New Years Eve: Tim Tam Tarts and Raspberry Friands

Scrolling the Internet and looking through my cookbooks this morning I became inspired to cook up something a little special for New Years Eve.  It seems there is a fair amount of competition between friends for the best baked goods: the best brownies (Megan), the best macaroons (Laura Love), the best hummus (Big Laura, although its technically not baking), the best slap it together biscuit with your 5 year old (Heidi).  Not to be outdone this New Years I decided to get the oven tins out and see what I could come up with.  Today I found Tim Tam Tarts courtesy of the gorgeous Fat Mum Slim blog and Friands courtesy of my well used Donna Hay Modern Classics cookbook.  Two appropriate yummy sweets for a very appropriate occasion, a wine and cheese themes party!!  Being pregnant I figure there won't be much in the way of cheese I can eat as the soft varieties are out (boo!) and I'm not sure how much Andrew or baby Spad will like me having a glass of McLaren Vale Shiraz.  Guess where I plan to go as soon as this little munchkin arrives?  Watch out Vale Ale, Echidna and Foggo!  You have 6 months to prepare for my coming.  Haha!

Anyhoo, I was all excited about sharing the cooking process but it seems a certain someone has changed my camera settings and now I can't upload my photos.  I guess that means that you get the end result!

Tim Tam Tarts

(Recipe by Fat Mum Slim)

Ingredients
100g Tim Tams {equal to half a pack, which is 5 and a half biscuits}
15g butter, melted
100ml cream
100g chocolate, chopped
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk

Method
Process the biscuits until all nice and crumbly. Add butter and pulse until combined.
Grease 2 loose bottom 8cm tart tins (I used a cup patty pan tin as I wanted to make the mixture go further). Press the crumb mixtures into the tins, make sure you put it up the sides a little {about 1cm (or half a cm if you're doing it with the cup patty pan tin)} so it will hold the chocolate filling in later.
In a pan over low heat place the cream and bring it to almost boiling point. Remove from heat and toss in the chocolate. Mix until smooth. Cool slightly.
Add in egg yolk and vanilla. Mix until combined.
Pour into tart cases and chill for 15 minutes.
In the meantime preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
Cook for 15 minutes or until chocolate is set.
Chill completely before serving. Serve with cream or ice cream. And raspberries if you like.

Friands

(Recipe by Donna Hay, Modern Classics, Book 2)

Ingredients
125g butter
1 cup almond meal
1 2/3 cups icing (confectioner's) sugar, sifted
3/4 cup plain (all purpose) flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
5 egg whites
1/3 cup fresh or frozen raspberries, blueberries or sliced strawberries.

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Place butter in a saucepan over low heat and cook until melted and a very light golden colour.  Set aside.
Place almond meal, icing sugar, flour and baking powder in a bowl and stir to combine.
Grease 10 x 1/2 cup capacity muffin tins.
Spoon 2 tablespoons of mixture into each tin and sprinkle the berries over top.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden and springy to touch but moist in the centre.

Andrew's birthday Spit

I wish I have had more time to blog this week.  There has been lots of things going on and lots more yummy smells coming from the kitchen.  Lets begin with Saturday...
I was Andrew's birthday about 2 weeks ago now.  Andrew's sister decided she would like to do a spit for his birthday.  Saturday, the day before the spit, we went to go pick up a trailer from Andrew's uncle's in-law's house (yep, this is how the family works).  We were greeted by an old Italian couple (who didn't know us from a bar of soap) with open arms.  We were invited in and asked to stay for a cup of coffee when Andrew and I noticed the vegetable garden outside.  Being keen veggie gardeners we couldn't walk past it.  Seeing how impressed we were with his garden, one very proud Tony proceeded to take us outside to show us around in the misty rain.  The veggie patch took up at least 2/3 of their huge back yard and was laden with late growing tomatoes and capsicums and some very healthy looking spinach. The other 1/3 of the garden was taken up with a massive shed kitchen for cooking (so the kitchen in the house doesn't get dirty) and another building used for wine making (yep, he makes his own wine) and salami making (even better)!  A small portion of the garden is dedicated to a proud Hills Hoist surrounded by a small patch of grass. We drove away from the house with a trailer, 4 bottles of home made wine, a bag of capsicums and a belly full of coffee, grog and waffles!  Amazing Italian hospitality!
That night Andrew and I drove into the hills to pick up the spit Andrew's friend had made form the locally owned pear orchard.  We got talking to his mate's dad who proceeded to tell stories of the things he and his son's made together and took us to see a beautiful fully restored water pump, something that you would have seen about 85 years ago.  It was a great reminder of my Grandpa, who made these things with his bare hands while he was alive.  It was a lovely stroll down memory lane!
Needless to say that obtaining the spit was a whole day out and I was exhausted by the time we got home.
While Andrew's sister and brother in-law spent the morning driving to pick up the 18kg lamb, Andrew prepared the spit.  The beast was basted with garlic, lemon, rosemary, oregano and seasoning, sewn up with the help of Andrew's uncle who drove for 20 minutes just to help baste and secured to the spit where it mesmerised Tom and Andrew for almost 4 hours.  It was their baby.  The baste was almost gone in the first hour.  I think they may have been a little excited!

Meanwhile, I had some Kiwi fruit in the fridge which I had been dying to turn into a cake so Joy and I made the Kiwi cake a reality.  Not something you would usually find in a cake but it totally worked!
Needless to say we ate like Grecian royalty that night.  Greek salad, tzaziki, amazing spit roast lamb yiros and an abundance of sweets.  No one went hungry, in fact i think we could have fed the whole street with our left overs!

A lesson learned...

Never go off to a meeting and  leave a clean freak in charge of a meal you have prepared when there are text books all over the lounge room.  Result:  one very burned spiced creamy tomato chicken.  On the plus side at least the house looks clean.  Can't help but be a little disappointed though.
Oh well.  Will just have to try this one again later.
Another great looking recipe courtesy of  Fig & Cherry that will have to be attempted another day.

Hot Cross Bun Goodness...

I've been wanting to make these since Easter last year!  I was inspired by Fig & Cherry's review of the Bron Marshall recipe for Hot Cross Buns.  Today was the day that I finally pulled out the box of white bread mix from the pantry and kneaded my way to hot cross bun bliss.  I made a few little tweaks here and there and adapted it to what i had in my pantry.  I have to say I am mighty impressed with the result!

Hot Cross Buns

• 1¼ cups of warm water
• ½ cup of soft brown sugar
• 3 teaspoons of dry active yeast
• 4 cups of strong white flour
• 2 tablespoons of milk powder
• 2 teaspoons of mixed spice
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• A pinch of ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• ½ cup of dried currants
• ½ cup of saltanas
• 50 grams / 2 oz of butter, melted
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup of extra flour
• 1/3 cup of water

Add the warm water to a medium sized bowl and stir in the brown sugar until dissolved.
Sprinkle the yeast granules over the top and put aside.
Melt the butter and set aside.
In a large bowl or electric mixer sift the flour, milk powder, spices and salt and then add the dried fruits.
When the yeast mix is frothy add to the flour and fruit and pour in the melted butter. Mix to combine and knead by hand or in a mixer with a dough hook for about 8 minutes or until lovely and smooth.
Cover and set aside to at least double in size (2 hours or more).
Cut and shape 15 buns (I like to weigh mine for even sized buns!) and place in a warm lined or greased baking tin.
Place the buns in a warm place to continue rising for at least another hour, a little longer if possible.
Preheat the oven to 200°C, 390°F or gas mark 5½.
Gently brush the tops a little beaten egg wash.
Mix the remaining flour with enough water to make a firm ‘pipe-ible’ paste.
Using a piping bag or a small plastic bag with the point cut off, pipe the paste in lines across the buns to form the crosses.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until cooked through and hollow sounding when tapped on the bottoms.
Makes 16.

Hot cross buns are one of my favourite things.  I may have to make a few batches before we go away at Easter!

Coffee Syrup

Tonight my brother and his wife are coming over for tea.  I sat down with Andrew and worked out a rough menu.  Mains: Roast Sammy (the ex-cow from Andrew's parent's place at Mylor) with veggies.  Dessert: a Jamie Oliver Banoffe pie.  We have some beautiful overripe bananas just waiting to be turned into something delicious!
The banoffe pie recipe calls for something called Camp Coffee.  I wasn't real sure what Camp Coffee was but I can imagine that it would be some sort of coffee syrup.  I started thinking about walking down to the local shopping centre to get some Bickford's Coffee Syrup.  Then I started thinking about all the coffee we have in our cupboards.  'Surely I could make my own,' I thought.  So I went to work and found a recipe for Coffee Syrup.  I'll let you know how the banoffe pie turns out later.

Coffee Syrup

3/4 cup Sugar
1 1/2 cup Coffee (I used a generous amount of ground coffee in my plunger)

Heat the coffee and sugar on a medium to high heat until the sugar is dissolved.  Turn the temperature down and simmer until the mixture reduces and becomes syrupy.  Keep checking  to ensure you get the perfect consistency.  How thick you want the syrup is up to you.  For me it was about 25 minutes.  The mixture should yield about 1 cup of syrup.  Store in a clean jar or container in the fridge.  Use in iced coffee, on ice cream or whatever recipe you choose to make that includes a coffee syrup.

Excuse me while I make myself a iced coffee...

Pumpkin Muffins

I've had a butternut pumpkin sitting in the crisper in the fridge for the last two weeks.  I figured it was about time that it found a home in some sort of cooking.  Scrolling through recipes I found a great recipe for pumpkin muffins.  Lots of sweet pumpkin recipes call for canned pumpkin.  Not that I've actually been looking but I have never found canned pumpkin in the stores.  Anyway, not to be defeated by the fact that my pantry doesn't posses canned pumpkin I found a great way to make the most of my beautiful butternut and made my own and more than likely better version of the canned stuff. 

So if you do want to attempt this recipe and don't have the canned pumpkin this is how I made it.

Pumpkin Puree
Set the temperature on you oven to 150 degrees.  Cut 1/2 of a butternut pumpkin into pieces with the skin still attached.  Place pumpkin in a baking tray with 1/4 inch of water.  Bake in the oven for at least and hour or until pumpkin is soft.  Remove skin (this should be easy to do) and puree with a stick mixer.

Another hurdle I came across was that I have never heard of pumpkin pie spice.  I googled again and found the recipe here.  All it involved is cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg.  Most stuff I guess you would find tucked away in your pantry so save yourself the expense!

Ok, now we can get to the fun part.

Pumpkin Muffins.

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (see above link)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sultanas
• 1 cup packed brown sugar (I didn't have any brown sugar so I used 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/3 cup golden syrup)
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (see recipe above)
• 1/3 cup buttermilk (1/3 cup of milk with 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar left for 5 minutes)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 210 degrees. Sift flour and baking soda into a large bowl.  Add dry ingredients and mix until combined.  Make a well in the centre and add the rest of the ingredients and fold in until just combined.  Place into 18 greased muffin tins.  Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Always important to taste test!

Guaranteed you will never look at pumpkins the same way again!

Amazing Fig and Almond Jam

When I first acquired my container full of figs my first thought went to fig jam.  How can it not?  My mum had always turned her figs into jam and it was always yummy.  Always trying to better my mums amazing cooking I started to think about what it is I liked about hers.  The thick chunky texture was always a winner with me but it was too sweet.  I remembered having breakfast at Nonno and Nonna's house one morning and the delightful taste of the Beerenberg Fig and Almond jam I had on my toast.  It wasn't just the figs I liked.  It was also the citrusy taste it had as well.  It cut through the sweetness just nicely.  I started to do some on line research when I remembered our backpacker friends from Canada raving about Maggie Beer's Burnt Fig Jam.  Taking all the elements I loved about these three ideas I put together my own recipe.  I hope you enjoy.

From this...

Fig Jam

2kg Figs
1kg Dark brown Sugar
Juice from 2 small lemons
Rind from one small lemon
1/3 cup of roasted almonds chopped 

Soak the figs overnight in the sugar.  The next day boil the figs and sugar together.  Break up the figs with a spoon.  Continue to boil for at least an hour until you get the consistency you desire, stirring occasionally (test the consistency by placing a spoonful on a small plate and letting it cool.  Its easy to tell that way how thick it will be when finished).  Add the lemon rind, juice and almonds making sure it passes the taste test as you go.  Place hot jam into hot sterilised jars.

To this!

I suggest serving on crusty bread with a dollop of cream.  Yum!!

A week of bottles and jars

Wow! Its really has been a crazy week!  It started with a very boring last Wednesday.  Too much day time tv over the uni holidays was starting to send me a little crazy.  I decided to go up the the church where my mum runs Friendship Centre, a place where people (mostly over the age of 60) get together mid week, chat, do crafts and eat waay to much afternoon tea.  After being told I wasn't doing my little craft project the right way, being given a 2 hour tutorial on how to do it correctly and eating buttered scones to my hearts content people eventually started to pitter off and go home.  Thankful for my little lesson I said goodbye to my new 70-something friend only to notice someone had dropped off a few bags of plums.  I decided to take a bag of overripe plums home with me. On the way home I dropped into see Nonno and Nonna to give them a hand with preparation for sauce making for Saturday morning.  They had the copper boiler out and were trying to connect up the gas bottle but to no avail.  While Andrew went off gallivanting the suburbs of Adelaide for the right connection, Andrew's beautiful pregnant sister, Claire, other gorgeous sister Joy and I began picking all the ripe figs from the beautiful fig tree canope in Nonno's backyard.  All inspired by the fruit I had just acquired I went home and started to create.  By Friday I had stewed the plums and made burnt fig and almond jam.  Both ended up becoming a screaming success!  I will post my fig jam recipe later.

My Breakfast: Stewed plums with yoghurt and muesli

Figs all ready to go

My friend Sarah has become interested in the authentic Italian sauce making experience and had been invited to come and join in on the process early Saturday morning.  Joy had organised a room full of tomatoes that would be made into sauce and divided among the family members.  4:30am the sauce production began and people made their way over to Nonno and Nonna's house bleary eyed and not so bushy tailed to help out.  Step one, put the tomatoes in the copper.  Step two, put the boiled tomatoes through the mincer to get rid of any seeds and skin.  Step three, repeat step two to get the most from the tomatoes.  Step four, pour the freshly made sauce into long neck bottles.  Step five, cap bottles filled with sauce.  Step six, boil sauce bottles for maximum longevity.  Step seven, take a seat around the table in the back yard while Nonno cooks you sausages at 10:30am.  By 11am it was all over.  Andrew and I went home with 20 bottles of freshly made sauce.  People have asked me if the real Italian sauce making experience is anything like it is in Looking for Alibrandi.  I can't tell you because I haven't seen it but according to Sarah, it is.

Not sure how to flip the photo the right way but you get the idea

It doesn't stop there.  Andrew and I came home that afternoon and decided it was time to bottle our home brew apple cider too! 

Filling up bottles with home brew cider

At the end of the weekend we had 6 jars of fig and almond jam, 1 large container of stewed plums, 20 long necks of sauce and 40 odd bottles of apple cider!
Yes it has been quite a weekend!