Bambi Birthday Cake

So I made another funny cake. After seeing my son’s Car
cake, a friend of mine mentioned that her daughter would really like a birthday cake shaped like Bambi (the Disney deer). I thought about it for a really long time, and this is what I came up with.



She loved it! I loved making it too. I used two batches of Victoria sponge batter, only instead of making four circle shaped cakes, I made three in loaf tins and one in a regular Victoria sponge tin.
The body is made out of two of the loaf cakes, and the head is made out of half of the third one. The circle was perfect for making the legs, and the other bits (ears, tail) were made from scraps from the third loaf, and the circle.

I find that it’s best to make the cakes the day before, and refrigerate them over night. It makes them a little less delicate, easier to cut and manipulate.

These cakes are my new favorite hobby, so hopefully there will be more of them in the future.

Car Cakes

So it was my youngest son’s third birthday party today. They grow up so fast!





He requested a cake in the shape of a car, so I figured I’d give it a go. In the end I decided I’d better make two, just to make sure we had enough. I could have just made a bigger one, but then I couldn’t have used my all time most favorite cake recipe ever.

This is a cool trick. It’s an old fashioned way of making a Victoria sponge. Instead of using set measurements, weigh your four eggs, in their shells. Make a note of how much they weigh, and then weigh out that same amount of flour, butter, and sugar. Equal parts of each.

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs one at a time. Make sure each egg is fully blended in before adding the next. Then add a tsp of vanilla, and blend in. Add the flour and a pinch of salt, and fold it in. If the batter is too thick, add some milk to loosen it up.

Pour into two 20cm tins and bake at 180c for 25-30 min.
Test with a toothpick to see if it’s done.

I especially like using this recipe because the cake is even better after sitting in the fridge overnight, so you have a little extra time to work with. You can bake them, cool them, wrap them and put them in the fridge the day before you need them. Then on the day of, just cut them up and stick the bits together with frosting till you get the right shape.



These came out pretty cute, and the birthday boy loved them, which is the most important thing.

Mango, Raspberry and Whipped Cream Profiterole with Mint

By Cookbad

I've had make your own pizza parties & decorate your own cupcakes but next time around, I'm going to do make your own profiterole aka cream puff event.

Because, really, what awesome dessert madness can't you build between two halves of choix.

Here is the line up for just the basics:
ice cream
chocolate sauce
whipped cream
various berries and diced fruit
chopped nuts
creme filling- fluffy and creamy
chocolate mouse
fruit coulis of many flavors
citrus curd
sprinkles
chiffonade some mint

And if you don't like the little puff, just turn in into a sunday.

I plan to build one a foot high someday.
Yeah, I know, I'm wickedly ambitious.

Here is the plain old one I made the other night:
All recipes from various sources:
Mango, Raspberry and Whipped Cream Profiterole with Mint
Pastry:
1 cup water
1 stick margarine or butter
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
4 eggs

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Heat water and margarine or butter to boiling point. Add flour and stir constantly until mixture is smooth and forms a ball when tested in cold water. Remove from heat and let cool. Beat in 4 eggs, one at a time. Drop dough from teaspoon to form small eclairs onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until light brown.

Berry Coulis:
500g fresh or frozen berries, cherries, peaches or apricots
3-5 tablespoons sugar, to taste
fresh lemon juice to taste
Purée the fruit in a food processor or blender add sugar, and lemon juice. Press the fruit through a sieve, tamis or chinois and discard remaining solids.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamis

http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=138858
Mango Curd:
1 or two ripe mangos, peeled, pitted, and diced. Perfect for over ripe mangos.
1/2 cup sugar
1.5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Pinch of salt
4 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Puree first 4 ingredients in processor, scraping down sides of work bowl occasionally. Add yolks; puree 15 seconds longer. Strain through sieve set over large metal bowl, pressing on solids with back of spatula to release as much puree as possible. Discard solids in sieve.

Set metal bowl over saucepan of simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water); whisk puree until thickened and thermometer registers 170°F., about 10 minutes. Remove from over water. Whisk in butter 1 piece at a time. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Chiffonade up some mint.

Combine into a pile of good.

Any leftovers are fair game for eating with a spoon in front of the fridge at 3 in the morning before anyone else can get to them.

Tiny Timballos

By Cookbad

Timballos, timpanos, whatever you want to call them . . . are upsidedown savory pies filled with pasta, sauces, vegetables, anything you want arranged in layers to create a dramatic effect when it is cut into. A couple of years ago I made a crustless one, but more commonly you build one by layering the bottom of a souffle dish or round bottomed pan with a thin dough, add the fillings layer by layer and then bake. Mostly when I try to get the pie out of the pan it has been sticking and falling apart, but it tastes good and the kids will eat it, so I keep trying.

Last night I tried to make tiny single sized versions for The Mini Pie Revolution mini pot pie event. I've made these mini pork pies in the past with great success, but this is the first time I made up a mini (or any) pie recipe.

So here goes:

Makes about 6 small pies in various sized ramekins:

CRUST:
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
1/3 grated asiago cheese
12 tablespoons (1.5 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
4 tablespoons chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
6 tablespoons (or more) ice water

In a food processor, mix the first 4 ingredients, then pulse in the butter and shortening until it looks grainy. Then add the water. Continue to pulse a few more times. Form the dough into a ball and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.

PASTA:
2-4 oz. of penne cooked 2 minutes less than the preparation calls for.
enough sauce to cover pasta

BECHAMEL SAUCE:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons diced onion
2 tablespoons flour
1.5 cups milk
1/4 cup asiago cheese, grated
Sweat he onions in the butter over med heat then add flour and for 2 minutes stir constantly. Add milk, and whisk until fully combined. Set over medium-high heat and whisk till as it simmers. Add asiago and simmer for 8 minutes.
When it is done, add:
1/2 cup of frozen peas

6 hard boiled quail eggs

A bit of extra asiago cheese

TO ASSEMBLE:
Liberally flour your surface and roll out the dough to no less than 1/4 inch. Place the ramakin you are using onto the dough, then cut a circle around it that is 2 inches + bigger than the raminkins imprint. Then, cut a shape directly around the lid of the ramekin. Remove extra dough, then roll the larger circle out some more. The dough should be as thin as you can work with it. Grease, spray or butter your ramakin. Then, gently lift the larger round, place and work it into the ramakin. If there is gross excess in spots, cut it out and seal it.

Take your tomato covered penne and lay them in a row at the bottom of the pie. Fill in the edges with more penne. Then, make another layer.

Scoop about 2-3 table spoons of your peas and bechamel mixture over the pasta. Then very gently press the quail egg down thru the pea mixture. Ideally it will be standing perfectly upsidedown.

Layer some very thin slices of asiago then cover with another arranged layer of penne.

Place the smaller crust on top and seal with the lower crust.

Pop in to oven at 350 for 45 minutes. Check on it, and if the upper crust is burning, take it out.

When you take it out, place it upsidedown on a plate. It may or may not fall onto the plate. Ideally, they fall out of the ramekins after a bit of cooling. If they stick, I've tried chilling it got get it to fall, heating it on the plate to get it to fall, but sometimes it just won't. Then you have a classic pot pie, that will taste just as good.

Leftover bechamel and tomato sauce can be combined and poured over pies if you like.

I'm really sad about the grey circle around the egg yolk, but that comes from over cooking and I can't figure a way around it after 45 minutes in the oven.

Apricot Glazed Chicken

½ cup finely chopped shallots
¼ cup finely chopped, peeled ginger
2tbsp vegetable oil
½ cup red wine vinegar
2/3 cup soy sauce
1 cup apricot preserves (12oz)
16 chicken drumsticks

cook shallots and ginger in oil in a small heavy pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden, about 5 min. Stir in vinegar and boil until reduced by about half, about 2 min. Add soy sauce, preserves and ¼ tsp each of salt and pepper and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally for 15 min.
Puree sauce in a blender until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids), then cool to room temperature.
Divide chicken into two large sealable bags and pour marinade over chicken. Seal bags, pressing out excess air, and marinate, chilled, turning bag over occasionally, at least 8 hours.
Preheat oven to 425f with rack in the middle
Line a shallow heavy baking pan with 2 slightly overlapping sheets of foil, then lightly oil the foil. Arrange chicken with marinade in 1 layer in the pan. Roast, turning once, until deep brown, cooked through and glazed, about 40 min total.
Can be marinated up to 24 hours.

I got this recipe from an issue of Gourmet Magazine that a friend sent to me. It’s a shame we can’t get this one out here. It’s beautiful, and the recipes all look amazing.

I tried this one right away because it looked so child friendly, and because it doesn’t require any real work on the day you are going to eat it. The sauce was easy enough to make while I was doing other things the day before. I only made half the amount, because the original recipe makes quite a bit.

Just a note, they are not kidding about being careful when you blend hot liquid. I used a stick blender, and a bit splattered onto my arm. The burn mark lasted all night.

The next day it was just pour and bake. Easy as pie, and it came out wonderfully. Both boys loved it, and so did we. It’s sweet and sticky and all the things you want drumsticks to be. I will use this recipe anytime I am cooking for kids. I also think it would make great summertime barbeque or picnic food.

Spinach sauce

800g spinach
40g butter
250ml milk
1tbsp plain flour (optional)
Salt and white pepper

Put the spinach in a large saucepan with just the water clinging to it’s leaves after washing and cook for 5 min. Drain, squeeze out as much liquid as possible, then puree in a food processor.
Melt the butter in another saucepan, and pour in the milk and the spinach puree. Season with salt. Cook over a medium heat, stirring the mixture occasionally, until thickened. If the sauce remains runny, stir in the flour and cook for 10 minutes.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and add more salt, if necessary, and white pepper to taste. If this sauce is served with pasta, hand around plenty of parmesan cheese.

Serve with short pasta, or with poached eggs.

hint: don’t use frozen spinach, the texture won’t be right.
also, if you are going to use the flour, be sure to cook for the whole 10 min. so you don’t get a floury taste

This was really good, and really fun too. It was shockingly bright green, which the boys loved. It turned out to be an excellent way to get them to eat massive amounts of spinach without complaining.

I got the recipe from The The Silver Spoon. One of the most wonderful cook books to have.

This was fast and easy and well received by all. I’d make it again.

Ginger bread house

There are loads of ways to do this. I’ve heard that they sell kits, where all you have to do is put it together, and decorate it. Some people make the cookies themselves, but buy ready made icing. However you do it, it’s a really fun activity.

I used a basic gingerbread recipe. The recipe, plus the dimensions of all the parts is a lot of typing, so I’ll say that you can easily find a recipe, and any one is as good as the next I think. I’ll just try to give some tips.

Figure out what parts you need first, and draw them on paper using exact dimensions. Cut out the paper ones, and once you have rolled out the dough, place the paper cut-outs right on the dough so you can trace around them with a sharp knife.

My main advice to you, is make sure that your icing is the right consistency. It has to be so thick that it is almost dough, but stickier. The first batch I made was a little thin, and it took forever for it to set. We had to put the house together, prop it up on all sides (it took all of my ramekins), and leave it till the next day. The second batch was the right thickness, and it held on the chimney and decorations with no muss no fuss no waiting around.

Also, a lot of recipes will tell you that you need a piping bag for the icing, and that’s ideal I suppose, but I’ve never had one. For jobs like this, a zip lock bag (freezer storage bag) works just as well. Just dump all of your icing into the bag, and cut a tiny hole in the corner. Use it as you would a regular piping bag.

Doing this from scratch was way more fun then I thought it would be. I will definitely do it again. Also, it was really tasty. I thought by the time we ate it, it would be stale and hard, but it was really good. Also, fun to tear pieces off the roof and walls.

Right after we finished this, someone directed me to This. A gingerbread K-9 from Dr. Who. How much fun is that? I’m thinking of new and different things that can be made from gingerbread now. I’ll keep you informed when I come up with something good.

Three top Christmas cookies, and an honorable mention

I tried a bunch of cookies for Christmas, and these are three good solid choices. Unfortunately, I never got a chance to delve into spice cookies, which I always find so Christmas-y, but if I get to it before the holidays, I’ll let you know.



Cookies with jam
1/2 cup of butter or margarine, softened
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 tablespoons milk
1/3 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips
Raspberry preserves
PREPARATION:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a medium mixing bowl, cream butter, sugars, salt and vanilla until light and fluffy. Blend in flour and milk. Stir in chocolate chips.
Shape dough into 1 inch balls and place on ungreased baking sheets.
Make a small indentation with thumb in the top of each ball. Use a teaspoon to place a small amount of raspberry preserves in each indentation.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from sheets and cool on wire racks.
Yields about 3 dozen cookies.

These are from about.com, and they are big time winners. They score high marks for Christmas-y-ness because they are brightly colored and fun. High marks for overall good cookie-ness because they are really tasty, and super high marks in the fun-for-kids category as well.

The boys loved making these! They always like the measuring and pouring and mixing and all that, but these were special. They got to roll all the dough into balls, then they got to poke their fingers in them to make holes, and they got to fill up all the little holes with jam. Seriously, what could be a more fun cookie baking experience. It’s practically sand castles.

The dough was really good. It held it’s shape well even if it had to be re-rolled. Also it didn’t suffer from sitting long enough for two little boys to fill all those holes very carefully and slowly. Fine stand up dough.

I tried a second batch of these on my own with a couple of variations. I thought it would be fun to do red and green cookies, so I made one batch with lemon and lime jam (the only strikingly green jam I could find), and dark chocolate chunks. Then I made some with the raspberry jam to go with them, but I used white chocolate chips (because white chocolate goes really well with raspberry).

The lemon lime ones were ok. They wound up tasting like Jaffa Cakes. Not a horrible loss, but not nearly as good as the white chocolate raspberry ones. In the end I decided that they don’t have to be green and red. The red is festive enough on it’s own.

These are really nice. The way they are made, with the jam in the center of a ball means that when the cookies spread, the jam will stay in the center well, and not run off or burn, and the dough makes a nice soft cookie, good consistency, good taste. It looks like it’s a lot of steps to do, but it’s actually quite fast and easy (if you aren’t working with kids).

These get my vote.



Creamed Choc-Oat cookies



125g white chocolate
125g plain chocolate
125g unsalted butter, softened
125g caster sugar
1 medium egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
125g porridge oats
150g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder

Preheat to 180 and lightly grease two baking sheets. Using a sharp knife chop the chocolate into small chunks, no larger then ½ inch
Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl till pale. Add the egg, vanilla, and oats. Sift in the flour and baking powder, and mix until evenly combined. Stir in the chocolate chunks.

Place dessertspoonfuls of the mixture onto baking sheets, spacing them apart to allow room for spreading. Flatten each one slightly with the back of a fork.
Bake for 12 – 15 min until risen and turning golden. Leave on the baking sheets for 5 min, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight tin for up to one week.

These came from Good Housekeeping Step By Step Cook Book.

These are excellent! They are not especially Christmas-y at all, but there’s no reason why they can’t be. Especially when they are so unbelievably easy and good. Even if you don’t make these as a Christmas cookie, try them. After making these only once, I have designated these as my go-to-cookies. When I just need a cookie, and I don’t want to try anything new and fancy, these are the ones to make.

Oatmeal adds the really nice chewy-ness that all superior cookies should have, and the two kinds of chocolate, in chunks, not chips makes them decadent.

These are in my top three, even if they are not officially Christmas cookies.



Rugelach



Beat until well blended, 15-20 seconds:
½ lb unsalted butter, softened
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
Add all at once and beat on a low speed, just until the dough comes together, 10 – 15 seconds:
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
Divide the dough into thirds. Flatten each third into a 6x4 inch rectangle, or a 6 inch circle. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for an hour. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 1 week or packed airtight and frozen for up to 1 month.)
To bake, position a rack in the upper third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350f. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Whisk together:
1/3 cup sugar
1tsp ground cinnamon
working quickly with one portion of dough at a time (leave the remainder refrigerated), generously sprinkle a work surface, and the top of the dough with:
All purpose flour

For rectangle rugelach:
Roll each portion into a 16x10 inch rectangle, about 1/8th inch thick. Brush the excess flour from the top and bottom of the dough, and turn the dough so that the long side of the dough is parallel to the edge of the work surface. Leaving a ¼ inch border, spread 1 rectangle with:
¼ cup raspberry jam or apricot preserves
Along the edge of the jam on the long side nearest you, place a line of:
¼ cup raisins or chocolate chips
Sprinkle the rest of the surface with 2tsp of the cinnamon sugar and:
2&1/2 Tbsp ground walnuts
Roll the dough, starting at the raisin edge, gently tucking and tightening as you go.
Finish with the seam of the roll facing down. Cut the roll into 1&1/2 inch thick slices. Repeat with the remaining rectangles.

For crescent Rugelach:
Shape by rolling each portion into a circle about 14 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick. Spread the jam in a thin layer, leaving ¼ inch border, then sprinkle the entire surface with the raisins, cinnamon and sugar, and ground nuts. Cut the circle like a pizza, creating 8 (for large cookies), or 16 (for small cookies)even triangles. Roll up from the wide end to the point, tucking the point over. Repeat with the remaining circles.
With a spatula, transfer the rugelach to the cookie sheet. Sprinkle each cookie with 1/8 tsp of the cinnamon and sugar. Bake until the bottoms are light golden (the tops will be blond), about 25 min. Remove the sheet to a rack and let stand until they firm slightly. Transfer to racks to cool.


This recipe is just the plain old Joy of Cooking recipe for rugelach, but it was really great.

It’s interesting because the dough itself has no sugar in it at all, it’s only the topping that is sweetened, which means that you can have a lot more control over how sweet you make them. The dough, being pretty much cream cheese and butter, is really soft and lovely and just a little bit tangy from the cream cheese. Also so so so easy to make, takes no time at all.

As for the fillings, I tried two different ways, and I would recommend using both. There are three sets of dough, so I say use Raspberry and white chocolate chips for one batch, apricot and raisins for the next, then the third can be whichever strikes your fancy.

These are one of my top three choices of all the cookie recipes I’ve tried this year. I whole heartedly recommend them.


And, as an honorable mention...



Christmas sugar cookies
½ pound unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
¼ tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp vanilla
2 1/3 cup flour

Beat the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add the egg, baking powder, salt and vanilla and beat until well combined.
Then stir in the flour till well blended and smooth.
Divide the dough in half. Place each half between two large sheets of parchment paper. Roll out to a scant ¼ inch thick, checking the underside of the dough and smoothing any creases. Keeping the paper in place, layer the rolled dough on a baking sheet and refrigerate till cold and slightly firm but not hard, 20-30 min.
Preheat the oven to 350F Grease your cookie sheets.
Working with one portion of dough at a time (leave the other in the fridge), gently peel away and replace one sheet of paper (this will make it easier to lift the cookies from the paper later). Peel away and discard the second sheet. Cut out the cookies using 2 or 3 inch cutters. With a spatula, transfer them to cookie sheets, spacing about 1 inch apart. Roll the dough scraps and continue cutting out cookies until all the dough is used. Briefly refrigerate the dough if it becomes too soft to handle. If desired, lightly sprinkle the cookies with colored sprinkles, or colored sugar.
Bake 1 sheet at a time, just until the cookies are lightly colored on top, and slightly darker at the edges, 6 to 9 minutes. Rotate the sheet halfway through baking for even browning. Remove the sheet to a rack an let stand until the cookies firm slightly. Transfer to racks and cool.

These were one of two cookie recipes that I took from the Joy of Cooking this Christmas.

It’s a classic, so I thought it would be a real winner. I got the cookie cutters in all the Christmas shapes. I have to say, that the cookies themselves were actually very nice. They were light and buttery and lovely tasting. There was no problem with the cookies themselves. The problem was that I though cookies like that would be a perfect activity for the boys, Christmas cookies with their Christmas cutters. We did make them all together as a group, but what I learned is that any recipe that says to put the dough back in the fridge if you need to firm it up, is going to be no good at all for tiny little, warm, and inefficient hands. They had a great time, but by about the third cookie, the dough had gone too soft from being touched and left out long enough for little kids to get three cookies cut. It was fine, we just cut a few cookies from each batch of dough, then I put all the rest back in the fridge. The kids had a great time, as kids do, but they got a bit frustrated at not being able to get the shapes to come out correctly, and at the dough being too soft and sticking to the cutters (my younger son just switched to making balls out of the dough and squishing them).

For the record I should say that I did the left over dough by myself, to see how it went, and an adult working on their own should have no trouble with this dough at all. It’s just that fun fun cookie cutters really kind of cry out for little kids.

Top scores for Christmas-y-ness, good scores for overall taste, but low low scores for making with kids.

Toad in the Hole

A pack of sausages
125g plain flour
¼ tsp salt
A few twists of black pepper
2 medium eggs
1egg yolk
150ml milk
150ml water

Gravy (Stock reduction)
500ml good quality stock
¼ bottle of red wine

Put all of the batter ingredients into a food processor, with the plunger removed to help with aeration, and pulse for about five 10 second bursts until you have a smooth batter the consistency of single cream. Leave the batter to rest for at least 30 min before using.
If you are making gravy, add the wine to the stock and boil hard to reduce it to an intensely flavored sauce with a light syrupy consistency. Season with salt only at the end.

Pour 1tbsp of oil into a roasting tin or flameproof dish and place in the center of a hot oven 220c, to heat through for about 10 min. Then add the sausages, and cook them in the oven for a few minutes. Turn them browned side up, and push them around so they are relatively evenly spaced in the tin, pour the batter around and return to the oven for at least 15 min, probably not more then 20, until the batter is puffed up and a nice golden brown.

I’ve been meaning to make this for ages. Yorkshire pudding, all around sausage, what could be better? There are a hundred million recipes for this out there, I wound up using the one from The River Cottage Meat Book. Although, it’s not really the recipe as it’s written, because that called for a variety of meats, but other then that it’s the same.

Speaking of the meats involved. Cookbad was mentioning that she made this once, only it called for meatballs instead of sausage. It makes much more sense if you think about it, because little meatballs sticking out of the batter would look much more like toads in holes then sausages do.

Still, whether it looked like toads or not, it was damn tasty, and I’d make it again.

Make sure you don’t open the oven till it’s time to check if it’s done. The batter can get a bit fussy and fall if it gets a breeze from an open oven door while it’s puffing.

Other then that, this is super easy, very tasty, and kids love it.

Rocky Road Crunch Bars and Marshmallow Crispy Squares

Rocky Road Crunch Bars
125g soft butter
300g chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into pieces
3X15ml Tbsp Golden syrup
200g rich tea biscuits
100g mini marshmallows
2tsp icing sugar for dusting

Melt the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in a heavy based saucepan. Scoop out about 125ml of the is melted mixture and put to one side
Put the biscuits into a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin. You are aiming for both crumbs and pieces of biscuits
Fold the biscuit pieces and crumbs into the melted chocolate mixture in the saucepan, then add the marshmallows.
Tip into a foil tray (24cm square); flatten as best you can with a spatula. Pour the reserved 125ml of melted chocolate mixture over the marshmallow mixture, and smooth the top.
Refrigerate for about 2 hours or overnight
Cut into 24 fingers and dust with icing sugar.


Marshmallow Crispy Squares
45g butter
300g mini marshmallows
180g rice Krispies

Melt butter in a large heavy based saucepan over low heat
Add the marshmallows and cook gently until they are completely melted and blended, stirring constantly
Take the pan off the heat and immediately add the cereal, mixing lightly till well coated.
Press the mixture into a greased 32cmx23cm tin; you may have to put on gloves to press it down into the corners, as It will be very sticky. Flatten the top
Let them cool completely in the tin, then cut them into 24 squares.


These are so easy. I got both of them from Nigella Express, which is funny since Marshmallow Rice Krispy Treats are so very American. Still, the recipe was there, and it looked just like the traditional way to do it, so I gave it try.

If you are having any kind of kid event, or really any event where marshmallow based food would be acceptable, make these. There is nothing easier in the world, they can be done well in advance so you don’t have to even begin to think about them one the day of, and they are so impossibly good you have to make them to believe it. Impossibly good!

These were for my son’s birthday party, to go with the dinosaur cake, and I’m really looking forward to my next opportunity to make them.

Dinosaur Cake

Hey,
I've not had time to do my typing lately, but I'm still cooking. This was my son's dinosaur cake for his 4th birthday party. Everything on it was edible. I think it could have used some more colorful scales (smarties), but we didn't get a chance to run out for more. This was my first ttempt at a 3-D design cake, and it was gret fun. Like a cross between sculpting and bricklaying, but with frosting. The kids liked it.

Chinese Pork Dumplings

170g flour
90 ml cold water
110g minced pork
15 tiger prawns, peeled and deheaded
1 spring onion finely chopped
1 small piece of ginger finely chopped
light soy sauce
sea salt
Chinese cooking rice wine
1 egg, beaten
Sesame seed oil
A handful of fresh coriander, finely chopped

To make the dough, put the flour into a bowl and make a well in the center, then begin to drizzle cold water into the well, a little at a time, stirring with chopsticks around the edge of the well to incorporate the flour and form little lumps. Continue to drizzle the water where ever the flour is still dry, stirring till a dough begins to form. Knead with your hands till you have a piece of round smooth dough. Leave to rest for 20-30 min.
Take a piece of dough, about the size of a mini bread roll, and knead it again, turning and folding it. Then using a wooden rolling pin, roll your dough as thin as paper, into a round shape. Cut into strips, then into triangles. You need to think in terms of making 6-10 little dumplings for each person, so make as many as you need.

To make the stuffing chop the prawns and pork together very very finely, and mix with the spring onion and ginger. Add a little soy sauce, a few pinches of sea salt, a few drops of rice wine and one beaten egg, and mix well.

To make the dumplings: Taking a little of the stuffing mixture, place it towards one corner of a triangle and fold that corner over to cover the mixture. Then fold again in the same direction, so that you can’t see the mixture except through the ends of this little roll. Then, holding your thumbs a third of the way along from either end, twist and turn up, joining the two remaining corners.

To cook: Boil for 3-4 minutes, and serve with some chopped spring onion, a few drops of sesame seed oil and a drizzle of light soy sauce.


These are also from the book Music, Food and Love. First I will say that the dumplings tasted absolutely gorgeous. They were so good that my son has been asking me to make them again at every meal since. So no kidding, they are tasty. That said, I have some issues with the way the recipe is written.

I would only recommend following this recipe, if you have a good amount of confidence in dumpling making. Otherwise, find another recipe that explains things better, and then use this filling mixture.

First is the dough. It’s no problem to make, but it makes a tiny tiny little ball of dough. Really small. It also doesn’t really specify what size each dumpling skin should be, so you are stuck with a tiny small dough, and no idea how far you should stretch it. The skins have to be big enough that the filling doesn’t stick out, or they won’t stand up to the boiling, so they can’t be too small, but if they are too big, you’ll only get a few dumplings out of it.

Then the making of the dumplings… I typed it up just as it is in the book. If you can understand how that’s supposed to work, you have better spatial reasoning skills then I do.

Still, I enjoy wrapping things in dough, so I just made them as small as I could and still manage, and I sealed them up any way I could. I cooked them slightly longer, in case I had made them too big, and changed the cooking time, but after 5 min they were totally and completely done.

Very challenging, but still fun, and in the end we got to eat many tasty tiny dumplings that I loved!

Fig Rolls

175g/6oz dried figs, rinsed and coarsely chopped
75g/3oz plain whole meal flour
75g/3oz plain flour
25g/1oz light muscovado sugar
65g/2.5oz polyunsaturated margarine (I used butter)
1.25ml/1/4tsp salt

lightly grease a baking sheet, and set aside. Put the figs in a saucepan with 300ml/1/2pint water. Simmer for about 20 min, stirring occasionally until the figs are tender and the liquid is well reduced. Set aside to cool, then puree in a blender or food processor and set aside.
Put the remaining ingredients in a blender or food processor with 30ml (2tbsp) water and mix to a dough. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface, then roll out to an oblong about 40x12cm (16x5inches).
Spread the fig puree down the center of the dough rectangle and carefully fold in the sides so that they overlap over the filling. Trim the ends of the roll and cut into 3cm (11/4 inch) wide slices. Turn the rolls over and place on the prepared baking sheet.
Mark the top of each roll with a wet fork and bake at 190c/375f for 25-30 min, until lightly browned. Cool on a rack.

When we lived in New York, one of my husband’s favorite snacks were the fig rolls that they sold in the Korean Groceries. If you are from New York, you know what I’m talking about. They are kind of whole wheat-y kind of cake-y and even though all of the corner groceries had them, so they must have come from a major distributor, they came wrapped in cling wrap, with no label as if they were home made. There was an op-ed piece in the New York Times (I think) once about how New Yorkers are some of the most food label obsessed people on the planet, they won’t touch a food unless they know, not only what’s in it, but where those things are from, with the solitary exception, of the Korean Grocery fig bars. We all ate them.
Weird.

I was hoping these would be like those fig bars of yore. They weren’t exactly, but they weren’t disappointing either. They were slightly more pastry dough-ish then cake-ish, but they were really good nonetheless. I found that I wasn’t able to make the fork marks on them without squishing out all the filling, so I just didn’t, and I don’t think they suffered for it.

I will definitely make these again. They only have a little sugar, and they make a really great treat.

Sesame crackers

5oz/140g yellow maize flour
3/4lb/340g wholemeal flour
5 oz/140g sesame seeds
1 tsp sea salt
1/3 pint/200ml cold pressed oil
8oz/225ml water, approximately

Stir together the two flours, sesame seeds, and salt. Add oil and enough water to make a dough that is just soft enough to roll.
Turn dough onto a floured sheet of greaseproof paper, and knead just enough to work into a ball. Cover with another sheet of greaseproof paper, and roll out thinly.
Cut into desired shapes with knife or biscuit cutters. Repeat until all dough is used. Bake on ungreased sheets at 375f/190c for 25-35 minutes.

These were from The Vegetarian Times Cookbook. I’m a big fan of sesame seeds, and of things that my three year old son can cook, so this seemed just right.




I had some trouble with these, but all of my troubles boiled down to the same mistake, and that was rolling the dough too thin. It just said to roll it out thinly, so I made it thin like paper, thinking the thinner the better (an idea that is the root of so many peoples problems these days… but I digress). Having made them now, I see that they don’t puff or rise at all, so you just want to roll them out to good cracker thickness.

The problems that I had were, firstly, they were hard to cut and transport to the baking sheet. This might be partly because we were using playdough cutters, not cookie cutters, but I choose to blame this mostly on the thickness of the dough. There wasn’t enough to cut through, so it made a weak line which meant that they tore when they were being pulled off. The second problem was that the cooking time was too long. Even at the shortest time, they got a bit burned. Again, this was only because they were rolled too thin. A couple of the last ones, which were considerably thicker cooked just right. Still, I’d say check them after 20 min just in case.

All that said, the ones that were not overcooked were really good. Also, my son absolutely loved making them into elephants and teddy bears and such. He was so proud he kept asking if he could call his dad to tell him “I made beautifuls you can eat!”

Macaroni Bake

AKA: All Wrong Casserole


2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
450g minced beef
2x225g tins chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 tsp chopped basil
salt and ground pepper
100g dried macaroni

Cheese Sauce
50g butter
50g plain flour
600ml milk
150g cheddar cheese, grated

Topping
50g cheddar cheese
2 packets of ready salted crisps (potato chips) finely crushed

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onion gently until soft. Add the beef and fry until browned, breaking up any lumps with a wooden spoon.
Stir in the tomatoes, tomato puree, basil, salt, and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Simmer for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile cook the macaroni in boiling salted water until tender. Drain, fold into the meat sauce, and then turn into a casserole pan.
To make the cheese sauce, melt the butter in the pan, add the flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and gradually add the milk, beating all the time. Return to the heat and bring to the boil, stirring, then add the grated cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until thick.
Pour the sauce over the meat and macaroni. Mix together the topping ingredients, and sprinkle them over the cheese sauce. Bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 30 min. Serve hot with a green salad.

I know this looks awful… and it kind of was, but I had to try it. My son’s school (he’ll be starting there in September), was having a summer fair type thing, and they were selling these cookbooks to help raise money. The recipes in it were all from kids at the school (and their families obviously). So cute. So you can see why I couldn’t resist buying one of the books. As for this recipe, well, I never did get to try “Hamburger Helper” when I was growing up, and this looked like it would fill that need in me to eat crap food made from ground beef.

I think there is a way that this could have been better. For starters, I would have drained the fat off when cooking the beef. I would have added some green pepper too. Also, I think, less beef, more pasta. As for the sauce, there was just too much of it. I would have used less, but with more cheese, and then forget the crisps altogether.

Still it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Two Types of Pork Burgers

I have been a total slacker the last few days I know. I have a whole backlog of stuff to post. Here's one for now anyway...



Pork and Apricot Burgers
500g Pork mince
4 spring onions, finely chopped
4tbsp chopped mint
2 firm fresh apricots, about 175g/6oz, roughly chopped
1 egg, beaten
200ml Greek yogurt
4 burger buns and lettuce leaves to serve
Mix together the mince, spring onions, half the mint and the apricots. Season well and bind together with the beaten egg. Divide the mixture into 4 then shape each into a burger.
Grill the burgers under a moderate grill, or barbeque for 8-10 minutes on each side.
While the burgers are cooking, mix together the yogurt and the remaining mint, then season to taste and chill until ready to use.
Serve in the bun, with the minty yogurt sauce spooned over.

These were from Good Food Magazine. I figured that burgers are always a fun dinner, and these looked kind of unique. Also, I noticed that fresh apricots are in season right now, so hey, what better time?

They were nice. The yogurt with mint was a good accompaniment, but was slightly bland. Also I was hoping that the apricots would be more noticeable. The real problem though is that I have this other burger recipe for pork… it’s called Thai style burgers, and we all love them. They are so good that just mentioning them makes me hungry. The whole time I was eating these, I couldn’t help thinking how much I like the other ones better.

So in the end, these burgers are really nice, but if you want my absolute favorite burger recipe… here it is:

1 small lemongrass stalk
1 small red chili, deseeded
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 spring onions
200g/7oz (2.5 cups) mushrooms
400g/14oz ground pork
1tbsp thai fish sauce
3tbsp fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped
2tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp lime juice

Place the lemongrass, chilli, garlic, and spring onions in a food processor and process till smooth, add mushrooms and process until very finely chopped.
Add pork, fish sauce, and coriander to the mushroom mix, season with salt and pepper.
Divide into 4 portions, and shape, with floured hands into flat burger shapes.
Heat oil in a pan and fry burgers over medium heat for 6-8 minutes, or until done as you like
Mix mayo and lime juice as a topping for the burgers.

Seriously, these are so good, that now that I have mentioned them, I have to cancel whatever I was planning for tomorrow, so I can make these instead. Try these! They don’t sound like much, but with the lime mayo, they actually shock me with how good they are, every time.

Cheese –Oat Balls

I forgot to take a picture of these, but I had to include them anyway because I love them. I will make them again soon, and try to get a picture of them up here


4oz/115g rolled oats
4oz/115g Cheddar Cheese, grated
4oz/115g Wholemeal flour
4oz/115g Butter or margerine, softened to room temperature
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp chilli powder
4 tbsp milk

Spread oats in a shallow tin and toast at 350f/180c until a pale, golden brown
Combine oats well with other ingredients.
Pinch off pieces a little larger than marbles and roll into balls on an un-greased baking sheet and bake at 350f/180c for 15-20 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Store in an airtight container.

Oh my god, so much fun! I love these. They taste just like “Cheeze-its”, but they are way healthier. They were super easy to make, both of my sons helped out. They had fun measuring and pouring, though my two year old got distracted by a bowl of pennies before we got to the ball rolling. My Three year old made a good 4 or 5 balls before joining in the penny throwing.

The only down side of these, is that it will be hard to get the kids to eat anything else when they are around.

Fun, easy, so tasty, you should try this.

Honey Banana Ice Cream (world's easiest ice cream)

585ml soy milk
1 large or 2 medium bananas
4-6 Tbsp oil
6oz/170g honey
Pinch of sea salt

Blend all ingredients, then freeze until solid.

This is from another one of my yard sale cookbooks. It was originally an American book from the magazine Vegetarian Times. This was a British edition of it called, surprisingly, The Vegetarian Times Cookbook. I love this book, it’s just a little paperback, with no photos at all, but I’m really excited about what I have seen in there so far, and if this dessert is anything to go by, then I’ll be making a lot of their recipes.

I’ve been really wanting to try making ice cream, but I don’t have a machine, and all the recipes say “now pour into your ice cream machine”. This seemed like a good starter for me, and it was easy enough that my son could really feel like he had made it all by himself. He likes that.

The only tip I would offer, is that it takes ages to freeze. You really need to make it at least a day in advance. Once it is fully frozen it has the consistency of ice milk more then ice cream, and it is so good that it may actually be impossible to stop eating it before it all runs out. We had it a couple of days ago, and my older son has been crying for more ever since. I promised him we would make some more tomorrow.

Pizza Balls

Named because my older son was all excited that it was pizza, and my younger son was all excited that it was a ball.



Sadly, the inspiration for these was a pizza hut ad on tv (they have pizza hut out here, but no taco bell… how wrong is that?). Since I have no intention of going out of my way to find a pizza hut, I figured I’d take a stab at it myself.

I used this American pizza dough (very different from British pizza dough, more similar to bread dough really) from The Joy of Cooking.

Pizza Dough
Combine in a large bowl, and let stand till the yeast is dissolved
1 package (2&1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
1&1/3 cups warm water
Add:
3&1/2 – 3&3/4 cups all purpose flour
2tbsp olive oil
1tbsp salt
1tbsp sugar (optional)

You are going to want to preheat your oven as high as it goes. It will probably take a long time for it to heat up (maybe 45 min)

Mix to combine all the ingredients, then knead for 10 min. Transfer to a bowl lightly coated with oil, and turn it over once to coat it. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise until doubled (1-1.5 hours).
Punch down the dough, divide it in half and roll each half into a ball. Let rest, covered loosely with cling film for 10-15 min. Roll out your dough and let it rest another 10 min. You can brush the top of the dough with olive oil to prevent the toppings from making the crust soggy

I cut up some mozzarella into cubes (about 3/4 inch). When the dough was ready (before the final 10 min rest) I used half, and divided it up into 16 pieces. Then I took a cube of cheese and mashed it into the ball of dough and then smooshed it about till it was all sealed up. Repeated with the rest and let them sit on a baking tray. I let them rest for the final 10 min, brushed them with copious amounts of butter and garlic, and baked for about 7-10 min.

Serve with some sauce for dipping (whatever tomato sauce you like).

I used the other half of the dough to make 2 calzones. You can make them out of whatever you have lying about. I made one with broccoli and cheddar, and one with spinach and ricotta. I had to get some green veg in there somewhere.

What can you say about a ball of dough with melted cheese in the middle dipped in sauce? Is there any way they could be anything but tasty fun? I think not!

If I was doing it again, I would use even more butter and garlic.

Matthew's Bread

This is Matthew's bread...

This is Matthew...

So here’s a funny story. I was making a loaf of bread today, and my three year old decided he wanted to make a bread too. We’ve done this before, I give him some flour, he has fun making a mess and then eventually wanders away. Today however, I gave him a bowl of flour, and I added some water to it, and I showed him what I was doing with the bread dough, and he totally got the hang of it. He adjusted the amount of flour (by grabbing some out of the pile that I had set aside while kneading) till it all came together, and he did something very similar to kneading.
I still figured that any minute he was going to get tired of it, but he didn’t. He actually kneaded (sort of) his little ball of dough for the full 10 minutes while I did mine.
Afterwards he was so excited that he had made a bread, and I felt so guilty because I knew it was just flour and water. He kept checking to see if it had risen, and telling his brother all about it. In the end I figured, hey, why not cook it. The dough for making Chinese dumplings is usually just flour and water, so I gave it a try. We rolled it out flat together. I melted some butter, and I let him use a pastry brush to coat the whole thing (hoping to give it some kind of flavor). I also grated a bit of parmesan over the top.
I wound up baking it for about 15 minutes at 200c (that’s what my bread was baking at). And it actually came out. It was a bit of a workout to eat, but Matthew LOVED it!! Nathaniel did too, and even had a second helping. It tasted like a hard/chewy/buttery cracker.
Anyway, next time I hear someone tell me that bread is too hard to make, I can honestly tell them that my three year old son can do it, and without the aid of a recipe even!