My Blog Personality

Just for fun, I used Typealyzer to analyse my blog's 'personality'.
It's fairly accurate, I think:

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

Yep, I think that's me....

Quick Tuna Risotto

It seems whenever I have a big breakfast, I'm hungry again around lunchtime.
Today was no execption. Bacon, eggs, tomato and spaghetti for breakfast on a slice of gorgeous homemade bread at 9am (yes, we had a lie-in today), then hungry at 1 o'clock!

I've been in the kitchen most of the morning, baking more patty cakes and a carrot cake. I knew ol' Herman would be able to whip up a super quick risotto, so looked around for inspiration and spied a tin of tuna in spring water in the pantry. This recipe is enough for two people (or one greedy person!).

Tuna & Spinach Risotto

1 small onion, quartered
20g oil
1/2 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup tuna juice
small tin of tuna in spring water
zest and juice of 1 lemon (make up to 1/2 cup with water)
handful of spinach leaves (mine were from the garden)
parsley
1/2 punnet or so of cherry tomatoes

Grate the lemon rind with the parsley leaves for a second or two and set aside. I don't do this myself, as I have a whizz bang zester and I just use scissors to chop the parsley into the bowl.

Turn Thermomix on to speed 5 and drop onion on to blades, (cover with hand quickly) for a couple of seconds. Scrape down and blitz at speed 4 for a second or two if necessary. Scrape down again.
Add oil and heat at Varoma for 2 minutes/speed 1. Add rice and cook at same temperature for a couple of minutes.
Add wine, water and tuna juice and cook for 10 minutes/100/speed 2, reverse. Add lemon juice and rind and cook for a further 5 - 10 minutes or until rice is almost cooked. Add spinach leaves, tuna, chopped parsley and tomato and cook for 2 minutes/ reverse/speed 1 - 2. Use Thermomix spatula to help incorporate spinach.

You could add parmesan cheese, but I was so hungry, I just poured it into my bowl and scoffed it. Lemon pepper woud also be a nice addition. It doesn't need extra salt as the tuna is salty enough.
Sorry, no photo - too hungry!

Serious Cakes

I've been watching some videos of a very clever lady, known as SeriousCakes in the US about decorating with Buttercream Icing. She does some amazing things, albeit a little over the top - garish colours and enough buttercream to drown a cat.
Her videos are very entertaining with little snippets to read and beautiful music to listen to while you watch.

I thought I'd try one of her cake recipes, she calls it yellow cake. I converted the recipe using an online conversion tool and thought it sounded a little out of whack:


2 3/4 cups all purpose flour (250g plain flour)
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup shortening (220g)
2 cups sugar (385g)
4 large eggs
3 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups milk (385g)

The closest thing I could find to vegetable shortening (they use the brand name Crisco), was Copha, which is coconut shortening. I used one third butter and two thirds copha. I couldn't bring myself to use 2 cups sugar, so I reduced to 1.5 cups, or 190g. As I was adding the milk, I knew it was way too much as the mixture was curdling, so I reduced it to the 300g. The mixture was still curdled, so I added another cup of flour, around 150g.

So, that made it a whole new recipe!  The mixure still looked a little like it was curdled and the taste wasn't flash because I hadn't added any salt. 

The warm cake tasted delicious, light and fluffy, though slightly 'eggy'. However, once cold, the cakes were firm and quite fatty tasting. I played around and made SeriousCakes Buttercream with Copha and butter and decorated them with little stars. I'm taking them up to Footy for afternoon tea. They looked really amatuerish, but the little girls will love them!         

Smartie Biscuits

These bickies are a huge hit in our family. Crisp and buttery with a delicious crunch of Smarties (or M & M's) make them very morish!
Since a bag of Smarties won't escape chocolate eagle eyes in our house, I often use Blackwood Lane Rainbow Choc Chips, available from supermarkets.

I make these in my Thermomix, but they are easily made in a regular mixer, though you'll need use softened butter and fold in the flours at the end.

Smartie Biscuits
Makes around 50 bickies


250g butter, diced
100g brown sugar
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups plain flour (I use 1 cup spelt and 1 1/2 cups plain)
1/4 cup SR flour
1 tsp bi-carb soda

Preheat oven to 180C and line two large baking trays with baking paper.
Measure cubed butter into Thermomix bowl. Soften for 30 seconds on speed 2 at 37C.
Add sugars and vanilla. Blend on speed 4 for about 2 minutes until creamy.
Add room temperature eggs (I place eggs from the fridge into a bowl of hot water for about 30 seconds) and beat on speed 4 for 2 more minutes.
Sift in the flours and bi-carb and mix on dough setting for around 40 seconds, scraping down occasionally.
Place in a bowl in the fridge for at least an hour.

Roll flat dessertspoonfuls of mixture into balls and place on baking tray. Press down gently and place Smarties or Rainbow Chips onto flattened dough. Press in lightly.

Bake at 180C for around 15 minutes for a chewy biscuit or 20 for a crispy, crunchy biscuit.

Chocolate Muffins

These delicious morsels aren't so much muffins as patty cakes, but the method is more like a muffin. They are easily made in the Thermomix and can also be made in a bowl.
I find that Woolworths Home Brand Cocoa is absolutely divine for these. It's rich and dark, unlike Cadbury's bland offering.


Chocolate Muffins
Makes about 10

Preheat oven to 180 C and place muffin or patty cake cases into tins.

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup boiling water
Mix together in a bowl and allow to cool a little while preparing remainder of the recipe.

60g butter -  melted in microwave
60g oil (80ml)
145g caster sugar (2/3 cup)
1 tsp vanilla
Blend on speed 3 - 4 for 30 seconds

3 eggs
Add eggs and blend for a further 30 seconds.

1 cup SR flour
1/4 cup plain flour
Scrape down bowl and add flours and chocolate mixture. Mix on dough setting for 10 seconds or so, scraping down occasionally until all mixture is smooth.

Pour into prepared muffin cases and bake for around 20 minutes or until muffins bounce back when touched lightly.
Cool on wire rack and cut out top, place some Hazelnut Chocolate Spread and a big dollop of cream into muffin, replace top and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Sorry, no photo - they went up to footy for afternoon tea.

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.