C is for cookie... Date and Walnut cookies to be exact!

It’s always been my opinion, that homes with kiddies should always smell like freshly baked cookies… yum! My mum baked cheesecakes, carrot cakes and chocolate cakes but I don’t really remember her as a cookie baker. Yet my fondest childhood memories come flooding back when I smell cookies baking in the oven… yeah, I’m weird, this is not news to me!

I’ve struggled for quite some time to find a cookie recipe that’s simple to make and also spreads well yet doesn’t over crisp.

Last night I had success!! So ladies, gents and kiddie-winkles, may I present… Date and Walnut cookies!

This recipe makes around 40 small cookies if you can keep husband/child/nonna from eating the raw cookie dough!

Ingredients

185g butter, at room temp

½ c caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg yolk

1 ½ c self raising flour

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

100g chopped dates

½ c walnuts

How to...

- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

- Using electric beaters, beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and egg yolks for a few minutes until pale and fluffy.

- Add all the remaining ingredients and stir well. I found the mixture a little hard to mix, so with clean hands, I scrunched and squished the dough into submission.

- Roll teaspoons of the dough into balls and place on a lined baking tray, about 4cm apart as these cookies will spread.

- Bake for 12 minutes or until just golden.

- Leave the cookies on the hot tray for a few minutes to firm up before you transfer to a wire rack to cool.

- Once completely cooled store in an airtight container for 3 days or freeze for 1 month.

The healthiest Banana Cake recipe I can come up with!

As I mentioned in my last post, my poor little poppet has been sick for weeks. Fever, chills, a cold... all the wonderful lurgies of winter have hit her all at once.

Nobody wants to eat when they feel unwell and even though my little champ is a great eater, she's really struggling to eat much of anything at the moment.

But no one says 'no' to cake, right? :) So, I've come up with a 'cake' that I think you'll agree fits into the 'healthy' category. Stay with me, I promise it's not your usual fat and sugar laden style of cake... not that there's anything wrong with that, hahahaha!

Ingredients
1/4 c coconut oil - for good fats
1/4 cup vegetable oil - because too much coconut oil seems to dry out the batter
2 eggs - protein
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
200g plain Greek yoghurt - packed with protein
200g plain or wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 c caster sugar - optional (my yoghurt is quite strong, and my bananas were a little under ripe so I needed a touch of sugar to balance out the flavor)

How to...
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C and grease a round cake pan with oil or butter. I recommend lining the base with baking paper as this does seem to stick a little.
- Mix all your wet ingredients in a small bowl (oils, eggs, mashed bananas and yogurt)
- In a larger bowl, mix your flour, baking powder and sugar, if you need it.
- Pour your wet mix into your dry mix and stir until combined. You don't want to over mix or it will become tough once cooked. Once you can't see any flour, then you are done.
- Pour your batter into your pre-greased pan and smooth out.
- Bake for approx 30 mins until golden brown and the top bounces back when you gently push with your fingertip.
- Leave to sit in the pan for a few minutes, then flip onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Note: feel free to use all vegetable oil or experiment with other neutral flavored oils. Or melted butter if you're feeling naughty!

$2 for a bag of bananas - bargain!

Green frosting... yep, it's avocado!

Wow, it's been so long since my last post! Sorry everyone, tech issues over here :( did you miss me? I missed you!

Just a short post today to finally reveal what the green goop was that I made in My shiny new toy!

It's avocado frosting! Don't leave, you know you're fascinated :)

I've been experimenting lately with vegan recipes, which has been lots of fun. I'm not into the vegan lifestyle myself, but some recipes are so interesting, I just can't resist. Also I have loads of friends who are dairy or egg free... it's crazy how many people have allergies these days!

This is a super quick and easy way to make frosting and it's the most fun brilliant green color. It does taste a little like avocado, but on a rich chocolate cupcake it really does work.

You can also easily add some cocoa and it becomes chocolate frosting - the kids will never know the difference! And they'll get a dose healthy fats, win, win!

Ingredients
2 ripe avocados
1 tsp vanilla extract
500g icing sugar (approx)

How to...
- Scoop the avocado flesh into the bowl of a cake mixer. Make sure to get rid of any brown spots.
- Add the vanilla and using a paddle attachment, beat the avocado until smooth, about 2 minutes.
- Slowly add the icing sugar until you get the desired consistency.

Note: the frosting will keep in the fridge for up to a week in an air tight container.

Mini Banana+Date muffins… no added sugar!

MissC chomping on a muffin in her trike

How yummy are muffins?! Ok, so we know they are not great for the waist line, but darn it they are tasty!

I’ve always had a good relationship with food. I enjoy it and most of the time I don’t feel guilty! But since my little one started eating, I’ve started to look at food slightly differently. I still enjoy it, but I want to improve the nutrition/quality these days. You’d be surprised how many times I’ve removed half the sugar or butter/oil and you can’t taste the difference.

Here’s a great recipe for little tummies and it’s sugar free but still super sweet. The sweetness comes from the overripe bananas and the dates. You could skip the dates, but remember this is extra fibre which is an added bonus in most diets these days.

Ingredients

1 c self raising flour (white or wholemeal, whichever you prefer)

½ tsp cinnamon

5 dates, seeds removed and chopped into small pieces

3 overipe bananas, mashed

50g butter, melted

2 eggs, beaten

¼ c milk

How to...

- Preheat your oven to 190 degrees C.

- Grease 2 x mini muffin pans or line with paper cases. (I prefer to grease so little ones don’t have to mess with paper cases, plus better for environment, right?)

- Grab a mixing bowl and mix together your flour, cinnamon and dates.

- In another bowl, squash your bananas so that they are mushy. Then add your milk, butter and eggs and stir well.

- Add your banana mix to the flour mix and stir until just combined. If you over stir your muffins will be chewy, you have been warned!

- Drop tablespoons of the batter into your muffin trays.

- Bake for 12-15 minutes, until slightly golden.

- Allow to cool on a wire rack before gobbling these down with a glass of cold milk! Mmmmm!

Sticky Date Cupcakes

I love a good sticky date 'pud', but sometimes I find they are a little heavy and not very friendly to the old waistline. So here's a lovely, simple, lighter version... more of a cupcake then a pudding... but just as delicious!

Ingredients

1 1/4c pitted dates
1 1/4 water, boiling hot
1 tsp bi-carb soda
50g butter, melted
1/2 c brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 c self raising flour

How to...

- Preheat oven to 180 degrees C

- Grease a standard muffin tin, or line with paper cases.

- Place the dates and water in a food processor (or a powerful blender, see note) and whizz until smooth.

- Pour mixture into a mixing bowl, stir in bi-carb soda and let sit for 5 minutes. The mix will foam up a little.

- Stir in the butter and brown sugar, until smooth. 

- Add the eggs and flour and stir until combined and smooth.

- Pour the batter into the muffin tin and bake for 30-35 minutes or until cakes spring back when touched.

- Let stand for 5 minutes in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

- You could make a caramel sauce to pour over but I find a dust of icing sugar and a little scoop of ice cream is a sure winner!

Note: be very careful when using a processor or blender to whizz up anything hot. The trapped steam can force the lid off once the blades start spinning, sending the ultra hot contents all over you! I use a Kitchen Aid blender and I've never had this problem but this has happened to me with less powerful blenders. PLEASE use the pulse button first to see if the lid will stay put.

1, 2, 3... Scones!

Winter has well and truly hit in soggy ole Melbourne! What better way to warm up then with a lovely cup of tea and some hot from the oven scones, mmmmmm! With jam and cream of course :)

Hot tea and scones! Perfect winter fare :D

My mother in law makes fabulous scones and she's always happy to whip them up when requested. She even brought them to me in the hospital when I gave birth to my daughter. What most people don't know is... it's my recipe! Want to know my secret to fluffy, hot, delectable scones? It's easy! 1, 2, 3...

Ingredients

1 c lemonade

2 c pouring cream (light cream works just as well)

3 c self raising flour

How to...

- Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celcius.

- Clean your kitchen bench, you'll need to knead the dough in a moment.

- Grab a cookie tray and dust with a little plain flour, this will keep the scones from sticking. Also dust the bench with a little flour.

- In a bowl mix the flour, lemonade and cream to form a sticky dough. Note - if your flour is a little old, add 1 tsp of baking powder to help the scones stay fluffy. (definitely do this if you don't remember when you bought the flour... you know who you are!)

- Tip the sticky dough onto your floured bench, then flour your hands.

- Give the dough a quick knead for about a minute. This means that you fold the dough over and gently squash it back together, you can't get this wrong, don't worry.

- Shape the dough into a rectangular shape and cut it into 12 even pieces with a blunt knife.

- Place the pieces onto the cookie sheet and space about 2cms (1 inch) apart, they will spread but it's traditional to let them invade each others space so you can pull them apart. (see pic)

- Bake for 20 mins until golden brown.

- Serve with strawberry jam or lemon butter and thick or whipped cream!

- Makes 12 scones but you can easily halve or double the quantity if you like.

Easy recipe to halve!

Cupcake wars!

OMG, how awesome are cupcakes?! If you think cupcakes aren't the most delicious, little morsels of pure bliss, it's because you've only had BAD cupcakes! The cupcake wars of the last few years has churned out so many cheap, baked offsite, franchises causing most people to feel that it's normal to pay $4 for something that's dry and chewy.  No Melbourne, no! We deserve better... and I've found it!

Let me first bore you with a quick story to prove my self imposed cupcake judging ability. On a sunny day in April 2011, my hubby and I were holidaying in LA (as you do) with our wonderful cousins. Whilst we were venturing down Rodeo Drive in Bev Hills - that's what the locals call it, don't you know - we stumbled across Sprinkles... my tastebuds have never been so spoiled! Sprinkles is the first, that's right the first, cupcake bakery that started the crazy cupcake revolution of the late naughties. Their maxi cupcakes are so light, so fluffy, so rich that our taste buds couldn't determine where the frosting ended and the cake started! As blissful as the moment was, I was also crushed as I knew I would never find such a delicious cupcake back home in Melbourne... that is until I found Cupcakes by Paolo! :D

Cupcakes by Paolo is located in West Footscray on the outskirts of Melbourne and believe you me, it's worth the trip! All cupcakes are baked daily, on the premises and are truly as close to Sprinkles as I've found so far... I hope they never franchise out!! If Sprinkles are 15/10 then Cupcakes by Paolo would be at least 12/10! The vanilla and fruity flavored cakes are so light, so fluffy, I've polished off 3 in one go... I was pregnant at the time! Whereas the chocolate cakes are the perfect balance of dense, rich and fluffiness in one perfectly frosted cake. Speaking of frosting, it's neither too sweet nor too buttery and it gorgeously adorned with pretty little gem.

You really can "Taste the LOVE"!!!

Flavors in the photo are: Pavlova Passion, Could Nine, Classic Vanilla, Very Berry Raspberry, Orange Jaffa and Oh So Velvet.

Chocolate mousse... just add water?!

Where did February go?? Apologies, dear readers :( I've been so busy eating, I've neglected my blog... so to kick it back off, let's talk chocolate!

If you've ever worked with chocolate, you probably know that you should always melt chocolate using a double boiler and never let any of the water splash into the chocolate as the chocolate will 'seize' meaning it will go rock solid and you'll have to throw it out and start again. So imagine my surprise when I read that Uber Chef-slash-Scientist Heston Blumenthal has made chocolate mousse using chocolate... and water!! Insanity!!!

If you haven't heard of Heston, do a YouTube search as his creations are mind boggling... or sell a kidney and get a table at his very exclusive restaurant in the UK, the Fat Duck.

Ok, back to the crazy Chocolate water mousse.

Normally you would use eggs, sugar and heavy cream to make a beautiful thick mousse - that's a lot of effort and a fair bit of fatty-fat-fat! So you may think that this dessert will fall a little flat. (ah, a rhyme!)

Don't despair, the final creation is so extremely rich and dense, you'll only need a small pot - as you can see I've used espresso glasses. For another twist, you could use a little coffee or liqueur in place of some of the water. The only real rule is that you must use very good chocolate! Remember as the dessert is just chocolate and water, you are really going to taste the chocolate that you've used. Please, at least 70% cocoa solids! Lindt has some lovely dark chocolates on the market now as well as some beautiful flavors like blueberry, mint, chilli, etc.

Ingredients
- 130gr chocolate

- 1/2 c water (or 100ml water and 25ml coffee or liqueur)

How to...
- Get two mixing bowls, one smaller then the other so it can sit inside the larger bowl. 

- Half fill the larger bowl with lots of ice and a little cold water, then place the smaller bowl inside so that it's touching the ice.

- Break up the chocolate, place in a saucepan with the half cup of water and melt gently over a medium heat, stirring occasionally.

- Once the chocolate is melted, pour into the small mixing bowl that's sitting on the ice and whisk with an electric whisk for 2 to 3 minutes or until the mixture has thickened, it will turn a little pale. Be careful not to overwhip as the mixture will become grainy. But if you mess up, simply remelt the chocolate and start again.

SO fluffy!

- Spoon the mousse into your serving cups and refridgerate for 2-3 hours... you can eat it straight away but I prefer my mousse cold and loaded with fresh berries!

ENJOY!

Ricotta Doughnuts

Apparently, breast feeding mums crave sugar as we need the extra energy to nourish our little bubs... sounds like a good excuse for extra desserts to me!

Other then the fact that these doughnuts are deep fried, they aren't too bad for you and they are super quick to make! You get protein from the ricotta, there's not much flour so they are quite light and fluffy and the sugar is minimal too. These doughnuts aren't super sweet, but you won't stop at just one! And even better you can flavor them anyway you like to suit your tastes.

It's best to use fresh ricotta as its a much better product to work with, but I had a tub of super smooth ricotta in my freezer which I defrosted and the results were just as good. It just took a bit of extra flour.

Ingredients
- 250gr ricotta

- 1/4 c castor sugar

- 1 egg yolk

- 1/2 to 1 c self raising flour (it depends on the ricotta you use, you just want enough flour to make a wet, sticky dough)

Flavours

Nutty - add 1/4 cup of both pistachios and pine nuts, roughly chopped (this is what I've made in the photo)

Chocolate - add 1/2 cup chocolate chips and 1 tsp of vanilla

Citrus - add a tablespoon of finely grated zest of orange, lemon, lime or a combo of all

Or let me know your favorite flavor combo!

How to...
- Fill a saucepan with enough vegetable oil to deep fry, about 4-5 cms deep and place over heat until hot. (I find a medium heat works best)

- In a mixing bowl, break up the ricotta with a fork to remove any large lumps.

- Add in the castor sugar, egg yolk, flavor of your choice and add just enough flour to make a sticky, wet dough.

- Using two tablespoons, carefully drop walnut size spoonfuls into the hot oil. If you haven't done this before it's easy! Just use one spoon to scoop up some of the dough and then use the other spoon to carefully push the dough into the hot oil. (I've tried to show you this in the photo below) Hold the spoon with the dough fairly close to the oil so it doesn't splash up and burn you!

- Fry a few at a time (don't over crowd the pot) for about 3-4 minutes. Don't forget to flip them over half way so they are golden on each side. They are cooked when you break one open and they are light and fluffy, not gooey.
- Once cooked, drain well on paper towel.
- I like to serve them dusted with icing sugar and a drizzle of honey, mmmmm!
- Makes about 12-15 doughnuts

Using 2 spoons to make the doughnut

Banana-su!

If you're living in Australia, how excited are we that Banana prices have FINALLY come down?! For those of you not in Oz, prices hit $15 per kg, instead of the usual $1-3 per kg, due to natural disasters which destroyed crops.  So if you were lucky enough to eat a banana over the winter months, you are obviously a kazillionaire!

Anyway, a few weeks ago a morning news team were lucky enough to travel to NYC for the week - how do I get a job on that show??  The lovely ladies on the show were raving about a dessert they'd picked up from the ridiculously famous Magnolia Bakery called Banana Pudding.  Luckily, I was able to find the recipe all over the web and decided to try it out.  It was yum-O!  And very popular at the dinner party I took it along to.  Mind you I did make a few adjustments as the recipe is from the US and we don't have all the same ingredients Down Under.

Word of warning... this is not diet friendly... but it's totally worth cheating!  On the up side this dessert can be made in advance and just like Tiramisu, tastes best a day or two afterwards.

Ingredients

- 1 can of sweetened condensed milk

- 1 1/2 cups ice cold water

- 1 pack of instant vanilla pudding

- 2 cups cream (original recipe says 3, but I found this too heavy)

- 3 or 4 bananas, thinly sliced

- 1 pack of Sponge Finger biscuits (smaller pack is enough, 395gr)

- Toasted flaked almonds or hazelnuts or a crushed up Flake chocolate bar

- Frangelico, or liqueur of choice (optional)

- Milk (optional)

How to...

- Using a cake mixer (or a medium bowl, whisk and a little elbow grease) beat together the condensed milk and the ice cold water until well combined, should take about a minute.

- Add the pudding mix and beat until dissolved, about 2 minutes.

- Cover and refrigerate until set, about 3-4 hours or overnight.

- Once the pudding mix is set, beat the cream just until stiff peaks form - but not until it's stiff and butter like.

- Fold the pudding mix into the cream until blended and no steaks remain.  The mix should be pale yellow.

- In a large serving dish (glass is prettiest) arrange one third of the sponge biscuits on the base of the dish and sprinkle generously with liqueur for adults, or milk for kids. If it's easier you can quickly dip the biscuits before you layer the dessert.  But don't soak as these biscuits will fall apart very quickly.

- Then layer a third of the bananas and gently spread a third of the pudding mixture on top.

- Repeat the layering process so you have 9 layers in total, finishing with the pudding mixture.

- Sprinkle the toasted nuts or chocolate on top, cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving.

Whoops! Forgot the chocolate!

I love you... I love you not

I'm not sure why, but every time I try to walk past a Greek cafe, I must peer into their window and look for a Greek Yoyo... and if I see one, I MUST buy one.  So you would think that I have a deep love affair with the Greek Yoyo... but you would be mistaken!

I do love all the core ingredients.  I mean whats not to love?  A creamy, custard center, sandwiched between two sponge-cake like biscuits, with a swirl of chocolate icing smothered on top.  Yet every time I bite longingly into one of these delights... I'm disappointed!  The spongey biscuits are too dry.  Or the custard is still grainy.  Or the chocolate icing is too sweet... and yet, as shown in the pic, I must devour one if I see one!!

What's your weird love/hate relationship food item?

Mmmmm... muffins!

How good are muffins?!  Ok, well they're not great if you're watching your weight or listening to a personal trainer, but everything in moderation right??  That's why this recipe only makes 6 full size muffins, so you won't feel 'as bad' :) Of course you could use this same recipe to make 12 mini muffins or double it and make 12 FULL size muffins.

Oh and you could freeze any leftovers... IF there are leftovers!

mmmm, white choc and raspberry... they didn't make it to the freezer!

Basic muffins
1 c self raising flour
1/4 c caster sugar
1/2 c milk
20g butter, melted
1 egg
For flavor ideas... see note below.
 
How to… 
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
- Grease a 6 cup capacity muffin tray (or 12 cup if you're doubling the recipe)
Quick rule: always place your dry ingredients into a bowl and then gently mix in your combined wet ingredients
- Place the flour and sugar in a bowl.
- Mix the milk, butter and egg in a seperate bowl.
- Add the wet mix and your choice of flavor to your dry ingredients and mix until just combined. (Over mixing will give you tough, chewy muffins)
- Spoon the muffin mixture into your prepared muffin tin and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Let muffins cool in pan for 5 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool... mind you, I think these muffins are best enjoyed warm!

Popular Flavors
Here's a few suggestions, but use your imagination and come up with your own favorite!
Choc Chip - add 150g of your favorite chocolate chips
White Choc and Raspberry - add 100g of chopped white chocolate and 1 c of frozen raspberries (don't thaw the berries)
Apple and Cinnamon - peel and roughly chop 2 apples and add 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
Banana and Walnut - peel and mash an overripe banana and add 1/2 c of walnuts.

Recipe: Cookies, nom nom nom!

I'm not sure what 'made' me have to bake cookies last night... it could've been the bub I'm currently incubating... or the fact that a radio star has been forced to wear a Cookie Monster outfit to the snow this week... or the episode of Everyone Loves Raymond on TV last night that revolved around girls scouts selling cookies... the universe conspired and I HAD TO OBEY!

Enjoy with a glass of cold milk :)

Makes 40 small or 20 large cookies.

Ingredients

125g butter, room temperature

1c brown sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking powder

2 c plain flour

100g chocolate, chopped

3/4 c coconut or chopped nuts or rolled oats

Method

- Preheat oven to 190°C

- Using a cake mixer or handheld beaters, beat the butter and brown sugar until pale and creamy.

- Add the eggs and vanilla and mix to combine.

- Add all the dry ingredients and mix well. You want the mix to come together but don't over mix the dough.  

- For smaller, flatter cookies, roll out teaspoons of the dough onto a cookie sheet or flat tray, leaving a little room for spreading.

- For larger, cake like cookies, roll out tablespoons of the dough onto a cookie sheet or flat tray, leaving a little room for spreading.

- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden.  Cookies firm up as they cool, so don't worry if they feel softer then you like.

- Using an egg flip, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Tip: for a crisper cookie, flatten the dough ball out a little before you bake.