Christmas treats - rum balls and apricot balls

Part of the magic of Christmas for me is the observance of various rituals and traditions. In the uncertainty of everyday life, Christmas acts like an anchor between the past and the present, holding the ship of life steady and bringing some calm amidst the storm.

Every Christmas while I lived at home, Mum made rum balls and apricot balls for Christmas. Now that I have left home and neither she nor my brother care for them, she has stopped making them. However, the great news is that because Mum made them year in, year out, I picked up how to make these treats for myself. This means that I can re-create my own little slice of Christmas tradition every year, and with it, happy memories of Christmases past.

If I was let loose on whole batches of rum balls and apricot balls, I could certainly eat them all - I love them. What's not to love? However, this year's rum balls and apricot balls are destined for my Christmas goodie boxes.

There are probably as many different recipes for rum balls as there are households that make them. My best friend from primary school used to include soggy Weetbix in hers (eww!); some people dip them in chocolate, others coat them with cocoa, dollarettes or coconut; some recipes contain dried fruit, others don't. It all depends on family traditions and personal preference. However, the common elements in all recipes are rum and cocoa.

In this post, I will share my family recipes for rum balls and apricot balls. If you like the sound of them, maybe you will adopt these treats as one of your Christmas traditions!

The recipes are as follows:

Rum balls

1 tin condensed milk (light is OK)

125g crushed plain biscuits (I used Arnotts Milk Arrowroot)

2-3 tablespoons cocoa, sifted

1/2 cup sultanas

2-3 tablespoons rum

1 packet dessicated coconut

Combine all ingredients other than coconut in a large bowl. Add just enough coconut to the mixture until it is firm enough to roll into balls (don't add the whole packet!). Pour more coconut onto a plate. Take teaspoons of the rum ball mixture, roll into balls between your palms, then roll in the coconut until coated and no longer sticky. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Apricot balls

1 tin condensed milk (light is OK)

1 cup dried apricots, chopped finely

2-3 tablespoons dry sherry

1 packet dessicated coconut

Combine all ingredients other than coconut in a large bowl. Add just enough coconut to the mixture so that it is firm enough to roll into balls. Pour more coconut onto a plate. Take teaspoons of the apricot ball mixture, roll into balls between your palms, then roll in the coconut until coated and no longer sticky. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

These simple but tasty treats are best made at least a couple of weeks in advance so that the alcohol can permeate them properly. They are delightful served as an after dinner treat, or any time, really!

Nigella's one-pan Christmas cake

I am making home-made Christmas food as presents for my friends and colleagues this year, and have things well underway. I am really enjoying the process of making these gifts, partly because making Christmas treats is steeped in tradition and brings back fond memories, and partly because I am applying my creative energies into making these treats unique.

One of the items that I have made for my Christmas goodie boxes is miniature fruit cakes. The recipe, from the December-January edition of Delicious magazine, is by Nigella Lawson. It was perfect for my purposes because it does not require you to steep the fruit for 6 months before-hand in a veritable vat of alcohol. Instead, Nigella uses the stovetop heat to infuse dried fruits with that lovely, aromatic alcoholic flavour that is essential for fruit cake.

If you forgot to steep your fruit for a home-made Christmas cake this year, never fear - Nigella's great no-fuss, last minute recipe is as follows:

2 1/4 cup sultanas
1 1/3 cup raisins
1 cup currants
(I substituted the currants, raisins and orange and lemon zest for 2 cups of dried mixed fruit)
1/3 cup chopped glace cherries
180g butter (diced)
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
3/4 cup chestnut puree (I used apple puree - I've no idea what difference this made to the flavour, but the end result tasted fine to me)
1/2 cup rum
Juice and zest of 1 orange (see my comment above re the zest)
Zest of 1 lemon
3 beaten eggs
2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I didn't have any, so I just added more cinnamon)

Preheat your oven to 150 degrees Celsius, and grease and line a 20cm round cake tin with a double layer of baking paper that pokes at least 5cm above the top edge of the tin.

Combine the dried and glace fruits, zests, butter, sugar, puree, rum and orange juice in a large saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the butter has melted, bring the mixture to a simmer and then simmer for 10 minutes, stirring constantly to ensure that the fruit doesn't burn onto the pan. Remove the fruit from the stove and leave to cool for 30 minutes.

Stir the eggs, flour, baking powder and spices into the fruit until just combined, then pour the batter into the prepared cake tin. Nigella recommends wrapping a strip of brown paper twice the height of the tin around the outside of the tin to keep the cake moist. Place the cake into the oven, and bake for 1 3/4- 2 hours. Leave the cake to cool in the tin.

Because I thought that it would be fun (it was), and because I seem to like creating extra work for myself (it was!), I decided to make miniature fruit cakes in green patty pans for my goodie boxes. These cakes are pictured at the top of this post, and took about 40 minutes to bake. Once cooled, I spread the top of each of these cakes with melted and sieved apricot jam, and topped each one with a round of rolled white ready-made fondant. Finally, with my creative juices really flowing, I used food colouring pens from my excursion to Jane Asher's Sugarcraft shop in London to draw Christmas-themed decals on the top of each cake. (Thanks to Fanny from Foodbeam for her post on the Sugarcraft shop just before my trip to the UK last year - I would never have discovered this little gem without her.)

There was, as to be expected, about half of the batter left over after I had filled 24 patty pans, so I used the rest to make a small, flattish larger cake for myself. That version of the cake is pictured at the bottom of this post, and I baked it for about an hour.




This post is also my entry in the Festive Food Fair, being hosted by Anna of Morsels and Musings. This is a blogging event of global festive food of all types, and will be great fun - thanks for organising this Anna. (Postscript - The Festive Food Fair round up is available here - take a peek at the wonderful festive recipes from around the globe!)

Fig and ginger loaf

I absolutely adore both dried figs and ginger. The former is exotically sweet, while the latter possesses a glorious sweet heat. Both ingredients can be used to enhance the flavour of sweet or savoury dishes, making them incredibly versatile.

While flicking through the October-November 2007 edition of my latest favourite Kiwi find, Dish magazine, I spotted a recipe for Fig and Ginger Loaf among the brunch recipes. I was immediately smitten and knew that I had to make this. How could I refuse, with two of my favourite ingredients combined in one delicious looking cake?

From the photograph above, you can see what a glorious golden cake this is, laden with luscious figs and ginger. This loaf has been my morning tea for work this week, and I will definitely be re-visiting it often. The contrasting sweetnesses of the figs and ginger make this loaf irresistable all by itself; however, the recipe authors suggest that it be served toasted with ricotta and mango. Whichever way you would prefer it, I recommend it highly.

The recipe is as follows:

125ml milk, warmed (I used skim milk)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
100ml vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1/3 cup chopped preserved ginger (I used crystallised ginger and it was fine)
3/4 cup chopped dried figs
200g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
150g sugar

Preheat your oven to 125 degrees Celsius. Grease and line a loaf tin (3 cup capacity).

Stir the bicarbonate of soda into the warmed milk until dissolved. Beat the eggs and egg yolk lightly, then whisk into the milk. Add the oil, vanilla, golden syrup and ginger and stir until combined.

Sift the flour, salt, ginger and cinnamon together in a separate bowl, and combine with the sugar. Toss the figs in the flour mixture until fully coated. Add the milk solution to the flour mixture, and mix until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin, and bake until cooked through (mine took about 2 hours, while the recipe says 1 1/2 hours). Cool in the tin for around 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy sliced for brunch, morning tea or any time you need a sweet boost!

Simply joyous - cupcakes

I have been baking away furiously for Christmas, but haven't blogged about it just yet.

In the meantime, I have posted this photograph of some very cute cupcakes that I made for work last week. They are simply plain butter cupcakes iced with pretty pink and sunshine yellow glace icing, then decorated with sugar flowers and coloured decorating sugar.

They make me feel happy just looking at them (crumbs and all!), and I hope that you enjoy them as much as I do.

SHF #37 - The Beta Carotene Harvest - Pumpkin Sultana Loaf

Sugar High Friday is here once again, and this month, it is hosted by Leslie of Definitely Not Martha. She has chosen a theme of Beta Carotene Harvest - that is, desserts made with harvest roots and gourds, such as carrots, sweet potato and pumpkin.

This was a fortuitous choice, because Dav from work had asked me to make a pumpkin cake - which means that I could kill two birds with one stone. (The cake is photographed on two different plates because one photo was taken at work and the other at home. Thanks to Simon for the styling on the work photograph ;).)

My entry for this SHF is a pumpkin sultana loaf. I have previously made this cake in the form of a pumpkin cranberry loaf. However, this time, not only did I substitute the cranberries for sultanas, I substituted the maple syrup for golden syrup (because I realised at the last minute that I was right out of maple syrup!)

The recipe is as follows:

2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon mixed spice
2 cups mashed pumpkin
1/2 cup golden syrup
1/4 cup apple puree
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sultanas

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease a loaf tin.

Combine sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the pumpkin, syrup, apple puree, vegetable oil and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in the sultanas and pour into the greased tin.

Bake for 50 minutes or until cooked through. Cool the cake in the tin for 15 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.

This version of the cake is slightly sweeter than the original, but is still good. The great thing about it is that, for a cake, it is low in fat.

Thanks to Leslie for hosting this month's SHF, and I look forward to yet another amazing roundup!

Postscript: You can view all the inspirational post-harvest recipes on Definitely Not Martha here and here.

Beef, broccoli and orange stir fry

This week, I tried yet another recipe from the National Heart Foundation's The New Classic Cookbook - a beef, broccoli and orange stir fry. As the name suggests, this is a basic beef stir fry flavoured with zesty orange.

The sauce is 3/4 cup orange juice, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 3 tablespoons dry sherry, 3 teaspoons of cornflour and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar.

Brown 500g beef strips in a wok, and set aside. In the same wok, stir fry 4 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger and 2 chopped chillies. Add 800g broccoli florets and i/3 cup of water, cover the wok and cook for about 3 minutes. Add one capsicum cut into strips and stir fry for another minute. Add the sauce (described above) and the zest of one orange, and bring to the boil while stirring. Continue cooking until the sauce thickens then stir in six sliced green onions and the browned beef. Ensure that all ingredients are coated thoroughly.

Serve with boiled or steamed rice.

While this is a pleasant dish, it did not excite me greatly. Taking into account the amount of preparation work involved for the rather lack-lustre end result, I don't think that I will make this dish often.

Waiter there's something in my ... topless tart - strawberry chiffon tart

This month's Waiter there's something in my ... is hosted by Jeanne of Cooksister, with the theme of topless tarts. To borrow Jeanne's explanation, she wants participants to make "a pastry dish, similar to a pie, but different in that the top is open and not covered with pastry". However, the tart can be sweet or savoury.



While the theme itself is rather racy, my entry is a prudish, pretty pink strawberry chiffon tart. This is a rather old fashioned dessert, with my recipe coming from The Schauer Australian Cookery Book. The author of this book, Amy Schauer, was a Queensland-based home economist of some repute, and is sometimes credited with having invented the lamington. Her number one fan is Miss Eagle, and you can check out more of Amy Schauer's recipes on Miss Eagle's blog, Oz Tucker.


To make this sweet, light as a feather dessert, resplendent with strawberries, here is the recipe:


Ingredients


1 baked tart shell (buy one or make one - I used this recipe)
1 tablespoon gelatine
2 tablespoons cold water
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup crushed strawberries
1/2 cup whipped cream
2 stiffly beaten egg whites


Soak the gelatine in the cold water for 10 minutes, then add the boiling water and stir until the gelatine dissolves. Add the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice. Stir through the whipped cream and then the egg whites.

Pour the mixture into the tart shell, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Chop 4 strawberries in half and decorate the top of tart (optional). Return to the refrigerator until fully set.

Strawberry chiffon tart is a wonderful summer dessert, packed with vitamin C. It may be an oldie, but it is definitely a goodie!

Thanks to Jeanne of Cooksister for hosting this month's WTSIM ..., and I look forward to a fun roundup! (Postscript: The roundup is published here - 53 topless tarts!)