TWD - Cinnamon-Raisin Bread

 Today’s Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Cinnamon-Raisin Bread. This bread is super easy to make and smells heavenly when baking and cooling.

The raisins are soaked in water or tea. I soaked mixed fruit in Peach and Pineapple tea because - why not?

The cinnamon spiced dough is then made in a stand mixer, and the soaked raisins kneaded through the dough.

The dough is left to rise (it took mine ~ 90 minutes to double in size) before being shaped, put into a buttered loaf tin, and rising again for 45 minutes.

I glazed the top of my loaf with heated jam and sprinkled it with sugar before baking. Forty-five minutes later, you end up with a golden brown loaf that smells divine. 

Once cooled, the loaf can be sliced and enjoyed however you like:

To see what everyone else made this week and their thoughts on it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website. 

TWD - English Muffins

This week’s Tuesday With Dorie (Baking with Dorie) recipe is English muffins.

I  buy English  muffins occasionally but I have never made them myself. It takes a little planning to make them as the process takes 4 hours or so. If you want them for breakfast, you have to start the night before.

I was pleased with how mine turned out - here’s one with ham, egg, cheese and tomato chutney:

 

To see how everyone else went with their muffins, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Yoghurt Pudding with Mango and Medjool Dates

Despite the gloomy news just about everywhere, today the sun is shining after a cold, wet grey week. Let’s enjoy this beautiful day and be happy.

Beautiful sunny days should start with beautiful sunny breakfasts, and I think Helen Goh’s recipe for Yoghurt Pudding with Mango and Medjool Dates fits the bill.

Helen says you can add icing sugar for sweetness, but I thought it was perfect without. I liked this pudding because it tastes delicious, has contrasting textures and is packed with good stuff - yoghurt, fruit, nuts and spice. You need to make it the night before you want to eat it, as it needs 4 hours to chill.

Tempted?  You will need (for 4-6 serves):

500g plain yoghurt (I used Greek yoghurt)

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

Zest and juice of a lime

120ml pouring cream

1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoons icing sugar (optional)

160g mango flesh, puréed in a food processor

4 pitted Medjool dates, finely sliced

20g toasted almonds, roughly chopped

20g pistachios, roughly chopped

Sea salt flakes

First, strain the yoghurt.  Put a sieve lined with cheesecloth or a clean Chux dishcloth over a large bowl. Put the yoghurt into the cloth, and twist the cloth around the yoghurt. Put a weight (eg a small plate Weighed down by cans) on top of the cloth-wrapped yoghurt, and put in a cool place to drain for an hour.

Once the yoghurt has drained, discard the liquid, and put the drained yoghurt In a large bowl. Stir in the cardamom, lime juice and zest, and set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the cream, honey and icing sugar (if using) until soft waves form. Fold the cream mixture into the yoghurt. Fold through 100g of the mango purée.

Spoon the pudding into one large bowl or 4-6 individual bowls or cocktail glasses. Cover each bowl with cling film, and chill in the fridge for 4 hours.

Just before serving, spoon the remaining mango purée over the puddings, and swirl it through with a butter knife. Scatter the dates and nuts evenly over the top of each pudding, and sprinkle with salt. 

Enjoy!

All Day Breakfast (Bauernfruhstuck)

Rise and shine, it's brekky time!  I have never been one for skipping breakfast, as I wake up ravenous pretty much every day.  During the working week, my breakfast is consistently cereal with fruit because that is a quick and easy option.  However, on the weekends, I will sometimes take the time to experiment with other things for breakfast because I have the time to cook, and I have whatever is in my fridge at my disposal.

A novel way to try a fry up is Anja Dunk's recipe for All Day Breakfast.  It is a hearty way to start the day, hence its other name, the farmer's breakfast, as it would provide enough nutrition to keep a hard working farmer on the go.  

The All Day Breakfast is a little like a frittata, in that it is based on eggs, and then you add whatever you like to them.  For example, I did not have the suggested ham on hand, but I did have sliced silverside, which I popped into my dish.  This dish also features potatoes, so if hash potatoes are a big part of your breakfast, you can also cover off that base in this one delicious dish.

To make your own all day breakfast in a size sufficient to serve 4-6 people (I obviously made a serve for one), you will need:

25g butter

500g thinly sliced cooked potatoes

6 thinly chopped spring onions
6 thinly chopped slices ham
100g blanched green beans, chopped
5 eggs, whisked
100ml sour cream or cream
80g grated cheese
40g grated Parmesan (I skipped this as I didn't have any)
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Melt the butter in a large oven proof frying pan, then add the potatoes.  Fry the potatoes for 5 minutes until they start to turn brown at the edges.

Add the spring onions, ham and beans to the pan and fry for another 2 minutes.

In a large jug, whisk together the eggs, cream, cheeses and parsley, and season with salt and pepper.  Pour the egg mixture into the frying pan, tilting the pan from side to side to ensure the egg mixture is evenly spread across the pan.  Fry the mixture for 2 minutes.

Put the frying pan into the preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until the mixture is golden brown on top and the eggs are set.

Eat and enjoy!!

Blueberry Oatmeal Pancakes

Tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Tuesday.  It is the last day in the church calendar before fasting begins on Ash Wednesday.  I think it is fitting to share a really good pancake recipe with you today that you can make for your own observance of Pancake Tuesday, if you choose.

This recipe is for Blueberry Oatmeal Pancakes, and comes from the Quaker Oats website.  You don't have to add the blueberries, but if you have them on hand, they make the pancakes luscious and fruity.  I liked this recipe as it included oats to beef up the pancakes and to make them a little healthier with the fibre and protein they provide.

To make these pancakes, you will need:

1 1/4 cups plain flour
1/2 cup traditional rolled oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups skim milk
1 lightly beaten egg
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Mix together the flour, oats, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.  In a medium jug, whisk together the milk, oil and egg.

Pour the ingredients from the jug into the bowl of dry ingredients, and fold together with a rubber spatula until all of the dry ingredients have been just moistened.  Gently fold through the blueberries.

Heat a frying pan over medium heat and lightly grease with butter.  Put one quarter cup lots (one per pancake) into the frying pan, being careful not to overcrowd the pan.  Flip the pancakes when they are bubbly on top and the edges look set.  Once cooked on both sides, flip the pancakes onto a plate to serve.

I served my pancakes with yoghurt, maple syrup, LSA and raspberries.

Anja Dunk's Baked Pancake with Raisins and Lemon Zest (Schmarren)

My mother is of German and Prussian heritage, with her ancestors migrating to Australia in the late 1800s and settling on farms. I enjoy exploring this heritage through food, so I was excited to see the release of a new English language book focussing on German cooking by Anja Dunk called Strudel, Noodles and Dumplings.  Anja is of German descent on her mother's side of the family, and grew up eating traditional German dishes brought to Wales by her mother.

I enjoyed flicking through this book as a reference, although many of the recipes do not sound like something I would naturally gravitate to.  However, I love the sound of the stews, tray bakes, preserves and baked goods in her book, and  I will attempt to make some of these as time goes by.

As an easy introduction to the recipes in Anja's book, I made a half recipe of Baked Pancake with Raisins and Lemon Zest (Schmarren) (p37 Strudel, Noodles and Dumplings) for my Saturday morning breakfast.  Baked pancakes are common in many cuisines, and I have previously made another type of baked pancake, the Dutch Baby. 

I liked that this pancake was packed with juicy, sweet raisins, which really made the dish for me.  When serving this pancake, I also had some berries on the side to add more flavour and moisture.  The toasted flaked almonds on top added some crunch and flavour, while the cinnamon flecked icing sugar dusting the top of the pancake added sweetness to a pancake that is not of itself particularly sweet. 

I was surprised at how filling this pancake was - it filled me up more than my usual porridge, despite the pancake being based on white flour.  A half recipe was plenty for me.  I liked the sound of Anja's suggestion to soak the raisins in rum - this would be a great way to serve this pancake for dessert.

To make a baked pancake for yourself, you will need:

1 tablespoon icing sugar
pinch of ground cinnamon
1 egg, separated
90ml milk
45g plain flour
1/4 tablespoon vanilla sugar
pinch of salt
zest of 1/4 lemon
25g raisins
small knob of butter
1/2 tablespoon toasted almonds

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Combine the icing sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

In a larger bowl, beat together to egg yolks, milk and flour until smooth.   Fold in the vanilla sugar, raisins and lemon zest.

In another bowl, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, then fold through the pancake batter.

In a small oven-proof skillet, melt the butter over the stovetop.  Pour the pancake batter into the skillet, and cook until the base of the pancake is golden brown.  Flip the pancake over and place it in the skillet in the preheated oven for 5 minutes.

Remove the pancake from the oven, dust with the cinnamon -icing sugar mixture, and scatter over the toasted flaked almonds.

Serve and enjoy while warm!

TWD - Devil's Food Wafflets with Chocolate Sauce

For Tuesday with Dorie this week, we are breaking out the chocolate for breakfast with Devil's Food Wafflets with Chocolate Sauce.  Dorie says that waffles are revered in Europe and not just eaten for breakfast, but breakfast time was the most convenient juncture for me to make these wafflets.

To make waffles, you need some kind of waffle iron.  I have a stovetop waffle pan somewhere, but since I moved house earlier this year, it has been securely stashed as I rarely use it.   I was not in the frame of mind to be retrieving the waffle pan from its hidden location.  However, I remembered an episode of Jamie's Christmas where Jamie Oliver made waffles outside on a griddle pan.  Perfect!!  I could easily access my griddle pan, so I used this as my "waffle iron".  I think it worked pretty well: 

I only made a quarter of the recipe, which still yields two serves of waffles and sauce for one person.  I topped the waffles and sauce with chopped strawberries.  I thought that using strawberries was pretty brave of me, given that there are currently persons unknown in Australia who think it is quite funny to bury sewing needles inside of strawberries and watch people on the news maim themselves permanently when they unknowingly ingest  the needles.  However, my strawberries were just gorgeous and needle-free.

These wafflets were good, but I don't usually make waffles, so they probably won't be popping  up regularly in my  house.

To see what the others made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Fitzrovia Buns

I have written before about how much I love the Honey & Co Baking Book.  There are so many recipes in it that I want to make.  I have already made the Pear Ginger and Olive Oil Cake and the Baked Doughnuts with Citrus Curd.

For ages, I have been waiting to make the Fitzrovia Buns, which are Honey & Co's answer to Chelsea Buns.  For the uninitiated, Chelsea Buns are sticky buns, kind of like pecan sticky buns or cinnamon buns in the US.  The Fitzrovia Buns caught my eye as they were filled with dried sour cherries and pistachios.  Sour cherries are hard to get here, so it took me a while to gather the ingredients, and then a while longer for me to find a spot in my schedule to make these buns.

However, I am so glad that I did.  These Fitzrovia Buns are the bees knees of buns - dense, sweet, sticky and packed with flavour. If you don't own the book, the recipe is posted online here.  However, if you love baking, I highly recommend this book - there are many delicious sounding and unusual recipes here that you won't find elsewhere.

The Fitzrovia Buns involve a few steps - making a dough, making a sugar syrup, waiting for the dough to chill, filling and shaping the dough, waiting for the buns to rise and finally baking the buns.  The dough and the syrup can be made in advance if you are short on time.  It took me four hours from beginning to end to have a warm batch of buns on my kitchen bench.

My faith in how good these buns were was backed up by the rapid rate at which they disappeared at work.  They get a gold star from me.

TWD - Crunchy Granola

Today's Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Crunchy Granola. I never understood the difference between granola and muesli until now. Granola is a toasted muesli with plenty of sweeteners added, so it's not something to be overindulged in. However, as a now and then brekky, it's fine, and it has lots of good stuff in there.

I substituted sunflower seeds with flax seeds (because that is what I had), and slivered almonds with whole chopped almonds. For the fruit, I used apricots, sultanas and goji berries because that is what I had. I also only made a half batch so I wasn't swimming in granola.

The granola smelled devine as it cooked. It is one of those smells you could gladly sniff all day.

To see what the others made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Wattleseed Blinis - Red Tractor September

This month's recipe from my Red Tractor calendar is Wattleseed Blinis.   As the name suggests, these blinis are flavoured with wattleseed, from the native wattle tree.  Wattleseed gives a mild coffee flavour. 

Here is the calendar quote for this month, appropriately referencing the wattle:

These blinis were easy to make, but don't taste as good as my favourite blini recipe.  The wattleseed is a novel flavour that you could add to any blini recipe.

To make these blinis, you will need:

1 tablespoon wattleseeds 
1 cup plain flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 pinch salt
2/3 cup milk
1 egg 
50g melted butter
mashed avocado and smoked salmon to top the blinis

Toast the wattleseed in a frypan and grind in a mortar and pestle.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and wattleseed in a large bowl.  Combine the egg and milk in a jug, then whisk into the dry ingredients, then half the melted butter.

Rest the mixture for 30 minutes to soften the wattleseed.

Heat a large frying pan, then brush the pan with some of the remaining melted butter.  Drop two teaspoons of batter into the frypan for each blini (don't overcrowd the pan), and cook until bubbles appear on the surface.  Gently flip each blini and cook the blinis on the other side, and repeat with the rest of the batter.

Top the blinis with mashed avocado, smoked salmon and ground pepper to serve.

Avocado and Blueberry Pancakes

I am a sucker for pancakes, but I don't get to make them very often.  They take a little longer than porridge, and are a little bit fussier, so pancakes tend to get relegated to relaxed weekend breakfasts.

I recently found a recipe for Avocado and Blueberry Pancakes on Well Nourished.  You can find the recipe here.

These pancakes did not take any longer than other pancakes to make and have lots of ingredients that are nutritionally good for you.  The avocado flavour is quite prevalent, so if avocado is not your thing, these pancakes are not for you.  However, if you like avocado and you like blueberries, a serve of these pancakes with maple syrup drizzled on top is just the ticket for a delicious, nutritious breakfast.

EwE - Cool off with ... Peach Pie Smoothie

It is summer in the US, so for this week's Eating with Ellie, Margaret has chosen the theme of Cool Off With ...  It has just entered winter here, so cooling off is not an issue for me.  However, I couldn't just submit "winter" as my post, so I flicked through my Ellie books and chose Peach Pie Smoothie from So Easy. 

This smoothie contains lots of cooling ingredients, like milk, yoghurt and ice.  The original recipe also contained frozen peaches; I have never seen frozen peaches sold here, but I keep my opened canned fruit in the fridge, so I used cold canned peaches.  The sum of all of this is a rather cooling drink.  The "pie" component comes from sprinklings of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, and a little added sweetness comes from honey.

I made mine for breakfast one weekend morning, and I rather enjoyed it - it was nicer texturally for me than a banana smoothie I tried earlier in the year.

To see how my Ellie friends are cooling off, visit the LYL section of the Eating with Ellie website.

Oat Pancakes

Tim recently gave me a sheet of recipes from a nutritionist who had visited his work.  The recipe that immediately caught my eye was for oat pancakes.  I had been thinking of making pancakes for a couple of weeks and not gotten around to it, so I was spurred into action when this recipe landed in my lap.

These pancakes are so easy and delicious:

To make them, you will need:

2 cups oats
2 eggs
1 banana
3/4 cup water

Blend the oats in a food processor to a fine meal.  Add the remaining ingredients and process til smooth.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frypan, and add spoonfuls of batter to the   pan.  Cook until bubbles appear, then flip the pancakes and cook the other side until just browned.

Serve with toppings of your choice.  I used maple syrup, Greek yoghurt and microwaved frozen cherries.

EwE - Morning Glory Baked Oatmeal - An Apple A Day

Margaret chose An Apple A Day as the theme for this week's Eating with Ellie.  There are lots of Ellie recipes, sweet and savoury, that use apples, so there was plenty to choose from. 

I selected Ellie's Morning Glory Baked Oatmeal, which as well as apple, contains carrot, pecans and raisins (I used cranberries).

It looks and smells delicious, and tastes like dessert. I only made a half recipe because the full recipe made 8 serves (yikes!).

To see what everyone else made this week, visit the LYL section of the Eating with Ellie website.

Banana Oat Smoothie

This month's recipe on the Red Tractor calendar is a Banana and Oat Smoothie.  Here is the accompanying calendar illustration and quote:

I can't say that I had ever had a smoothie before, and I was a little hesitant to make it.  However, I went ahead with it, and while it tasted OK, I can't say that I enjoy the smoothie texture. Drinking something so thick just feels wrong to me.

However, if you are a smoothie fan, this one does taste good, so you may enjoy this recipe:

1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup low fat Greek yoghurt
1/2 cup low fat milk
1 banana, cut into thirds
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup crushed ice

Place all of the ingredients into a blender and puree until smooth.  Serve immediately.

EwE - Mango Stuffed Challah French Toast - Stuff It!

For Eating with Ellie this week, Peggy chose the theme of Stuff It!  I lucked in, because I have just bought a new Ellie book that had the perfect recipe in it. 

I already owned two Ellie books, but because Ellie is not well known in Australia, her books are not readily available other than through mail order sites, and they are expensive - $40 plus a book.  However, one day a couple of weeks ago, I just happened to wander into The Book Grocer on Bourke Street at lunch time.  The Book Grocer sells remainders for $10 each.  I was really just passing time when I ran my eyes over the shelves - and lo, there was a stack of Ellie's Comfort Food Fix.  Bonus!!  I clarified the price ($10!) and I was sold.   Some of the other Ellie cooks have used this book and I knew it had some great recipes, so I am so pleased to add it to my collection.

For the Stuff It! theme, there is a recipe in Comfort Food Fix for Mango Stuffed Challah French Toast.  Perfect!!  I already had the mango (it is summer here), although I had to buy the cheeses and the bread.  I hit a snag with the challah, because I tried 4 supermarkets and no-one had it.  My local Woolworths normally sells challah, but of course, when I went to buy it, they did not have it.  Having already done the rounds of supermarkets near where I work the day before, I was not going to walk miles up the road to see if Glicks, the Jewish bakery, was open on a public holiday, so I looked around for alternatives.  I chose a pane di casa, which to my surprise was a very nice loaf, even though it was the supermarket's own brand.

I made this for brekky the next day before work (yep, I did!! so quick), and loved it.  When Ellie says that it is ambrosial, I'd have to agree with her.  A thick slice of bread has a pocket cut into it, which is stuffed with a mixture of cream cheese, ricotta, diced mango, honey and cinnamon.  It is then pan-fried in egg and milk.  You are supposed to top the whole thing off with maple syrup, but I forgot, and anyway, it didn't need it - the French toast is just the perfect amount of sweet as is.

While I don't think it would be wise to eat this every day, despite it being lower calorie than regular French toast, it was delicious, and perfect as a sometimes treat.  When mangoes are out of season, I think tinned peaches would be a fine substitute (or tinned mango, but I often find tinned mango to be tart).

To see what everyone else made this week, visit the LYL section of the Eating with Ellie website.    

EwE - Eggs in Baskets with Smoked Turkey and Asparagus Topping - Barnyard Fun

Peggy chose Barnyard Fun as this week's theme for Eating with Ellie.

I made Eggs in Baskets with Smoked Turkey and Asparagus Topping from So Easy.  My barnyard components were turkey and eggs.  This entails cutting a hole in a piece of toast, cracking in an egg, frying it up and topping it with asparagus and smoked turkey.

This was delicious, especially when the egg yolk burst to form a sauce.

To see what the others made this week, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.

EwE - Vanilla Spice Oatmeal - New Year Celebration

Happy New Year!! Everyone celebrates the New Year in different ways, and for this week's Eating with Ellie theme, New Year Celebration, I am celebrating the New Year with a healthy start to the day - Vanilla Spice Porridge.  You can find the recipe online here.

Ellie's oatmeal is cooked the usual way with water and salt, with raisins, nutmeg, brown sugar, cinnamon, milk and toasted nuts (in my case, cashews) added.

It was a hearty, filling breakfast and a great way to start the day.

To see how the others celebrated the New Year with Ellie, visit the LYL section of the EwE website. 

Jamie Oliver's Mexican Pan Cooked Brekkie

On the weekends, I like to treat myself to a cooked breakfast.  Jamie's Every Day Super Foods has some terrific breakfast recipes, and they mainly use ingredients that I would normally have on hand, so it's no trouble to cook them.

A couple of weekends ago, I made Jamie's Mexican Pan Fried Brekky - Eggs, Beans, Tomatoes and Mushrooms.

You fry up some tomatoes and mushrooms, then crack eggs into the pan which you slosh around a bit so that the whites coat the pan and form a dish for the rest of the components, then add black beans and Worcestershire sauce.  Season with salt and pepper and cook until the eggs are done the way you like them.  Breakfast is ready!

This is a lovely, healthy, hearty breakfast, and is also vegetarian.  It's a great way to start the day.

EwE - Dutch Baby Pancake with Peach Compote - Pancake Pandemonium

This week's Eating with Ellie theme is Pancake Pandemonium, chosen by me.  Ellie has a lot of pancake recipes in her books, so this one was an easy theme for me.

I chose to make the Dutch Baby Pancake with Peach Compote.  This is a baked pancake:

It puffs up in the oven, and when removed, is topped with an easy spiced peach compote.

This was a delicious breakfast for one when a quarter recipe is made.

To see what the others made for Pancake Pandemonium week, please visit the LYL section of the Eating with Ellie website.