Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding August 9, 2009

Ingredients:
1/2 cup melted butter
3 tb cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
1 cup SR flour
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup raw sugar additional
2tb cocoa powder additional
1 1/4 cups boiling water

Method:
Mix the flour, sugar and first lot of cocoa together. Add the egg, melted butter and milk, and beat until smooth. Spoon this mixture into a greased baking dish (needs to be about a 6 cup capacity) and smooth off the top. Mix together the additional sugar and cocoa, and sprinkle this ontop of the pudding mixture, then carefully pour the boiling water over the back of a large spoon (this helps to stop the water creating holes when you pour it on). Bake at 180ºC for about 30 mins (until the top bounces back when pressed)

Baked Apples November 16, 2008

Ingredients:
4 Apples (any kind)
1/2 cup (approx) Raisins or Sultanas
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
3 teaspoons Sugar
Dash of Red Wine or Dash of Water
1/4 teaspoon ground Cloves

 
Method:
1). Core the apples and peel a strip around the hole. This seems to stop the skins from wrinkling for some reason.
2). In a bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients together. Just use enough liquid to make a syrupy mixture. You can leave this mix sitting over night if you want the raisins to go lovely and mushy.
3). Use a baking dish that is just big enough to fit the apples in – hole facing upwards.
4). Spoon the mixture into the holes and pack it in well.
5). Put this in the oven and bake at a low temperature until the apples feel soft. I baste the apples ever few minutes with any remaining juice and the juice that comes from the mix you packed the apples with. This keeps them from drying out.
6). When soft, remove from the oven and allow to cool. I like to cut these in halves to make it easier to eat, and you can serve them with the cut side up and the fruity mix in the channel where you cored it.

Turkish Delight November 16, 2008

A recipe for traditional Turkish Delight! Quite a lot of work goes into this, but it is well worth it!!!!! I think it was from a CSR sugar cookbook, back in about 1980…

 
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups of water
2 tablespoons Gelatine
2 tablespoons Icing Sugar
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon of Rosewater (You NEED this, you can get it in most supermarkets now days)
1 tablespoon Corn flour
Few drops red food colouring
(I didn’t include it in my copy of the recipe, but I recall that you could put almond slivers into it…)

 
Method:
1). In a small saucepan dissolve the gelatine in half of the water over a moderate heat.
2). In another saucepan (a heavy one), dissolve the sugar in the rest of the water, stirring with a wooden spoon until dissolved.
3). Bring this (Sugar water) to the boil, then remove from the heat and add the gelatine mix.
4). Return this mix to the heat and simmer gently over a low heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring all the time.
5). Remove from the heat, stir in the Rosewater, colouring (and optional nuts if you want the nutty type).
6). Cover the pan and leave for 15 minutes.
7). Skim off any skin, and pour into a 15cm square tray which has been rinsed with water (and left wet). Leave this to set (overnight)
Cool. Sift together the icing sugar and Corn flour. Rub a little over the surface of the set Turkish delight in the tin. Use a sharp knife (that is dipped in the icing sugar mixture) to cut the Delight into squares.
9). Toss these into the remaining Icing mixture to coat them.

 
These don’t last very long, as the icing sugar tends to get absorbed and they go sticky, then they go hard… but in my experience they don’t last long because people eat them!

Cardamon & Rosewater Icecream November 16, 2008

Ingredients:
1 tb whole green cardamons
300ml milk
300ml double cream
1 cinnamon stick
85g caster sugar
100ml rose water
1 tsp gum mastic crystals, crushed with 1 teaspoon caster sugar (optional)
200ml evaporated milk
dried rose petals (optional)

 
Method:
1). Crush the whole cardamon pods in a mortar and pestle, take out the pods leaving the seeds, then grind the seeds to a fine powder. (Or just buy the ground cardamon – but it’s not as aromatic)
 
2). Pour the milk, cream, cardamon and cinnamon into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has reduced by about a quarter.
 
3). In another saucepan, combine the sugar and rose water, over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
 
4). Remove the milk mixture from the heat once it is ready, and stir in the crushed gum mastic (if using this), then allow to and cool for about 15 minutes.
 
5). Strain the milk mixture to remove the solids. Add the evaporated milk and rose water syrup. Mix well and pour into a freezer safe container and place in the freezer
 
6). Every 30 mins or so, Remove the mixture and blend it/mix it well to prevent it forming ice crystals. Once it has frozen, it is ready to eat.

 
From http://www.nordljus.co.uk/en/rosewater-cardamom-and-gum-mastic-ice-cream

Chocolate Crackles November 15, 2008

Ingredients:
4 cups “Rice Bubbles”
3tb Cocoa powder
1c Icing Sugar
250g Copha
1c Desiccated Coconut

 
Method:
Combine all dry ingredients together. Melt the Copha in a saucepan then pour over the dry ingredients. Mix well then spoon into paper patty pan cases.

Flummery November 15, 2008

This makes a dessert that can be low fat and low calorie. So almost guilt free!

 
Mix equal parts of almost set jelly (made as the instructions on the pack say) and yoghurt, refrigerate until set.

 
Use low fat/calorie versions if you like, or you can make your own jelly by mixing gelatine with fruitjuice.

 
This will make a pudding-like dessert. If wanting to make this in a jelly mould, add 2tb gelatine extra when making the jelly to make a firmer dessert. Experiment with different coloured layers. You could even do a layer of plain jelly, then a flummery layer, then another jelly layer.

Homemade Toffees November 15, 2008

Toffee Recipe #1
Mix 3 parts sugar to one part cold water in a saucepan. Using a metal spoon, stir well over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. The mixture should be clear. Once dissolved, bring to the boil, boiling for 12-15 mins until it is a light golden colour. Use a pastry brush to remove crystals that form around the edge of the mixture through this boiling period. Pour into patty pans, or over roasted peanuts

 
 
Toffee Recipe #2
Use butter to coat a saucepan, then combine 2 cups white sugar, 1 cup water, 2 tsp vinegar, a few drops vanilla or flavoured essence. Mixture is ready when a little dropped into a glass of water cracks. Pour into patty cases and chill.

 
 
Toffee Recipe #3
 
Mix 2c sugar, ½ cup Liquid glucose and ½ cup Water. Bring to the boil, and when temp reaches 150 ºC add 2 – 4 drops colouring and 1-2 teaspoons flavouring. Mixture should crack when at the right temp. Pour onto greased tray and as edges begin to harden, cut with scissors into pieces (or pour into blobs and insert stick to make lollypops). Store dusted with icing sugar to prevent sticking

Rose water Marshmallows November 14, 2008

Ingredients:
500g sugar
200ml cold water
200mls boiling water
1 tb glucose syrup
2 tb gelatine powder
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp. rose water (substitute vanilla essence for vanilla ones)
1 drop food colouring (optional)
 
To cover:
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup cornflour

 
Method:
1). Line a lammington tin with baking paper.
2). Into a large saucepan pour the cold water, glucose and sugar. Heat this over a low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
3). Bring this to the boil, and then boil until the temperature reaches 121C (use a confectioner’s thermometer) – do not stir, but brush down the sides of the saucepan with a wet pastry brush when sugar crystals form.
If you don’t have a thermometer, test the temperature by dropping a little of the syrup into a bowl of iced water. It is ready if the cooled syrup forms a glob that you can stretch into strands.
4). In a small heatproof bowl, pour in the hot (the original recipe says to use water and heat it up over a saucepan of boiling water, or in the microwave to dissolve it, but I can’t see why you can’t just use hot water….)
5). In a large bowl, beat the eggwhites with an electric beater until they are fluffy and stiff peaks form.
6). Mix the gelatine mixture in with the sugar mixture in the large saucepan. (this will bubble and increase in size)
7). Add this still boiling sugar-gelatine mixture in a thin stream to the beaten egg whites, while continuing to beat with the electric beater. Beat for around 7-8 mins until the mixture becomes thick and holds it’s shape. Add the food colouring and rose water, beat until combined.
8 ). Pour this mixture into the prepared lamington tin. Smooth the top with a knife. leave this to set in the refrigerator overnight.

 
To coat the marshmallows:
1). Sft together the cornflour and icing sugar.
2). Cut the set marshmallow into squares using a wet knife, and toss them in the sifted mixture to coat them.

 
Store these with any excess icing sugar mixture between them, in an airtight container.

 
from http://www.aussieslivingsimply.com.au/forum/viewthread.php?forum_id=19&thread_id=5619

Homemade Chocolates November 14, 2008

I quite enjoy making chocolates… I enjoy making them more than eating them!
 
If you want to make coloured chocolates you need special chocolate colourings (cake decorating shops should have this), which come in powdered form. Normal waterbased food colourings don’t work, they make the chocolate seize. I’ve found to use the powdered ones, you need to mix the powder with 1 drop water, and then mix that into the chocolate.
 
I’ve also found the best way to do fancy chocs with lots of colours is to take a large saucepan with about an inch of water, and put ramekins into it, with your choc in the ramekins… making sure not to get any water in the chocolate or it will seize.
 
White chocolate is obviously easier to colour than brown choc – depending on the colour you want. You can mix white and chocolate to make lighter browns which might be easier to colour. Using all 3 can give different shades of colours…
 
To make fancy coloured chocs, use a paintbrush or a bamboo skewer or chopstick to paint the colours onto the chocolate molds. Wait until each colour has set before adding the next. If you plan to fill the chocolates, or want to make the designs stand out even more, put a layer of white chocolate ontop of the design before filling with brown chocolate. When putting the actual filling chocolate ontop of the painted on choc, make sure the filling choc isn’t too hot as it will melt your painted choc and make the colours bleed.
 
To make filled chocolates, you need some sort of filling. You can buy specially designed stuff, or you can use something like caramel sauce or make your own. Make sure there is a thick enough layer of chocolate in your mould and then pour some filling in, leaving enough space to pour more choc on the top to seal it in. Remember that the filling needs to be enjoyable – too much of a rich filling can be too much, and if it’s too liquid it can be messy to eat. You can adjust the space for the filling by adding more chocolate. You could also fill a chocolate with crushed nuts, a whole nut (almond, cashew, hazelnut), sultanas, marshmallow, glace cherry or anything else you can think of.
 
Putting the chocolates in the freezer for a few minutes usually cools it off enough to set it quickly so you can reuse the molds…
 
To make chocolate leaves, take some real leaves of an appealing shape, wash them well, and paint the veiny side with chocolate. Freeze for a minute to set it, and carefully peel the leaf away from the chocolate. Making leaves in dark choc, milk choc and a mixture of milk and white chocolate can give variations of brown. Adding some green colouring to some white choc, and some orange to brown can give some more autumnal colour variations.