Category Archives: Sweet Sunday

Chocolate Cardamom Fete Cookies

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Do you remember the joy of a school fete? I do.

Not my own school actually (we had an ‘arts festival’ – not quite as good really for reasons that shall soon become apparent), but I remember with particular fondness the school fetes of my cousin’s primary school. Every year we would go along one Saturday morning and see the school and churchyard transformed. Stalls would be set up in the grass and line the concrete paths, a miniature Ferris Wheel would spin around those under four feet, and items of all natures would be for sale: the second hand book stall, which I always came away from with a heavier bag and lighter purse; student artwork that had been completed over the semester; and, my favourite of all – the homemade sweets and baked goods.

(This is where it becomes apparent why my school fete/ arts festival wasn’t as good – there were never any baked goods. What?!)

Before glaze, and still yummy

Before glaze, and still yummy

There upon the wooden trestle tables festooned with plastic tablecloths would be the offerings of the parents and grandparents of the pupils: buttery shortbread rounds their tops patterned with forks, splodge-shaped jam drops with sweet raspberry jam, sugary caramel fudge, pink and white coconut ice, ANZAC biscuits, patty cakes with pink butter icing decorated with lollies, and always, always, chocolate slice – my favourite.

I would search among all the other treats, wrapped in plastic packets, or little cardboard boxes, to find the chocolate slice. Sometimes with coconut, sometimes without. Always with a thin cocoa glaze. And always, always, my favourite.

Many years have passed since the last school fete of my cousin’s primary days, and many years have passed since I have eaten chocolate slice (too many other treats to spoon/fork/hand-shovel into my mouth).

To be honest, when I made these biscuits I didn’t even have chocolate slice in mind. I had four egg yolks to use up and a yen for something with a chocolate content. But, when I took the first bite of this puffy, lightly-spiced, cocoa and hazelnut treat I was transported back to those fetes – back to the damp schoolyard lawn on a Saturday morning clutching a plastic bag burgeoning with books in one hand and a crumbling piece of chocolate slice in the other. They are a little dry, a little cake-like inside, and infinitely better with a tea/coffee/milk.

Enjoy.

Glazed and ready to devour

Glazed and ready to devour

Chocolate Cardamom Fete Cookies (gluten free)

Makes 9 large cookies, or 18 smaller ones. I suppose it depends how greedy you are feeling really. I made this using four egg yolks I had left over from a batch of seven-minute frosting, but it also works with whole eggs. Oh yeah, and these are gluten free!

Ingredients:

  • 1 whole egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 75 grams brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 1/2 cup no fat natural yoghurt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 80 grams hazelnut meal
  • 80 grams buckwheat flour
  • 50 grams cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F) and line a cookie sheet with baking paper.
  2. In a medium bowl whisk together the whole egg, egg yolk, olive oil, sugar and vanilla essence until smooth and thickened slightly.
  3. Add yoghurt and incorporate well.
  4. Weigh hazelnut meal, buckwheat flour, and cocoa powder into a small bowl then measure in ground cardamom and baking powder. Use a clean whisk to beat together until no lumps remain.
  5. Add dry ingredients to the egg and yoghurt mixture and beat well.
  6. Use an ice-cream scoop or tablespoon to measure out mounds of dough onto the cookie sheet. Leave some room between scoops as they will spread slightly during cooking.
  7. Place tray in oven and cook for 10-12 minutes. Rotate tray 180 degrees halfway through cooking time.
  8. Remove cookies from the oven and cool completely on a rack.
  9. Once completely cooled mix up glaze and spoon on top of the cookies and allow it to dribble enticingly down the side. This is about childhood sweets, not perfection, after all.
  10. Eat.

Glaze: Beat together 1 cup icing sugar, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons of milk.

Oh yum.

Oh yum.

Tell me, dear reader what were school fetes like at your school?

More importantly, what was your favourite homemade treat?

Nourished Sweets: m&m cookies

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Sunday mornings are one of the most precious times of the week for me. I don’t sleep in particularly late. I don’t have a big breakfast. I don’t even sit in front of the television and watch cartoons. Sunday mornings are precious to me because every week my sister and I go for a wonderfully long walk. For nearly two hours this precious bundle of human energy is completely mine.

We stroll through the bush, and along the highway, up and over hills and down behind the retirement village. All the time talking about life in the past week. We talk about our life in ways that few other people can understand. I will miss her constant presence when her house is finally built and she moves out. Jess is all the things that I am not, and all the good things about me amplified and re-packaged in a smaller version. She is my living breathing conscience, my protector, the devil’s advocate when I need it, the one who accepts my crazy (even if she doesn’t like my dance moves – come on, the pelvic thrust, that’s still hip, right?). Jess was the one thing I ever really wished for in my life. All the stars aligned when she came into my life and my little sister is the best gift the universe (and my parents) has ever given me.

During our walks we talkabout the everyday things: the house she and her husband are building, my university assignments, the exciting projects she has been allocated at work, recipes we can’t wait to try. Our conversations soar into the sky sometimes and we talk about the ‘someday’ topics: children, more travel, what on earth I am going to do after I finish university, caring for our parents. We revisit childhood memories, re-argue old topics, heal wounds that remain from 22 years of sisterhood. We strengthen each other’s souls with chats about body image and acceptance, our shared eating philosophies, and a mutual love of all things butter, sugar, and vanilla. She is the other half to my whole. My friend. My little sister. On Sunday mornings she is all mine.

These are her creation. Go for a walk with someone you love, talk about the big things, and the little things, and then make them a batch of these. Love is guaranteed.

Jess’s m&m Cookies

Every couple of weeks Jess makes these for her husband Trent. She lets me eat the m&ms that don’t make it into the bowl. This recipe is adapted from an old family cookie recipe.

Yield: about 30 cookies, and about 1/2 a cookie of dough for the chef to test before they get baked.

Ingredients:

  • 170 grams butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup caster sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
  • 1 whole egg, and 3 egg yolks
  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 250 grams plain m&ms

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C and line 4 cookie sheets with baking paper.
  2. Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla until well blended and smooth. Inhale buttery, vanilla scent and be thankful for your olfactory senses…
  3. Add egg and egg yolks, beat into creamed butter very well.
  4. Sift in flour and baking powder, mix into butter and egg mix until no pockets of flour remain.
  5. Stir in m&ms (yes, you can sneak a few before you mix them in completely).
  6. Using an ice-cream scoop, or a tablespoon, scoop out balls of mixture onto the lined baking sheets. Leave about 4 centimetres between the balls of dough as the cookies will spread out as they bake.
  7. Slide sheets into oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, swapping trays around halfway through baking.
  8. Remove from oven and allow to cool on trays for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Blood Orange Poppyseed Cake (gluten free)

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Unexpected guests and unexpected gifts provided sweet seasoning to the flavour of last weekend. After visiting with some old family friends and passing some pleasant hours talking about travel, tea, and all other parts of life in between, a gift turned up unbidden in the middle of the week.

For me? I asked.

She wanted you to have it because she knows you will appreciate it, came the reply.

Carefully unwrapped and laid out on the table like the treasure that they are was an absolutely beautiful fine porcelain tea set for six. Complete with tea pot, sandwich plates, and a tea pot warmer powered by a tea light candle. Milky cream porcelain with a golden rim, this tea set has travelled from Germany, and been loved and used for nearly 50 years. Now it is mine. Mine to love, and make memories with. All in the company and comfort of those who have used this before.

I am humbled by such a wonderful gift.

In return, I had to make a little something for afternoon tea and share a pot of tea and a slice of cake. To say thanks, and enjoy the ritual of chatting and pouring on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Here is the thank you gift I brought in return. Naturally gluten free, made from buckwheat and brown rice flours, seasoned with deepest winter’s blood oranges, and served with love. This cake is an everyday afternoon sort of treat. Share it to say thanks, and indulge in a little winter treat.

Blood Orange Poppyseed Cake

I baked my cake in an 8-inch ring tin but you could easily make 12 cupcakes, or use a conventional 8-inch round tin. You will just end up with a flatter cake. If you don’t require this cake to be gluten-free simply 225g of plain flour in place of the buckwheat flour, rice flour, and almond meal.

Ingredients:

  • 125 grams buckwheat flour
  • 50 grams brown rice flour
  • 50 grams almond meal
  • 110 grams golden caster sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 145mL milk
  • 80mL blood orange juice (About one really juicy orange. Save the other for decoration and juice for the glaze.)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 80mL rice bran oil (or other lightly flavoured oil)
  • Grated zest 2 blood oranges
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup poppy seeds

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Oil and line an 8-inch ring tin.
  2. Juice and zest oranges. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl put buckwheat flour, brown rice flour, almond meal, salt, caster sugar, baking powder, poppy seeds, and grated orange zest. Stir together with a whisk – my version of sifting for a cake like this. Make sure there are no lumps of sugar or almond meal. Set this aside.
  4. In a jug mix together milk, juice, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Beat this mixture well.
  5. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir until just combined. Pour into the lined ring tin.
  6. Place in the oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden on top and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
  7. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes then turn out and cool completely.
  8. For the glaze: mix together 1 tablespoon blood orange juice and 1 cup of powdered sugar. Drizzle over cooled cake. Decorate with thinly sliced blood orange.

 

So tell me dear reader, have you ever had an unexpected gift?

Sweet Sunday: Sugary Chocolate Fudge

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The scent of cocoa and boiling sugar wafting from my stove summons memories from my childhood so vivid that I can almost feel myself shrinking back to six-year-old size with long brown pigtails and a Minnie Mouse printed t-shirt sticking to my back in the summer heat. My Mum is standing at the stove stirring a batch of sweet, sugary fudge that will become a Christmas present for my teacher. She talks me carefully through the process, telling me that I am too small to make the fudge at the moment but one day I can do this for myself. I wait for her to pour the batch into the lined loaf tin, and then she hands me the spoon to lick. A sticky film of fudge clings to the curves of our special spoon. Mum waits for the saucepan to cool a little before she scrapes off the fudge that didn’t make it to the setting pan and we pick at the shards of sugar crystals while the larger batch cools and sets.

Boiling fudge

On the stove top – oh yes, this smell is heaven.

This tradition was repeated at many Christmas times, and other moments in between. This fudge to me has always summoned a feeling of comfort from my Mum, an echo from childhood, and also a feeling of competition with Dad – his sweet tooth knows no bounds and you have to be quick to secure your piece before all the rest ‘mysteriously disappears’.

One of my favourite memories of this fudge is when I had my wisdom teeth out. Apart from the aesthetic suffering of looking like a chipmunk who had been in a bar fight (oh, this pasty white face bruises really easily apparently), I was unable to eat as I couldn’t open my mouth very far and chewing sounded like an instrument of torture. Mum had made a batch of this fudge, and in my desperate state, I found that I could slice it very thinly and push pieces into my mouth where they could melt and pool in cocoa and sugar goodness. Not that I told my orthodontist that I was living on fudge for two weeks when I went back to have my stitches pulled out….

Some for the pan…some for me…

So we came to this Friday evening, our inaugural winter M*A*S*H* marathon, and what better sweet treat to have by our sides than a batch of this fudge. Make it now, or save the recipe for the night when only the sweetest of treats will do.

Sugary Chocolate Fudge

Ingredients

  • 2 cups white sugar
  • 1/3 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 2 teaspoons butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

  1. Line a 9 x 5 inch loaf tin with baking paper and set aside.
  2. Combine sugar, cocoa powder and milk in a saucepan and set over medium heat.
  3. Bring mixture to the boil for 3 minutes.
  4. Remove from the heat and add butter. Beat until sugary, which should take about 4 -5 minutes.
  5. Add vanilla essence and stir, then pour mixture into prepared tin and allow to cool.
  6. Once fudge has set cut into small squares.

Shards of heaven

Sadly, there was no fudge left in our house after morning tea on Saturday. Only sticky sweet memories remain…

Sweet Sunday: Chocolate ‘Man-cakes’

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I dream about food. In fact, sometimes my waking dreams about food are so intense that I grab my phone and search for a recipe just to be sure that there is such a delicious thing in existence, unable to trust the ethereal matter that wove itself around my brain in my non-waking hours.

Sunday morning was such a day. I woke with a yen to make pancakes. Not for me, I am a rather stubbornly boring breakfast eater and will find something I like and latch onto it, consuming the same rice porridge for about six months until I happen to suddenly become enamoured of another a.m. food. No, these pancakes were intended for my Dad. The man who will unashamedly layer ice-cream and whipped cream onto his breakfast and devour it with gusto. He is my favourite pancake eater, and it has been a while since I made this breakfast treat. So Chocolate ‘Man-cakes’ were born.

Chocolate pancakes

Stack ‘em high

These fluffy creations are a subtle merging of cocoa and a hint of coffee and are brilliant when slathered with jam, caramel sauce, chocolate sauce, Nutella, or in true Dad-fashion, with ice cream and whipped cream.

Chocolate ‘Man-cakes’

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

4 tablespoons caster sugar

1 1/4 cups milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon instant coffee powder

2 eggs, separated

Method

  1. In a bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and 3 tablespoons sugar.
  2. Dissolve coffee powder in a small amount of the milk, then add the rest of the milk. To this add the egg yolks and vanilla and beat well to combine.
  3. Place egg whites in a bowl with 1 tablespoon sugar and beat to medium soft peaks.
  4. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and whisk until smooth.
  5. Add a third of the egg white mixture to the batter and fold until incorporated. Then fold in the remaining egg whites.
  6. Heat a large fry pan and spray with oil. Pour about 1/3 cup of batter onto pan.
  7. Bubbles will begin to appear on the surface of the mixture. When most bubbles have broken then flip the pancake and cook on the other side for 30 seconds.
  8. Place cooked pancakes on a plate and keep this covered while cooking the rest of the mixture.
  9. Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, fruit, jam, or any kind of delicious sauce you have in the cupboard!

Oh, yeah

The rest of our sweet Sunday was spent reclining and reading a stack of second hand food magazines that I unearthed on Saturday. In the afternoon Jess and I went for a wonderful walk in between the rain showers. Now, I’m off to browse some more fabulous food to fuel my dreams…

A Sweet Return

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Hello my darling readers!

I am finally finished with assignments and portfolios, classes, tutorials, and late night finishes for the next seven weeks! (Can you tell I’m just a little excited for the break?)

The past few weeks have been full of wonderful adventures of the literary and scholarly kind. Thanks to my assignments I have had the chance to step back into Victorian England and speak to ghosts with one of my heroines, travel up the coast of Australia fleeing the scene of a vicious attack with another, and make all sorts of deviations along the way while trying not to get sucked into the oh-so-tempting world of researching a novel. Now I am looking forward to doing some more writing (without the pressure of a due date), reading some of the stacks of books I have somehow amassed during semester, doing some long distance runs, and stepping (actually skipping gleefully) back into the kitchen and flexing my culinary muscles.

Over the past two weeks I have also been lucky enough to celebrate the birthdays of three of my favourite women: Jess, Casey, and my wonderful Mama Chickpea! These three ladies are my holy trinity of love, support, and inspiration. Every time I face a dilemma, encounter a drama, or just can’t get out of bed, there they are waiting with hugs, cups of tea, shoulders to cry on, and reality checks when required. I love you all.

Glass of pink sparkling wine

Pink sparkling wine for Jess’s birthday – thanks Bree!

Now, what would a birthday be without some kind of sweet treat?

To celebrate Casey’s birthday I put together these little treats: Very vanilla mini cakes with vanilla cream and strawberries.

Look, drool, then make.

Vanilla mini cakes sandwiched with cream and strawberries

Very vanilla mini cakes with vanilla cream and strawberries – oh yeah…

And here my lovelies, for whatever occasion you might require a special little cake, is the recipe. There are a few different parts but they are quite easy to make ahead of time and then assemble into the final product just before you wish to serve them.

Very vanilla mini cakes with vanilla cream and strawberries

I would recommend making the cakes the day before, or the morning of, the day you wish to serve them. The cream can also be made ahead of time, and the strawberry filling can be made a few hours before required.

I used a 12 cup loose base dessert pan (available here) you could also use a muffin tin, or make it into one large 9 inch diameter cake.

Very vanilla mini cakes

Ingredients

225 grams butter at room temperature

225 grams caster sugar

1 tsp salt

4 large eggs, lightly whipped together

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp vanilla bean paste (if you do not have this just use 2 tsp vanilla extract)

225 grams plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a 12 cup mini cake tin. Sift together plain flour and baking powder and set aside.
  2. In the large bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter on medium-high until light in colour and very smooth in texture. Then add sugar and salt and beat for 2 -3 minutes. The mix should be quite fluffy by this stage.
  3. Add eggs slowly and beat until fully incorporated. Then add vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste.
  4. Decrease mixer speed to low and add flour mix slowly. Mix until just combined.
  5. Spoon into mini cake tins. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden on top and cakes spring back when gently touched. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

 

Vanilla Cream

Ingredients

1 cup heavy cream

4 tbs sour cream

1/3 cup icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Method

Beat cream to medium soft peaks. Then add the rest of the ingredients and beat until very thick and airy.

Store in refrigerator until required.

 

Strawberry filling

Remove tops of 250 grams of strawberries. Quarter the berries and place in a bowl with 1 tbs sugar. It is extra delicious if you have some vanilla sugar left in the cupboard, however you can use caster sugar and it will be just as scrumptious.

 

Putting it all together

Garnish: 250 grams strawberries and 12 Lindt white chocolate balls.

Slice cooled cake in half  and place bottom half on plate.

Spread over about 1 tablespoon of cream mixture and top with 1 tbs of strawberry filling.

Top with the other half of the cake, and place a small dollop of cream on top. This will help to anchor the strawberry and Lindt ball garnish. Then sprinkle with a little icing sugar, because enough is never really quite enough.

The delicious finished product!

 

Enjoy, my darlings! I am so happy to be back in the blogging world.

Sweet Sunday: Prune and Almond Muffins

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I have a confession.

Though I may appear to be in my twenties, and my birth certificate firmly dates me as an ’80s child, I am about 90 years of age inside. My sister constantly reminds me that it is not normal for a woman my age to be as in love with  prunes, early bedtimes, walking holidays and Miss Marple re-runs as I am.

Four freshly baked muffins

Fresh from the oven

Although I struggle to find defence for some of my other more elderly habits I stand up for the prune; not only do they delight the taste buds, prunes are also high in dietary fibre and vitamin C and contain more antioxidants than blueberries. All these health benefits aside I believe when it comes to sweet decadence in the form of dried fruit, there is little to challenge the prune. With its rich wine flavour and moist molasses texture the humble and often ridiculed prune is a king among dried fruits.

Once you try these muffins, you might just agree. Now, I am off to slather one in jam and watch ‘The 4.50 from Paddington’ while sipping a cup of tea and knitting myself a new scarf.

Close up of muffin

Golden and delicious

Prune and Almond Muffins (Gluten Free)

Almonds and prunes are old friends, and found in combination in many dishes including tagines, cakes and pudding. In these earthy gluten free muffins almonds are well represented by the richness of almond meal and the prunes dot the vanilla scented batter without weighing it down.


Ingredients

    • 80 grams brown rice flour
    • 60 grams almond meal
    • 100 grams buckwheat flour
    • 90 grams brown sugar
    • 1 tsp salt
    • 2 tsp baking powder
    • 250mL milk
    • 2 large eggs
    • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
    • 75 grams prunes, pitted and chopped

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 200°C  (400°F) and line a 12 hole muffin tin (1/2 cup capacity).
  2. Place a large bowl on your kitchen scale and weigh in the brown rice flour, almond meal, buckwheat flour and brown sugar. Add salt and baking powder. Mix together using a whisk as it helps to aerate and makes it easy to break up any lumps of sugar.
  3. In a small bowl beat together milk, eggs and vanilla bean paste.
  4. Pour wet ingredients into flour mixture and mix until just combined. Then add chopped prunes and stir through batter.
  5. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups and place in oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until muffins are golden on top and bounce back when lightly pressed.
Close shot of crumbly muffin.

Crumbly goodness.

Sweet Sunday will be a regularly featured post on Thoroughly Nourished Life!

Dear reader, tell me what your elderly obsessions are ?