Maleny Hot Bread Bakery

Thanks to all who voted a fortnight ago. The results were emphatic, with nearly 80% of you declaring that it IS un-Australian to eat a pie with cutlery. Stay tuned, next week we will have another readers poll for you, but for now it's another review.

Recently, Mulloes and I visited the Maleny Hot Bread Bakery, in Maple St Maleny – one of 3 bakeries in the main strip, although one is called Swiss Crust Wood Oven Bakery, which (strangely) has a sign advertising woodfired pizzas on the front of the shop. Pizza isn’t exactly the first thing that springs to mind when I thought of Switzerland, but I guess the Italians are right next door to the Swiss, so I can cut them some slack.

Speaking of pizza, I was asked recently about the Americans calling their pizzas ‘pizza pie’, and I have to admit that it was something that really irked me, too. I mean, ‘pizza’ is a great name all on its own - whaddya, tryin’ to cutesy it up or somthin’ by adding ‘pie’ on the end? Fuhgeddaboudit!

Turns out that the ancient Greeks first put olive oil and herbs and stuff on their bread, baked it, and called it πίτα  (pita), meaning pie. One things leads to another, bada-bing, bada-bang, and a coupla thousand years later you got yourself a pizza-pie, capisce? And you thought this blog wasn’t gonna teach you nuthin’ about history and stuff, right? Wrong. Stick with the Pieologist, and you’ll be able to dazzle your friends with this and many other useful facts, my friends.

Anyway, Mulloes and I randomly chose the Maleny Hot Bread Bakery one Sunday morning after a spirited blast over Mt Mee. He chose a Steak and Bacon and a Chunky Steak; while I had the standard Curry Beef and a Beef Stroganoff (because I felt like living on the edge). Sharing wasn’t discussed.

Mulloes declared his chunky steak to be full of chunky steak (but perhaps a bit too much onion for his liking), and I bore witness to the amount of bacon in his second pie – it looked packed with bacony goodness...mmmm. I like it when you can actually see the ingredients in your pie; if the menu states beef and bacon, don’t use bacon flavouring – chop some up and get it in there son! I didn’t ask Mulloes to give me a score on his pies, but he ate them both like a combine harvester, so they couldn’t have been too bad.

 

Beef Stroganoff Pie

Curry Beef Pie

Before I go any further I should explain that generally speaking there are two types of curry pie out there: ones that are made with curry powder (Keens or the like) that often gives the meat a slightly jaundiced tinge; and actual curry pies, such as Thai Green Chicken, Lamb Rogan Josh, Beef Madras, etc. With the Keens type, the only real difference between fillings from different shops is down to the amount of powder they tip into the mix. Personally I like a heap, and I have a couple of good examples to share with you in the coming weeks.

For the record I like both types of curry pie, although the traditional Australian curry beef pie was the Keens type, cooked by a sweaty Aussie baker whose idea of an overseas holiday was taking the kids over to Moreton at Easter. Happily we’re now seeing more diversity and a maturing Australian palate.

My Maleny curry beef pie was of the ‘Type 1’ Keens variety; but with a nice little twist. Rather than just loading it up with curry powder, the baker had added a few sultanas, which gave the pie a real sweetness – like someone had added sweet chutney. It didn’t dominate, but just gave a background depth of flavour that so many overlook. The curry powder was of a good strength and the pastry – as you can see - was excellent. All pies should look like this. Temperature was perfect, and the structure held together nicely out of its foil nest.

This is a pie you could easily eat whilst driving, as long as you didn’t mind looking like you’d driven through a pastry blizzard, as you would wear a lot of that flaky top if you didn’t eat it in the classic pie-pose as I did: leaning forward in your seat in case of spillage, pie tilted on its edge, feet shoulder width apart, knees spread.

Score was a very solid 8/10.

There’s an old saying in the baking game, and that’s: ‘you’re only as good as your last pie’. Unfortunately, the Beef Stroganoff pie was below par despite looking the goods (the photo makes it look overcooked – it wasn’t). The filling was a wishy-washy, pastel peach coloured cream-fest, and it was chock-a-block full of onions. I know, I know, Beef Strog is supposed to have onions, but I felt it was a bit of overkill and the mix lacked tomato paste, mushrooms, and paprika (i.e. flavour). It wasn’t horrible, but was a letdown after the surprise of the curry beef. Pastry, structure and temperature were all good, hence – 5/10.

Next week: Chillingham NSW