Winter Baking Series: Natalie Paull

Natalie Paull is one of our all-time favourite bakers, so we are very excited to welcome her to our BakeClub Winter Baking Series.

Her second book, Beatrix Bakes Another Slice, was published in March this year and instantly joined Nat's first on our favourites shelf. Number one, Beatrix Bakes, was named for her beloved, now-closed Melbourne bakery.

Natalie is a skilled and creative baker and a warm and generous human (these often go hand in hand, don't you think?!).

Here's what she's loving and baking in this cold last month of winter. 

Thank you so much for sharing this with us Natalie.

Q: What’s something you’ll be baking on repeat this month?
A: I had a molasses cookie a few weeks ago and I have been baking them with gusto. We don’t use molasses a lot in Australia, but it makes a gloriously rich spiced cookie. I have had a jar of them on hand every week as I tinker with chewy vs crisp, which spices to include, which to omit. The obsession is not abating.

Q: Bread or cake?
A: Oh the toughest question! I have to have both as cornerstones of my daily diet. A day without bread is tolerable (barely). A day with cake is impossible! Inconceivable!

Q: The cookbook you’re using most at the moment?
A: The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard (beautiful classic baking with an American 90s style) and Ravneet Gill’s The Pastry Chef Guide as I am trying to overcome my fear of making macarons. I can only do it with Ravneet holding my hand and spatula!

Q: It’s a cold Sunday morning and you’ve got friends coming round for morning tea; what do you bake?
A: A yeasted apple pound cake (that I've been testing lately). The batter is butter heavy, quick mix and proofed overnight. In the morning, you fold in thin slices of fresh apple like the cult Invisible Apple Cake and bake it. It tastes like yeasted waffles and apple compote all in one bake! And I’ll serve it with crème fraiche as a tangy sidekick.

Q: What’s one ingredient you’re especially excited to bake with this winter?
A: I am newly besotted with kinako flour. It’s a toasted soybean flour that tastes like malty, toasty peanut powder. It makes an incredible shortbread and chiffon cake and is made for cold weather flavours like coffee and caramel.

Click here for Natalie's divine Coconut Sugar Pavlova Roll with Spiced Grilled Blood Plums recipe from her book Beatrix Bakes: Another Slice (Hardie Grant Books). For her website, click here.

Portrat image: Anna Critchley