Traveling gives you the chance to try all kinds of new foods and local favorites. Having friends who travel can give you some of the same opportunities, provided they’re kind enough to pick up some of those local favorites and bring them back to you. Some of my friends brought back a box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts from a recent trip to Hawaii and, after thanking them profusely, I decided to turn them into a batch of cookies so that I could share them in return.
I turned to a recipe for White Chocolate Madacamia Nut Cookies that calls for macadamia nut oil, hoping to enhance the flavor of the chocolate-covered nuts with the extra boost of mac nut. It worked a little too well, and I ended up cutting back to a combination of macadamia nut oil and vegetable oil to create a more balanced flavor. The chocolate from the nuts was creamy and smooth. It was milk chocolate, but still stood up to the richness of the oil remarkably well.
Now, if you aren’t lucky enough to have a box of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts on hand to use in these cookies, you can add chopped mac nuts and chocolate chunks separately. Leave the macadamia nuts in fairly large pieces and use a 1/3 cup mac nut to 2/3 cup chocolate ratio to mimic the makeup of the chocolate covered nuts. Also, you might want to try using milk chocolate in this recipe, as that is what most of the chocolate covered mac nuts I have encountered use and it works well with the rest of the cookie.
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I almost always use a cake stand for presentation, or rely on a cake carrier if I am traveling with my cakes. Even though I have a few ways to showcase cakes already, I love the idea that I could create a stand for any size or shape of cake that I might need – not to mention that I could dress it up in a way to flatter the cakes!
Check out Cake Journal for details on how to do it yourself.
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Brown sugar can be a bit problematic because, when left unattended, the moist sugar can quickly transform into a rock-like state. This happens because the sugar dries out and the molasses used to keep it brown (most brown sugars are white sugars, with molasses added back) hardens and sticks it together like glue. There are several ways to avoid this problem. The easiest is by storing the soft sugar in an airtight container or ziplock bag. If it is already looking a little dry, use a terra cotta sugar disk, which will gradually release moisture into the sugar.
If your sugar has already hardened, you can either zap it in the microwave (short term solution) or add some moisture back to it by transferring it to an airtight container or bag with something slightly moist, like a damp paper towel or a sugar disc, and occasionally working with it to break it up.
I have more than one waffle iron and I like to use the different shapes for different things. Granted, none of them are Disney waffle irons, so a Cinderella breakfast is pretty much out of the question, but the shapes do serve their purposes. The thinner waffles have less surface area and tend to be heartier. The waffles made on the Belgian waffle iron have larger pockets and greater surface area, so they are often lighter and crisper. The recipes do play a huge part in the texture of the final waffle, of course, but the waffle iron plays a big enough role that I do stop to consider which will add the most to the final product and take a waffle from “very tasty” to “very very tasty”.
I opted for the Belgian-style iron for these Maple Oat Waffles. The batter contains a fair amount of butter and gets an extra boost of leavening from beaten egg whites, and I felt that the (relatively) dramatic iron would best showcase the contrast between a light, tender interior and the crisp exterior of the waffle. All this is a very long-winded way of saying that the waffles were excellent. The giant, syrup-catching pockets were a bonus.
The recipe also uses oat flour, which imparts a slightly sweet and oat-y flavor to the batter, as well as moisture and tenderness to the interior of the waffle. Oat flour is sold at most health/natural foods markets, like Whole Foods, although it can be made in a pinch by finely grinding up regular oatmeal. I recommend using grade-B maple syrup, as well. It has a stronger flavor than lighter grades and will come through more clearly in the finished waffle. Of course, if you save some to pour (generously) on top, it won’t really matter.
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The only problem with breakfast pastries is that they tend to take a while to prepare, so “breakfast” will often turn into “brunch” or later if you don’t start your prep well in advance. This is why pancakes and muffins tend to be the fall backs of the home cook, rather than croissants and danishes. It is also why I love having an easy, non-yeast recipe for pastry that is versatile and delicious. With only a few minutes in the morning, you can easily turn out something that looks better than what you might find at the bakery. And you don’t even have to change out of your pajamas to make it.
I originally came across a version of this recipe in Super Food Ideas, which is also where I found the inspiration for the pumpkin curry I made just a short while ago. The pastry is made by cutting butter into a flour mixture, in much the same way you would do with a pie crust, although the texture comes out to be much more like puff pastry than crust. This is due to the fact that there is leavening – baking powder – in the dough, which helps it to maintain a light and fluffy texture without any of the time-consuming layering required for puff pastry. It isn’t sweet, so it could be used in savory rolls as well as these sweet, breakfast scrolls.
The filling is simply Nutella and miniature chocolate chips, although you can add in some chopped up hazelnuts if you are looking to add some crunch and enhance the nuttiness of the Nutella. It is spread over the pastry before it is rolled up. As long as you work quickly, you shouldn’t have any problem with the pastry becoming too soft to handle easily. If it does become too soft or sticky, simply stick it into the refrigerator for about 15 minutes before continuing to work.
When finished, the pastry is light, crisp and flaky, with a melt-in-your-mouth quality that is just heavenly. In fact, it’s hard to believe that it took only 5 minutes to throw together! It goes well with the filling, as the crisp texture of the pastry and the slightly savory butter flavor cut the rich taste of the Nutella, resulting in a pastry that is not only incredibly indulgent, but very well balanced.
Serve the scrolls with coffee or hot chocolate, and keep a few extra on reserve in case anyone wants seconds!
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