Recipe Ten: Banana Bread

Me:

I want to post banana bread.

Sister:

That sounds good, everyone likes that.

Me:

It's just that...well...mashed banana in pictures...it looks like vomit...

Sister:

Maybe just don't point it out?

What you will need:

125gm of Butter

1.5 cups of Caster Sugar

3 large, over-ripe Bananas, mashed

2 Eggs

1 teaspoon of Vanilla

1/2 a cup of Sour Cream

1.5 cups of Self Raising Flour

1/2 a teaspoon of Bicarbonate Soda

2 Tablespoons of Demerara Sugar

Preheat the oven and grease and line a small-medium load tin.

Place butter, caster sugar, banana, egg & vanilla in the processor, process for 2 minutes or until well combined.

Add sour cream and process until combined.

Add flour & bi-carb and process again until just combined.

Pour the mix into the prepared pan and shake to settle.

Sprinkle with demerara sugar.

Bake for one hour.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and turn out.

And...Banana Bread!

xx

Recipe Eight: 'Off With Their Head" Cookies

I first made these cookies for our family cafe and expected, like other batches of cookies they would last us 2 days...they lasted 3 hours. 

Beautiful food sells and although beautiful the original recipe never seemed to taste as good as it looked.

 Here is my slightly tweaked version.

You'll need:

1.5 cups of Plain Flour

3/4 of a cup of Almond Meal

1/2 a cup of pure Icing Sugar

1 Egg

1 Tablespoon of Milk

125gm of Butter (Chilled)

100gms dark Chocolate Chips

1/4 cup of Strawberry Jam

2 Tablespoons of Water

Preheat your oven to 180C

You're going to want to put all of those dry ingredients into your food processor along with the chopped, chilled butter and whiz until it looks like breadcrumbs.

Then pop in your milk and egg and whiz again until it starts to come together like this:

Now knead the dough until it forms a smooth disk, wrap and rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Roll out your dough and cut out as many large hearts as you can fit.

Now cut smaller hearts from the center of half of your larger hearts and bake for 8-10 minutes until JUST before they begin to turn brown...it happens quickly so keep and eye out.

Once your shapes are baked and cooled separate the hearts with the middle cut out on a
piece of baking paper.
 Melt your chocolate and pour into a zip-loc bag.

Snip the corner of the bag and drizzle the chocolate over the hearts with the cut outs.

Once the chocolate has set melt your jam and water together.

If you wish you can then sieve out the seeds but I leave them!

 Spread a little on the solid hearts and then place one of the chocolate covered hearts on the top.

Once all of your hearts are stuck together spoon in one tablespoon of the melted jam mix into the centre of each cookie.

Leave to set and then you're done!

xx

Recipe Seven: Party Meringues

When you are going to an event with a significant guest list under 10years (eg. The family Christmas get together)

things like Vietnamese cold rolls or Oysters never go down as well as when you take something made from sugar and food colouring...

Party Meringues

4 eggs whites, at room temperature

3/4 of a cup of caster sugar

2 teaspoons of cornflour

1 teaspoon of white vinegar

Food colouring

Sprinkles.

STEP ONE:

Preheat your oven to 100C

You want to whip your egg whites in a steel bowl until soft peaks form.

Next up you want to gradually add your sugar, making sure it has dissolved between each addition.

STEP TWO

Continue to beat until the meringue is thick and glossy and leaves big thick ribbons when you lift the beaters out of the mix. Whisk in the cornflour and vinegar.

STEP THREE:

Add pink food colouring to half of your mix.

You can then pipe out the meringues in beautiful little swirls or go for a more lazy rustic option by just spooning the same size heap fulls onto your baking sheet.

Add sprinkles.

Table spoon sized heaps with need 2hrs in your preheated oven and it's a good idea to switch your trays half way through.

When the meringues are ready they will sound hollow when you tap them.

Once out of the oven and cooled transfer them somewhere air tight until you are ready to bring them out. 

If they come in contact with any moisture you'll end up with a sticky, chewy mess

xx

Recipe Three: Lemon and Pistachio Wreaths

To say lemon is one of my absolute favourite flavours ever in the entire history of the universe may be understating it a bit. 

Generally if its main flavour is lemon, I'll eat it.

If it doesnt have lemon in it...I usually add it...

Even in tiny amounts lemon gives food a really nice brightness that you just cant achieve otherwise...in my opinion anyhow.

So what makes this biscuit even better than being regular lemon is that under the tart glaze is a beautifully subtle lemon flavoured shortbread. This shortbread is made with almost 1 part wheat flour to 1 part corn flour which gives the biscuit amazingly light texture.
Add to this a sprinkle of lemons best complimentary flavour, Pistachio and your have one heavenly cookie.

Lemon and Pistachio Wreaths

1 teaspoon of Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon of Salt

1 cup of Plain Flour

3/4 of a cup of Corn Flour

1/2 a cup of caster/superfine Sugar

2 large Egg Yolks
115gms of Butter

The zest of 1 Lemon

2 Tablespoons of Lemon Juice

1 teaspoon of Vanilla

1 3/4 cups of icing/confectioners sugar

Milk

STEP ONE:

Put butter and sugar in a bowl and beat on medium/high until pale and fluffy.

STEP TWO:

Mix in yolks, lemon zest and vanilla.

STEP THREE:

In a separate bowl sift together flours, baking powder and salt.

STEP FOUR:

Gradually add your flour mix (I did 1/3 at a time) until all combined. It will look like sand...

STEP FIVE:

Add milk, a very small dash at a time to bring the mix together, once it starts to come together form it into a disk, wrap in clingfilm and place in the refrigerator for half an hour.

Part Two:

STEP ONE

Pre-heat oven to 180C

Roll our dough between two sheets of baking paper to 1/4-1/8" thickness.

Put that in the fridge until hard.
Once hard, working quickly, peel the top sheet off and cut and transfer raw cookies onto the sheet you just peeled off. (I found it easier to cut the holes in the middle once they were transferred)

STEP TWO:

Bake for 10-12minutes or until very, very place brown on the edge.

Transfer to a rack (or in my case chopping board) and cool completely.

STEP THREE:

These cookies are best glazed the day they will be eaten so that they keep their crunch.

If you're not serving them today pop them in an air tight container until tomorrow.

STEP FOUR:

Get your 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and add them to your icing/confectioners sugar.

Mix until you get a treacle like consistency with no lumps.

STEP FIVE:

Peel the purplish, flaky skin off of your pistachios.

I pour boling water over them and let them sit for a few minutes, this way they mostly slip right out.

Chop nice and finely.

STEP SIX:

Either dip or spread the tops of your wreaths with your lemon glaze.
Next sprinkle with pistachios and leave to set.

AND YOU'RE ALL DONE!
Put them on a pretty plate or package them up and they're ready to go..

xx

Recipes Three, Four, Five and Six: Christmas Cookies!!!

It's that time of year and I wanted to send cookies in for everyone in my husband's office.

This years selection:

Lemon Glazed, Candied Ginger

Dark Chocolate and Cranberry

Lemon and Pistachio Wreaths

Gingerbread

I'll post up an in depth tutorial on those Wreaths tomorrow, out of them all they were the most impressive.

Using a beautiful printable from:

"Givers Log"

I packed them up in clear cellophane and sent them off like this:

I'm one recipe in front after my first week and it wasnt as difficult to do as I'd expected...although check back with me when my reason to bake (a.k.a christmas) has passed...

xx

Recipe Two: Chicken Spring Rolls

1. Spring rolls are really quite easy to make

2.Springs rolls are really quite difficult to transport long distances

We live and we learn....

This card goes onto the back and says: 'Fry rolls 2 at a time for 3-4 minutes or until golden and then place in a preheated oven to keep warm and crisp.'

How to roll a Spring Roll...according to me...and the Pampas Pastry packet...

These were perfect.

I didn't HAVE to change the recipe at all

but I did...I added extra vegetables...I had to try to cancel out the deep frying...

xx

Recipe One: Chicken Chow Mein

I wish I could say I started off this project with an amazing recipe but this one was slightly...meh

It REALLY needs more seasoning.

I was tossing up whether to put a printable recipe at the end of my posts and I have made the decision not to. I'd like to think if people wanted a copy they would have to write it down by hand and add it to their own collection.

I believe, among other things foods are memories.

How beautiful when the memories are recorded by hand for others to one day search through and wonder what was the owner like in a time before now?
I know the rushed scribble of my grandmother every time she records the birth of a new grandchild and the loose, exhausted scroll of the day after Christmas.
And I hope my I can give that gift of reverie to my grandchildren.