Hay’s good-looking festive cooking
Three writers take on some Christmas bakes from Australian food writer Donna Hay’s latest cookbook
FEELING in the festive mood, we set three writers the Yuletide challenge to recreate three recipes from Australian food writer Donna Hay’s latest cookbook, Christmas
Feasts And Treats.
Here’s how they got on...
CLAIRE SPREADBURY:
ATTEMPTING to make anything look as good a picture in a Donna Hay recipe book is always going to be a challenge. So, when I tried to create her vanilla star wreath, I knew it wouldn’t be easy. My daughters – Rosie, 10, and seven-year-old Poppy – were very excited, eager to hang it on their door ready for Christmas Day.
I made the biscuit dough, which is wonderfully easy, and popped it in the fridge to firm up. Then it was over to them to cut out stars, re-rolling the dough until we had seven for each wreath. It’s at this point you overlap them in a circle to create the wreath shape and then bake (at a low temperature) in the oven. The rounds of stars worked pretty well, but we found the wreath held its form better if you really push the overlapping corners into each other.
The other trick is to leave the wreath to cool completely before touching it.
ELLA WALKER TESTED:
DONNA’S one-pan recipe is a doddle to follow (you just chuck everything together and stick it on the hob), but as it all melts, you do end up with risotto-level repetitive strain injury during the required 20-25 minutes of stirring.
Also, these caramels are absolutely not suitable for making with children – I kept accidentally splattering myself with the molten mixture of sugar, cream, syrup and butter. It tastes great, but is hot, hot, hot.
The sugary concoction bubbles from the yellow of road markings, to lemon curd, to a dusky bronze – and then comes the easiest bit of all, tipping the lot into a tray and sprinkling with peanuts to cool for a few hours.
Hours later the resulting caramels are still quite gooey and I can’t cut the slab into chunks, even after a stint in the fridge, so I shift them to the freezer.
Still, despite their formlessness, they taste smooth and silky, and the peanuts provide crunch and saltiness.
PRUDENCE WADE:
AS an Australian with a keen cook
Domaine Sainte Rose Le Pinacle Syrah 2017
for a mother, I grew up on a steady diet of Donna Hay.
I first tackled the dough, which was simple to make. I then enlisted the help of my sisters and mulled wine to make an event of it, which was handy when it came to pressing out the stars – there really is a lot of dough.
So far, so good... until we got to the baking. Donna says to cook ‘until golden and dry to the touch’.
Unfortunately, my gingerbread didn’t change colour at all and still felt tacky to touch. I left them in the oven a little longer, and this turned out to be a fatal mistake – one batch (which was thicker) turned out dry and chewy, and the thinner biscuits were way too hard and crunchy.
Decorating was a disaster too. Sorry, Donna, it’s far too much faff to do all 25 – especially when there’s mulled wine to be
drunk.