Recipe Twenty Nine: Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding.

This pudding contains no eggs, no chocolate & very little butter, but don't let that put you off.

What this pudding is:

 moist, saucy, rich and very inexpensive to pull together.

This recipe originally comes from the Australian Womens Weekly.

I'm not sure when it was published but my mum had been making it for as long as I can remember.

Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding

60gms of butter

1.5 cups of  self raising flour

1/4 cup of cocoa

1 cup of caster sugar

3/4 cup of Milk

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1 cup of brown sugar

1/3 cup of cocoa

2 cups of boiling water.

In a large microwave safe bowl melt your butter.

Mix into the butter: flour, the 1/4 cup of cocoa, caster sugar, vanilla and milk. Beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.

Sprinkle the top of this batter with combined brown sugar and  the 1/3 cup of cocoa.

Very gently pour the boiling water over the batter and sugar-cocoa mix.

Place in the microwave and cook for 9 minutes or until just firm in the middle.

Serve immediately.

xx 

Recipe Twenty Eight: Roast Chicken

I'm not sure why but doing a 'Roast' seems to be something that has an unnecessary 'difficult aura'.

This is a good and bad thing.

Good:

 'You'll have to wait I'm making a roast' 

is an perfectly acceptable excuse for when you pour yourself a glass of wine make your self a cup of tea, grab a new magazine and shut yourself in the kitchen away from the rest of the world.

Bad:

So many people avoid making them all together.

So to dispel that myth (for the cook only, everyone else should still think you are slaving away all day just to present them with the horrendously difficult to prepare meal) here is a dead easy, quick prep Roast Chicken.

Roast Chicken:

A medium sized chicken ( Around 1.6kg)

1 Lemon (cut in half)
1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil

2 Garlic Cloves
Garlic Salt 

Paprika

Preheat your oven to 220C.
Rinse your chicken and inside the cavity. Pat it dry with some paper towels.
Place a wire rack in your roasting pan & place chicken on top.
Squeeze the juice from your lemon over the bird & massage into the skin.
Brush your chicken all over with the olive oil.
Sprinkle the outside liberally with garlic salt & paprika.
Smash your two garlic cloves with the flat side of a knife, don't worry about peeling them & place the cloves & the rest of the lemon halves inside the chicken.
Tie the legs together with kitchen string.

Roast the chicken in the oven for 1hr & 10 minutes or until cooked through.
You can test for this by piercing the thigh with a skewer and making sure the juices run clear.
Stand for 10 minutes covered loosely with tin foil & then serve.

xx

Recipe Twenty Seven: Lemon & Pistachio Biscotti

I know I have fallen woefully behind on my whole six month challenge.

I don't think I'm going to make it to 130 by the beginning of May but I will try to get as close as possible.

When I made myself a coffee at work on Monday I noticed how devoid the work kitchen was of a perfect biscuit to eat with said coffee and I decided I would rectify the situation.

It had to be Biscotti.

I'm sure you're aware I love lemon & pistachio together and so I put those flavours  in what I think turned out to be a wonderful crispy, not too sweet balance to my slightly bitter & milky cup of coffee.

Lemon & Pistachio Biscotti.

60gms of chopped butter

1 cup of caster sugar

1 teaspoon on vanilla

The finely grated rind of one lemon.

4 eggs

2 1/4 cups of plain flour.

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 a teaspoon of bicarbonate soda.

3/4 of a cup of shelled pistachios, roughly chopped.

Splash of water

1/4 cup of extra caster sugar.

 Preheat oven to 180C & line 2 baking trays

In a bowl beat together: butter, sugar, vanilla & rind until just combined.

Add three of your eggs, one at a time beating to combined between each addition.

Stir in flour, baking powder & bicarb soda.

Stir in the nuts.

Cover & put in the fridge for an hour.

Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth.

Halve dough & make each half into a 30cm long log.

Place each log on a separate tray. Combine the last egg with a splash of water, brush your logs with this mixture and sprinkle each very liberally with your 1/4 cup of caster sugar.

Bake for 20 minutes. Cool on trays.

Reduce your oven to 170C

Using a serrated knife cut your logs on the diagonal into 1cm thick slices.

Place these slices back on the oven trays and bake for another 15 minutes turning half way through this baking period.

Cool the slices on a cooling rack & you're good to go

xx

Recipe Twenty Six: The Perfect Pancake.

It has been a busy week.

I have made pencil rolls for back to school, attempted to keep the house cool, failed, attempted to cook as much as possible without using heat, pretty much failed & didn't take photos...

I did however spend many hours taking photos for my Mum's upcoming book (she needed someone who would take payment of love, good coffee & free copies of family portraits), she has three days to her deadline and the pressure is on. You can see her progress and a couple of my pictures here.

Pancakes played a big part in my childhood.

They were one of those foods that Mum was happy to let us take on alone.

The one downside to an 8 year old making pancakes however:

 THE MESS!!!

I cant ever remember cleaning it up though.

My Dad and I also had the 6 month long 'Battle of the Best Pancake'.

I still maintain I won.

Pancakes:

2 Cups of SR Flour

1/3 Cup of Caster Sugar

1/4 Teaspoon of Bicarbonate Soda

1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups of Milk

1 egg

More butter for greasing the pan.

Put your dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together.

Make a well in the centre.

Put egg and 1 1/2 cups of milk in there.

Start whisking the milk & egg and gradually bring in the dry ingredients from the edges.

Once everything is combined & smooth stick your batter in the fridge for 20 Minutes.

Heat a pan to medium ONLY.

Take your batter out of the fridge and give it a quick stir, if it is too thick mix in the remaining milk.

Melt a little butter in the pan so it covers the bottom.

Even if you are using a non stick pan please still used the melted butter it will give your pancakes a crisp outer like nothing else.

Pour mix into pan.

 I used about 1/3 of a cup for a decent 15cm diameter pancake.

Either by tilting the pan or a spatula, spread your mix out a little.

Wait until quite a few bubbles are appearing on the top of the batter before you turn your pancake over.

Cook for about 1/2 the time on the other side or until golden brown.

Continue from 'melt a little butter' until you are out of mix.

If you are making a huge batch and want to keep them warm set your oven to low and put them on a lined baking sheet in there whilst you finish off your remaining cakes.

And serve how ever you like...

Maple Syrup?

Nutella and Strawberries?

Cinnamon & Brown Sugar Butter?

Lemon and Sugar?

xx

Recipe Twenty Five: Chilli, Soy & Sesame Drumsticks.

It has been a super quiet week around the kitchen this week.

It has also been super hot & I'm just one of those people who turn into a 'tired four year old who is constantly on the verge of tantrum' when its hot.

It's not an admirable trait...I know I should work on it.

Anyhow our air conditioning doesn't quite make it to the kitchen so on days like these I am effectively preparing food in a sauna. 

Now I hear sauna's are supposed to be good for you HOWEVER this kind of sauna (any any kind of prolonged exposure to temperatures over 35) seem to be really bad for my marriage

(Love you Honey!)

So in normal Courtenay fashion I am apologising with food,

this recipe in fact:

Chilli, Soy & Sesame Sticky Chicken Drumsticks

1/4 cup of Soy Sauce

1/4 Cup of Tomato Sauce

1/3-1/2 Cup of Sweet Chilli Sauce 

(I added this to taste so I have to estimate the actual amount)

2kg of Chicken Drumsticks

1 Tablespoon of Sesame Seeds

1/4 cup of sliced spring onion (for garnish)

Arrange your chicken legs in an oven proof dish.

Whisk your three sauces together.

Taste & add any extra of the sauces to taste.

Pour over your drumsticks

Turn all of the drumsticks to coat them in the marinade.

Put the dish in the fridge to marinate for a couple of hours.

I only marinated them for half an hour and still got a very nice flavour.

 However I did complete one of the next possibly completely unnecessary pain-in-the-but step.

Preheat your oven to 200C
Put the chicken in the oven and bake for 40 minutes.

Because I only marinated my drumsticks for half an hour I basted the legs with marinade every 10-15 minutes. I think this may have help with the moist factor too...

Take the chicken out of the oven and decoratively sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Return to the oven for 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven again and let rest for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle with sliced spring onions and serve.

Optional step:

Ask for forgiveness for your crappy attitude the last week...turn up air-conditioning.

xx

Recipe Twenty Four: Cinnamon Rolls.

I have made A LOT of cinnamon rolls from many, many recipes. I have used nuts, different combinations of sugars, this butter or that butter, this flour or that flour and this is the result of my few years of trial and error.

Bun

2 cups of Bread flour

2 cups of all purpose flour

1/2 a cup of warm water

2 1/4 teaspoons (or one sachet) of yeast

1 teaspoon of Caster Sugar.

1/2 a cup of Milk

50gms of Butter

1/4 cup of Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

Filling:

125gm Butter

3/4 cup of Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoon of Cinnamon

1/4 cup Demerara Sugar

Cream Cheese Icing:

200gms of softened Cream Cheese

1 1/2 cups of Icing Sugar

Splash of milk.

Your first step is to get your yeast going.

Pop your warm water ( you want this water to be between luke warm and warm), your teaspoon of sugar and your yeast in a bowl. Give them a quick mix to dissolve the sugar and leave it to sit in a warm spot for 10 minutes. 

If you cant find anywhere particularly warm sit your bowl in another bowl of slightly warmer water.

Next up warm that half a cup of milk in a small pan until just before boiling.

Take it off the heat and whisk in your butter and caster sugar.

Sit to cool for 5 minutes.

Mix your yeast mixture, milk mixture, eggs and 1 cup of your flour in a bowl.

Add remaining flour 1 cup at a time, combing well between each addition.

Once this has come together turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.

This took me six minutes.

Place dough in a greased bowl with a damp cloth over the top in a nice warm spot for 1 hour.

Your dough will double in size.

About 50 minutes into this hour melt your butter for the filling & in a small bowl combine your brown sugar and cinnamon. Grease oven proof dish/dishes. I used two 25x25cm square cake tins.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll out to a 60cm x 25 cm rectangle.

Spread melted butter over the dough leaving a 2cm border.

Sprinkle melted butter with brown sugar mix.

If I have any butter left over I then GENTLY pour this over the brown sugar.

Roll the dough up length ways and cut 5cm rounds.

To prevent squashing your log cut the rounds using a strand of  fine cotton.

Place the cotton under underneath your roll and then wrap the string around and cross over. Keep pulling the cotton ends across one another & the string will slice through cleanly.

Place each slice facing upward in your tin. Leave a little space between rolls (0.5cm) as they need to rise again for another hour. Sprinkle the top of the rolls with demerara sugar.

Leave to rise & preheat your oven to 190C.

Cook for 25minutes.

Make your icing.

Beat cream cheese in a bowl for 2 minutes.

Add icing sugar 1/2 a cup at a time. Beating well between additions.

Add a splash of milk to give the icing a creamier texture.

Now I know I've piped icing on the top in sweet lines

HOWEVER 

spreading it thickly on the top looks far uglier but tastes far, far better.

These taste best still slightly warm or eaten the day they are made.

If you want to eat them over the next few days just pop them in the microwave for a few seconds to freshen them up.

xx

Recipe Twenty Three: Double Chocolate, Sour Cherry Cheesecake.

Here is the culminating recipe of Friday night's dinner at The Kindled Kitchen. 

Now aside from being amazing to eat with all of it's sweet and sour goodness I actually started making this at 6pm for a 7pm dinner so it is also amazingly quick and easy!

What you will need:
220gm of plain chocolate biscuits
125gms of butter, melted.
500gms of cream cheese
200gms of dark chocolate.
70gms of brown sugar.
1 tablespoon of boiling water
1 teaspoon of gelatine.
1 670gm jar of Morello/Sour Cherries.
2 tbs of caster sugar
1 tbs of cornflour

Line the base of a 24cm spring form tin with baking paper.
Process the chocolate biscuits to a fine crumb & then add in the melted butter.
Press this mix into the base of your tin and chill in the fridge for 20minutes.

Either in a bowl over boiling water bain-marie style of in the microwave in 30 second bursts, melt your chocolate. Leave to cool slightly whilst you make the rest of the filling.

In a bowl beat together cream cheese & brown sugar until smooth.
Sprinkle gelatine over hot water and mix until it has dissolved.
Add this & the slightly cooled chocolate to the cream cheese & brown sugar and beat until combined.
Spread over chilled base and refrigerate.

In the meantime drain your cherries, place syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat.
Taking 1 tablespoon of the syrup dissolve the caster sugar & cornflour in it and return to the pan stirring constantly. Cook until it comes to the boil and then add cherries.
Set aside.

Once you have removed the cheesecake from the pan & are getting ready to serve. Pour the cherries & syrup over the top of the cake.

Serve

PS- This post is part of The Sweet Adventures Blog Hop 'Death By Chocolate Addition'

Click through some of the thumbnails below for more amazing chocolate recipes 

I know you want to....

Or even better, you could join in?

xx