MAGGIE’S SECRETS Burnt pastry, great expectations and joy

As Maggie Beer potters around her kitchen in South Australia’s Barossa Valley, there are often a thousand and one things jostling for her attention. She’s constantly on the go, with a busy family life, TV cooking shows, videos to film for the Maggie Beer Foundation – which aims to improve food experiences for those in aged care – Maggie Beer’s Farmshop and more. So it’s lucky, she laughs, that she enjoys her baked goods on the verge of incineration.

“My main baking disaster is that I get distracted and burn things,” Australia’s favourite cook tells The Weekly. “I use the word ‘burn-ish’ because I like pastries and bread really taken to a past-golden stage. So my family are very funny. They always say that I made up that word to disguise burning everything because I forgot about it.”