Going through my stats recently it occurred to me that you all love Donna Hay. This makes me incredibly happy because – as you may have guessed – I too love Donna. I have mentioned it many MANY times here before so it is wonderful to see that we are in simpatico 🙂 Continue reading
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.
With a glut of lemons beckoning from our oft-neglected but much loved lemon tree it was time to get baking. Lemon shortbread. Lemon and yogurt loaf. And this delicious cake that will make your mouth sing of all the pretty things. I discovered this recipe on the BBC site, which I find to be a wonderful resource when baking. It is from Paul Hollywood, who is quite the hero baker in his native Britain. I tweaked it a bit, switching his plain flour/ baking powder mix for straight self-raising flour and reducing the sugar. Considering the cake is finished with two different types of sugar I would even suggest minimising the amount of sugar in the recipe proper if your tooth isn’t overly sweet. 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.
Yes, my cinnamon addiction is showing again. Many moons ago I blogged cinnamon donuts but since buying a mini donut pan on our trip to San Fran last year I’ve been going baked donut crazy!
I found a wonderful recipe on Tidy Mom’s site and reduced the sugar and upped the maple syrup. If you can’t get your hands on maple syrup I’d suggest switching it for something else – maybe golden syrup. Imitation anything – yet especially syrup – is grim and pointless. Continue reading
Oh Donna, let me the count the ways in which your baking recipes make my heart flutter… Actually, that would take far too long because Ms Hay’s cakes, tarts and muffin recipes always work. Devotees would note that I am Donna hay’s biggest cheerleader and this super simple recipe is yet another winner. Continue reading
Our rosemary bush is a beast of a thing – large, unwieldy but capable of producing the most fragrant and delicious tasting leaves. No matter how much we use or give away there is always more, more, more taking over our herb garden.
Looking for another way to use it I stumbled across the mistress of original cooking concepts, Nigella Lawson. My well-thumbed copy of ‘How To Be A Domestic Goddess’ provided the answer with this luscious cake.
Continue reading
the hungry mum 