I was unaware of the tarty deliciousness of lemon bars until about a week ago. I had seen umpteen recipes on international blogs but it wasn’t until my mother-in-law presented me with a bucket filled to the brim with lemons from her tree that I decided to make them.
Hello, tastebuds. Continue reading
Despite being Sydney born and bred I am a winter gal through and through. The cool air, the fabulous clothes and the amazing winter fare is my kind of lifestyle. Forget frolicking at the beach or being burnt to a crisp – give me the great indoors, a fire and some cookbooks and I’m in hog heaven.
Of all the winter foods my favourite to cook and eat must be puddings. Despite not having an overly sweet tooth I am always drawn to puddings: self-saucing, gooey, oozy numbers are what the cold weather is all about. Wand when it comes to a hearty dessert to make you happy to be alive it is hard to go past a bread and butter pud.
Australian blogger and writer Kate Gibbs’ recipe for choc raspberry bread and butter pudding, from her book After Toast, had my name on it: I had a stale loaf of chunky white bread and due to shopping miscommunication about 8 litres of milk in the fridge.
I made a few tweaks including the amount of eggs and milk and omitting jam that was used on the bread slices.
GATHER:
8 thick slices of good quality white bread
Enough butter to generously butter bread with
150g fresh or frozen raspberries
1/3 cup dark choc bits / buttons/ roughly chopped chocolate
3 eggs
2 cups milk
Good splash best quality vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon sugar plus extra for sprinkling
LET’S GET TO IT:
Preheat oven to 180C .
Cut bread into small rectangles or triangles then butter each piece on one side.
Arrange in shallow ovenproof dish and scatter with half the raspberries and all of the chocolate. Cover with remaining bread.
In a large jug whisk eggs until frothy then beat in milk, vanilla and cinnamon.
Pour over bread and scatter over remaining berries.
Stand for 15 minutes.
Sprinkle over the extra sugar, cover with baking paper and bake for 20 minutes. Remove paper and bake for another 15.
Serve warm.
It is so cold in Sydney at the moment that I’m spending most of my time in the kitchen baking. Standing in front of a lovely warm oven is the best way to while a way a bit of time. The downside is I’m burning through flour, milk, eggs and butter at a rate of knots! Oh well…
Recently I flicked through some of my so-huge-it-needs-to-be-culled cookbook collection and landed on a recipe from The Australian Women’s Weekly book, The Baking Collection. This marvellous book is, as they say in certain circles, all thriller – no filler. Page after page of tempting bakes to make and I could think of no happier way to spend a day than creating some of these treats.
I chose the recipe for raspberry and walnut slice, though I used ground almonds instead of ground walnuts. I think any ground nut [or nut meal] would work here so feel free to experiment. The recipe called for ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon but I am such a lover of this scented spice that I just freehanded a massive amount.
GATHER:
150g butter, diced and softened
2/3 cup icing sugar
1 ¾ cup plain flour
at least one teaspoon ground cinnamon [more if you prefer]
½ cup ground almonds
300g frozen raspberries
LET’S GET TO IT:
Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line a 20cm x 30cm rectangular slice pan.
In bowl of electric mixer beat butter and icing sugar until pale [you may need to scrape down sides of bowl a few times]
Stir in sifted flour, cinnamon and nut meal until mixture is crumble [do not over-mix].
Set aside one cup of crumble mix, then place the rest of the crumble mix in the pan and use the base of a glass to firmly pat down. Sprinkle over raspberries, then sprinkle over remaining mix.
Bake for around 20 minutes or until golden.
Inhale – the smell is amazing.
Allow to cool in tin before slicing into squares.
I have written before about how lucky I am to receive copious of amounts of cookbooks to review in my day job as a journalist. It seems every blogger and his dog has a book these days and some tomes are waaaay better than others. Putting my professional impartiality to one side for a moment I must confess that the books I enjoy reviewing the most are those published by the venerable Australian Women’s Weekly. I have been using their books for decades, as have my mum and nana. Their recipes always work and recently their books have undergone a stylish transformation. Continue reading
So as you may have noticed I quite enjoying baking 🙂 I especially love sharing my baked goods with family and friends – despite my adoration of turning sugar, flour and eggs into cakes and biscuits I’m not such a sweet tooth. #teamSavoury.
As is my wont I made these Donna Hay white chocolate and macadamia bickies [or cookies, for my American friends] and took them into work this week. My friend Jane declared these morsels to be some of my best work. When I relayed this compliment to the Hungry Dad he agreed.
How much squee can one dessert hold? While scientists furiously debate the matter I’ll make a punt on saying – lots. I made these oh-so-adorable desserts at a recent family gathering, where I did my usual over-the-top baking trick.
I just couldn’t resist this treat – it was so fun and as it was quick to make [using my pastry cheat] I could dedicate my time to the [many] other bakes I was presenting.
Anything on sticks has instant appeal but these little pies would be perfect presented sans stick. They are the perfect little size for a high tea or even a lunch box treat.
I bought mini paddle pop sticks for this as I had my doubts about putting plastic lollypop sticks in the oven.
I was inspired by this recipe from http://www.cookingchanneltv.com but I cheated all the way. I used frozen shortcrust pastry (home-made pastry would inevitably taste better but to quote that hilarious meme, ain’t nobody got time for that) and shop-bought jam instead of all the from scratch options.
Gather:
2 sheets thawed sweet-crust pastry sheets
Favourite jam / preserves [I used berry]
Caster sugar
Let’s get to it:
Preheat oven to 180C and line two baking sheets with non-stick baking paper.
Use a hear-shaped biscuit / cookie cutter to cut out small hearts. Place half on the baking tray.
Place a small dollop of jam into the centre of each half – do not overfill if they will explode during baking.
Place a stick into each pop then place another heart on top. Use fork to firmly press done edges, then sprinkle with caster sugar.
Bake for 11-18 minutes, depending on the size of your hearts. Allow cooling before serving.
PS – these kept for quite a few days in a sealed contained in a dark, cool place.
Easter is one of my favourite times of year. You get to catch up with friends and family, eat delicious food and watch the kid’s faces as they hunt for eggs. And, like Christmas, you get to go completely over the top with your baking. Or is that just me?
As I write this I am preparing to host an Easter Sunday brunch for family. My mum offered to host but all I could think was – some of the desserts aren’t moveable! So we’ll be having everyone here! Amongst my trifles and tarts and bundt cakes I realised I hadn’t hit the chocolate target so I obviously I had to rectify that.
Gather:
55 grams butter
85 grams dark chocolate, chopped
55 grams milk chocolate, chopped
2 large eggs
¼ cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Enough candy-coated mini chocolate eggs to decorate the biscuits [I used two per biscuit]
Let’s get to it:
Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line a large baking tray with non-stick baking paper.
In a large saucepan, melt the butter and chopped chocolate over low heat until smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. With a metal spoon stir in the eggs, sugars, and vanilla extract. Stir in flour and baking powder.
Using a heaped teaspoon place batter onto the sheet and decorate with two candy-coated eggs. Allow room for them to spread.
Bake for between 7-11 minutes, until just set [you want them to be moist].
Leave on tray for a few minutes before transferring to wire rack.
I receive umpteen cookbooks to review in my day job at the Fairfax community paper where I work. It is one of the highlights of my job and I love reading through them and seeing what brilliant cooking minds are coming up with. Some books are incredible, some mediocre but the ones that stand out are the books that have that something extra. Continue reading
There is no polite way of describing how I react around smoked salmon. I like the word gourmand but feel glutton is more apt. I adore the stuff and love it served any way – on sandwiches, in pasta, wolfed straight from the packet… Continue reading
So, this is a very basic recipe and the only reason I’m even posting it is that I often have a surplus of two egg whites when I’m baking or making the Hungry Dad’s favouritest ever sweet, custard. I was stashing the whites in the freezer but decided to actually bake with them recently.
This recipe is sooo simple that my kids [even Miss6] could make this without any supervision. The choc bottom takes them from meh to marvellous.
Gather:
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 egg whites
2 cups desiccated coconut
150g dark chocolate, melted
Let’s get to it:
Preheat oven to 180C and place non-stick baking paper on a baking tray.
Mix everything except chocolate in bowl using a silver spoon.
Place golf ball size mounds on the trays, leaving space to spread.
Bake for between 10-13 minutes, until pale gold.
Cool completely before using a butter knife to swipe the melted chocolate across their bottoms.
Allow chocolate to set before eating.
the hungry mum 