soooo....the next photo is tangy lemon biscuits. i have NO IDEA where the recipe for this is. but i will find it
why did i make lemon biscuits? well basically i just felt like baking, and for some reason had a lemon. and you know what else i did? had leftover lemon icing (even after eating at least half of it) so i whipped up some cupcakes (ha domestic goddess here) and make vanilla cupcakes with lemon icing. they were pretty damn good.
anyways, back to th biscuits. these biscuits are pretty hardy (ie:they keep well)and very lemony, so you def need th icing to give it a sweet hit. not to mention, they look GREAT on a pretty plate, so you can wow your guests with an easy EASY recipe. the kids will LOVE decorating them too (if you can stop them eating the icing...almost as hard as keeping my housemates away from it)
Tangy Lemon Biscuits (bahaha just found the recipe...they're actually called tangy lime cookies. but i didnt use lime, and i dont think they look like cookies. do you?)
60g butter
2 tspn grated lemon ring
1/2c castor sugar
1 egg yolk
1 1/4c SR flour
1 tbspn lemon juice
icing:
3 tspn soft butter (and thats why i had so much leftover...i used tbspns ha)
1c icing sugar
1 tbspn lemon juice
Preheat oven to 180 celcius. Line biscuit tray with baking paper. Beat butter, rind, sugar and egg yolk until light and fluffy. stir in sifted flour and enough juice to make ingredients cling together (but not sticky. i think i used about 1/2 a juicy lemon) turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. roll walnut sized balls of dough and place on tray, allow about 3cm between, flatten with a fork.
Bake for about 15 minutes or until lightly browned. cool on tray.
icing: combine butter and sugar in bowl, sttir in enough juice to make it smooth and spreadable. use a knife to spread icing on cool cookies. keeps for up to a week in airtight container.
WOOOOOO *happy dance*
FINALLY got my photos off my camera...and onto a laptop so I CAN BLOG wooooooo hahaha did you miss me? I sure missed writing. ohhh so many exciting recipes to put up...so lets start with the first photo...GINGER CAKE
so the reason behind making ginger cake is that my housemate is pregnant (more happy dancing YYYAAAYYY) annnddd she has been having really bad morning sickness. now, apparently ginger is good for morning sickness. and what better way to have ginger...than in CAKE??? turns out we had so much mix that we whipped up a batch of muffins too...EXCITING!!! (dad was pretty happy)
so bring on...
GINGER BREAD
100g butter
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
1 c golden syrup (although we ran out and prolly only used 3/4c)
1 c milk
3 c flour
3 tspn ginger
3 tspn cinnamon
1 1/2 tspn baking soda
preheat oven to 150 celcius. prepare loaf tin. soften butter in a large bowl and cream with sugar until light and fluffy. add the eggs one at a time, beating well inbetween. place milk and golden syrup in a jug/bowl and warm until mixture is runny enough to be mixed together. mix spices, flour and baking soda together. fold wet and dry mixes alternately into the butter mix.
fill loaf tin to about 3/4 full. if you have extra mix, place 1.5-2 tbspns of mix in about 6 muffin cases. bake loaf for about 40-45 minutes (should be golden brown and skewer will come out clean) and muffins for about 20 minutes.
serve loaf warm/toasted with chunks of butter
serve muffins warm with custard
mmm nom nom
Having the time to cook up a breakfast is always great. But its even better when you wake up, and breakfast is cooked for you. Which is what happened to me a couple of weeks ago - when my mum discovered this recipe in one of my cookbooks [Family Food - Silvana Franco]; OH THE JOY :)
Not only for me, but I think she was more stoked about the success of the recipe and the awesomeness of my teflon pan to make these pancakes. haha..
The texture of these pancakes is actually more like crepes.. thin and slightly crispy on the edge. Its amazing, no butter is used, and you can actually taste the cinnamon - which is more than you can say for a lot of recipes that involve cinnamon. MMM i love cinnamon.
Cinnamon Pancakes
Ingredients
- 125 g plain flour
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 1 egg
- 300 mL milk
- oil, for frying
- bananas, maple syrup, vanilla greek yoghurt; to serve
Method
- Sift the flour, cinnamon and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and crack in the egg. Using a balloon whisk, gradually beat in the milk to make a smooth batter. If you have time, leave it to rest in the fridge for 30 mins.
- Heat a 20 cm pancake pan or non-stick frying pan. Add a few drops of oil and, when hot but not smoking, ladle in some batter. Quickly swirl to cover the bottom of the pan thinly. Cook for a minute or so on each side, then slide onto a plate. Repeat with the remaining batter to make at least 12 pancakes [this number is obviously variable depending on how thick your pancakes end up being...or how well you actually coat the pan].
- Serve the pancakes as soon as you can. Peel and slice the bananas. Place the pancakes on warm plates, fold them over and top with the sliced bananas. Drizzle with maple syrup, add a dollop of yoghurt on the side and serve. ENJOY!
Tips
- If you want to cook a few pancakes before starting to serve them, stack them up with a square of greaseproof paper between each one.
- These are thin pancakes so a little batter goes a long way; if you have any pancakes left over, layer them up with greaseproof paper and freeze.
guess what...
I CAN EAT CAKE!!!
yep...i survived lent :) no cake, no chocolate, no pies, no tarts, no biscuits and no muffins. tonight, i am celebrating with dinner at my rents, and i all i have a craving for is something nutty, chocolatey, and rich.
i was going to make a mass brownie mudcake type thing, but decided that mini cheesecakes would be much better. mostly because they are individual, so i could store them in the freezer, and share them out with friends rather than trying to eat a whole cake in 1-2 days (def do-able)
i was originally going to make hazelnut chocolate cheesecakes, but a lack of nutella and being to poor to buy some i changed the recipe a bit. plus i had a stash of walnuts.
so, get the muffin tray out, go buy some philly, and surprise loved ones with a sinkful of dishes and make....
Mini walnut and cinnamon cheesecakes
15 cream filled chocolate biscuits
25 g butter softened
2 handfulls of walnuts
250 g philly
1/2 c light sour cream
2 eggs
3 tbspn castor sugar
1 handfull of walnuts
1 tspn cinnamon
1 tspn vanilla essence
preheat oven to 180 celcius. line a muffin tray with muffin papers and spray lightly with oil. to make the base, place cookies, butter and walnuts into a food processor and process to very fine crumbs (add the walnuts after everything else is processed and only lightly chop them if you want chunks in the base) add about 3 tbspns of the base to each muffin case. use a glass to compact the base. place in oven for 5 minutes.
pre flattened on the left :)
meanwhile, clean out processor and place remaining ingredients in it. process well to a smooth mixture. use a spatula to get the stuff off the side (and under the blades) of the processor so you can mix everything in.
spoon 2 tbspns of mix ontop of each base. crumble 1-2 whole walnuts into each case. spoon an extra tbspn of mix into the cases.
bake in oven for 20 minutes, or until cheesecakes have risen and the top is cracking (unfortunately, mine sunk again, hopefully yours wont)
serve on a plate with a dollop of cream/icecream and a garnish of cinnamon
Tips
cheesecakes can be kept in the fridge for 3 days or in the freezer for a month or so
if you wanna try something different, use hazelnuts in the base instead of walnuts, and add 1/2 c of nutella and 2 tspns of castor sugar instead of the sugar, cinnamon and vanilla
if the mix is too runny (ie: like milk) add a bit more philly to get it thicker
