Month: January 2017

When life gives you rainy Sunday…

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…fill the tins! I had planned a day at the beach, but it seems summer is refusing to come to the party.

So instead I made a batch of sourdough, which I have turned into a loaf of bread, a batch of English Muffins for lunch, and some unbaked pizza scrolls to go into the freezer and bring out and bake on a school morning for lunches.

muesli

I also cracked out this rather fabulous batch of muesli, made with more or less equal quantities of wholemeal rolled oats, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and nuts (in this case macadamias and walnuts). I also added a handful of coconut flakes, and coated the lot with 2 tablespoons each coconut oil, honey and peanut butter, and a teaspoon each of cinnamon and vanilla essence. I baked it at 160 degrees until the whole was golden brown, then threw in a couple of handfuls of sultanas for good luck.

Looking forward to having this for breakfast with fresh blueberries on top; at least summer has got them right this year!

Nostalgia

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Every now and then I get all nostalgic and like to sit down with my Grandmother’s faithful recipe book, which I inherited after her death. Baking a recipe from it is a real treat, with its old measurements in pounds and ounces and obscure ingredients, all written in her beautiful sloped handwriting.

I couldn’t resist making her classic shortbread biscuits today, but with a nod to modern tastes with chai spices and pecans placed on top. Here is her decades-old recipe, with my additions tagged on.

shortbread

1 1/4 tablespoons condensed milk

1/4 pound butter

3 tablespoons icing sugar

1 1/8 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

 

Cream butter and sugar. Add condensed milk and mix in well. Add flour and baking powder. Roll in balls and press on a cold tray.

*I took a few liberties with this recipe. I added 1/2 teaspoon each of cinnamon, allspice, cardamom and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg. I popped a pecan on top because-yum! Grandmas’s recipe doesn’t specify oven temperature, but I cooked these at about 160 degrees until they were just starting starting to turn brown, which was about 15 minutes. The whole house smelt amazing!