All posts tagged nuts

ANZAC style Kingston Biscuits

By On 24/04/2013 In baking, Food With 3 Comments Permanent Link to ANZAC style Kingston BiscuitsPermalink

It’s getting quite late so I thought I’d keep it short and sweet – much like these biscuits! This week we remember the ANZACS, so I thought (as I do each year) I’d make a batch of the famous ANZAC bikkies… but this time with a twist. Last year I baked the traditional recipe for the blog (found over here) but these, I have to say, take it to a whole new level. I’ve tweaked the recipe a little bit to make them softer and much smaller – bite size pieces. They’re almost like a homemade Kingston biscuit, sandwiched with some good quality chocolate in between (and a few hazelnuts for good measure). These were absolutely DIVINE and I highly recommend you bake these tomorrow. I know most of you would have all the ingredients just sitting in the cupboard. They’re probably the best biscuits ever. Fact.

Now cook! Enjoy!

x e.

 

 

 

ANZAC style Kingston Biscuits

1 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cup plain flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup desiccated coconut
125g butter, chopped
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 baking powder

100g good quality cooking chocolate
80ml cream
100g roasted and crushed hazelnuts

 

1.  Preheat oven to 160°C.

2.  Combine oats, flour, sugar and coconut in a bowl. Place butter, syrup and 2 tablespoons cold water in a bowl and microwave until all butter has melted. Stir in bicarbonate of soda and baking powder and pour into the oat mixture.

3.  Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls and place on lined baking trays. Give them a bit of room and flatten slightly with a fork. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden. Like them crunchier? Just bake them for a little longer – 15 mins should do it. Let cool slightly then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

4. Meanwhile place chocolate and cream into a heatproof bowl and melt chocolate either in the microwave or in a double boiler. Once all chocolate has melted, place the bowl in the fridge so the mixture becomes a thicker consistency. Once it’s thick enough spoon onto one side of a biscuit and sprinkle hazelnuts over the top. Spoon a little extra on the other side and sandwich the two together.

Homemade Muesli Bars (perfect for lunch boxes)

By On 11/09/2012 In baking, Food With No Comments Permanent Link to Homemade Muesli Bars (perfect for lunch boxes)Permalink

I had a delightful ‘date day’ with Seb on Saturday :) We had a lovely lunch on Lygon st (dodging the rain) then popped across to the IMAX to see Batman (which was, I have to say, awesome). I’m not really a superhero kinda gal, but I’ve always been a big fan of Batman. As a little kid I’d always race home from school to watch Batman (the cartoon) on TV, whilst devouring Promite on toast.  Anyway, after the flicks we popped into a sweet little bar called Southpaw on Gertrude St. for our friends birthday shindig, where I discovered my new favourite cocktail – espresso martinis!  >_<  Uh-oh!

 

 

Now, onto this week’s post! This one came about because sometimes at work by mid morning I’m s-t-a-r-v-i-n-g! I try to hold out until lunchtime but if I do, I find I gobble my food down so quickly I end up with a tummy ache :( At the moment I’m trying to get fit by going running a few times a week and just generally trying to eat healthily (summer is just around the corner don’t you know!?!). I’ve recently discovered that a filling and nutritious snack can be rather tricky to find in the city. I now have a stash of fruit at my desk which has helped prevent the hunger pains but I’ve been craving something a little bit more satisfying to mix it up a bit. When I was a kid my mum would only ever pack my lunch box with healthy snacks.  This would often include a muesli bar, so I decided to make my own. Let me tell you: these muesli bars aren’t hard at all to make and they’re jam packed full of wholesome oats, nuts & seeds and kept together with a little bit of honey and butter. No more tummy rumbles for me!

x e.

 

 

Homemade Muesli Bars

Recipe inspired by Dixie Elliott

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup LSA (linseed, sunflower & almond meal)
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1 cup sultanas
100g butter
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1.  Line a sandwich tin (16x28cm) tray with baking paper. Place oats, coconut, LSA, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds in a frying pan. Heat and stir over medium heat until golden – roughly 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Set aside to cool. Stir in sultanas.

2.  Cook butter, honey and sugar in the same frypan (saves the washing up), on medium heat. Stir continously for 3 to 4 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat and let the it simmer for 7 minutes without stirring. You can test if the sugar has been cooked long enough if you drop a little in ice cold water, a soft ball should form. Once cooked enough, add to dry the ingredients. Stir until combined.

3.  Spoon mixture into pan and push down with a metal spoon. Place it in a moderate oven for 5-10 minutes or until the top is slightly cripsy. Allow to cool, cut into squares and store in an airtight container. Use within 7 days.

Bircher Muesli

By On 11/10/2011 In breakfast, Food With No Comments Permanent Link to Bircher MuesliPermalink

Today I’m celebrating my first milestone… 25 posts! Yippee!

It’s another chilly day here and I’m hanging for some constant warm weather to de-thaw my bones! I thought Melbourne’s winter would be short and sweet but this last little bit seems to be dragging on f-o-r-e-v-e-r. I can’t wait for warm alfresco dining every night – bliss! But… the good the news is we now have daylight savings and just having those extra few hours after work is amazing. I’m even hoping I’ll have some time to photograph midweek after work!

Well there is one good thing about winter and that’s the yummy apples and this recipe makes the most of winter’s best fruit. It’s Bircher Muesli kids! Yummy yummy Bircher muesli. This Swiss breakfast invented by Dr Bircher himself uses oats that are soaked overnight softening the oat & thus making it easier to digest. I normally don’t soak the oats overnight only because I usually don’t have enough foresight to think about what I want for breakfast the night before. I’m not sure if it makes a huge difference taste wise so if you forget to soak, it’s not a big deal. The thing I love about Bircher is that it’s so easy to go freestyle and throw in any additional goodies – nuts, dried fruit, coconut… anything. Mum used to make if for me when I was little but now I think mine is better than mum’s (sorry mama!).

Ps. I’ve been getting my web-nerd on, so now all email subscriptions should be looking way prettier than before! However, there was a little glitch in the system & the web gremlins ate my entire subscription list!!! So please make sure you sign up again if you haven’t already and you’ll be back on the email list. If you wish to subscribe to these posts & become the first to receive all the new photos & recipes, click here.

 

x e.

 

 

Bircher Muesli

1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup fresh apple juice or orange juice
1/2 cup yoghurt (flavoured or greek)
handful currants or sultanas
handful of mixed nuts – almonds, sunflower seeds, hazelnuts
shredded coconut
a sprinkling of ground cinnamon
1 apple, grated
1/2 tbsp honey to serve
1. Combine the rolled oats and juice and soak over night in the refrigerator.

2. In the morning mix the rest of the ingredients together. Serve in a bowl and drizzle a little honey over the top. Mmm.

 

Cypriot Grain Salad

By On 10/09/2011 In Food, Salads With 9 Comments Permanent Link to Cypriot Grain SaladPermalink

A couple of weeks ago we went to George Calombaris’ restaurant Hellenic Republic and had one of the tastiest meals in a while. I haven’t tried a lot of Greek food, apart from the odd souvalaki here or there, so it was exciting to see what would come out. We tried the tasting menu and this Cypriot Grain salad was definitely the winner of the night (crispy salmon came a close second). I think the best way to describe it is almost like a super charged tabouli salad, but with way better. The yoghurt, honey and cumin topping just makes it a-m-a-z-i-n-g and takes it to a whole new level.

It’s a pretty big investment for time and money if you’re going to make it as there’s quite a few ingredients, but anyone who tries this salad will remember it forever. Seb made it for a bbq we had a few weeks ago where we had, as per usual, stupid amouts of food. Everybody couldn’t wait to try it (we’d talked it up a fair bit) and nobody could resist going back for seconds and thirds. Needless to say we had loads of snags left over that night.

 

Cypriot Grain Salad

Recipe by George Calombaris

1 bunch coriander shredded
½ bunch parsley shredded
½ red onion finely diced
1 cup freekah (or cracked wheat)
½ cup puy lentils
2 tbsp toasted pumpkin seeds
2 tbsp toasted slivered almonds
2 tbsp toasted pine nuts
2 tbsp baby capers
½ cup currants
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp extra virgin olive
Sea salt to taste
1 cup thick Greek yoghurt
1 tsp cumin seeds toasted and ground
1 tbsp honey


1. Blanch freekah/cracked wheat and puy lentils separately in boiling water until both just cooked.

2. Drain well and allow to cool.

3. Mix the yoghurt, cumin and honey till combined.

4. In a medium bowl place the coriander, parsley, red onion, freekah, puy lentils, toasted nuts, capers, currants, lemon juice and olive oil. Mix well, season to taste.

5. Add the yoghurt mixture on top just before serving or serve it on the side.

Homemade Toasted Muesli

By On 04/09/2011 In breakfast, Food With 5 Comments Permanent Link to Homemade Toasted MuesliPermalink

How hard can toasted muesli be to make? Not that hard it turns out. I’ve wanted to make it for some time and now our pantry is pretty much packed to the brim with all sorts of bits and bobs I thought I’d give it a go. This altered version of Delicious Magazine’s toasted muesli is so filling for breakfast. I found I could only eat about half of what I’d normally have and would keep me fuller for longer.The recipe below is a bit of a guess as I just added whatever nuts and other goodies I could find. If you don’t have one ingredient, substitute it.

Homemade Toasted Muesli

1/4 cup golden syrup
2 tbs honey
2 tbs canola or grapeseed oil
2 cups  rolled oats
1/2 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1/2 cups sunflower seeds
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup raw almonds
1/2 sultanas
1/2 hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 170°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. In a saucepan, place syrup, honey and oil over low heat for a few minutes until combined and runny.

Combine oats, sunflower seeds, pepitas, hazelnuts baking tray. Drizzle with the warm syrup. Bake for 10-12 minutes until toasted and golden, stirring once during cooking. Remove and cool to room temperature.

Once cooled, add the remaining ingredients and stir well until combined. Store in an air tight container and consume within 10 days, but that shouldn’t be a problem.

Almond Biscuits

By On 04/07/2011 In baking, Food With No Comments Permanent Link to Almond BiscuitsPermalink

Hmmm…what to bake? I know I have some almonds in the pantry and I’d love a little biscuit to go with my afternoon tea so it’s decided. Almond biscuits! I found this dead easy recipe on the taste.com website which makes 24 biscuits, if you can get the mixture out of your mouth and in the oven.

 

 

Almond Biscuits

Makes 24 Biscuits
125g butter
1.5 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup sugar
60g chopped almonds
1 egg lightly whisked
1tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.  Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat or in the microwave until it’s melted and foams. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly. Add remaining ingredients until well combined.

2. Roll mixture into small balls and place on non stick trays about 3cms apart.

3. Bake for 16 minutes or until lightly golden and set aside on cooling racks for 15 minutes to cool.

Pear & Almond Cake

By On 29/06/2011 In baking, Desserts, Food With 1 Comment Permanent Link to Pear & Almond CakePermalink

All this time at home job hunting is soooo good! Not the job hunting bit but all the time spent at home. More time to cook delicious things and show and tell everyone (although I feel as though I’m telling a brick wall). I found this recipe flipping through a recipe book that came with my magimix – ♥. I could see I had a lonely pear in my fruit bowl and I knew I had some slithered almonds in my pantry screaming to be used in something yummy – pear and almond cake it is! I’d say its more like a souffle cake but delicious none the less. Hmmm…along with all this cake eating and spare time also means no excuse for my lack of running/exercise regime. Pants.

 

 

Pear & Almond Cake

Serves 2


2 eggs
60g sugar
50g butter
1 pear
30g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
25 g flaked almonds
pinch of salt

 

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Peel the pear, halve and core them and poach in a saucepan for 5-10 minutes, never letting the water boil.

2. Melt butter in microwave. In a large bowl mix eggs and sugar in the until light and fluffy. Add melted butter, flour, salt & baking powder to achieve a soft consistency. Transfer to a greased ramekin or small tin.

3. Once pears are poached slice thinly and add on top of the cake mixture and let it sink. Finally sprinkle the flaked almonds over the top and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.