Rustic Apple Plum Pie

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Have some pastry, and fruit? Dessert doesn’t have to be fancy to taste good. I will quite often make a double batch of pastry, so it’s always in the freezer and ready to go. For this use what ever fruit is  season, or if you have a batch of fruit from last season still lingering in the freezer, then it might be time to reacquaint yourself with it.

Roll out pastry, dollop on either cooked fruit, fresh berries, thinly sliced apples/sultanas/spices and then simply fold up the sides of the pastry and bake at 180C until pastry is golden. Done. Super easy, yes it is. Dust it with a bit of icing sugar if you want to ‘fancy’ it up.

If you would like to make your pie to look a little different, but not too much extra effort, try the stretched lattice look for a pie top. First up a pastry that is not going to crumble if you look at it.

Pastry

150gms chilled butter

1 2/3 cups plain flour

1/3 s/r flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 heaped dessert spoons of natural yoghurt

In a processor add the cubed butter, flour, and sugar. Process until it resembles bread crumbs. Turn out to a bowl and add yoghurt. Mix well and then knead until well combined and smooth. Pop it in to the fridge and let it have a little rest (approx 30 mins). Now roll your pastry out to the thickness that you require. Line the pie dish, cutting any extras off. Spoon in the pie middle. I used a plum and apple mixture but you could use anything that you have at hand. Roll out the remainder of the pastry and slit it intermittently with a knife.

Once that is done, gently stretch the top over the pie. This stretches out the the slits, opening up the latticing.

With this one I then brushed it with milk and sprinkled it with raw sugar. Bake until golden.

Serve with a dollop of home made yoghurt or mascarpone.

Two easy ways to make a rustic* looking pie.

* Rustic meaning I didn’t spend hours making it look pretty. Still tasty and still got The Monkeys jumping up and down yelling for PIE!!

bees and honey

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I was watching some bees recently. Silently going about their business, buzzing around from one flower to another. Watching how their pollen sacks got more and more full. One poor bee could hardly keep himself up he was so laden down with pollen goodies. It was so peaceful just standing still and watching them.

From where I was standing I could see about 50 bees all gathering their pollen to take back to their hives and create liquid gold. Honey.

We had passed some hives earlier on, and it was quite possible that these little fellas would be making the 4km trek back to these same hives. Bees may travel for up to 10km in search of nectar, pollen and water if they have to. So would it be these same bees? Or were there enough flowers in their immediate hive area. In an ideal setting a bee would travel just 200 metres in search of food.

Within Australia many bee keepers will move their hives along with the changing flowering blossoms. By doing this the apiarist helps the bees find the best nectar around. The hives are usually moved at night when the bees are sleepy, and tucked up in bed.

Five little things about bees and honey

1/ Bees talk in vibrations

2/ Honey doesn’t go off.

3/ Honey can be linked back to Egyptian times.

4/ Honey can be used to soothe a sore throat, ease a coughing fit and aid sleep.

5/ Honey is a natural exfoliant when used as a face mask. No need for expensive chemical laden products.

The European honey bee was introduced to Australia in the early 1800’s. This is the type of bee that most commercial apiarists will use. There are native Australian bees, (approximately 1500) however the majority of these only produce enough honey for their own use. Only 10 out of the 1500 types of native bees produce and store honey. Sonya from The Novice Bee Keeper is a great place to start if you are interested in keeping bees or just want to know more of the processes involved. Spice and More has also just started up some backyard bees, for another interesting peek at beekeeping.

Honey is such a magnificent product. I can’t help but be a little in awe of it when I am spooning it out and drizzling it on some toast. The flavours that can be so different. The subtle changes in the different types. If you want a more flavoursome honey, try a darker variety. Generally these will be the stronger in flavour ones. Here in Australia the majority of our honey comes from the hundreds of types of eucalypts, with a few other native plants added in for more subtle flavours.

Leatherwood (from Tasmania) stringy bark, yellow box, and blue gum are just some of the types of honey produced here in Australia. So much tastier than a blended bland super market honey.

With that production of honey also comes fertilization. Fertilization of so many crops that we depend on both here in Australia and the rest of the world. (A list here on the extensive amounts of crops requiring pollination from bees.) What will happen if that pollination doesn’t happen?…Why wouldn’t it happen? Pesticides, parasites, disease, loss of habitat, farming methods all are possible contributors to the world’s downfall of bees.  Colony Collapse Disorder is a name that has been thrown around a lot in the last 5 years. Are we going to be hearing of it even more in the next 5?

Did you know that the honey bee speaks Parisian street slang? Many city centre roof tops are producing honey from their own bee hive or two. Helping out with pollination within the city limits and producing gorgeous honey for its city dwellers living downstairs. I’ll be right back dear, just popping up to the roof for some honey… I can certainly see the appeal in that.

So what can you do?

* support local honey production, buy some of the liquid gold.

* plant bee (and other pollinating critters) friendly plants. You don’t need a whole garden. Even a single pot is something. Some plants bees are attracted to, lavender, bottle brush, eucalyptus, rosemary and basil. These are just a tiny few of the possibilities for plant attracting. Have a look in your area and see what is available and suitable to the climate.

* If you have the right space consider some back yard (or rooftop) bees.

There is so much information on bees, home bee keeping, colony collapse disorder, honey that I have only just skimmed the surface with this post. So many things to think about while watching the next little buzzing bee quietly buzzing about doing its thing.


Nana’s Fruit Cake

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My Nana. If you think of a little old lady with grey blue hair, hard of hearing, and a taste of milky tea. Well that’s not my nana. It may well be someone elses though.

Always impeccably dressed, wouldn’t wear a track suit to the super market, with a soft spot for chocolates and coffee, and likes her sport. Sorry did I say likes her sport? Mad keen on sports would better describe dear Nana. Will happily sit up on and watch, AFL, rugby, tour de France, soccer…anything that involves a ball, tight shorts, and moving quickly. She’ll watch it. Also a  mad golfer, and rather competitive when it comes to playing board games. If by chance you need to go to the toilet while playing chess, make sure you take a good look at where all your men are before you get up…like I said she can be QUITE competitive.

Nana always has three important cooking tips for me in the kitchen.

1/ If you make a mistake in a savoury dish, cover it in gravy and no one will ever know the difference.

2/ If you make a mistake in a dessert, cover it in whipped cream and no one will ever know the difference.

3/ *this one has to be whispered* When giving someone a recipe for one of your famous dishes…always leave out an ingredient. You always want your dish to taste that bit better, (…did I mention competitive?)

Nana’s Fruit Cake- my version

(with all the ingredients in it…maybe)

250g mixed fruit

125g butter

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup water

2 beaten eggs

1 cup plain flour

1 cup self raising flour

50g chopped up uncrystallised ginger

2 tbls maramalade

In a pot add the dried fruit, sugar, butter, spices, water bring to the boil. Allow to cool slightly, then add the beaten eggs. Add the flours, chopped ginger, and marmalade. Pop it into a greased pan, and bake at 150C until cooked, and skewer comes out clean.

This a dead easy recipe that you can alter to taste buds and things you have on hand. Nuts, other dried fruit, more spices etc. Freezes well too.

sourdough hoppers- Frugal Friday

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For people reading you’re probably thinking one of two things…

1/ what is a hopper?

or

2/ THAT is not a hopper!

To answer Number 1/ A hopper is a cup shaped rice flour pancake basically. There a few different types, (string, egg, plain…) A staple from Sri Lanka quite often eaten for breakfast. Nothing tastier than dipping a freshly cooked hopper into some curry with attitude.

hoppers photo from ‘lanka.com’

In answer to Number 2/ I don’t have a hopper pan, or anything remotely like it. Which is why my little hoppers look like plain old pancakes. If you had a deep enough wok, it would work just as well, (I have a flat bottomed one.) A traditional hopper pan is like a mini wok, and I am on the look out, yes I am…

This recipe is my take on the delicious hopper. So maybe not traditionally correct, but they still work.

I even got my mum’s vote of approval.

Sourdough Hoppers

1 cup sourdough starter

1 cup rice flour

1 tps salt

1 cup coconut milk/ or coconut cream

1/2 cup water

Add all ingredients together, and let sit for approximately 5 hours. Mixture is a like a pancake consistency, and should be bubbling away happily, when the time is up and they are ready to cook. Pop some of the mixture into the pan, if you are doing it in a rounded pan, let the edges get a little crispy and then popping a lid over the top to enable the steam to cook the inside. (The middle part will be thicker.) For egg hoppers, drop an egg into the middle, just before the lid goes on to steam.

Serve with a great curry, ripping off bits of the hopper and dunking it in.

Or, easy thing to have on Frugal Friday. Make the batch up in the morning, forget about it, then they will ready to cook up by dinner. Serve with some lightly cooked vegetables in some vegetable oil, garam masala, salt and pepper…and maybe a dollop of natural yoghurt on the side.

Almond Coffee Cluster

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Night starvation…It doesn’t sound very good does it? All my life, my grandfather has used the words ‘night starvation’. I thought it was just his way off getting in a few more biscuits before bed time. “Better have a little more, you don’t want any night starvation”…Don’t mind if I do Grandpa, biscuit number 43 should do it. I always thought it was just Grandpa’s way of looking out for me, and being lovely.

It turns out, that yes, he was looking out for me as there really was something called the dreaded ‘night starvation’. Horlicks invented it back in the 1930’s as a selling slogan. A cure of those terrible hunger pains that you may be prone to if you didn’t drink their lovely malted drink before bed time. So there you go…

So what’s that got to do with my Almond Coffee Cluster? This is my prevention of night starvation. I have a habit of being just a little peckish around 9pm, not one for hot malted drinks, the cluster is an easy one to pop in the freezer and break off a segment when I need to.

Night starvation prevented once more.

Almond Coffee Cluster

200mls luke warm milk

2 tps dry yeast

1 tps vanilla

1 egg

100gms softened butter

1/3 cup raw sugar

1 cup almond meal

1/4 cup espresso coffee

450gms flour (3 cups)

3 tbs olive oil

1 tps salt

almond flakes

Mix yeast in luke warm milk and set aside for 10 minutes. Mix remaining ingredients together and then also adding milk. Once mixed together, knead well until smooth and elastic. Cover and leave until doubled in size. Divide dough into 8 even balls. Placing in greased large springform pan. Scatter some almond flakes on top. Bake at 190C for approx 30-40 minutes.

After being generously given some chestnut flour from Celia, I thought I would give Chestnut Coffee Cluster a go as well. Tastes remarkably similar, a little darker in colour, the subtle tones of the coffee added to the nuttiness of the chestnut. Same recipe just substituting the almond meal for chestnut flour.

Night Starvation prevented yet again.

* This post submitted to Yeastspotting.

pumpkin pie

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When I was about 10 years old I tasted pumpkin pie. I thought it was delicious and it went down in my memory bank as one of the most delicious things I had ever eaten. It remained at the back of that cluttered old mind of mine, occasionally popping out long enough for me to think mmm, pumpkin pie, and then pop back in.  Since starting a blog, I have been inundated with delicious looking foods around the blogasphere and one that kept catching my attention was this pumpkin pie again. Perhaps it was time to give it a crack?

A traditional Thanksgiving pie eaten in American it doesn’t seem to get much of a look in many other countries. There always seems to be other desserts to be made first. After consulting a friend from the US, pouring through my own cookbooks and scrutinizing any one that blogged a pie. (Like the lovely Joanna’s and Kimberley’s.) The day was set. Pie was to be made and let no one stand in my way.

Verdict?

….Actually I’m not sure there is a verdict. As I haven’t had a pumpkin pie since I was about 10 to compare it to it makes it a bit tricky. The recipe I had seemed a little bland. So I doubled the spices, (or was that tripled?) most American recipes call for canned pumpkins, and that just wasn’t going to happen here, (I’m pretty sure, no one would sell it in Australia.) So using a butternut pumpkin, egg yolks only (I needed the whites for something else), and condensed milk not evaporated or fresh, it was made. My grandmother rang just as I was making the mixture up and after complaining it tasted a little bland, she suggested some lemon zest. Brilliant, that lifted it up a notch. In the oven and away.

The American taste test, declared not bad. A little heavier than a traditional one, but not bad at all. (Lovely polite friends I have :-))

Not crazy sweet, (despite a whole can of condensed milk in there) and filling enough to let you know, yep I just ate pumpkin pie. I think next time I want to play around with the flavours a bit more. I may have some American readers yelling at the computer screen about now, you did it wrong. What is she thinking?…but I am thinking some muscavado sugar to give a more complex flavour in the pumpkin mixture and maybe a little caramalised toasted macadamia nuts on top to give it an Aussie twist and a little texture.

I think to be continued…

Pumpkin Pie

your favourite shortcrust pastry

desired pie dish sizes (I did individual ones and mini)

2 cups of mashed cooked pumpkin (I used butternut)

1 can condensed milk

2 tps cinnamon

1 tps ground ginger

1/2 tps nutmeg

1/2 tps salt

1 tps cardamom (I couldn’t resist, my hand naturally falls on it)

1 tps lemon zest

2 egg yolks.

Mixed it all in together. Divide into pastry lined pie dish/es, and bake at 180C until golden (approx 40 mins).

 

Spiced Banana Syrup Pudding and a nice slap back into reality

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You know when something speaks to you? I mean really speaks to you?

Whether it be a person’s conversation, a song, a documentary, a book, a simple quote written on a wall. Something that really resonates in your mind. Something that that has the potential to question everything you held dear, change your perspective, lift your mood or simply make you smile and think.

I know I’m not the only one to have been moved by a simple song. (Thankfully times have moved on from when they first did. Although as a early teenager I really did believe that Roxette and Bryan Adams knew my pain and lofty love ideals. They ‘spoke’ to me. THEY understood.)

In more recent times it was a song from John Butler. I was having a woe is me, poor us living in a 2 bedroom flat in the city- whatever are we to do? No room, blah, blah, blah. ‘Better Than’ comes on and suddenly the lyrics make sense  to me…..”life’s not about whats better than..” A nice slap back into reality that was. That two bedroom flat was just fine.

Watching a documentary awhile back of a young couple. Her terribly effected from a stroke, him being forced from the job he loved, to try his hand at something completely foreign in order to care for his disabled wife and two young children. All I could think about was, jeez, we had it so easy. This couple came across as so happy and yet to me their life seemed so incredibly hard.

A couple of  weeks ago, watching the second part of a Kevin Mc Cloud documentary on living in a slum in India. Watching this has made me question, really question things that I hold dear once more. In comparision we are so well off. So well off it’s almost difficult to comprehend. Honestly, I felt guilt at ever complaining of lack of space. Here these people were living 20 family members to a tiny dwelling with no indoor plumping and yet they were clean, happy looking, beautifully dressed. What on earth did I have to complain about?…(and perhaps it was time to get out of the yoga pants, baggy t’shirt and ugg boots- it’s not a particularly attractive look for me.)

Gavin (from Greening of Gavin) had a documentary ‘speak’ to him. He had a green moment that changed his whole lifestyle. A suburban family man now living a wonderfully inspiring sustainable life.

Running through the park recently, feeling pleased with my running, I paused to catch my breath. Two people over took me. Casually chatting, decked out in their uber cool running gear, going at a cracking pace. Gazelles would have had trouble keeping up. This was also another nice slap back into reality for me.

Reality was, that if I wanted to keep making things like Spiced Banana Syrup Pudding, I really had to run a lot further.

Spiced Banana Syrup Pudding

125gms softened butter

2/3 cup brown sugar

3 ripe mashed bananas

125mls cream

1 tps vanilla

1tps cinnamon

1 tps cardmom

1/2 tps nutmeg

1 1/2 cups s/r flour

Add all ingredients in order, bake in a spring form pan at 180C until golden. While that is cooking add 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup water, 1 tps cinnamon, 1/2 tps cardamom, and bring to a slow boil. Turn down slightly and keep at simmer until the mixture thickens just slightly (you don’t want toffee!) When it has thickened slightly turn off and add 1 tbs of dark rum. Allow to cool a little. When banana pudding is cooked through, place on serving plate and carefully pour spiced syrup over the pudding. Best served warm with perhaps a dollop of your favourite vanilla icecream.

 

Apricot and Sunflower Sourdough

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I have four new comers in my little kitchen at the moment and I love them all equally.

A flat bottomed wok- who knew cooking could be so quick and easy with this little fella.

A hand made wooden Huon Pine mini rolling pin- beautifully made. I fell in love with the workmanship and needed a smaller one than my broken handled marble one. It really is the perfect little roller. Light and smooth…(not generally like my pastry.)

A super sharp lame (French blade for cutting my sourdough)- slash, slash, slash!

and….my new Banneton. Otherwise known as Brotform or Brotformen…Other, otherwise known as a little basket to prove your bread in. This I have to say is my favourite. Lovingly stored away at night, ready to work its banneton magic on my bread the next day. If I tucked it up and gave it a good night kiss, I wouldn’t be surprised.

… Mr Chocolate might be though.

Apricot and Sunflower Sourdough

200gms starter

2 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup dried chopped apricots

1/3 cup sunflower seeds

1 tps salt

3 heaped spoonfuls natural yoghurt

water: enough for elastic dough consistency

Mix ingredients together, then leaving for an hour or so. Into fridge for a lovely long and slow ferment for 12 hours. Out of fridge and fold the dough. Leaving to prove for approximately two hours. Fold again and popped into my lovely, lovely new banneton. Prove until, I couldn’t stand the excitement any longer and had to pop the dough in the oven to see how my new basket had shaped up. Baked at 250C with steam on top shelf for approximately 20mins and then down to the bottom shelf for a further 10 minutes.

This loaf I have made a few times now and I’m really happy with the results. It keeps beautifully and still toasting well a week later. Topped with the Lime and Cumquat Marmalade and my morning begins.

* This post submitted to Yeastspotting.

a rather tall birthday cake

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Birthday cake. It’s funny how as I’ve gotten older my taste buds have changed. No more would dry old chocolate cake with chocolate icing do for my birthday. As a kid though, you couldn’t hold me back. There would be months of mental planning of what type of cake to ask mum to make for me. Much flicking through the always dependable Womens Weekly cookbooks. There were so many things to be considered, it was the one day of the year where you could pick what ever you wanted to eat, followed by what ever cake you desired. For a couple of years running I quite liked a chocolate cake with lemon icing. Nothing flash, just slapped on and a couple of candles. Yes please…

Now though. I’m a little over chocolate cake. I still have to make them for Mr Chocolate (obviously) and the The Monkeys are rather keen too. However for my own, I wanted to play with something different. I still ponder for far too long on what cake to make, (but that’s half the fun isn’t it? The pondering and the wondering?) I had the image in my head, and I think I had the right sort of taste on my tongue. Now I just had to get it to work…

A rather tall birthday cake

 

Three layers of meringue

9 egg whites

500 gms sugar

In a mixer beat egg whites until they are stiff and then slowly add sugar in small amounts. Mixture should become stiff, sugar disolved, with lovely peaks. On some parchment paper lay 3 disks of meringue. Large, medium and small. The smaller one with peaks and the other two, flattened. Now bake at 120C for approx 1hour 45 minutes. Allow to cool.

Creamy mixture in between…

250gms mascarpone

300mls cream

1 tps rose water

scraping of 1 vanilla pod

1 tps vanilla extract (you might not need it, depends on your vanilla pod.)

1/2 cup sugar

In bowl add mascarpone, scrapped vanilla pod, rose water, sugar and whip. In a seperate bowl whip the cream up and then carefully fold through the mascarpone mixture.

Blueberries and Strawberries…

Time to get those layers happening. Meringue, mascarpone, berries, and then again. With the peaked meringue at the top.

Verdict?…Actually pretty good. I still love the combination of mascarpone and vanilla, I’ve used it a few times now and I think there just may be a few more times to come. The meringue, I hadn’t made before, but it was actually pretty fun to make. I really like the fact that it is so light, and the berries were just a good addition. A contrasting fresh flavour with the sweetness of the other two.

An easy cake that speaks of summer.

So will I be making it again? Yes, I think I just might.