Making the Christmas Cake 2018.

I use this recipe.

Scrolls.

Scrolls.

3 cups Greek plain yogurt
3 cups SR flour

Mix and roll into a ball and the roll out into a rectangle upon a well floured surface.

Paint melted butter on rectangle, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and with floured hands, roll up tightly.  Cut into 5cm discs and place right side up, separated in baking dish.  Baste with melted butter.

Bake till brown, perhaps cover with baking paper towards the end.

Allow to cool and then spread icing made from icing mixture, vanilla and warm water. 

Can be made savoury by filling with tomato paste, herbs and cheese or vegemite or cheese etc.

Milk Tart.

This milk tart was made by 15 year old daughter for a school assessment.  We used my Ouma's recipe.  The filling is similar to this recipe and we made the base which was in her recipe.  Lovely how the taste of food can bring back memories.

Pecan Cake.

Divine!
Thankyou Sydney Morning Herald, Good Food section.

165g brown sugar
80g cubed butter
125mL milk.

Heat the above three.  Do not boil.  Cool.  Add 1 egg and 90g chopped pecans, 150g SR flour and mix.

Bake 35 minutes at 160 degrees.

Ice with 185g icing sugar, 2T golden syrup and 3t water.

Almond Flan.

Grind 200g almonds or brazil nuts

Cream 125g butter with 2/3 cup brown sugar
Add some vanilla.
Add 2 eggs, one at a time and beat well after each one.
Add 2/3 cup rice flour and then add the ground nuts and some nutmeg.

Push sliced fruit onto the top, I used tinned pears.

Bake at 170 degrees Celsius for about 40minutes.

Recipe taken from Country Style.

Siba's Salad.

There is a new show on TV, a lady from South Africa has a cooking show.  Her name is Siba.  Here was her recipe for a salad.

Grate ginger, add to cooked bacon and onion.  Chop some garlic and then add diced capsicum, mushrooms and corn.  Remove from the heat, add some soy sauce and coriander.

I used the leftover salad with cheese and made pizza pockets.
Here is the original recipe.

Zulu Cake.

Not sure if that is a name which is well known for this cake, but a friend of mine used it for this cake a while ago.  The thermomix was great for this recipe.  I milled my own almond meal and boiled/steamed the oranges in the thermomix basket.  The thermomix then mushed the oranges with the other ingredients.  A lovely gluten free cake from the thermomix community.

Chicken Noodle Soup.

Chicken and Noodle Soup.

Brown 2 full chicken breasts in the pressure cooker
Cook, high pressure 6 min with cut carrot and liquid stock (I use thermomix homemade) filled to capacity.
This time I also added fresh, cut chives.
Reduce pressure, add rice noodles and frozen corn bits.
High pressure 3 min.

Enjoy.

Thankfully we have leftovers as another child (12 year old daughter) now has the chicken pox.

Eggs, Sugar, Butter and Cocoa Doth a Brownie Maketh.

Pierre Roelofs Better than Brownie Chocolate Cake.
8 eggs
700g dark, soft brown sugar
pinch of salt
280g butter
200g good quality (Dutch processed) cocoa powder.

Line a 23cm x 30cm tin with baking paper
Preheat oven 130degrees celcius.
Warm the eggs and brown sugar over a simmering water and whisk until light and fluffy (10 min by machine). Add salt.  Using the thermomix, I set it to 50 degrees, speed 3.  I did not need the full 10 minutes.
Melt the butter and cocoa powder.  Gently fold them into the egg mixture.  Keeping the mixture as aerated as possible.  In thermomix speak; I took the egg/sugar mix out of the jug.  Put in the butter and cocoa and set it to 90 degrees, speed 3, 3 minutes.  I then poured in the egg/sugar mixture.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for about 45minutes.  Turn the tin occasionally until firm and evenly cooked.

This recipe is from the Sydney Morning Herald.

French Chicken Pie.

Dinner last night; chicken pie - inspired by 12 year old daughter's choice after flicking through "At My French Table."

Chicken Pie.

brown 4 chicken breasts
add fresh chives, garlic
450mL stock (I used homemade stock from the thermomix recipes)
cook till softened (I used our pressure cooker)
add 2/3 cup of cream (I used lactose free)
cook till thickening
add corn flour

set aside to cool.

Put in pie dish and cover with pastry, bake till golden.

Apple Pie.

Delicious apple pie from the Thermomix community recipes.  The last of the apples from the mountains.

This Weekend.

A lot of time spent in the kitchen yesterday: banana bread, passionfruit slice and chicken soup.
I love seeing our children's artwork and the above piece was done by 9 year old daughter.
The aim this week is to plant sweet peas.  The garden bed needs to be prepared (ie weeded and composted soil added to the garden bed).  Husband E will build a trellis.

Passionfruit Slice:

Bake a base of your choice.  This time I made a shortbread base, but next time I might try a coconut/flour type of base which I have used for choc/caramel slice in the past.
For the topping, mix a can of condensed milk, a small can of passionfruit and 3T of lemon juice.
Pour over the baked base and bake till set.
Refrigerate.  It is quite rich!

Pancakes.

Our family love pancakes, but my mixtures have never been smooth and the pan has not been that great either.  We invested in a good quality pan and the thermomix whipped up a superb batter.  Add to that some good quality maple syrup care of Mrs N for my birthday and we have had a fab morning!

Recipe from the Thermomix Forum:

160g plain flour
160g SR flour
2 eggs
600g milk.

Mix on speed 5 for 30 seconds.  Stand for 30 minutes.  Fed our family of 6 happily.

Delicious Fruit Slice.

Delicious slice:

Mrs Atkins' Fruit Slice... given to me by Mrs P. S.

125 g butter
1 cup brown sugar (use less next time)
1 egg
225g mixed vine fruit
150g self raising flour

Melt butter, add sugar and melt further.  Add egg, fruit and flour.  I used the thermomix and made sure to use the reverse blade button so we did not end up with mushed fruit.

Press into 28cm x 18cm baking tray and bake at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes (was longer for my oven).

I iced it with lime icing; limes from Mrs N.

A New Helper.

There is a place for many helpers!  The slow cooker for my soup recipe and the insert to cook huge batches of bolognaise on the stove top.
The pressure cooker to make chicken/noodle soup and delicious corned beef...
Introducing the Thermomix, I have made vegetable stock, chopped celery, choc caramel slice and pesto.  The chocolate was grated from squares to what looks like cocoa powder in 5 seconds.  The pesto was made with leftover basil from the stock..... I am enjoying cooking again....

Not Enough Milk For Baking.

We were gathering with husband E's family today; probably 21 children in total and I wanted to take something for afternoon tea... I did not have a lot of milk though.  11 year old daughter found this recipe in her recipe book "Kids' Cookbook".

Chocolate Slice:

250g butter
1 cup caster sugar
3T cocoa
1 egg
2 cups dessicated coconut
2 cups corn flakes, crushed
2 cups plain flour
2t baking powder
1t vanilla essence.

Melt butter, add sugar/cocoa, then egg.  Mix in dry ingredients.  Spread in lamington tin and bake 20min at 180 degrees.

I doubled the recipe and then used 2 cups of SR flour instead (ie less flour, the mix seemed to be just right at that point).  I also added 2 more eggs.

Next time, I won't put the corn flakes in as it had a salty/cereal sort of taste.

Thankyou Neil Perry....

for your inspriation, I found this recipe of yours in a Good Weekend from 2012.  I tweaked it a bit as I am lazy.... tweaks in italics....

Blueberry and Lemon Cake:

350g icing sugar mixture
90 SR flour
180g almond meal
finely grated zest of two lemons
7 egg whites (I used the whole egg)
185g butter, melted
30mL milk
160g frozen blueberries

Sift icing sugar mixture and flour.  Stir in almond meal and lemon zest until well combined.

In another bowl whisk egg whites, until broken down.  Add egg whites, melted butter, milk and 100g of frozen blueberries to the almond mixture.  Stir until just combined.

Spread cake mixture into prepared cake tin.  Scatter over remaining blueberries.  Gently press them into the mixture slightly.

Bake at 180 degrees for about an hour.  Test, it may need longer (esp if you used the whole egg like I did...)

Lamb with Roasted Vegetables.

A brochure at Coles inspired me to make a delicious dinner; lamb with roasted capsicum, onion and tomato; all drizzled with oil/lemon and garlic.  Delicious.

Egg and Milk Free Chocolate Fudge Cake.

3 cups flour
One and half cups caster sugar
3T cocoa
1 cup water
1T white vinegar
half a cup vegetable oil


Add the ingredients in this order,  mix well to get rid of lumps.  Bake at 180 degrees for half an hour.

This recipe came from 11 year old daughter's kids' cookbook.

Attic 24 Choc Chip Cookies.

Attic 24 Choc Chip Cookies:

200g butter
150g brown sugar,  whip together

Add 4T golden syrup
350g Self Raising Flour
choc chips (and we added caramel drops as well)

Bake 180 degrees for 10minutes.

So very good.