boy food

Was talking to Pete about his boy who is doing Farming Internship. Up at 4.30 am, solid day of hard physical stuff, sports all evening, and fed large mountains of good plain food throughout day. Boy, not surprisingly, completely knackered but also content.

Is strong similarity between farming college and military training. Strategy appears simple - keep em busy and exhausted, so no energy for fighting, shagging or arguing. Is excellent plan to my mind, as by some miraculous feat, boys also suddenly able to make own beds and fold clothes instead of sleeping in squalor and dumping on "floordrobe".

Strategy succeeds or fails on food. Hungry tired boys are dangerous species, capable of great evil. So food is stuff my mum refered to as "Boy Food", meat and spuds, meat and pastry, meat and gravy...As was only my sister and myself , boy food was reserved for boyfriends, builders and brothers in law. But we also loved simple filling Old School type meals.
Meat and eggs are great muscle building protien, with high satiety factor - protein makes us feel full. Starchy carbs are all about energy, also comforting and cheap!Unless you are v. active boy, keep serving to size of fist.

As we are not on farm and don't have military budget, but have high energy boys to feed, is necessary to choose carefully, or teenager taming comes at great financial cost. One of cheapest and leanest meat cuts is brisket or Corned Beef. Is great boy food, wonderful with mashed spuds. Also good in sandwiches with relish or chutney it is underrated "old school" food, easy inexpensive and simple.

Slow cooker corned beef

The slow cooker is invaluable when you are out all day, corned beef is tasty however you cook it so is less likely to be bland than many other slow cooked meat meals.

1 piece of corned silverside- whatever size best suits your household, adjust cooking time according to the weight
1 onion, sliced
2 carrots, sliced lengthways- can include other veg if you wish but may get a bit soft
1 bay leaf
1 cup ginger ale
zest and juice of an orange
6 whole cloves
1 teaspoon black peppercorns

Place the meat into the crock pot, add the spices and vegetables, juice and ginger ale. Cover and cook on low 7-9 hours or according to the manufacturer’s recommendations for meat by weight.
Remove the meat from the liquid and allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.
Serve with mashed spuds, green veg and a good chutney or relish.

Classic Corned beef

Corned beef, silverside or corned brisket – whatever you call it this is a lean cut of meat with a salty flavour. Serve hot with veg or cold in slices. Make sure you allow plenty of time as it needs to simmer for an hour or more.
I piece of corned beef – whatever size best suits your household, adjust cooking time according to the weight
1 onion peeled but left whole
a few 3-4 whole cloves
6 peppercorns
1 tbsp brown sugar or golden syrup
1 tbsp malt vinegar
Cold water to cover
Place the meat into a large saucepan, add the spices and cover with water. Stir in the sugar or syrup and the vinegar and bring to the boil. Simmer the meat allowing 25 minutes per 500g.
Remove the meat from the water and allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.
Serve with mashed spuds, green veg and a good chutney or relish.

our daily bread

My nephew El once ate his toast into shape of lion, roared at himself with it, then was too frightened to eat it. He is funny boy, but I am thinking is not bad idea to give toast a miss for a while as is getting scarily expensive to have bread from shops.

Have watched price of basic wholegrain sliced loaf increase from $1.99 to over $3.00 over last couple of years and set to rise higher after disastrous year in Queensland.

Bought some extra flour before price goes up, but as loaded cupboard with 5 kg bags felt like crazy US apocalypse fanatic from mountain compound. Type who hoard food, have eleven wives, most of them cousins, big beards (even the wives) and large cache of semi automatic weapons! Had to apply copious lip gloss and mascara to counteract effect of hoarding as felt self slipping into serious checked shirt territory.

When kids were little I made all our bread by hand as were too poor to buy nice bread and am bread snob - cant abide pappy bread even if very cheap. As never owned bread making thingy have done this always by hand. Bread repertoire now increased to include many treat type breads and scrolls, loaves and buns, but standout breakfast fave these days is toasted homemade English muffins.
Was camping a week or so back at annual Parachute music festival, no cooking facilities except camping burner and 4-5 teenagers to feed. Toasted English muffins were ideal brekkie for all of us. 2 batches made roughly 26+ muffins for less than $5 bucks.

Since developing recipe, price of milk also soared, so if wanting to make without using pricey fresh milk either substitute with milk from powder, or I used 1/4 cup condensed milk. Made up balance with water, didn't need to add sugar as condensed milk V. sweet.
Left me with 3/4 can condensed milk - perfect amount for chocolate caramellow brownie which also went down well with young-uns. Saving on basics means treats still possible too.


English muffins

My family all like English muffins as a quick breakfast or snack, but boy they’re expensive to buy for such a simple thing! These homemade ones are lovely and easy enough for a novice baker.

4 ¼ cups plain flour
1 sachet instant yeast
½ tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 cups warm milk or milk from powder or 1/4 condensed milk + 1 1/4 cups water-omit sugar
1 egg beaten
50 g butter

Dust 2 oven trays with flour
In a large bowl combine the instant yeast, sugar, flour and salt.
In a small pan, melt the butter then add the milk and heat gently. The liquid should be warm but not hot. If you are not sure, hold your little finger in it and count to 10. If it’s uncomfortably hot by the time you get to 10 allow it to cool a little, if it doesn’t feel warm at all, heat it up.
Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the egg and the butter and milk mixture. Use a large metal spoon to mix to a soft dough.
Knead lightly for 2 minutes then place into a large greased bowl and allow to rise. Either by z9i setting aside in a warm place until doubled or by using the microwave method.
Pre heat the oven to 190°
When the dough has doubled in size knead it lightly and roll on a floured bench to 1 cm thickness. Cut into circles using a large cutter (I use my favourite “tuna tin” cutter to make 10cm circles). Re roll the trimmings and you should end up with 15 muffins. Place on floured trays and rest for 10 minutes.
Bake them for 7 minutes then turn them over and bake a further 7 minutes, until lightly golden.
To serve split muffins in half and toast lightly, top with jam, honey, ham or whatever else you fancy.

Cook’s Tip: If you are planning on freezing the muffins, split them first, they’ll defrost quicker.

For spicy fruit muffins

Add to the dry ingredients
2 tsp allspice
2 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp mixed spice
½ cup sultanas soaked in boiling water for a few minutes to plump them up

Or develop your own spicy fruit blend

Am in the horrors as seem to have haemorrhaged money for the last 5 or so weeks. If result was lovely tan from lying beside infinity edge pool in 5 star resort and sipping expensive cocktails with little umbrellas out of a coconut, wouldn't be so bad. But reality was modest family Christmas then 7 days camping in tent by beach!

Camp kitchen well equipped with fridges, freezers and great big stoves. Most campers are longtime regulars, A result is certain routines evolve in kitchen as campers begin to prepare evening repast. cheeses are opened and sampled, one day blue cheeses, another goat cheeses, another creamy rind cheeses... wine is uncorked, serious cooking takes place.
Young people armed with dried noodles and canned stew have new foods and flavours thrust upon them and hush falls as "the engineers" 3 regulars, prepare for camp kitchen annual Master chef challenge - this year is curry competition.
Big mike is going for South African Vibe (big Mike also brought block of fresh yeast - kindly shared with me, a deep fat fryer - yup took it camping, he is BIG for a reason, and blender- for making cocktails naturally) other guys are doing Thai and North Indian curries. Smells are amazing - no premixes here - fresh ginger, chilli's, coriander and cumin seeds...Self makes fresh berry tart (went berry picking), my pudding looks so show stoppingly gorgeous cannot avoid being drawn into discussions, tastings etc. Berry tart was a hit with our lot, all curries were a sensation and budget took a hammering. We ate in one week 3 times normal grocery budget.
This type of free form tart is easy to assemble and works with all manner of sweet fruit fillings.


1 quantity of sweet shortcrust pastry, same one as I use for mince pies etc - a pile of berries and a few good handfuls of sugar. Roll out the dough on greased baking sheet, pile berries on - thin layer for big tart or in a heap for smallish one like mine. Sprinkle liberally with sugar (to sweeten and form a syrup with juices while cooking) press sides up around tart, brush crust with egg white and sprinkle on some more sugar. Bake @180 till golden. Mmmmm

Retro baking - Rock cakes rock

Rock cakes

One of the first things I baked as a child – some people call them “childrens cakes” because they are so easy and quick to make, they are ideal for impatient eager young bakiers. Rock cakes are a bit like a fruity sweet scone – excellent with a cup of tea or a glass of milk.

1 cup of plain flour
1 heaped tsp baking powder
50 g butter or olivani
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup currants
¼ cup sultanas – or a tablespoon of candied mixed peel
1 egg – lightly beaten
a pinch of mixed spice
a splash of milk -1-2 tbsp should be enough
Pre heat the oven to 200°

Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs or stir in the sugar, baking powder, spice and dried fruit. Mix in the egg and just enough milk to make the mixture moist enough to clump together. You can make rock cakes in the food processor, pulsing the mixture to as not to over- mix it and pulverize the fruit .
Place mounds of mixture onto a cold greased baking tray – this quantity makes approximately 8 Rock cakes but you can easily double it.
Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until turning golden.

Slow learner

Had another go at slowcooking. Bought big piece of corned beef from butcher who actually makes it by soaking in Brine - Old School style.
Read facebook posts and determined to cook mine in gingerale, with juice and zest of 1/2 an orange, a bay leaf , and large pieces of kumara, swede and carrot around outside.
5 hours on high - beef is cooked. Tastes just the same as if I'd boiled it. Veges are soggy and v. Salty. Served with brocoli and saute potatoes.
Will not bother doing again unless have to go out in early evening and cant cook in usual manner as was no noticable advantage to doing it slow.
Personally couldn't use slow cooker for dinner everyday as am crying out for some scrunch and crunch on my plate after only 2 days. Is like eating toddler food -would have been good when tooth was sore though.

Will continue to experiment but am just not liking the textures and missing smell of sauteed onion and garlic and sizzling meat, crispy edges, and crunchy toppings.

Slow cooking for un believers

Am trying to unlock the mysteries of the slow cooker. So many people passionately defending them, I must be missing something. Am not food snob, so will try to get over myself and give slow cooker a workout.
Bought house brand size 16 chook on special in big yellow supermarket. Made homemade BBQ sauce - not too much liquid as advised by- well everyone.

Used 1/3 cup tomato sauce, 1 tbsp white vinegar, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce 2 tbsp brown sugar and 1 tbsp apricot jam - Yup made it up as I went along, was tangy and tasty.
Browned whole chook in frying pan then put in slow cooker, slathered on sauce and cooked on high about 5 hours. house smelt like rest home on muggy day - one of the things I most dislike about slow cooking, steamy, damp nappy smell.

Chicken was cooked and tender without disintegrating - so was happy, (have had chicken just fall bits in slow cooker - not tender, overcooked).
Feeling encouraged, scooped out sauce - which had multiplied substantially, skimmed the fat and thickened with cornflour, poured over chicken and mash and happily ate.
Did not taste blurry or bland.

Next time I will not brown chicken first, instead will try removing breast skin, so less fat, and sauce can permeate meat (I hope). Will also try adding some veg. overall a good result from an unbeliever.

Have detected a worrying tightness around waistband of jeans. Concluded that diet high in cake is not entirely to blame as is actually genetic fault. Am simply to short for my appetite. If had legs several centremetres longer and a waist, would be able to spread the load over a greater area of mass. As it is, am still waiting to grow legs!
Also think fibres of denim contract when not in frequent use - has been too hot for jeans so havent worn them for months. I am sure this phenomena is not unique to my jeans. Anyone else have similar experience?
I will research it on google while enjoying my morning coffee break - Flat White and White chocolate and macadamia brownie.

White chocolate and Macadamia brownie

This slice is luxurious yet super easy to make. Macadamias give it an engaging scrunch, and the finished brownie has the delectable fudgey-ness of a traditional brownie with creamy white chocolate instead. It’s a natural partner for raspberry coulis, great coffee and company.

225g butter or margarine
220g good quality white chocolate – I use a whole tablet of Cadbury Dream
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1¼ tsp vanilla essence
2 cups plain flour
½ cup coarsely chopped raw macadamia nuts

Pre heat the oven to 180°
Line a Swiss roll or slice tin with non stick baking paper.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over a low heat , when melted add the sugar and stir well, then remove from heat and add the white chocolate, broken into pieces.
Stir the mixture until the chocolate is completely melted, it may have a curdled appearance at this stage, don’t despair.
Mix in the eggs one at a time and stir in the flour, vanilla and the chopped nuts. Pour into a well-greased and lined sponge roll or slice tin. Bake in a moderate oven at 180°C for 35 minutes.

Cool and cut into 24 fingers. Serve dusted with icing sugar.

D.I.Y or is that D.I. whine?

Ever found that watching TV makes you feel like you have done stuff you haven't?

Like Jeremy Clarkson thinking he could speed round formula one race track, cos he'd done it lots on PlayStation- Twit!.

I had my first experience of wallpapering last week. Was pretty sure I'd be good at it as have watched it being done many times on TV and looks pretty easy on 60 minute makeover.

A week later, every muscle in my back and shoulders is still sore, I'm flaking wall paper paste from my elbows despite numerous showers, and a clump of my hair is lodged in the hinge of the ladder.

We have steep, high sloping ceilings. Is very wobbly at top of ladder and paper sticks to everything except wall, there was complicated pattern to match and ... it wasn't remotely fun. Worse, I'm not nearly as good at it as had assumed I would be. Very disappointing. Feel like suing TV for misrepresentation! If I'd known it would be hard, I'd have got Rich to do it.

Far more satisfying to do something really easy that looks Wow, and that you can eat afterwards, So made banoffee pie, used Dulce de Leche - caramel (see previous blog), a biscuit crust, and whipped cream, sliced banana and grated chocolate on top. So easy, totally yum and looks good too. You can use pastry if you prefer and bake it blind before filling with caramel. I like crumbly -ness of biscuit crust. Will put quantities up later- but any biscuit crust will do.

Dulce de leche

Dulce de leche is rich creamy caramel sauce - boiling an un opened can of condensed milk for 3 hours creates beautiful caramel. It is nicer than the ready made one which always tastes wrong to me.

I think from memory in the slow cooker it took 5 hours on high and 7 on low but not 100% sure from memory. Once cooked you can store un-opened.

Always keep the can covered with water while simmering - to prevent the can from rattling in the water (which can be annoying when you consider that it'll need to be in there for several hours) put a rag under the can.

Ash Wednesday?

Have been away a lot lately. Being away on my own as is a bit lonely but had lovely experience on Saturday when busing around distant city.

Love the bus! so much more fun than driving and so much less terrifying than flying. Also get to talk to interesting people.
Lady sitting next to me on return trip was utterly charming, youngish and somewhat quirky. She kept putting fingers in her mouth. I wondered if like me she had problem tooth so asked. Teeth fine actually, just having a good "poke around". Happy to engage in conversation she asked where I was from. I replied from Auckland, just away for a few days working... New friend was shocked as she could never live in Auckland because of all the snow. I tried to assure her that in my 40 odd years as an Aucklander it has never snowed nor come remotely near it but she was convinced saying "No too much snow, all the time, I couldn't bear it"! Think maybe she had confused Auckland with Alaska??
I learnt many interesting details about her, including fascinating detail about her hair - which she said she could feel growing and was clearly annoying her. (hair was quite short actually). Apparently it grows an inch a night, amazing! She planned to grow it down to her knees. I said was good as wont take long at all at that rate! She plans to use long long hair to tickle a boy she likes. Was really disappointed when conversation had to end at my stop. Every moment was pure delight!
Last night was telling family about bus friend while making dinner and hot cross buns when realised my diary and other paperwork had caught fire from gas hob. Diary was merrily ablaze - a sight that made me surprisingly happy. Also daughters birthday wish list, now burnt down to 1/4 its original length - also a happy sight.
Husband was really cross but kids and I in hysterics, only made him crosser actually and us more hysterical with laughter. Hot cross buns seem even more appropriate. If you look closely you may see ashes in the top of the picture.

Hot Cross Buns (way better than bought ones!)

This recipe makes around 24 great buns. You can use granulated yeast or instant yeast. I made these using 1 ½ sachets instant yeast, mixed into the flour. Then add the warm liquid. If using granulated yeast follow the instructions in the method.

2 cups warm water
¼ cup Condensed Milk
2 tbsp Dried Yeast granules
5 cups Plain flour
3 tsp mixed spice
3 tsp of cinnamon
½ tsp of salt
1 cup currants or raisins or a mixture
½ cup of mixed peel
50 g of softened Butter
2 eggs

Blend the water and condensed milk together and stir or sprinkle on the yeast, set it aside for about 10 minutes, the warm sweet liquid will gently bring the yeast to life, when it is frothy looking it is ready to use. Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl, mix in the dried fruit and peel, then make a hole in the centre. Pour in the yeast mixture along with the softened butter and eggs. Stir until combined then turn out onto a floured bench and knead it lightly. This is a moist dough so add extra flour as you knead until the dough is smooth. Put it in a greased bowl and cover with greased cling film (I spray the inside of a supermarket bag with cooking spray and then pop the bowl in). Leave in a warm place till dough doubles in size this should take around 40 minutes. Punch the dough then give it a quick knead. Divide into 24 portions and roll into balls. Place on a greased oven tray and cover with the greased plastic from before. Leave them for around half an hour or until doubled in size.

To make the crosses
½ cup Plain Flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 tbsp butter
About 3-5 tablespoons of water

Blend the ingredients together; the mixture needs to be soft enough to be piped. If you haven't got a piping bag, put the mixture into a plastic bag, squeeze it down to one corner then snip a tiny bit off the corner of the bag so you can squeeze the mix through the hole making crosses on the top of each bun.
Bake at 200°c degrees for 15 minutes then brush with sugar glaze and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes or until they look cooked.

Sugar Glaze
2 tbsp Sugar dissolved in ¼ cup warm water.

Cupcakes

Carnival Cupcakes

This is a really easy, all in together mixture that makes light golden cakes that are firm enough to decorate, makes a tin full.

1 1/3 cups self-raising flour
A pinch of salt
100gr soft butter
½ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 dessertspoon of lemon juice
Grated zest of lemon
Dash of milk

Pre heat oven to 190°c.
Line mini muffin pans with paper patty cases.
Combine all the main ingredients together in a bowl and beat until absolutely smooth - about 1-2 minutes.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared pans and bake for 15 -20 mins or until well risen and golden.
When cool, combine the glace icing ingredients, using only as much water as you need to make a spreadable icing. Ice the top of each cup cake with icing and decorate as desired.

Decorations
Press a smartie or other coloured sweet into the glace icing.
Sprinkle with hundreds and thousands and silver balls.
Sprinkle with decorator shapes – available in supermarkets and cake decorating shops
Make a thick butter icing, from 175 g icing sugar and 25 g soft butter beaten together, colour and flavour as desired and roll out between two sheets of non stick baking paper, refrigerate till firm then cut out shapes and designs using cutters, stick on with a dab of glace icing (alternatively you could buy a pack of ready made fondant icing from the supermarket and use instead.)

Butterfly cakes
When cool take a knife and cut a cone shape out of the top of each cake and fill the cavity with lemon curd or jam. Cut the little cone of cake in half and place it at angles on top of the lemon curd like butterfly wings then dust with icing sugar.

Dana's Chocolate Cupcakes

You know this recipe already, but you might not know that it makes great cupcakes
We believe this recipe is now one of the most frequently made recipes in the country. When people bring their cook books to dg cooking classes for me to sign, the page with Dana’s chocolate cake is always the most splattered and tattered, I even had a lady tell me she made it for the Sultan of Brunei’s household while doing a stint as their cook! It cuts neatly and freezes well too.

Preheat oven to 180°C

1 2/3 cups flour
1½ cups sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda – yes baking soda! (see cooks tips)
1 tsp salt
1½ cups of trim milk
100 g melted butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Pour into the prepared patty cake cases and bake until firm and springy, this will depend on the size of the cases but probably at least 20 minutes.

Classic Chocolate Frosting
250 g icing sugar
100 g butter
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
milk to mix

Place butter and dry ingredients in processor, pulse to combine then add a dash of milk and pulse again, continue until you achieve a soft spreadable icing then add vanilla.

Cook's Tips

We get so many emails from people who believe we have mistakenly said baking soda when we mean baking powder. Some have been so sure they have made it with baking powder.

Why use baking soda not baking powder?
Both baking soda and baking powder are leavening agents added to baked goods before cooking to produce carbon dioxide and cause them to 'rise'. Baking powder contains baking soda, but the two substances are used under different conditions.
Baking Soda is pure sodium bicarbonate. When combined with moisture and an acidic ingredient (e.g. yogurt, chocolate, cocoa, buttermilk, honey), the resulting chemical reaction produces bubbles of carbon dioxide that expand under oven temperatures, causing baked goods to rise. The reaction begins immediately upon mixing the ingredients, so you need to bake recipes that call for baking soda immediately, or else they will fall flat!


Troubleshooting

If you find your cupcakes come out a bit “wonky” on top, here are some suggestions to help produce lovely rounded ones

Cupcakes overflow while baking – try only filling your baking cup ¾ fill.

Cupcakes crack on the top – your oven may be too hot

Cupcakes are uneven on top – eg higher on the left hand side – this may be caused by the fan in your fan-forced oven pushing the mixture as it rises, some batters are very delicate (gluten free for example) – try turning off the fan and cooking them on the classic bake setting.



Rolled Icing



The white cup cakes show stamped icing – to achieve this effect we used Pettince ready-made icing which we rolled, cut to size using cookie cutters and stamped. We used a a stamp sheet as well from a cake decorating specialist supplier – this is a silicone sheet with a pattern – ours is all circles, impressed on it. You simply place the sheet on to the icing and roll with a rolling pin.
We also used wooden stamps from Trade Aid for the pretty paisley pattern.

We used pink food colouring in a variety of strengths for both the butter cream icing and for colouring the rolled icing, and we also used glace icing on some of the cup cakes.
If you don’t have any flower cutters you can purchase ready-made icing flowers and edible glitters etc from cake decorating suppliers


Making your own Icing


Glace icing



1 cup icing sugar
Squeeze of lemon juice or a drop or two of artificial colour and flavour such as raspberry or peppermint

Butter Cream icing



100 g unsalted butter
175 g icing sugar
Flavour and colour as required
Beat the butter until it is light and fluffy then add the icing sugar a little at a time beating well until it is all incorporated. The finished butter cream will be stiffer than whipped cream but a light and pale so can easily be coloured.

Scones

We are renovating – Grrrr. Hate hate renovating.

I have builders in drinking copious coffees and generally clogging up car parking area with many many more vehicles than there are actual builders.
Have been baking for them each day in vain hope they’ll appreciate effort and put walls back in house. Kids rooms previously had no insulation, now situation Far Worse – no walls!

Teenage daughter is currently residing in tent in garage. Tent is to prevent crud falling on her when asleep. Living conditions very poor, but teenage daughter emerging from garage in shorty pyjamas each day at least ensures presence of builders, and lively if brief, spurt of hammering type activity.

Have fed them brownie, caramel pecan slice, chocolate berry muffins and today was scones - as nearly out of everything else and is shopping day but not till later.
Scones, cheap and easy and builders not particularly discerning. Not like judges on NZ’s hottest baker show on telly. Am mystified though that contestants had trouble with scones as soooo easy!

Here is good recipe – bad scones? No excuse!

Scones take only around 20 minutes to make from scratch. They cost less than $2.00 to make and provide 12 – 15 filling fresh scones. They will provide energy from carbohydrate, and are not high in fat like pies or biscuits. You can top them with butter, jam, marmite or cheese (leave out the sugar and add grated cheese to the mixture too if you have it.) If you have a processor then they’re even easier to make.

Pre heat the oven to 210˚C
3 cups plain flour and 3 tsp baking powder or 3 cups self raising flour
3 tbsp butter or table spread
A pinch of salt
A dessert spoon of sugar
Approximately 1 cup of milk (sour it with a squeeze of lemon juice if you have it)

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl then rub in the butter so it resembles bread crumbs. Add the liquid and mix quickly and gently to form a soft dough – do not knead as this will make the scones tough. Pat the mix together and roll out to rectangle roughly 2.5 cm thick. Slice into squares or use a cookie cutter or glass to cut out rounds.

Place on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 10 -12 minutes until well risen and slightly golden. Scones are best eaten fresh, leftovers can be frozen

muffin break

Just made lovely lovely banana walnut muffins. Can do this as have freezer full of black bananas.


Black banana is NOT exotic new variety.

Is what you get when you have far more bananas than you can use!

Filmed a TV commercial about healthy breakfasts and was given many many bananas by lovely banana company - would have been churlish to refuse - after all Free stuff!

made banana cakes, ate them, made more and gave some away, finally froze remaining bananas as utterly sick of banana cake - who knew that could happen? Cake is like oxygen to me. Anyway now utterly fed up with avalanche of frozen banana's cascading onto floor every time I open freezer. So made up new recipe.

Spicy banana walnut muffins with crunchy nut crumble topping. Had one warm with coffee - sooo good.

Muffins freeze well - as do bananas so don't actually have to eat whole batch- but probably will.

Banana walnut crumble top muffins

Muffin mixture begins to rise as soon as you add liquid to it. For the lightest muffins ensure you have everything else ready before adding the wet ingredients to the mixture. In this case, grease the pans, and make the topping first.

2 cups self raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
½ tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup mashed banana 1-2 bananas
100 g melted butter or olivani
1 cup milk
1 egg

Topping
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
2 tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp mixed spice
2 tbsp pl flour
1 ½ tbsp butter

Pre heat the oven to 210°
Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
Prepare the topping by pulsing the ingredients together in a processor or rub the butter into the dry ingredients with your finger tips then mix in the chopped nuts.
In a mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, spices and chopped walnuts. Mash the bananas and set aside. In a separate bowl, melt the butter and add the milk, mashed banana and a lastly the egg.
Fold into the dry ingredients using a large metal spoon. Do not over mix. Spoon into the prepared muffin pan and top each muffin with a sprinkle of the crumble topping.
Bake for 15 minutes or until golden, well risen and springy when gently pressed.

Valentine's Day Biscuit Bouquets

To make biscuit bouquet you will need:


Tin, vase, pot or other wide mouthed container

Sand or pebbles

Polystrene/styrofoam - left over from packaging, if you don't have any, see if you can scrounge a chunk from an electrical store or some other retailer whose product is packaged in polystrene.

Popsicle sticks, wooden skewers or heat proof chopsticks

Decorated biscuits/cookies




To make the base, fill your chosen container 1/3 full of sand or pebbles. Pack the top with polystyrene.



Prepare the biscuits:

125g butter of shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 egg yolk
1 tsp of vanilla

Wooden or bamboo skewers

Non stick baking paper



Glace Icing

1 cup icing sugar

Squeeze of lemon juice or a drop or two of artificial colour and flavour, such as raspberry or peppermint

Decorations such as silver balls, celebration sprinkles, icing flowers, small candies ...



For filled biscuits - strawberry or raspberry jam and a dab of glace icing



Makes around 30+ frosted biscuits depending on size.



Preheat oven to 180C



Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and mix well, then stir in the flour and mix to a form dough. Knead the dough then lightly roll out on a floured surface slightly thicker than you usually would. Cut into shapes using decorative cutters. Insert skewers almost all the way through each cookie. If you are making jam filled cookies, use a small cutter to cut a shape from the centre of half the biscuits. Skewers will be inserted in filled biscuits once baked. Place prepared cookies on baking trays covered with non stick baking paper and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until lightly golden.


Combine the glace icing ingredients, suing only as much water as you need to make a spreadable icing. Ice the top of each cooled cookie with icing and decorate as desired. Sprinkles, silver balls, edible glitter ....

For jam filled biscuits, remove from trays and when cool spread the 1/2 biscuits with jam. Add a few dabs of glace icing around the edge, position a skewer in the middle ensuring it is not visible, then top with the biscuits that have no centres. Sticking them in place with the dabs of icing.


Cooks tip: If you haven't got the right size cutters, improvise with a drinking glass for the biscuits and use a screw top bottle cap to cut out the centres. Raid the kids' playdough cutters and see what they've got.


To assemble the bouquet, carefully insert the skewers into the polystyrene with tuille, curling ribbon or tissue paper.


If the cookies are not likely to be eaten immediately, you can individually wrap them in clear cellophane and tie with curling ribbon to keep cookies fresh.

Make and bake biscotti

Was reading facebook messages the other day and saw someone was after a biscotti recipe so thought would be good to post one.

These are hard biscotti, like criplingly expensive cafe ones, only very cheap. Also easy to make - dentist is expensive though! so might want to dunk em in coffee!

If you want softer biscotti - the crumble or shortness comes from fat - use a recipe with butter in it. These'll continue to get harder over a couple of days and they keep well so make good prezzies.

You can mix and match with other flavours, also good chocolate dipped or swizzled with lemon icing.

Cranberry spice biscotti

These pretty biscuits are hard biscotti ideal for dunking in coffee or a hot chocolate. They make a great homemade gift or long lasting nibble to share with guests over the festive season. The recipe makes at least 25 so you’ve enough to give away and still enjoy some yourself.

1 egg
1 egg white
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup pistachios
½ cup dried cranberries/Craisins
1 tsp of vanilla essence
1 tsp mixed spice
1 ¾ cups self raising flour
Non stick baking paper

Pre heat the oven to 180°
Beat the egg, egg white and sugar together until the sugar is dissolved, and the mixture has become pale and frothy. Stir in the vanilla, spice, flour, nuts and dried fruit. Place the baking paper onto a baking tray.
Knead the dough lightly and form into a flattish log. Bake for 25 minutes then remove from the oven and allow to cool. The log will have cracked a little on top, this is normal.
Using a serrated knife slice the biscotti in to 5mm slices – you should get roughly 25 -28 from a log. Place the slices in batches onto a cooling rack, put the cooling rack onto a baking tray and carefully place in the oven. Cooking the slices on the rack allows the hot air to circulate around the biscuits eliminating the need to turn them. Bake them for 15 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool and store in an airtight container.

Christmas Cheer

Feeling happy, hair not too awful, work starting to ease off, only a few school lunches left to make and have super gorgeous Christmas tree.

Love the tree, whole family allergic to it naturally, cat obsessed with trying to drink tree water and needles already everywhere, also got migraine trying to untangle lights.

We all like tree and Christmas music so made mince pies as might as well go whole hog - in fact if I eat many more will resemble hog!
Thought you might like recipe so am attaching.


Christmas Mince pies
Makes around 14 regular size with stars on top, or more if you do some as mini’s. Pastry needs cold butter, cold water and a cold rest in the fridge.
Handling or kneading the pastry will make it greasy and tough, so be gentle and you’ll have ”melt in the mouth” short pastry for your mince pies.

FYI I always make a double batch, but we are very greedy.

For the pastry
1 heaped cup of plain flour
Pinch of salt
100 g butter
1 dsp sugar (for sweet pastry)
1 egg yolk
Splash of cold water

For the filling
¾ tub of fruit mince- approx 1 big cup full

Icing sugar to dust

Put flour, salt and butter into food processor and pulse until fine crumbs form or rub butter into flour with your finger tips.
Add sugar, egg yolk, and water and pulse or mix with the blade of a knife until just combined. If the pastry is over worked it will be tough, if it is crumbly add more water.
Wrap the pastry in paper or cling film and rest it in the fridge for 1/2 an hour before rolling out.
Pre heat the oven to 190°
Use a cutter or glass to cut pastry discs to fit your pans.
Grease the pans then line with the pastry discs. Spoon a teaspoon of fruit mince mixture into each one – don’t overfill or they’ll spill over and stick to the pans.
Top with a star or other pastry shape.
Bake for around 15 minutes until pale golden. Remove from pans while still warm and place on a rack to cool. Store in an airtight container and serve warm or cold. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

As I mentioned on face book - cheesecake recipe Mmmm,worth every calorie!

White chocolate and berry cheesecake

Cheesecakes are so decadent and this one is a stunner, made loaf style and drizzled with berry syrup.

Serves 10

300g white chocolate
250 ml cream
500 g cream cheese
50 g caster sugar
1 packet ginger nut biscuits crushed with a rolling pin to form crumbs
60 g butter melted

For the syrup – use some in the cheesecake and the remainder to decorate it
2 cups frozen mixed berries
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup water
A small squeeze of lemon juice
1 tbsp arrowroot
1 tbsp cold water

Line a loaf tin with cling film so it completely covers the inside of the loaf tin and there is enough over- hang to wrap over the top when filled.
Melt the white chocolate gently in a bowl set over a small saucepan containing simmering water – stir frequently, and when beginning to melt, turn off the heat and allow the residual heat to completely melt the chocolate.
While the chocolate is melting make the syrup. Place the frozen berries, sugar and water in a small saucepan and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat, mix together the arrowroot and tbsp of cold water and stir into the berry mixture. It should begin to form a slight gel.
Beat together the cream cheese, cream, caster sugar and white chocolate.
Spoon a layer of the cream cheese mixture into the tin then drizzle in some of the berry mixture, add another layer of cream cheese mixture and some more berry syrup, continuing in this manner until the cheese mixture is used up. Retain some berry syrup for decorating the cheesecake when set.
Mix the melted butter into the ginger nuts. Gently bang the loaf tin on the bench so the mixture settles well into the corners of the tin then pack the crumb mixture on the top, pressing it down firmly. This layer will form the base when the cheesecake is turned out.
Fold the excess cling film over the crumb crust and refrigerate the cake for 6 hours or overnight.
To serve gently loosen the cake then up-turn onto a serving platter, remove the cling film and drizzle with remaining syrup. Serve in slices.

drink to your good health

Last night I watched an interesting investigation into the efficacy of vitamins,on TV 3.
I’ve never really bought into the whole supplements thing myself. It always seemed like a bit of a scam. Research from university studies years ago showed that vitamin supplements were a poor source of vitamins and no substitute for a healthy diet so we opted to spend our limited resources on food rather than capsules and I am gratified that experts concur that this is the only way to achieve optimum nutrition unless you have an underlying medical or genetic problem.
What I didn’t know, and this show highlighted, was the danger supplements posed to healthy, health conscious people.
The bottom line is that if we want to have optimum nutrition we need to eat more fruit and vegetables. The idea that we can top up or compensate for poor nutrition with vitamin supplements is not just incorrect it’s dangerous. Did anyone else see the program? Will you be chucking out the multivitamins and whipping up a smoothie instead?

Basic Smoothie

200 ml cold milk
¼ cup yoghurt – fruity or natural
½ banana fresh or frozen
½ cup additional fruit such as frozen berries -blue berries or raspberries, fresh berries such as strawberries in season, peaches or even apricot nectar (berries are full of antioxidants, blueberries in particular, and vitamin C)
Honey to sweeten if required (or a teaspoon of molasses, great source of iron and B vitamins)

Place all ingredients in blender and whiz to combine. Frozen banana becomes ice cream like in texture, adding natural sweetness. Berries need not be defrosted, as smoothies are best drunk cold.

Freeze any leftover mixture in Popsicle moulds.

Oh Fudge!

Friends brought a tin of Russian Fudge around when they came for dinner the other night and it's presence is now dominating my every thought.
Even as I write this I can feel myself tilting subtly in the direction of the pantry like a plant growing towards the light. I put the Fudge in the cupboard out of sight because I thought if I couldn’t see it; it wouldn’t have any power over me. But Russian Fudge has its own gravitational pull and its addicting power cannot be underestimated. This stuff should come with a warning.
Eating doesn’t really describe my relationship with fudge, it’s more like I absorb it, and it takes me over, slowly dissolving on my tongue and permeating every taste bud, every nerve ending.
As the butter and sugar migrate into my nervous system I feel an almost drug like calm and I’m swept up in gentle waves of molten sugary bliss. Just as I’m about to slip into unconsciousness it fades, in an instant every molecule will have dissolved leaving me with the echo of the memory of sublime pleasure, and then the craving starts again, just one more little piece…Heaven help me, I think I need to join a group!

Edmonds Russian Fudge – make at your own risk!

I can’t take any credit for this recipe; it’s been around for donkey’s years. We make the one from the Edmonds book, so it may differ slightly from the one you grew up with, nevertheless full marks to whoever originally invented it.
Russian fudge has to be beaten well, we normally take turns with the beating otherwise the arm is likely to seize up. But it’s worth the effort. Mmmm

675 g sugar
½ cup milk
½ can sweetened condensed milk
125 g butter
¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp golden syrup

Place sugar and milk into a saucepan and bring to the boil, add condensed milk, butter, salt and golden syrup. Boil for around ½ an hour stirring frequently. Beat until thick, about 5 minutes. Pour into a shallow greased tin and cut when set.