She's My Cherry Pie

"Tastes so good makes a grown man cry..."

Summer means a few things to me... hot hot weather, bugs, sunburn, jealousy that everyone else got holidays and fresh stone fruit. Cherries are something my family associates with Christmas particularly.
December was the last Grower's Market for the year. Greeting me when I walked in was this delicious pile of cherries. How could I resist? And with a simply enormous box for only $10, I snapped some up before they sold out.

When I got them home, BF asked if I could make cherry pie. I have never made one before, so set about searching for a recipe. Sadly, almost every recipe I found called for canned cherries, so I decided to make it up myself!

I have never made a lattice top pie, so you will notice that the two individual pies look rather different as I was experimenting! The pies were lovely, however, there was not much of a saucey consistency to the filling. Next time, I would prefer a more liquidy filling... do you have a recipe that you love? If anyone has a recipe they have used for a cherry pie with FRESH cherries (please no can fillings!), can you please post a link in the comments? I would love to see it!

Thin lattice (I like this one better)

I used this pastry base, and lined two individual pie tins with pastry. Pop the rest back in the fridge whilst you bake the bases.

Whilst the dough is in the fridge, remove the pits from 1 cup of cherries, and mix in a bowl with 2 tsp castor sugar, a good shake of cinnamon, and a splash of lemon juice. Leave to marinate whilst you bake the tart shells.

Thick lattice

Just before filling the cases, mix a small pinch cornflour through the cherries. Fill the cases with cherry mix, then use strips of pastry to form a lattice, pushing the edges onto the base.

Cook in oven at 180C for about 20 minutes and enjoy!

The Twice (!) Baked, Not Quite Souffle, Lemon Mousse

Confused?

The highlight of our dinner with Sis and MJ was supposed to be dessert. I know what you are thinking - after homemade pasta with rabbit sauce, it was the dessert that is the hightlight? But I was in the mood to impress.

Dessert did impress. But not for the right reasons! It was supposed to be lemon souffle. Not the easiest dessert to make (and definitely the hardest to photograph - apologies for the dodgy shots! They sank sooo quickly!) I got the recipe from a Commercial Cookery text book, and forgot that the cooking times would have been for an industrial fan-forced combi-oven. Basically, I should have doubled the cooking time for my home oven!

After we put them back in the oven - note spoonful missing!

I did make the mixture correctly, and had I cooked them for the appropriate time (24 minutes) I think they would have been great. Unfortunately I didn't realise my mistake until we had eaten them! I first took them out after 13 minutes, served them, and after 1 spoonful realised they were undercooked. Sis and I put ours back in the oven, but BF and MJ were enjoying their lemon "mousse" so much that they declined the extra cooking time! After 4 more minutes, Sis and I took ours back out - the edges where much more souffle-like, but the centres were still completely mousse-like. Ah well, we ate them anyway! And for warm lemon mousse, they were rather nice!

After the second bake!

I'll put the recipe here in case you are game enough to try them - you will need to cook for about 24 minutes, but I totally suggest a trial run if you don't want the same thing happening to you! All ovens are slightly different and souffles are fussy, so it may take a few tries to get the exact times for your oven.

Pastry Cream
3 egg yolks
60g castor sugar
20g plain flour
200mls milk
vanilla essence to taste

Whisk egg yolks and sugar until almost white, then mix in the flour. Bring milk to scald point (just before it boils), whisk it onto the egg mixture, return to a clean pan, and stir over medium heat until it thickens (it will start to look like custard). Add a few drops of vanilla and taste to check that the raw flour flavour is gone - if not, keep stirring over heat until it is. Pour into a bowl and cover with cling film, ensuring the cling film is pressed against the pastry cream to prevent a skin forming. If you are making this for a dinner party, you can prepare up to this point ahead of time.

Souffle
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 egg yolk
1 tsp castor sugar
4 egg whites
butter for greasing

Preheat oven to 200C.

Add the egg yolk, zest and lemon juice to your pastry cream. Grease 4 ramekins with butter, place in fridge for 5 minutes, then remove and grease again with butter. Ensure that you do not miss any spots of the mould (this will cause the souffle to rise unevenly). Sprinkle sugar into each mould and move the mould around to ensure every inch is covered with sugar (for the same reasons as above).

Whisk the egg whites to firm peaks (add a little sugar partway through). Fold the whites into your pastry cream in 2 stages, first 1/4 of the whites, then the rest, as this helps to ensure maximum air retention.

Place into greased moulds, smooth the tops and place in oven for approx 24 minutes. Cross fingers, toes, arms etc and if successful, impress the pants off your guests!

Ooh, don't worry if the top of your souffle gets quite brown whilst cooking - it is more important the the centre is cooked. If the top is too dark for your liking, dust with generous amounts of icing sugar and ta da!

Gingerbread with Royal Icing - A Work (mess!) in Progress

A couple of weeks ago I found some cute Christmas cookie cutters and snapped them up, with a plan to make gingerbread. I've seen so many beautiful iced biscuits and thought that I could make some and put them in with presents. However, I forgot that I am not very artistic and also not very good at piping!The result? A HUGE mess in my tiny kitchen! I learnt some very good lessons though, so hopefully next time round will be more successful!

Strange arms!

The gingerbread themselves taste great, however, I couldn't get the dough to chill stiff enough for the shapes to hold when I moved them to the baking trays. I even tried putting it in the freezer for 40 minutes but to no avail. You will notice that some of my angels have very uneven arms! This was also the reason why I ended up with so many crazy face gingerbreads - I moulded the circles by hand once I had given up on the cutters.

More strange arms!

I'm not sure if I will use this recipe again because of this, but if you don't want to use cutters, it should be fine. The only changes I made were to the quantities of the spices, as I didn't have any ground cloves on hand. My big cookies took about 15 minutes (for very chewy cookies) and the small ones about 8 minutes (again for very soft chewy cookies).

Crazy faces!

Gingerbread
125g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup golden syrup
1 egg yolk
2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg

Mess!

Cream the butter and sugar until pale. Stir in the golden syrup and the egg yolk. Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Stir into the butter mixture, cover and chill for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 175C. Roll the dough out between 2 sheets of baking paper until about 5mm thick. Cut with cookie cutters and carefully transfer to baking tray. Place cookies about 5cm apart.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes (maybe longer for larger cookies or if you prefer your cookies crunchy). Cool on a wire rack. Ice when completely cool.
Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com.au

Royal Icing
1 egg white
1 and 1/2 cups icing sugar
couple drops vanilla essence
food colouring
Whisk white till soft peaks. Sift in the sugar in 3 stages, whisking after each addition. Stir through vanilla.

Separate the icing into bowls - 1 for each colour. Use food colouring to colour each bowl of icing. Fill the sink with hot water. Place cling film over each bowl, pressing the cling film down so that it is touching the icing. This helps prevent the icing from setting. Place each bowl into the sink of hot water so the icing doesn't set.

More mess!

Use a small piping bag made of baking paper or use a zip lock bag with one corner cut off to pipe onto each cookie. Decorate with sprinkles, cachous etc.

Even more mess!

2 Ways with Mini Muffins

Who doesn't love mini muffins? Some might argue they are too small, but hey - you can have seconds and not feel bad! And they are good for feeding a crowd (the boys at BF's work in this case). They are also a great way to have a little indulgence without feeling too bad about it.
The day I made these I couldn't decide what flavour to make. I had both bananas and strawberries to use up, but wasn't feeling like mixing the two. Of course, I will do anything to add chocolate to a recipe - so banana choc chip become one choice. And I remembered that my sister had once made strawberry rose flavour... I couldn't decide between the two so gave in a made both! BF's workmates were very pleased when they realised that he had brought over 30 muffins to work! And the verdict? They actually preferred the strawberry rose! So did I, but the banana choc chip were a firm favourite for BF. Happy campers all round.
Chocolate Chip Banana Mini Muffins (makes 24)
30g butter
1 cup self raising flour
1/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 overripe banana, mashed
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 200C. Line a mini muffin pan with liners.

Melt butter and cool slightly. Sift flour into mixing bowl and stir in sugar. Make a well in the centre.

Lightly whisk together the egg, milk and butter, and add to the dry ingredients along with the banana. Gently mix until just combined. Stir in choc chips.

Spoon mix into muffin cases and cook for 7 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Strawberry Rose Mini Muffins (makes 24)
1 cup self raising flour
3/8 cup caster sugar
3/8 cup milk
60g butter
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp rosewater essence
1/2 cup chopped strawberries
Preheat oven to 200C. Line a mini muffin pan with liners.

Melt butter and cool slightly. Sift flour into mixing bowl and stir in sugar. Make a well in the centre.

Add milk, butter, egg and rosewater to dry ingredients and stir gently to combine. Stir through strawberries.

Spoon mix into muffin cases and cook for 7 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Both recipes modified from taste.com.au

Cocoa Brownie Bites to die for...

In need of a chocolate fix (hmmm, isn't that all the time?), I went window shopping through my favourite blogs to find a recipe. I had 3 criteria: 1) chocolate (duh) 2) quick, easy and all pantry item ingredients 3) very VERY chocolatey. If it sounds like I have a chocolate issue, I do. It would be the first item on my desert island wish list. It makes me happy. It makes sad movies better. It makes me not care that the rubbish hasn't been taken out, the dishes need washing, or that my oven doesn't work (and it should be getting fixed on Thursday - finally!)

After some searching, I found this recipe of Pam's. Although I was a bit sceptical that cocoa alone could make something as chocolatey as I was craving, Pam's recipes always make me drool onto the keyboard, and this description of her's sold me - "Beware... these are very rich, and according to my husband and daughter, very addicting. They were dense and not too sweet but totally delicious. They had a perfect soft center and a nice crispy crust on top."

Sold! What more could a girl ask for? Well, some additional chocolate chunks of course! The addition of a very heaped 1/3 cup of broken choc chunks was my only change to Pam's recipe. And these brownies were a hit! I was so reluctant to part with them that I only allowed BF to take half of them to work - the rest stayed with me!And just in case you are not already convinced that Pam makes awesome brownies, last week she made them with peanut butter chips in - click here and admire them! If anyone knows where I can buy peanut butter chips in Sydney, please let me know as I am dying to make these!

142g butter (1 and 1/4 sticks)
1 and 1/3 cups white sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain flour
very heaped 1/3 cup chocolate chunks

Preheat the oven to 163C (325F). Place oven shelf in bottom third of oven. Grease and line an 8 inch slice tin with baking paper, making sure it hangs over the edge of the two long sides.
In a heat proof bowl, combine butter, sugar, cocoa and salt, place over a pot of hot water and stir occasionally until melted and mixture is hot to touch. The mix should look slightly grainy. Remove from heat and cool slightly, then add vanilla. Mix in the eggs one at a time, stirring well after each one.
When the mix is well blended, smooth and shiny, slowly add the flour and stir until combined thoroughly. Now stir vigourously for 30 strokes (I don't know what this is for but it works! Can anyone explain?) Stir in the chocolate chunks. Pour into slice tin and bake for 20 - 25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool completely before lifting out and cutting into bite-sized pieces. Remember, bite-sized pieces mean you can have seconds!

Anzac Biscuits

I have to start by saying yum. YUM. Anzacs are really yummy. I don't think I have ever met an Aussie who doesn't love Anzacs. You can buy them from the supermarket, but they are generally the crunchy type, and I am most definitely a chewy biscuit person. They are also ridiculously easy to make, and as they have no milk or eggs, they last for a long time (not in my house!)
For a little bit of background on Anzacs, click here.
1 cup plain flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup desiccated coconut
3/4 cup brown sugar
125g butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp bicarb soda

Preheat oven to 160C. Line baking trays with baking paper.
Sift flour into a large bowl, and stir in the oats, sugar and coconut.

Put the butter and golden syrup into a pot with 2 tbsp of water. Stir over medium heat until melted, then stir in the bicarb soda.
Pour the butter mixture into the dry mixture and combine. At this point I find it hard to resist eating the mix!
Roll tablespoonsfull of mixture into balls, and place on the prepared trays, about 5cm apart (the Anzacs spread quite a bit).
Use a fork to flatten slightly, don't worry if little bit break off - the Anzacs will hold together when coooked. Bake for about 10 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool slightly on trays, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 30.
Recipe from taste.com.au

It just keeps getting better...

So to add to the woe of still not finding the camera cable, tonight whilst cooking what was going to be the best cheesy bread ever, my oven died. But because the fan in the oven continues to work, it took me over 40 minutes before I realised that it was dead. Poo. The bread came out pretty heavy, but seems to be almost cooked (and I will be eating it in protest). Guess I better call the landlord...

Tart au Citron

Recipes like this one frustrate me. You know the type. You measure everything exactly. You use the exact size tin the recipe asks for. Yet somehow you end up with almost 3 times the amount of pastry needed to make the tart. How? I do not know.

If I had been making this in the middle of the day I wouldn't have been as frustrated. I would have been excited to be able to make some mini tarts as well, with a different filling. But I was making this around 10pm (and I'm a bit of a nana when it comes to staying up late), so was merely annoyed at the waste of food.

Rant over - the tart came out really well, and actually tasted better the following day after sitting in the fridge for a while. It was pretty easy to make, and kept for 3 days (We would have eaten it much quicker but I am practising restraint - much easier said than done!)

Pastry
2 3/4 cups plain flour
150g unsalted butter
3/4 cup icing sugar
2 eggs, beaten
Sift the flour directly onto the bench. Make a well in the centre, place the butter in the well, and using a pecking action with your thumb and fingertips, work the butter only, until it is very soft. Add the sugar to the butter and mix, then add the eggs and mix. Now gradually add the flour until you have a rough dough. Bring together, knead a few times to make a smooth dough, cover in plastic wrap and place in fridge for at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 190C. Roll the pastry out to line a 23cm loose-based fluted tart pan. Chill in fridge for 20 minutes. Blind bake pastry for 10 minutes, then remove paper and weights and cook for a further 3-5 minutes, until pastry is just cooked.

Reduce oven to 150C.

Filling
4 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups castor sugar
3/4 cup double cream (thickened cream)
1 cup lemon juice
finely grated zest of 3 lemons

Whisk together the eggs, yolks and sugar. Add the cream, whisking, then the lemon juice and zest.

Put the pie tin on a baking tray and pour in the filling. Return to the oven for 35 - 40 minutes, until set. Cool before serving.
Recipe from Sweet Food.

Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

I know... just the name of these cookies is enough to wear you out. I first saw these when Steph from A Whisk and A Spoon posted about them, and got the recipe from Stefany at Proceed with Caution. I ummed and ahhed over whether to make these or not, but, as always, the cookies won out.

A word of warning - creaming this amount of butter, peanut butter and sugar by hand is very hard work. I spent at least half an hour wishing for an electric mixer whilst doing it! It wouldn't have taken as long if I had have waited for the butter to soften, but I was lacking patience when I made these.

I got about 45 cookies out of this recipe. Since I like my cookies chewy, I took them out of the oven after only 12 minutes. At this point, the cookies seemed to have not set at all, but never fear, they firm up as they cool on the rack. Just be sure to use a spatula to remove them from the tray - otherwise they will just collapse!

And thankfully, the boys at my partner's work were more than happy to make short work of these, so I didn't have to fight the temptation to eat all 45 myself - they are that good that I just might have!

True to all those who participate in Tuesdays with Dorie, I will not be posting the recipe here. Check out Proceed with Caution to see it, and enjoy!

Banana and Coconut Bread

Banana bread is something I make quite often, as we never seem to eat bananas before they are over ripe. Not that this is a bad thing, because banana bread is basically just melt, sift, mash, mix and cook. No creaming butter and sugar in sight - yay!

I modified the recipe this time, as I was out of milk, and didn't feel like braving the rain to get more. I found a can of coconut cream in the cupboard, and away I went. I also added one more banana than usual, to use up all those I had, and added some desiccated coconut to make up for the added moisture. The result? A stronger banana taste and the lovely texture of coconut. I would have preferred a more coconut-y flavour, but there were no complaints when I served this for breakfast!

1 and 3/4 cups self-raising flour
1/4 cup plain flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
almost 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
165ml coconut cream
2 eggs, lightly whisked
50g butter, melted, cooled
3 overripe bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 180C. Spray an 11 x 21cm base loaf pan with cooking spray and line with baking paper, allowing it to overhang the two long sides.

Sift the flours and cinnamon. Add the sugar and coconut, and make a well in the centre. In a separate bowl, mash bananas, add milk and eggs, and combine well. Add banana mixture and melted butter to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Pour into loaf pan, smooth the surface, and bake for 45 - 50 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy simply sliced or toast in sandwich press and spread with butter!
Recipe modified from taste.com.au

Jam Drops

An oldie but a goodie.
I make these whenever I'm having a cup of tea and have a sudden craving for biscuits. We don't buy biscuits in our house as they are so easy to make - although, I must confess that I am known for passing over recipes (like this one) that involve creaming the butter and sugar when I am feeling lazy. Oh, to have an electric mixer!

Basic biscuit dough

125g butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 180C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Combine butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy (use an electric mixer if you are lucky enough to have one!) Add egg and mix until well combined. Sift flour and baking powder over butter mix, add milk and stir until just combined.

Roll 2 tsp of dough into a ball, place on baking tray and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Repeat for all dough, allowing room for spreading. Dip the handle of a wooden spoon in plain flour, and use to make a small indentation in the top of each biscuit. Fill with 1/4 tsp of your favourite jam (I usually use raspberry but any jam would be good).

Bake for 12 -14 minutes, swapping trays from top to bottom halfway through. Remove when lightly golden. Allow to cool on tray for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes 30.

Recipe from taste.com.au