baking challenge #3: danish almond cookies in 20 minutes

I found this recipe today on recipezaar for Danish “Mandel Kager” Almond Cookies. It sounded good so I gave it a whirl. The challenge? Making cookies that weren’t burnt and tasted good.

In my baking endeavours so far, I’ve learned two important things. I’m sure I knew these before, but kind of ignored them.

1. Not all ovens run to the temperature that they say they do. Some run hotter, some run cooler. It’s important to get a feel for what your oven runs at. For instance, my oven runs like an incinerator. If you put it on 150C, it’s about the equivalent of 180C.
2. Buying a timer is very important. It means you’ll always bake things for the right amount of time, and be alerted loudly to when it’s ready. It also makes things less stressful, because you can do other things in the meantime without feeling you have to check things time and again.

I mixed all the ingredients in my Kenwood Chef, sprayed the tray with some light olive oil, rolled the mix into balls, and dotted about 7 on to the tray. I put the rest of the mixture into a bowl, covered it and put it in the fridge for another time.

Why? Well, I figure it will last a couple of days. I figure that if I make them all in one hit, I’m likely to eat too many. I also figure that if I keep the mix and make another batch later, I’ll extend the mix and be able to have fresh cookies again in a few days. Also, like most sweet recipes, it contains a tonne of butter, and I’m conscious that if I do end up eating a lot of them, I’ll be consuming that tonne of butter. So yeah, it’s to essentially to spread out my butter consumption so I feel mentally better about eating them. lol.

The mixing & prep time took under 10 minutes. I then baked them for about 12 minutes. They should be cooled for a while until the harden up, but overall these are very quick cookies to make.

Ingredients-wise I stuck to the recipe quite well. Instead of the cinnamon and cardamom though, I used some mixed spice. I also didn’t put in the shortening - I didn’t have any so omitted that completely and just put in a bit extra butter. I put it a touch of almond essence too - just a drop or two - to extend the almondy-ness.

Overall, they’re pretty good cookies! My first impression is that they are very light and fluffy cookies, but this may just because they need more time to rest. The almond flavour is delicious though, and the spice is a nice touch. Very simple and inexpensive little recipe to try out next time you have a cookie craving

baking challenge #2: vanilla muffin birthday cake

One of the ladies at work is having her birthday tomorrow and we’ll both be working the weekend, so I decided it would be nice to whip up some vanilla birthday-themed muffins tonight to serve at morning tea. This was a first, as I’ve never made a cake for a colleague before, and also never made icing that was any good before (let alone figure out how to use a piping bag without destroying it!!). It was also an important hurdle to jump in terms of cooking the muffins without burning them.

I used the same ingredients and method from the blueberry muffin recipe I made last week, but omitted the blueberries, and added about 2-3 times the amount of vanilla essence. I also added a couple of teaspoons of maple syrup to the mix. I topped them with two icings - one made from butter, icing sugar, vanilla essence, lemon juice and a few drops of chocolate essence, and the other from butter, icing sugar, vanilla essence, lemon juice, and the tiniest drop of almond essence. I iced half the muffins with the chocolate, half with the almond, sprinkled them with some 100s & 1000s, and then piped details on them with the opposing colour icing. The result? A beautifully fluffy, vanillery, and scrumptiously buttery muffin. I’ve arranged them all in a container, with a little extra icing piped on the centre muffin and a ‘Happy Birthday’ flag added for decoration. Lined up like this it looks a bit like a birthday cake in itself, but all portioned up neatly ahead of time! (Meaning no slicing and less dishes for us lazy people! )

To make the flag, cut a small piece of paper and fold it in half. Write the greeting on the front. Opened up and brush the inside lightly with PVA glue. Line up a toothpick in the crease, and close the paper over it. Press to seal. This dries quickly & can be used pretty much immediately.

All packaged up, it’s ready to go! Now I just hope I didn’t go too overboard with the vanilla essence…

blueberry muffins for mum and me

I received a Mother’s Day -themed newsletter from recipezaar today, which featured a fantastic looking picture for “Melt in Your Mouth Blueberry Muffins”. I followed the link trail to find the recipe, and was stoked to see that it was really really simple. I generally suck at baking, and my oven burns pretty much everything that goes in it, so my baking mantra is ‘the simpler the better!’

I haven’t ever made blueberry muffins before, but I’ve eaten them now and again at cafe’s and the like. They are always a bit sticky and gooey for me, and as such a bit on the heavy side. For this reason I have to admit I’ve never found them that appetizing. They’re often also either too sweet or too bland. These are all reasons why I’ve probably never made them.

This recipe is amazing though. It goes to show that the best things in life are often the most simple. I am so impressed. I made this batch tonight to test them out, with the plan to make some more on Saturday to give to our Mums on Sunday. I’m glad I decided on doing that now, because it turns out that in an attempt to brown the tops a little bit more, I left the grill on too long and they got a bit tooo brown. I was sitting right in front of the damn oven, too, but our oven doesn’t have a glass window on the door, so it’s hard to monitor what you’re baking without letting the heat out.

Anyway, although I was sure they were burnt, they actually aren’t. They’re just well coloured!

The consistency is absolutely beautiful, you take a bite and its all melty and perfect, and the blueberries are sooo good. It doesn’ stick to your teeth like most blueberry muffins do; but its not too dry or bready either. It’s hard to explain - it’s just perfect. I will definitely make these again - and perhaps alternate what berries I put in now and then, for some variety.

So do try the recipe out - you won’t be disappointed! Great served with a cuppa

22 years of good food

After the turbulence of the weekend, my birthday didn’t really turn out as I had planned, but overall it proved to be one of the most memorable, albeit very laid back. The boy ’schwein woke at 5.15am for work, and before leaving made me a breakfast of the best homemade granola with a small jug of milk and a bowl of King Island Dairy yoghurt. I was so impressed - his granola is good! If he wants to make me that every day, I won’t complain!! Then he brought me a warm plate, fresh from the oven, with two croissants from the local bakery which he filled with honey ham, Swiss cheese, and Dijon mustard. Although I was initially a bit grumpy because I had to wake up at 6, everything tasted fantastic and I felt very spoilt.

The house was in dire need of a clean, so seeing I was up early I decided to tidy up, which eventually got extended to a full-blown dust, vacuum & mop. Then I gave the cat a bath, gave the bathroom a scrub, and then a shower for myself. Because I started so early it was all done by 10am!

We had initially planned to go out for lunch, so he came home from work early. But after the huge breakfast I wasn’t really hungry enough. So instead we stayed home. We bought some organic potatoes and 2 leeks from the supermarket the other day, and it was a chilly enough for something warm, so I decided on a dinner of potato and leek soup. It turned out really really well, and tasted pretty luxurious once topped with a slice of bread and cheese, and toasted under the grill.

Today we continued the birthday celebrations with an extravagant afternoon tea with his Mum (who also had a birthday recently) & her partner. We made homemade scones with strawberry jam and whipped cream, and bought a coffee & walnut cake, and another cake that was kind of like a giant Swiss pastry filled with custard and walnuts. With a few plungers of good coffee, a few cruisy records on in the background, and some great conversation, it turned out to be a nice and relaxing arvo for all.

Ah, the power of food to make things seem brighter.

Potato & Leek Soup

1. 1 medium saucepan - fill 2/3 with potatoes, roughly cubed; cover with water; boil until softened.
2. Tip out 1/2 the water, and replace with approx 1 litre milk.
3. In a separate pan, saute finely sliced leeks in some butter until translucent. When ready add to potatoes.
4. Add 2 stock cubes.
5. Use a potato masher to break up the potatoes.
6. Cook and mash until soup is thickened - by this time the potatoes have broken up enough to no longer be lumpy.
7. Add salt and white pepper to taste.
8. Ladel into bowls. Top with a peice of crusty bread, sprinkled with a generous amount of grated cheese and a crackling of pepper.
9. Toast under grill.
10. Serve and enjoy!

homemade almond biscotti

I’ve always wanted to make these but never really got around to it. I found a recipe for biscotti today on the Kenwood Chef website though that seemed simple and do-able, so I gave it a try using my trusty old 70s machine. Turned out pretty well I reckon! As usual, I altered the recipe somewhat to suit my pantry contents, and the method was also tweaked a bit because of my temperamental oven. I also doubled the recipe because I’m a) a greedy-guts, and b) too lazy to make more once I’ve devoured the first lot! I’m pretty happy with the outcome overall, tho if I had more almonds and some pistacios I would have added them. I also wish I could find a substitute for baking powder so that desserts like this don’t have that dry-mouth feeling when you eat them.. if anyone has any ideas let me know! Here’s the recipe…

semolina upside-down fruit salad cake

There’s nothing worse than wanting cake but having no flour! On this occasion we did however have some semolina in the cupboard and decided to use it as a substitute. The result was actually pretty damn good. The semolina gave the cake a slightly grainy texture, but this was in no way a bad thing. The fruit melded with the base to create quite a moist, but not overly sweet, dessert. I’ll be using semolina again in this way! The recipe follows…

food blog of the week #17

Well, this isn’t really a blog I guess… but it’s still a noteworthy food-related website worthy of a review, so welcome to the 17th installment of food blog thingo of the week!

I’m not quite sure how it was that originally I stumbled across Road Food, but it has to be one of the most interesting places on the web - even if you live outside of the U.S.

What is roadfood, you ask? On the website it’s summed up as “Great regional meals along highways, in small towns and in city neighborhoods. It is sleeves-up food made by cooks, bakers, pitmasters, and sandwich-makers who are America’s culinary folk artists. Roadfood is almost always informal and inexpensive; and the best Roadfood restaurants are colorful places enjoyed by locals (and savvy travelers) for their character as well as their menu.”

To be completely honest, some of the dishes featured on the site make you feel grateful you don’t spend much time on the road. Indeed, some make you think your own diet - albeit in need of improvement - isn’t actually too bad in the scheme of things. But the occasional meal actually makes you feel quite envious that in the U.S. you can be fed so well for so little money. - Particularly if you’re Australian and you’re used to an on-the-road diet of pricey yet well-aged chicko rolls, cornjacks, dim sims, chips and toasted sandwiches - i.e. most things that contain bread, breadcrumbs or batter and can be fried in large amounts of stinky old reused oil. Even the more substantial meals are generally pretty boring, not to mention low quality and value for money.

Looking through the different food-logs of the different states it also seems that more road meals in the U.S. seem to be made from scratch compared to over here. Yes, the fried components are still very common, but there are more one-pot type meals like stews and broths, and more sauces. What you get generally reflects how much you spend, too, which I think is quite fair compared to here. It also just looks yummier (well, sometimes, anyway - I’m pretty open minded, but stuff like this, this and this makes me wonder!) Here are some great examples!

Large plate of wedges, US$3

 

12 Chicken wings, US$8

 

Halibut & chips - US$14

Taco salad - US$6

California Breakfast - US$9

 

 Chicken pot pie - US$5

 

Onion rings - US$3

Chicken and dumplings - US$5

Belgian waffle - US$4

Zip Burger & fries - US$5

Lemon cheese pie - US$2

And violin-playing ’schwein’s to boot!

speck, spinach and swiss chard quiche topped with tomatoes

We have had a huge surplus of eggs in the fridge lately, so I decided to finally turn them in to a quiche this afternoon using some of the speck we bought the other day from Dubrovniks, along with some freshly picked spinach, Swiss chard and spring onions.

I more or less followed the recipe for quiche that we posted up last time we made it, apart from the following variations:

• I used 8 eggs;
• I only added a few tablespoons of parmesan for the cheese component (i.e. I didn’t add any cheddar);
• I used a combination of speck and general bacon for the bacon component;
• I evidently used fresh spinach & Swiss chard in place of the frozen stuff - prepared by chopping it small but roughly and wilting it in a pan until most of the water had evaporated.
• I also used hot water pastry instead of puff pastry (made by halving our hot water pastry recipe - which can be found here). This meant that I baked it at around 150C until set and slightly browned - which probably took between 30 to 40 minutes. Our oven runs hotter than most though, so you might find that 160C is more sufficient. I checked often to be sure it didn’t burn on the bottom.
• When the quiche had more or less set and was on its way to being ready, I lined some slices of tomato across the top and put the tin back in the oven on the highest shelf. When the tomato had warmed and wilted somewhat, I removed the quiche from the oven and transferred it to a serving dish shortly after.

I was going to serve this with a light salad, but I thought the greens inside the quiche and the tomato on top gave it a fresh enough flavour to have it on its own. It would be nice with salad, though, and particularly good if served at a picnic or BBQ.

Instead of cutting it in to squares like last time, I thought I’d have a go at slicing it. This made the pastry crumble a bit more and was a bit trickier to eat, so I think I’ll stick to squares in the future!! Nevertheless, this was totally delish yet again.

best ever choc walnut muffins - 100th post!

Mmmm… what better way to celebrate our 100th post?!

I finally bought some cooking chocolate the other day. I always find I crave chocolate at exactly the same time the shops close, so this time I snuck it in to the shopping list ahead of time. Initially I made some terrible tasting chocolate-coated pears (I’m sure they would be good with better quality chocolate, but with cooking chocolate they tasted awful!). Second time around I decided to make something that melded two flavours together that I knew would complement one another - namely walnuts and chocolate. Although I’ll take some credit for coming up with this divine flavour combo and putting it in a muffin, I won’t take credit for the muffin recipe in itself. It is by and large adapted from the recipe for ‘Fruity Muffins’ supplied in Alison Holst’s Meals Without Meat. I’ve used this recipe for muffins countless times, seemingly always adding everything *but* fruit to them! Perhaps one day I’ll try out her recommendation of blackberries, blueberries, and banana. For now, though, here is the amended recipe for choc walnut muffins! This mix makes 12. They’re very yummy and extremely addictive, so you might want to double the recipe if you have more than yourself and your significant other to feed!!

a coffee break in pictures

Saturday arvo coffee craving.

AU$2.42 at Coles.

Recently rediscovered in our store room.

Coffee + water + 2-3 sugars + skim milk.

Mmmmm…