Herb & Parmesan Bread Sticks

I don't get the opportunity to feed a crowd very often these days, but when I do, I now always take the opportunity to make these bread sticks.  The get snaffled up very quickly. So quickly I am thinking that next time I'll make double...

You need one recipe of dough. I just make a basic white dough in my breadmaker.  My recipe is dairy free and is no fail.  To make this it's 4 Cups of Flour, 2 tsp of salt, 1 tbsp of sugar (you can use honey), 3 tbsp of olive oil, 1 Cup plus 1/8th of a Cup of Water, Yeast.

The actual recipe asks for 2 tablespoons of butter, but since I got a new breadmaker I find the dough has been a little dry so I put an extra tablespoon of olive oil.  I use fresh yeast bought from the local bakery, which I crumble and keep in the freezer.

I wasn't quite ready for the breadsticks, but the dough was, so I wrapped it in gladwrap to keep it from drying out until I could get to the making of the breadsticks....

The filling is: T tablespoon of Finely chopped Rosemary and Thyme, 2 teaspoons of dried sage, 1 tablespoon of finely chopped capers, the zest of 1 lemon and half a cup f freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  Combine these in a bowl and set aside..

 Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to form a rectangle  approximately 50 x 30 cm.

Combine 1/3 Cup of Olive oil with 2 cloves of garlic crushed (I used 3), then lightly brush the dough with the oil.

Spread the filling over half the dough...

Then fold the other half over the top.  Lightly roll the dough to press the two halves together then brush the top with more of the garlic oil...

Cut into strips 1cm wide (about 25cm long) and twist each piece from both ends Place on baking tray 2cm apart.  Bursh with garlic oil and sprinkle with sea salt. This is what they look like.

I wasn't ready to cook them straight away, as I had to wait for something else to cook up first, so I covered with gladwrap to stop them drying out. I then transferred them to a tray later.  One thing is that you have to sort of press down on the end when on the tray or else they can start unravelling.

Bake at 200C for 8 minutes then turn the sticks over and bake for a further 5-6 minutes or until they are golden.

When they come out of the oven brush with the remaining garlic oil and sprinkle them with another half cup of grated Parmesan.  The sticks are best served warm so if making ahead reheat for 3-4 minutes in a hot oven.

Mine were snaffled up so quickly I didn't get a chance to get a final photo image to show.

Cleaning up for me required a change of tshirt (covered in flour), and a camera clean (covered in flour)!

Hope you enjoy!

Battenberg Cake

It all started when Anne's friend Jay came home to Auckland, NZ from the UK. She bought me a small packet which housed a Battenburg Cake. It was divine.

When Anne came home in June, she bought me one as well. I didn't even want to share it, but I managed to - just.

Then Anne posted me out another one this month, which was snaffled up very quickly. If I didn't do something about it, then Battenburg Cake from the UK was going to be the UK's biggest export to New Zealand.

So I went searching on the internet, and found a recipe. And I made one.

It's a bit fiddly, but well worth the time. This is what it looked like, I managed to take a couple of photos before it was all eaten!!

The Recipe:

Battenberg Cake

* 150 grams of butter
* 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
* 3/4 cups of white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 1/2 cups of plain white flour
* 3 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/4 cup of milk, approximately
* red food colouring
* 1/4 cup of apricot jam
* 250 grams of almond paste / fondant to cover

1. Pre-heat oven to 175 degC.
2. Line sponge roll or shallow square cake tin with baking paper.
3. Cream the butter, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.
5. Sift the flour, baking powder and fold into the creamed mixture.
6. Add sufficent milk to give a soft dropping consistency.
7. Spoon half the mixture into one half of the prepared tin as neatly as possible. 8. Add a few drops of red food colouring to the remaining mixture to turn it a pink colour, then spoon this into the other half of the tin, try to get the join between the two mixtures as neat as possible.
9. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the cake is well risen, springy to the touch and has shrunk slightly from the sides of the tin.
10. Turn out and leave to cool on a wire rack.
11. Trim the edges of the cake and then cut into 4 equal strips down the length of the colours.
12. Gently heat the apricot jam in a small pan and stick the stripes of cake together, one plain piece next to one coloured one, and then vice versa to make a checker board effect.
13. Brush the top of the assembled cake with apricot jam.
14. Roll out the almond paste into a rectangle the length of the cake and sufficiently wide to wrap around the cake.
15. Invert the cake on to the almond paste, then brush the remaining 3 sides with apricot jam.
16. Press the almond paste neatly around the cake, arranging the join in one corner.
17. Serve in slices

This has made me realise I haven't had lunch!

History: (From Wikipaedia)...

Battenberg cake is a light sponge cake. When cut in cross section, displays a distinctive two-by-two check pattern alternately coloured pink and yellow. The cake is covered in marzipan and, when sliced, the characteristic checks are exposed to view. These coloured sections are made by dyeing half of the cake mixture pink, and half yellow, then cutting each resultant sponge into two long, uniform cuboids, and joining them together with apricot jam, to form one cake. Established variations are for coconut flavouring to the sponge cake and lemon curd or raspberry jam in place of apricot jam.

The origin of the name is not clear, but one theory claims that the cake was created in honour of the marriage in 1884 of Queen Victoria's granddaughter to Prince Louis of Battenberg, with the four squares representing the four Battenberg princes: Louis, Alexander, Henry and Francis Joseph.

The name is also used to describe a smaller cake in a similar, but more decadent vein. A small cuboid of sponge (normally about 1 inch square by 3 inches long), usually white, is encased in buttercream and wrapped in marzipan. Visually at this stage, the cake looks like a miniature version of the checkered pattern cake above, but without the two-by-two grid. Each end is then dipped in chocolate up to approximately a third of the length, leaving the central third clear of chocolate. This is allowed to set, before being eaten.

Traditionally in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Battenberg cake is eaten with a cup of tea.

So there you have it - easily made and a lovely taste! I might make some more tomorrow!

Cappucchino and Chocolate Bliss

My friend from Auckland came down to stay with me the other weekend. She's an avid photographer like myself but it couldn't have been very good for her. Firstly, my camera was up in Auckland getting fixed. Secondly I'm in plaster and couldn't get around much, and thirdly, the weather was very dicey!

However, despite that we drove up to the Nelson Lakes. I took my old Canon Powershot Pro1, and made Evelyn park adjacent to the lake so I could just roll the window down and take photos. Evelyn got out and walked around (lucky thing!). There were only so many of the lake photos I could take, and every time I wound down the window, thousands of sandflies would come inside the car. So my time was spent killing them all. I have lovely black splodges all over the inside windows of the car now!

None of my photos with the Powershot were anything to write home about.  In fact I deleted them all. We drove up to the top of Mt Robert so Evelyn could get the photos of the view down the valley. I got her to park adjacent to the view again while she got out and had a wander.; Again, none of my photos were any good.

Afterwards, we went and had lunch at the cafe at St Arnaud. We shared a plate of hot chips, and a cake.  The chips were the best I've ever had, and the cake was to die for. It was so nice that I googled it and found the recipe.  Fully recommend it and suggest you have a go at making it. I know I will be as soon as I'm out of plaster...

Cappucchino Bread and Butter Pudding....

Ingredients (serves 8)

1 large brioche loaf, thinly sliced
180g unsalted butter, softened
350g good-quality dark chocolate, chopped
10 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
100ml strong espresso coffee
1 tsp vanilla extract
700ml cream
200ml full-cream milk
Icing sugar, to dust
Warm chocolate sauce, to serve and Plain Yoghurt.

Method
Spread the brioche slices with 150g of butter. Alternate layers of brioche with 200g of the chocolate in a greased 25cm round spring-form pan.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar, coffee, vanilla, 600ml of cream and the milk in a bowl until combined. Strain through a sieve over the brioche and chocolate and set aside for 1 hour to allow the liquid to be absorbed
.
Preheat the oven to 150°C.

Place cake pan on a flat baking tray and bake for 1 1/4 hours until cooked through. Set aside to cool.

To make the chocolate sauce, place the remaining butter, chocolate and cream in a bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water until butter and chocolate have melted, then stir gently to combine.

Remove collar from cake pan, dust cake with icing sugar and serve with the chocolate sauce and some plain yoghurt.

The Hunters Garden Marlborough Christmas Tour Recipes

I had no sooner than put the blog up about the Christmas tour when I got an email from one of the homes with the recipes we got to try. So I'm putting them up here. I really really really recommend the fig slice, but not sure which one it is - so you'll have to make both!!!

Faye's Christmas Cake

500g butter
500g sugar
10 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon essence
1 tsp almond essence
2kg mixed fruit
500g Flour
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spcie
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
Slosh of Brandy

Cream butter and sugar; add eggs one at a time.
Add all essence and brandy, sifted flour followed by fruit, mix well.
Cook slowly 130 deg for 5 hours.


Craisins and Almond Biscotti

2 cups sifted (300g) plain flour
¾ cup caster sugar
½ cup Craisins
2 ½ tsp vanilla
1 1/5 tsp Baking Powder
3/4 Cup Blanched Almonds
4 Eggs

Place all in a bowl and mix to form a dough.
Turn out onto floured surface, Shape into two 25cm x 5 cm logs and press to flatten.
Bake for 35 minutes until golden.
Cool and slice into 5 mm thick slices and bake a further 20 mts or until crisp.
Preheated oven 160.


A Slice of Spice

100g pitted prunes
100g dried apricots
100 g natural almonds roasted
300g mixed dried citrus peel
1 TBS chinese five spice
100g dried figs
100g pitted dates
100g dark chocolate chopped
100g plain flour
icing sugar to dust

Chop fruit into pieces slightly smaller than an almond, add all ingredients and mix well.
Stir in 180ml water till well combined.
Line 18cm x 27cm slices tin. Press mixture.
Cover sheet baking paper and bake in 160 deg oven for 45 mts.


Spiced Fig Roll

375g dried figs roughly chopped
50g glace ginger finely chopped
40g pistachio kernels finely chopped
½ tsp mixed spice
150g pitted dates chopped
45g blanced almonds chopped
70g dark chocolate chopped

Process figs and dates until a rough paste forms, then transfer to bowl process the rest of ingredients and mix.
Roll into two logs 23 cm long.
Wrap in plastic wrap and put in fridge 6 hours.
Cut 1cm slices.

Amish Apple Dumplings

While in Philadelphia, we headed down to the Reading Terminal Market as it was suggested to us that we MUST go there.

I'm glad we did. A market full of wonderful food put on by the Amish people of Pennsylvania. I went twice - once for the Apple Dumplings that someone said were fantastic, and a second time to have them again because they were to die for.

Since I've been home I've been craving them a bit - I think because of the cold weather, so I did a google search for a recipe and came up with this one.

I use prepackaged sweet short pastry to wrap them up, and I leave out the mace because - well - mace is something we spray criminals with, and there's none on my local supermarket shelf under the herb/spice section.

Upon request, I'm making it for a second time for tonight and it's also been requested for Monday nights dinner as well!!

Here's the recipe I found!

Amish Apple Dumplings

6 Apples, peeled and cored
Lemon juice
1/2 c White sugar, approx
1 tsp. Cinnamon
Brown sugar
Butter
2 Pie pastry for 2 pies

Sugar Sauce:
2 c Water
3/4 c Sugar
2 tsp. Vanilla
2 tbl. Butter
1/4 tsp. Nutmeg
1/4 tsp. Mace


Roll out pastry and cut into squares enough to cover apples completely. Peel and core apples. Roll in lemon juice. Then roll in white sugar and cinnamon combined. Place on pastry square. Stuff core cavity with brown sugar, butter, brown sugar in equal parts. (The amount depends on size of core cavity, just
stuff full.) Fold pastry up around apple to completely enclose it. Place in pan.

Prepare sugar sauce by mixing water, sugar, vanilla, butter, nutmeg, and mace and boiling for 1 minute. Let cool slightly. Pour over Apples.

Bake in 375 F (190.5C) oven for 1 hour. Serve warm.

Note: Apples may be frozen in pastry (before sugar sauce is added) if desired. Good dessert to make ahead if you have lots of apples around. Just let thaw when ready to use, and cover with sugar sauce and bake as usual.

I HATE baking!!!

But I made a rash promise to my implant team on Friday, when I went for a tweak, that I would take morning tea in on Monday at my next mapping session. The muffins I made are nicest fresh and warm, which meant I had to get up at the crack of dawn on Monday to make them. I decided to keep my word, and decided on everyone's favourite recipe - the Lemon and Cream Cheese Muffins. I'm not an early morning person, so was tempted to just go up to the supermarket and get some packaged biscuits, but guilt won out and I set myself to the task in hand..

They didn't turn out too badly - ending up looking like this...


I'll share the recipe with you - as I'm not going to make them again for a long long time, as i really don't like baking - but when I visit anyone, you can make them for me instead. They taste really yummy!

Lemon & Cream Cheese Muffins...

4 eggs
1c lemon juice
1/2c melted butter (about 125g)
2T lemon rind

beat all that together then add:

2C flour
1c sugar
2 heaped tsp baking powder

Beat together quickly and lightly. Put a large spoonful of mixture into greased muffin tin, drop a large tsp of cream cheese onto mixture, then another large spoonful of mixture on top.
Bake at moderate temp for about 15mins


Once cooked you can put lemon juice on the muffin and sprinkle it with castor sugar for decoration! I did it but it turned out a bit messy. Oh well - sugar is sugar!!

In case you've forgotten what they look like - here's a nice close up of one...

Enjoy - and let me know when they're done so I can come round to help you eat them!!