February 4th, 2010
I always like to make breakfast for my sisters and this is our favorite (after a hot fry up maybe). Devonshire tea is easy to get in Australia, scones with jam and cream and a cuppa, but it’s so simple to make your own. Scone recipes are different in different places, but real scones- English scones, are really easy to make and they make the most lovely breakfast (/afternoon tea) imaginable.
(Kelly’s batch! Nice work Poots)
- 2 c self raising flour (you can add 2 tsp of baking soda to plain flour if you don’t have self raising)
- 60g (2oz) cold butter
- pinch of salt
- 3/4 c milk
- Whipped or clotted cream and jam to serve
Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF)
Place the flour and salt into a bowl. Cut the butter into small chunks and then rub it into the flour with your fingertips- this sounds like it might be time consuming, but it really isn’t. Rub until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs and then add the milk. Mix until you make a firm dough and then knead a little to smooth the wrinkles out.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 3cm thick (about an inch) then with a scone cutter- or a small glass or cup (about 6 or 7cm diameter that’s 2.5 in), cut out as many circles as you can, then roll the dough into a ball and repeat until all the dough is gone. Place these onto a greased baking tray and pop in the oven for about 12-15 min, until they have risen and just started to turn gold.
I’m afraid you must eat these with jam and cream. You may use any kind of jam/jelly you like, and I don’t eat cream on any other occasion, but jam goes first then cream and we highly recommend a strong black tea to go with them.
PS Lemonade scones are very popular right now- we think that it’s a tiny bit sacrilegious, but if you’re keen on a sweet scone, just substitute lemonade for the milk. Let us know…
Tags: devonshire tea, english breakfast, scones with jam and cream
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January 30th, 2010
Sorry all, away for a couple weeks, exploring the east coast of Aus. Good times, back to work now, more great recipes and tips coming now……..
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January 3rd, 2010
(Happy Birthday Mutti!)
When I first heard about this cake I couldn’t wait to try it. Everyone in our house loves marzipan (which must be the German in us, some people hate it). This cake is wonderful and should take prime position on any dessert table, particularly during the holidays. It’s pretty fast, which is also a bonus. Fast and delicious- how can you go wrong?
- 1/4 c butter
- 1/4 c coconut oil
- 1 c sugar
- 2 eggs
- juice of 1/2 lime
- grated rind of 1 lime – not tons
- 1/4 cup milk or coconut milk
- 2 tsp almond extract
- 2 cups almond meal/flour (firmly packed)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- few dashes of salt
- flaked almonds for the bottom of the pan (optional)
Pre-heat oven to 180ºC (350ºF)
Grease a long cake or loaf pan. In a pan warm the butter and coconut oil until softened to just melty and mix them together well. Add the remaining liquid ingredients and blend. Then add all the dry ingredients and mix well again.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes – I hour. It is a good idea to loosely cover the cake about halfway through baking with tin-foil, so the top doesn’t over-brown/burn.
Let the cake cool in the pan a little and then turn it out to cool completely.
Original recipe from: healthytastychow
Tags: marzipan cake
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December 28th, 2009
Ahh Christmas time- or End of year, or other celebrations… Time to eat too much, spend lazy days with family and eat again.
If you’re in need of a sweet treat, but don’t want to feel the Christmas bloat after you’ve eaten it. Try this fast, simple recipe that everyone will want a piece of.
- 2 sheets frozen puff pastry
- 3-4 small green apples, peeled and cored
- 1/2 c caster sugar
- 3 Tbsp butter
- cinnamon and thick cream for serving
Preheat the oven to 200ºC (400ºF)
Cut the pastry into 4 rectangles. Put them on a lined baking tray. Finely slice the apples and place them over the top of the pastry in a line of overlapping slices. Sprinkle with the sugar and top each with a little dob of butter.
Pop the tarts in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the pastry and apples are a light golden brown. When out of the oven sprinkle with cinnamon and icing sugar and serve with vanilla ice-cream or thickened cream.
Serves 4
Original recipe: Michele Cranston from the lovely fresh + fast book.
Tags: easy apple tart, fine apple tart
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December 20th, 2009
The best thing about baking cookies, is they don’t take long. Last week we were in chilly Canada where baking was ideal, this week it’s toasty Australia, so the faster they are baked, the better. Seeing as this is our Christmas season of cookies AND we love all treats citrus AND in any weather baking is the best option, we couldn’t make them fast enough. Lemony, creamy, deliciousness.
Cookies
2 c plain flour (all purpose)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
200 g (7 oz) unsalted butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 tsp finely grated orange (or grapefruit) zest
Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF) Grease a baking tray.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
In another bowl beat the butter and sugar. Add egg and zest and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture slowly and don’t over-mix. Scrape dough onto a work surface and gather it up into a disk. Wrap the disc in plastic warp and refrigerate for at least an hour, until firm (up to 3 days).
Place the chilled dough on a lightly floured work surface and sprinkle lightly with flour. Roll the dough out to a thickness of about 1/2 cm (1/8 in). Using any kind of cookie cutter (we used a 4 cm (1.5 in) round one), cut out as many cookies possible from the dough.
Bake for 9-11 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom (not the top). Transfer the cookies to wire racks and cool completely.
You don’t have to make the filling for these cookies – they are wonderful individually.
Citrus filling
1/4 c orange (or grapefruit) juice
1 Tbsp lemon juice
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
1 Tbsp heavy cream
pinch of salt
In a small saucepan, bring the orange and lemon juices to a boil over high heat and keep boiling for 3 to 5 minutes, or until reduced to about a tablespoon. Let cool completely.
In a bowl beat the butter, powdered sugar, cream, salt and cooled citrus juices until smooth.
Spread a little teaspoon of the filling onto the bottom of one of the cookies and top with another cookie. Repeat with the remaining cookies and filing. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
Tags: christmas sandwich cookies, citrus cookies, lemon orange grapefruit cookies
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December 18th, 2009
While spending time in Southern Ontario, we celebrated Bean’s birthday early with a glorious cake made by his Mum. The recipe is famous in the area and comes from a well known cheese store in Windsor, Galati.
- 1425 g (3 lb) fresh ricotta cheese
- 1 1/3 c white sugar
- 1/2 c flour
- 6 eggs
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Graham cracker crumbs for the crust (Aussie alternative use ginger snaps)
- cherries or strawberries for topping
Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF) and grease a 9 in (23cm) springform cake tin.
Blend together the ricotta, half of the sugar and the egg yolks. Add the lemon juice, vanilla and the flour. Mix until smooth. Beat together the egg whites and the rest of the sugar (not like a meringue) and add to the ricotta mixture.
Sprinkle the cake tin with crumbs to make a crust (about 1 cm thick 1/3 in). Bake for 1 hour and make sure you take the cake out of the oven to cool- don’t worry if the center still wobbles or looks un-cooked, this is normal. It will set up once it cools, the edges will be just a hint brown.
It’s lovely to serve this cake with cherries ontop, but you can use any berries or fruits, or serve it as is. It is moist and creamy and well worth being famous!
Tags: galati cheesecake, ricotta cheesecake
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December 13th, 2009
These cookies come from Bean’s Mum, a recipe that’s been in their family a long time. We are lucky to be able to share it with everyone now, because these cookies are really wonderful. The original recipe known as- Rose’s crescents, calls them them ‘fragile, rich and fantastic’, which indeed they are. The recipe is on one of those lovely well-used recipe cards, a cut out from some old magazine. Who knows who Rose actually was, but she really knew how to bake cookies…
- 2/3 c almond meal
- 1 c unsalted butter, softened
- 1/3 c sugar
- 1 2/3 c plain flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
Cinnamon sugar for rolling
- 1/2 c sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 160ºC (325ºF), line a baking tray.
Cream together the butter, sugar and almond meal until light and fluffy, scraping the bowl occasionally. Sift the flour and salt and beat into the creamed mixture until well combined. Refrigerate around 30 minutes to an hour, so that the dough is workable.
With floured hands roll pinches of dough into little crescents (about 2 in by 1 in). Place onto baking tray and bake for 12 – 14 minutes until set but not brown. Once they are out of the oven let them cool for about 10 minutes and then roll in the cinnamon sugar until well coated. Repeat with all the cookies.
Makes about 4 dozen – these freeze well
Thanks Helga!
Tags: cinnamon christmas cookies, Rose's crescent cookies
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December 8th, 2009
Still baking cookies for the festive season. These are beautiful ones, smooth easy to decorate chocolate cookies. Pop a bunch of these in a box and someone will be overjoyed.
- 1 1/2 c plain flour
- 3/4 c cocoa powder
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 3/4 c softened butter
- 1 c caster sugar
- 1 egg
- icing sugar for dusting (optional)
Preheat the oven to 190ºC (375ºF).
In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Cream the sugar and butter until smooth and add an egg. Blend until combined. Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry to form a soft pliable dough. (You may not need to add all of the sugar/butter mixture here). Flatten the dough into a fat disc and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
Roll the dough out on a floured surface and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. If the dough is sticking, add more flour to the work surface to prevent this. Place your shapes onto a lined baking tray. Bake 10-12 minutes. Cool and add icing and sprinkles or simply dust with icing sugar.
Tags: chocolate christmas cookies
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December 2nd, 2009
Mollie Katzen is one of our favorite foodies. Her recipes are so fresh and healthy they just make sense. Everything we make from books of hers always turns out great and tastes like a new version of something already familiar and homey.
We eat these like veggie burgers, on a bun with salad, tzatiki and cheese. But koftas are essentially Indian so you can serve these with rice and yoghurt. It’s great to make a bunch, freeze them and warm them up in the oven later.
- 1 medium-sized sweet potato
- 1 1/2 to 2 cups cooked chickpea (1 can)
- 1 large clove garlic
- 2 scallions, diced
- 2 tsp lightly toasted cumin seeds
- 2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
- 2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 6 Tbs unbleached white flour
- 1 c peas (fresh or frozen)
Peel and dice the sweet potato and cook it in boiling water until soft (about 10 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces). You should have about 1 1/2 cups of cooked sweet potato. Transfer to a food processor or blender.
Add all other ingredients, except the flour, peas, and oil. Purée until fairly smooth. (The mixture will be very thick, so be patient!) Transfer to a bowl. Stir in the flour until thoroughly incorporated, then gently stir in the peas. Form into patties.
Place a skillet or heavy based saucepan over medium heat and add a little bit of vegetable oil. When the oil is really hot, add the patties, and sauté for about 8 to 10 minutes on each side, or until lightly browned and heated through. Serve with rice or salad or on burgers!
Original recipe: Mollie Katzen’s vegetable heaven.
Tags: chickpea and sweet potato koftas, mollie katzen recipe, veggie burger patties
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November 29th, 2009
This is a really wonderful recipe for a sweet moist apple cake that is so easy to make, it’s crazy. The outside crisps up just a little and the walnuts add crunch. You can use any kind of apples, but we enjoy a tart cooking apple like Cortland, Granny Smith or Northern Spy.
- 3 c apples chopped into large chunks
- 1/2 c chopped walnuts (optional)
- 2 c flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 c sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1/2 c butter, melted
- 1 tsp vanilla
- demerara sugar for sprinkling (optional)
Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF) and grease a round cake tin.
Mix the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl mix vanilla, eggs and melted butter together. Add the wet to the dry and mix well. Then add the chopped apples and walnuts and mix again. Pour batter into the greased pan and sprinkle with demerara sugar, then bake for 50 minutes – 1 hour.
We invented this particular recipe, but it does bear some resemblance to the Moosewoods old-fashioned apple cake and no doubt- many others.
Tags: baking with apples, fresh apple cake, old-fashioned apple cake
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