Stickydate Biscuits

What can I say. My mum's favourite dessert in biscuit form. I was wary, but these taste absolutely AWESOME!!.

Original recipe came from:

http://www.grouprecipes.com/90262/sticky-date-cookies.html

I made some changes after the first batch as I felt they weren't really stickydate biscuits without butterscotch.

Stickydate Biscuits

makes approx. 50

125 grams butter

1 1/2 cups chopped dates

1/2 cup butterscotch schnapps

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour

1 1/2 cup wholemeal plain flour

1 bag jersey caramels, each quartered.

night before - chop dates, pour over schnapps and let 'marinate'.

Preheat oven to 150 degrees celcius, fan-forced.

In a saucepan on low heat, melt butter. Add sugar and date/schnapps mixture. Bring to the boil and then remove from heat. Add remaining ingredients and mix until combined. Let cool for around 10 minutes so the mixture hardens a little. Place teaspoon sized amounts on a baking tray. Flatten and squish a quarter of a jersey caramel into each.

Bake at 150 degrees for 15 minutes. Then turn up heat to 200 degrees for five minutes (so jersey caramel melts ontop).

I found that if you bake at 200 degrees from the start, the biscuits are not hard enough to deal with the melted caramel and you end up with a pile of melted caramel next to your biscuit. If this happens, while caramel is still warm, place it back ontop of your biscuit. It will harden ontop.

Enjoy :)

Potato gnocchi

This recipe came from:

http://dondonf.multiply.com/recipes



I have never made gnocchi before, I think I did okay though. Not quite as light and fluffy as Babcia used to make (my Dad's mum), but my mum seemed to approve.



Potato gnocchi

350g floury potatoes (I used some that were called ruby?)

1/4 cup grated parmesan

1/3 cup plain flour

1 egg yolk



Add potatoes to boiling water, whole. Cook until they are soft when a skewer pokes through. Allow to cool slightly then peel. Push through a potato ricer into a bowl. Add other ingredients, mix until starting to combine. Tip dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead until it creates a smooth dough (around one minute). Take small amounts of dough, roll into a thin sausage and, using a sharp knife, cut into small pieces (approx 2cm long).

In a saucepan, bring some salted water to the boil. Add gnocchi in small batches - it is cooked when it rises to the surface.



Add your choice of sauce and eat :)

Ricotta and spinach gnocchi

This recipe I adapted from:

http://racheleats.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/spinach-and-ricotta-gnocchi/



Note: if you are not really a fan of spinach (like my big sis) then these probably aren't for you. If you LOVE spinach (like my mum) then these are awesome.



Ricotta and spinach gnocchi

250g spinach (I used the frozen box coles brand)

75g low-fat ricotta

1 egg yolk

50g grated parmesan

nutmeg

25g plain flour + extra for your hands



Defrost spinach and squeeze out as much water as possible (I put it in a microfibre cloth and just squeezed it out over the sink). In a bowl, mix ricotta, parmesan, nutmeg and spinach until just combined (make sure ricotta is spread throughout and not in lumps). Add flour and egg yolk, mix until just combined. Flour your hands. Take small amount out of bowl at a time, roll into little rectangles (about 2cm long) and put on lightly floured board.

In a large saucepan, boil some salted water. Add gnocchi - it is cooked when it rises to the surface.

Homemade pasta sauce

My first ever go at making pasta sauce from scratch. Loved it. Tasted AMAZING!!

Ingredients
4 large tomatoes, quartered
1 large zucchini, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 large onion, in rings
1/2 can cannelini beans, rinsed
4-5 bay leaves
olive oil
Basil (I used the pureed creative garden stuff)
Pepper

Place tomatoes, zucchini, carrot and onion in an oven tray. Coat in olive oil (as much/little as you like). Add bay leaves. Roast in oven until cooked through. Puree all but from the tray but the onions. Puree cannelini beans, add to other. Cut onion into small pieces, add to other vegies. Add as much basil/pepper as you like.
I left mine in the fridge overnight and reheated it the following day - tasted very nice!!
Hope you enjoy :)

Aussie tiramisu

As usual, I was on foodgawker and saw an amazing looking recipe:
http://almostbourdain.blogspot.com/search/label/Australian


So, I changed it a little, and thus dessert for Leah P's dinner party was created.

Tiramisu (four people)
6 lamington fingers (the small ones you buy in a packet of 18 at Woolies)
4 Anzac biscuits, smashed
2 tablespoons baileys
2 tablespoons kahlua
1 egg
40g caster sugar
100g marscapone
1/4 cup cream (its all I had left...)
1/2 cup vanilla yoghurt

Using an electric beater, whisk egg and caster sugar until light and thick (it goes a very pale yellow, almost triples in size) - you are creating a zabaligione. Place marscapone, cream and yoghurt in a bowl, mix together with a spatula. Add 2 tablespoons egg mixture, mix in. Fold in remaining egg mixture.

Put kahlua and baileys in a cup, mix together.

Slice lamington fingers in half lengthways, then in half again (to create squares). Place two of these in the bottom of each glass. Spoon over some of the alcohol. Spoon over some of the egg mixture. Sprinkle some Anzac crumbs. Continue layering until glasses filled.

Place in refrigerator to chill.

Neopolitan melting moments

I saw these on foodgawker and just HAD to make them

http://raspberricupcakes.blogspot.com/2010/06/neopolitan-melting-moments.html

Here are mine:

Result? Mum even liked the chocolate layers!! I will be making these again. They did melt in my mouth.

Biscuits

125g butter

40g icing sugar

35g cornflour

110g self-raising flour

vanilla essence

1 tablespoon cocoa

1 tablespoon jam (strawberry would be good - I used 'black forest' as I didn't have strawberry)

red food colouring

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius (fan forced). Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add flours and mix until combined (I found it easier to use clean hands). Separate dough into three bowls. Add vanilla essence to one, jam and red food colouring to one and cocoa to the other. You may need to add some extra flour to the one with jam. Combine ingredients.

Take small amounts of dough, roll into a ball. Place onto lined baking trays. Squish down with a fork (makes the pretty lines). Bake for 10 minutes (may need longer if you make bigger biscuits). Cool on baking racks.

Filling

icing sugar

water

nutella

jam

vanilla essence

Mix icing sugar with vanilla essence and a little water until combined and thick. Use to join together strawberry and chocolate biscuits.

Add nutella to icing mixture (add more icing sugar and water as necessary). Use to join together strawberry and vanilla biscuits.

In a new bowl, add icing sugar and jam (you may not need water for this one). Use to join together vanilla and chocolate biscuits.

Leave for icing to harden.

Minted pea pesto pasta

So, im currently going through a stage where my body isnt really enjoying dairy or pasta (sad face!). However, thanks to the trusty women's weekly (after work healthy, page 48) I found a pasta recipe that I changed a bit so I could enjoy it. Plus side - the first time I made it, mum actually commented that she wanted more vegies in it!! (Awesome, anything with lots of vegies gets extra ticks from me!)

Minted pea pesto

2 cups frozen peas

1 tablespoon mint paste (I used the gourmet garden one you get near the lettuce, I worked out it was cheaper than getting a bunch of mint and wasting most of it)

30 grams shaved parmesan

30 grams pine nuts

Put all in a blender (I had a stick wizz) and go for gold. Most pesto recipes have oil - I found that it didnt really need it, but if you like the shiny pesto, the original recipe said to add 2 tablespoons olive oil as well.

250 grams pasta (cooked)

Add pesto to cooked pasta. Add a pile of vegies (I had roasted pumpkin and beetroot, mushrooms, beans, cabbage, spring onions) and some meat (kangaroo sausages were on sale at coles this week - yay for 66% off stickers!!).

With the extra meat + vegies, this served 6.

Awesome.

Pinwheel biscuits

By far my FAVOURITE biscuits I have ever baked. I have made them with a variety of fillings, nutella + almond meal works very well, adding cocoa to the biscuit dough is also nice.

(recipe from AWW cook - page 521)

Biscuit dough

1 1/4 cups self raising flour
100g butter, chopped
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon milk (may need more or less)


In a bowl, using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add flour and mix until crumbly (like bread crumbs). Add egg yolk, mix until combined. Add milk - enough to make it form a ball. Then take dough onto floured board and knead until it all comes together. Refrigerate 1 hour. Take out of fridge, roll into a rectangle. Spread filling onto it (all of the rectangle). Roll up on the long side, refrigerate for 30 minutes (makes it sooo much easier to slice). Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius (fan forced). Slice roll into 1cm pieces. Lay on lined baking tray, leaving room for spreading. Bake 20 minutes, transfer to wire racks to cool.


Fillings

jam

nutella

peanut butter

cinnamon sugar (spread a little milk onto dough rectangle first, so it sticks) - 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon.

Mangoes and cream croquembouche cupcakes

Mel's 26th birthday. I had NO idea what to bake. It had to be awesome, but silly me forgot to ask her what she wanted....PLUS no proper chocolate, mum only eats white.

Solution?

Mangoes and cream croquembouche cupcakes.

Cupcake = patty cake recipe + 1 can of sliced mangoes, pureed and added in.

Profiteroles

50 grams water
65 grams milk
pinch caster sugar
pinch salt
5o grams butter
65 grams self raising flour
2 eggs

Preheat oven 200 degrees celcius (fan forced). In a saucepan on low heat, combine butter, water, milk, sugar and salt and bring to the boil. Remove from heat, using a wooden spoon, mix in flour. Return to heat, mix for a further 2 minutes until mixture comes together and leaves the side of the pan (to cook out the flour). Remove from heat, allow to cool for 5 minutes. Add one egg, mix until combined. Add remaining egg, mix until glossy and thick. Spoon into a piping bag with a small nozzle (I used a flower tip). Pipe onto lined baking tray into small circles (leave some room for spreading). Bake for 15 minutes. Using a cake tester, pierce a small hole in each one, return to oven for 5 minutes to try inside out (turn oven off though).

Mango and white chocolate ganache filling

1/2 cup thickened cream
1/2 cup melted white chocolate
1/2 can mango slices, pureed

Add melted white chocolate to cream, using electric beater, mix until slightly thickened. Add mango puree, mix until combined. Spoon into piping bag with smallest nozzle. Push tip into hole in profiteroles and fill.

Once all the profiteroles are filled, melt more white chocolate. Spread white chocolate onto the top of the cupcakes. Dip profiteroles into melted chocolate and stack onto cupcake. Let cool at room temperature until hard.

They are soooooooo good!!