I’ve been trying not to go on and on and on about MasterChef Australia on this blog, partly because I think one has to be very, very good to make talking about reality TV entertaining, and I’m not that good, but mostly because I know a lot of you don’t live in Australia and it seems rude.
But tonight… oh my, I have *never* wanted to be on MasterChef so much. Never. And I desperately hope they are going to post that recipe, because it was by Adriano Zumbo (also known as Australia’s most evil Patissier) and it was for a gingerbread house for which they had to make all their own confectionery.
Awesome. Truly, truly awesome. I mean, I wouldn’t have gotten through all the previous challenges, but I would be all over this one.
And how is it that I’ve never thought of doing this? I mean, it’s confectionery. I love making confectionery! And my biggest problem with making confectionery is that one ends up with much, much, much too much of it. But if I made a gargantuan gingerbread house I could completely cover it with confectionery and that would be absolutely appropriate!
Plus, it would be a gargantuan gingerbread house, which is just intrinsically awesome.
True, my only previous gingerbread house attempt was not notably successful (my icing was insufficiently strong to hold it together), but I am positive that with the right recipe I could succeed.
And then I could make pectin jellies and agar jellies and honeycomb and marshmallow and even pulled candy and tempered chocolate and it would be the best gingerbread house in the entire history of gingerbread houses. And all mine.
I want to make it right now.
And yes, I am aware that I have a bit of an italics problem.
Also, I want that tangerine rock recipe at the very least.
Also, I thought Alana was absolutely adorable in this episode. She’d never made confectionery before and you could just see that she had found a new kitchen addiction, and she had to keep on making more and more of it in different flavours (in fact, Zumbo was muttering that he was going to strangle her if she made any more confectionery, because she was having so much fun with jellies and rock that she wasn’t constructing her gingerbread house). I know exactly where she is coming from, let me tell you, and I don’t think she’ll be stopping with the confectionery any time soon. It’s far too exciting.
(I also liked the conversation about whose gingerbread house was more derelict “Yeah, but mine has squatters and they’ve kicked in the windows…”. That also sounds rather familiar, oh yes.)
I so want to make a gingerbread house now. And I don’t mean that in general terms, I mean I want to go to the shops right now and get the ingredients and spend the night making confectionery and gingerbread instead of sleeping. I feel that gingerbread houses are definitely in my future.
But for now I should probably be sensible and go to bed. Maybe by the time I get up, they will have posted the gingerbread house recipe (or at least the tangerine rock recipe) on the MasterChef website…
Edit: They have! The recipe is here, and you can watch the episode here! I am so making this – once I get my hands on all those obscure ingredients, that is…
4 comments for “I *have* to do this…”