pecan nut shortbread... memories from my granny

These are my favourite biscuits ever!  Not only are they a delicious short bread with a dusting of icing sugar for sweetness and pecan nut for crunch, but they are also the biscuits my granny used to make for me when I went to spend holidays with her on her farm.  I remember the old biscuit tin they were kept in, drinking sweet hot tea out of my "small" Spode teacup, the cool feeling of slate underfoot and the smell of hot, dry, dusty highveld air.  Treasured memories of the place I most loved being when I was small.

Recently I made them with Miss J for the first time, you can see her "helping" me with the butter.  It is a great recipe to make with children because the dough is rolled into little balls, perfect for little hands.  To make you own follow the simple recipe below, and enjoy.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of plain flour
• 250g butter - softened to room temperature
• teaspoon of vanilla essence
• 1 packet (80g) pecan nuts - broken into pieces
• 4 heaped tablespoons of icing sugar
• icing sugar for dusting (around 2 cups in all)

To make:

• Cream butter and sugar until well blended 
• Add vanilla essence & blend
• Add flour and mix until a rough dough forms
• I do all the steps above in my food processor
• Add the pecan nuts and mix the dough gently until all flour is blended.  Be gentle, this dough doesn't like to be overworked.
• Roll into bite size balls.
• Place in an oven preheated to 200C and bake until they are golden but not brown - around 20 minutes.  
• Allow to cool
• Once totally cool roll in icing sugar and store in a well sealed jar or tin

Now simply enjoy with your tea or coffee.  Mmm mmm

Found the lovely birdie cookie jar at my favourite $2 shop.  I am going to take it to the cottage on our farm to store holiday biscuits for my own children, hopefully creating the holiday biscuit memories all over again.

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brie with almond & date caramelised sugar

An impressive looking cheese plate that takes minutes to make.  If melty brie with the crunch of caramelised sugar, salty almonds and sweet dates sounds good to you, you are going to love this dish.  I was planning to take some half eaten shots but the cheese was polished off so quickly I never had the chance.  Skip down to see the easy instructions for making your own.

Make it yourself:

• Place the cheese on the serving dish.
• Chop toasted almonds and dates and arrange on the cheese (see below).
• Place a few whole almonds and nuts around the cheese.

• Place half a cup of caster sugar in a clean dry pan and turn heat on.
• Watch carefully as sugar melts, do not stir or sugar sticks. 
• The sugar caramelises from pale to deep brown quite quickly.  Don't walk away while this is happening or the sugar will burn.
• Once the sugar has achieved a deep brown colour remove from heat and pour over the cheese (below).

Sugar will cool to a hard crust.  If you live in a humid environment the sugar will sweat so only pour on shortly before serving.

Sure to please cheese lovers of all ages.  
I like to serve with a few grapes or juicy blue berries.  Enjoy!

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coconut & lime chia dessert...by LUSH loves

This delish dessert comes to you with the permission of Gemma Lush from Lush Loves.
I followed a pin of one of these gorgeous photo's to her recipe and its my new favourite treat.
Gemma is a good, prop and event stylist and her blog is filled with gorgeous things, mostly deliciously photographed food that will make your mouth water, well with a visit!!
This dessert is amazing, quick to make, super healthy, gluten, dairy and processed sugar free, and delicious!!!  If you make one new dish this week make it this one!!

I love chia seeds, we have them in our super seed mix breakfast cereal, but I would never have thought of them for dessert.  What I also didn't know is that most of the worlds chia seeds are grown right here in Australia (thanks Gemma).  I did know that they are a true super food stuffed full of goodness.  So go on, give it a go

INGREDIENTS

1 400ml can organic coconut milk (1 1/2 cups)

2 tbs honey

3 tbs chia seeds (I like to use the black variety, it looks lovely against the white coconut milk)

Juice 1 lime

Handful flaked coconut

HOW IT'S DONE

Pour the coconut milk into a mixing bowl, add the honey and chia seeds.  Stir well to make sure the honey dissolves.  Cover the bowl with glad wrap and place in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours.  The chia seeds will swell up and absorb the coconut milk, turning the milk into a pudding like consistency.  You can leave the pudding overnight, so can be made a day in advance if you're super organised!

Place the coconut flakes on a baking tray and pop them in a low heated oven, at 140 degrees Celsius for approx. 10 minutes or until golden and crisp.  These too can be made ahead, they can be stored in an air tight container until used.

Before serving, give the pudding a stir and add the lime juice.  This will add a lovely tang to the pudding, and will make the texture a little runnier which is how I prefer to eat it.  Make sure you have a taste, you may need to add a little more lime or honey, depending on how sweet you like it.  I find this ration perfect for me.  Spoon the mixture into ramekins or glasses just before you serve.  Top with the coconut flakes and serve chilled.  This will feed 4 comfortably, or 2 if you're feeling a little more indulgent!

Poached salmon, herb & pearl cous-cous salad, tomato and ricotta almond crust tart, omg raw chocolate caramel slice
Recipe and photographs by Gemma Lush.

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Baked raspberry cheesecake

Soft and creamy, with a pretty raspberry swirl, this cheesecake is simple to make, impressively pretty and simply delicious!  Friends and family are going to love you for giving this one a go.

{For the coulis}
220g raspberries (frozen or fresh)
80g caster sugar
Juice of half a lemon (or more to taste)

{For the cheesecake base}
85g shortbread biscuits
55g ground almonds
45g melted butter

{For the filling}
600g cream cheese
185ml sour cream
2 eggs
180g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

{To make the raspberry coulis}

• Cook raspberries, caster sugar and lemon juice on a low heat until sugar is dissolved and berries are soft.
• Allow to cool, then blend and pass through a sieve.
• Simmer juice over a low heat until coulis thickens (around 10 minutes)

{Make the base}

• Whiz shortbread in a food processor until they are a fine crumb.
• Add almonds and melter butter.
• Whiz to combine

• Grease a 20cm spring form tin, making sure to grease all the way up the sides.
• Press biscuit mix firmly into the tin making sure it is spread evenly.
• Chill in fridge while you make the cheese mixture.

{Mixing the filling}

• Whizz cream cheese in food processor until smooth.
• Add sour cream, eggs, caster sugar and vanilla extract and whiz again until smooth.
• Pour cheese mix into base.

Pour a small amount of raspberry coulis over the mix and swirl with a clean knife to give the marbled effect (see below).

Bake at 140 degrees for 1hr to 1hour and 10 minutes until set.
Refrigerate and serve chilled with the coulis.

{Baking tips}

• Don't be alarmed when the cheesecake falls once you have taken it out of the oven.  It will still be light and smooth.
• As the cake falls it pulls away from the sides of the tin, which is why the sides must be well greased.
• Without the coulis  the cheesecake takes about 20 minutes to prepare.
• The coulis takes a little time, around 20 minutes to but could easily be prepared the day before.

Enjoy, and thanks to my lovely friend Helen for this great recipe.

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home made chocolate icecream...no machine required

My granny's home made coffee ice cream was the favourite dessert of my childhood, and remains my favourite ice cream today.  Cooked in a country kitchen decades before the advent of home ice cream machines, you won't believe just how luscious and creamy the results are, or how simple it is to make.  And you read right, you don't need a machine.

Last year I created a Christmas spice version - very yummy - but it never occurred to me to make a chocolate version until a friend suggested it the other day.  I literally flew out the house in my rush to get the ingredients and give it a try.  The results were (even if I say so myself) pretty spectacular.  But don't take my word for it - give it a try yourself!

{Ingredients} Makes around a litre

• 250ml cream
• 1 can condensed milk
• 3 tablespoons of drinking cocoa
• 2 eggs
• 1 packet of Maltesers

{Making the ice cream}  Prep time 20 minutes tops

• Separate eggs and place egg whites in fridge.  There must be no yolk in the whites or they will not stiffen properly.
• Dissolve the cocoa powder in a small amount of boiled water, just enough so that it is all dissolved and there are no lumps.
• Pour cocoa powder and condensed milk into a large mixing bowl and stir until well combined.
• Whip cream in a separate bowl until it forms stiff peaks, don't turn it into butter.
• Fold the cream gently into the condensed milk and cocoa mixture with a whisk.  
• Beat egg whites until they are glossy and forming very stiff peaks.  You should be able to hold the bowl over your head without the egg whites falling out.
• Gently fold the egg whites into the condensed milk and cream mixture.
• Pour into a freezer safe dish or bowl.  I like to use a glass loaf pan, a pie dish is to shallow.
• Drop Maltesers onto the ice cream, let them sink down on their own.
• Refrigerate overnight.

{Top Tips}

• Use a whisk to fold the ingredients together, its the best way to mix the ingredients well without losing the air in the cream and egg whites.
• Clean your beater well between whipping the cream and the egg whites, it needs to be totally clean otherwise the egg whites don't stiffen as well as they should.
• I think Maltesers were the perfect chocolate to add but you could add choc chips or flakes.
• Recipe doubles easily, no matter how much I make it always gets eaten up!

People are always asking me for the original ice cream recipe and I always give it to them.  They are often surprised, thinking I would like to keep it a family secret, but my thinking is that every time it gets passed on it keeps the memory of my Granny Pauline alive.  So make it for your family and friends and raise a spoonful of it in Pauline's memory, enjoy, and please pass it on yourself.

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delicious roasted tomato soup... with feta and basil

This is my favourite soup at the moment, perfect for chilly days and cool nights.  Packed with vitamin C to fight off winter colds and easy to prepare, this is sure to be your family's favourite too.  

Ingredients:
- 1 block feta
- 3kg fresh tomatoes
- 2 large onions
- a handful of thyme, marjoram & basil 
- bunch of Italian parsley
- olive oil & balsamic vinegar

To make:
1 - Peel & chop onions roughly, chop tomatoes into large chunks & place in large roasting dish
2 - Drizzle with a few tablespoons of olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar
3 - Add handful of fresh thyme, marjoram & basil, and season with salt and pepper
4 - Roast in a medium oven (175 C) for a few hours until tomatoes are well cooked and starting to caramelise
5 - Pour tomato mix into a large soup pot and blend with a hand mixer.  I used my All-in-One which was fab as usual.
6 - Season to taste

To serve:
1 - Chop a large bunch of Italian parsley
2 - Crumble a block of feta
3 - Serve feta and parsley in bowls so that people can add to taste.

I always loved tomato soup but the feta and parsley, something I learned from the lovely B (she knows who she is), takes this soup to a new level.

I recently made this soup for a casual dinner with friends and was amazed that all the ingredients, plus a lovely sourdough and a huge bowl of new season strawberries cost less than $30.  Amazing to be able to serve such a delicious meal to six people for $5 a head.  So no excuses, put the ingredients on your shopping list this week, cook and enjoy.  

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milk tart...food memories from childhood

I have wonderful memories of eating this sweetly spiced, biscuity, wobbly treat as a child on my grandmothers farm.  It takes me back to the High Veld heat, the dappled shade of the wisteria in the courtyard, the plink clinking of the ceramic wood chimes in the breeze of the rain window, and the feel of cool polished slate floors on my bare feet.  Treasured memories of her wonderful home and the magical holidays and spent with her.

A milk tart is much like an Australian vanilla slice, an egg custard pie that should be set firm but still have a wobble in the center.  But for me the vanilla slice can never compete with cinnamon flavoured milk tart.  Milk tart is a very traditional South African dessert and every family has its own favourite version of the recipe.  But none of the recipes I tried have lived up to my memories until I discovered this one by Shades of Cinnamon.  I have to admit that I cheated and bought the pastry cases, but any sweet tart pastry will probably work well.  When I have a little more time I will test out the one at Shades of Cinnamon myself and update this post.

Ingredients for milk tart filling:

• 4½ cups milk
• cinnamon stick
• 3 eggs
• 2½ Tablespoons cornflour
• 2½ Tablespoons flour
• 1 cup sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2 large sweet pastry cases

Recipe for milk tart:

• Pour milk into a large pot and add the cinnamon stick.
• Bring milk to the boil slowly, make sure you don't burn the base of the pot and taint the taste.
• Remove from heat and remove cinnamon stick.
• While milk is boiling beat the eggs, then add the flour, cornflour, sugar and salt and mix well.
• Once the milk has boiled pour it into the egg mixture and stir well.
• Pour mixture back into the pot and return to a low heat, stirring continuously until the custard thickens.  You will know its thick enough when you can feel it pulling against your whisk and 
• Add the butter and vanilla and mix well.
• Pour into the pastry cases and chill in the fridge until set.  It should be firm but wobble slightly in the center.
• Sprinkle with cinnamon before serving.  Milk tart is best served chilled straight from the fridge.

This recipe filled two medium pastry cases and 6 muffin size ones, its a lot of custard!  

I thought I had made far to much but it was all gone by the second day!

I am planning to make it again these school holidays, perhaps even teach Miss E, and I hope you get to enjoy some soon too.   The blog may be slow the next few weeks as I spend time with my family, but I will be back in a few weeks with some amazing projects that we are busy completing.

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our biggest morning tea

We had the loveliest Big Morning Tea this morning and I just had to share the star of the show with you all.  A very creative and talented friend made this gorgeous Tea Party cake for us all to share.  Isn't it amazing?  

I am happy to admit when I have been out caked any day of the week, especially when we all get to eat the cakes afterwards.

Details of the gorgeous little girl complete with a bite out of her sandwich, the little doggie with his silver studded collar, jam cakes and tea cups.

I served up my share the love cupcakes and a pink ombre lemon cake with a bircher muesli.  If you want to make your own have a look at my rainbow layer cake secrets when I made Miss J's rainbow layer cake.  Another friend brought an incredible Dutch apple cake which was spiced and sweet and delicious.  It is safe to say none of us went hungry.

Hope you have a morning tea of your own, what could be better than breakfast with friends and raising money for a great cause.  Let me know whats on your menu.

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share the love... 2013 big morning tea

In honour of my Auntie Bar, who lost her battle with cancer a few years ago, I am hosting a Big Morning Tea this year.  Its been a big day of baking, and not much blogging, as I prepare cupcakes and a pink ombre layer cake for tomorrow morning.

I will share the layer cake, and a truly amazing cake a dear friend is making later this week.
For now, remember to hold those dear to you tight today, and our thoughts go to all the people and their families who are fighting this battle right now.  

Please feel free to copy and use my "share the love" cupcake topper if you want to make your own cupcakes to help support this event.

This tea is part of the Cancer Councils Biggest Morning Tea series for 2013 and we will be donating all funds from the morning to the Cancer Council.

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rainbow layer cake secrets

Seriously - you can also be the rainbow cake queen.  If I can ice that thing believe me you can too.  I can bake, a little, Green's cake mix is my fave (oops the secret is out), but icing has always been beyond me.  I was determined to do better for Miss J's 2nd birthday rainbow party and the look on her face made all the effort worth it!!  Scroll down to get the skinny.

You need lots of time but its not difficult - this cake took me all day to complete

The cake
This is the easy part.  All you need is:
- your best sponge cake recipe, or in my case three boxes of Greens Lemon Cake mix
- food colouring
- cake tins with cutter bar (see this one)

You are going to make three cakes.   Split each cake batter in two and add colour.
If you have enough cake tins you can make them all at once.  I only have two so I have to do three batches.

Tips:
- make sure the cake tin is well buttered, you want the layers to come out easily.
- let the layers cool completely before you try and remove them from the tin.
- once cool use a bread knife to trim the top of the cakes so they are reasonably flat.  Mine are always a little rounded in the middle.

The assembly and icing technique
I have always battled with putting the layers together, I needed skewers to stop the layers sliding off each other and my icing always let me down.
This time I followed this icing recipe and assembly technique by Rachael from Made from Scratch.  I used her butter cream icing and her technique and the results were seriously impressive.  One of the nicest icings I have ever made too. 

As Rachael says it is all about patience and allowing each layer to cool and set before you use it.
It seems like a lot of effort but adding a crumb coat layer by layer, and setting in the fridge in between, creates a really sturdy cake and a brilliant base for your icing.  No skewers required!

- I added a little lemon to my icing and left off the poppy seed step.
- for this 6 layer cake I needed two batches of icing, it was a huge cake!

OK rainbow cake queens, have fun and let me know how you go.  The collective oohing and aahing is going to make all your effort worth while.

Images by Eva of Build House Home

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breville all in one...I think its purring

Meeting other bloggers is always fun, meeting them for a great cooking demo followed by delicious morning tea is even better.  This is exactly what Appliances Online organised last Monday when they hosted a morning tea for bloggers with a fabulous cooking demo by the lovely ladies of the Monday Morning Cooking Club (MMCC).  I met some lively bloggers like Caro of Caro & Co, had an eye opening discussion with a blogger who has been a dominatrix (I am not telling who, those who were there will have to guess), ate more chiffon cake than was strictly good for me, and generally had a very good time indeed.  

The ladies from the MMCC put on a fabulous spread with no less than three different chiffon cakes (the orange wins for me), salmon and bagels and other freshly baked goodies from the Appliances Online kitchen.  I will tell you more of the MMCC story another day, community memory and story gathering through food, fascinating and moving.  I would love to cook with them myself some time.

During the demo the MMCC used the Breville All In One.  I was impressed.  The double bladed mixer easily ground fresh almonds into almond meal and made several beautiful looking doughs.  I have an elderly Magi Mix given to me by my granny when I left home.  It is showing it's age (unlike me I hope), it works perfectly but the plastic has become brittle and is cracking in less and less avoidable places.  I also have a drawer full of mandolin and stick mixer bits that I can never find quickly enough.  This gadget made me take notice, it obviously worked well in the demo, does everything my Magi Mix, mandolin and stick mixer can, and afterwards it stacked neatly into the storage stand.  Impressive.  So imagine my delight when we were presented with a All In One to test in our own kitchens, with a copy of the MMCC book to give us inspiration.  If only all Mondays were more like this.

I raced home and spent a happy afternoon musing over recipes and mixer attachments, I had to test it that very day.  Now I know you are expecting some gourmand recipe, but really what I made was mashed potatoes.  I wanted to test the mashing attachment, something I hadn't seen before, and (drum roll) result was mashed potatoes in minutes.  Yummy, creamy, easy!  Next I am planning pesto, I have a giant basil bush in the garden.  Or I might make my granny's pecan nut biscuits, very similar to the kifli the MMCC made for us, I will let you know how it goes.

Thank you again to Appliances Online, they are a great resource for the time poor who know what they want and just want it delivered to their door.
And a reminder to my readers that all opinions are truly my own.  I love testing products but rest assured feed back will always be genuine.

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be my valentine...

I am not a huge fan of Valentine's Day, I like to think that I celebrate loving all members of my family every day and not at the whim of Hallmark.  



But I don't want to be Grinch-like about it so I decided to test these cute valentine sandwiches for the girls lunchboxes.

Very simple to do: 
- cut crusts off 4 pieces of bread and cut center out of 2 pieces with a heart shaped cookie cutter
- butter the large pieces and sprinkle hundreds and thousands onto bread
- complete sandwich with heart piece so colour peeks through
- make mini heart sandwiches with the heart shapes, butter edges and roll in hundreds and thousands

From the trail of sugar crumbs across the veranda and into the garden, and the general stickiness of Miss J's hands I would say they are a success.  One is a sweet surprise hiding in Miss E's lunch box.

I will celebrate having people to love every day, but I guess a little extra sweetness of the 14th Feb can't hurt.

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Tomato passata...summer garden harvest

We arrived home to a glut of tomatoes.  Amazingly they had survive extreme heat and a cyclone of rain and were hanging plumply off the vines, splitting with ripeness.  The Voice of Reason and I stepped into Martha Stewart mode, picked a bucket (and I mean bucket) of the ripest ones and started cooking.  My contribution was a passata to use with mince for lasagna or bolagnese, Miss J's was eating tomatoes like apples straight out the bucket, the VoR experimented with a secret recipe tomato sauce (delicious).  
Both turned out really well but I can only share the passata with you, the sauce is as I said before, secret.  Hopefully you are enjoying the tomato harvest bounty too.

Ingredients:
As many ripe tomatoes as you want to make into passata.
1kg of tomatoes made 1 litre of passata.
A combined handful of rosemary, oreganum, thyme.
10 - 12 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup of olive oil

To make:
Cut tomatoes in half and place in roasting pan with unpeeled garlic cloves and fresh herbs.
Add the remaining ingredients and place pan in a slow oven (160) for an hour, or until tomatoes have softened.
Remove from oven and cool.
Once cool remove garlic skins, they should pop off easily. 
Place tomato mixture in a blender and blend until smooth.  You can pass the passata through a sieve if you want a really fine sauce but I can't be bothered.
Store your delicious passata in sterilised jars or bottles, or freeze, and end enjoy long after summer harvest is over.

We ate the left overs as a thick fragrant tomato soup.
Totally delicious & totally simple, especially when the tomatoes are out of your own garden.

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Kitchen secrets...a future family treasure

I have been experimenting with Blurb the last few days, and really enjoying myself! 
We love cooking and you know how it goes, some recipes quickly become family favourites, sometimes an experiment turns out so well it needs to be written down, and sometimes you discover a new recipe you don't want to forget.  But however many times we make them, even the most favourite favourites sometimes get forgotten as the seasons change and the year passes.  

I decided to make a kitchen notebook to record our current favourites.  Like yellow zucchini, chickpea and watercress salad, mango ice cream, simple lentils, and roast pork belly with pomegranate seeds, mmmm mmm.  But I am leaving spaces for new discoveries and inventions.  
Scattered through the pages are my favourite family photos from the past year.  
Below is the pork belly recipe, which was featured in Snowed In Magazine last year.

I like the idea of making two, giving one to my sister-in-law who also loves to cook, and then swapping our notebooks in 2 years time.  A cute way to recipe swap.

This little munchkin is me, with my uncle's horse Gonzales.  I added some old pictures for fun, the girls think its very funny to see us small.  On the right is the note design I chose.

I am a first time Blurb user and I am impressed.  The templates are well designed, there are lots of options for text, note pages, picture or combination layouts.  Its easy to import photos and lay them out.  And I really like being able to format the page layout to my exact specifications, and save that layout so I can use it again.  It cost me approximately $50 a copy, not super cheap, but for a personalised extra special family treasure of the future its worth it.

Thanks Blurb for the opportunity, Blurb generously gave delegates to Alt Summit SLC a voucher to give their system a test drive.  I can't wait to start using it.

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don't you love...homemade christmas icecream

Three bowls - no ice cream machine required.  The best homemade ice cream you ever tasted - I guarantee it!  This is an old favourite, a recipe that I loved as a child when my granny made it.  

I believe in sharing recipes, especially special ones.  That's the way they live on after all.  Every time you make it, my granny's memory lives on in your kitchen.  Isn't that great!

So I share it gladly and hope you and your family enjoy it, if you do - pass it on.  This year I have revamped the original coffee flavour with Christmas inspired flavours, but if you want, I will pass on the original coffee recipe too.

Bowl 1:  
- 600ml cream
- stick of cinnamon
- 5 cloves
- 5 cardamom seeds
- ground all spice 
- ground cinnamon 

Pour half cream and whole spices into a pot.  
Add a few healthy shakes of both ground spices. 
Infuse the flavours by heating cream without boiling for about 20 minutes.

Cool in pot and then chill in fridge before beginning the rest of the recipe.

When completely cooled mix spiced and unspiced cream.  Whip until it forms soft peaks.  


Bowl 2:
- 2 tins condensed milk
- ground all spice 
- ground cinnamon
- vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons of rum or whiskey (30 ml)

Mix condensed milk, a few shakes of the ground spices, rum and vanilla.  
Stir until well combined.

Now fold whipped cream into the condensed milk mixture.  Fold gently, a whisk lets you combine well without taking out the lightness.








Bowl 3:
- 2 separated egg whites

Separating the egg whites is the most important step in the recipe.  If the yolks break just start over or the whites will not whip.

Whip the egg whites until they are glossy and make firm peaks.  The consistency is right when you can hold the bowl upside down over your head without getting egg on your face. (ha ha) 










Fold the whipped egg whites gently into the cream and condensed milk mixture.  
Don't over stir, stop when everything is mixed through.

Pour immediately into a freezer container, place in freezer over night.
When you wake up you will have silky ice cream, enjoy.














We will be having this recipe for our Christmas lunch, my beloved granny will be there at the table with us in memory.
Let me know what you think.  And please share your memory recipes with me too.

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