Beatrix Bakes Another Slice by Natalie Paull
Natalie Paull’s second ‘bakebook’, Beatrix Bakes Another Slice, includes legendary recipes that didn’t fit into her original book—from cookies, cakes and tray bakes to tarts and pies, each as joyful and delicious as the next!
Words: Hande Renshaw I Photography: Rochelle Eagle I Stylist: Kirsten Jenkins
Natalie Paull’s second cookbook, Beatrix Bakes Another Slice is full of delicious, colourful recipes, with razor-sharp instructions.
Fresh strawberry buttersponge with marscapone mousse and strawberry sherbet from Beatrix Bakes Another Slice.
Beatrix Bakes Another Slice by Natalie Paull is out now.
Chocolate rum maple pecan pie from Beatrix Bakes Another Slice, recipe below.
Natalie Paull has been an avid baker for more than twenty-five years. Her cooking journey started at the age of eighteen, when she embarked on working in professional kitchens, spending her formative years learning from Australian luminaries, Maggie Beer and Stephanie Alexander.
Natalie opened her cult cake-house, Beatrix Bakes, in inner-city Melbourne in 2011 – a location where die-hard fans would line up rain or shine in their hundreds to secure a taste of the day’s baked offerings. Beatrix closed its doors on 2011, but luckily for us, Natalie has gone on to write two books, which include all her favourite recipes from the bakery and beyond.
Natalie’s latest bakebook, Beatrix Bakes Another Slice, includes legendary recipes that didn’t fit into the original book, with recipes for cookies and tray bakes, cakes, tarts, pies (and a strudel), doughs and epic day-off baking projects to fill a weekend. There’s also Beatrix baseix—think cream, custard and ganache—fruity bits and cake-cessories… all served in Natalie’s signature style: warm, encouraging and firm when required.
‘There are bakes [in the book] that felt like a life-support system at times. Writing about these cakes brings me to life. These recipes demanded something of me—to keep finding ways to mix flavours, to sift, fold and whisk. To beat and knead and bake. They demanded I find the light. They demanded that I remember who I am and why I do what I love to do,’ she says.
Across its chapters, Natalie shares her favourite irresistible recipes: salty sweet lime crisp sandwiches, chocolate sour cream layer cake, fig, brown butter + almond frangipani tartlets, banana cream pie with sesame toffee crunch and chicory caramel mascarpone layer cake, to name a few.
Below we share a recipe from the new bakebook: chocolate rum maple pecan pie.
This is an edited extract from Beatrix Bakes: Another Slice by Natalie Paull—available in stores nationally from 6 Mar 2023. Purchase the book online now here.
‘This [book] is a collection of adored cake-house favourites we couldn’t fit into the first book. Recipes that were waiting to find their cake stand,’ says Natalie Paull.
Gingerspice angel food cake with milk chocolate ganache and rye streusel from Beatrix Bakes Another Slice.
“These recipes demanded something of me—to keep finding ways to mix flavours, to sift, fold and whisk. To beat and knead and bake. They demanded I find the light.”
Sumac blackberry shortcakes with kefir cream.
Chocolate rum maple pecan pie – recipe below.
CHOCOLATE RUM MAPLE PECAN PIE
In the eye-searingly schmexy first season of the TV show True Blood, a tragedy befalls Sookie Stackhouse and, in her grief, she consumes a slice of pecan pie that I will never forget seeing. The maple custard was spoonably gooey under the pecan raft, and I vowed to make the pecan pie I made look the same.
Like Sookie and her two paramours, I am torn between a classic recipe or adding the darker flavours. Here, I choose dark.
Makes A pie to serve 6–10.
Takes If the crust has been blind baked, this will take 90 minutes to make and bake. Cool for a minimum of 1 hour before cutting.
Keeps Room temperature (without cream) the first day then up to 4 days, chilled.
INGREDIENTS
½ x Super flaky buckwheat crust (not gluten free)*
225 g (8 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
135 g (5 oz) buckwheat flour
2 g (1/16 oz/1/4 teaspoon) fine sea salt
225 g (8 oz) unsalted butter, cold and sliced into small tiles
2 cm (¾ in) square and 5 mm (¼ in) thick
110 g/ml (4 oz) iced water
20 g (¾ oz) egg yolk (from approx. 1 egg)
Filling
180 g (6½ oz) whole pecans
280 g/ml (10 oz) pure maple syrup
160 g (5½ oz) demerara sugar
150 g (5½ oz) egg (approx. 3 eggs)
20 g (¾ oz) egg yolk (from approx.
1 egg, reserving the egg white to seal the tart shell)
100 g (3½ oz) unsalted butter, super soft
60 g/ml (2 oz) cream (35% milkfat)
20 g/ml (¾ oz) dark rum (or extra maple syrup for booze-free)
15 g (½ oz) Dutch (unsweetened) cocoa powder
5 g (1/8 oz/½ teaspoon) vanilla paste
4 g (1/8 oz/1 teaspoon) sea salt flakes
To finish
200 g/ml (7 oz) thick cream (45% milkfat)
10 g/ml (¼ oz) dark rum (optional)
3 g (¹⁄₁₀ oz/1/4 teaspoon) vanilla paste
teeny pinch of sea salt flakes
METHOD
For the pastry, put the flours and salt in a wide mixing bowl. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the dry ingredients just until the butter lumps are the size of whole almonds and the surrounding flour feels like silky almond meal with buttery lumps throughout.
These large butter lumps are going to melt during baking, creating steam, which will flake the pastry apart unbelievably!
Combine the iced water and egg yolk together and then add to the buttery flour. Keep mixing with your hands, lightly squeezing the dough together, until it looks like crumbly/shaggy playdough. Wrap the dough lightly in plastic, then flatten, by squeezing, into a 2 cm (3/4 in) thick round disc with smooth sides.
Chill this dough for a minimum of 1 hour or up to 2 days – just ensure that the pastry is nicely pliable before rolling.
For a 23 cm (9 in) tart or pie dish, roll out ½ the dough to 35 cm (133/4 in) circle, about 3–4mm (1/8 in) thick. Trim to a smooth-edged 32 cm (121/2 in) circle, then gently lift and flop the dough in to the tin.
Trim cracked edges before lifting the circle. The movement can exacerbate the cracks.
Working in sections, tuck the dough right into the corner and against the side of the tart tin to prevent air pockets, then use your fingers or rolling pin to push/trim the excess dough off the top. Freeze for at least 1 hour before blind baking.
Hold a little of the excess dough to patch any cracks after blind baking. With the remaining offcuts, stack and press together. They can be re-rolled twice.
To blind bake, preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Cover the frozen dough with a piece of aluminium foil (dull side down), tucking it snugly into the corner of the tin. Fill the lined tin with approximately 750 g (1 lb 11 oz) caster (superfine) sugar. Place in the oven, then reduce the heat to 165°C (330°F) and bake for 50–60 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 5–10 minutes so the base crust is a biscuity brown colour.
For the filling, heat your oven to 130°C (265°F) and scatter the pecans onto a shallow baking tray. Bake for 25–30 minutes until they’re just starting to darken on the outside and are the palest brown inside – cut or snap one open to assess. Set 20 g (3/4 oz) aside for the end decoration and use the rest for the filling. Keep the oven on 130°C (265°F) and set a rack on a low shelf and remove the upper racks.
Set up a double boiler: heat 5 cm (2 in) deep water in a 20 cm (8 in) saucepan to a low simmer and choose a heatproof bowl large enough that the base won’t touch the water when resting on top of the saucepan.
Weigh all the remaining ingredients, except the pecans, into the bowl and whisk together thoroughly. The butter and cocoa will be lumpy but all will melt and combine t ogether as it heats.
Set the bowl over the double boiler and whisk occasionally until the mix thickens and the chocolate and butter melt. This should take around 10 minutes. The mix will read 55–60°C (131–140°F) on a digital thermometer, and will look like a lustrous brown milkshake. Take care it doesn’t overcook and get chunky/curdled at any stage. Scrape the filling into a jug.
If the mix does start cooking firm at the edge, act fast. Take the bowl off the double boiler and whisk vigorously to release the steam and regulate the temperature. If the mix gets very overcooked, strain out the cooked egg chunks and whisk the dr ained filling into a fresh whole egg. Continue!
Place the blind-baked crust, still in the tin, on a shallow baking tray. If there are any large cracks or dipped sides, soften some leftover dough and gently patch any large fissures – taking care not to press hard and break the crust. Meticulously brush a light layer of the egg white on the inside of the tart to seal any fine cracks, then bake for 3 minutes to seal the egg white.**
Bring the tart crust back out and crush the toasted pecans with force in your hands while letting them fall onto the base of the crust.
Par-crushed pecans give the top a nougatty texture and make cutting the tart easier than whole pecans.
Return the crust to the oven. Keeping your eye on where the crust edge is lowest, carefully pour the filling into the crust, being careful not to overfill. Tease the pecans back up to float on the surface with your finger or a spoon, ensuring there are no pecan-less gaps on the top.
Bake for 50–60 minutes. The wobble check is different for this pie because of the crusty nut raft: touch the top of the pie to feel how cooked it is below. If liquid and jiggly, bake longer. Gently peel off a pecan from the centre to check underneath – it will look like a stable yet soft cream. There should be gooey residue on an inserted skewer (85°C/185°F internal).
Cool at room temperature for a least an hour (2 is good) or chill for a chewier bite. To finish, whip the cream with the rum, vanilla and salt and pile onto the centre of the cooled pie. With an offset spatula, gently spread the cream over the pie, leaving a 6 cm (21/2 in) border all around so you can see the pie goodness underneath. Hold a handful of the reserved toasted pecans in your fist and crush them as you let them fall onto the cream ( just like the filling). To serve, saw gently through the cream, pecan top and side crust with a fine serrated knife, clean the knife, then cut through fully along the slice line to chomp through to the base.
* the other half can be frozen (unbaked) for 3 months.
** The pie police may imprison me for this but I declare that desperate dessert times call for desperate dessert measures. So, if you break the crust pre-fill, pop to the shop and buy a ready-baked pastry case/crust and continue your pie project. This filling will glorify an y Plan B crust.
Adaptrix
OG pie
Omit the cocoa if you want a straight-up pecan pie.
No, pecan’t
Walnuts make a great substitute for pecans. Same amount, same light toasting before baking in the pie. And I do like to swap the rum for bourbon.