On a Brighter Note

I will not dwell on the grim days of last week beyond offering our condolences to the Hunt family.  We do not know many of them well but nevertheless their heartbreak must be immense and we feel for their pain.  Also to the children of St Joseph's School who have suffered such a shock in their young lives.  You wish that you could shelter children from pain but life is full of distresses and it is not always possible to protect childhood innocence.  If there is anything that we can do from here, then we offer our ongoing help and support.

Prior to last week, we were working hard to perfect one of our gluten-free pies.  Why?  Because we decided to enter the Official Great Aussie Pie Competition which is being held in Melbourne as I write.  While we have only just begun our careers in pie-making, we decided that it was worth throwing our hats into the ring and entering.  We decided to start relatively small with just one offering this year as we understand that the competition is high.  Bakers and cafes from all over the country compete.

So our choice for entry was a specialty pie because that is what we consider we do best.  We have entered a vegetarian gluten-free pie.  Our Kashmir Pie has a handmade gluten-free shortcrust pastry base, filled with a mash of pumpkin, sweet potato, carrot, apricots, almonds and currants infused with sweet Indian spices.  The pie is topped with a mashed potato because we felt it necessary to vary our textures, given the challenge to make gluten-free pastry as light as standard pastry.  Our aim is to infuse flavour into an uninspiring world of gluten-free cooking.  So fingers crossed and wish us luck.  We know that we are up against some titans in the baking world however, in for a penny...