Pancake Party!

Hello!


So my lovely flatmate Alix is away this weekend so I am all by myself for a few days. This afternoon I had epic pancake cravings but I couldn't be bothered leaving the freezingness of our flat to go into the freezingness of outside to go to New World to get maple syrup. I finally worked up the enthusiasm, donned a puffer jacket and went. 


In the meantime a few friends commented on my "Pancake party! pancake party! . . . all by myself" status on facebook and promptly invited themselves over. Luckily! Because pancake parties are always better with people. What's better is that they brought all sorts of exciting toppings with them.

So it turns out the recipe for pancakes that we have at home that our Auntie Rachel gave us is basically identical to Whisk Kid's except mine is without the almond essence. My brother is surprisingly the pancake master in our house. Probably because he has so much practice at making them. He has the whole batch to himself. And no he is not obese. He loves to walk around the house with no top on so he can show off his abs to everyone (mainly himself in the mirror :P) and no they are not skinny boy abs. Actual abs. Dick eh. 


A few pancake making tips: Don't have the pan too hot as you will burn the outside but the inside will still be gooey. However do make sure your pan is fully heated up before you pop the first one in; a hot pan helps prevent the pancake from sticking and making a mess. 


I haven't included many finished pancake shots. Mainly because they didn't survive out of the pan long and also my flipping ability is less than desirable (ie it SUCKS) and so most of them looked a wee bit munted. Also if you are using butter to grease the pan up (which I highly reccommend - it turns the pancakes a lovely golden colour) make sure you wipe it up between each lot so that it doesn't burn.
Also, pancakes are a totally acceptable dinner option. Just saying. Don't judge me. 


Rachel's Yankee Pancakes
(makes 15ish - depending on how small they are)
1 1/2 cups plain flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons sugar (ok so its supposed to be only 3 but one can never have too much sugar . . .)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups milk
3 tablespoons of melted butter (which is really just a big knob of it, lets say 20-30g)


Sieve the dry ingredients together in a medium sized mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre.

Melt the butter in the microwave. Add the milk to the butter then pop back in the microwave for another 40 seconds to warm the milk up, so that the butter doesn't solidify again (thanks Whisk Kid! never would have thought of that myself). Add the vanilla, then beat in the egg. Make sure the milk isn't hot, just tepid. Don't want to scramble the egg!

Pour this mixture into the well. Beat together until smooth. Don't overmix this mixture as you will develop the gluten, resulting in dense, chewy pancakes. Bleh!

Sometimes I squeeze some maple syrup into the batter too, just for flavour.
Place a small chunk of butter into your hot pan, swirl it around to coat the base.

I tend to like small pancakes so I use a 1/4 cup measure to scoop the batter into the pan. Make them as big or as small as you like. It really depends how many people are demanding pancake at once and how much pan space you have. 

Wait until air bubbles form on the surface and you can see the edge of the pancake cooking a little. Also, the pancakes should slide around the pan if they are done on that side. Give them a flip and cook until the other side is golden. 

So FLUFFAAYY!!

Serve hot with maple syrup/golden syrup/honey/ lemon and sugar/ caramel sauce/ whipped cream/ chocolate sauce/ banana  . . (don't judge us - it was an epic pancake party).

Our table got a wee bit carried away will all the pancake excitement.


This is my brother making pancakes earlier in the year, he gets about five pancakes out of the whole batch when he makes them this big.

Breakfast for one, how romantic.


I hope you host a pancake party (for more than just yourself :P) soon!


Please excuse the horrific formatting here. Blogger is being a bit special . . don't know why half the writing is highlighted and don't know why the spacing between paragraphs is HUGEEE either. ugh. 


Byee!!


OOh also, I am now blogging my cheap flat cooking recipes for the Otago Daily Times website, so they may or may not appear in full on here. But do check it out if you are in need of some inspiration :)

Slow Cooked Chilli Chicken

Good evening!

This recipe happens to come from my flatmate, Alix's Mum. So full credit of excellence goes to her! It is best served with lots of sour cream and a good sprinkling of fresh coriander. Unfortunately tonight we have no coriander (I think my plant got frozen to death over the holidays) we will just have to make do with extra cheese! (How sad . .)

This dinner was first described to me as 'tinny', as in all you really need is a few tins of this and that and Bam! you have dinner. It takes about 11 mins to assemble and 10 hours on slow in the crockpot or 6 hours on high. I bumped it up to high for the last few hours just to make sure it was done. This can also be made on the stove top, just like you would when making a spag bol or normal chilli. When I made it for my Mum during the holidays on the stove top I used strips of chicken thigh. Chicken thigh is more tender than breast (or leg in tonight's case) and it works well if the cooking time is much shorter. Because we are cooking the chicken for such a long time in the slow cooker it doesn't matter what meat cut you get, since the slow cooking time will melt it straight off the bone. Drumsticks are the cheapest and we only used three (really chunky ones) in this recipe and there was enough to feed 8 (or 6 very (very) hungry males). I froze the left overs to use another night. The original recipe Alix gave me has a packet of Old el Paso taco seasoning in it. I checked the back out and all that is in it is common spices mixed in with a bit of anti-caking agent. So if you want to save money and spend probably an extra 2 minutes of time just use the spices I list below.

Lets do this shall we?

Lets pretend its 9am . .

Slow cooked Chilli Chicken

2 onions, sliced
4-5 cloves garlic, diced
1 tin black beans in chilli sauce
2 tins chopped tomatoes
1 tin whole kernel corn, drained
1 small tin tomato paste
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
A few tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce
1 heaped teaspoons of each of the following: chilli powder, paprika, ground cumin
A sprinkling of cumin seeds (optional)
A sprinkling of dried oregano
OR
an Old el Paso taco seasoning packet
Enough chicken for each person (so a drumstick/thigh per person and one for the pot, three breasts if serving six)

Pop everything in the slow cooker, give it a stir, pop the lid on, turn on either low or high depending on time available then walk away. 6 hours on high or 10 on low. At about 5pm get two forks and pull the meat off the bone and the chunks of meat apart, it should fall right apart. Pop the lid back on and let it cook for another hour more.

Now all there is left to do is wait! (and cook rice later)

All done!

If you want to do this on the stove top, use breast or thigh as it will need to be mostly cooked before the liquids go in.

For the stove top:

Saute the onions and garlic. Slice the same amount of chicken into nice decent sized strips, brown these up in the pan, don't worry about cooking them through, just aim to get a bit of colour on the meat. Sprinkle in your spices and stir the pan contents around to ensure a nice coating. Let the spices cook for a minute or two to help release some of their flavours. Next add the tomatoes, beans, corn, sweet chilli sauce, salt and water. Bring to a simmer and cook for a further 40mins to an hour.

Serve with rice/corn chips/ in tortilla bread with a good dollop of sour cream, cheese and a sprinkling of fresh coriander.

Enjoy!

Be careful of bones!

Pink Ombre Vanilla Cake

Good Monday morning!

I got up rather early this morning. 7am, ok so not that early really but early respective to standard holiday rising times. When I got up it was pouring, no, bucketing with rain. There was even a clap of thunder.

So I proceeded to watch the season 5 finale of Grey's Anatomy. How is it possible to kill off two characters in one episode? or does George come back to life? I hope so. Anyway since I was shocked at such an episode as well as the rain going on in the background I decided to search out a vanilla cake recipe and make an ombre effect with the layers.

I have seen these ombre cakes lurking around Pinterest lately and it wasn't until that I saw a friend of a friends one that I decided to muster up the courage to do one. It was just a matter of when . .

Sweetapolita did this excellent tutorial on a pastel swirl cake that I eyed up whilst sitting in the airport.

Ombre + pastel swirl = an excellent morning activity.

I searched and searched the blogs of iambaker, Sweetapolita and even Whisk-Kid but to no avail. All of Sweetapolita's recipes included copious amounts of egg whites. I don't know about you but I feel guilty leaving 6 or so egg yolks sitting in the fridge. Its not like I am going to make mayonnaise.

Then I pondered whether or not I could turn my vanilla cupcake recipe into a cake. Then it struck me!

Chris bought me the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days book, however it got delivered to his Dunedin address. Chris is in Auckland, not Dunedin so I couldn't search the book. But I could search the internet!

So I googled Hummingbird Bakery vanilla cake recipes and sure enough one popped up. Thank goodness!

I had my recipe. It used three eggs. I could live with that.

Lets do this shall we?


Hummingbird Bakery's Vanilla Cake
(makes three 20cm layers)

360g plain flour
360g caster sugar
120g softened butter
360ml whole milk (1 1/2 cups)
3 eggs
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3 teaspoons vanilla essence
pink food colouring

and for the icing:

500g icing sugar
160g butter, softened
50ml whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
pink food colouring
a drop or two of strawberry essence if you wish :)

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees on bake. Line three 20cm cake tins with baking paper and grease the edges.

Beat the butter and sugar together until evenly distributed. It won't cream so don't worry. Sieve in the flour and baking powder and beat until a fine sandy consistency is reached. Add an egg and half a cup of the milk. Beat until incorporated. Repeat until all the eggs and milk are included. Add the vanilla. Beat until smooth. If it is a good day, the stars are aligned and you are wearing your lucky underwear the batter should fluff up a bit. I obviously wasn't wearing the right undies today. The batter was runny. But that's ok, it will still work.

Here is the fiddly bit.

Tare another large bowl over your kitchen scales (digital is best). Pour and scrape all of your batter into the bowl, weighing the total batter volume. Divide this number (1312g in my case) by three. Then get three separate bowls and weigh out three equal portions of batter (437ish g in my case).

Now its time to colour. Drop by drop, colour the batters until you have a light, medium and dark shade of pink. Once the colour is evenly mixed, pour the batter into each lined tin.

Our oven wasn't big enough for all three so I had to bake two first then the last one.

Bake for 25 minutes (or until the skewer comes out clean). If the tops start browning a little too much, place some tin foil over the top. This will stop the browning but let the cake to continue to cook.

Once out of the oven, leave to cool in the tins before turning out onto a wire cake rack.

Ok you have your cakes. Leave these to cool completely before you even start to think about icing them.

Follow Sweetapolita's tutorial on how to ice this baby all swirly and the like. She has a video which is far better than my mushed holiday brain trying to pump out comprehensible sentences.

Beat all your icing ingredients together until they are super fluffy and smooth. The volume should increase quite substantially. Colour all of the icing the lightest shade of pink. Then crumb coat the whole cake with that colour. Then split the remaining icing into three lots and colour two of the bowls a dark and darker shade of pink.

Yeah best to follow Sweetapolita's instructions for this. I have sugar on the brain.

Pop your crumb coated cake in the fridge for half an hour. This allows you the perfect time to revisit the tutorial video. . .

Start by placing a good dollop of icing on the top. Spread this evenly across the surface, letting excess overhang the sides.

Get the darkest shade and carefully dab it onto the bottom third. Do it one small blob at a time. It does not need to be smooth at this point.

Get your middle shade of pink and repeat the same process in the middle third.

Get a mug full of boiling water and a nice long knife, a palate knife would be best. Hold the knife parallel to the cake side, angling  slightly forward. In one cleanish sweep ,  glide the knife around the cake, turning the cake stand beneath it. The colours should start to blend together.

Dipping the knife in hot water and wiping it each time, smooth the edges of the cake. Be careful not to over work it as you will loose the gradient effect. This sort of cake suits a  rougher finish rather than a totally smooth one.

Anyway once done sprinkle with some sprinkles and some edible glitter. Now I just have to find someone to give this cake to. I will post cross section photos once it has been cut into. Which could be a while yet. The cake is sitting on our coffee table looking a little lonely. . . .

I shall update you as soon as the cake is cut!

TTFN! :)

UPDATE!!

So Jack came home from school and became rather impatient waiting for dessert time. Couldn't let him spoil his dinner now could we?

Dessert time finally came around. . .

Hmm well I think that is more than enough cake for one day :) 

Hmm wait, I think Mum needs a batch of cupcakes made for work tomorrow. 

Date, Walnut and Lemon Syrup Loaf

Good evening all from rainy Auckland!

I am home for the mid year uni holidays. I have been home a week and already I have watched three seasons of Greys Anatomy, baked four batches of cupcakes and two batches of cookies for Mum. I am bored of the basics and in need of something new and exciting. I really want to make a pink ombre pastel cake, that might be tomorrow's activity.

When I get bored at home, I pull out all of Mum's recipe books searching for inspiration and pretty pictures haha.

In today's Sunday Star Times' Sunday insert, there was a feature by Ray McVinnie. In this feature there was a recipe for these date, walnut and lemon syrup loaves. Since I am a fan of McVinnie's work I decided to give them a try. They looked so nicely styled in the photo.

I am so glad I gave them a go. Chris even liked them. The dates made it rich and moist and the sugar syrup goes crunchy on the top. All with a subtle lemony flavour going on in the background. Oh wait and the crunchy walnuts. Don't forget the walnuts!

Ray McVinnie's Date, Walnut and Lemon Syrup Loaf
(from Sunday 24.06.2012)


1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup boiling water
1 cup chopped dried dates
1 egg
1 cup caster sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
zest of 1 lemon
1 cup walnut pieces

Pre-heat the oven to 175 degrees and line a loaf tin with baking paper.

Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water, then add the chopped dates. Let these soak.

Beat the egg and sugar together until thick and a pale yellow colour. Stir in the melted butter. Sieve in the flour and baking powder and add the lemon zest. Fold these in. Stir in the date mixture (including the water) and the walnuts.

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Mix together the juice and zest of 1 large lemon and half a cup of caster sugar and pour this cold mixture over the hot loaf (as in as soon as it comes out of the oven hot).

Once cooled slightly, slice into nice chunky slices and cover in butter :) This is best served still warm and with a cup of tea.

Enjoy!!

Roasted Pumpkin and Garlic Soup

Hello from a frosty Dunedin!

Yesterday (Sunday) was a dreary rainy morning (perfect for studying). It also coincided with the last weekend before exams start. Now dearest Alix is beginning to live at the library (gross) so dinner plans are a bit more fend for yourself than usual. A few weeks ago I bought this massive pumpkin down at the farmers market for $2 and it has been sitting getting hacked away at for various things. So since we (mainly Alix) was in need for nutritious food that wasn't in the form of frozen convenience meals I decided to procrastinate and make pumpkin soup. The funny thing is, is that I don't really like pumpkin soup. Never have. One cup and that will do me for the year. Leek and potato is way better. Anyway, I gave Mum a text and she replied (eventually) with basic instructions for her recipe.

Now this soup is more like add a bit of this and a splash of that. If you like garlic, you add more garlic. If you like curry powder, add more :) In the end I also added a few chopped carrots to bulk and thicken it up a bit.

By roasting your pumpkin first, you get a lovely caramelised flavour developing which just makes it extra tasty (if you like pumpkin soup that is). Also roasting garlic in whole cloves with the pumpkin is awesome. When they come out of the oven you can either peel their skin off or squeeze the gooey garlic pulp out into the soup. You don't get the strong bite of garlic, instead a nice subtle roasted flavour. Mmm mm.


Sophie's Mum's Pumpkin Soup
Makes 13-14 cups

What you will need:

A big stock pot
A food processor, blender or stick blender
A plastic bag

1 large pumpkin
1 bulb of garlic
2 teaspoons curry powder
salt and pepper
10-12 cups chicken stock
40ish grams of butter
2 onions, diced
(2-3 chopped carrots - optional)

Firstly pierce some holes in the top of your pumpkin skin. Place the pumpkin and a small bowl or mug of water in the microwave and microwave on high for about 10 minutes (checking after five or so). This will soften the pumpkin before you chop it, reducing the risk of pre-exam amputation.

Next, chop the pumpkin up into cubes and place in a plastic bag along with a good shake of salt and a good grind of pepper. Splash in some of your best oil, grab the bag around the top and give it a good shake to coat the cubes with oil. Tip the bag contents onto a roasting tray lined with baking paper.

Get your bulb of garlic and split the cloves up and dot them in between the pumpkin pieces.

Bake at 180 degrees for around 40 minutes (more until they are slightly black at the tips and soft in the middle).

Saute your onion and butter in the stock pot until the onion is translucent. Add the curry powder and stir for a minutes to help develop the flavours. Add your pumpkin cubes and squeeze out the garlic into the pot. Stir to coat the pumpkin in the curry powder.

Add your chicken stock and a few thinly chopped carrots (you can roast those too if you want), then leave to simmer for 45ish minutes (I just left mine simmering away while I did some more study.

Once the carrots are cooked through and you think it tastes all right, either use a stick blender, food processor or blender to purée it until the soup is more or less smooth. I personally like my thick soups a little bit chunky.

Pop it back into the pop to heat it up again if you are eating it straight away or leave to cool before transferring into a container. If you are planning on putting it in the fridge or freezer make sure it is completely cool before doing so. Won't take too long in a Dunedin flat kitchen and it prevents you raising the temperature of your fridge (which leads to increased growth rates of pathogens and spoilage organisms such as. . . . sorry micro study haha).

I am a bit of a garlic lover, I added a few more dried garlic granules to pack some more garlicky punch!

Ok, so my pouring was a little messy . .

Water baths cool them down faster

I have all these left over pottles from work which fit a perfect serving size in them. I managed to get 12 pottles plus one mug of soup for me. I cooled them down in a cold water bath in the sink then froze them. That way when we need a quickie dinner we can just pop one from the freezer into the microwave and bam! 5 minutes to a healthier dinner.


Happy studying! (with soup!)

A Carrot Cake for Jamal

Good Sunday morning to you all!

Being the baked good enthusiast that I am, I am always looking for a good excuse to bake a cake. It just so happened that it was dear Jamal's birthday yesterday which was more than enough excuse to bake a carrot cake upon request.

The recipe I used is my Mum's recipe. She got it from one of her old books in her cupboard above the fridge. Since I don't have access to that cupboard right now (slight geographical hurdle) I can't confirm which book. Anyway it is a rather good recipe. Stays moist (yes I said it, moooiistt) for days and days (if it even lasts that long). The best bit about it is that it gives you the excuse to smother it in cream cheese icing. Om nom nom. One of Mum's secret tricks is to put chopped prunes in the cake. Prunes! They are surprisingly good in this cake as it makes it lovely and moist (moooissttt). Another thing she does is she always makes a 1.5x recipe. So that the cake is nice and tall in her 25cm tin. Haha and wait there is a third thing! Crushed pineapple. This ups the moisture content and provides a lovely fruity texture.

So here we go,

Sophie's Mum's Delicious Carrot Cake
(this is the single recipe - if you want a bigger cake just multiply quantities by 1.5)
ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole meal flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cups oil
2 eggs
1 cup grated carrot (about 2 carrots)
1/2 cup crushed pineapple with juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
about half a cup of chopped prunes and/or dried apricots

1x25cm cake tin or 2x 20cm cake tins lined and greased
two sheets of tin foil to place over the top of the tins


Method:

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, grated carrot and dried fruit. Mix until evenly distributed.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, eggs, vanilla and pineapple (and its juice) until evenly combined.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir until combined. Try not to over mix as we don't want the cake getting tough. Just make sure there are no pockets of dry ingredients lying around.

Pour into your tin(s). Now if you made two small cakes bake for 45 minutes (check at 40 minutes though). For one large cake it takes around 1 hour 10 minutes but check at an hour just to be sure as all ovens are different. If you notice your cakes going a bit too brown on top place the tin foil over the tin. This will stop the browning but not the cooking.

Let the cakes cool down before popping out of their tins. Leave to cool completely before icing (overnight in a chilly Dunedin flat works well).

Could we count this as a healthy cake? fibre, carrots, fruits! haha

Now for the icing, I doubled the recipe here as I wanted to put icing between the cakes and down the sides, If you want to cut calories (haha like you would want to) just do a single recipe and just ice the top. This recipe is from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.

300g icing sugar, sifted
50 unsalted butter, softened
125g cream cheese, cold

Beat the icing sugar and butter together with an electric hand beater or free standing mixer until well incorporated and semi fluffy. Add cubes of cream cheese one at a time, beating until well incorporated. Once all the cream cheese is added, beat on high for a few minutes until the icing becomes nice and fluffy. Do not over beat as the icing can become runny (I can give you a nice long explanation as to why that happens if you want). Add a teaspoon of vanilla if you wish.

Sweet, now apply that to your cold cake(s).

I recommend checking out Kaitlin over at Whisk Kid to learn how to ice a cake properly. She will teach you how to crumb coat which is essential when using a light coloured icing (ie anything other than chocolate). What is a crumb coat you ask? Go and see for yourself haha.

I even added sparkles

Well I do believe this cake turned out quite nicely. I hope it tasted all right haha.Carrying it on a plate all the way to Jamal's flat was the host terrifying ordeal. I was more nervous that public speaking and sitting an exam combined! It got there in one piece and damage-free thankfully. I did get some funny looks though as I walked down the main streets of Dunedin.

Time for some food chemistry I do believe, hmm or maybe just food . .

See you later!

Pineapple (and a wee bit of Coconut) Cupcakes

Hello all!

Now this adventure all began with my food innovation class. Wait no it didn't, it started with me gazing at the gourmet food isle at New World for City Centre 40 minutes one Friday night (yes that is how raving my life is).

During this awe struck state I came across these packets of freeze dried fruit powders. Now this made me really quite excited as I had heard before that some cupcake shops use fruit powders to flavour their cupcakes. Now each packet was $8.99 for 40g, a bit pricey for me at the time. Fast forward to our ice cream making lab and were were in a flavour dilemma. Then it hit me, why not colour and flavour the ice cream with some of the fruit powder I found. So we ended up getting raspberry and pineapple and our raspberry chocolate fudge ice cream was a success. But alas! There was powder left over, so I took on the burden of giving it a home with the promise that I would bring out class cupcakes (which I did haha). The first lot I made were vanilla with a raspberry cream cheese icing. Boy was that icing good. It tasted like yoghurt-berry chupa chups. Ill pop a photo down below of them. I was a bit hesitant about putting the pineapple powder into the cupcake batter due to it's acidity. From this experience I would limit the amount in the batter and just knock people out with super pineappley icing, just to ensure a super fluffy sponge.

Now these powders I found at New World City Centre in Dunedin but I imagine places like Farro and Nosh should have them too. I would be surprised if they didn't. They come in all sorts of flavours, actually here is the link, explore for yourself http://www.fresh-as.com. All made here in New Zealand. Very cool I think.

Once again I took a Hummingbird Bakery Recipe for vanilla cupcakes but swapped the vanilla for a tablespoon of the pineapple powder. If you didn't have pineapple powder, hmm perhaps if you get a tin of pineapple in full syrup, drain a small amount of syrup into a sauce pan then boil it until it becomes a thicker syrup then add a tablespoon of that? I imagine that would work. Same with the icing, heat some of the juice up and add the hot juice instead of water when mixing your simple buttercream icing. Yeah that would definitely work.


Slightly altered Hummingbird Vanilla Pineapple Cupcakes

makes 12

40g softened butter
140g caster sugar
120g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon of pineapple powder (or pineapple syrup)
1 egg
1/2 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line a muffin tray with 12 cases.

Beat the sugar and butter together. They won't cream but the mixture should lighten in colour. Beat until the sugar is evenly distributed and there are no lumps of butter. Sieve in the flour, baking powder and pineapple powder. Beat until a sandy consistency is achieved. Whisk the egg into the milk, pour half of it into the dry mixture. Beat until smooth then add the rest and continue to beat. Add in the syrup if needed. Beat until smooth. Spoon into cases until they are two thirds full. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden on top and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Once completely (!!!) cool ice them with a simple butter-icing sugar-hot water buttercream. Add a few tablespoons of the pineapple powder or replace the water with hot pineapple syrup. Sprinkle on some desiccated  or threaded coconut and serve.

I piped the icing on these with a Wilton 1M tip. I piped starting from the outside, swirling in and over. Here is the tutorial that taught me how to swirl and do roses :)

and here are the raspberry ones

Don't they look delicious?

Any of the fruit powders could be substituted for pineapple, the raspberry I know works excellently.

I hope this encourages you to venture down the gourmet aisle and look a little bit more closely at all the wonders that lie there! :)

See you later!

ANZAC Biscuits

Good ANZAC day morning to you,

On this day of remembrance where we have all been up since 5am at dawn services, by the time 10am comes around we are all quite keen for a nice big cup of tea and an ANZAC bickie.

Now these biscuits were sent to soldiers on the front line by the women back home during World War 1. They were sent because due to the high sugar content acting as a preservative. However they contain a high amount of butter which went rancid by the time they got to their men. So yes they were safe to eat but not so tasty after a couple of months of postage. However there is no chance of even seeing how long these ones will last in the pantry for as I know for a fact that Alix and Lucy shall gobble them up before they even have time to make a cup of tea to go with them.

Now my Mum says I am the better biscuit maker between her and I. I however disagree, ANZAC biscuits are the one biscuit that seems to fall apart on me. Mum's are far better, they are big, fat and chewy. Maybe perhaps because I eat half the mixture before it can even make it to a ball on the baking tray. Anyway I use the Edmonds Cookbook recipe but use 120g of butter rather than 100g. It makes them more moist and less likely to fall apart.

Edmonds Cookery Book ANZAC biscuits (modified slightly)

Makes 12

120g butter
1 tablespoon golden syrup
125g flour
150g sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup desiccated or threaded coconut (threaded looks a bit fancier for those looking to impress)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 tablespoons boiling water


Method:

Preheat the oven to bake at 180 degrees.

In a saucepan, melt together the butter and golden syrup.

Sieve your flour, mix together with your sugar, coconut and oats.

In a small bowl (a mug or a small measuring cup will do) mix together your baking soda and just boiled water. Quickly add this to the hot butter and golden syrup mixture in the saucepan, stirring as you add. It will foam up.

Once the butter has foamed up all it can, pour this into the dry ingredients. Stir to combine with a spoon.

Roll ping pong ball sized balls of mixture and place onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Flatten the balls gently with a fork.

Bake at 180 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown. You may find the back row brown faster than the front row due to your oven. If this is the case just turn your tray around halfway though.

Leave to cool once out of the oven so that they firm up.

Make yourself a cup of tea an enjoy!

Have a good day!

Butter Chicken on Spiced Rice

Good evening all!

I know this post isn't about cake, but . . .

Last night I was fortunate enough to be invited to a cooking demonstration by Ray McVinnie (one of the judges from Master Chef, amongst other things) (he did the cooking, not I was invited by him). It was amazing. He believes in good, fresh simple food (with no additive nonsense as he pointed out to me haha) and drawing inspiration from older societies which have had long histories of good food made from few ingredients. Now all I have to do is somehow source a rack of lamb for my flat  . . .

Mix this inspiration with my re-visited obsession for World Kitchen and we have a need to a) travel and b) try making some (semi) authentic cuisine. I decided to try out Nici Wickes's Delhi  Style Butter Chicken. From scratch I must say. None of this canned and bottled rubbish (much to the horror of some people in my food class - you know who you are :) )

Overall I think it was a success, although not as SPECTACULAR as my Mum's one (which is epic and hard to beat I must say).

The initial expenditure for all the spices can be a bit pricey but well worth it. Remember, you can get more than one use out of each one. Once you are set up, it is a relatively cheap meal to cook.

Nici Wicke's Delhi Style Butter Chicken slightly ammended

Serves 4

3 diced chicken thighs or breasts (chunky is good)

Marinade:
5 cloves of garlic, diced
2cm ginger, grated
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 heaped teaspoon ground coriander
1 heaped teaspoon cumin
1 heaped teaspoon turmeric
1 heaped teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons (or a good squeeze) of lemon or lime juice
1 cup of natural yoghurt (they come in small 150g pottles which is ideal)
2 tablespoons of cooking oil

Mahkani Sauce:
2 tablespoons of butter
3 cloves of garlic, diced
1 cm ginger, grated
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 cardamom pop, split and crushed (with a cooks knife, flatten them - this should split them open then just throw this opened pod into the sauce)
800g crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon (or squeeze) of lemon juice
25 g unsalted butter
100ml cream (I used reduced fat)
Fresh coriander to garnish


Method:

In a plastic container or bowl, mix your marinade ingredients together. Mix through the chicken and leave to sit in the fridge. This can be done the morning or night before for extra flavour. Once it is time to cook the chicken, turn your oven onto a high grill, place chicken pieces in a greased oven dish and grill until the pieces are browning on the outside (this is to imitate the tandoor). Once one side it nice and done, flip the pieces over and repeat on the other side. Once both have been done, remove from the oven.

For the sauce, melt the butter in a deep dished saucepan, add your garlic and ginger and cook for a few minutes. Then add your spices and cardamom pod. Cook for a minute or two then add your lemon juice and tomatoes. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add your cooked chicken pieces. Stir in the cream and butter and then season to taste. Serve this atop basmati rice with a sprig of fresh coriander and you are ready to roll!

Mix your marinade ingredients together

 Place along with your diced chicken inside a snap lock bag. Pop into the fridge for 15 minutes or overnight

 For the sauce, fry your garlic and ginger in the butter

 Add your spices and cook for a few minutes to activate them

 Add 800g of tomatoes

 Place your chicken in an oven dish and grill on high until browned (10 or so minutes)

 Once cooked, stir into the sauce. Then add the cream and rest of the butter.

 I rinsed my marinade bag out with the cream, as to include all that spicy goodness.

and one more knob of butter for luck!

Or . .

If you are feeling a bit more adventurous, while your sauce is simmering, make up this tasty spiced rice.


Spiced Rice with Dried Fruit (according to Mum on the phone who was reading from the Ripe Deli Cookbook) and off the top of my head again.

50g butter
2 onions, diced
1 tablespoon cumin seeds (or just less than a tablespoon of ground cumin)
1 cinnamon quill (or 1 teaspoon of cinnamon)
4 cardamom pods, split and crushed as above
1 cup of dried fruit (sultanas, raisins, diced dried apricots, diced prunes, whatever really)
1 1/2 cups basmati rice
3 and a bit cups of water

In a saucepan, saute and soft the onions in the butter. Do not brown them. We don't want the caramelised flavour in this. Add your cumin seeds and cinnamon quill (or ground cinnamon), cardamom pods and fruit, stir and cook for a minute or two. Add the rice. Stir for 2 minutes to make sure it is nice and coated with butter. Add the water, bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer. Leave to simmer for 10 minutes (stirring occasionally) then pop the lid on, remove from heat and leave to sit for 15 minutes. This should work, if not then pop the rice in a microwaveable container, add a splash more water and microwave on high for another 3 minutes or so. Hmm not very specific I know. Just as long as the rice isn't crunchy! :) Once nice and done, serve underneath (or along side) your delicious butter chicken and devour like the hungry students that you are.

Cook the spiced rice in a pot

Excellent!

I hope you enjoy

We sure did!

Cinnamon Pinwheel Scones/ Chelsea Buns

Good afternoon! 

Isn't it a lovely day today? I feel as though I have wasted it by being inside and cleaning the kitchen and making scones. Oh well it is only 2pm! Many more hours in the day to come!

So for a few weeks now I have been saying to myself that I will make some of my Mum's pinwheel scones. I finally got off my bum and bought some cream and lemonade and got down to it.

The Edmonds Cookbook calls these Chelsea buns. Actually so does my Mum. When someone says Chelsea bun, I think of bread based and covered in pink icing . . I am so confused.

These are super easy. The scones most people are used to are ones with butter as the fat source. We used to make those then one day Mum tried making this recipe and she has never turned back. They are just so much easier.

All you will need is:

4 cups of self raising flour (or 4 cups of standard flour with 8 teaspoons of baking powder)

1 cup (approx) of cream

1 cup (approx) of lemonade

30g melted butter

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Method (makes 16 ish):

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees on bake.

Sieve your flour into a large bowl.

In a separate container, pour in half a cup of cream and half a cup of lemonade to begin with.

Make a well in the flour, then pour in the liquids.

Mix with a knife or spoon and keep gradually adding equal parts of lemonade and cream until you have a nice dough that is not too sticky but not too dry either.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface into a large rectangle.

Brush the melted butter over the whole rectangle either with a pastry brush or your fingers.

Sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon over all the dough.

Roll the dough up like a giant sushi roll.

Using a sharp knife, slice the roll into slices 2cm thick (mine were thinner than that - whoops).

Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Using your fingers, pat some milk over the top of each pinwheel. This keeps them moist but also makes them colour up nicely on the top.

Bake at 220 degrees for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and leave to cool on a cooling rack.

Once completely cool, make up a simple white icing. Use about a cup of icing sugar, 10g of butter, teaspoon of vanilla and enough hot water to make it reasonably runny.

Put a dollop of icing over each scone. Or you could trail it over to make stripes. Up to you.

Pull the scones apart and enjoy!


A few tips on scones:

-Don't over handle the dough. Probably something to do with over working the glutent. Mum just told me -not to do it, so I don't.
-Mix with a knife (again Mum said so, so it must be true)
-When making normal scones (ie date, sultana, cheese etc), place them close together on the baking tray so that they rise upwards rather than outwards.
-Sieve sieve sieve!

We didn't exactly have a conventional rolling pin handy. . . .

(This is just to show you how big the rectangle was in relation to my hand)

There you have it!

So, next time it is a dreary Dunedin day, whip up these scones, they are sure to brighten things up!