Honey and oat toast with caramel macadamia spread

By now we're all pretty used to food trends and how they work. It's a simple formula; take something that we eat everyday and gourmet-ify it. It's been done to cupcakes, burgers, hotdogs, and of course the dear cronut (the love-child of a croissant and doughnut) and now, we have... gourmet toast. Also known as 'artisan toast' and 'hipster toast'. 

Toast has been popping out of our toasters for ages without anyone getting excited about it. Most of us actually consider it a pretty mundane breakfast. Well, that was before some hipsters in San Francisco decided to turn it into a big deal and charge customers $7 a pop. 

But we're not talking about putting government white loaf in a toaster here, or spreading it with boring jam or peanut butter. This is the real deal; sourdough bread, thickly cut, toasted to perfection and spread with hand-churned butter and organic jam. While I'm a big fan of going back to the way our grandparents used to eat with food being handmade and seasonal with honest ingredients, I'm not sure I'd pay $7 for a slice of toast. I mean, all it takes is a toaster and we can make it at home ourselves, but I suppose that misses the point, if we did that, who would be there to see us eating #hipstertoast? 

But let's forget the hashtag for now, if you'd like a damn good piece of toast, then give this recipe a try. The bread is delicious and the spread is uberly decadent. 

Honey and oat toast with caramel macadamia spread

Makes 2 loaves

120g porridge oats

4 tbsp honey

30g unsalted butter, chopped

360ml boiling water

500g stoneground white bread flour

250g stoneground wholewheat bread flour

1 tbsp salt

10g instant dry yeast

360ml warm water

120g oats, for rolling

Caramel macadamia spread

300g good-quality white chocolate, chopped

2 tbsp vegetable oil

100g macadamia nuts

Preheat the oven to 200C. Place the oats in a bowl and drizzle over the honey. Add the butter, pour over the boiling water and stir to mix. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature. 

Place the flours, salt and yeast in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook and add the cooled porridge mixture and warm water and mix to form a soft dough. Knead for 8-10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover and allow to rise until doubled in size in a warm place. 

Once doubled in size, knock the dough down and divide into two. Roll each piece of dough out then roll up and pinch the end piece to stop from unravelling to form two sausages. Roll the dough loaves into the oats then place in two standard greased loaf tins (you could also make the loaves more rustic and leave them unshaped). Leave in a warm place to double in size again. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-45 minutes or until the crust is golden, the bread feels light and the loaves make a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom. Invert the loaves on to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

To make the caramelised white chocolate, preheat the oven to 120C. Spread the chocolate on a baking sheet and drizzle with the oil. Place in the preheated oven for 10 minutes then remove and stir with a clean, dry spatula. Continue to cook for 30-60 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Don’t worry if the chocolate looks lumpy and chalky at some stage, it will smooth out and caramelise. 

In the meantime, roast the macadamia nuts lightly then placing in a blender or coffee grinder. Process on high speed until the nuts begin to form a smooth paste (you can add a drizzle of vegetable oil if the paste doesn't begin to form). If you're a patient person, a pestle and mortar would also do the trick.

Once the chocolate is golden brown, stir the macadamia spread. If it’s still lumpy you can place it in a food processor to smooth it out and add a little cream or oil if necessary. Store in a jar at room temperature. If the spread hardens, pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it, then stir in a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil. 

To make the toast, cut the bread into thick slices and toast under a preheated grill until the outside is crisp but the inside is still soft. Serve with lashings of caramel spread. 

Chocolate hazelnut cinnamon twist

Carbs, chocolate AND sugar all wrapped up in a sugary cinnamony (that's totally a word) crust and twisted together with toasted hazelnuts? This, my foodie friends, is surely what heaven tastes like. And smells like, because the aromas that waft from your oven will certainly make you friends! This bread smelled so good, I fanned myself with the oven in the hopes that the spicy chocolatey-ness would cling to me and act as a delicious perfume. I wish I was kidding, but I'm not.  

But back to the bread. It's super easy and versatile. If you want to swop out the Nutella (why on earth would you want to do that?!) then you could spread the dough with thick custard or stick to the simple cinnamon sugar. Go nuts with the nuts and use almonds, pecans, walnuts - whatever your heart desires. And don't be fooled by those intricate-looking twists - this bread is dead easy to make. Almost as easy as eating it!

Chocolate hazelnut twist 

Serves 8-10

3 cups cake flour

1 tsp salt

¼ cup sugar

60g butter or margarine, softened

10 g instant yeast

1 large egg, beaten

½ cup lukewarm water

1 cup chocolate hazelnut spread (ie. Nutella)

3 tbsp sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

50g hazelnuts, skinned and toasted

1 cup icing sugar, sifted

30-45ml espresso or strong coffee

Preheat the oven to 180C. Combine the flour, salt and sugar then rub in the butter to form rough breadcrumb texture. Add the yeast and mix well. Add the beaten egg and just enough water to form a soft dough. Knead the dough by hand for 10 minutes or with an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Leave to rest for 10 minutes. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle about about 1/2cm thick. Spread a thin layer of chocolate spread over the dough and leave a 1cm border around the edges.Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle over the chocolate along with the toasted hazelnuts, pressing the nuts into the dough. Beginning at the longest side of the rectangle, roll the dough into a long cylinder. Cut the cylinder in half lengthwise down the middle and open it up to expose the layers. Twist the two pieces around each other to create a plait. Form into a ring on a lined baking sheet, folding the ends under each other. Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour or until golden brown and when tapped the bread makes a hollow sound. Mix the icing sugar and coffee together to form a smooth drizzling consistency then dribble the icing over the slightly cooled wreath and serve.

Remember to hop on over to Facebook and like my page for recipes and sweet stuff. I also tweet about some cool things every now and then and Instagram my bakes (if I remember to snap them before I devour them!) 

Quick boerewors sausage saute

I love grocery shopping – probably more than the next person, but we’ve all experienced those annoying people who sneak a peek into your trolley. Well, that’s me. When I’m at the supermarket, I look into your trolley. Sometimes I am inspired (a healthy trolley will have me ashamedly putting back the chips), sometimes I’m appalled at what I see (for instance, do you really need all those instant MSG-laced sauces?). Occasionally I am jealous (when I spot a Lindt slab poking out of your groceries, but I’m on a diet) and quite often I am reminded of something I almost forgot to buy myself. Other people’s shopping just fascinates me. You can tell so much from a person from what they stock up on – I will take a guess at your cooking skills, your marital status, whether or not you have kids, how old those kids are, your eating habits, how often you go shopping, which brands you favour, your plans for that evening and what you’re going to be making for dinner. More often than not, this is the best part – to guess what you’re going to whip up for dinner with those ingredients. So often, this gives me a great idea and I promptly change my own dinner for the evening. Which is precisely what happened to this recipe. What started out as bacon and tomato pasta sauce in my basket, quickly turned in to this boerewors creation when I spotted the sausage poking out of a fellow shoppers trolley and made a dash to the meat section. So, enjoy this delicious recipe, and don’t pretend you wouldn’t sneak a peak into my trolley if you had the chance!

Photography by Christelle Botha for Zone magazine

Quick boerewors sausage saute

Serves 4

1/2 packet streaky bacon

1 x punnet boerewors

¼ bottle of red wine

1 tsp dried mixed herbs

1 x tin tomato, onion and garlic mix

Handful dried mushrooms, rehydrated with 1 cup boiling water

4-5 slices white bread (preferably stale or day-old), torn in pieces

¼ cup melted butter or oil

Heat a large cast iron pan over medium coals or a gas stove. Snip the bacon into bits using a pair of kitchen scissors and fry the bacon in the pan until golden. Add the boerewors and cook for a few minutes before turning, until golden. Deglaze the pan with the red wine and allow to simmer until almost evaporated before adding the herbs and tomato mix. Add the reconstituted mushrooms along with any liquid and allow to reduce until thickened. Toss the torn bread pieces in the melted butter or oil and arrange over the top of the boerewors. Cover with a lid, placing a few coals on top of the lid, and allow to bake for 10-15 minutes or until the bread is crisp and golden before serving.