Maggie Beer's Sour Cream Pastry

Pastry making is not my forte. My hands seem to be too hot, or something! So, I was thrilled to find a pastry that worked beautifully for me and could be made easily in my Thermomix.

Sour Cream Pastry
Makes one large quiche or two smaller ones.
(To make a quiche, allow 20 minutes resting time for pastry and another 20 minutes resting time once pastry is in the tin, then a further 1/2 hour or so cooking time)
This is a deliciously short, flaky pastry that's well worth making.

Ingredients:
200g chilled butter in chunks
250g plain flour

Process in  . (I actually put my bowl in the fridge for 10 minutes to chill it) for a few seconds until it looks like breadcrumbs.

120g sour cream (1/2 cup)

Add to  and process on speed 3-4 for a few seconds until crumbly, but beginning to come together. Tip out on to floured board. Bring together and throw on to counter a couple of times (helps prevent shrinkage!). Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 20 minutes.
Place on to silicon mat. Bash with rolling pin to help with rolling out. Make a large rectangle or circle and place in flan tin. Rest in fridge for another 20 minutes. Bake in a very hot oven (220C) for 5 - 10 minutes until beginning to brown. If you have high sides on quiche tin, cover with foil. Remove from oven and discard foil. Inhibit pastry by placing a tea towel over the top and pressing down.
Pour in desired filling and bake for 25 - 35 minutes, depending on size.

I made a yummy vegetarian quiche with this pastry recently:

Making Bread with a Ferment

SPELT/WHEAT BREAD

Bread making is a fascinating subject to someone like me who likes to perfect and conquer any commercial made products. The picture above shows today's loaf which is a blend of wholemeal spelt flour and white wheat flour with linseeds and sesame seeds. It has a sprinkling of oat flour on top.

It's easy to make a loaf of bread, but I want to make a loaf of bread that is healthy, as well as having similar qualities to commercially made bread. That lovely softness and the fine texture of soft wholemeal bread is something I aspire to achieve.

I'm getting there very slowly with additions such as Wonder Fresh and Natural Bread Improver from All About Bread in Greenwood. These products only need to be added in small amounts and contain natural enzymes to help create a softer crumb and better keeping ability. I also use Ascorbic Acid, or Vitamin C powder, as it is a natural preservative for home made bread.

Another tip I've learned from reading online Richard Bertinet's Bread information is to make an extra 300g  of dough, then keep that 300g aside and place it in the fridge for up to three days. When making the next loaf, add this ferment to the regular dough. Prior to forming the bread or rolls, remove the 300g extra and place it back in the fridge for the next time you make bread.

I've been using this method for some time now and have been able to reduce the amount of yeast I use by 25%.  The bread also develops a better flavour.

This isn't a true ferment as such, because true ferments will have to be refreshed with double its weight in flour and water.What happens though, is that after a while the dough becomes too large and the extra is thrown away. That seems like a waste, so I'll keep using the method I'm using now.

Natural Egg Replacement

Last night, I'd planned to make Salmon Patties for tea  with left over fresh salmon that we were given, but had no eggs! I'm lucky that we get beautiful home grown eggs from my daughter's chooks. I save all my scraps for them. But, I'd been doing a lot of cooking lately and used them all.

What to do? Well, google is my friend. I found that you can use a number of things to replace eggs, depending on what you're cooking. The wonderful Pioneer Thinking website provided the following:

2 tbsp cornstarch = 1 egg
2 tbsp arrowroot flour = 1 egg
2 tbsp potato starch = 1 egg
1 heaping tbsp soy powder + 2 tbsp water = 1 egg
1 tbsp soy milk powder + 1 tbsp cornstarch + 2 tbsp water = 1 egg.
1 banana = 1 egg in cakes.
1 tbsp milled flax seed and 3 tbsp water = 1 egg. Light, fluffy cakes!

I had made a flax seed gel once before when trying to make a natural hair gel. I remember heating up flax seeds in a pot of water and getting this amazing gel, so I did the same again.
Place 1 tbsp flax seeds and six tbsp water in a small saucepan. Let it simmer on low heat until a gel is formed. Strain, cool and use.

Has anyone else tried other egg substitutes? If so, did they work? Please leave your comments.

I used about 1 1/2 tbsp of the gel and my salmon patties were perfect!

The Edible Garden

There's no way you can ever say that I'm a gardener. I pull out weeds sometimes and plant things sometimes, but often forget to water them.

The exception to that comment is my vegetable garden. I absolutely love being able to go out and collect herbs and vegetables to be used in my cooking.
I've been picking the last of the summer vegies and getting the garden ready for winter vegies in between caring for Rambo, the Wonder Dog after his brush with death.
Green Capsicums, Spinach, Basil, Oregano and Lebanese Eggplant have featured strongly in our menus recently.

Tomatoes were unsuccessful this year, all leaf and very little fruit. I didn't prepare the vegie patch properly and it certainly showed with yellow spotted tomatoes and a baby watermelon that struggled to survive as it's poor roots battled their way through heavy clay.

But, thanks to a couple of birthday Bunnings Vouchers, my vegie patch is having a wonderful treat with loads of mushroom compost, sulphate of potash and a new liquid fertiliser I found.
Sabrina Hahn was discussing a fertiliser on one of her Saturday morning radio shows. The person who developed it was talking about how our WA soils are so deplete of minerals and nutrients and she did a huge amount of research to develop a liquid fertiliser that was not only effective, but safe for river systems (not that there's any run-off into rivers here!), so I searched for something that appeared to be this fertiliser. I think I have the right one - they can't say brand names on the ABC!
I bought a heap of seedlings to plant and now have in my vegie patch and in my garden near the back door:

Asparagus (new, two and three years old)
Bay
Blackberry Bush
Broccolini
Capsicum, still going
Cauliflower
Dill
Fennel
Gai Laan (A Chinese Vegie)
Lebanese Eggplant
Lemongrass
Lemon Thyme
Mint
Mizuna (Salad Leaves)
Oregano
Passionfruit, really late, but loads of flowers and fruit
Thyme
Sage
Spinach, still continuing to produce
Spring Onions
Raspberry Bush
Rosemary
Baby Watermelon, still struggling along

If I had my way, all my garden would be an edible one, with just a few landscape features like geraniums and fast growing trees. The trouble is, I'd forget to water it all!

Macadamia ANZAC Biscuits

These are the most delicious ANZAC Bickies ever! Truly Australian due to the Macadamia nuts in them.
Thanks to achookwoman from the Thermomix Forum for this recipe:

Macadamia ANZAC Biscuits
150g macadamias
120g butter
2 Tbsp Golden Syrup [100g]
100g rolled oats
180g plain flour
100g brown sugar
50g desiccated coconut
1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda
3 Tbsp of water


Preheat oven to 160c fan forced.
Chop macadamias in Thermomix for a few seconds, stopping and starting to ensure even chopping. Leave in the bowl.
Place butter and golden syrup in the bowl and heat for 2 minutes at 60c on speed 2.
Add remainder of the ingredients and process on the knead setting for 20 seconds or so until mixed.
Roll dessert spoonfuls into balls and place on lined baking tray. Flatten with wet fingers. For nice round edges that won't break off, place a cookie cutter around each bickie and circle around the edges.
Bake for 15 minutes (soft biscuits) or 20 minutes (crispy biscuits).
Remove from oven and cool on tray for minute or so, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Thermomix Sponge Cake

Yes! You can make a sponge cake in the Thermomix. The recipe is one I normally make in my beloved Kitchen Aid. It has never failed for me, even once when I left out one of the raising agents.
When whipping eggs or egg whites in the Thermomix, it's advisable to use a little heat. I whip eggs on 37, but you can even go to 60C.

No Fail Thermomix Sponge
4 large eggs
100g castor sugar (or blitz your sugar in the Thermomix first)
100g wheaten cornflour (also known as wheat starch)
70g custard powder
1 tsp plain flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp bi-carb soda

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line two 20cm deep sided tins with baking paper. Grease the sides lightly and sprinkle with little cornflour.

Place butterfly into Thermomix bowl.
Add eggs and beat on 37C for 8 minutes on speed 4.
While this is beating, sift flour onto baking paper twice.
Scrape down lid.
Add sugar and beat on speed 4 for 3 minutes.
Remove butterfly.
Add flour and mix on speed 1 - 2 for about 20 seconds.

Pour evenly  into tins and bake for 25 minutes. Turn cakes out onto wire rack and remove paper.
Carefully turn over. Allow to cool. Pop one in the freezer and eat the other!

Decorate as desired. For this particular sponge, I used home made Plum & Mulberry Jam in the middle, whipped cream and grated chocolate on top.

Melting Moments

Mmm, just the name conjures up the remembered taste of these delicious little morsels! This recipe comes from a favourite book, 'Family Circle Biscuits Recipes'. Whatever happened to Family Circle magazine? It's disappeared from the shelves, unfortunately.

Melting Moments
180g unsalted butter (I normally don't like unsalted butter in biscuits, but it works in these)
1/2 cup (70g) icing sugar (make in TMX first, if desired)
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup (50g) cornflour
1 cup (170g) plain flour

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line a couple of baking trays with baking paper.
Place softened butter, icing sugar and vanilla in TMX and beat on speed 4-5 for about 3 minutes or until light and creamy.
Add sifted flours and mix on speed 2-3 until just combined. Scrape mixture into a piping bag and use a 1 cm star shaped piping nozzle to pipe rosettes of around 4cm in diameter.
Decorate with glace cherries or glace ginger.
Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden.
Transfer to a cake rack to cool.
Alternatively, leave out the decoration and sandwich together, when cool, with a flavoured butter cream.