45/365 – The Late Night IGA Dash

8:51 pm, February 14th, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Posted in 365, boythings, liz cooks sometimes, local, photography by Jarod

Liz decided to be awesome this evening and make me some Anzac Biscuits for my first day of new employment tomorrow. The only problem was that our supplies of oats and coconut were nearly depleted. The logical conclusion? Run down to the IGA in the rain to get more!

To people that question why we live in the Inner West… running to the local IGA in the rain is reason #27. It’s way more fun than getting in the car and driving 10-15 minutes to your local super market.

Wholemeal Banana Choc Chip Muffins.

9:05 pm, January 28th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Posted in girlthings, liz cooks sometimes by Liz

So, Jarod and I are trying to be healthier. Or something. Reduce our sugar intake, blah, blah, blah. This means bad things for my baking. I took this recipe and replaced some of the ingredients with gooderer ones. Or something.

Ingredients
60g butter
2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour
1/2 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup soy milk
2 eggs
1 big ripe banana, mashed
1 cup or so of milk choc bits

How to
1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a medium muffin tray (12 sections) with paper cases. Melt butter in the microwave. Set aside to cool slightly.
2. Put a mixing bowl (not siftable!). Stir in sugar. Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients.
3. Lightly beat milk, eggs and butter in a jug. Add to dry ingredients, along with mashed banana. Using a wooden spoon, gently mix ingredients until just combined. Stir in choc bits. Don’t beat the mixture or the muffins will be tough.
4. Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin cases. Bake for 20 minutes or until firm on top. Let cool.
5. Eat. Nom nom nom.

Daring Bakers Jan 2010: Graham Wafers & Nanaimo Bars

8:14 am, January 27th, 2010 | 18 Comments »
Posted in daring bakers, girlthings, liz cooks sometimes, photography by Liz

I decided 2010 was the year I’d attempt Daring Bakers. At the very least, I can now say I’ve done at least one challenge.

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

Graham wafer: a sweet cracker that bears some resemblance to a cookie — digestive biscuits are the closest approximation.

Nanaimo bar: a dessert of Canadian origin popular across North America. A type of chocolate no-bake square, it is named after the West-Coast city of Nanaimo, British Columbia. It consists of a wafer crumb-based layer, topped by a layer of light vanilla or custard flavoured butter icing, which is covered in chocolate.

The process:

1. The start of the graham wafers.

2. Adding in the butter.

3. My graham wafer dough ready for cooling. (No photos of the dough making process because it was sticky business!)

4. Dough poked, ready for the oven.

5. Crushed rice bubbles (while waiting for the wafers to bake).

6. Baked graham wafers! Tasty.

7. The base of the Nanaimo bar.

8. Adding the middle layer.

9. It seems I can’t count and missed adding the image for number 9.

10. Chocolate top and ready for the fridge!

11. Cooled overnight, sliced and ready for the eating.

While I did make the graham wafers with plain flour (staying Gluten Free was not mandatory), I did enjoy the challenge. Both graham wafers and Nanaimo bars are something I’ve never tasted before, let alone made!

Graham wafers seem to be a big thing in America. While they were tasty, I probably wont be making them again an time soon. The Nanaimo bars were delicious – but so, so, so sweet. Those slices I cut were way to big for an individual serving for us. But we did make our way through most of the bar by the end of the week.

The recipe:

Link to the full challenge recipe.

Gluten-Free Graham Wafers – Ingredients
1 cup (138 g) (4.9 ounces) Sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour)
3/4 cup (100 g) (3.5 ounces) Tapioca Starch/Flour
1/2 cup (65 g) (2.3 ounces) Sorghum Flour
1 cup (200 g) (7.1 ounces) Dark Brown Sugar, Lightly packed
1 teaspoon (5 mL) Baking soda
3/4 teaspoon (4 mL ) Kosher Salt
7 tablespoons (100 g) (3 ½ ounces) Unsalted Butter (Cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
1/3 cup (80 mL) Honey, Mild-flavoured such as clover.
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Whole Milk
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Pure Vanilla Extract

Gluten-Free Graham Wafers – Directions:
1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal. If making by hand, combine aforementioned dry ingredients with a whisk, then cut in butter until you have a coarse meal. No chunks of butter should be visible.

2. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.

3. Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with sweet rice flour and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.

4. Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of sweet rice flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.

5. Adjust the rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).

6. Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more sweet rice flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers.

7. Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.

8. Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Might take less, and the starting location of each sheet may determine its required time. The ones that started on the bottom browned faster.

9. When cooled completely, place enough wafers in food processor to make 1 ¼ cups (300 mL) of crumbs. Another way to do this is to place in a large ziplock bag, force all air out and smash with a rolling pin until wafers are crumbs.

Nanaimo Bars – Ingredients

Bottom Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Gluten Free Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)
1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)
1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)

Middle Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (Such as Bird’s. Vanilla pudding mix may be substituted.)
2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Icing Sugar

Top Layer
4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) Unsalted Butter

Nanaimo Bars – Directions:
1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.

2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.

3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

Adjustments made by Liz: Recipes were halved to create a smaller batch. Wheat based flour was used. Coconut in base layer of Nanaimo bars was replaced with crushed rice bubbles.

Many thanks go to Lauren for hosting this month’s challenge. It was a great challenge to start Daring Bakers with!

17/365 – Om nom nom.

11:03 am, January 17th, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Posted in 365, liz cooks sometimes, photography by Liz

Breakfast this morning. Chocolate buttermilk pancakes with freshly whipped cream and chocolate dusting.

Nutella Banana Muffins.

10:00 am, January 12th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Posted in Recipe, girlthings, liz cooks sometimes by Liz

I found this recipe the other day while searching for things to make with the bananas hiding in my freezer. Of course it didn’t take long to find an excuse to try it.

Nutella Banana Muffins

Ingredients

2 eggs
125g soft butter
100g sugar
2 large ripe bananas
100g Nutella
100ml milk
1 tsp baking soda
250g flour
2 tsp baking powder
150g (milk) chocolate (topping)

How to

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs.
Fold in mashed banana and the nutella until mixed through. In a separate bowl, combine the milk and baking soda. In another bowl combine flour and baking powder.

Alternately blend in part of the milk mixture, then part of the flour mixture, then part of the milk mixture… until everything is combined. (This way provides better control over the consistency of the batter).

Pour batter into greased or paper-lined muffin tins and bake at 180°C in the preheated oven: 20-25 minutes for normal sized muffins, and 10 minutes for mini muffins. Check if the muffins are done by poking in a wooden skewer – it should come out quite dry and almost clean. Remove from the oven and let cool.

If you like, add a thick layer of milk chocolate to top, or spread with Nutella when eating. These are beautiful eaten straight from the oven.

And here’s some photos from the making of… click for bigger.

In case you’re wondering, Jarod mounted his Nikon with fisheye lens onto on of our cupboard doors, and pointed it downwards. He had a remote control and he took photos at random intervals. Most of the time I didn’t know when he was going to take them. The exception being the few in which I’m smiling.

Choc Mint Slice: Attempt One.

11:57 am, January 10th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Posted in Recipe, girlthings, liz cooks sometimes by Liz

On Friday night I picked up some peppermint essence from the shops – something I have been meaning to do for weeks but I never got around to putting it on the shopping list. Now with peppermint essence in hand, I could make choc mint slice.

Yesterday in the stupid Sydney heat I was determined to make it, however I was given two restrictions by Jarod: the base had to be chocolatey, and I was not allowed to turn on the oven.

I consulted the internet, and pulled together various recipes to create a ‘no oven’ choc mint slice.

Chocolatey base:
115g butter
50g white sugar
75g cocoa
25g rice bubbles (slightly smooshed in a food processor/with something heavy)
[I also had '2 eggs' written down. I forgot to add them, but the base works fine anyway. Up to you if you want to add them in]

Melt the butter, sugar and cocoa in a double boiler. (Or a heat resistant bowl that fits snugly on top of one of your saucepans), stirring occasionally. When all melted into a chocolatey goo, remove from heat and stir through your smooshed rice bubbles. Press the mixture firmly into some kind container. I used a loaf pan. The mixture will be hot, so you may have to improvise and use something other than your hands.

Put the container with the base into the fridge (or freezer) to cool/set while you make the minty middle bit.

Minty middle bit:
1 1/4 cups icing sugar
2 tbsp warm/hot milk
15g softened butter
Peppermint essence to taste

Stir the icing sugar, milk and butter together until you get a thick sugary paste. The butter can take a little while to work through. Add peppermint essence to taste. I added around 1/4 tsp of the essence, and it was plenty minty. At this stage if you would like your mint to look green, you can also add some food colouring.
Mix the essence (and colouring if used) in thoroughly.

Check the base: if it is still warm, put both the minty mixture and the base back in the fridge. If you try and put the minty bit on while the base is still warm, you run the risk of your minty bit being melty. Once the base is cool, spread the minty mixture over the base and return to the fridge to set for 10 minutes.

Chocolatey top:
150g dark chocolate
1/2 tsp melted butter

Melt the butter in a heatproof container. Add chocolate and make it melty too. Mix together with a knife until smooth. Leave mixture to reach room temperature. (Again, if you add this while hot your middle bit will go melty).
When cool/room temperature, spread over the top of your middle bit. Return to the fridge to let the chocolate set.

When it’s all set, it’ll look something like this:

Cut into bits and eat.

It is a very rich and sugary slice, we couldn’t eat much at once. The base (surprisingly) held together quite well sans eggs.

I think next time I’ll do it when it’s cooler and I’m allowed to use the oven, and make it ‘normally‘ by baking a biscuity base. Still, very edible. Just in small portions.

Merry Christmas and stuff.

10:08 pm, December 24th, 2009 | No Comments »
Posted in girlthings, liz cooks sometimes by Liz

So apparently today is Christmas Eve. And this means that today was my last day of work for a whole 10 days! This is the first time I’ve had holidays over Christmas since I started working. All of the industries I’ve worked in have not closed down over Christmas, and I’ve never seen the need to take time off. While my work isn’t shutting down, they’ll be working with skeleton staff, which means I’m not needed. Woohoo!

Tonight I made a big batch of milk chocolate mousse for Saturday’s family christmas gathering. Either tomorrow night or Saturday morning I’ll also be making a batch of shortbread. As well as bringing along some famous Serendipity ice cream Christmas Puddings.

This is possibly the first time I’ve baked for anyone other than me or Jarod. Which hopefully means there will be no leftovers.

Anyway. I hope you all enjoy your public holidays and/or Christmas, whichever you celebrate. Train doesn’t celebrate either – her holidays happen in 8 – 10 hour blocks while we’re at work… so most of the year, really.

Banana Butterscotch Pudding

1:50 pm, December 20th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Posted in Recipe, girlthings, liz cooks sometimes, photography by Liz

Or as I like to call it: Bananascotch pudding.

A couple of weekends ago we bought some bananas. Perhaps a few too many, because as they got to that nice brown-specked sweet stage, I couldn’t eat them all. I put them in the freezer until I could find a use for them that wasn’t the usual banana bread.

I checked my Edmonds cookery book, and the first suggestion under ‘Banana’ in the index was ‘Bacon Wrapped Bananas’. I wasn’t feeling that adventurous, so last night I settled for making a Banana Butterscotch Pudding.

Ingredients:

- 125 g Plain Flour
- 115 g caster sugar superfine
- 3 teaspoons Baking powder
- 1 Banana mashed
- 250 ml Milk
- 85 g salted Butter melted
- 1 Egg lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- vanilla ice cream to serve

Topping:

- 140 g soft brown sugar
- 1/4 cup Golden Syrup
- 250 ml boiling Water

How to:

- Preheat the oven to 180°C
- Sift the flour, sugar, and baking powder into a bowl.
- Add the banana, milk, butter, egg and vanilla extract and whisk together until well combined.
- Pour into a greased 2.5 L baking dish.
- To make the topping, place the brown sugar, golden syrup and water in a small pot and bring to a boil.
- Pour the boiling mixture carefully over the pudding.
- Bake for 30 – 40 minutes or until cooked through when tested with a skewer.
- Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Here’s how the kitchen was set up today – instead of writing down the recipe, Jarod decided should make use of our laptop…

This was while the pudding was in the oven and after I’d cleaned the bowls. You can see how much bench space we have – most of the time I end up using the stove top as well, but it gets a bit squishy if I’m using the stove top at the same time…

Here is the pudding just as it’s come out of the oven…

And in a bowl with ice cream…

The original recipe says it serves 4, but I would say you’d get 6 or more servings out of it. It is extremely sweet, so hard to eat a lot at once.

Cakes on a stick.

4:14 pm, December 13th, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Posted in Recipe, girlthings, liz cooks sometimes, photography by Liz

So for some reason I got the idea in my head that making cakes on a stick (Bakerella’s Cake Pops) would be a great idea. And somewhat easy to do. And here’s a step by step that will put my post to shame.

I had all the ingredients, but was missing the lollipop sticks. After much searching (and calling stores) we found some at Spotlight in Birkenhead Point. By we, I mean I called them to make sure they had some and Jarod made a detour in his normal bike riding route to pick some up. Because he is awesome. And probably thought watching me making these things might be entertaining. And entertaining it was.

First step was to make a cake. I used the recipe of the chocolate cupcakes I made earlier in the week, but only used a third of all the ingredients. I didn’t want to make 50 or more cakes on a stick – especially not for a test batch.

And of course, we ate a bit of the cake, just to make sure it was okay.

Once the cake was cool, I crumbled it into a bowl.

Now the recipe over at Bakerella is full of American terminology (or perhaps normal baking terminology that I’m ignorant to), like ‘frosting’ and ‘candy melts’ and ‘chocolate bark’. Turns out that frosting is just icing (thanks, Google!), so I made a batch of plain old chocolate icing, using the recipe on the back of the icing sugar pack (fancy):

1 cup icing sugar, sifted
2 tsp cocoa, sifted
1 tsp butter, softened
1 tbsp milk

Put icing sugar, cocoa, butter and milk into a heatproof bowl. Place a little hot water in the kitchen sink. Rest bowl of in sink and stir until it is soft and spreadable. (Oh, and don’t get any water in there).

I then combined the cake crumble and the icing, mixing it with my hands.

I then rolled littleish balls of the mixture in my hands, and put them on my baking sheet.

I should point out that it’s not a good idea to wipe your hands on anything your cat may have slept on, rolled in, brushed past or otherwise been in contact with at this stage. If you do, the next ball you make will be very furry. And yes, I found that out the hard way.

Now, I thought those balls should be small enough at the time. Turns out I was pretty wrong about that, but more on that later.

Then, I stuck the lollipop sticks in. At this stage I forgot the little tip that said to dip the sticks in melted chocolate before putting into the cakey part, and just stuck them in. I’m not sure if dipping the sticks in melted chocolate would have helped, but I will certainly remember for next time.

They went into the freezer for 30 minutes to harden. Then I pulled them out for dipping.

Bakerella uses ‘candy melts’ which seem to come in delightful colours and I’ve never seen them before. In some other variations of the pops, she also mentions ‘chocolate bark’, which are apparently just chocolate melts. So, I decided on using the white chocolate melts I had in the cupboard.

I then lined them up on my styrofoam. The stuff I used is actually what the kMix came in – handy!

Jarod also decided that he wanted to try one before the chocolate had a chance to properly set.

Which is lucky, because shortly after he ate that one, gravity decided to do it’s thing:

And proved without a doubt that those balls needed to be way smaller.

So, in summary, things I probably should have done:

- Crumbled the cake better (perhaps used the food processor)
- Mixed the icing in more thoroughly (I did a totally half assed job)
- Not let the cat near the apron (even though it’s hers) or our tea towels (in general)
- Um, made the cake balls smaller?
- Thought ahead and made sure I had enough space in the freezer (I had to do a major reshuffle to fit them in!)
- Done the dipping slower to make it look a bit neater.

So, I’d say I’m not quite ready to make cupcake pops just yet, but hey, at least they tasted good.

Mini Maple Pancake Muffins

11:40 am, December 12th, 2009 | No Comments »
Posted in Recipe, girlthings, liz cooks sometimes by Liz

Made for breakfast this morning. If breakfast time is still breakfast time at 11.30am.

Recipe from bakerella:

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup (I used maple ‘flavoured’ syrup, and it didn’t seem to make much of a difference).
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Sift together with a wire whisk.

3. In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter until just combined.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until combined.

5. Stir in chocolate chips. Reserve a few chips to sprinkle on the tops.

6. Bake for 8-9 minutes.

7. Serve warm, with maple syrup for dipping.

Makes 24 mini pancake muffins.

I made some muffins with choc chips, and some without. Overall I preferred the ones without choc chips, but dipped straight into the maple syrup.

They are so tasty – just like pancakes, but bite size.

Chocolate cupcakes.

2:40 pm, December 9th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Posted in Recipe, girlthings, liz cooks sometimes, photography by Liz

I made cupcakes. So I could use my new mixy thingy. They’re awesome. Both the cupcakes and the mixy thingy, that is.

The cupcakes have a slightly crisp shell, but then are all fluffy and delicious on the inside.

100g dark chocolate
1 cup (250ml) water
125g butter, softened
1 1/4 cups (255g) brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups (225g) self-raising flour
1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
1/4 cup (30g) cocoa powder

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Set up your muffin pan/s how you like them.

2. Combine the chocolate and water in a small saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

3. Use an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition, until just combined.

4. Add the flours and cocoa powder and stir until just combined. Add the melted chocolate mixture and stir to combine.

5. Spoon evenly among the lined muffin pans. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

6. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 12 – 14 big cupcakes.

Now I have 11 cupcakes that need to be eaten. Why must I bake things in such large quantities?