Category Archives: Cakes And Biscuits

Healthy spelt, pear & walnut muffins

March 4, 2014 8:09 am / Leave a Comment /

Spelt, pear & walnut muffins

I love using buttermilk.  It gives a lighter crumb and a moist texture.  I always have some left over after using it for whatever I brought it for so am always on the lookout for new recipes.

This is a recipe I have adapted from Donna Hay who did a similar wholemeal flour muffin with berries.  The spelt flour is a lot heavier but it works well with the fresh pear and the nuts and would be a great breakfast on the run.

You can use the basic mix and add whatever other ingredients you have on hand.  Dried fruit would work well but remember if you are using frozen berries make sure they are still frozen when you mix them into the batter.  One cup full would be plenty.

Ingredients:

  • 300g plain spelt flour
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 100g raw sugar
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 egg
  • 300-350ml buttermilk, depending on the flour
  • 80ml vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 45g rolled oats
  • 2 small, ripe pears peeled, cored and diced
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Method:

  1. Preheat  oven to 180 C/160 C fan-forced
  2. Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl.  Stir to mix then add oats.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix the honey, egg, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and honey until combined.
  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined – add fruit and nuts, don’t overmix.
  5. Line a 12 x 1/2 cup muffin tin with muffin papers.  I like to spray them with cooking spray or olive oil for a second so half the mix doesn’t end up stuck to the paper.  That’s optional but it does work when you use different flours and less fat like this recipe.
  6. Fill with mixture and bake for 30-35 minutes until golden. Test with a skewer.

Enjoy, a healthy meal on the run!

 

 

Posted in: Baking, Breakfast/Brunch, Cakes and Biscuits, Healthy eating

Gluten-free Mexican wedding cookies

February 14, 2014 10:23 pm / Leave a Comment /

Wedding cookies

My friend Maria served these with another wonderful dessert when we went to their place for a Mexican fiesta.

For our Mexican lunch this time I need a gluten-free version of this biscuit and I have adapted this recipe from glutenfreegirl.com.  I don’t like buying a whole packet of something I don’t have for a tiny teaspoon full so I have substituted chia seeds.  I used black but you can also buy white chia if you don’t want the flecks.  As long as it’s gluten-free you can use just about anything here.  LSA mix would be fine too.

The perfect extra to serve with my Cinnamon ice-cream here.  The results are fabulous: a gluten-free biscuit that doesn’t taste like gluten-free!

Ingredients:

Makes about 30

1/2 cup pecans
3/4 cup pure icing sugar, plus more for dusting
280 grams gluten-free all purpose (plain) flour
1 teaspoon chia seeds
tiny pinch salt
112g cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
112g cold vegetable shortening, cut into chunks
1 large egg, at room temperature

Preparing to bake. Preheat the oven to 160° Fan Forced.  Line two trays with baking paper.

Put the pecans & chia seeds in a food processor (or mortar and pestle, if you want to be authentic) and whirl them up until they are finely ground. Add the icing sugar and pulse the food processor until the pecans and sugar are combined. Remove and set aside.

Cutting the fats into the flour. Put the flour and salt into the food processor. Add the chunks of cold butter and vegetable shortening and process until you have a crumbly mixture.  Don’t over work it.

Finishing the dough. Add the pecan and sugar mixture to the dough. Work it in with your hands. Crack the egg into the bowl and combine everything together, thoroughly, using a small bread & butter knife. (And be sure to work quickly. You don’t want that butter and shortening to warm up too much.) Work the dough until it comes together as one ball of dough.

Baking the cookies. Make a ball of dough about the size of a walnut. Pat down the dough ball just a bit with your fingertips. Leaving about 2cm of space between all the dough balls, fill the baking trays. Slide the baking sheet into the oven and bake the cookies until they are just starting to colour, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Pull the baking sheet out of the oven and immediately dust the cookies with icing sugar. Allow them to cool for 10 minutes, then carefully transfer them to a cooling rack.

Wait until they are completely cold before eating 🙂

I have just found a great place to buy Mexican ingredients in Sydney as I am now totally into the Mexican wave here:  Fireworks.

 

Posted in: Cakes and Biscuits, Mexican, Uncategorized

Our favourite banana cake

December 31, 2013 3:03 pm / Leave a Comment /

Banana cake

My daughter would make this cake from an old Maureen Simpson recipe, especially when she was studying at High School.  She couldn’t bear to enter any exam period without what she called her ‘exam cake’!

This recipe was one of her favourites and became a regular treat, especially when it was covered with icing.  I have changed the recipe a bit this time to use buttermilk instead of ordinary milk and the result was excellent.  We always love buttermilk in cakes as it gives them a lovely moist texture.

Ingredients:

125g butter, softened
3/4 cup castor sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
2 very ripe bananas
1½ cups self raising flour
1/4 level tsp bicarb-soda
1/4 cup buttermilk (or milk) sometimes you need a little more.

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 160° Fan Forced or 180° Conventional and grease a 20cm ring tin.  Line the base with paper.
  2. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until pale then beat in the eggs one at a time.
  3. Mash bananas well with a fork and beat into the creamed mixture
  4. Sift flour and soda and fold into mixture with the milk or buttermilk
  5. Pour into prepared tin, tap to remove any air bubbles and bake 45-60 minutes until cooked when tested with a skewer.
  6. Cool in tin 5 minutes before turning out.
  7. Top with Vanilla Glace Icing:  1 cup sifted icing sugar, 2tsp softened butter, few drops lemon juice and 1/2 tsp vanilla
  8. Mix together and add boiling water drop by drop if required.  I usually add more lemon juice instead of the water.  Mix well and spread on top of cake.

Delicious for afternoon tea 🙂

Posted in: Baking, Cakes and Biscuits

Brioche pear tart

December 7, 2013 2:02 pm / Leave a Comment /

Brioche pear tart

This is an old recipe from a 1994 Gourmet magazine that I baked years ago.  I thought I would give it another go using the combi-steam oven and see what all the fuss is about.  I wanted to know if I can bake a yeast dough at home that is as good as you can buy in a patisserie.   We know that the commercial bakers use a combination of moisture and radiant heat for baking bread and yeast based dough so I assume this is going to be fabulous!  I have had a lot of hits on my ‘bread’ section so I will try to increase this category.

You will see below that I am cooking it on a ‘Combination program’.  Add your stages one by one, it will ask you for all the information.  If you don’t have a Miele combi steamer then you should still be able to stage cook or otherwise select an automatic program that is a yeast based dough with a fruit topping, or even just a yeast based dough setting would work.  Keep in mind that the overall cooking time is approximately 30 minutes and you can’t go wrong.  Remember you don’t need to pre-heat (which is just amazing!)

I have altered the old recipe a little and used ripe pears.  I still remember when I baked it last time it was  a lot of messing around with a syrup and you really don’t need a syrup with it.  If you don’t have ripe pears you will need to poach them first in a light sugar syrup with a cinnamon stick and the rind of a lemon and orange.  I am just going to glaze it with a little orange marmalade when it comes out of the oven.  It does need this and the strips of orange rind really made the dish.

Ingredients:  Serves 8

225g (1½ cups) plain flour, sifted
2 tbsp. castor sugar
1 x 7g sachet of dried yeast
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup milk, warmed
90g butter, softened
5 small ripe pears

Method:

  1. For dough, combine flour, sugar, yeast and 1/2 tsp salt into a large bowl or mix master fitted with a dough hook.  Mix well
  2. Combine eggs with the warm milk and pour into flour mixture.  Knead with the mixer for about 5 minutes until the dough comes together.  It will be soft and sticky.
  3. Add small pieces of the softened butter piece by piece to the mixer to incorporate the butter.  Knead well for about 8 minutes.  I just left it all in the mixer.
  4. Oil a large bowl well with vegetable oil.  Tip in the mix and turn it over to coat in the oil
  5. Cover with Glad Wrap and place in the combi steamer on Auto-Special Program- Prove yeast dough.  It will take 15 minutes but turn off the oven when finished and leave the bowl to sit in the warm oven for 1 hour or until doubled in size.  You can preheat the oven to 30° and leave in this temperature if you prefer or if it’s a particularly cold day.
  6. Now remove the dough to a lightly floured bench.  It will still be soft but just turn it over and place in a well-greased 26cm tart tin with removable base. It was too soft to roll out, I just patted it to the edges of the tin.
  7. Cover with a clean tea towel while you peel and core the pears.  Arrange over the dough leaving plenty of room for the dough to rise up around the edge of the tin.
  8. Cover again and leave to rise up around the pears.  This should take approximately 30 minutes.  Sprinkle with a little castor sugar.  The fresh pears will discolour a little, toss them in some lemon juice before laying over the dough if you prefer but it didn’t show once cooked.
  9. Bake in combi steamer in Combination mode Stage 1 -190°C + 90% moisture for 20 minutes then Stage 2- 160°C + 30% moisture for 10 minutes
  10. Remove from oven to a wire rack.
  11. While it is cooking heat a little orange marmalade with a touch of water in a saucepan and brush over warm brioche.

Serve warm 🙂

Conclusion:  It was fabulous!  So light and fluffy a with a golden base and definitely exactly like you would buy from a Patisserie!  The addition of the steam really enhanced the texture and finish of this brioche.

Posted in: Bread, Cakes and Biscuits, Combi Steamer

Whole orange cake with citrus icing

November 6, 2013 9:32 pm / 1 Comment /

SAM_0366Everyone has a pile of recipes that they have pulled out of magazines or newspapers.  My pile is totally out-of-control!  Now I have a blog I can start to work my way through them all, change them where I see fit and convert lots of them to cook in the steam oven!

This isn’t a steam oven recipe, just a really quick-mix cake that I have been wanting to try.  It is from a reader who sent it in to the Women’s Weekly in 2005.  Yes, I have been saving all these for a long time!

Be mindful to weigh your orange, I only used three quarters of mine.  It can be a fraction more as the texture will allow for a little extra.

Ingredients:

1 medium (240g) whole orange
200g melted butter
3 eggs, beaten lightly
1 cup (220g) castor sugar
1½ cups self-raising flour, sifted

CITRUS ICING:

1 lemon (140g)
1 small (180g) orange
1 cup (160g) icing sugar mixture
1tsp boiling water

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180º C or 160ºC Fan Forced
  2. Grease a deep 20cm cake pan, line base with paper
  3. Wash and dry orange, cut into quarters and remove any seeds.   Process in a food processor until it becomes pulpy.
  4. Transfer orange to a medium bowl, stir in butter, eggs, sugar and sifted flour.  Mix well
  5. Pour into prepared tin and bake 45- 50 minutes or until cooked when tested
  6. Stand for 10 minutes before turning out.
  7. Citrus Icing:  Remove strips of rind of orange and lemon with a zester.  You will need 2 tsp of each.
  8. Squeeze juice, you will need 2 tsp of each as well.
  9. Sift icing sugar into a bowl.  Add juice and enough water to make a thin icing. Stir in rinds.
  10. Pour icing immediately over cake and stand until set.

Serve with whipped cream and berries 🙂

Posted in: Baking, Cakes and Biscuits

Pear and blueberry cake

August 4, 2013 6:08 pm / Leave a Comment /

Pear & blueberry cake

This is a really delicious cake recipe which I found last year and used with fresh nectarines.

As it’s Winter now, and not a nectarine in sight I am cooking it today with steamed pears from the steam oven and fresh blueberries.

I always seem to prefer cakes that have either buttermilk, sour cream or yoghurt in them.  It gives them a really moist, dense crumb that I prefer.  I particularly love cooking with buttermilk and have some other lovely cake recipes that I will do here one day.

The addition of the orange and lemon rind in this cake really lifts it with the fruit.  The perfect cake for a Winter afternoon tea.

Ingredients:

2-3 pears, peeled, cored and quartered
handful of fresh blueberries
200g butter
1 cup castor sugar
rind 1 orange and 1 lemon
3 eggs
1 2/3 cups Self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup Buttermilk

Method:

  1. Grease and line a 24cm tin.
  2. Preheat oven to 160° Fan Forced
  3. Make sure your fruit is ripe otherwise use the recipe above.
  4. Cream butter, sugar and rinds until light and fluffy
  5. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition
  6. Sift dry ingredients and fold into creamed mixture alternatively with the buttermilk
  7. Pour into prepared tin and place the fruit over the top.
  8. Bake for 70-75 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

The fruit will sink in this recipe so top with some fresh fruit and icing sugar to serve.

Serve with whipped cream.  Yummy!

Nectarine cake:  Same as above except use 4 ripe nectarines which have been quickly plunged into boiling water.  Peel them and cut into wedges and sprinkle with a little sugar while you are making the batter.

Posted in: Baking, Cakes and Biscuits, Desserts

Cranberry & Pistachio Shortbread

July 12, 2013 9:27 pm / Leave a Comment /

The Miele girls would make these in our store at Winning Appliances when they came for their weekly demos.  We all loved them, they are so short and buttery that you have to make them just so you believe me!  The great thing about this recipe is that it makes two logs so you can bake one and wrap one in Glad Wrap.  Freeze the extra one to use when you have unexpected guests in the future.  Believe me, having things like this in the freezer is what makes a great home chef…

Perfect for Christmas or anytime of the year.

Cranberry & pistachio shortbreadIngredients:

250g butter, softened
½ cup castor sugar
2 cups plain flour
¼ cup rice flour
1/3 cup pistachio kernels, chopped
1/3 cup craisins (dried cranberries), chopped

Method:

  1. Pre-heat oven on Fan Forced @ 160°C
  2. Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy
  3. Sift flours and add to the creamed mixture.  Mix well.  Stir in the nuts and craisins.
  4. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface, knead gently to form a soft ball.
  5. Cut in half and roll each into a smooth log.  Wrap in baking paper and refrigerate 30 minutes
  6. Using a sharp knife cut logs into 1/2 cm slices. Place on baking trays.
  7. Bake 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden.  Cool on trays.

Makes approximately 60 so freezing half is a great idea!

 

Posted in: Baking, Cakes and Biscuits, Christmas cookery

Old fashioned Date & Walnut Loaf

July 9, 2013 5:05 pm / Leave a Comment /

This is another OLD recipe I used to make before I was married.  It actually came from an ex-boyfriend’s mother in Melbourne, it takes about 5 minutes to whip it all up once the dates and walnuts are chopped and pop it in the oven.  Thought I would jazz it up a bit by baking it in this cute little tin for a change.  Great buttered and sliced but as we are trying to give up the butter we will just eat it on it’s own 🙂

Date & walnut loafIngredients:

1 cup chopped Dates
1 cup chopped Walnuts
1 cup Boiling Water
3/4 cup sugar (I cut it back from 1 cup)
2 cups Plain Flour
1tsp Bicarb Soda
1tsp vanilla
1tsp Baking Powder
1 tbsp. Butter chopped in tiny pieces
1 egg, beaten

Method:

  1. Sprinkle soda over dates, add boiling water, chopped butter and sugar.
  2. Stir to mix well.  When it cools a little, add the beaten egg
  3. Now stir in the sifted flour, baking powder, walnuts and vanilla and beat well.
  4. Spoon into a loaf or small ring tin as pictured and bake @ 160° Fan Forced or 180° Conventional for 40-45 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
  5. Let it sit in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out.

Delicious with a cup of tea 🙂

 

 

Posted in: Baking, Cakes and Biscuits, Traditional Ovens

Prune, Apple & Muesli Loaf

July 1, 2013 4:30 pm / Leave a Comment /

This is a quick, easy and healthy loaf recipe to make for the family.  Moist and delicious and a lot less fat than most.  I have also tried it using Flora pro-active margarine seeing as though Simon needs to get his cholesterol down.  It was fine using this instead of butter if you prefer.  Would be great for kids lunch boxes or to have in the cupboard over the school holidays (if it lasts that long!)  Serve warm straight from the oven with a cup of tea 🙂

Prune apple & muesli loaf

Ingredients:

2 cups Self Raising Flour, sifted
1/2 cup raw or Demera sugar
1 cup packaged Muesli, not toasted.  With fruit and nut or whatever is fine.
1tsp Cinnamon
1 apple, peeled and grated + 1 extra apple for the top
1/2 cup chopped prunes or dates
1 cup Buttermilk
85g melted butter or Flora pro-active margarine
1/4 cup milk
2 large eggs, beaten

Method:

  1. Sift flour with Cinnamon.  Add all other dry ingredients including apple and prunes.
  2. Mix eggs with Buttermilk, melted butter and extra milk.  Add wet mixture to dry ingredients and mix well.
  3. Spoon into large loaf pan (22cm x 13cm) that has been greased and lined on the base with baking paper.  I have a new Anolon Non-Stick one that is great and even has soft grip handles on the sides.
  4. For the topping:  Peel and core an extra apple.  Slice thinly and arrange neatly on the top.  Sprinkle with a little extra Cinnamon and Sugar and bake at 160°C Fan Forced for 55-60 minutes until cooked through.  Test with a skewer inserted into the centre.  It should come out clean.  Cool in tine for about 5 minutes before turning out.

Another nice addition would be some chopped walnuts.  This is the sort of loaf that you can put different things in depending on what you have.  Would also be excellent with a large, ripe mashed banana instead of the apple and perhaps slivered, blanched almonds baked on the top 🙂

Option:  Added 1 finely chopped banana, 1/2 cup currents and substituted sugar to soft brown sugar.  Cover the top in half walnuts.  This was delicious too!

Posted in: Baking, Cakes and Biscuits, Traditional Ovens