Here’s what happens when a baker reimagines the cornflakes-loaded school fair stalwart. Plus two other retro-modern recipes to try.
Many of Australia’s best bakers got their start in childhood, leafing through handwritten cake and biscuit recipes for their first foray into cooking.
These “hand-me-down recipes of our heritages”, as influential baker Natalie Paull describes them in the foreword to The Baker’s Book, have the power to transport us to another time or place, evoke a sense of wonder, spark a life-long hobby or even a career.
Ruby Goss hoped to capture that magic when she teamed up with baker Rosemary Andrews on The Baker’s Book, a compilation of recipes and cooking advice from more than 30 of Australia’s most inspiring bakers, among them Good Food contributors Emelia Jackson and Danielle Alvarez, and Nadine Ingram from Sydney bakery Flour and Stone.
“We asked for recipes that excited them, that they wanted to share, in the hope that this book might become something you treasure, like a passed-down community cookbook,” Goss writes in the book’s introduction.
The recipes range from everyday loaf cakes, slices and biscuits to tarts, choux and showstopping layer cakes. But what could be better than these three updated classics steeped in nostalgia?
Roslyn Grundy, Good Food recipe editor
Miss Trixie’s Honey Joy Slice
I feel like the ultimate debate in Australia is whether you were a chocolate crackle kid or a honey joy kid – rice puffs, cocoa, coconut and sugar held together with coconut shortening, or cornflakes and sugar held together with butter and honey, both served in cupcake papers. I was positively the former. And I think it was because I just didn’t get enough from the honey joy. I wanted more! This recipe was developed alongside my second-in-charge and right-hand woman, Katie, who I tasked with making a honey joy slice for a bake sale. We married our classic cookie dough with the honey joy mixture, inspired by the original Kellogg’s recipe, and added a good whack of salt. The result is arguably better than the original, and it’s a slice I want to see at every kids’ party from now on. Alice Bennett, Miss Trixie Drinks Tea
INGREDIENTS
Cookie dough base
- 250g unsalted butter, softened
- 225g brown sugar
- 150g caster sugar
- generous pinch of sea salt flakes
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 450g plain flour
- 5g bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
Honey joy top
- 215g unsalted butter
- 250g caster sugar
- 75g honey
- 145g cornflakes
- 10g sea salt flakes
Special equipment
- 22cm square brownie tin
- stand mixer with paddle attachment
METHOD
- Line a 22cm square brownie tin with baking paper. Be sure to bring the paper up the sides of the tin with a slight overhang. This will make getting your slice out of the tin a breeze.
- For the cookie dough base, using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat your butter, sugars and salt on medium speed until pale and creamy, about 4 minutes. Add the eggs and beat until well combined. Using a wooden spoon, mix your flour and bicarbonate of soda through until combined. Press your dough into the prepared tin and freeze for at least 3 hours (I like to freeze mine overnight).
- Preheat your oven to 140C fan-forced (160C conventional). Bake the base for 25 minutes or until the edges are starting to turn slightly golden. Leave the dough in the tin to cool slightly. You’ll notice that your base will rise and then collapse again – this is completely normal.
- Make the honey joy top while the base is baking. Melt your butter with your sugar and honey in a medium saucepan over medium heat until the mixture starts to bubble and turn golden. Take the pan off the heat, add your cornflakes and sea salt, then gently fold through (taking care not to break your cornflakes).
- Pop the cornflake mixture on top of your cooked dough base and return to the oven for another15 minutes. You want your cornflakes to have turned a luscious golden colour. Cool in the tin for 30 minutes before taking it out and slicing it into squares or bars.
Serves 16
Lemon, polenta and raspberry tea cake
This is a standard tea cake transformed with Italian-inspired flavours: almonds, polenta, lemons and seasonal berries. The flavoursome grittiness of the polenta and tender textured nuttiness from the ground almonds make for a flavourful gluten-free afternoon-tea treat. Making your own freshly ground nut meal enhances the flavours. Pop whole nuts in the fridge or freezer for an hour, then use a food processor to blitz them, taking care not to over-blitz or you will end up with nut butter. The cake is easy to make and very forgiving with the baking time, as it won’t dry out like a floury cake. Use your choice of berries, maybe add a lemon icing, or try replacing the almond meal with ground hazelnuts. Michael James, cookbook author
INGREDIENTS
- 250g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 225g raw caster sugar
- zest of 2 lemons
- 1 vanilla bean, split lengthways and seeds scraped or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 170g egg (from about 4 eggs), at room temperature
- 110g fine polenta
- 275g almond meal (see recipe introduction)
- 50g rice flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- 50g lemon juice
- 125g fresh or frozen raspberries, or 50g dried raspberries
- 1 tsp cornflour
Raspberry icing
- 125g fresh, frozen or dried raspberries
- 110g icing sugar
- 1 tsp lemon juice
Special equipment
- 25 × 10cm loaf tin
- stand mixer with paddle attachment
- food processor
- angled palette knife
METHOD
- Preheat the oven to 160C fan-forced (180C conventional). Grease a 25 × 10 cm loaf tin with butter or oil spray and line it with baking paper.
- In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla seeds for about 10 minutes, until pale and creamy. In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg. In several stages, add the egg to the creamed butter mixture, mixing well between additions until fully incorporated. Scrape down the side of the bowl to ensure everything is thoroughly mixed.
- In a separate bowl, combine the polenta, almond meal and rice flour with the baking powder and salt and whisk with a fork to knock out any lumps and mix well. Add the dry mixture to the mixer bowl and mix on low speed until just incorporated. With the mixer still running, slowly pour in the lemon juice and mix until just combined.
- In a small bowl, gently toss your fresh raspberries with the cornflour. Pour half the cake mixture into your prepared tin and scatter half of the raspberries over the top. Add the remaining cake mixture, using a spatula to gently smooth out the top, then scatter the remaining raspberries over the top.
- Bake for 50 minutes, then rotate the tin and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until the top is a lovely golden colour all over and is firm to the touch. As this is gluten-free and very moist, it’s not a good idea to test it with a cake skewer, as it will come out with crumbs. Cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Meanwhile, make the raspberry icing. Blend the raspberries in a food processor, then pass the pulp through a fine sieve over a small saucepan to remove the seeds. Place over medium heat and reduce until you have about 1½ tablespoons (30g) of puree. Set aside to cool.
- Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add most of the raspberry purée. Stir it in and check the consistency – you want it to be thin enough to spread but not so liquid that it won’t set. Adjust the consistency by adding a little lemon juice or icing sugar as required. Immediately pour the icing over your cooled cake, use an angled palette knife to spread it all over the top, then leave to set. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Serves 6-8
Chocolate rye tahini cookies
At Baker Bleu, cookies are always on offer and we are constantly looking for new and exciting flavours. While co-owner Mike Russell was on his last bakery tour of France, he sent me a photo of a cookie with the message: “Best cookie I’ve ever had.” It was a chocolate and tahini cookie, and I instantly knew this would be my next project. To make it more exciting and unique, I used dark chocolate and added rye flour, which creates a very fudgy texture – like a brownie in a cookie. I recommend buying tahini produced in a Middle Eastern country, as it is creamier and tends to have more flavour. Gad Assayag, executive pastry chef, Baker Bleu
INGREDIENTS
- 195g plain flour
- 80g rye flour
- 25g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3g baking powder
- 6g bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 6g salt
- 135g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 105g hulled tahini
- 265g brown sugar
- 65g caster sugar
- 65g egg (from about 2 eggs)
- 40g egg yolk (from about 2 eggs)
- 300g dark chocolate, 70 per cent, roughly chopped
- 50g sesame seeds or sea salt, for sprinkling (optional)
Special equipment
- stand mixer with paddle attachment
METHOD
- Combine the flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a large bowl and mix with a whisk. Set aside. Combine the butter, tahini, brown sugar and caster sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Cream on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Switch to low speed and add half the egg and half the yolk, mixing well and scraping down the side of the bowl before repeating with the remaining egg and yolk. Mix until incorporated.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined. Add the dark chocolate and mix until just combined. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
- Use a large spoon or a ¼ cup measuring cup to scoop out pieces of cookie dough of about 80g. Roll each into a ball, arrange on the prepared baking trays and press to flatten into discs. Make sure they are about 5cm apart. You should have about 16 cookies. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 175C fan-forced (195C conventional). Remove the cookies from the fridge at least 10 minutes before baking to bring them to room temperature.
- If you’re using sesame seeds, put the seeds on a small plate and press the top of each cookie into the seeds to coat. Put the cookies back on the baking trays. Alternatively, you could sprinkle the cookies lightly with sea salt.
- Bake for 7 minutes, then remove the trays from the oven and gently tap them on a bench before returning them to the oven for 3-4 minutes, until the cookies are browned around the edges. (The tapping will give you nice flat cookies with a chewy texture.) Cool the cookies on the trays for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. The cookies will keep in an airtight container for 3 days.
Makes 16
Images and text from The Bakers Book edited by Ruby Goss, photography by Rochelle Eagle, illustrations by Beci Orpin. Murdoch Books, RRP $45.
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