honeykate

I went to the Sofitel for their Lenotre high tea last April. It was prettily done and the service was friendly. Unfortunately, the finger sandwiches were far more delicious than the lovely-looking but average-tasting pastries and cakes. I would go back again because we had a very girly good time but would look to one of the better patisseries in Sydney to fulfil my cravings.

I have a large jar of sloe gin from last year's harvest. From memory I think it was 300g sugar and 750ml gin to cover the sloes. I also made sloe paste which I think was a variation on a Stephanie recipe? Perserverence past the mouthfeel and taste of sloes in their natural state is well worth it.

Madhur Jaffrey's cookbooks would have to be top of a long list for me, soo evocative of the social settings for the recipes she details. Nose To Tail Eating would be a close second - I have been heard laughing out loud at page 38 . The Carved Angel Cookbook by Joyce Molyneux is another cookbook in which I lose myself in the fabulous prose.

Thank you everyone for all of the very helpful advice! I am going to bake what I am sure will be beautiful tartlets this weekend. I think I have been blindbaking at too low a temperature and I will definately roll out my pastry before chilling instead of leaving it in a ball of dough. Will post the results!!

The French chocolate books I have refer to nougat paste as being made from equal parts nuts, sugar and couverture often referred to as gianduja . Unfortunately the heavy-duty processor required to grind the nuts to the desired oily paste is out of my league so I have always used the Callebaut gianduja slab as the next best thing. Shame there is no Essential in Brisvegas - F.Meyer Imports is the Oz distributor of Callebaut if that helps with a supplier in Qld.

The pastry is always rested and chilled before baking. I think I may be blindbaking at too low a temperature so I will experiment with that today.

You can buy gianduja slabs(callebaut) quite easily through gourmet distributors like essential ingredient or simon johnson. I think I have also seen it at chef's warehouse. Hope you find it!

I generally use a Roux brothers sweet short pastry recipe which is beautiful. I always rest my pastry well before baking so i don't think the butter would be too soft but i will keep an eye on that, thankyou Ling. Some books advise leaving an overhang of pastry over the rim of tartlet cases and carefully trimming it up after blindbaking - when I do this though, the pastry crumbles not giving me the perfect even neat edge i desire.

Am being a bit boot-camp lately with my (lack of) pastry skills and have managed to hone a few techniques using books, the net and lots of practice. However, I cannot seem to achieve that perfect straight edge on my small sweet tartlet cases no matter how much resting, weighting and blindbaking I do. I am begging for any tips and advice from eGulleteers!

Um, to clarify TimTamSlam... Firstly, take small bites off two diagonally opposite corners of the rectangle-shaped TimTam. Place one bitten corner into coffee, hot chocolate or liqueur (Frangelico or Kahlua is embarrassingly good), the other corner into your mouth. Suck up the beverage of choice through the TimTam and then eat the biscuit before it dissolves into a sodden, chocolate mess.

Damper!! A bread traditionally baked on the coals of a camp fire, it would go well with cheddar. Biscuits (crackers) made with wattleseed or lemon myrtle would be more suitable for double- or triple-cream cheese. Lamb racks and prawns (shrimp) for the barbecue and pavlova with strawberries and pasionfruit is an imperative for dessert!! To finish, you need TimTam chocolate biscuits to do TimTamSlams with coffee or liqueur.

My favourite and the simplest of whole duck recipes requires 24 hours notice but is worth the wait. Leave the whole duck uncovered under the fan in your refridgerator for a day (or even two). This dries out the skin and results in a golden, crispy parchment-like casing for the duck after roasting as normal. Also, I like to chop off the duck necks and keep the neck skins for use as sausage casings - absolutely divine.