our trees this year.  But it hasn't stopped us purchasing citrus occasionally for a glass of lemonade or limeade.  Sylvia quite likes making her drinks look a little fancy.  Like the above limeade.

I was quite restrained on our recent Sydney visit.  Very little made its way back to my kitchen.  But I could not resist buying a packet of [chocolate] Wombat Poo.  I was particularly amused by the claim that it was "realistic shape and colour".  Who spends time inspecting wombat poo to make sure the chocolate version is realistic?  It was quite nice and yes, for the curious, it was square in shape as apparently wombat poo is.

Meanwhile I was fascinated by the idea of combining caramel and cheese in popcorn.  So I feel for the packaging hype.  Or maybe I was just hopeful.  At home we discovered that the popcorn was actually cheese popcorn mixed with caramel popcorn but not cheese and caramel flavouring together.  (And if you think I am crazy to expect caramel and cheese flavours to be combined, check out Joy the Baker's Turkey Gravy Salted Caramels!)

Last year I started a worm farm to reduce our landfill contributions.  There is a lot online about starting a worm farm, what to feed the worms and what to be careful about.  There is very little I have found about individuals reflecting on their experiences (if you do know of articles about this or have experience to share, please let me know in the comments.) 

Fortunately for me, my mum and my brother in law have worm farms and have helped give me confidence to fill the bin and not worry about stressing the worms.  It is great to buy a head of cauliflower or bunch of celery and be able to give the trimmings to the worms.  I have been ripping up newspaper and cardboard to keep the worm farm from getting too wet.  The worm juice is great as a regular plant food for our pots.

If you are interested in waste reduction, there have been interesting posts about Celia and Joey's experience at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial and Flicking the V's lately.

At the end of term, Sylvia's school had a health and wellbeing morning.  Her class developed fliers with healthy living messages which were given to parents.  It seemed that the kids know the right things to say but, as when Sylvia and I talked to a friend recently about how hard it was to give up smoking, it is not always so easy to make change.  We had fun discussing the fliers that night, both the messages and the design.

I was hopeful about these Reid's shortbreads from Scotland that I found on sale in North Carlton.  I particularly was excited about finding some interesting savoury shortbreads when I saw the Smoky Sea Salt and Strong Cheddar Shortbread.  But it had too much sugar in it for my liking.  The Salted Caramel Shortbreads were more pleasing but not as amazing as I had hoped because it was shortbread with some caramel chips rather than the whole shortbread being flavoured.  E is always happy to have shortbread in the house and is taking care of them.

We could not resist a packet of  Easter Cakes from Cadburys.  They were exactly as expected, lots of light-as-a-feather cake with faux cream filling and not much substance.  Great for a quick chocolate hit.

Finally, here is a quick meal I made for Sylvia and me after a day of baking on Good Fridy.  I liked the sound of Smitten Kitchen's quick pasta and chickpeas (pasta e ceci) because it sounded the sort of plain food that appeals to Sylvia.  However I was surprised as I made it to read it served 3 kids or 1-2 adults.  E had to fend for himself with a Sargents Vegetable Pie from the freezer.  Thank goodness the oven was working again!

Now I am off to enjoy the Easter Monday public holiday while Sylvia is staying at my mum's.  There is much to do around the house!

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event, that was started by Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial,  If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 10th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to peek into more kitchens. 

Confetti salad with lentils and rice and random moments

It is a while since I made this salad for Sylvia's birthday lunch at my mum's but it is a good recipe to post on the Easter weekend for anyone looking for an easy and healthy dish for entertaining.

I wanted a simple salad but sometimes it is hard to find on the web so I turned to my cookbooks.  Alison Holst is an old favourite and I was able to adapt her recipe to what I had in my kitchen.  My parsley is just hanging in there so I didn't have quite as much as I would have liked but it was good to have some there.

While it is not as impressive as the brown rice salad I made earlier in the year, it comes together quickly and was enjoyed by everyone.  Though I was glad there was a little leftover to eat with vegetarian sausage rolls for dinner that night.

I hope you have a nice Easter weekend if you are celebrating.  And if you are lucky enough to work somewhere like me where we have a 5 day weekend for Easter, then you might have some extra time for reading.  So I leave you with some random moments:

• On Thursday, a colleague had come for a meeting at our office and I invited her to stay afterwards for drinks.  When she arrived at reception, we had an institute morning tea was just finishing, so I asked her to put some easter eggs in her handbag so we could have some food for our drinks.  I would have done it myself but did not have any bag to take them in.

• A month or two ago.  I stubbed my toenail really badly on a stray brick in the backyard (it was holding down some astroturf that was being blown about).  It stung and bled and bruised and I was sure it would come off bu it seemed to heal and I forgot it.  Then I went to cut my toenail and instead of trimming it, the whole toenail came away and a new one had grown underneath.  It was very surprising.

• Recently I heard of a town called Boomanoomana near the Murray River, which is in an area where my parents like to holiday.  When I asked the said they had not heard of it.  Then last weekend they went on holiday and came back saying they stayed at Boomanoomana and my mum had discovered that her grandfather had lived there!

• I heard government spokesperson on ABC 774 radio saying that more people are taking up home solar power because it is good for environment but even more important because it makes good economic sense .  What sort of world do we live where financial decisions are better than  the greater good!

We are spending Easter with my family.  Thank goodness our oven is finally fixed so I will have some Easter baking to celebrate with you soon.

More rice salads on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Asparagus, artichoke and wild rice salad (gf, v)
Bill’s broccoli rice salad (gf, v)
Brown rice salad (gf, v)
Brown rice salad with legumes and almonds
Mexican rice salad (gf, v)
Sushi rice salad (gf, v) 

Confetti salad with lentils and rice
Adapted from Alison Holst's Meals without Meat
Serves 4

400g tin of brown lentils, rinsed and drained (or 1 1/2 cups)
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 spring onion, finely sliced
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
1 red capsicum (or stalk celery), finely chopped
handful parsley, finely chopped
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
black pepper

Mix all ingredients together.  Leave to sit for 30-60 minutes and then check and adjust seasonings

On the stereo:
Die Dritte Generation Fassbinder the Third Generation Soundtrack - Peer Rabin

Watermelon poke salad bowl with pickled radishes

A couple of weeks ago I ate out at the Green Man's Arms in Carlton.  I enjoyed my meal but I was fascinated by the watermelon poke bowl on the menu.  The watermelon was marinated in ponzu.  I bought some ponzu late last year and was fascinated by it in stirfries and dipping sauce.  Then recently I found an older bottle of Japanese sauce in the back of the pantry and found on the small print that it was ponzu.  It seemed I had a ponzu surplus and a wedge of watermelon was about to solve it.

Now let me stop here to confess I have never been a big fan of watermelon.  Melon was never my sort of fruit.  So as an adult I learnt to eat it but not love it.  I did not attempt watermelon "tuna" because of any desire for watermelon.  No.  It was more a matter of finding a way to use up watermelon.  If I want watermelon, I usually don't want much and it comes in such huge wedges.  So perhaps it was also a case of the ponzu surplus solving my problem of a wedge of watermelon.

And I didn't feel compelled to try watermelon "tuna" because I am a vegetarian who misses fish.  In fact I never was a big fan of seafood and am quite delighted at the thought that I will never eat it again. 

What really fascinates me is dishes that imitate meat with real food.  I don't like all that mock meat stuff at restaurants but I am drawn to simple ideas like carrot hot dogs and tofu bacon.  How amazing that someone looked at a watermelon and saw the marbling effect that looks like meat.  Amazing and a little disturbing.

Yet if you think this might be too like the real thing, when E sat down to eat this dinner, Sylvia tried to trick him into thinking he was being served tuna.  Perhaps it would be more convincing if I had ever had any desire to cook seafood. Being totally unfamiliar with seafood and traditional poke bowls I am not sure if the watermelon did really look like tuna but it did look meaty to my vegetarian eyes.

One last fun bit of experimenting with the meal was pickling the radishes.  Radishes are even further down my radar than watermelon.  I suspect the last time I did anything with radishes in a kitchen was making radish flowers at home economics classes at school.  The pickled radishes were surprisingly good.  Maybe it will not be decades until the next time I have a radish in my kitchen.  And it confirmed my suspicion that I would quite like to made rapid pickled vegetables at home.

I will also mention my glaring omission.  I did not have any avocado.  Most of the poke bowls I looked at online had avocado.  I resent how often avocados are used in vegetarian dishes.  They are expensive and I struggle to make sure they are the right ripeness when I want them.  And I don't like the way they stop young people buying houses (that is a joke before you take umbrage)!

So it was a lot of fun and challenge to make this poke bowl.  But how did it taste?  Pretty good!  Yep.  Not amazing-best-meal-I-have-ever-eaten-I-want-to-eat-this-for-the-rest-of-my-life.  But it was healthy and interesting.  I wasn't wowed by the watermelon because I never am wowed by watermelon.  But I was fascinated by it.  It pains me to say that I think the bowl would have been improved by avocado which would have given it a bit of creamy satisfaction and textural contrast.  But I am glad I tried it. I don't see myself eating lots of poke bowls because it was a bit of work but I think the pickled vegetables are now calling my name.

I am sending this bowl to Eat Your Greens and Souper Sundays.

More watermelon recipes on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Fruit salad (gf, v) 
Rainbow fruit kebabs (gf, v)
Watermelon, banana, strawberry, peach juice (gf, v)
Watermelon curry (gf, v)
Watermelon, mint and feta salad (gf)
Watermelon monster (gf, v)  

Watermelon poke salad bowl with pickled radishes
Serves 3-4

Watermelon "tuna":
800g watermelon, trimmed and cubed
3 tbsp ponzu sauce

Pickled radished:
[adapted from Feed Me Phoebe]
6-8 radishes, trimmed and finely sliced
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
3/4 tsp salt
1 garlic clove, crushed

To serve:
brown rice
purple cabbage, finely sliced
carrot, spiralised or grated
edamame
snow peas, finely sliced
cucumber, sliced

To garnish:
black sesame seeds
baby leeks, finely chopped

Variations:
Also good to serve would be avocado, alfalfa sprouts, chives, spring onions, pickled ginger, pomegranate arils, spinach, rocket, seaweed

To make the watermelon "tuna" marinate watermelon chunks in ponzu sauce for about 15 minutes.  Cook in ponzu on stovetop for about 5-10 minutes until watermelon is softened on the edges.  Return to bowl with sauce and sit until ready to use.  You could make a quick ponzu sauce or bake the watermelon.  Set aside.

To make the pickled radishes, mix the radish slices with the vinegar, salt and garlic.  Set aside for at least 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

To serve, spoon some rice into a shallow bowl, arrange drained watermelon, radishes, and other vegies on the bowl.  Garnish with sesame seeds and baby leeks (or chives or spring onions).  Spoon the remaining ponzu sauce from the watermelon over the bowl.

On the stereo:
The Colour of White: Missy Higgins

Chocolate Muesli Slice and a Quandong Hazelnut Strawberry Muesli

When your kid's at school camp, the oven is not working and your cupboards harbour lingering ingredients, it seems like a perfect time to make an no-bake slice like this Chocolate Muesli Slice.  Until there is some expert on the radio talking about the poor dental health.  Sigh!  Well at least when they were talking about only 50% of adults in Australia brushing their teeth twice a day I was on the right side of those statistics.

The slice used up some chocolate melts, condensed milk and muesli.  The first two were only a month or so old but the muesli had been there for many months.  I am not sure why.  It was a lovely muesli with hazelnuts, dried strawberries and quandong dessert sauce for added flavour.  I ate it for breakfast for a while.  And then I didn't.  Mixing it into the chocolate and condensed milk mixture was a brilliant way to rescue it. 

I really loved this slice and so did E.  It was great comfort food in a busy week.  Sylvia was not keen but that is why I made it when she was at camp and I had plenty of time to enjoy myself.  This was like my perfect muesli slice - full of chocolate and really quick and easy to make.  No doubt the fact I had made the muesli full of my faovurite things helped.

I wish I had better photos but have not had the time nor energy.  So you will just have to look at my photos that are quite like lots of slices I have made and believe me when I say this slice is far more chocolatey and gooey than most of my slices and I would like to eat it three meals a day.


I am sending this slice to Choclette for We Should Cocoa.

More no bake chocolate slices on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Balieys biscuit fudge
Chocolate almond rice bubble slice (gf, v)
Chocolate lime energy slice (v)
Glo bars (gf, v)
Hedgehog - with condensed milk
Mars bar slice
Nutella rice bubble slice

Chocolate muesli slice
Inspired by Just a Mum

395g can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup or 150g dark chocolate melts
100g butter
3 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp cocoa
3 3/4 cups of toasted muesli
1/2 cup desiccated coconut

Chocolate Topping:
1 1/2 cups or 225g dark chocolate melts
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Melt chocolate and butter with the condensed milk.  This is easier in the microwave but can also be done on the stovetop.  Mix in tahini and cocoa, then add muesli and coconut.  Stir well until combined and scrape into a lined 23cm square cake tin.  Smooth down.  (This seemed impossible at first but it did spread out to fit the tin eventually.)  Refridgerate for 30 minutes.  Melt chocolate topping ingredients together and spread on the top of the slice.  Return to the fridge until set (I think 4-6 hours did it but overnight is best.)

NOTES
You could use other dark chocolate but I used melts as I wanted to use up some open packets.  The vegetable oil in the chocolate topping is supposedly to stop it cracking but mine still cracked when I cut it.  I used the below muesli for the recipe but your favourite toasted muesli or granola would do.  The amount I added was what I had but you could use more or less depending on your available muesli.

Quandong Hazelnuts and Strawberry Muesli

4 cups oats
1 cup seeds
1 cup hazelnuts
1 cup coconut flakes
1/2 cup quandong dessert sauce
1/4 cup maple
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil
1/2 to 1 cup dried strawberries

Mix everything (except strawberries) together and bake in a lined roasting tin for 20 minutes at 180 C, mixing halfway through.  Mix in strawberries once toasted.  Cool and store in an airtight container.

NOTES: The quandong dessert sauce could be replaced with a jam of choice.  If you wanted a more Aussie muesli (quandong being a native fruit) you could use macadamia nuts instead of hazelnuts and dried mango instead of strawberries.

On the Stereo:
Bellavista Terrace: Best of the Go Betweens

Gigi's Pizzeria, Newtown, Sydney, with street art

On our recent trip to Sydney, I finally got to visit the famous Gigi's Pizzeria and taste how amazing their vegan pizza can be.  We turned up at 5.45pm, hoping for an early dinner, only to find that the restaurant did not open til 6pm and there was already a decent amount of people.  I first heard of Gigi's Pizzeria when they decided to make the restaurant 100% vegan in 2015. It is amazing that 2 and a half years on, there still quite a buzz about the place.

Did I mention that they don't take bookings?  I think this adds to the buzz of people queuing on the street.  We felt quite special to get a table considering that there were a lot of people waiting.  However we felt less special inside.  We had a table at the back, it took a long time to be served and it was really noisy and dim.  It was too noisy to chat the waiters and they did not hang around long because it was so busy.

It was not my finest restaurant experience.  We were given peanuts in shells on the table but this did not help make the wait easier as Sylvia was a bit nervous about them, given her allergy, so I took them back to the counter.  My friends ordered a salad each but an extra salad was brought out that we needed to take back.  They enjoyed the salad though Martin needed more seasoning on his.  As well it being very noisy for chatting, the meals were all brought out in stages.  First the salads.  Then my pizza.  Finally Sylvia's pizza.  And as if to emphasise that no exceptions were made for kids, we had one strange moment when two soft drinks had been served and the waiter stood with a soft drink and a wine looking from 9 year old Sylvia to Martin as if unsure who had what.

I wonder if we got a bad night or Gigi's gets away with such service because the pizzas are so good.  Sylvia had the Marinara Tradizionale ($17) which had a fairly saucy topping of tomato, garlic, fresh oregano and extra virgin olive oil.  Sylvia scrapped off most of the sauce.  I was not a fan but I suspect it might appeal to those who like a tomato sandwich.  The base was very good, though.

I swithered over which pizza to try.  There were lots that appealed.  Finally I chose the Cavolo ($22) with cauliflower puree, artichokes, pinenuts, capers, currants, garlic, parsley and extra virgin olive oil (photo at top of page).  It was magnificent.  It would be enough to convince me to go without cheese on pizzas, as the flavour was just lovely and the toppings were just right.  The base like Sylvia's was lovely.  Very thin in the middle and puffy and slightly charred on the edge.  This pizza showed me why the place was so very busy.  I would have loved to have tasted more pizzas but it could be some time until I am there again.

While we waited outside at the start of the night more people came and started queuing around the side of the building.  When Sylvia and I came out, our friends having rushed off to catch their bus (that was replacing the train), we walked around the corner and looked at the street art.  Newtown is the sort of place for street art.  Lots of cafes and bustle and happening.  Here is a sample of the art on the wall of Gigi's.

Read more about my recent Sydney visit.



Gigi's Pizzeria
379 King Street
Newtown NSW 2042
Phone: 02 9557 2224
Operning: 6pm-10.30pm Mon-Sun
www.gigipizzeria.com.au

Bourke Street Bakery, Surry Hills, Sydney

Ever since I received a copy of the Bourke Street Bakery cookbook many years ago, I have dreamed of visiting the bakery.  On our recent trip to Sydney, I found that many of the places we wanted to visit on a Sunday opened at 10am but the Bourke Street Bakery opened at 7am.  It seemed the perfect way to spend an early Sunday morning.

We took the bus to Bourke Street in Surry Hills to visit the original bakery, though there are now quite a lot of Bourke Street Bakeries around Sydney in various locations.  The bakery is surprisingly small with a few small tables inside and more tables outside.  The array of tempting breads, savoury pastries and sweet treats is huge.  Fortunately when we walked in, there was no queue and a table inside.

It didn't take me long to choose.  I loved sausage rolls before going vegetarian and now I love trying vegetarian versions.  The Bourke Street Bakery offered a vegetarian Eggplant, chickpea, feta and spinach sausage roll for a reasonable $5.  Tomato sauce was 20c extra but it was home made and generous.

Compared to most other brunch options, this was most satisfying and good value for money.  It is a sausage roll filling that I would never have thought of but it was really substantial and delicious with a wonderful flaky pastry.  The bakery offered a few other options such as spinach and mushroom quiche and spicy spinach and eggplant turnovers. I didn't find out what the sandwich options and vegetable salad was but I would be willing to give them a go too.

Sylvia chose a pain au chocolat.  I had a taste and it was excellent.  We also ordered an old school lemonade which was quite tart and very refreshing.

When we arrived and there was no queue I thought I would take photos later but then the queues started and filled the store for most of the rest of our visit.  When we decided to take away some bakes, I had to join the queue to purchase them.  But by then we were well sated and the queue moved steadily.  And the ambiance and service were really lovely too.

Sylvia chose a Italian meringue raspberry cream tart that was very good.  I only got a small mouthful but I really liked the fruity raspberry filling.  She was pretty happy eating it as soon as she could sit down, even though it was for later.

I had a chocolate and sour cherry cookie.  It sat in my bag for hours in a paper bag and by the time I ate it, the cookie was a bit dry.  I was really sad because I have admired this cookie in the cookbook for so long.  I like to think it would be much nicer if I had eaten it sooner.  Especially as everything else we tasted was amazing.

Lastly I bought a Semi-Sour Baguette.  This was an excellent choice to see us through the day.  It stuck out of my bag and I found Sylvia behind me nibbling the end of it quite a few times.  A satisfying breakfast and some good bread was enough to see us through a lot of the day without having to sit down for lunch.

Later I found there was a Bourke Street Bakery quite near the Aquarium which was our next stop.  However I was pleased to have visited the Surry Hills bakery, not just because it was the original but also to enjoy walking through the leafy streets of terrace houses and reflect just how many changes this suburb must have seen since Ruth Park wrote her classic Sydney novel, A Harp in the South. While it is easy to moan about gentrification and rising real estate prices in such inner suburbs, gems like the Bourke Street Bakery ease the pain.

Read more about my recent Sydney visit.



Bourke Street Bakery
633 Bourket Street
Surry Hills, Sydney
+61 2 9699 1011
bourkestreetbakery.com.au