Strawberries and Cream "Cupcakes"

Don't be fooled by the name, these are in fact muffins even though the recipe says 'cupcakes'. Its from one of those 'cupcake' recipe books that actually randomly tell you to use muffin trays for some recipes and cupcake trays for others. Anyway it makes 16 muffins. Luckily, for once I actually read the entire recipe and found out it was a muffin recipe before I got the cupcake tray out. Enough of that, its a muffin recipe lets move on. Mr & soon-to-be-Mrs Pizzaman said they were very sweet - which I took to be a good thing, but I think I probably have a sweet tooth so I would like it ;-)

Ingredients:
- 225g unsalted butter softened
- 225g caster sugat
- 225g self-raising flour
- 4 eggs 
- 1 tsp vanilla essence

Topping:
- 350ml whipping cream
- 4 tbsp icing sugar, sieved
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 375g sliced small strawberries (or normal sized strawberries if, like me, you can't find small ones!)
- 4 tbsp strawberry jelly
- 1 tbsp water

Method:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 175degreesCelcius. Place paper baking cases in muffin tins.

Step 2: Combine all the cupcake ingredients in a medium bowl and beat with an electric whisk until smooth and pale, about 2 to 3 minutes

Step 3: Spoon batter into the muffin cases and bake for 20min. Remove from oven and cool for 5 min then remove cupcakes and cool on a rack.

Step 4: For the Topping, whisk cream, icing sugar and vanilla in a small bowl until soft peaks form. Spoon onto cooled cupcakes and arrange the strawberries on top.

Step 5: In a small saucepan heat the jelly and water until melted.

Brush the mixture on top of the strawberries. Chill until ready to serve. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2days.

Sticky Date Pudding!!

The BEST dessert EVER in the history of the universe. I am serious. No I am not exaggerating in the slightest. And this is a quick and easy version of it.

Ingredients: (serves 6)
 - 1 1/4 cups chopped pitted dates
 - 1 1/4 cups water
 - 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
 - 60g softened butter
 - 3/4 cup castor sugar
 - 2 eggs, lightly beaten
 - 1 cup self-raising flour

Sauce:
 - 1/2 cup cream
 - 100g butter
 - 1/2 cup soft brown sugar

Method:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 180degreesCelcius. Lightly grease a six ramekins (or similar)
Step 1b: If you're like me and bought dates unchopped, you'll have to chop them... which is a disgusting job because the dates reminded me of dead bugs. But once you get past that (if indeed you can get past that) it only takes a few minutes to chop them up.

Step 2: Place the dates and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil, simmering for about 5min or until the dates are softened.

Remove from the hear and stir in the bicarbonate of soda.

Step 3: Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs a little at a time, beating after each addition to make a smooth batter. Fold in the sifted flour and then stir in the date-and-water mixture until well combined.

Step 4: Spoon into the prepared ramekins and bake for 20min or until firm and springy to touch.

Step 5: To make the butterscotch sauce, combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the butter is melted. Simmer for 10min or until thickened.

Turn the puddings out (or if you're lazy like me, keep them in the ramekins) and serve warm with hot butterscotch sauce poured over the top. Deeeeeelicious!

Meringue Mice

This one takes awhile to cook, but is fairly quick and easy to make otherwise.... They're cute and great for kids parties - which is kinda what I made it for; a kids party themed International Mens Day morning tea at work.

Ingredients:
- 2 egg whites at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of cream of tartar
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 1 licorice strap
- 1/4 cup flaked almonds
- 50g dark chocolate, chopped

Method
Step 1: Cut licorice into 8cm long thin strips

Step 2: Preheat oven to 120degreesCelcius and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Step 3: Beat egg whites, vanilla, cream of tartar and sugar with an electric mixer for 8-10 minutes until meringue mixture is thick and glossy.

Step 4: Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plan nozzle. Pipe teardrop mice shapes onto prepared trays, about 4cm apart. Insert 1 licorice piece for the tail and 2 almond flakes for the ears into each mouse shape.

Step 5: Bake mice for 1 and 1/4 hours or until hard when tapped, but still white. This is where I went a bit wrong I think, because I left them for 1 1/4hrs and then after that thought 'why are they a light brown colour?' Yeah if I had read the instructions better I'd have taken them out earlier. Buuut they were still yummy and either no one noticed or no one said anything about it if they did notice. Also, the meringue looked a bit granular, as though there were sugar granules on the outside... not sure what thats about but again, they tasted good and nobody said anything. Not sure if you can see the of-whiteness or the granularness in this picture, but it was there...

Turn oven off and leave meringue mice to cool with door ajar.

Step 6: Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until melted and smooth. Spoon chocolate mixture into a zip-lock bag. Snip one corner and pipe eyes and a nose onto each mouse.

I made 2 batches to take to work with me, which was about 35 mice.

Melon Tiramisu

The thinking behind this one was that it would be a nice summer-y dessert. I'm the first to admit that it wasnt the best dessert I've ever made, but, as the Pizzaman said, "It was better than I expected"/ And it was certainly quick and easy.

Ingredients
- 300ml thickened cream
- 1 tablespoon icing sugar
- 2 x 18cm round bought sponge cakes --This is where I went majorly wrong, Bilo just had madeira cake left... the orange-y flavour didn't go so well with this one, so I suggest you don't buy that as a 'it'll do' option!
- 1/4 cup (60ml) melon-flavoured liquer
- 300g rockmelon
- 300g honeydew melon


Method
Step 1:  Chop the melons coarsely into small cubes

Step 2: Beat sifted cream and icing sugar in a small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form

Step 3: Split cakes in half horizontally; trim brown edges. Cut 12x6 rounds from cakes (or whatever size rounds you need to fit in your serving glass...

Step 4: Place one cake round in each of six 1 1/2 cup (375ml) glasses; drizzle with half the liquer.

Step 5: Divide half the combined melons and cream over cake. Repeat layering with remaining cake, liquer and melon mixture.

Ready in less than 30min and (if sponge cake is used and not madeira cake) quite a nice, light summer dessert!

Scones with Jam and Cream

So I figured it was about time I had a go at the classic 'scone' recipe... And for something I had dreaded attempting for years, it was surprisingly easy and quick - took me less than 30min to make them,

Ingredients:
3 cups self-raising flour
1tsp salt
60g butter
1 1/4 cups milk (or buttermilk... as I have no idea what this is or where it would be located in the local supermarket, I went with milk...)
Jam
Cream

Method:
Step 1: Sift flour and salt into a bowl. Rub in the butter - while I usually love delving in with my hands, this felt like it took awhile so be prepared: your hands may get tired!

Step 2: Add nearly all the milk at once and mix quickly with a knife. Add remaining milk only in necessary to mix to a soft dough.

Step 3: Turn onto a floured board and knead by turnin and pressing with the heel of your hand 3 or 4 times. Then pat out into a flat round shape about 2cm thick.

Now this is where I had to get creative... The recipe calls for a 4cm (1 1/2inch) round floured cutter. Of which I have none. However, my 1/4 cup measuring spoon/cup/thing was about the right size, so I used it to cut out the round scone shapes.

Step 4: Once the scones have been shaped, place them close together on a lightly greased baking tray. Brush tops with a little milk and bake in the top of a preheated very hot oven (230degreesC) for 10-15min or until well risen and golden.

Step 5: For soft scones, wrap in a tea towel as soon as they come out of the oven. For crusty scones, cool on a wire rack. I chose nice soooft scones so I wrapped them up. As they were an afternoon tea thing and I made them late morning, I popped them in the oven for 10 or so minutes when the Pizzaman had finished making pizzas so that they were scrumptiously warm! And of course, serve with jam & cream!

Banana Caramel Puddings

Puddings would have to be one of my favourite desserts. Pretty much any kind of pudding - I love it. This week, its Banana Caramel Puddings, which I was a bit 'iffy' about, but turns out it's like any other kind of pudding.. which means its reeeaally yummy ;-) And to top off the goodness, it took 15min to make and then 15min of standing around (making majorly failed attempts at making custard with the unused egg yolks)... Quick, easy and yuuummy - my 3 prerequisites for a dessert recipe!

Ingredients:
90g butter, melted
1/2 cup (60g) almond meal
3 egg whites
3/4 cup (120g) icing sugar mixture
1/4 cup (75g) plain flour
50g butter, melted, extra
1/3 cup (75g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 medium bananas (400g), sliced thickly

Method:
Step 1: Preheat oven to "moderately hot" - I have no idea what that really means but I put it on about 160 I think. Why do recipes do that? Give me an actual temperature for crying out loud. Geeez.


Step 2: Combine butter, almond meal (I so did not know there was such a thing as almond meal... and a note to anyone not already in the know, you should find this in the nuts section of your local supermarket), egg whites, icing sugar and flour and stir until mixed together.

Step 3: Divide extra butter among 4 ramekins (or similar) and sprinkle evenly with brown sugar. Divide the banana slices and then the pudding mixture between the ramekins.

Step 4: Bake uncovered for about 15min or until puddings are lightly browned.

I forgot to rotate the puddings in the oven which meant that one of them was slightly too brown on one edge, but, considering that you turn onto a serving plate (after sitting for 2min) and couldn't see the slightly overcooked edge, I figure it doesn't count as a mistake ;-)

Chocolate Butterscotch Tartlets

This was the second easiest and quickest dessert I've ever made- it was great! It took just under 30min from start to finish, including chopping, cooking and cooling time. And the best bit was that there was enough for Friday Pizza night desserts AND lunch dessert with the family the next day! I love making something once and having it last for 2 meals ;-)


Ingredients:
12 frozen tartlet cases
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
20g butter
1/4 cup cream
150g dark eating chocolate, chopped coarsely
1/4 cup cream (extra)
2 tbs coarsely chopped roasted hazelnuts
1 tbs cocoa powder

Step 1: The Tartlet Cases
Bake the tartlet cases according to the packet instructions. In my case this was for 10min in a 160degree Celc oven (fan forced). However, I did 10min and thought they still looked a bit pale so kept them in 5min longer.

Step 2: The Filling
Meanwhile, heat combined sugar, butter and cream (1/4 cup) in a small saucepan, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Reduce heat simmer, uncovered and without stirring for 2 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes.

 Stir in chocolate and the extra cream (1/4 cup) until chocolate is completely melted. At this stage I realised that I hadn't chopped up the chocolate 'coarsely chopped' enough because it wasn't melting completely and I had to put it back on the hot plate (turned off but still hot) to heat it up until the chocolate melted. Once the chocolate is mixed through put into the fridge for 10min.

Step 3: Creation
Divide mixture among tartlet cases, sprinkle with nuts and sifted cocoa. Tip: Don't put the cocoa into the sifter right above the tartlets... it will all fall through onto a couple of the tartlets and you'll get a heap of cocoa that you have to try and blow/brush off!!!

Step 4: Clean Up
Lick saucepan and dividing spoon until sparkling clean! ;-) Its chocolate - how can you not?!

Lemon Meringue Pie

This week's dessert was made on Saturday as Friday Pizza night was rescheduled. This meant that I could spend slightly more time making dessert this week. However having said that, I still think it falls under the quick and easy heading... now that I've made it once that is; I've made all your mistakes for you so you won't have to!

Ingredients:
3tbs cornflour
1 1/4 cups sugar plus 6tbs sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tbs lemon rind
3 eggs -separated
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 x 23cm Shortcrust Pastry Shell (baked)

Step 1: The Pastry
So, tip number one: buy a ready made pastry shell. I decided to make one out of frozen pastry sheets thinking this would be fairly easy. I'm not saying it was hard, but it added at least 40min on to the overall prep/cooking time. Next time, I'm just buying one.

I cut, joined, and baked the pastry sheets to make a tart shell. I was worried about it sticking to the pie dish I have, but as the above pics show, the pastry came away from the sides in the cooking process so nothing to worry about there. I doubt I'm the only one who does this, but I have rice set aside for pastry cooking because when you fill the pastry with rice to stop it rising, the rice becomes way to dry to ever use again in food. Also, for the shortcrust pastry newbies out there, don't panic when the pastry puffs up - it will deflate!

Set the pastry aside to cool. (Go away or awhile).

Step 2: The Filling
Combine cornflour, 1 1/4 cups sugar, lemon juice and lemon rind in a saucepan. Beat egg yolks until thick and fluffy and then add into the saucepan. Gradually add boiling water. It will look something like this...

The recipe says to "Heat to simmering over very gentle heat, stirring constantly until thickened"... Our stove top goes from 1-6 so I figured "very gentle" means 1, maybe 2. So I start on 1... 5min later doesn't seem to be doing anything. Put it up to 2... 5 min later still nothing. Put it up to 3... 10min later I get fed up and put it up to 4, where it actually starts to thicken and simmer. "Very Gentle" it says. Ha. I'd say low and then medium heat (if not just medium heat to begin with). Unlike the 25-30min I spent at the stove top constantly stirring, I'd say this step should take a maximum of 10min.

Once it thickens, let it simmer for 3 or so minutes. Pour into pastry shell and leave it to cool. (Go away for awhile again)

Step 3: The Meringue
Preheat oven to 190degrees Celcius (fan forced). Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry and  gradually add remaining sugar. Spread over the cooled pie, making sure to touch all the edges of the pastry shell. Bake for 5min or until meringue is very pale brown.

Cool and serve with whipped cream.


So although I had a total prep and cooking time of over 2hrs, if done right, this could very well be a quick and easy dessert. Buying a pastry shell saves at least 30min. If you don't follow the 'very gentle' guidelines of the actual recipe, filling only takes 10-15min, and you could put it in the fridge to help it cool quicker. Then all you need is the meringue which again only takes 10mins. Eeeasy. What takes up the most time is the 'cooling off period', but that's what they invented fridges for! (Well it could have been one of the reasons anyway...)

BONUS DESSERT!

Because I made the round pastry shell out of square sheets, I had some left over. I usually make little jam rolls with leftover pastries, but this time I decided to try using Nutella. Spread the Nutella (or jam) over the pastry, roll it up and then bake it. You can't get much easier than that people.

I admit the Nutella isn't as great as the jam rolls, but its not bad for the amount of effort you put into it!

Apple Berry Crisp

As usual, it came to be Thursday evening and I realised that I needed a dessert recipe for Friday night. Every Thursday I say to myself 'Right, next week I'm going to plan dessert before Thursdy' ... inevitably it never happens that way. So Google is often my saviour on Thursdays! There are so many good recipes out there and this week I decided to do something differenty - I went with a video recipe. http://www.ifood.tv/recipe/apple-berry-crisp

The good news is that it forced me to go through the entire recipe at least once - I have a nasty habit of going through one 'Step' at a time as I make it and ofcourse come across a 'Meanwhile' or 'Pre-prepared' or something else that makes me swear. 

The recipe calls for 4 apples (peeled & sliced) and 6 cups of mixed berries, but I could tell that was going to be waaaay too much for 3people, so I decreased it 3 apples and 3cups of mixed berries. As it turned out, still too much, but that just means we get to have it 2 nights ;-)

Sprinkle the flour/sugar/lemon rind mixture over the apples & berries and mix through. This was when I realised that I should have decreased the recipe even more than I did... 

 The 'crisp' is just made up of flour, rolled oats, sugar, cinnamon and melted butter. I got to combine it with my hands which is always one of my favourite things to do when cooking! Sprinkle this evenly over the top of the apples & berries.

Its meant to go in the oven for 40-45 min but because I made it at home and then carted it over to the Pizzaman's place,  I cooked it for 30min at home in our oven, and then a couple hours later after pizza, cooked it a further 15min. It probably could have done with a bit longer as the apples were still a bit hard -but Mr Pink and the Pizzaman assured me they were nice that way... Still, a bit longer I think. Or thinner slices than I did... 

I forgot to take a picture before I started serving (I'm new at this ok! sheesh!) but I figure this helps show the insides as well and so is probably better anyway! I let it cool a little and then served it with ice-cream. I gave the boys 'decent' sized serves and we didn't even go through half of it.. I really need to learn how to decrease recipes appropriately! ;-)