Oops - no peppermint essence !!

A dear friend told me the other day that she thought I was one of the most organised people that she knew - pantry-wise at least. BUT I have  to confess that I was not so well organised on Tuesday  last, when I decided to make a recipe I had found browsing on Pinterest.

Yes, choc-mint brownies, the picture was so inviting to one who had been craving chocolate for a couple of weeks ( It has been bitterly cold here the last few weeks - not at all like the balmy Brisbane winter weather we have become accustomed to over the last 10-12 years) The recipe came from Artsy Fartsy Mama's blog post chocolate-mint-brownies.

I really planned, got the cream cheese, the choc chips, the cream...went to the cupboard and NO peppermint Essence!!  I decided to adapt to the flavouring I had, ahh Coconut!! so the brownies became Coconut Ice Brownies, by simply substituting the coconut essence for the peppermint essence, the pink food colouring (I used paste) for the green and adding a tablespoon of moist coconut flakes to the filling recipe.

The brownies turned out fantastic!! VERRRY rich, but small pieces means they will last longer. I would probably adjust the cream cheese filling mix a little, by adding  more cheese to the mix. Delicious with coffee.

Many Moons have passed - some of them Blue

It is positively ages since I last posted, Life has been racing along at a cracking pace.

I have not been doing as much baking over the last 12 months. Work has been frantic and I  find other things to catch up on, on weekends.

Over the last few months, I managed to acquire an American Girl Doll to act as model for the clothes I make for my Granddaughter's Lanie AG doll. I have named her Pandora, and I have made quite a few things, some for GD's doll and some for Pandora.

Pandora is a Pleasant Company Doll and seems to have a slightly bigger "bum" than Lanie. I was having trouble getting the clothes to fit  - patterns seemed to print out ok, but being the suspicious kind I rechecked the measure guide and it was just 1/16 too small. So yesterday I reprinted nearly all of my patterns (from PDF's) and made a new nicely fitting outfit.

Pandora is so pleased not to be labelled with a big bum and is very happy with her new (and well fitted) outfit.

Quite a few of the outfits are made from vintage dressmaking scraps dating from the fifties through to the late 1980's early 1990's. (Oh and some from my quilting stash - not that I have a lot, but it just has not been cold enough to make any more quilts over the last few years.)

The shorts were made from the remnants of a fat quarter and there is still enough for another pair! Now that is thrifty!

 

 

Worcestershire Sauce

In the next couple of days I am going to try a new recipe. One for Worcestershire Sauce.

 

We have been going through Mum's things and I came across this one, so since we have run out here at home, I thought it would be a good chance to have a go at making a batch. Will be interesting to see if it is essentially the same flavour as the commercially available sauces.

 

 

Indian Worcester Sauce (I haven't tried this yet) But let me know if you do.

 

1 lb. brown sugar

1/2 lb. sultanas (golden raisins)

1 quart vinegar

1 oz. garlic

little ginger ( not sure if this is powdered or fresh, but I would go with the powdered or ground) and pepper

few chillies

salt

cloves

 

Have all the above ground very fine (spices). I you do not have brown sugar take a handful of white sugar and brown in pan.

 

Add brown sugar, vinegar, sultanas  and spices to a pan.

Stir and boil for 1 hour.

Strain and bottle when cold.

 

Do not have lid on saucepan when boiling

 

 

 



Spring Joys

Happy Father's Day to all!

It is a glorious Spring day here, the scent of stocks wafted on the breeze as I was carrying the morning tea tray back inside.

Stocks are one of my favourite flowers. Usually planted as annuals here, but mine have been surviving on the rainfall and little else since I planted them 3 years ago, and rewarding me with a few weeks of wonderfully scented days. I am afraid if I give them a bit more TLC they will curl up and die!

I decided to do a bit of baking today, haven't done any for weeks and bought "Tabnabs" just aren't the same. My partner was 'fiddling in the shed with things mechanical' and when I asked if he would like a  tea now or later when I had done some baking, the answer was "Later" (of course)

The challenge was to find something that would be quick and easy, delicious, and done and ready to serve in about half an hour...( no mean feat!). Back to the cookbooks!

Flipping through I found a recipe for Honey Joys, Well remembered from my childhood, though I remember Nanna mostly baking these, I found a recipe in Mum's book as well as Nanna's.

Nanna used to put in fresh macadamia nuts as well. Poppa would have spent the morning with us girls helping to crack the macadamias we had gathered from the trees up the back behind the shed. He had an old bit of 4"x 4" with hollows just big enough to rest a nut or two, give a thwack with a hammer and we would scoop out the nutshell and kernels and so the process would start again, talk about slow food...

The recipe is simple and only takes a few minutes to put together and bake, take about 15 mins to cool enough to eat and only about 5 mins to demolish completely.

And easy enough for kids to help with.

Honey Joys.

Ingredients:

• 5 cups cornflakes
• 3oz butter (100 gm)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon honey
•  1/2 cup chopped macadamias (if desired)

Method:

1. Melt sugar, butter and honey together n a saucepan till frothy.
2. Pour over cornflakes and mix well. Add nuts at this stage.
3. Place patty papers on an oven tray (about 24)
4. Fill the patty papers with the cornflake mixture.
5. Bake in a Slow oven 275 - 300 for 10 mins.
6. Allow to cool before eating.(if you can)

Disaster strikes!

Was just starting to mix up a batch of Grandma's Chocolate Slice when the oven roared and a burst of flame appeared!  Switched it off immediately some smoke came out, but not much. Very handy partner soon had the oven out, checked the electricals etc, found a dodgy light bulb and had everything back and working in no time. So the slice is back in production and the oven seems to be working fine...here's hoping it doesn't trip the switch again.

Even More Caramel !

A few weeks ago I blogged the recipe for Caramel cake (a boiled fruit cake) well, I found a recipe for Caramel Meringue Shortcake in Nanna's Cookbook. It was short lived!  I made a whole tray on Saturday intending it to last about a week, but son came home and tried it - it was all I could do to save a few pieces for the next day.

I must say that I did not follow the recipe exactly - rubbed in the butter instead of creaming it for the pastry. didn't bake the caramel topping onto the shortcake etc. It was still infinitely edible and Ohhh soooo Caramel. The meringue went all sugary and crunchy on top, the caramel nice and sticky and no-one really cared that the shortcake was a bit soft - it barely lasted long enough to notice.

Caramel Meringue Shortcake

Here is the picture I took BEFORE it all disappeared - I had to work fast as pieces were disappearing as I arranged them on the plate for the photo.

Newspaper clippings

I have spent most of the day baking and browsing through the cookbooks again.  It is amazing that there are still quite a few newspaper clippings still in these books. Some I believe from the 1960"s and maybe even earlier possibly as far back as the late 40's and early 50's. Most of the recipes came from the social pages and extoll the virtues of being a good mother and housewife. Fewer women worked for wages back then, and indeed were the mothers of the "Baby Boomers".

 I think I will try some of these recipes out as well, but today I made Everest biscuits, flavoured with cinnamon, and Wheatmeal and Date Nut Roll. (Bit of a misnomer, that as it has no nuts in it at all. I guess it is called that because it is baked in a couple of Nut Roll tins. Both worked out really well, so here is a small sample (photos first this time)

Wheatmeal and Date Roll

Everest Biscuits

Caramel and more Caramel!

Woo Hoo! I finally get to have a bit of time to "Play" and check out some more recipes. I am making a family favourite - great for lunchboxes if your family likes fruit cake. This one is from my Auntie Mel, and was shared with Mum and Grandma. It is called Caramel Cake, and is a boiled fruit cake. I often wondered as a child why it was called 'Caramel Cake' as it didn't seem particularly 'Caramel' in flavour. It seems that it was supposed to have a caramel icing, but since mum never made it with the icing we never knew. I have made it with the icing, but still prefer it without.

Talking about caramel, my Nanna to my mind, made the best caramel tarts!. I remember when Nanna made a caramel tart, the filling would be very thick and sticky, almost like Russian Caramels. I loved it! At home when she was making the tart there was always about a 1/2 to 1/4 cup of filling left over and she would put it in a clear glass tea cup and put into the dresser cupboard to cool.

When I was a teenager and just starting to get serious about baking, I tried to reproduce Nanna's caramel tart filling. Mum had the recipe but it was called Butterscotch tart, and I made it but it didn't have that sticky,almost toffee/caramel texture. What did I do wrong, I wondered? It wasn't until I tried a caramel tart filled with the contents of a tin of condensed milk that had been boiled in the tin, that I realised why Nanna's tarts were special - she had simply substituted the tinned milk for the fresh in the caramel filling recipe! I tried it and yes, I had that extra sweet, sticky caramel filling that I had missed all those years. I rarely make Nanna's version as it is sooooo sweet, but occasionally I will make it to fill small tart shells. Yummm!!

I can smell the Caramel Cake so it must be nearly ready. Smell is nearly always a good guide!

 I remember moving out to western Queensland into Education Department housing and the stove in the house had the markings rubbed off all the dials, for the cooktop and oven. I would have to hold my hand over the cooktop elements to see which one was turned on, and the oven was sheer guesswork. I had requested a new stove (for safety reasons) but things move slowly in the public service...  It was Show time and I had entered into the Baking Competition at the local show. Time to do the baking and I had to guess the oven temperatures. I think I put in about half a dozen entries, jam tarts, jam drops, orange cake and a couple I can't remember. The only way I could tell that things were nearly cooked was by smell and so I knew it was relatively safe to open the oven to check. Not the best if I was hoping to "take the cake' so to speak!

 I was up against stiff competition I had been warned that Mrs.... always won the baking competition so not to expect to get anywhere. Imagine my surprise when on Show Day I had won several prizes for my efforts - needless to say, the naysayers from my town were even more surprised than I was!

Caramel Cake

Ingredients:

• 250 gms butter or margarine
• 1 cup sugar
• 350 gms sultanas
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg
• 1cup plain flour
• 1 heaped cup Self Raising Flour

1. Boil together for 10 minutes the butter, sugar, sultanas, water and baking soda.
2. Allow to cool
3. Beat egg and then add beaten egg to the cooled mixture mixing in well.
4. Add sifted flours beating in well.
5. Pour into a baking paper lined 8 inch tin and bake for 1 1/4 hours in a moderate oven.
6. Cake is cooked if a skewer comes out clean when inserted.
7. Cool on a rack. This keeps well or can be frozen or iced with the Caramel Icing.

Caramel Icing

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

1. Mix all ingredients together in a saucepan.
2. Bioil together for 3 minutes, stirring well.
3. Remove from heat.
4. Beat well until thick enough to spread.

(You will have to work fairly quickly with the icing as it is similar to a glace icing and it will set quite hard, quite quickly.)

Peanut Butter to the rescue!

Yesterday I baked, haven't done that for a while, (weeks and weeks actually). The weather has been wet and damp flour isn't conducive to good baking. I made Grandma's chocolate slice and Peanut Butter Crinkles. The Crinkles are always a favourite, and so easy to make especially when you are in a hurry or only have about half an hour to spare.

This afternoon, I took some out to my partner who is tinkering in the backyard with his "toys" and nearly all the plate was finished before I could say "Jack Robinson!" My son complained that the Choc slice was a bit too sweet and chocolatey, but he still finished the whole piece...so they can't be too bad.


I used a different peanut butter brand when I baked these and I noticed they were not as "short" and a bit harder to bite into. I usually use 'Homebrand ' Crunchy - it has no extra added sugar, where the brand I used yesterday has added sugar. That could have been why the texture was not as short and crumbly.

The recipe is from my Mum's cookbook. very easy to make and even easier to eat.

Peanut Butter Crinkles

Ingredients:

1. 4 oz. butter or margarine
2. 1/3 cup peanut butter
3. 1/3 cup castor sugar
4. 1/3 cup brown sugar
5. ¼ teaspoon grated lemon rind
6. ¼ teaspoon vanilla
7. 1 ¼ cup plain flour
8. 1 teaspoon bicarb soda

1. Cream butter, peanut butter, castor sugar, brown sugar, lemon rind and vanilla.

2. Sift ingredients plain flour ans bi-carb soda and work into a soft dough.

3. Roll dough into walnut sized balls and place on a tray lined with baking paper.

4. Dip a fork in flour and press down on dough balls in a # pattern.

5. Bake in a moderate oven 10 -15 mins or till golden brown.

6. Place on rack to cool. Makes 25 -30 biscuits.

Peanut Butter Crinkles