breakfast in a bar

No, breakfast in a bar is not about having your first meal of the day in a drinking establishment, even if some days it might seem like a good idea.  Although you could call it brunch and then a glass or two of bubbly is acceptable and that’s what I sipped today at our Auckland food blogger catch up brunch, hosted by Allison, Pease Pudding, way out west in Muriwai.  Thanks Allison for a relaxing Sunday morning at your home.  Particularly pleased to meet Food Opera’s Ingrid and Vanessa’s lovely new babies who led us to believe that motherhood is all coffee and cake and sleeping babies.  But hey, they didn’t fool us – we know what they get up to at home.

My contribution to the brunch was these muesli bars.  If muesli means “healthy” to you, think again.  These bars tip the other end of the scale, in more ways than one, so you have been warned.  On the other hand, if you like sweet, sticky buttery goodness, crammed with fruit and nuts and crispness, say hello to these.

The recipe states it makes 12 bars.  They must be giant sized as I managed 30 portions of 4cm x 6.5cm bars (a reasonable-sized bar, I thought).  Halve the recipe, if you don’t want so many.

muesli bars

Adapted slightly from a recipe in the lovely The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.

320g unsalted butter

240ml golden syrup

250g soft brown sugar

250g rolled porridge oats

200g desiccated coconut

100g dried apricots, chopped finely

85g dried dates, chopped finely

125g cornflakes

125g sunflower seeds

60g dried cranberries

60g raw almonds, chopped

60g raw brazil nuts, chopped

125g raisins

Line a 33 x 23 x 5cm baking tin or tray with greaseproof paper.

Gently heat the butter, golden syrup and brown sugar in a saucepan, stirring occasionally, until the butter has melted and the mixture is smooth. 

In a large bowl, mix the porridge oats, coconut, apricots, dates, cornflakes, sunflower seeds, cranberries, almonds, brazil nuts and raisins until it is well mixed. 

Pour in the liquid mixture and stir to combine thoroughly, making sure all the ingredients are evenly coated in the liquid.

Press the mixture into the baking tin or tray and level with a spoon (I used a stainless steel rolling pin to flatten and compress it).  Cover with a sheet of greaseproof paper, then a tray, covered with weights (I used filled tins e.g. baked beans) to further compress the mix

Leave to cool, then refrigerate overnight.

Cut into bars or squares.

Mini black forest gâteaux

I feel I am just settling back in after almost five weeks away overseas.  It’s always exciting to get back and to relate stories and experiences to willing friends, but after a couple of weeks the memories start to fade into the background.  Food is one way of keeping memories alive.  I’ve been thinking of Black Forest gâteau since my return.  I don’t know why except to say it used to be something my father made when we were younger and it was grand and delicious.  I want to say this is for you, Dad, to say thank you and happy birthday.

I’ve taken this gâteau and kind of deconstructed it into a slightly simpler cake.  It's light and airy but still packed with cherry and chocolate flavour.

Use Texas muffin pans for the recipe and size featured.  The traditional cake is flavoured with Kirsch, a cherry brandy.  I omitted this only because I didn’t have any so please use it if you have some to give it its’ true flavour.

Mini black forest gâteaux

90g butter, softened

165g caster sugar

3 eggs, separated

55g self-raising flour

35g cocoa powder

1 tablespoon milk

Ganache topping

¼ cup cream

110g dark chocolate, chopped

Filling

½ cup cream

1 425g tin stoneless black cherries

or use fresh cherries in season

a small splash of Kirsch liqueur (optional)

Makes 6 large (Texas) muffin size cakes

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F.  Grease the Texas muffin tray. 

Beat the softened butter, caster sugar and egg yolks with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  

Sift the flour and cocoa together and fold into the egg mixture, along with the milk. 

In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites with an egg beater or electric mixer until soft peaks form.  Fold the egg whites into the cake mixture until just incorporated.

Divide the cake mixture between the muffin tray and bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes or until the chocolate sponges spring back when lightly pressed with fingertips and a metal skewer inserted in the middle is clean.

Stand for 5 minutes then using a plastic spatula gently loosen the sponges around the edges of each cake. Turn the pan upside down onto a wire rack and tap against the bench once or twice to loosen the sponges onto the rack. 

While the sponges are cooling, make the chocolate ganache by heating the cream in a saucepan until it is boiling.  Remove from heat and pour over the chopped chocolate.  Stir the chocolate until it is smooth.   Put aside to cool – it will thicken as it cools.  If it thickens too much, warm it gently over simmering water in a pan (without the bowl touching the water).

With the sponges turned upside down (the widest part being the bottom of the cake i.e. an upside down muffin), use a sharp, serrated knife to slice the cakes in half horizontally.

Whip the second measure of cream to just slightly-firmish peaks (don’t go too firm).  Drain as many of the cherries as you want to use and fold them gently into the cream, along with the Kirsch (if using).  Save some cherries for decoration.

Spread some cherries and cream filling onto the bottom half of the cake and press down with the top so that the cream and cherries show around the middle of the cake. 

Using a palette knife, spread the chocolate ganache over the top of the cake. Decorate with two cherry halves or shaved chocolate.

This cake is my entry for Sweet New Zealand, hosted this month by the lovely Jemma at Time for a Little Something.  See here for more details.

Oh Fudge…

…that was my reaction when daughter gave me short notice to “bring a plate” (a quaint New Zealand expression which means one is requested to bring a plate of food to the event one is attending) to her pre-ball party on Saturday. 

My head was in a vague place from jet lag, having just returned the previous day from a 5-week visit to the UK and Europe.  I spent a while woozily leafing through cookbooks for something easy and fast.  Then I looked at a tin – a can of condensed milk actually, which directed me to the Nestlé website where I found this recipe for caramel fudge, and altered only slightly. 

I can’t believe I was brave enough to try fudge, as the previous attempt had a certain “undissolved sugar” taste.   I hadn’t simmered and stirred the mixture long enough.  But courageous I was (or stupid with Circadian rhythm sleep disorder?).  It worked well.  Creamy, caramelly – and addictive.  Thankfully when we left the party I only had to collect the plate (you do get the plate back!).  I’m not sure that it’s good etiquette to keep digging into your own contribution to the table?

I said earlier that I was back.  I had the most wonderful time in each and every place I went to and soon I will write a little about it.

I miss the fun and laughter of having family and friends around; the nightly games of Scrabble and walking, walking, walking, always with something to see. 

The sun is out for the first time in five days, the reds and golds of autumn are deep now and it is so peaceful to be home.  I have a heart in both places I know as home - Edinburgh and here.  It’s good to be back.

caramel fudge

125g butter

2 tbsp golden syrup

1 x 395g can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup brown sugar

100g white chocolate, broken into squares (I used Whittaker’s Smooth White Chocolate)

Melt butter in a saucepan. 

Add golden syrup, condensed milk and brown sugar.

Stir over low heat until boiling, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat, add white chocolate pieces and mix until smooth.

Pour into foil lined 7cm x 25cm bar pan, refrigerate until set. 

When set, cut into squares.

Recipe slightly adapted from one at www.tastyrecipes.co.nz

Loving Edinburgh

Parsnip and Nutmeg Soup with divine breads

It really doesn’t matter whether it’s a rare heatwave (yeah, I got to experience one for the first time in years) or freezing with sleet and snow, for Edinburgh is truly a beautiful city.  The weather has settled into how I usually remember it – overcast, sometimes drizzle and just nudging double figures in temperature.  It doesn’t stop us. We are out every day, walking practically everywhere.

Flat whites with dark chocolate squares 

I could hardly wait to hit Peter’s Yard for a takeout flat white and cardamom bun.  There is something about the cafe's setting on Middle Meadow Walk; the modern architecture contrasting with, but not outdoing, the old; the lightness of air inside; and of course the food, that makes it hard for me to pass by.

I don’t feel guilty that I devoured the spicy bun before I left the shop, just explaining why there’s no photo.  As compensation, here's some snapshots of what’s we've eaten there on our visits so far.

Lemon Meringue Pie and Blueberry Pastry

Exterior, Peter's Yard

Monte Carlo cream biscuits

These biscuits are based on a manufactured brand by food company, Arnott’s.  I have no idea why they are called Monte Carlos.  Possibly a small market research focus group sat around choosing a name.  I once sat on such a team for Cadbury’s Dream (white chocolate). I imagined I’d be in choccie heaven tasting all that chocolate but after a few samples, I didn’t want to try any more.  It did not have a lasting effect however…

These are sweet biscuits sandwiched together with buttercream and raspberry jam fillings.  They could also be eaten on their own.  They’re a bit less dainty than melting moments and if I had to choose then melting moments would win.

Traditionally the biscuit shape is oval but I found it easier to take a tablespoon and make them into a round shape, as the dough was quite sticky.  You can make them smaller or larger – just adjust the cooking time. 

Fill them just before serving otherwise filled biscuits will soften up. I stored the unfilled biscuits in a plastic bag in the freezer and spooned a little buttercream and jam on two halves in the morning and had it with mid-morning coffee.  Perfect.

I find store-bought raspberry jam too cloyingly sweet so used my homemade plum jam instead and that gave a nice sharp contrast to the sweetness of the biscuits and cream filling.

Monte Carlo biscuits

185g (6oz) butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla essence

110g (1/2 cup) light brown sugar

1 egg

185g (1¼ cups) self-raising flour

110g (3/4 cup) standard flour

40g (1/2 cup) desiccated coconut

160g (1/2 cup) plum jam (raspberry is more traditional)

For the buttercream filling

60g (2 ounces) butter, softened

120g (3/4 cup) icing sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla essence

2 teaspoons milk

Pre-heat oven to 180°C (350°F).  Grease two oven trays.

Beat the butter, vanilla and sugar in an electric mixer until pale and fluffy.   Add the egg and beat until well combined.  Sift the two flours together and add to the mixture.  Add the coconut and stir lightly to combine.

Take about a tablespoon of dough and place on the baking tray.  Leave a space of about 4cm (1½ inch) between biscuits.  Score the surface of each biscuit with a fork to rough up the surface and to flatten slightly.

Bake for approximately 12 minutes.  I baked one tray whilst preparing the second.  I always find I get better results with one tray only in the oven when it comes to biscuits. Cool on trays.

While biscuits are cooling make the buttercream filling by beating the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy.  Beat in the extract and milk. 

When biscuits are completely cold, place about one teaspoon buttercream on the middle of one biscuit and one teaspoon jam on the other.  Gently press together so jam and buttercream are visible round the edge but not spilling over.

Recipe adapted from The Australian Women’s Weekly afternoon tea cookbook.  So far the recipes I’ve made from this have all turned out well.

This was a mini-version I made.
The hand is not mine!

I am heading off to Europe shortly so if family, friends and travel are not too much overload, I may get in some mini-posts!  There won’t be too much cooking going on but I’m never far from food (and coffee) of some kind.

etcetera...#5

Baking - There was a whole lotta baking going on at the weekend.  Saturday’s predicted “weather bomb” showed up as gusts of wind and showers so baking in a warm kitchen seemed the right thing to do.

I’d started a barm brack loaf the night before – just because my partner loves it. Instead of soaking the dried fruit and sugar in Earl Grey tea, I used the fragrant Kiwi Christmas Tea from NZ Live loose tea (yep, Christmas came and went without it being opened).   The smell alone was enough to convince me it would spice up the tea loaf in a good way.  And it did.  A blend of Assam tea, chocolate, orange, clove, star anise and cinnamon, with manuka leaf and pink peppercorns (wow, that’s a lot of star attractions), gave the loaf a gorgeous spicy flavour and turned it a warm reddish colour.  It may permanently replace the Earl Grey.

Next up were some Monte Carlo biscuits (more of in another post).  And following on from my stint in the kitchen, my daughter made a caramelised apple pie.  It's all going down rather well!

Appearing everywhere - Often when I‘m considering blogging about a recipe or ingredient I suddenly see that same thing occur everywhere – it’s a really strange phenomenon.  Reading The Kindness Of Your Nature by Linda Olsson (a book which I highly recommend), the main character was asked to name things she liked and one of her preferences were blood oranges.  I love the appearance of a blood orange and the name.  It conjures up something both rare and exotic, which is odd because you’d think the word “blood” would put you off.  Next thing, I was browsing the web and blood oranges were everywhere.  OK I exaggerate they were here and here and here (with mango oranges which I have never heard of).  But really, is it just coincidence that they kept cropping up, seasonal activity or something else (cue strange paranormal activity music)?

Ballet – At the opening night of NYC staged by the Royal New Zealand Ballet, I noticed there were lots of young women in the crowd.  For those who watch the behind the scenes TV programme, The Secret Lives of Dancers, Sergio has arrived and is hot!  Gasps of delight accompanied his “stripped to the waist” stroll across the stage in the second act.  This man has one hell of a body. As one tweet summed it up, “the walk alone was worth the admission price”.  Apart from the smouldering Sergio, the ballet was the best I’ve seen from the RNZ Ballet – youthful, energetic, and sexy, with some outstanding solo performances.

Updating - I’ve been removing links to blogs that haven’t posted in a while.  So if you’re missing, it’s not that I don’t love you anymore, it’s just that you’re not around.  Let me know when you’re back.

windfall tarte tatin

While some people positively swoon over apple pie, I have to say I’m not a huge fan.  Same goes for apple crumble but rhubarb crumble I like.  And this week I watched Nigella make a strawberry crumble that looked worth trying.  But apple pies, apple turnovers and apple crumble, etc., just don’t do it for me.  That’s not to say I won’t eat them, just that they would not be my first choice.

However apples plus pastry in the form of Tarte Tatin are something else.  I suppose it’s my predilection for the extra something that makes me love this tart.  The caramelized syrup elevates the apples into an altogether different experience that is way above the rest – for me, anyway.

As luck would have it, the last time I made this tart it turned out picture perfect.  But that was before blogging.  So now we have the scenario where the pastry breaks up as I wrap it like a blanket over the apples, tucking it in at the edges. Then I start to invert the cooked tart from the frying pan (and a very hot and heavy one at that) onto a plate. I’m contorted into a strange position where I can’t move anymore and am trying to gently shake out the tart and put the plate on the benchtop at the same time, as the heavy pan is getting to me.  The plate slides to the side and the tart collapses onto it with bits still sticking to the frying pan.  It ends up a bit messy with pieces of pastry and apples where they shouldn’t be. But don’t let that put you off. It’s what known as the rustic look.

This tart is so good.  Rich buttery (and don’t forget, crumbly) pastry with lovely little homegrown apples cooked in a caramel syrup.  I had two helpings.  One with cream, the next without.  It speaks volumes to say that the cream actually detracted from the lovely taste and I did without the second time.

Oh, and please don’t enquire as to how I achieved the wave effect on the base of the tart.  I have no idea.  Perhaps I tucked the apples in too much?

Windfall tarte tatin

You will need to use a frying pan that can go straight into the oven.  I used a 22.5cm Le Creuset frying pan (3cm deep) and that was perfect for the amount of pastry shown.  You can increase the quantity of pastry and filling for a bigger pan as this recipe is enough for four people, perhaps six, but let’s say three of us managed to consume it within a very short timeframe. 

The apples came from our tree in the garden.  I have no idea what kind they are except that they’re a good eating apple and a smallish size and we have a tree laden with them.

Pastry

150g standard (plain) flour

100g butter, diced

25g caster sugar

2 egg yolks

Filling

40g butter

100g caster sugar

4-5 smallish eating apples, cored, peeled and quartered

For the pastry, rub the flour and butter together with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.  Stir in the sugar.

Add the egg yolks and using a pastry cutter or palette knife, cut in the egg yolks to the mix until the dough comes together in a ball.

Place the pastry on a lightly floured surface and knead the pastry together until smooth.  Wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Place a frying pan over a medium heat and melt the butter and sugar until syrupy.

Heat oven to 200°C.  Arrange the apple quarters in the pan (they look good if you start in the middle and lay them in a spiral facing down).  Try not to burn yourself as you do this.  Cook for 15 minutes until golden brown.

Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface until slightly larger than the frying pan. 

Remove the frying pan from the heat and lay the pastry over the apples, tucking it in around the edges (again, watch you don’t burn yourself).  Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes at 200°C, then reduce heat to 160°C and bake for a further 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and using a palette knife gently separate the tart from the edge.  Place a large heatproof plate upside down on top of the frying pan and quickly turn over the pan and plate and hopefully the tart will come out successfully.  Gently ease the frying pan away from the tart.

Serve with whipped cream if you must.