My parents and I have been fairly reliable members of the Masterchef audience right from the start. I’m keen on the dessert challenges, the episodes shot overseas and, perhaps most of all, the comments that my dad and I text each other whilst watching from the comfort of our respective couches across Canberra.
Consequently, you can imagine my delight when I was offered a copy of The Sweet Life: The Basics and Beyond by Kate Bracks, the winner of Masterchef Season Three. A gorgeous dessert cookbook by a woman who loves sweets almost as much as she loves her family? Sounds just about perfect to me.
Image courtesy of Random House
As I curled up in bed one night to read through The Sweet Life, I found myself making note of more recipes than I have fingers. I was thrilled not only by the calibre and inventiveness of Kate’s recipes, but also by how many of them are allergy-friendly. Kate even has a page at the back listing which recipes are gluten-free, dairy-free, and egg-free. Woot!
I can’t wait to make the Baked Honey and Rosemary Apples, the Watermelon and Mint Granita with Lime Syrup, and the White Chocolate and Rose Tartlets, just for a start. The first recipe I made, however, was the Amaretti and, by golly, they were delicious. Kate’s trick of toasting slivered almonds first and then processing them with sugar added a beautiful complexity to the flavour.
But don’t just take it from me. Here’s what some of my taste-testers had to say (or, more specifically, to email):
E.Moonbeams: That was spine tinglingly good.
Grandma: In one word, Hannah dear – deeelishus.
The second dessert I made, and which the publishers have generously allowed me to share with you, was the Warm Chocolate Pots. Silky and rich, these were equally wonderful warm out of the oven as they were served from the fridge, firmed into thick rich chocolatey intensity. I was also invited to interview Kate, and leapt at the chance to quiz her on all things dessert. Thank you, Kate, for the interview and for writing such a lovely cookbook!
Image courtesy of Random House
Hannah: Congratulations on your Masterchef victory and the gorgeous cookbook you’ve created, Kate! As someone with an indefatigable sweet tooth myself, I was thrilled to discover you’d written a dessert cookbook. What is your favourite dessert ingredient?
Kate: Tough question as there are so many wonderful dessert ingredients! One of my favourites would have to be vincotto as it brings a sticky, sweet/sour loveliness to so many other ingredients. And it’s so easy to use! But it is still difficult to go past chocolate!
H: What are your top three tips for the home cook who wants to create a great dessert in a short amount of time?
K: 1. Remember to get a good balance of sweet/sour/salt flavours. 2. Ensure there is something creamy and something crunchy for good texture differentiation. 3. Keep it simple: a warm poaching liquid poured on soft fruit (such as berries) and topped with ice cream and macadamias can be just as delicious as something you slave over for hours!
H: Your love of family shone through your time on Masterchef, and this love is just as clear in your cookbook. What do you think is the best multigenerational dessert?
K: Yes, my family are my favourite people to cook for! I think ice cream is the ultimate multigenerational dessert – for the kids you can keep it simple; for the adults you can jazz it up with liqueurs, pralines or salt flakes!
H: Have you ever had a kitchen flop that turned into a great dessert? Do you have any tips for rescuing a failed dessert?
K: I think you’d be hard pressed to find a cook who hasn’t had a kitchen flop … or two! One time I overcooked chocolate brownies – not to the point of burning but I love brownies to be squidgy in the middle and these had gone well past that stage. But I couldn’t bear to throw out it out so I stirred small pieces of it into softened vanilla ice cream and ended up with what has become a staple in my family’s dessert repertoire! I now trim the edges of the brownie pan whenever I make brownies and stir them into ice cream!
H: I can hardly pass up this chance to talk to a famous Masterchef champion without asking about your time on the show. What were some of your favourite moments? (Apart from winning, of course…)
K: I had so many! The highlights were a trip to Pheasant Farm to cook with Maggie Beer, travelling to Malaysia and New York to experience their culinary delights, having the opportunity to cook with Peter Glimore in his kitchen at Quay and, my personal favourite, having my family on for one episode!
H: Throughout filming, what did you and the other contestants eat for breakfast? Did you cook up extravagant meals, or was there a lot of vegemite toast and cereal going on?
K: Well … it all depended on the call time! 5am call times generally called for vegemite on toast but days off or later call times meant breakfast indulgence – sometimes even multiple courses for breakfast!
H: Last but not least… peanut butter. Smooth or crunchy?
K: Definitely crunchy!
(H: Thank heavens. That question is the ultimate deal-breaker.)
Warm Chocolate Pots
Excerpted from The Sweet Life by Kate Bracks
This is a decadent dessert – perfect for the chocoholic!
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 40-45 minutes
Makes: 6 serves
- 375 ml (1 ½ cups) milk
- 250ml (1 cup) thickened cream
- 2 tbs dark cocoa powder
- 200g good-quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
- 6 egg yolks
- 1 tbs caster sugar
- Preheat the oven to 130°C, and lightly grease six 150ml ovenproof ramekins. Place them into a large baking dish.
- Combine the milk and cream in a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Heat until the mixture is steaming and then take it off the heat. Add the cocoa powder and dark chocolate and stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.
- Place the egg yolks and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until smooth. With the beaters on slow speed, add a little of the chocolate mixture and mix until well combined. Add the remainder of the chocolate mixture and mix until well combined.
- Pour the mixture through a sieve into a jug. Divide the mixture evenly among the ramekins. Pour enough boiling water into the baking dish to come hallway up the side of the ramekins. Cover the baking dish with aluminium foil.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the surface is set and there is a slight wobble beneath it. Removed the ramekins from the baking dish and stand for 10 minutes before serving.
Note: Dark cocoa powder is also known as Dutch o Dutch-processed cocoa. It as a rich, deep colour and flavour, and is available from delis and specialty food shops. These pots can be refrigerated for up to a week and served cold at a later time, like a chocolate crème brûlée. If you would like White Chocolate Pots, simply omit the cocoa powder and swap the dark chocolate for the same amount of white chocolate.
Question Time: What do you think of the current season of Masterchef?
Lovely post Hannah … and Kate sounds as delightful here as she was on the show. She was a very worthy winner.
Thank you Mum, and for your wonderful input into the questions too
I have actually never watched Masterchef
Not a single episode! I do, nonetheless, like the sound of this cookbook and those top 3 tips for desserts 
Wow, that’s impressive! Not a single episode? More power to you!
Hey, great interview Hannah! I kinda wondered what had happened to Kate after Master Chef… working on sweet treats it seems
What’s wrong with smooth PB!?
Thank you Lou! And what’s wrong with smooth PB? It’s an abomination, really, is the simple answer. Crunchy forever!
My enthusiasm for masterchef has waxed and waned – I loved it at first but have just found it harder to find time but also I just didn’t even know it was on because I hardly ever watch channel 10. I think some of the silly showbiz things like long silences and the adverts drove me a bit batty too.
But it is always nice to see that people do well out of masterchef and I think I saw some of the episodes with Kate in them. Sounds like a lovely book – I can even forgive too many egg yolks if lots of chocolate is involved (though I saw an ice cream recipes with 30 egg yolks in it recently and thought it must be a typo – what do you think!). Love the idea of brownies mixed through ice cream mmmmm!
Shh, don’t tell the sponsors but you record and watch it later cutting out the ads and as much as you can of the awful faked suspense points. We like seeing the cooking and creativity but hate all the stuff that goes around that.
Shh, don’t tell the sponsors but if you watch it online and can’t skip the ads, you just mute your computer and work on blogging in the intermediary
But I shan’t talk anymore about this or, as Mum says, thee ridiculous cliffhanger moments… 
Gosh, surely that ice cream recipe must be a typo?! I’ve never made ice cream so have no idea of the ratio of yolks to cream, but surely 30 is wrong unless it’s ice cream to serve an entire primary school?!
I don’t watch Masterchef but I think you asked all the right questions!
I’m also very relieved that I only eat crunchy peanut butter (and Crunchie bars are way better than Violet Crumble).
Thanks Margaret! I wanted to get a mix of dessert and Masterchef questions in there
Oh heavens yes! Crunchies are awesom and Violet Crumbles are utterly gross, like styrofoam… *cringes*
It’s so exciting that you got to interview Kate! She’s one of my favourite contestants on Masterchef so far.
I really need to get my hands on her cookbook, it looks fantastic and well done on your version, it looks soooooo yummo!
Just excited to see what overseas adventures they’ll have this year as I loved the USA one last time. 
I’ve been following this season from ep1 and I’m surprised at the level of cooking already being done. They sure don’t let them off easy
Aw, that’s so lovely to hear! I hope Kate reads this and sees that she was a favourite of yours
It’s truly a lovely, lovely cookbook, I wanted to list so more of the delicious-sounding recipes for you all, but ran out of space!
This was the series (and the current one) that we movers-to-Switzerland missed but she sounds like a really decent person. Maybe I should get onto Amazon and buy the book….
She came across as really lovely and genuine throughout the entire series, so I was happy when she won
Wow, those chocolate pots just look amazing! I can’t wait to try them and I might even have to buy the book – the desserts sound both amazing and interesting and Kate seems like such a lovely person. Nice interview too!
Thanks Rachel! I’m so tempted even by the dairy-rich recipes in the cookbook, like the brown butter cheesecake or the rose and pistachio nougat ice cream… perhaps the stomach pain would be worth it?!
Great post Hannah
Great interview Hannah! I completely missed that entire season of MC but the recipe looks nice and silky
I’d trade watching MC for gallivanting all over the world too if I had the choice
Great interview! I love the toasted almonds trick. I do that before I turn them into nt butter and it give it a great depth of flavor.
Oh yes, in my world it’s almost a crime not to toast the nuts before making nut butter
Oh, I’ve been eyeing off that cookbook for weeks. And Masterchef is a seriously guilty pleasure of mine – especially the Adriano Zumbo challenges…
Oh yes. Desserts and a bizarrely attractive-but-not-quite-but-yes-he-is man? Definitely all to the good.
Kate sounds so lovely, great interview Hannah. Even though I still find a lot of things about MC very annoying (recaps after ads, drawn out suspense) I seem to still be way too addicted to it.
Eurgh, I think if we all starting listing the elements of the production of MC that turned us off, we’d be talking for a long time
But I do think the people who give the competition a go are truly genuine and passionate!
Yummy! Unsurprisingly, I’m VERY excited about the homemade amaretti (althought chocolate pots look yummy too). I can’t get enough of almondiness. This is an excuse to buy the book! Well done, Hannah Bee.xx
Aw, yay!! Would you like me to go and look through the recipe index for more recipes with almonds to entice you with?
xoxo
P.S. I love my new nickname.
I love Masterchef too and Kate seems like such a deserving winner. Great interview! I’m surprised though that the cookbook is entirely desserts! She cooked so much other great stuff on the show and I would have thought for her first cookbook she would put out something that attracted as wide an audience as possible. xx
Who wouldn’t be attracted by a dessert cookbook?! That’s just crazy talk!
In all seriousness, though, none of the other winners have put out a dessert cookbook, so in fact it does differentiate her, at least in the respect, in a rather lovely way! 
I was just wondering what Kate was doing with herself the other day, and now I know. her cookbook sounds fab, but I have to ask, does it have pictures of all the recipes? That is one of my must haves in a recipe book (I have to have rules or our house would be full).
Great interview, loved it!
Absolutely! Gorgeous, gorgeous photos. I’m completely with you; I generally won’t buy cookbooks without photos throughout.
And thank you! I tried to write an interview that (hopefully) isn’t exactly like all the others out there might be!
What a fabulous interview – masterchef was what initially got me involved in baking
– Kate’s book has been on my must buy list for ages!
A delicious feature recipe too
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Oh, that’s so lovely!! It was my sweet tooth that got *me* interested in baking
The cookbook is super lovely.
My wife makes a great cold version of chocolate pots which is delicious! Might have to get her to try and make a warm version too.
The best thing about this is if you make the whole batch, you can eat half of the pots warm straight away, and save the other half to try cold. That’s what we did!
Really good interview… you asked great questions! I’ve always thought that coming up with interesting, unique and not-boring interview questions must be really tough! Your questions reflected your personality, and allowed Kate’s personality to shine through on her answers. Nicely done!
Oh gosh, thank you so much! I was incredibly conscious of not wanting to write boring, expected, dull questions that Kate would have had to answer a million times previously. And I must say my mum helped a lot with these questions
I can’t answer the question (and when have I ever?) so may I just say What a lovely interview and how cool to have this super recipe. Might I add some cherries to the white choc version (cherry trees are loaded, am adding cherries to everything – soup, humous, mango smoothies!)?
Teehee, I never mind about the questions; they’re kind of there in case my actual post is incredibly boring to people
Oh, cherries would be wonderful! I must admit they’re not my favourite fruit but I do love using the frozen ones in smoothies 
I don’t watch Masterchef nor am I really into desserts but the ones you’ve described above sound amazing – I might actually be tempted to buy myself a copy!
Now that’s a compliment and a half to Kate.
Oh my gosh Hannah… This is an awesome post!!! And congrats on scoring an interview with Kate! I, too, particularly loved her because of her “homey-ness” and love of her family. And cause of that, you know she cooks from the heart! I’m definitely going to try this warm choc pots now, because I’m really bad at desserts but these look simple enough for a noob like me to pull of! ;p
Oh yes, you and I understand the innate connection between love of family, love of food, and overall joy
And hey, from what I hear, you’re an awesome cookie-baker, and that counts as dessert!
I haven’t had crunchy peanut butter in far too long. I’ve been making my own lately in the food processor, and I never think to add some chopped peanuts at the end!
Okay, you’ve got me there! Homemade nut butters are allowed to be smooth
Oh how wonderful! As I think you are aware, I am also an avid MasterChef fan, though I hadn’t heard that Kate’s cookbook is out. How exciting!
I still haven’t quite got my head around who’s who in this season; my housemate doesn’t like watching it so I have to compromise and not watch every night
Ooh, tough one. Though admittedly, we don’t watch nearly as religiously at the start of the series as we do towards the end. There are too many different people to try hard to get involved. Plus Andy’s parents are visiting, so we’re watching less telly overall at the moment.
Oooh, how wonderful! I hope they brought you both many much-missed American snack foods?
Oh no, they’re from Eden and they brought us things from the hardware store where Andy’s dad worked. Paintbrushes are nowhere near as fun as American snack foods.
But perhaps slightly longer lasting?
Great interview! The recipe looks delicious. Am enjoying this season, get so inspired watching it… like last night’s Maggie Beer cake… can’t wait to (try) bake it!
Oh my gosh yes, I adore rosemary in desserts so I fell for that cake too!
Looks like I’m missing out on a decadently suspenseful show:) The recipes in Kate’s cookbook (or would you call it more of a bakebook?) sound really inspired and delicious!
I can’t picture being a very great cook, or a great anything really, at 5 am
5am is one of those hours that shouldn’t exist.
Food television over here is absolutely deplorable- I wish we could watch things like MasterChef! I always hear such rave reviews about it. It’s somewhat amazing to think that any of these competitions might actually showcase real cooking talent, rather than just feature the most entertaining disasters.
I must say, when I first went to the States I was tremendously excited by the Food Network, but became increasingly bored by and disenchanted with it. The Aussie Masterchef is pretty good, though believe you me it has its ridiculous moments too!
Being from Orange of course I was very pleased to see Kate win. I’ve flipped through her book a few times, but resisted buying it so far- I need to get rid of some of the (hundreds) of old cookbooks. At least I’ve definitely slowed with buying new cookbooks. This current series, is a bit meh. Most of the contests I don’t find that inspiring. My son is watching so I usually see it if I’m not at work, but it’s even more contrived than before, and fading in relevance I think. Sure, I like some of the food porn stuff too- Peter Gilmore and Adriano Zumbo for instance, but am I interested in seeing people cook and mess up continually? No, not really. And as for getting immunity because someone else can cook well? Well that just sucks.
Before this year, I hadn’t bought (or received) any new cookbooks in years and years, for I too hit that point of buying too many and realising that I never cooked from them. This year, I’ve started dipping my toe in the waters again, and my, it’s a slippery slope
I agree with ‘most everything you’ve said here, actually, but I do still like the dessert challenges 
very impressed with the recipes here!! I adore a good almond biscuit. I’ve watched a handful of master chef eps, seems like they’re making it very interesting this season, which is nice! The quality of the chefs they get coming on are so good, too. always good for a shannon bennett perve.
Heidi xo
Nuts are just the best of all the things, really
Bahaha, I’m more on the “Shannon Bennett should at least wash his hair” side of the fence 
I still haven’t started watching Masterchef this season yet. Am I a bad food blogger? But yes, I do remember Kate from last year and that dessert cookbook sounds great! Also, I am glad that we both like crunchy peanut butter. What’s the point otherwise??
Exactly. Everyone knows that smooth peanut butter isn’t really peanut butter.
OMG that’s AMAZING Hannah
You got to interview Kate! Sigh Mr Bao wouldn’t let me buy Kate’s book… because he said I’ve got too many right now lol but wow that’s so exciting so so so happy for you!
I remember reading this recipe in her book when I was at the bookstores and my months were already watering hehe so glad you were able to share it with us!
WOO HOO now i’m gonna give this a go sometime soon