lemon meringue pie

a classic zesty citrus tart with a sweet pastry base and creamy toasted marshmallowy meringue topping mmmm......
YUM! my mum used to always cook for our family, and she tried a lot of things...but one dessert we always LOVED was lemon meringue pie! i don't honestly know how people do it making this with "packet mixes". the ONLY way to cook, is from scratch. admittedly some people don't have time or the money, but wow, this one is budget friendly and fast...every time i make it people are stunned that i've made everything by hand. which makes me smile because i know they must have liked it =)

Pastry Ingredients
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar
• 125g unsalted butter, chilled, chopped
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon chilled water

1. Process flour, sugar and butter together until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add yolk and chilled water. Process until pastry just comes together, adding more water if necessary.

2. Turn pastry onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently until smooth. Shape into a 2cm-thick disc. Wrap in baking paper. Refrigerate for 20 to 30 minutes or until firm enough to roll out. Pre bake at 180 for 10–15 minutes until golden and cooked through.

Lemon Filling
• 1 ½ cup caster sugar
• 3/4 cup corn flour
• 3/4 cup lemon juice (juice from at least 3 lemons)
• 1 ¾ cups water
• 2 tsp finely grated lemon rind
• 3 egg yolks
• 75g butter

Meringue topping
• 4 egg whites (use the left over one from the pastry)
• Pinch of cream of tartar
• 3/4 cup caster sugar

1. To make the filling, combine the sugar and cornflour in a medium saucepan. Gradually add the lemon juice and water while stirring continuously until mixture is smooth. Place saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes or until mixture boils and thickens. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Remove from heat.

2. Add the lemon rind, egg yolks and butter. Continue stirring until the butter is melted and mixture is well combined. Remove from heat and immediately pour into pastry case, smooth over top for an even filling.

3. To make the meringue topping, use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add cream of tartar and sugar. Continue beating until sugar is dissolved.

4. Reduce oven temperature to 180°C. Top pie filling with meringue. Bake in oven for 5-10 minutes or until meringue is lightly browned. Stand for 5 minutes before serving.

sugar cookies

nothing makes you feel better than a spot of baking =)
specially when your hubby just LOVES to come home to them!
this is my mum's basic sugar cookie recipe which i just adapt depending on what i need!

125g butter
1 cup caster sugar
cream together until smooth

mix in 1 egg and 1 tsp vanilla
and 2 tsp baking powder

*for chocolate add 1 1/2 cups plain flour
and 1/2 cup cocoa
*for vanilla add 2 cups plain flour

mix well, until a nice dense paste forms
(if the mix is a bit dry i added the smallest amount of milk until it was just right)

roll into balls if you'd like, or roll out and use a cookie cutter
bake for approx 10 minutes on 180C

i made about teaspoon sized balls...bigger ones spread more and make gooey centres =)

then i experimented:

i used the end of a wooden spoon to poke a little hole in the top of a cookie dough ball ( 1 teaspoon) and put a 1/4 tsp of jam on some vanilla ones

i divided a few of the chocolate balls in half, flattened them and placed a 1/4 tsp of peanut butter in the middle, sealed the two halves and rerolled gently back into a ball, that technique is also nice with nutella centres.

..mmm...now for a hot cuppa coffee...

gingerbread

This makes a LOT of gingerbread, so make sure you have a large air tight container to let it rise in overnight. It keeps for days, once made. I left some (saved some) in the fridge for up to a week...it's that good it won't last long at all! You'll have requests for more!

Mum's Gingerbread

1kg Honey
500g Sugar
4 Eggs
1tsp Allspice
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Ginger
4 Tsp Bi-Carb Soda
8 Cups Plain Flour

Mix thoroughly. Leave covered overnight.
Cookin a moderate oven (180C-375F) until ready, light or dark depending on your preference – leave room for spreading on tray.

tourtière, round one

Being in Canada now, my husband is showing me the ways of French cuisine, and all things HE likes to eat! This pie seems a little strange to me, even though i'm an Australian and we LOVE pie!

But, i like new flavours and challenges, so i decided to make it, from scratch, following the recipe exactly. Which i found at my favourite source of all things "Canadian", Canadian Living, the recipe is HERE This is an interesting resource for someone like me who knows all things Australian and some other cultures, but here it's a culture in itself, being a much more colder climate than i'm used to! Brisbanes winter is like a combination of spring and autumn here!

It was great! A little strong on the spices, which i think i would tone down a little next time, and maybe add a little more mushroom and an extra stick of celery to beef it up a little.

I'd definately make this again, we had some with mash potatoes and gravy, and some with a side salad. My husband likes his tomato sauce, or as they say here "ketchup", which i don't personally like to put on anything, considering i like to think everything i cook tastes so good that you don't need it! He did say it didn't need it *yay* , with the gravy but out of habit he put some on when we didn't have gravy =)

chocolate pinwheels

Pinwheel or scroll cookies look great, there are so many variations you could apply to this design and have a lot of fun with it. I have always wanted to try and make these, they look a lot harder than it is!

Chocolate Pinwheel Cookies
Recipe from:- Hershey's

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup ground almonds
• 1/4 cup Cocoa
• 4-1/2 teaspoons butter or margarine, melted

1. Beat 1/2 cup softened butter and sugar in large bowl until creamy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until light and fluffy. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt; add to butter mixture, beating until soft dough forms.

2. Remove half the dough to medium bowl; blend in ground almonds and almond extract, if desired. Add cocoa and melted butter to remaining dough; blend well. Divide each dough in half. Refrigerate doughs, if necessary, until firm enough to handle.

3. Between 2 pieces of wax paper, roll one portion almond dough into 8-inch square; repeat procedure with one portion chocolate dough. Remove top sheets of wax paper; invert almond dough onto chocolate dough. Peel off top sheet of wax paper; roll up lightly. Repeat procedure with remaining doughs. Wrap both rolls in wax paper or plastic wrap; refrigerate 4 to 5 hours or until firm.

4. Heat oven to 350°F. Cut rolls into 1/4-inch slices; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

5. Bake 9 to 12 minutes or just until set. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 5 dozen cookies.

profiteroles

There are my little gems, little balls of choux paste waiting to grow into big puffs that i can fill with custard cream and dip in chocolate! I absolutely love watching them grow =)

Here is the first batch out of the oven...oh so lovely puffs!

The recipe i used for these, as my cookbooks were all packed up ready to be shipped to Canada, was from my trusty australian TASTE website, which has never failed me yet.

And a second shot a little closer up....look how golden and wonderful they are =)

The final step is to fill them and dip them in chocolate, or just give them a sprinkling of icing sugar, these babies are quite versatile! I often like to put chocolate custard, vanilla custard, cointreau custard or just fresh cream.

jelly bean cupcakes

A friend asked me for a jelly bean cake for their birthday. I thought that was an awesome idea, so i did a little research and this is what i found =) i ended up making one cake and an extra batch of batter to make cupcakes to go with it. There were going to be quite a few people at this party. Look at that glorious colour popping out of those cakes!

Jelly Bean Cake or Cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups miniature jelly beans, (no licorice ones, yuck!)
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 250g pkg cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Confectioners' sugar

Heat oven to 325F/160C.

Generously grease and flour 1 x 12 muffin pans or one 8" / 20cm round cake pan.

Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup. Level off.
In small bowl toss jelly beans with 2 tablespoons of the flour. Set aside.

In large bowl, beat sugar, butter, cream cheese and vanilla until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add remaining flour, baking powder and salt. Blend well. Spoon 1 cup of batter evenly over bottom of prepared pan. Stir jelly beans into remaining batter.
Spoon remaining cake batter with jelly beans into the pan. Bake in a 325F/160C degree oven for 50-60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool upright in pan 10 minutes. Invert on serving plate. Cool completely. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.

Cooking time for cupcakes is around 30-40 minutes. Just keep an eye on them!

Original recipe found here i used larger jelly beans, which in turn sank to the bottom, but went really gooey =) the little mini jelly beans would be a lot better for regular cakes/cupcakes!

The whole cake i did in a heart shaped tin, iced it with vanilla frosting and covered it with more JELLY BEANS! =) Coloured food makes me happy!

wasabi risotto

thanks to Abstract Gourmet i was inspired to make this dish!
which as it happens turned out fabulous and delicious! thankyou! =)
i havent made many risottos but he describes it well and it was easy enough for me!
i substituted white wine for sake and couldnt find the radish....mmmm...YUM!


Wasabi Risotto with Daikon & Pickled Ginger

taken directly from Abstract Gourmet

Ingredients

•Risotto Rice (I used Vialone nano which is shorter grained than Arborio or Carnaroli)
•Sake (as part of the stock, and for the flavouring)
•Fish broth (combined with water and sake to use as the stock)
•Leek
•Onion
•Red Cabbage
•Daikon (or Chinese Radish)
•Wasabi (I didn’t have fresh wasabi, so just used some paste)
•Japanese “Kewpie” Mayonnaise
•Lemon juice
•Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions

Make the risotto as you would any risotto. Feel free to check out my indepth analysis of the risotto making process in one of my other recipes. The difference in this recipe is that we’re using sake instead of white wine to start with, and we’re adding the wasabi flavour at the end.
So start of the onion and leek in some butter to soften. Then coat the rice with the mixture and let it simmer and absorb heat for a minute. Now add a cup of sake to start with and let that absorb before adding the fish stock/sake mixture a ladel full at a time as you would any risotto.

I added the cabbage mid way through the process to make sure it was nice and soft, and I added the daikon right at the end to keep a little of the crunchy texture. The wasabi flavour was then made by combining the wasabi paste, japanese mayonaisse, sake, lemon juice, and extra virgin olive oil together and mixing really well. The wasabi is very strong… So i wanted to keep the flavour whilst toning down the sinus clearing qualities it’s often known for.

The result was a creamy pale green wasabi flavoured couli/paste/purée/sauce (mental note: look up the proper term for various forms of sauce). It had all the flavour of the wasabi with only a little of the “oh my god, that wasn’t a piece of avocado I just ate with my sushi” pain inducing after effects.

I mixed this through the risotto just prior to finishing, which gave it a nice glossy creamy finish. Then topped with a few slices of pickled ginger, daub some of the wasabi sauce around the place, and c’est fini !