It's the end of year HomeBake - Let's go Middle East!

Personally it is unbelievable that we've gone this long with our dessert tours; 8 full years, and look at our online presence now! How does your CEO manage to do a full time job, starting her business, AND keep up with the eating ...

I guess eating is the easy part. Creating a dessert on the other hand has been getting tricky - our crazy Heston'esque themes are fun and challenging but we are running out of ideas.... so from haughty Throne to the down-to-earth Middle East with lots of inspiration - pastries, fragrant flavours, nuts, syrups and spices, in different permutation and combinations.

Let's start with a Turkish delight mastic ice cream by Booza served with Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi coffee - the oldest Turkish coffee company - wait, does that make a Turkish affogato?! Rose water and coffee probably didn't go as well, but it certainly works with coffee & cardamom booza. This also complemented the chocolate orange spiced alfajor sandwich - the cookies yielded happily to our bites and so the ice cream doesn't splat out on the other side .... Gorgeous biscuits with a subtle but unmistakable hint of spice. Superb (and thanks for the leftovers!)

I'd never heard of ktefa before. For some reason I felt like making something Moroccan - technically African, but with a heavy Arab influence it is still essentially Middle Eastern. Ktefa is made up of layers of warqa pastry, sweet toasted coarse ground almond, and orange blossom water custard, and I'd taken the liberty of using halwa as well to give it more more of a nutty flavour. These flavours certainly married well with each other - and proudly I will add this exotic sweet to my repertoire of desserts.

Small and intimate, all we needed was a dimly lit room with rugs and cushions, a belly dancer... and maybe hookah just to get into the festive mood...

CS

SugarRush 2015 - Let's fly away at Flying Fish

With a view like this, we don't really need anything else. But a bit of sugar and a little alcohol certainly adds to it! This is the third instalment of our Good Food Month antics and, having wanted to visit Flying Fish, I looked very much forward to this event!

A comfortable fish out of water

What's on offer? An exotic, modern Japanese fusion with fresh flavours - just what we would expect from Flying Fish. Chef Elliott Pinn had created a gorgeous palette of yuzu curd, mandarin furikake (Japanese flavoured sprinkles for rice, but of course, it's a different mix for this dessert), matcha sorbet and shiso. But to add to our dessert experience, something off the (bar) menu took our fancy - we are what we eat - so had to try their blueberry, chamomile and violet tart.

What a work of art. To those who despise the food photographers at restaurants, take one look at this dish and you will be tempted. And the flavour? Not normally a fan of matcha ice cream, I found the sorbet much more appealing as it is more lively and fresh. The curd was silky smooth, and we loved the sesame coating to it.

Our petite tarts were bite sized - perfect mouthfuls - with a lush smooth curd that is refined and beautifully presented. We washed it down with one of our favourite liquors - Pedro Ximenez Gran Reserva 1983 - a sweet sticky with the most deliciously rich fruity flavours much like a drinking prune or sultana. At about 212g/l sugar, it's one of the rare sweet drinks I love. 

Must return for more goodies - next time I will aim to sample their actual menu items!

CS

SugarRush 2015 - Bistro Mint

As if we haven't ingested enough sugar this month, let alone this year, an invitation from Bistro Mint arrived and who can resist chocolate?

Balmy spring evenings are the best in Sydney. Following some stomach-lining at the Night Noodle Market, we strolled to the oldest public building in the CBD. Sydney Mint was built in the early 1800s, once known as the "Rum Hospital" due to the contractors having been paid with 45,000 gallons of rum! A different kind of alcohol was served on the evening of Sugar Rush, part of the Good Food Month.

Seated on the balcony overlooking Macquarie Street, glasses of Yalumba Museum Reserve muscat were served. Tawny-coloured, it's plumy, chocolatey, a little spicy and very much sticky!

The dessert plate arrived with a dark chocolate dome, its contents in suspense, and a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream topped with honey foam. A hot dark chocolate sauce, with extra vanilla stirred in, was poured over the dome as the show began.

While the chocolate dome melted, the ooh's & ah's were quite audible in the otherwise placid surrounding. The big unveil consisted of a chocolate fudge coin (geddit!) and Merlot gel - rich and tangy all in one hit. Crushed peanuts at the base of the plate gave the liquidy dessert an extra texture kick, as well as adding its nutty fragrance.

It was another beautiful evening to appreciate our wonderful city, made even better by a sugar high! Thank you Bistro Mint for a lovely sweet indulgence!

**Sugar Rush at Bistro Mint is available from 7pm Tuesdays to Fridays until 30 October 2015. For more information, please visit their website.

Hsinner ;)

SugarRush 2015 - Signorelli Gastronomia

Our much anticipated month of sugar injection is here! One of our favoured joints - Signorelli Gastronomia - has put up an offer we could not resist, so on the opening night of the October Good Food Month, we went.

Nico the lovely manager greeted us like we're family and exchanged some good humoured banter throughout the evening as he butterflied about, making everyone feel at home. Immediately our sweet whites arrived followed by the gorgeous dessert of the month - "Under the Sea" - inspired by the Aussie coastline, the centre piece was hazelnut semifreddo adorned with caramelised popcorn, passionfruit and blackcurrent jubes, banana and orange croutons and spicy pineapple with nougat coral and crisp salted 'waves'. Intricate and beautiful, we took our time photographing. Did I say it was beautiful? We had to do it justice! And it tasted as it looked - gorgeous. Visually the plate looked like waves hitting the seashore, with the salty waves it brought me to Bronte.

We weren't kidding when we said many photos were taken .... 

And we followed this with an enormous cheese platter! Nico was most amused the first time we visited that we'd started with the sweet stuff followed by our main course. We have our priorities and it's sweet. The platter was incredible, with truffle pecorino, gorgonzola with truffle honey, a gooey taleggio, and delicious sides of fruits and nuts and quince paste. And glasses of shiraz to wash them down with... but I had to have my Pedro Ximenez - a deliciously plummy and sultana'y sticky sherry-like red wine. L. O. V. E.

And because we're gluttons, we had to have another dessert off the main menu - Sicilian Citrus - citrus posset with orange cake, crispy meringue, black currant and orange jelly topped with ruby grapefruit granita. Very refreshing, very pretty (of course), and we loved how easy it was to eat.

We were all on a sugar high, the wine made us laugh at just about everything, plus Nico popping over to make sure we were having a spectacular evening ... The night could not have been more fabulous. And we were still eyeing the goods in the cheese room, and contemplated one day organising a dinner at the red wine room....

CS

Smoooooth(FM) Chocolate Festival at The Rocks

Chocolate overdose again! Just 2 weeks after our intensive dessert study with Textbook, we attended the second annual SmoothFM Chocolate Festival at The Rocks! The organisers have certainly got the knack for picking perfect spring days - last year we were sunburnt from the glorious weather, and this was repeated with the most beautiful sunny spring weather one could ask for!

There was much to see and taste - a feast for the taste buds as well as the eyes! This beautiful sugar sculpture and the chocolate handbag belonged to the Australian Patisserie Academy. I love this handbag though I doubt this will be very useful at all!!

The goodies from the various vendors - generous volume of sweets in a jar, looks fun but I couldn't help but think what we would do with the jars after we've finished...?? 

The goodies from Choco Samta looked so enticing just scattered in the cabinet! 

We like eclairs - they are just so pretty! From Passion Tree Velvet

Chocolate sculptures - chocolate cocoa pods and cocoa tree, and that dirty shallot, the succulent plant, quail egg and the salami in the background were all chocolate too! 

Rosewater cheese cake from Choco Samta. No chocolate here ... :p

"Tacos" from Black Star Pastry - highly recommended the "Angel" (lemon curd, passionfruit jelly, meringue and coconut) which was tangy; Loved the spicy "Devil" (dark chilli chocolate ganache, freeze dried plum and hazelnut) and the creative "Match-mallow" (matcha white choc, freeze dried lychee and raspberry marshmallow)

That is the queue at midday! Patience is a virtue .... especially when chocolates are involved. 

This was the reason for the queue - Zumbo's "Chouxmaca" and a dessert BigMac. Worth the wait? We think so! 

Anna Polyviou (I'd like to call her Polyanna ... not because she looks like a Polyanna but just her name!!) demonstrated her version of a wagon wheel - "Wag Anna" - and gave away a couple of colourful kitchen appliances by making people dance!! 

Tamas Pamer's creation at the Callebaut test kitchen - chocolate mochi, red bean ice cream, aerated dried chocolate 

Australian Patisserie Academy's beautiful demonstration - chocolate  mousse, crumble, rice pudding, mango "skin" (or fruit roll up, as I see it), cardamon and caramel pudding, white chocolate with mango puree centre - LOVE!

And, that was not it. There was so much going on, so many goodies to taste and to see, we just have to stop somewhere! Here's hoping that this event will continue and become another one of those annual DDT pilgrims like the Aroma Festival and the October Good Food Month! (And we are very thankful that this is now held in September so it doesn't clash with the Sugar Rush of October!!)

CS

Studying desserts at Textbook and Dessertology, Alexandria

It felt like a long time since the last time we had such a sugar rush from our tours. Then I looked at the last few DDTS - Aroma festival in July, without the usual Baroque because it had closed; The June home bake with only a few participants and therefore only few sweet offers; in short, we haven't had a sizeable sugar injection for a little while. But at the end of this DDT I felt quenched. You will see why …. 

Textbook and Dessertology fits perfectly with my nerd background: we love to understand the chemistry of cooking, as well as experimenting with flavour combinations. The pastry chefs from Textbook (ex Gumnut) are the brave nerds/geeks that will go boldly where none had ventured before …. And not only are they creative, they are productive. Just look at the goodies that are on offer! Princess Leia - I mean white chocolate, mango, kaffir lime and coconut - it had an unusual texture that everyone went "hmmm" and tried to decide what it was. The texture was light, somewhat like a combination of tofu and panna cotta. The flavour was good, but we were perplexed with the texture. Jaffa cake was more chocolatey than orange, but it was an amazing chocolatey mousse. Chocolate choux has a gorgeously velvety filling. Ginger and spice mousse - I'm personally not keen on spices but it was otherwise quite delectable. 

The favourite? Apple crumble with poached cinnamon apple, apple custard mousse, speculaas crumble and dulcey chocolate bavarois with pain de genes. AMAZING. Crisp and fresh, sharp flavours. This one is a keeper. 

Apart from the lovely breads that beckoned to be taken home (excellent baguette, crispy outside and chewy inside) there were the usual boulangerie offerings like loaves and croissants. Breakfast provision, next time…. 

Get a feeling for why I felt quenched yet? That was only stop 1!

L'Americano is a cafe located inside Coco Republic so as we walked in, we longingly inspected some of their gorgeous and stylish pieces of furnitures. What we were after was much more affordable though - desserts and maybe another cup  of coffee to wash it down with. We loved the crockeries - but of course, we're inside Coco Republic! There were a few basic pastries to choose from, we ended up with the home made tiramisu (very intense in flavour, deliciously moist) and a sweet crostini with ricotta, strawberries and orange.  I think it would have been much better with figs - not the right season, hence the change of menu - but this was a perfectly wholesome breakfast … maybe I can do it at home next weekend! 

We love Black Star. Many a pastry chef were nurtured and trained here. Many hungry or gluttonous mouths were fed here. They've created a monster of a dessert that is so immensely popular, we see this made while we're devouring our own little piece of delicious strawberry and watermelon cake. The maple and bacon popcorn cake also took our fancy - maple caramel popcorn with bacony bits, moreish and intense. Balanced quite well on the mild chocolate cake which initially tasted flat on its own. We really ought to come here with more people and sample more of their goodies! 

Final stop - Clubhouse Rosebery. It made us chuckle that the surf life saver's club is located in the inner south, nowhere near the beach. We could not resist the Clubhouse Gaytime - caramel parfait with honeycomb, caramel sauce, vanilla bean ice cream and crushed nuts. And the coconut ice cream with cassava chips, smoked pineapple and chilli … ooh that kick was delicious! And the heat was doused with the coconut ice cream while we enjoyed the smoky pineapple bits. Like having a beach bon fire, toasting bits and pieces and just popping them in my mouth. That kind of lovely feeling.  

For the first time in a while, my pancreas and my kidneys screamed. WOOHOO! Back in business….. 

CS

Caffeine addiction satiated at the Aroma Festival

Wow! Another stunning day! Not too long ago we whinged about the cold and damp Sydney winter. This was today.You can't ask for better weather than this, ANYWHERE in the world!

As with every other year, we started at La Renaissance: A perfect strawberry macaron, an old favourite palmier, and a chocolate and pistachio roulade. Plus an individual Le Roi Soleil, a gorgeous dome of mango & mandarin mousse with coconut cremeux, almond nougatine & almond sponge. How fitting!

Then we started strolling - by 11am The Rocks was abuzz with people and they are all caffeinated/caffeinating. Because of the recent rise in popularity in specialty roasters, for the first time in many years the Aroma Festival went back to how it all started in 1998 - it has a big focus on coffee, the stuff of aromas. There are a range of coffee preparations too, no longer just the creamy espresso, there were the 'artisan' coffees such as pour over, cold drip and traditional Kenyan brew. These gave different characters to the flavours of the coffee and, as much as we all love a good espresso, Australia is way overdue for these preparations. 

I had a lovely cold brew from Delano Specialty Coffee. The Kenyan traditional coffee by Djebena was also stellar - strong, but not bitter. I didn't mind the pour over coffee from Zest Coffee too, although dimmed in comparison to Delano.

Having loaded up in coffee, we left the beautiful atmosphere of The Rocks for Koko Black, where we had spectacular chocolates a few months before. Koko Black has a basement cafe, serving chocolatey desserts and drinks, which filled our table: Iced chocolate/coffee, chocolate affogato (chocolate sauce over ice cream), an apple crumble with panna cotta, a salted caramel delice, and a chocolate spoils plate with chocolate ice cream and crumble, chocolate alchemy cake, chocolate mousse, chocolate pralines and chocolate cherry royale. 

Let's start with the way it should be tasted - light to heavy. The apple crumble with panna cotta was quite fresh but that panna cotta lacked the wobble-effect. Salted caramel is a flavour that has been done to death, but boy this was a good delice - gooey sticky sauce over a mousse that encased a chewy caramel centre. Now that chocolate spoils plate - every item rich and chocolatey and best shared. Really good chocolate mousse - light texture, rich flavour, and that little pot is the perfect amount as any more than that will send anyone into a sugar high. Chocolate alchemy - rich chocolate ganache, moist layers of cake and chocolate creme, again perfectly petite. Chocolate ice cream was silky and again, rich.

The desserts are on par with Lindt, or Guylian's, and of course their chocolates were brilliant. Though for a cutting edge boutique chocolatier the desserts could be more creative. 

Post chocolate high that accompanied the caffeine high, I took a stroll on this stunning afternoon across the harbour bridge. Calories consumed - 2000. Calories burnt - 200. I feel so much better now .....

CS