Random musings and Food from my kitchen
I have struggled for a long time to get vertical format video in Premiere Elements, so I can edit.
As all of us now record and play vids on our phones, to then make Instagram reels, Facebook, Youtube, Tictoc or whatever, this will really help up my game and maybe yours too.
Note that I am in no way associated with the maker of this vid, but Ish, the creator, tells you in clear steps how to do it and I am very grateful I found it !
My kids lovemarshmalliws, as do I, so I deided to make some. That was a few years ago and now I mke these quite regularly.
I have experimented with colours and flavours with mixed success. The plain white vanilla still appear to be the favourite.
Hope you enjoy them too.
120 °C or 'Firm ball" stage. Once at this stage remove from the heat immediately.In the morning decisions can be hard, waffles? French toast? but I want Cinnamon and not a heap of washing up. Well here is the solution to that breakfast dilema; Cinnamon French Toast Waffles !
A couple of years ago I came across the idea of cooking French toast, or “Eggy bread” as it is known in the UK, with a waffle iron. It’s a really old idea and has been done many times and in many ways before or since. Be warned that once you try it you will be making it more often than you might dare admit.
The video link within the recipe is to a YouTube video from my channel, which shows the method in just a couple of minutes.
The recipe is fairly basic, and you are welcome to interpret it how you wish. We love these with ice-cream and maple syrup, whipped sweetened cream cheese, simply buttered, or as part of a much larger breakfast feast with bacon, sausages, beans, mushrooms, hashbrowns, tomato, spinach, avocado, eggs etc, just please invite me if you do this.
For this recipe, and as you can see in the video, I have used a square waffle iron that takes two slices of bread at a time. If your waffle iron is larger and takes four all the better. However, if you have a small round waffle iron, you may have to cook just one slice at a time, or even cut to size before dipping into the egg.
When I was a kid I started making a ‘no-bake cheesecake’ and have been playing with the recipe ever since.
This is a great cheesecake canvas which you can then add to with lemon or caramel or blueberries or all the other great cheesecake flavours and really make it your own.
I also prefer to use Ginger biscuits with a plain cheesecake, as it pairs well with the light, sweet flavour of the vanilla and slightly salty cream cheese. While you can use store-bought no problem, if you want to make this completely from scratch there is a recipe for my favourite ginger biscuits here on the blog.
For this recipe, I decided to make this as 12 individual cakes, but you could easily make it into a single cake. I would suggest a 20cm/8inch springform and line the bottom with greaseproof to make it easier to remove and serve.
Here is my Instagram reel showing some of the pictures I took and the process to make this dessert.
Those that know me, know I love sweet custardy, creamy, milky desserts. I love pastry with crunch and I am a sucker for anything I can pour maple syrup on.
So when I saw several posts on Instagram showing things like clafoutis, or bougatsa, my brain started ticking over. I sort of followed the general direction of these posts but ultimately I made this up as I went and it worked.
Below is my Instagram reel showing the method in just 90 seconds, and shows the important ” Concertina fold” that makes this dish work so well.
Thanks go to Nina from Natural Vanilla in Perth, for helping this taste so so good.
This is one of those great “slow food” recipes that can be done in either a slow cooker, the home oven, or as I did in a wood-burning pizza oven. The time taken allows the otherwise tough meat to render off the fat, soften the tissue, and absorb all the flavours from the spices and vegetables added.
What is Corned Beef? Historically, it used to be a Beef Brisket or though in modern times it is mainly Beef Silverside, these being two of the toughest cuts of meat you could ever want to cook. These would have been packed in barrels of a dry mixture of salt, herbs, spices and salt-nitrates. The latter was in the form of large grains that looked like corn grains, hence the ‘corned’ in the name.
While this dry salting may still be done by some butchers, our desires for a lower sodium diet meant the brining is now done in a bath of water with the aromatics and flavourings, less salt and nitrates all in a cold water bath. This is why corned beef is now usually now sold in a bag with liquid inside. This liquid is red not from blood but the salt nitrates, which also turn the meat that rich pink colour.
Even with the lower salt methods of modern preparation, a store-bought corned beef joint is usually very high in sodium. This can be a problem, not only for those with blood pressure issues or those on low sodium diets, it can also overpower any other flavours we wish to introduce.
To this end, we need to dissolve the salt out of the joint. In the recipe, you will see that the first two steps are specifically about this process. Once removed from the packet, lightly rinse the joint in cold running water to remove the nitrate solution from the surface. Then soaking in a bath of clean cold water for a few hours will allow more of the solution to be removed.
I like to do this de-debrining twice, as the side the meat rests on does not get a chance to release its salt and the water will only take in so much. So changing the water and flipping the meat over after a few hours will really help.
I list the de-brining as a 3-hour process change and repeat. However, if you can allow the second de-brine to be longer, possibly up to a full 24-hour cycle, all the better.
As you are probably aware, I own a small wood-fired pizza oven, which holds its heat quite well once the pizzas are all cooked and finished. I feel it is a waste of fuel to allow it to just continue to burn and cool down over the evening without something else being in there to enjoy that deep radiant and convective heat, plus the added smell of the smoke if I add some hickory chips.
But do not worry if you do not own a pizza oven, as this recipe works equally in a conventional oven.
Absolutely! timings will be longer for the cooking, but you do not need to worry about the falling temperature, just set it to “low” and see you in 8 hours.
This recipe is our family’s interpretation of the Australian and New Zealand classic biscuit.
The origins of the ANZAC biscuit and even the name are all well documented and I shall only briefly repeat them here. It should be noted that the names ‘ANZAC‘ and ‘ANZAC biscuit‘ are protected in both Australian and New Zealand law. The more detailed history of the biscuit, how it was named, where it came from and even the discussion of whether it is to be soft or hard can all be found online.
ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, founded in 1914 as part of the First World War. The biscuit itself was one that could be fairly easily made by wives or loved ones from pantry staples, and arrive still edible to the serving troops after the long sea voyage to Europe.
More than a century later, these biscuits are still made regularly at homes across Australia and New Zealand and especially to honour the 25th April ANZAC Day Memorial to servicemen and servicewomen from all wars and conflicts since.
As I mention, ANZAC Biscuits are protected, and the recipes are very limited in variation while remaining to the original. Below are a few notes to help you when making these.
One common variation is the use of self-raising flour. This can be switched to plain, for a firmer biscuit but I am assured that the slightly lighter option is generally preferred.
I would not recommend swapping the golden syrup for say honey, maple syrup, treacle or molasses. While as a baked item it would possibly work, the taste will be different and it will most certainly not be a true ANZAC. If you can not find golden syrup in your regular store, check an Anglophile type store selling goods from the UK or Australia. It is certainly worth the effort, and you might get a few other tasty goodies while you are there.
The oats should really be Rolled oats, the other types available such as steel-cut or quick oats may work, but just as with the golden syrup, changing will give a different taste and feel.
The crisp or soft debate of the ANZAC biscuit is solved simply; The biscuits should be crisp, or they will not survive the sea voyage. However, in our house, our kids and visitors prefer the softer chewier biscuits to crisp ones, also they barely travel further than the living room. For the proper crisper bake, just leave them in the oven for 2 to 3 minutes more than the recipe below says, mindful that they do not darken too much.
As for size, you may wish to make smaller ones, we often do, for lunch boxes or to give to smaller children. Simply make half-size balls of dough, and bake for about 10 to 12 minutes instead. This will give a yield of up from 24 to 48 biscuits.
Hot Cross buns are a wonderful thing, spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and other things, packed with dried fruit and a treat like Christmas cake available only for a short time around Easter. Or at least that is how it used to be.
The history of the buns is strongly linked to celebrations relating to Easter. Various European countries make a spiced bread bun to celebrate Spring rebirth and the cross on top clearly references the Christian crucifixion.
The use of spices in historical times was limited due to their difficulty to import from far off lands, making them a rare and expensive luxury. So it was that they would in turn only be used for special occasions or special dishes.
There is also the decree from the time of Queen Elizabeth and 16th Century England, that stated it was forbidden to bake or sell hot cross buns or other spiced bread, except on the day of burials, Good Friday or Christmas. The fine for doing so was that they would be confiscated and donated to the poor. I wonder how many were donated or were instead ‘sampled’ by those confiscating.
Now in modern times such a law no longer applies, and the sweet buns seem to appear on the shelves before Santa has even finished deliveries. Not just ‘traditional’ fruit and spice either, but fruitless, chocolate, coffee, and I have even seen tropical and caramel.
“Well,” I thought “rather than complain, let’s embrace this glut of yum and bake something.” And after a few tries to get it right, I have come up with the following recipe.
Note that for the recipe, I have suggested fruitless, as it allows the cranberry and apple flavours to shine through. If you want to make this with one of the other flavours, go right ahead, there are no rules only guidelines.
Also, we were ‘naughty’ and had ours with extra cream, just because we could.
Friday in our house has always been pizza and movie night for as long as I can remember. Sometimes it is a takeaway from our fave pizza store with “chicken shop chips” from the charcoal bbq chicken place next door. But if I am home during the day and have the time, then I love to make them from scratch.
Pizza dough is surprisingly easy to make and while it does take a few hours of proving and resting, the actual time you will be actively making and cooking is maybe only half an hour. if you have a food mixer with a dough hook then kneading is no problem.
For years I have baked my pizza in just the regular home oven in the kitchen, only upgrading on my 50th birthday (thank you family) to a wood-fired oven, which takes more work, but makes the best possible pizza. This recipe works in both, just crank up the oven to maximum, and if you can get a pizza stone, which are relatively inexpensive all the better.
Kneading the dough is a paramount process in all breadmaking. It combines the ingredients evenly, and more importantly activates the gluten in the flour. This gluten protein holds the yeasty gas bubbles to then create the rise in the dough.
There are many techniques for kneading, the easiest is to use a mixer with a dough hook; Fast no effort, and even. However, it is easy to over-knead with a machine that can then break the gluten strands. Hand kneading can be done for mixes up to several kilos, are a great upper body workout, and a better way to get a ‘feel’ for how the dough is forming.
The process is easy enough, push the dough with the heel of your hand from the middle and away from you, while at the same time holding the rest of the dough with the other hand. fold back upon itself, turn and repeat. About five minutes is all that is needed ( no pun intended) for this recipe.
Note: There is also a ‘folding’ technique that can be used, but is really much better for dough mixes too soft to knead, such as those with a higher percentage of water.
I will make a kneading vid soon and will add it here for you to see the process.
You may have heard the term when discussing bread making, and it is a simple enough process. It is a short, quick kneading before dividing the dough into separate pieces and the second ‘proving’. But why do we do it?
Once the dough has proved, or rested for a while, the yeast bubbles become large, but not particularly uniform in either size or distribution within the dough. The idea of the ‘knockback’ is to even out these issues, for a better more even final product. As we still don’t want to overdo it, it is usually only a few turns before dividing and forming into balls for the second prove.
When you first start out making your own, you can ‘cheat’ and roll out the dough with a rolling pin, rather than stretching. it is quick, easy, gets the job done, and is a method used by many commercial places. BUT It is not as good for the dough or crust as it flattens and bursts those tiny bubbles of gas from the yeast. This can result in a tough and disappointing pizza crust.
Stretching is a skill that comes with practice. and one worth learning as once you have it you will find it helps tremendously both with your pizza and with anyone watching you make them as you ‘look professional’.
I am no great expert on stretching pizzas, I don’t make them often enough to call myself that. But I do like doing it. It is something that can look really impressive if you do the famous spin and throw, and yes there is a valid reason for doing that. Generally, the big advantages of stretching over rolling are that the base will cook crispier on the outside while soft in the middle, also it creates that lip edge that will rise when cooking into the gorgeous crust we all love.
If you are brave and want to ‘throw your pizza’ as in toss into the air, have it spin and then catch. Go for it! It does help to make your pizza less irregular and more round, it also further stretches in a more even manner. But be aware it will also throw flour around your workspace, and in your hair as it spins.
Below is a short video from my YouTube channel on how I do it, I don’t throw this one deliberately to show that there is no great need.
We all have our favourite toppings, and those we can not have; anchovies, olives, onion, seafood, hot sweetcorn, which cheese must be used, how the tomato base should be made or the infamous argument regarding pineapple.
My say on all this is simple, use what you have, and what you like, just don’t stress. Remember that pizza was for centuries a peasant dish made with kitchen scraps on a bit of leftover bread dough. Only when Queen Margarita realised that she and her husband, the King, were losing favour with the common people did she stoop to try, and in turn like a particular Neopolitan baker’s fare. Had he had a tin of pineapple chunks in juice to hand, perhaps there would be less discussion on this.
So in a nutshell, If you want and have it available add it; if you don’t leave it off.
A simple to make, banana cake/loaf with heaps of flavour, a soft crumbly centre and a baked banana at its centre.
Unlike many banana cakes, this one does not have cinnamon or other spices in the recipe, instead this gains additional flavour from the honey.
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