"Healthier" Chocolate Easter Eggs

One of my colleagues is under dietary restrictions for health reasons, but I was still keen to make my annual Easter treats.  I did some research, and found this recipe for "chocolate" Easter eggs on I Quit Sugar which cuts out the sugar in regular Easter eggs.

The shell of the eggs is made from cacao powder, coconut oil, cacao butter and rice malt syrup.  For my filling, I used a quarter of a cup of cashew nut butter with a teaspoon of COCO2 sugar free hazelnut spread. 

This is what the filled shells look like before freezing:

While these "chocolate" eggs do not taste exactly like real chocolate, they make a pretty good substitute, and the filling is pretty good too.  It's a little like eating a peanut butter cup.

I am not sure what the recipients thought of these, but I was pleased with them - they worked better for me than the actual chocolates I tried to make last year!

TWD - Laurent's Slow Roasted Pineapple

This week's Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Laurent's Slow Roasted Pineapple. 

Initially, I was not enthused about making this dish.  First, it's autumn here, and I had grave doubts about being able to find a fresh pineapple.  However, my local fruit shop came through, and I bought a half pineapple instead of whole (because what was I going to do with a whole pineapple?).

Second, I wondered why anyone would bother spending two hours roasting pineapple.  Seriously, I thought, "why not just open a can of Golden Circle and be done with it?" 

However, after tasting this, I have changed my tune.  The peeled and quartered pineapple is roasted for two hours with a mixture of jam (in my case, marmalade), booze (in my case, Scotch), and a mixture of spices (I used cardamom pods, black peppercorns, cloves and a cinnamon stick).   

The end result is a sticky, candied concoction that is terribly addictive.  I could have eaten all of it at once.  However, I stretched it over three sessions, eating some on its own and the rest on my morning muesli.  (Boozey pineapple on muesli?  Yes please.)

Loved this - must bear it in mind as a summer dinner party dessert.

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

Apple and Cinnamon Hot Cross Buns

On Friday night, Tim and I went to see Daniel Kitson and Gavin Osborn in Stories For The Starlit Sky at The Playhouse as part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival. I was introduced to Daniel Kitson's work about 12 years ago by my then boss, who had seen him perform in London.  I have previously been to two of Daniel's shows, both in Brisbane, and liked his whimsical brand of story telling.

 Stories For The Starlit Sky is a trilogy in three parts, which goes for three hours and 40 minutes.  Daniel's story-telling is accompanied and intertwined with songs from Gavin.  I was glad that I stayed for the whole show, because all three of the stories were part of a single whole told from three different angles.  Quite a few people left either at the first or second break (we lost our neighbours on both sides), but you would have missed some crucial parts of the story/stories if you left before the end.  To stay to the end was to be rewarded; I think that the last story was the most bitter-sweet of all, and it tied together a few loose ends from the earlier stories.

This week sees Easter upon us, and I am looking forward to seeing my family over the break.  In the lead-up, I spent a cold, wet miserable Sunday making some Easter treats for my friends and colleagues.

First up, I made Apple and Cinnamon Hot Cross Buns.  Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella made these last week, and pronounced them to be the "softest ever" hot cross buns.  I was intrigued, because homemade bread is usually nothing like the fluffy store-bought versions.  Lorraine's secret  weapon is a mixture called a "tangzhong" to make the buns soft and fluffy.  You can find the recipe here.

I was very pleased with the end result:

You can see that they were indeed soft and fluffy inside, and the mild apple and cinnamon flavours made a nice change from the more traditional spiced dried fruit versions.  (Although I have to say I had an awesome chocolate and cherry hot cross bun from Zumbo on Saturday.)

 

I loved this bun recipe - it didn't have the slightly weird taste and texture of most homemade bread recipes, and the buns were beautifully soft and fluffy.

 

If you are keen to try your hand at hot cross bun making, I strongly recommend giving these buns a try. 

Bendigo Trip Day 2 - Das Kafeehaus and Rocks on Rosalind

Day 2 of our Bendigo trip saw us breakfasting at Finders Keepers in Mitchell Street.  Tim and I shared a serve of the sourdough fruit toast ($7.50): 

which was as delicious as it looks, and we both ordered the muesli with fresh banana and honeyed yoghurt ($12.50):

which was OK and did the important job of filling you up for the day ahead.

We then hopped on a bus to Castlemaine (because the trains weren't running) and visited the beautiful goldrush era house, Buda.

After exploring Buda, it was time for lunch.  My colleague, Jacqui, had told me about an Austrian café across the road from the Botanic Gardens, which sounded just the ticket.  The café in question is Das Kafeehaus, where the kitsch fitout and the staff uniforms are Austrian-inspired:

I started with a bottle of locally produced Harcourt apple cider:

Of course, being in an Austrian-style café, we had to order the sausages.  I ordered the Vienna-style sausages, which came with crusty bread, sauerkraut, beetroot relish, mustard, horseradish and garlic:

They were pretty tasty.  Tim and I also shared two desserts (it's an Austrian style café - how could we not?) - the sachertorte:

and the apple custard tart:

Both were tasty, but my favourite was the sachertorte (which surprised me as I usually go for fruity desserts!).

For dinner, we went to Rocks on Rosalind, situated in an old bank building.  This is the vault room (which we were not in, but our tour guides from the day before told us to check out):

We were given bread on arrival:

We decided to order the 10 dish tasting banquet ($55), which was delicious, but do come hungry, as it is quite substantive.  The courses are served on tiered plates, like a high tea.

Our first dishes were (top to bottom): Seared Scallops, wakami wasabi foam, salmon roe, black vinegar, ginger & sesame dressing; Salt & pepperberry squid, fire cracker sauce, lime; and Fraser Island crab salad, avocado & artichoke mousse, palm hearts, radish, watercress:

My favourite of this round was the salt and pepper squid.

Next up came Quatro Cotechino, pork, cinnamon & nutmeg sausage, walnuts, goats cheese, spiced dressing; Duck Larp, Thai sticky rice, green papaya salad; Wagyu 7+ de Palmer bresaola, morel mousse, candied pecans, green olive puree; and on the side, Cos & candied pecan salad, apple & shaved fennel:

For me, the hands down winner was the zingy freshness of the duck larp, which was my favourite dish of the night.

Then came the final courses, by which time I was already quite full - Crusted Moreton Bay bug tail, Thai caramel; Pork belly & crackle, master stock poached, black pepper caramel; Mushrooms, truffle, goats chevre; and on the side, Hand cut chips, twice cooked, garlic aioli:

This time, the chips were the winner for me.  I was so full that the richness of the pork was not what I wanted right at that point.

There was no room for dessert, and we went for a walk through town to try and walk off some of our dinner.

The service at Rocks on Rosalind was friendly and efficient, and the restaurant was conveniently located next door to our accommodation.  I would happily go back to Rocks on Rosalind - but would order less food next time.

Das Kafeehaus

9 Walker St

Castlemaine VIC 3450

Ph: (03) 5470 6270

Rocks on Rosalind

10-12 View St

Bendigo VIC 3550

Ph: (03) 5441 2222

EwE - Penne with Zucchini and Mint - Spring Harvest

This week's Eating with Ellie theme is Spring Harvest, chosen by Peggy.  I can still imagine it's spring here, because the weather has for the most part remained warm, despite us being in the second month of autumn.  To that end, I thought of fresh vegetables for this theme, and settled on Ellie's Penne with Zucchini and Mint.

This pasta was a nice, meat-free meal to have for lunch or dinner.  The zucchini gave it moisture and the mint gave it some zing.  The use of wholemeal pasta provides fibre and lowers GI.

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

TWD - Lemon Sugar Cookies

This week's Dorie's Cookies recipe is Lemon Sugar Cookies.  These are really simple mix, roll and bake cookies, but the are delicious.

The lemon sugar cookies contain lemon juice and rind so that they definitely taste lemony.  The hardest thing to manage with these cookies is that they spread a lot.  Dorie says as much, as she means it.  I ended up only being able to bake 5 cookies at a time on a tray.  The first tray of cookies, with eight cookies on it, spread into one another.

From a half batch, I only got 18 cookies - according to the recipe, it should have made 30.  This was not a problem, as I don't want or need 30 cookies - just mentioning it as part of my experience in making these cookies.

The resulting cookie is caramelised and chewy - I loved them.

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

Bendigo Trip, Day 1 - Farmers Markets and GPO Bendigo

For the recent Labour Day weekend, Tim and I packed our bags and headed for beautiful Bendigo, a 2 hour train ride from Melbourne.   We arrived on Friday night for 3 full days.

As with any trip, there was plenty of eating involved, and Bendigo has some culinary delights that are worth discovering.  We had been a few times before, so this time, we sought out some new adventures.

For brekky on the first day, we went to The Green Olive in historic Bath Lane, chosen for no reason other than it looked busy.  I ordered the vegetarian breakfast: zucchini & Haloumi fritters, brioche crumbed field mushroom,  cherry tomato compote, watercress and two poached eggs  ($17.50):

This was a tasty and filling breakfast which set me up well for the walking tour which we did that morning.

After our walking tour, we hit the Bendigo Farmers Markets, held only once a month on the second Saturday in central Sidney Myer Place.  One of my favourite finds was the scrolls by Starving Artist.  I bought a peach and raspberry scroll - delicious, but tooth-achingly sweet: 

Tim bought a Turkish Delight scroll - my favourite, as it was sweet but not overly so:

We also bought some other goodies, including these Florentines from Sweet Sisters ($10 for 5 huge cookies):

My other picks from the Farmers Market were Pink Muesli, made with beetroot ($25), a huge tub of honey ($10) and a jar of sauerkraut ($8), which sadly got left behind as I was told to keep it in the fridge, where I promptly forgot about it until it was too late:

There also happened to be an antique clothing and book stall on in View Street that weekend.  I got to look at and touch some beautiful original Victorian era clothing (horsehair padding anyone?), and I purchased this book of wartime recipes by the British cooking stalwart, Marguerite Patten:

After stuffing ourselves with scrolls, lunch was a meal that I could have skipped quite happily, but I rocked up anyway to The Good Loaf for these Indian baked beans ($13.20):

It tasted pretty good, but I was underwhelmed by the girl who took my order at the counter, who could not answer any of the basic questions I asked about the other dishes I considered ordering (eg is there quinoa in this?  How is it served?).

To accompany my meal, I bought this fabulous Schweppes Pear and Melon soda that I have not seen anywhere else, which I  made into a spider with icecream ($5.70):

For dinner that evening, we went to the GPO Bendigo, a modern Mediterranean restaurant which does a very fine range of tapas dishes delivered by efficient and friendly staff.  We decided to go with the tapas so that we could try a range of dishes.

First up, we went for the pan seared scallops with spinach puree and parmesan tuile ($14 for 3):

The star of this dish was the delicious parmesan tuile.

Next up, we went with the slow cooked pork sliders, with chipotle mayo and tangy slaw ($14 for 2):

These were tasty morsels.

To make us feel slightly more virtuous in getting our greens, we ordered the rocket and pear salad with shaved parmesan and balsamic dressing ($9): 

Back to the tapas - our final dish was the Korean style wagyu beef tacos, with Asian slaw, cashews, chilli and coriander ($13 for 2):

These soft shell tacos were delish.

We could not pass on dessert, so we ordered the churros with hot chocolate sauce ($14) to share:

After dinner, we ended Day 1 of our Bendigo trip with a wander through the Bendigo Moonlight Markets in the mall, also held on the third Saturday of the month.  These were bustling markets with more of a novelty feel than the Farmers Markets, although a few of the vendors were the same. It was extremely popular with young families, who took their children for some fast food and fun. 

The Green Olive

11 Bath Lane

Bendigo VIC 3550

Ph: (03) 5442 2676

The Good Loaf

404 Hargreaves Street

Bendigo VIC 3550

Ph: (03) 5444 2171

GPO Bendigo

60-64 Pall Mall

Bendigo VIC 3550

Ph: (03) 5443 4343