Jimi Famurewa’s recipe for puff-puff pancakes

Efteling is a fairytale-themed, 73-year-old amusement park in the south of the Netherlands that, after two consecutive years of visits, has become an acute obsession among my family. We love the vaguely folk-horror animatronic trees, witches and giant sea monsters lurking within a labyrinthine real forest. We love the anthropomorphised talking bins that plead (in a haunting, perpetual sing-song) for crumpled pieces of paper to be shoved into their suction-powered mouths. We love the inventive rides that, variously, judder along rattling wooden tracks, plunge cursed pirate ships into water, or nudge gondolas serenely through sylvan scenes of bum-flashing goblins showering beneath waterfalls.But our very favourite thing about the place might well be the poffertjes stand, a perennially busy kiosk where exhausted families gather for dinky paper boats filled with these yeast-puffed and sugar-dusted miniature buckwheat pancakes that are a Dutch institution

Polpa position: budget tinned tomatoes score well in Choice taste test

Consumer advocacy group Choice has taste-tested 18 brands of chopped and diced tomatoes, finding three cheaper cans outranked many more expensive brands.Four judges ranked tinned tomatoes from Australian supermarkets and retailers, assessing them on flavour, texture, appearance and aroma – with flavour accounting for the biggest percentage of overall scores.Italian brand Mutti’s Polpa Organic chopped tomatoes, costing $2.95 for a 400g tin, was awarded the highest score of 80%. It was the most expensive product tested, described by judge Fiona Mair (who also judges at the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show) as having “an earthy fresh tomato aroma, really rich juice and flesh”

Three plant-based chocolate mousse recipes by Philip Khoury

Mousse au chocolat is one of the most exquisite ways to enjoy chocolate – so here are three recipes that offer it in different textures and levels of chocolate intensity. Each one works beautifully with dark chocolate containing 65-80% cocoa solids. Blends with no specific origin can be further rounded out with one teaspoon of vanilla paste or the seeds from a vanilla bean.Once the mousses have been prepared, they can be frozen and gently defrosted in the refrigerator. Top with chocolate shavings, cocoa nibs or a dusting of unsweetened cocoa powder for texture and contrast

Don’t pour that olive brine down the drain – it’s a flavour bomb | Waste not

When I taste-tested olives for the food filter column a few months ago, it reminded me that the brine is an ingredient in its own right. This intensely savoury liquid adds umami depth to whatever it touches, and, beyond seasoning soups and stews, it can also be used to make salamoia, the aromatic brine that’s traditionally used to top focaccia and create that perfect salty crust.Pouring olive brine down the sink is like washing pure flavour down the drain. Instead, save it to supercharge your focaccia, creating a beautifully flavoured, salted crust that elevates an ordinary loaf into something extraordinary. While I’m partial to rosemary and olives as toppings, this focaccia delivers heaps of flavour even when kept completely plain and simple

Jelly’s back! Here are three worth making – and three that should wobble off to the bin

Jelly has a dowdy reputation, but it may well be the perfect food for the Instagram age: when it works, it’s incredibly photogenic, so who cares what it tastes like?There can be no other explanation for recent claims that savoury jellies – the most lurid and off-putting of dishes, reminiscent of the worst culinary efforts of the 1950s – are suddenly fashionable. This resurgence comes, according to the New York Times, “at a time when chefs are feeling pressure to produce viral visuals and molecular gastronomy is old hat”.The notion that jelly is having a moment is actually a perennial threat: this time last year it was reported that supermarket jelly cube sales were rising sharply, while vintage jelly moulds were experiencing a five-fold increase in online sales. And it was 15 years ago that the high-end “jellymongers” Bompas & Parr – known for their elaborate architectural creations – first published their book on the subject.People who are sceptical about jelly are often put off by its origins

Australian supermarket wheat crackers taste test: ‘All the reviewers knew which one was the real deal’

Nicholas Jordan risks it for the biscuits, sampling 19 wheat crackers in the driest taste test yetIf you value our independent journalism, we hope you’ll consider supporting us todayGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailI’ve been wanting to write this article for over a year but I’ve been too intimidated and confused to start. There are several hundred supermarket products that could be called a cracker. Imagine a taste test with 100 versions of the same thing. Do I have the stomach space or mental bandwidth to process that much? Otherwise, how do I decide what’s in or out? Even if I did, how do I rule what is a cracker or not? How do you determine the criteria for tasting something rarely eaten on its own? Do you rate the crackers for deliciousness or compatibility? Are those two things even that different?Then there’s the anxiety of spending several days agonising over all that, and conducting a taste test only to arrive at the conclusion that Jatz are great. Do people want to read an article about why Sir Donald Bradman is better than whoever the second-best-ever cricketer is?Instead of answering all those questions, I could just have a lovely afternoon making my way through 17 kinds of chocolate or many iced coffees