Category Archives: Snacks

Blueberry Muffins

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IMG_4623I love muffins, who doesn’t?! However, I’m often disappointed by muffins that I’ve made compared to some that I’ve purchased. Maybe it’s because I use a standard muffin tray rather than the giant ones that are served up in cafes and bakeries. The only thing better than a normal muffin is a giant muffin! So I went in search of a good muffin recipe and I’m happy to say that this one doesn’t disappoint. This is adapted from a Donna Hay recipe. I have substituted the milk for buttermilk, increasing the volume slightly. The blueberries could easily be substituted for other fruits. I made these with frozen blueberries today – I’m still waiting for my blueberry tree (which I planted about a year ago) to fruit.
Makes 12

Ingredients
375g self-raising flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
220g caster sugar
100ml vegetable oil
1 egg
190ml buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
300g blueberries, fresh or frozen
Raw or granulated sugar, for sprinkling

Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºC and line a 12 hole muffin tray with patty pans.
Combine flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl.
In a separate bowl whisk together oil, egg, buttermilk & vanilla extract.
Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and stir to combine, the mixture will be quite thick. Stir through blueberries.
Spoon into the muffin tray and sprinkle each muffin with a little sugar. Bake for 30 minutes.

Still in a muffin mood? Why not try some apple & rhubarb muffins as well!

Vanilla Ice Cream (**egg-free**)

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IMG_4492I’m on a roll with ice cream at the moment. Particularly these egg-free mixtures as they are so quick to knock up. Mix it all up, chill it down and then later throw it in the ice cream maker. 25 minutes later it’s done…and delicious! I made this last night to accompany a craving for Gran’s chocolate self-saucing pudding. In my opinion, the pudding must be served with vanilla ice cream! Again, this recipe is from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop. I will eventually get around to putting up my favourite custard-based vanilla ice cream which is a Phillipa Sibly recipe.

Makes about 1 litre.

Ingredients
500ml cream (35% fat)
250ml milk (full fat)
150g sugar
Pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Method
In a saucepan, heat 250ml cream, sugar, salt and vanilla bean (split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape seeds out into mixture, as well as adding the bean). Stir until the sugar has dissolved.
Remove from the heat and stir through the remaining ingredients, mixing until smooth.
Chill the mixture in the fridge and once completely chilled churn in your ice cream machine according to manufacturer instructions. If you can manage not to eat the lot then and there store in the freezer!

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Chocolate Ice Cream (**egg-free**)

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Given the recent hard work devoted to Croissants& I thought I would treat myself to a new ice cream maker. After all, there have to be good rewards for hard work! My old ice cream maker was ok but would tire before the ice cream was properly churned and frozen, despite having an inbuilt refrigerator. This time I opted for a model where you have to pre-freeze the bowl – this is slightly annoying given our freezer space is usually at a premium and you have to semi-plan to make ice cream. However, if you’ve got the room I don’t see why you couldn’t leave the bowl in the freezer whenever it’s not in use.

So, what was going to be the first flavour put to the test in my new machine? A super easy chocolate recipe which I have adapted from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop. This ice cream is so super simple as it doesn’t require making a custard. Simply heat the cream, add the ingredients, mix, chill and churn. I managed to get this done the day after we got home from hospital with our beautiful little daughter Lucy, it’s that simple! Plus it’s great for anyone with an egg allergy.
Makes approximately 1 litre

Ingredients
405ml cream (35% fat)
50g Dutch-process cocoa powder
200g sugar
pinch of salt
170g dark chocolate, chopped (I use 55% cocoa solids)
405ml full-fat milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method
Whisk together cream, cocoa powder, sugar & salt in a large saucepan and bring to the boil, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and whisk through the chopped chocolate. Once the chocolate has completely melted stir through the milk and vanilla extract. As dark chocolate doesn’t melt as easily as other chocolates with a higher fat content you may need to process it in a food processor to get a super smooth consistency.. Sometimes I need to do this, others I don’t.

IMG_4439All you need to do now is chill the mixture in the fridge. Once completely chilled churn in your ice cream maker, according to manufacturer instructions.

 

 

IMG_4443If you’re feeling adventurous you can add whatever mix-ins you fancy to the ice cream. Add these in the last 5 minutes of churning. On this occasion I added some milk and white chocolate chunks as well as some chopped roasted almonds.
Want to try a custard based ice cream? Check out my peppermint chic-chip ice cream.

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Naan

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We love naan but it’s not very easy to find in the supermarket (or good ones at least) when you’re making your own curry at home. And surprisingly it can quite often be disappointing from Indian restaurants, even if the rest of the meal is delicious. Andy has attempted naan before and it turned out like stodgy cardboard – yep, it really tasted as good as that sounds! I’ve always put it in the too hard basket until I received Short & Sweet: The best of home baking  by Dan Lepard from my brother-in-law & partner for my birthday. I came home from work and gave it a crack, the only trick is that it needs proving time so I had to start fairly promptly once arriving home if we were going to eat the naan with dinner rather than have it for dessert.
It might seem like a lot of ingredients but there’s really not much to it, just throw them all into the mixing bowl. I used half this quantity as there was just the two of us eating and we managed to get 4 decent sized naan out of it. The original recipe caters for only 4-6 naan for a full batch but they must be super big…too big for our frying pan. You can make plain naan or brush it with a little garlic butter, sprinkle with different seeds, it’s up to you, but start with the basic recipe and you can decide if you want flavourings later as you only add those during cooking.
Makes 8

Ingredients
100ml cold milk
125g low fat yoghurt
50ml boiling water
1tsp dried yeast
300g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
50g wholemeal flour
0.5tsp bicarb of soda
0.75tsp sea-salt
1tsp sugar

Method
Combine milk, yoghurt, boiling water and yeast in the bottom of a mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and kneed until combined – I use my Kitchen Aid but you can easily knead by hand. It should be a soft sticky dough. Cover with cling film and prove for 30 minutes in a warm, draught-free place. Knock-down the dough (knead lightly) and then continue to prove for a further hour.
Lightly flour the bench top and tip the dough onto it. Divide the dough into 8 even portions. Working with one at a time roll out the dough until about 2-3 mm thick. The original recipe says to roll out to 1-2cm thick, however they puff up hugely in the pan and they were too thick and stodgy for our liking. The thin versions were still light and fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside.

Rolled to about 2mm thick, it's much lighter

Rolled to about 2mm thick, it’s much lighter

Rolled to 1cm thick it was very puffy!

Rolled to 1cm thick it was very puffy!

Heat a large frying pan on a moderate heat and cook the naan one at a time. Each naan only takes a few minutes on each side. If adding flavour do it now. When you first put the naan in the frying pan brush it with whatever you like. In this instance I had crushed a garlic clove into about 20g of melted butter. The naan with bubble on top and brown on the bottom. Once the naan starts to brown on the underside (this will only take about 2 minutes) flip and cook for a further minute. Keep warm while cooking the remaining naan, either in foil or in a warm oven (about 100°C).
Although I haven’t tried it, apparently they freeze well.
This naan is perfect for mopping up the juices of either VJ’s chicken curry, black pepper and yoghurt curry or mussamun shanks. Or you might have another favourite of your own! It would also be great served with dips for a light lunch or pre-dinner snack.

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Healthy Muesli Slice

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20140126-070257.jpgDespite my morning muesli or bircher muesli habit I can’t make it from breakfast to lunch at the moment. Something about eating for two it seems. I had developed an unsustainable muffin habit. Nipping across the road to the bakery when I got a chance in the morning had become too easy. Something needed to be done so I decided I would try and find a healthy alternative and I love this one!
Most muesli slice recipes I found were packed with butter and sugar, not this one! I eventually found a good healthy base and tinkered with it to come up with this. It has some honey for a little sweetness, oil for fat and egg for binding. The rest is pure goodness. I can make a tray (20 cm square tin) of this and it will last me over a week, it keeps really well in an airtight container for over a week.
You can add whatever dried fruit and nuts you like, just be careful not to alter the quantities too much so that it still all binds together when baked. I have also been thinking of substituting the oil for melted butter – it’s not that much after all. The LSA meal can be bought pre-made or you can make it yourself with equal quantities of linseed, almonds & sunflower seeds. Just grind them up in a food processor, which is what I tend to do. Only make what you need as once you’ve ground it up the fats are exposed and may go rancid if not used soon. Keep any left over in the fridge.
Makes 9 squares

Ingredients
60g LSA meal
230g rolled oats
20g sunflower seeds
15g shredded coconut
35ml olive oil
65g honey
2 eggs, lightly beaten
80g dried fruit (in this picture I’ve used chopped dried apple, apricots, sultanas & currants)
30g roasted almonds, chopped (can be substituted for another nut, such as roasted cashews or hazelnuts)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 tsp cinnamon

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, then add the oil, honey & egg. Make sure that all the dry ingredients are  coated in the wet ingredients. Pour into a lined square baking pan and pack down in the back of a spatula.
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Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden. Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before removing from the pan to cool completely. Cut into individual portions. Cutting into 9 gives me the perfect portion for a morning snack!
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Looking for a different morning snack, but one that’s also not tooooo bad for you? Try the Rhubarb & Apple muffins.

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Rhubarb & Apple Muffins

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It’s rhubarb season in Warragul. Well, it has been for a while but this is the first chance I’ve had to write about it. I have been cooking with it…and giving it away. We get a lot of traffic past our place. If we ever want to get rid of anything we know it won’t last long on the nature strip. Andy and I had an argument about putting our old dishwasher on the nature strip. Andy thought no one would ever pick it up so why bother dragging it down there. I made a deal with him that if it still there in 3 hours we could bring it back inside. It lasted 2 minutes. Andy was barely back in the door before someone stopped out front with a truck! Rhubarb is no exception. Someone even left me a couple of bucks once…even though my “Free Rhubarb” sign accompanies it.
These rhubarb and apple muffins are delicious. They don’t take long to whip up. The crumble topping doesn’t have to be added if you can’t be bothered, but I can’t help myself, I love the crunch. It’s the same crumble topping I use on my standard apple crumble.
You will need 2½ fruit. I typically use 1 granny smith apple (skin left on) and make the rest up with rhubarb. If buying rhubarb you’ll need a bunch.
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Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients
2 ½ cups fruit, 1cm dice
120g butter, softened
1½ cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups plain flour, plus 1 tbsp extra flour
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
Crumble topping
5 tbsp rolled oats
2 tbsp wholemeal flour
2 tbsp slithered almonds
1 tbsp butter, softened
1 tbsp honey

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Dice the fruit and toss in 1 tbsp flour. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar until pale. Beat in the egg, followed by vanilla.
Sift together flour, baking soda & salt. Fold half of it through the wet mixture, followed by half of the buttermilk. Repeat with the remaining flour & buttermilk.
Mix through the rhubarb and apple.
Spoon into prepared muffin pan lined with patty pans and bake in the oven for 5 minutes.
Quickly prepare the crumble topping by mixing together by hand all ingredients. After about 5 minutes of the muffins being in the oven, they should have risen slightly, remove the muffins from the oven and quickly spoon the crumble over each muffin. Put the muffins back in the oven to cook for a further 10 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
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