chai spiced cookies

you know winter has arrived when you love having the oven on as it cooks a hearty meal slowly over many hours and dessert after dinner is not simply an iceblock to cool down but something warming too.
I always love chai tea in winter. There's something almost medicinal about  brewing the spices over a pot on the stove and adding a generous amount of honey, of course.
I've been thinking about making some easy to make biscuits using chai spices for a while now and finally here is a recipe that I would be more then happy to pull out on any cold night fresh from the oven. enjoy...

Ingredients

250g Plain Flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom (plus a dash more)
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
125g unsalted butter, cold and chopped into cubes
135g brown sugar
60ml/1/4 cup boiling water
1 tablespoon honey (I used Beechworth Tasmanian Leatherwood)

Method

Pre heat oven to 180C, fan forced and line 2 baking trays with baking paper

Sift flour, bicarb soda and spices together in a large bowl.

Boil water. Measure out 1/4 cup of boiled water into a heat proof bowl and stir in honey until dissolved.

Add the butter and sugar to the flour mix and rub until the mix resembles bread crumbs.

Add the boiled water to the flour mix and stir with a flat blade knife until the mix starts to form a soft dough. Kneed lightly with your hands and then roll into small balls (approx 20g each) and place on baking tray, squashing them down slightly with your thumb. Allow room for spreading. You should get at least 36 cookies from the mix.

Bake for 15 minutes. Leave on the trays for 10 minutes before cooling completely on a rack. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

enjoy with some hot and spicy chai tea!

Scrummy Lemon Bake or Lemon Syrup Slice

Every now and then I take a look at the Cookbooks in our local library to see what's new and I came across one by the Australian Actress, Lisa McCune.  It has the very sweet title of "Honeyjoys and Hopscotch" and I figured it would be right up my alley. There are great family recipes and theres a nice mix of lunchbox ideas, party treats and other yummy things.....well, one such yummy thing I came across was a recipe for Lemon Bake (p 214) I made it according to the original recipe and though it was delicious beyond words.....I just didn't feel comfortable with the amount of butter and sugar incorporated. So I have rejigged it......just a little itty bit.

Ingredients

150g Butter, softened
150g Caster sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup greek yoghurt
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
zest of 2 lemons

juice of 2 lemons
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Method

Pre-heat oven at 170C. Line a 20 x 30 x 4cm tray with baking paper.

beat the butter and sugar on high speed until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time followed by the yoghurt, beat until creamy.
Sift in the flour and baking powder and once incorporated add the lemon zest. Transfer to the tray and bake for 30 - 35 minutes until top is golden and test the cake with a metal skewer until it comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and prick with a skewer, covering it with little holes all over. Mix the juice and sugar in a cup and spoon it over the cake. Allow the cake to cool and enjoy at room temperature with a cup of tea.......heaven!!

Depending on the size of the slices you could serve up to 10 people.

Spiced Apple Crumble Cake - The Easter That Was!

Here is a recipe I am posting for my friend Caroline. I've made this cake a few times now and it's one that never disapoints.... We had inhaled most of our easter eggs by Sunday night and I thought, Thank goodness I am making this cake tomorrow to take to Carolines house!.....I was pretty sure I needed at least a 12 hour break from chocolate : )

So after a lovely relaxing long lunch we enjoyed this cake with fresh cream and icecream....you can never have enough of both!

This recipe comes from a cookbook called, Organic Cookbook (naturally good food) by Renee Elliott of Planet Organic and Eric Treuille and it has been my favourite one since I bought it over 10 years ago. It has great all round recipes, something for everyone and it even offers alternatives to most recipes.

Spiced Apple Crumble Cake

Crumble

125g plain flour
60g raw sugar
90g butter (I use unsalted)

Fruit

4 apples, sliced (thickish slices will result in slightly harder fruit while thinner slices will melt in the mouth)
1 tablespoon raw sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cake

175g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs
1 tablespoon milk
175g butter, softened (I ues unsalted)
175g raw sugar

Pre heat oven to 190C and line a cake tin with baking paper.

for the crumble, place the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until a coarse crumble. set aside.

for the fruit, combine apple slices and sugar and cinnamon in a bowl until evenly coated.

for tha cake. Sift flour and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. beat eggs with milk in a small bowl and set aside. In a large bowl beat the butter until light and creamy. gradually beat in the sugar a little at a time until all incorporated. Add the egg mix gradually, beating well each time. Fold in flour carefully.

Spread the mix evenly in the cake tin. Throw over the apples and then sprinkle over the crumble. The recipe states to cook for 1 hour or until cake has pulled away from the sides and the crumble is golden brown. For me it has always been more like 1 hour and 15 mins. Leave to cool in the tin for 15 mins before attempting to pull it out and serve. Enjoy fresh from the oven with lashings of cream and icecream!

variations:

Rhubarb and ginger - replace apples with 750g rhubarb cut into 1cm pieces. replace cinnamon with ground ginger. proceed as normal.

Blackberry and apple - reduce apples to 2 and add 250g blackberries. proceed as normal.

enjoy!  : )

to die for chai tea and chocolate biscuits

where have i been? a few really cool things happened. I attended an Etsy Morning Tea at The Commons in Darlinghurst; my little Etsy shop was featured here and we organised a magic show for our sons birthday......a donut birthday cake was the best decision I have ever made!

A friend of mine recently posted on facebook a recipe that she had come across. Anything sweet and I've got to check it out. Well, today our little girl and I made them and I just had to share them....they are delicious! The original recipe is here and while I have kept pretty true to the original I did make a few minor changes.

• When I pre-heated the oven I put it on fan and kept the temperature at 180C.
• I pulled all my ingredients out and realised I didn't have any butter so I used margarine instead; it still worked.
• The recipe asks for alot of sugar - both caster and brown. Don't worry, just add it as they are not overly sweet at all.
• with the loose leaf tea, I used a chai mix
• I used 200g large dark chocolate buttons instead of the mix of white and milk choc.
• I used 2 large biscuit trays and used 1 heaped dessert spoon full of mix to create my biscuit leaving about a 5cm gap around each one and baking them all in 1 go for only 10minutes. When they were done I left them on the tray for 5 minutes and then cooled them completely on a cooling rack

enjoy! : )

happy new year pancakes!

hi there! i hope you've all had some lovely down time over the holiday break. My husband goes back to work next week and it has been so heavenly having him home! When we haven't been catching up with friends we have been eating lots of delicious food, enjoying long swims in our pool and bike riding in the cooler parts of the day; did i mention pancakes for breakfast nearly every day!

I'm a bit picky when it comes to pancakes. Over the years I've tried lots and lots and lots and lots of different pancakes - I know, it's tough! but this recipe, which I have worked on perfecting over the last 10 years is based on one that I came across in Organic Cookbook By Renee Elliott. It is so incredibly easy! If you have electronic scales this recipe is a cinch - you'll have them ready before someone can scream, "where's the icecream!!!"

happy new year pancakes

ingredients

olive oil spray
300g plain flour, sifted
10g baking powder (about 1 TB)
good dash of salt
2 eggs, beaten (110g for the 2)
18g raw sugar (about 1TB - anymore then that and they will be too sickly sweet)
24g butter (2TB)
238g milk (just under a cup)
200g container of Farmer's Union Natural European Pot Set Yoghurt (if you use a different yohurt it will definitely affect the flavour. If you use a greek style yoghurt your pancakes will be much denser - I love the Farmer's union plain yoghurt as it doesn't impart a strong flavour and they are still quite light and fluffy pancakes)

maple syrup, icecream, jam, fruit for serving

method


Melt butter in microwave or on stove top and set aside for a minute.

If you have one use a non-stick frying pan otherwise, get out your large frying pan and spray with olive oil spray. I use to use olive oil and then wipe down with paper towel (as we don't have a non-stick frying pan) but the spray gives it a less fryed flavour. Spray liberally and pop over a medium heat.

In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients through liberally then  throw all your other ingredients in and whisk together until smooth. When frypan is hot enough add a ladle full of pancake mix. When large bubbles appear on the surface flip over and cook the other side for a minute or too. Adjust the temperature as you go or as needed!

I usually make 2 small pancakes to start so the children can eat theirs first. Then I make ours quite large so I can usually get about 5 - 6 pancakes from this mix, depending on how big I make them!

our family christmas

We had my husbands family over on the weekend for our family christmas and yes it was on that particularly scorching hot day! I had to re-think my menu a little bit so I was spending as little time in the kitchen as possible and I was using the stove as quickly as possible. I know I said I was going to do a chicken ceasar salad but I just couldn't face bacon and eggs AND schnitzel in that heat. I'd found a recipe in the Christmas edition of the free Coles magazine (hey, you never know where you'll come across a decent recipe!) so after a few adjustments, things cooked and kept in the fridge and a quick pan fry later - it was done! And it was delicious, of course teamed with a few other things on the table. : )

chicken, haloumi and cherry salad


ingredients

4 chicken schnitzels (either crumb your own chicken breasts or buy them crumbed)
1 bunch of aspargus
50g peppery baby rocket leaves
1 cup cherries
1 pack of haloumi

dressing
2 TBS extra virgin olive oil
1 TBS lemon juice
1 small garlic clove, peeled and chopped in half
1 tsp dijon mustard
a pinch of caster sugar


method

This salad is lovely cold and the components of it can be made ahead of time and thrown together at the end!

About 4 hours before eating - place olive oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat and cook schnitzels together until cooked. When you take them out of the pan, drain them on  paper towel and leave to cool for about 30 to 45minutes and then cover with foil and keep in the fridge.

About 2 hours before eating - Fill kettle and put on to boil. Trim ends of asparagus and give them a wash. Place them in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. set aside for 1 minute. Drain and place in a bowl of cold tap water for 2 minutes. Drain, pat dry with paper paper towel then wrap and place in the fridge. Chop cherries in half and take out the pits, discard the stalks. Keep them in a zip lock bag in the fridge.

About 30 minutes before eating - Put dressing ingredients in a glass jar with a lid. Shake and set aside. Doesn't need to go in the fridge.

Just before eating - Get your platter ready. Wash rocket leaves and scatter over the platter. Place some olive oil in a frying pan and place over a medium high heat. Take out the asparagus and scatter over the platter. Slice the haloumi however you like and fry each side for 1 minute or until lightly browned. Take out your schnitzels and slice into strips. Scatter chicken, haloumi and cherries over your platter. Discard garlic and drizzle over dressing. Serves 6 -8 as a side.

The remainder of my menu included a mix of bread rolls served with organic butter; a seafood platter of oysters, a balmain bug and fresh prawns served with tartare sauce, seafood sauce and a gorgeous garlicky aoli. I also put together a small platter of smoked salmon with crostinis, baby capers and some dill. For dessert we had mini magnums plus! my Christmas sundae and let me tell you, it all went down an absolute treat! As you can see I got the kids to paint "Christmassy things" on the paper table runner and to save myself even more time we used paper plates for eating and paper bowls for prawn shells and I had arcopal bowls with lemon and water for finger bowls and apparently salt on ice makes it melt slower! : )

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with family and friends!

 

Eat, Drink, Be Merry!

 

xxm

 

simple christmas dessert or christmas sundae

Sorry it's been a while. We are all so busy, I know! Life has been turned up to 11 for the last few weeks around here.....the end though is in sight! Christmas day is only 40 days away!! I can't wait until I sit down with my family, tear open a few presents, listen to some bad jokes and eat way too much good food. Yay!

I came across Sara Lee Fruit Inspired Mixed Berry Icecream a few weeks back and I was immediately transported to Christmas. It has that lovely creamy/fruity/slightly spicy flavour of pudding icecream. Seriously! So I thought I would layer it with a few other Christmassy things to create a simple christmas dessert that anyone would love.......unless of course you're a vampire.

simple christmas dessert or christmas sundae

Ingredients

>1 litre Sara-lee Fruit Inspired Mixed Berry Icecream
>Christmas Cake (I used Big Sister Premium Rich Mini Christmas cakes 80g each) One cake did 2 desserts.
>1 punnet of fresh blueberries, washed and dryed with kitchen paper
>Ground cinnamon for sprinkling

Method

select your serving bowls/glasses and layer the ingredients however you like. Top with blueberries and sprinkle with ground cinnamon. Just make sure you get the icecream to cake ratio just perfect!