Tinkerblue

Summer by the Sea. Baking by the Book. Ciambellone.

I'm house and dog sitting for friends for two weeks.  My favourite place to hang out is their backyard. A gazebo, pretty fairy lights, and a comfy chair.  

 

 

Earlier tonight I was enjoying a glass of wine, a good book and the dog at my feet. 

 

 

The book, Summer by the Sea by Susan Wiggs is an easy summer beach read.  Light and fluffy, it's the story of star-crossed childhood loves.  I'm only half way through but I'm pretty sure girl will end up with boy.  (If they don't then the book will surprise me). While I am enjoying the book and I will read more by the same author, what's got me about the book so far is the delicious sounding recipes. The girl, Rosa owns an Italian restaurant by the sea hence between chapters there are Italian recipes.  I shouldn't have been reading the book before dinner.  The recipes just made me hungry.  

I can't pronounce this...Caimbellone...but it has lemon in it.  Lemon, I like.  A lot. I had to stop reading to bake.  

 

 

 

Yep, I put the book down, delayed dinner and baked.  Lucky for me, Andrea and Sean had all the ingredients in their pantry.  (I need to go grocery shopping and restock).

 

 

It's an easy recipe. But messy.  Starting with 4 cups of flour in a mound on a board.  I skipped the board and just used the (clean) counter top.   Then alternately add the wet and dry ingredients, mixing and kneading with your hands. Told you it's messy.

 

 

The recipe said to add extra flour as needed.  I found I needed to add 1/2 a cup of flour for every 1/2 cup of liquid.  So I added 1 cup of milk in 1/4 cup increments, alternating with a 1/4 cup of flour. Same with the oil.

 

 

It was quick to make.  The dough didn't require a lot of kneading, the hardest part was getting the flour amount correct.  I formed the dough into two fat rings as instructed, next time I'd braid the two rings. Just to make them prettier.

 

 

The kitchen smelled awesome while the rings were baking. The dog pretty much sat in front of the oven.  Waiting the 40 minutes for the Ciambellone to bake was torture.  Although I did eat dinner and wash up in that time.  

 

 

Then I had a huge slice of warm ciambellone straight out of the oven.  It's pretty good. Would be better with a cup of coffee for breakfast.  If I only I knew how to operate Sean's fancy coffee machine. Or if I had a bottle of Frangelico so I could make the Caffe Frangelico. Frangelico is hazelnut.  Hazelnut, I like.  A lot.  Lemon (in the Ciambellone) and hazelnut (in the Caffe Frangelico) together?  Yes please. Yum.

 

All the recipe from Summer by the Sea are here.

 

Jaffa Jelly Slice

I warn you this is going to be long winded.

Have you seen the show on telly, Upper Middle Bogan? It's hilarious? If you're not an Aussie or haven't spent time here you may not get the humour. Take my word for it, it's very funny. 

In one episode we watched one of the characters mentions she used the New Idea recipe for satay chicken lasagna. 

 

 

 

Jo immediately decided we needed to make it. But no amount of googling could find a New Idea recipe for Satay Chicken Lasagna. So Claire volunteered to bake one.

I was assigned dessert. Jo informed me it couldn't be an ordinary dessert it had to be a classic with a twist just like mixing lasagna and satay. Ummm okay.

We thought about jelly slice with chocolate frogs in it but every kid in Australia has had jelly slice with chocolate frogs for a birthday at some point. That wasn't twisty enough for Jo.

 

 

We love Jaffa pudding. When I was home in March we ate our weights worth of Jaffa pudding. But it's not sold in Tassie anymore! How dare they! Don't know what a Jaffa is? It's a ball of chocolate covered in a hard orange candy shell. We always bought a bag of Jaffa when we went to the pictures (movies) as kids.

 

 

So Jaffa Jelly Slice it was. I couldn't find a recipe but let's face it Jelly Slice is not exactly a complicated thing to make.

 

 

Base:

• One packet of girl guide biscuits
• One packets of Jaffa
• Hunk of butter 
• Crush biscuits and Jaffas together
• Melt butter
• Mix with biscuits and Jaffas
• Line bottom of pan with biscuit mix
• Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes or so

 

 

Middle Layer:
One packet of chocolate mousse mix
Milk (tells you in the side of the box how much you need)
Make mousse according to instructions on side of mousse mix box
Pour mousse on top of biscuit layer
Refrigerate, again.

 

 

Jelly layer:
One box of orange jelly crystals
Make jelly according to instructions on side of jelly box (told you jelly slice isn't hard to make)
Cool jelly in fridge for a bit and make sure the mousse has set.
Pour jelly on top of mousse
Refrigerate for 4 hours

 

 

Cut with a hot knife and serve.

Verdict:
Claire and I both found the chicken satay lasagna to be good but a little heavy. Jo loved it and a week later is still eating the left overs. We all loved the Jaffa jelly slice.

 

No Bake Chocolate Oat Bar

Last week a friend shared this recipe on Facebook from the Mouthful of Yum page. I book marked it and forgot about it.  I can't make chocolate bars like this when it's just me at home, other wise I eat the whole pan!

 

 

Melt butter, add brown sugar and vanilla, stir in quick cook oats

 

 

Last week was the first night of the 2013 Paddler's Challenge so I decided this would be a good treat to take to share.  It's no bake, so no turning on the oven and heating up the house.  Perfect. Although I was a little worried they'd melt in the kayak before they could be eaten. Yeah, shouldn't have worried about that.

 

 

Press half of oat mixture in to 9x9 pan

 

 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 3 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup peanut butter

 

Melt chocolate chips and peanut butter in small, heavy saucepan

 

What to do:

• Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat
• Add brown sugar and vanilla
• Mix in oats
• Press half of mixture into 9x9 greased pan (I used parchment paper - then I can just lift the finished product out)
• Melt chocolate chips and peanut butter in heavy saucepan over low heat
• Stir frequently until smooth
• Pour chocolate mixture over crust in pan
• Crumble remaining oat mixture over top of the chocolate layer, pressing in gently
• Cover and refridgerate for 2-3 hours

 

 

Pour chocolate over oat mixture

 

 

They were really good.  I like peanut butter and chocolate together (hello peanut butter cups) so there was no question that I would like these.  They were quick and simple to make, and I only had two saucepans to wash up.  

 

 

 

Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes

 

Way back in April and May I stayed a few nights with my friends Loraine and Bob.  As a mini thank you I wanted to bake some treats but they needed to be gluten free. I didn't want to have to buy xantham gum and a whole bunch of different gluten free flours.  It took me a while to find a recipe that sounded doable with the ingredients I had on hand.

 

Melt butter and chocolate

I finally found one I liked the look of on Martha Stewart. It only needed 4 ingredients:

• 6 tbsps (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
• 8 ozs bittersweet chocolate or 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used chocolate chips)
• 6 large eggs. Yes, you read that right. 6 larges eggs! Separated and room temperature.
• 1/2 cup sugar

 

Whisk egg whites until soft peaks form

The instructions look a little intimidating, but really it's just a case of reading them all they way through before actually getting to work.

 

Add 1/4 of egg white mix to chocolate mixture

 

• Preheat oven to 275oF
• Line cupcake pan with paper liners
• Melt butter and chocolate in a large heatproof bowl over (not in) a pan of simmering water
• Stir to combine, remove bowl from heat, and let cool slightly
• Whisk in egg yolks, all 6 of them!
• Whisk  egg whites in an electric mixer until soft peaks form
• Gradually add sugar, beating until peaks are stiff and glossy (do not overbeat)
• Whisk one quarter of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten
• Then gently fold chocolate mixture into remaining egg whites
• Divide batter evenly into cupcake liners (about 2/3s full)
• Bake, rotating tins half way through until cupcakes are just set in the centre, about 25 minutes
• Transfer tins to wire rack to cool completely before removing cupcakes

 

Fold chocolate mixture into remaining egg whites

Makes 22

 

My verdict? They were a little bit of work to make.  I have a habit of overbeating the eggs. Still it was better than having to combine a bunch of different flours and a stabiliser. I also think they were a little bitter tasting, but then I'm a milk chocolate girl, so I think that's just personal preference.  They are really good served warm with a scoop of vanilla icecream.  

 

All done - the tops are supposed to crack and sink like that!

 

Will I make them again? Maybe, but not for a while, there are other recipes I want to try first.

Pillows of Lemony Goodness - Lemon Sugar Cookies

 

Lemon is almost my favourite flavour. After chocolate, of course. Lemon meringues, lemon curd, lemon tea, slice of lemon in water, sour cream lemon pie, Michelle's BBQ lemon chicken, lemon green beans, lemon chicken from the local Chinese restaurant, lemon ricotta pancakes...

 

 

 

So when I stumbled across this recipe for lemon sugar cookies with lemon buttercream frosting from Mother Thyme I just had to make them. Had to make them. I even had everything I needed on hand, including lemons. Doesn't everyone have a supply of lemons?

 

 

So what did I think?

These were a little time consuming to make, but only because the dough needs to be refridgerated for an hour. I ended up getting side tracked and the dough stayed in the fridge for about 90 minutes. Maybe because it was in the fridge for so long, the dough was quite hard to roll out.  It just kept cracking and tearing.  I didn't have any cookie cutters so I used an upside down water glass. The recipe says it makes a dozen cookies.  I cut out 24 cookies, and they were huge.  It also said the cookies would spread due to the baking powder, mine didn't. The baked cookie was the same size as the unbaked cookie. Which is a good thing.   Next time I'll use a smaller glass and make more cookies. 

 

 

These were soooooooo good. They were soft and fluffy and very lemony.  I inhaled two while waiting for the second batch to bake.  The sugar rush was not good. At this size, one cookie is more than enough.  That said I will make these again.  They are too good not to.  Just typing this out is making me drool.  Maybe I'll make them on Friday for my birthday treat. 

 

 

 

 

Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers from The Looneyspoons Collection

I eat a lot of this tricolour quinoa from Trader Joes.  So I'm always on the lookout for different ways to use it.  Of course, The Looneyspoons Collection has a recipe I wanted to try - The Right Stuff.

 

 

I had most of the ingredients on hand.  The recipe is from the "Eats Without Meats" section so it listed reduced sodium vegetable broth. All I had was reduced sodium chicken broth. Still tasty but not vegetarian.  I didn't have shiitake mushrooms, just plain old white mushrooms. I didn't have any frest mint leaves either. 

 

 

This was an easy recipe to follow and make.  The full recipe is in the book, but basically it was cook the quinoa with the broth and cumin, coriander and curry powder.

 

 

Cook onions, peppers, garlic, mushrooms and spinach in a skillet.

 

 

Mix the cooked quinoa and veggies with  sweet green peas, feta, mint, lemon zest and black pepper.

 

 

Spoon fillling into peppers.  Place peppers upright in a baking pan. Cover and cook.

 

 

The recipe makes 6, I halved it and made 3.  I ate one for dinner right away and kept two in the fridge to eat later in the week.

 

What I liked - tasty, could be served as a side or a main, has an okay amount of protein (9g) per pepper, has lots of veggies.

What I didn't like - takes some time to prepare - 15 mins for the quinoa and another 15 mins in the oven,  creates too many dishes - a pot for the quinoa, a skillet for the veggies and a baking pan.

Would I make again - yes. 

One a Penny, Two a Penny - Hot Cross Buns

 

 

Remember when I made a fruit cake for Christmas? It's been 20 years since I made a fruit cake. It's been even longer since I made Hot Cross Buns. I'm pretty sure it was in a home economics class at Geilston Bay High School. I usually buy my Hot Cross Buns from the supermarket.

Hot Cross Buns are traditionally baked and eaten on Good Friday.  Mine were baked on Thursday, and will be eaten for many days afterwards. I did have one for breakfast this morning. 

I used a recipe on page 168 of the March 2010 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly.  I can't find it online but it's pretty much the same as this recipe.

Ingredients for Buns:

• 2 x 7g packets of granulated yeast (my packets were 8g, because that was what they had at the store)
• 1/3 cup caster sugar (I used regular sugar)
• 1 cup of warm milk
• 4 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp mixed spice (I didn't have mixed spice, so I used 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp cloves and 1/4 tsp cardamon
• 1 tsp cinnamon 
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 80g butter
• 1 and 1/2 cups chocolate chips
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup warm water

Combine the yeast with one tablespoon of the sugar and all of the milk in a small bowl; whisk until the yeast is dissolved. Cover bowl and stand in a warm place for about 10 minutes until the yeast mixture is frothy. 

 

Mix the flour, spices and salt into a large bowl; rub in the butter. Stir in the remaining sugar, chocolate, yeast mixture, egg and enough water to make a soft dough.

 

Cover your dough with plastic wrap and stand in a warm place for about one hour or until mixture has doubled in size.

 

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Divide the dough into 20 portions and roll each portion into a ball. Place the balls, almost touching, on a large greased oven tray. Stand in a warm place for about 20 minutes or until dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 425 F or 395F if using a convection oven.

Ingredients for Flour Paste for Crosses:

• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 1tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons caster sugar
• 2 tbsps of cold water, approximately

Sift flour, cocoa & sugar into a small bowl; gradually stir in enough water to make a smooth thick paste.

 

 

Place the flour paste into a piping bag with a small tube or put in a zip lock bag and snip off the corner. Pipe crosses.

 

Bake Buns for 15 minutes. Transfer to a cooking rack.

Make Glaze

Ingredients for Glaze:

• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon gelatine
• 1 tablespoon water

Combine all the glaze ingredients in a small saucepan and stir over low heat, without boiling, until the sugar and gelatine dissolves.

 

Brush buns with glaze.

 

 

Verdict? Once I had put the balls of dough on the baking tray, I forgot to let them sit for 20 minutes to rise, so mine are a little small. Also my flour paste for the crosses was too runny. It was was too thick after adding 2 tbsps of water, so I added another 2. I should probably have only added another 1.

They are time consuming.  Only because you have to let the yeast do it's thing.  But apart from that they are quick and easy to make. Because of my lack of finisse with piping that part was pretty messy, and my crosses look more like blobs.

 

 

However they still taste pretty good. I had one, hot out of the oven last night and another for breakfast this morning.  They freeze well, but that's not gonna happen.  These will get eaten in no time. Anyone want one?

Oh and did you know:

• sharing a hot cross bun with another is supposed to ensure friendship throughout the coming year
• if you take a hot cross bun on a sea voyage it's supposed to protect against a shipwreck
• hang a hot cross bun in your kitchen to prevent fires

 

 

Chicken Cordon New from The Looneyspoons Collection

Yep another recipe from The Looneyspoons Collection, and more to come.  One of the side affects of not working is I have a lot of time to cook.  

I made this recipe a few weeks ago. The recipe makes 4 servings, I halved it and dinner for two nights.

 

 

The recipe calls for an egg, honey dijon mustard, whole wheat flour, salt and pepper, multigrain crackers, Parmesan cheese, fresh thyme, boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced smoked ham, light swiss cheese, butter and olive oil.  

I didn't have any fresh thyme, so I had to use what I had - thyme in a bottle.

 

 

Two things I need to remember for next time...

I didn't finely crush up the crackers, mine were far from fine.  My chicken was sparsely covered.  Finer crumbs would have gone futher.  

Secondly I didn't pound the chicken out enough. It was too thick, which made it hard to roll up, and it didn't stay rolled up very well.

 

 

These were messy to make and required a lot of dishes, which meant a lot of cleaning up. Roll chicken around ham and chese. Dip in flour. Dip in egg. Dip in crumbs. Cook in a skillet on the stove top. Bake in oven in a baking dish.  Maybe I should have just put the skillet in the oven and saved a dish.

 

 

They may have been messy, but they were easy.  And the ingredients are things I would normally have in my kitchen, expect the fresh thyme!   Normally chicken cordon bleu is high in fat and a restaurant treat. Never occured to me I could make a relatively healthy version myself at home.

 

 

I would make this again.  In fact I already have.  

 

Related articles

Dilly Beloved from The Looneyspoons Collection

No Weigh, Jose! Mexican Lasagna

Dilly Beloved from The Looneyspoons Collection

The Looneyspoons Collection is fast becoming one of my favourite cookbooks. Yes, partly because all my others are in a box in a storage locker. Way to much lifting involved to get to them.  Looneyspoons is the only one I have with me on the Sunshine Coast.

 

 

I eat a lot of chicken. I don't really know different ways to cook chicken. I usually just grill a breast and that's it. So now I'm working my way through the "Chicken Worth Pickin'" chapter.  I made the No Weigh Jose Lasagna a while back. Okay so I used ground beef not ground chicken, but the recipe was from the chicken chapter.

 

 

The Dilly Beloved recipe looked easy.  10 ingredients. Many of which I already had in the pantry. I'm not going to give you the full recipe, you'll have to buy the book for that.  But the ingredients are maple syrup, honey dijon mustard, fresh dill, lemon juice, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon zest, garlic, salt and pepper and the chicken.

 

 

The recipe called for 4 chicken breast. Instead of halving the recipe, I made the full deal and had enough for dinner for the rest of the week.

 

 

I served it with quinoa and oven roasted brussel sprouts.  It was quite tasty.  The maple syrup and the honey dijon mustard made it just that little bit sweet.  This was really easy to make. The hardest part was waiting for the chicken to marinate. I'm not a very patient person.

 

*** I didn't have any fresh dill, and the spice jar that said (dried) dill had rosemary in it. Hence my Dilly Beloved Chicken was actually Rosemary Beloved Chicken!"

 

9 Pound of Fruit Cake

When my landlord and Martina and I were deciding what to do for Christmas, the landlord requested fruit cake.  I volunteered to bake it.  Not quite sure what I was thinking when I did that.

 

I haven't eaten a piece of fruit cake since...since I don't remember when. I certainly haven't made a fruit cake since the 80's when I lived at home.

 

I found a recipe in my Australian Women's Weekly Christmas cookbook, and then decided it was too much work, so found an less intensive recipe online.

 

Except the recipe called for mace. What the hell is mace? Other than a chemical you spray in someone's face when they are trying to attack you? Apparently mace is a spice. I never knew. I used ground ginger instead.

 

Cost me close to $100 for all those candied fruits and nuts. It had better taste good. Next time someone asks me to make a fruit cake, I'll buy one at half the price!

 

The recipe I used is Alison's Dad's Fruit Cake from Canadian Living.

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups (375 mL) halved red glacé cherries
• 1-1/2 cups (375 mL) halved green glacé cherries
• 2 cups (500 mL) candied mixed peel
• 2 cups (500 mL) dark seedless raisins
• 2 cups (500 mL) golden raisins
• 2 cups (500 mL) dried currants
• 1 cup (250 mL) brandy
• 1 cup (250 mL) slivered almonds
• 1 cup (250 mL) pecan halves
• 3 cups (750 mL) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup (175 mL) granulated sugar
• 1 cup (250 mL) packed brown sugar
• 5 eggs
• 2 tsp (10 mL) vanilla
• 1 tsp (5 mL) almond extract
• 1 tsp (5 mL) baking powder
• 1 tsp (5 mL) cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp (4 mL) ground nutmeg
• 3/4 tsp (4 mL) ground mace - I used ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp (2 mL) baking soda
• 1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
• 1/2 tsp (2 mL) ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp (1 mL) ground cloves

 

Directions:

In very large glass bowl, combine cherries, mixed peel, dark and golden raisins, currants and 3/4 cup (175 mL) of the brandy.

Cover and let stand, stirring occasionally, for 2 hours or overnight.

In bowl, toss together almonds, pecans and 1/2 cup (125 mL) of the flour. Toss with fruit mixture. 

In large bowl or stand mixer, beat butter with granulated sugar until light.

Beat in brown sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in eggs, 1 at a time.

Beat in vanilla and almond extract.

 

In separate bowl, whisk together remaining flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, baking soda, salt, allspice and cloves; stir into butter mixture until combined. Scrape over fruit mixture; mix well. 

Scrape batter into 13- x 9- inch (3.5 L) parchment paper–lined metal cake pan; smooth top.

Set shallow pan on bottom rack of 300°F (150°C) oven; pour in enough water to come halfway up sides of pan.

Bake cake on centre rack of oven for 1 hour.

Lay foil loosely over cake; bake until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean, 1 to 1-1/2 hours.

Let cool in pan on rack.

Remove cake from pan; peel off paper.

 

(9 lbs 2 3/4 ozs doesn't include the cake pan. I zeroed it out with the cake pan on the scale and then put the fruit cake back in the cake pan.  9 lbs 2 3/4 ozs is all fruit cake. I could have knocked an intruder out with it!)

Soak double-thickness 32- x 16-inch (80 x 40 cm) piece of cheesecloth in remaining brandy; wrap around cake. I didn't have a cheesecloth so I soaked a tea towel in brandy.

Wrap in plastic wrap then foil.

 

Refrigerate for 1 month or for up to 3 months. I unwrapped it every 2-3 days for 3 weeks in the lead up to Christmas and brushed more brandy on.

Cut crosswise into 6 bars. Cut bars into 14 slices each. 

Source : Canadian Living Magazine: December 2009