It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

After the craziness of the end of the school year, it's been lovely to be back at home with my family.  This basically means loud chatting, baking, copious cups of tea, shopping trips and lunches out.  I always take advantage of staying at my mother's house because she has two ovens...yes, two.  It's absolute heaven.  This necessity arose when I was a teenager and poor Mum would always have to compete to use her own oven.  She'd be wanting to cook dinner but we'd have a batch of something-or-other baking that just couldn't wait.  So the solution to that problem has served me well and I can have TWO different things baking at TWO different temperatures.....it's the best.

I only ever make biscotti at Christmas time.  Not sure why, exactly but it just feels right.  Biscotti, or biscotto, means "twice-baked" and this scrumptious, crispy little biscuit holds its own against a strong cup of coffee and loud family chatter.  I love this particular recipe because it's not too sweet.  The sugar, chocolate and roasted almond crunch complement each other perfectly.

Chocolate and Almond Biscotti

270g plain flour, sifted

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

30g dark cocoa powder, sifted

165g caster sugar

3/4 cup blanched almonds

3 eggs

2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees celsius and line a flat baking tray.  Mix together the flour, baking powder, cocoa, sugar and almonds.  Add the eggs and the vanilla and combine to form a dough.  Your dough consistency can range between smooth and sticky depending on the size of your eggs, but don't add any more flour.

Divide the dough in two and lightly knead each piece on a floured surface until smooth - this won't take long.  Shape the logs and flatten slightly.  Place on your pre-prepared tray and bake for 35 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Use a serrated knife to cut the log into 5mm slices.  Place back onto your baking tray and bake for a further 15 minutes until your biscotti are crisp.

Happy baking,

F. x

Winter + White Chocolate

Think about it...
It's a cold winter evening and you're snuggled on the couch with a lovely knitted blanket over your knees.  What could make this a better picture?  Only biting into a warm white chocolate chunk cookie!

Heaven!  You see, white chocolate and I...well, we have a bit of a 'thing'.  But please don't allow this to hold you back from experimenting with this recipe!  Instead of white chocolate, you could use ANY type of chocolate, chocolate bar, nut or dried fruit.  This is the wonderful cookie recipe of my childhood and you really can do anything with it.

White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

250g butter, unsalted

70g caster sugar

70g brown sugar

1/2 can condensed milk

2 tsp vanilla essence

350g S/R flour

80g plain flour

200g good quality white chocolate, chopped roughly

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.  Cream the butter and sugars until well combined and lightened in colour.  Mix in the condensed milk and vanilla before adding your flours. When your mixture has come together, add the chocolate.  Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls and place onto baking trays, allowing room for spreading. Bake for 15 minutes or until lovely and golden.

This recipe makes a whole lot of cookies so you could halve the mixture but what would be the fun in that?

F. x

In a whizz...tizz

This week marked the first week back at school after holidays.  Please don't take my lack of postings during the week as I didn't have time to cook.  Oh no, lovelies.  I just didn't have time to post!  And now you reap the benefits of this as you are about to be in absolute sweetness overload.  I begin with Sunday night... 

During the working week, dessert in the evening is not a regular occurrence - despite what my lovely husband would prefer.  However, weekends mean baking time, cookbook reading time and....dessert time!  Sunday night mean soft, sweet Sticky Date Pudding.  While the dish itself oozes effort and time, in reality, it was whizzed up in the blender in about five minutes and cooked in the oven while we were eating dinner.  This is the easiest Sticky Date Pudding recipe you will ever come across.  You can just cook these in your muffin pans for perfect individual serves or in a dariol mould, as I did, for presentation. What you end up with is a delightfully moreish sponge pudding which becomes dense and sickly sweet with the addition of the warm butterscotch sauce - oooohhhh yes!!!

Sticky Date Pudding

200g dried dates, roughly chopped

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 cups boiling water

60g unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup S R Flour

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and grease your chosen moulds.  Put the chopped dates, bicarb and boiling water into the blender jug and leave to soak.  After around 5 minutes, add the butter and sugar before pulsing 2 - 3 times.  Any more and your dates will be mush.  Tip in the flour and eggs and pulse again until just combined.

Use an icecream scoop to divide the mixture between the moulds.  This will ensure even distribution.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, depending on your oven.  You want a few crumbs on the skewer when tested.  Remove from oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes before turning out.  While they are resting, you can get on with your butterscotch sauce.

Butterscotch Sauce

1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar

300mL single (pure) cream

125g unsalted butter

Put all of your ingredients into a saucepan over a low heat.  Stir continuously as all ingredients melt in together.  Put into a pouring jug to serve with your puddings.

Don't forget the Vanilla Bean Icecream!

F. x

An Anticipated Visit

Today was the day that I have been waiting for since the end of November.  Today was the day that I got to see my wonderful BFF, Nick! Naturally, this meant some celebratory cooking in the form of Chocolate Blueberry Tarts (blueberry in honour of my lovely guest).  And wouldn't I like to see Nigella try to make pastry in Central Queensland heat?  It is a bit of a mission, possibly best saved for winter.  Luckily, the pastry gods were favouring little ol' moi today.  Soft, crumbly chocolate pastry; creamy white chocolate mascarpone filling; and topped with fresh blueberries.  These are sweet perfection.  While they should be sickly sweet, the balance of chocolately bitterness with the subtle cream and juicy blueberries is simply gorgeous as the flavours work in perfect harmony.

As Nick and I scoot off to spend a few wonderful, girly days in Yeppoon, I urge you to look out for the recipe that I will be sure to share with you in the latter half of this coming week!

F. x

Pure Indulgence



I have been wanting to try this elegant chocolate treasure for quite a while now.  Every time I open Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess, I can't help but read this recipe and take pleasure in the eloquent way in which she gives directions for its creation.  Well time is of the essence and all of that, so today was the day! And it was wonderful.  How fantastic is the feeling when you complete a recipe and it looks identical to the illustration you have been lusting over?!  Food is all about the senses...first and foremost, the visual.  When the visual is matched by the taste, aromas and texture, you have achieved the holy grail of cooking - hallejulah!

This rich dessert provides a beautiful balance of sweetness and chocolately bitterness. Truly, a gorgeous dinner party people pleaser, this dessert can be prepared well ahead of time and be cooked straight out of the fridge.  I would highly recommend completing a practice run to ensure the perfect cooking time in your oven.  A solid outer, with that insanely indulgent molten centre is difficult to achieve first go but so incredibly satisfying when you do.  Serve them with sweet vanilla icecream and tart raspberries.  A sweet raspberry sauce would also compliment the dessert wonderfully.  These cakes are a labour of love - share them with your favourite sweeties.

Nigella's Molten Chocolate Babycakes

50g soft unsalted butter

350g dark chocolate

150g caster sugar

4 large eggs, beaten with a pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

50g plain flour

Preheat an oven to 200 degrees C, putting your baking tray in at the same time.  Prepare your pudding moulds by greasing with (extra) butter and lining the base with baking paper circles.

Melt the chocolate (I used the microwave for ease) and put it aside to cool slightly. I must admit that I only used 250g of chocolate as that was all I had in the fridge and the Babycakes were still incredibly rich. 

Cream the butter and sugar before gradually beating in the eggs.  Once these are well combined, mix through the vanilla extract.  Sift and mix in the flour until the mixture is smooth.  Scoop in the cooled chocolate and blend to a smooth, glossy batter.

Divide the batter between six moulds.  Place them on the heated baking tray and put back into the oven.  Nigella dictates 10-12 minutes for cooking, in my oven with dariol moulds, my puddings took almost 20 minutes.  Keep checking them.  The Babycakes will rise like souffles.  You will be able to see the ring of cooked batter quite clearly.

As soon as you take them out of the oven, tip these luscious little babies onto your serving plate. Be gentle, banging and shaking has no place here. Icecream suits perfectly as an accompaniment but so would a creme anglaise or whipped double cream.

F. x

Nostalgia and Chocolate Cake

Isn't it funny how, no matter how old we are, we still long for the food of our childhood?  I regularly turn to the recipes that I have cooked a million times, after have watched my mum cook them a million times before. My tastes are very much influenced by my darling mother's cooking.  For example, I always make my custard incredibly thick.  Why?  Because that's how Mum always did it.   My lovely husband, often asks me for meals that his mother used to cook for him, giving me 'feedback' as to how I can make it "more like Mum's."  As much as I find this ever-so-slightly irritating, it is endearing too.  These are the tastes, textures and smells of our childhood and how much comfort we find in the nostalgia that comes along.  This speaks volumes for the amount of love and affection in our childhood homes, and the care with  which each meal was prepared and presented.  I hope that one day, my (future) children will have the same experience and continue our mother's recipes on as they share them with their own families.  I have previously shared my mum's delicious chocolate cake recipe, a family must-have for all birthdays and celebrations.  These are the chocolate cup-cakes that graced my lunchbox in primary school and the same chocolate cup-cakes that Mitch often has in his.  The legacy of love through nourishment continues, and how truly wonderful it is.

F. x



Home Sweet Home

This weekend, I will be travelling back to Brisbane to see my family.  After almost three months in Blackwater, the thought of returning to Brisbane to stay with my parents and younger siblings has me overwhelmed with warm fuzzy thoughts of the comfort of 'home'.  No matter how long you've been away, somehow Mum's place is always referred to as 'home' and I love that.  My Mum is my favourite cook (well on par with Maggie Beer and Margaret Fulton).  One thing that my Mum is an absolute master of is custard.  And another is pulling a homey dessert out of nowhere, on demand.  Crumble has always had a soft spot with me, for this very reason.  It was one of the things that Mum would make on a weekend (dessert is not for school nights) to accompany her champion of custards. 

Funnily enough, I found myself rubbing butter into flour one night this week, pulling together a crumble as a mid-week treat for Mitch and I.  There is really nothing more flexible.  Whatever you happen to have in the cupboard goes in.  Once you have a base of butter, flour and sugar (raw, castor, brown or a combination), throw in whatever takes your fancy.  For me, it happened to be coconut and chopped walnuts.  Thinking about it now, a little nutmeg would have also been delightful.  Juicy tinned peaches filled the bottom of darling cream Wedgewood ramekins (a present from Mum for this very purpose!), before crumble is packed over the top.  I am by no means a minimalist when it comes to crumble toppings.  Twenty minutes later, the smell of baking fills the house and out comes perfection in a jar....golden, knobbly and lucious.  The smell and taste of home.

F. x

Happy Friday!

What better way to share the Friday cheer than with a scrummy recipe?  Here is my Chocolate Caramel Slice recipe...and it tastes even better than it looks!  These are perfect for morning tea, giving away as little gifts or just to have as a sweet treat.  Believe me, you will be making these little darlings over and over again!  Thank me now because you'll be too busy munching on these later on.

Chocolate Caramel Slice

Base

1 cup P flour

1/2 cup dessicated coconut

1/2 cup brown sugar

125g unsalted butter, melted

Caramel

1/2 cup golden syrup

125g unsalted butter, cubed

2 x 395g cans of sweetened condensed milk (heaven!!)

Chocolate

200g dark chocolate

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Mix together dry ingredients for the base before adding the melted butter.  Bring together and press into a prepared 20cm x 20cm tin.  Place in a moderate oven (about 180 degrees) and bake for around 20 minutes. It should have started to brown a little on top but the gorgeous smell will alert you to its readiness.

If you start getting your caramel ingredients together when you've popped the base into the oven, it seems to time itself pretty well.  Place all the ingredients into a saucepan over a low heat.  Stir until the butter has melted and then cook for another 6-7 minutes.  Don't expect it to thicken much or change in colour, just keep stirring it so that you don't burn the bottom! 

When the base is ready, pull it out of the oven and pour the caramel over the top.  Place the tin back into the oven for another 20 minutes.  The caramel will darken and start to bubble...best thing ever!

Let the tin cool on the bench before popping it into the fridge.  Leave it for a good couple of hours (I usually let it go overnight) to make sure that it is nice and cold.

While I do prefer to melt chocolate over a pot of boiling water, I use my Tupperware microwave jug for this recipe.  Break the chocolate into pieces and drizzle the oil over the top.  I put it in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between.  This ensures that you have no disasters.  When the chocolate is completely melted and is shiny and smooth, pour it over the chilled caramel.  Tip and tilt the tin to allow the chocolate to spread evenly across the whole slice.  Put it straight back into the fridge and leave until set.  This usually only takes about 30 minutes.

Lift the slice out of the tin.  To slice, I use a knife dipped into boiling water.  This stops the chocolate breaking and makes you cuts clean and neat.  Wipe the knife with a cloth in between to remove any melted chocolate.  I start by chopping off the 'crispy' edges.  (This is the favoured part in my house and hardly the scraps with all the dark, 'burnt' caramel!)  Then you can cut the slice into pieces sized to your liking.  Steal a piece at this point because you won't get a look in later on!

Too yum!

F. x

Childhood Memories

I absolutely adore baking cakes.  Every single time that I bake cupcakes, it brings back childhood memories of baking in the kitchen with Mum.  We used to make a batch of our "special recipe" every single week and freeze the cupcakes so that us kids could have one in our lunch box every day.  Mum used to let me put each ingredient into the bowl, being incredibly patient as I invariably dropped shell into the mix after cracking the eggs.  I would insist on being the one to mix the batter with the electric beaters and without fail would send the majority of the batter over the kitchen splashback, the bench and all over us!  My favourite were Mum's chocolate cupcakes and I still make them using that exact recipe quite regularly.  It doesn't matter how many different or more complicated recipes I try, these ones still taste the best.  Now, I am all for sharing (and Mum wouldn't mind) so I encourage you to try this and let me know how you go!

F. x

Mum's Chocolate Cake

125g unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ cups SR flour

½ cup cocoa

1 cup milk

Cook in a medium oven for 20 minutes (cupcakes) or 40 minutes (large cake).

Me and my gorgeous Mutti