Tag Archives: easy

Nigella Lawson easy salted caramel sauce

10 Apr

This recipe is The Bomb. It is quick, requires a handful of ingredients, will rock your world and impress everyone who is lucky enough to sample even a drop of it. This sauce requires real, lux salt, not the nasty table salt that you can buy in massive pantry packs. Nigella has shown us again why she is the queen of all things decadent and divine with this recipe. Serve this with vanilla ice cream for a show stopper dessert. Add the salt in increments & taste as you go.

With thanks to Anna Warr [http://www.facebook.com/AnnaWarrPhotography] for her delish snaps.

GATHER:

50g brown sugar

50g caster sugar

50mL golden syrup

125mL double cream

75g  unsalted butter, cubed

half to one-and-a-half teaspoons best quality salt [I use pink Murray River salt]

LET’S GET TO IT:

Melt butter, sugars and syrup in a small heavy pan and simmer for two to three minutes. Swirl, don’t stir, occasionally.

Slowly pour in cream and half a teaspoon of the salt and stir before tasting. Add a little more salt at a time if you desire.

Pour into serving jug and watch your guests drool.

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Easy Easter biscuit [cookie] pops

4 Apr

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Being Australian we call small, sweet baked morsels biscuits. From my extensive blog reading I see that Americans call these items cookies. Let’s chalk it up to cultural differences.

In any case Misses 4 & 6 helped make umpteen of these sprinkle-covered biscuits for their little friends for Easter. It is the recipe I posted on my blog titled Child’s play: super simple sprinkle biscuits even a 4-year-old can make.

All you ned to do is gently push a paddlepop stick into the biscuit prior to baking. Ta da! A bickie on a stick – and as everyone knows, sticks make food taste better.

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Simple double chocolate biscuits [ugly but delicious]

2 Apr

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There is no getting away from the fact that these biscuits are not what you call pretty. They aren’t even plain – they are lock-them-away-in-the-tower unattractive and they aren’t the type of sweet treat you’d see in upmarket eateries. But, if you squint or close your eyes as you take a bite you will understand that they are everything that a biscuit should be: sweet, chocolate-y, satisfying. So let’s remember that old cliche of looks not being important, shall we? This recipe is from Australian Good Taste but as usual, I tweaked it…

GATHER:

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup caster sugar

150g cubed butter, at room temperature

1 3/4 cup self raising flour

1 egg

150g good chocolate [they use chopped up choc, I grabbed buttons and they worked fine]

2 tablespoons sifted cocoa powder

Dash best vanilla extract [if you only have vanilla essence – skip it! That stuff is evil and a poor imitation].

LET’S GET TO IT:

Preheat oven to 170C and line two large trays with baking powder.

Place both sugars, vanilla and butter in bowl of electric mixer and beat until creamy and changed colour.

Beat in the egg until combined then add flour and cocoa. Keep beating until everything is combined.

Stir in chocolate using a spoon.

Shape into golf ball size blobs and gently flatten.

Bake 12-ish minutes [you may need a fw more minutes depending on your oven].

Cool on wire racks.

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Easy individual warm chocolate pavlovas

31 Mar

At the the risk of alienating myself from, well, everyone, I am not a fan of pavlova. I find it too sweet and it is my least fav dessert. Sadly for me but luckily for the rest of the country, it is a staple at barbecues and parties everywhere. I’ve been known to make pavs when we’re having a do and it is always pounced upon before every other sweet.

This choc version of the aforementioned sweet is designed to be served warm with a chocolate custard sauce. I made the sauce but it didn’t make it into the photo as it is, well, super ugly. It serves 4. The recipe comes from my bible, The Australian Women’s Weekly ‘Bake’, a behemoth of a book that never lets me down. And thanks to photographer Anna Warr [www.facebook.com/AnnaWarrPhotography] for these lovely photos. Aren’t they great?

ImageGATHER:

2 egg whites at room temperature

1 1/3 cups icing sugar [sifted]

1/3 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon cocoa powder [sifted]

LET’S DO IT:

Preheat oven to 180C and line a large oven tray with baking powder.

Beat egg whites, icing sugar and water in bowl of electric mixer for about 10 minutes or until firm peaks form. Fold in cocoa.

Drop four equal amounts of mix onto tray leaving considerable space between each.

Bake 25-ish minutes or until firm to the touch. Serve immediately with ice cream and dusted with extra cocoa.

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Fast golden caramel bundt cake

27 Mar

This blog should rightly be called The Hungry Mum Who Bakes Quick & Easy Cakes. Yes I’m hungry and yes, I’m impatient, dammit! I want cake and I want it now. Often the baking urge arrives right in the middle of cactus hour or trying to put the kids to bed so I need a no-fuss recipe that can be bunged into the oven.

This caramel cake recipe, courtesy of the kitchen goddess at the Australian Women’s Weekly & their book ‘Quick Mix Cakes’, is so quick and simple. Baking it in a bundt tin & dusting with copious amounts  of icing sugar makes it look fancy with all the faffing around of icing.

These beautiful photos were taken by Anna Warr [annawarr.com], a photographer who has an eye for detail & patience by the kilo…

GATHER:

185g softened butter, cubed

1/2 soft brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1/2 cup plain flour

1/2 cup golden syrup

3/4 cup milk

LET’S DO IT:

Grease a Bundt tin, ensuring you get into all the crevices.

Preheat oven to 170C.

Place all ingredients into a bowl of electric mixer and mix on low speed until everything is combined.

Increase speed to medium and beat until there are no lumps and the colour has changed.

Dollop mixture into pan and using a spatula, gently smoosh batter up the sides so it reaches into all the crevices of your pan.

Bake 40-ish mins/until a skewer comes out clean. You may need to cook a little longer depending on your oven.

Cool in pan 10 minutes before turning onto wire rack to cool.

When cold dust with icing sugar.

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Easy peasy egg-free coconut and lime mini loaves [perfect for kids to cook]

17 Mar

This recipe is, as Miss 4 would say, easy peasy lemon squeezy. The original recipe, which I’ve tweaked, is from my primary school’s fundraising cookbook, along with taste sensations such as fish finger kebabs and prunes & bacon [subtitled, and I kid you not, ‘a delicious combination] from *many* moons ago. Fear not, this cake is super yum and so super easy that kids can make it without much help. The original makes a very small loaf but I decided to use my mini pan this time & the results were great. It made 4 mini loaves which is ideal if you don’t want to be a guts and eat all the cake  are just having one friend over for a cuppa.

This is such a versatile recipe: it can de doubled and if you don’t like lime use orange or lemon zest. Or omit the zest and just add mixed spice or vanilla.

And what about these amazing photos by Anna Warr? Don’t they make you want to lick the screen? Or is that just me? Check out more of her amazing work at annawarr.com.

GATHER:

1 cup self-raising flour

1 cup coconut [dessicated]

1/4 cup caster sugar

slightly more than 1/2 cup milk

zest from 2 small or one large lime

LET’S DO IT:

Preheat oven to 170C and grease 4 holes from a mini loaf tin.

Place everything in bowl and stir until combined. It will be a stiff batter.

Pour into 4 holes, bake 20-25ish minutes/until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool five minutes before removing to a wire rack.

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Mini chocolate cupcakes with marsala wine

13 Feb

Chocolate marsala cake, listed in the book ’50 Fabulous Chooclate Cakes’ as ‘never fail chocolate cake’ is my go recipe that I have made countless times. Each year I make it for my daughter’s birthdays, I’ve made it it for friends grieving and for friends celebrating. Continue reading →

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Banana bread that doesn’t cost $4 a slice

12 Feb

I am always amazed when I see bakeries and cafes charging outlandish prices for banana bread. There is nothing in a slice of your ordinary, run-of-the-mill banana bread that makes it worth the $4 price tag. So when I saw my elderly neighbour fork out $8 for two scrawny slices of banana bread at a local bakery yesterday I was mortified. I came home, raided my fruit bowl & pantry and set about making a loaf. She was pleasantly surprised  when I lobbed at her doorstep and handed the loaf over [at this point we didn’t even know one another’s names] and I was happy I saved someone on a fixed income $8 [every cent counts, right?]. Because I couldn’t exactly cut a slice off to taste it before I handed it over I’ll go by the smell that emerged

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as it was baking : super divine.

I tweaked a recipe from taste.com.au, an online recipe site that never lets me down.

GATHER:

2 large over-ripe bananas, mashed

1  3/4 cups self raising flour

1/4 cup plain flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs, whisked

1 tablespoon cinnamon

50g cooled, melted butter

1/2 cup milk

LET’S GET TO IT:

Preheat oven to 180C, spray a large loaf tin with cooking spray and line with baking powder.

Sift flours and cinnamon together in large bowl, add sugar.

In a jug gently mix melted butter, eggs, milk and bananas and stir into the flour mixture with a metal spoon. It will be lumpy, do not over beat.

Bake 40 ish minutes, checking with skewer. It make need another five or so depending on your oven. Remove, place on wire rack and wait until cool before slicing [if you can be that patient with such a delicious smell wafting through the kitchen…]

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Strawberry & custard muffins

11 Feb

When in doubt, bake. And when you don’t want to faff around with lining cake tins or decorating cupcakes, bake muffins. Quick, simple and perfect size for sharing – what’s not to love? These little numbers have a surprise in the shape of fresh strawberry & custard in the centre, elevating them from morning tea fare to, ummm, exciting morning tea fare.

Makes 12

GATHER:

2 cups self-raising flour

1 cup plain flour

1 egg

1 cup of milk

90 g butter, melted

12 strawberries, hulled & halved

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/4 thick shop-bought custard

1 teaspoon cinnamon PLUS 1/2 teaspoon, extra

2 tablespoons brown sugar

LET’S DO IT:

Preheat oven to 170-ishC.

Line a muffin pan with 12 muffin wrappers.

Mix together the extra 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon with the brown sugar in small bowl, set aside.

Mix flours, sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl with a metal spoon. In a jug stir together egg, milk and butter then add to bowl with other ingredients. Stir until just combined, do not over mix.

Fill each wrapper until half full then add a generous dollop of custard and 2 strawberries. Add more mixture to cover but do not overfill.

Sprinkle with extra cinnamon and brown sugar then cook for 20-ish minutes.ImageImageImage

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Home-made raspberry & white choc chip biscuits

10 Feb

It was baking o’clock on a Friday afternoon. Cruising the blogs for inspiration I was stunted by indecison – so much home-baked goodness to choose from. How to decide? 

Seeing Veggie Mama’s [veggiemama.com] droolworthy recipe for raspberry & white chocolate cookies cinched it – we had raspberries, we had white choc chips – we had a winner.

This is easy enough to whip up while referring the quibbles of the under-six set, who by the way, inhaled these and happily polished off the remainder of the frozen berries. So helpful. I make fairy incy bickies as I am of the opinion that it is better to have several small rather than one large [especially in the realm of baked goods/ dark choc bars/glass of chardonnay…]. I did reduce the amount of brown sugar by a quarter of a cup for those who are keeping score…

GATHER:

125 g butter at room temp, diced

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg at room temp

2 cups plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

dash of vanilla extract

3/4 cup-ish white choc chips

frozen raspberries

LET’S DO IT:

Preheat oven to 170-ish C and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Cream sugars and butter until fluffy and a pretty light sand colour.

Add egg and vanilla and continue beating [it may look ugly here but it will all even out].

Using a metal spoon stir in combined flour & baking powder until combined, then add around half the white choc chips.

Roll into a ball around the size of a wlanut and flatten gently. Decorate with raspberries and more choc bits.

Bake 12-ish minustes until they are lightly golden and remove to baking trays to cool.

Watch kidlets inhale.

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