Butter – Italian Kiwi

Mothballs: A Sweet Treat From New Zealand

Lisa — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 13:12:18 +0000

Don’t be deceived by the unappetizing name

Since the holidays season is here, over the next few weeks on Italian Kiwi, I’m going to be sharing recipes for sweet treats and cookies that you can make for this time of the year. Christmas is a great excuse to load yourself up with sugar. Push the worry about the results of that until January! At Christmas time in New Zealand, my mother always made these Rice Krispie and date balls for us to eat as treats. The name “mothball” comes from their appearance, as they are fluffy with white coconut. A more apt name for them may be “snowballs”, however in New Zealand, Christmas is in the middle of the Summer, so there is no snow to be found anywhere. Or maybe they’re called mothballs as they look like the nether regions of a moth. on second thoughts, let’s stop thinking about the origin of the name, as it’s getting kind of stomach-churning! Let’s just enjoy the fact that they’re easy to make and delicious to eat.

Why dates are used when date palms don’t grow in NZ

Mothballs make great gifts! They look pretty, taste great and keep for a couple of weeks outside of the fridge. To make them harden quickly, you can put them in the fridge for 2 or 3 hours after they’re made. I find it interesting that in New Zealand, many desserts and cakes have dates in them, although it is actually not warm enough there to grow date palms. I’m guessing that back before there were fridges and any kind of fast transport, dates must have been used often as you could keep them for a long time. Coconut is another ingredient that crops up often in New Zealand recipes, like these mothballs, but isn’t grown in NZ. If you want other NZ recipes with coconut, you can have a look at cookies like ANZAC biscuits , or slices like Chocolate Caramel Slice. I think it was used for the same reason.

Travel Photo Of The Week

This shot was taken very close to where my lucky brother lives. The surf beach you arrive at when you get to the end of this sandy trail is called Mangawhai Heads, and the island you see off the coast is a wildlife refuge. It’s part of a group of islands that Captain James Cook dubbed The Hen And Chickens (the big one is “The Hen”) when he sailed past them. The Hen’s Maori name is Taranga, which I like better. You are not allowed to set foot on the island as there are colonies of very rare native birds there that no longer live anywhere else in New Zealand, thanks to the introduction on the mainland of non-native animals such as stoats and rats that eat the eggs and chicks. NZ has no native land mammals and no snakes, so the birds did not evolve to protect themselves from hunters. The introduced animals have (for them) fabulous pickings in New Zealand, as they can easily kill the native flightless birds, or eat the eggs that are laid by birds in nests on the ground. Thank goodness for these outlying islands that can help us to save our natural heritage!

By Lisa Watson

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mothballs from New Zealand

Don't be deceived by the name! Mothballs are a sweet treat from New Zealand made of dates and coconut. find the recipe on Italian Kiwi

Course Dessert, Snack, sweet

Cuisine New Zealand

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 5

fridge time 1

Total Time 15

Servings 20 -25 balls

Ingredients

70 g Butter 2.4 oz.
200 g White sugar 1 cup/ 7.2 oz.
150 g Pitted dates 1 cup
45 g Rice bubbles (Rice Krispies) 1 1/2 cups/ 5 oz.
Dried coconut

Instructions

Chop the dates roughly.
Melt the butter in a heavy-based pot on medium-low heat.
Stir the dates and sugar into the melted butter until the mixture clumps together (about 5 minutes).
Take the pot off the heat and stir in the Rice Krispies.
Pour some dried coconut onto a plate.
Take walnut-sized amounts of the mixture and form them into balls.
Roll the balls in the coconut.
Place the mothballs in an airtight container and refrigerate overnight.

Bread, Celery and Apple Stuffing

Lisa — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 10:59:28 +0000

The perfect stuffing for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has crept up on us with the stealth of a lion stalking its prey. Where does the time rush off to in such a hurry? Sometimes I with I had a brake-pedal so I could slow everything down just a little. If Thanksgiving is launching itself at us, that means that Christmas is not far behind it with its jaws gaping, ready to bite. It’s now time to push down the mild panic creeping over me and start getting a little organised! One of the recipes I have been making regularly over the last few years for our Thanksgiving meal is this bread and apple stuffing. Yes, I know that I’m not an American, but I do have a very good American friend living nearby who we celebrate with. I’m very willing to sacrifice myself to taking on a festival from another country that’s all about eating!

How to control the cooking panic at Thanksgiving

The stuffing is cooked outside of the bird so that the top of it gets nice and crunchy. It’s perfect to make for Thanksgiving or Christmas too, as you can prepare it the day before up to the last step where you uncover it and put it in the oven to crisp up. While the turkey is resting after its roasting, you can throw the stuffing in the oven for about 20 minutes to finish cooking it. Well, don’t literally “throw” it in the oven, as you may end up with a bigger cleaning job than you already have….just slide it in nice and calmly with none of that last minute panic you may be sliding into because the gravy’s burning, the dog is trying to get at the turkey, half the guests haven’t turned up yet, and all your family keeps barging into the kitchen, one after the other, to ask for random unnecessary things.

Some other dishes to go with the stuffing

To get a full Thanksgiving or Christmas meal, look no further than Italian Kiwi! You could serve this stuffing alongside brined turkey, perfect roast potatoes, Bianca’s Slow-cooked Carrots, and for some extra colour: Stewed Red Cabbage with Apple! Then for a light dessert, you could make ahead some panna cotta. There you go: a whole menu for you so now you don’t have to think about anything except for the grocery list!

Cookbook of the week

This week, instead of a travel photo of the week, I would like to tell you about a very important collaboration I worked on this year. I am a moderator on a large community on Google+ called Foodies+, and we have been working to put out a book full of recipes from our members in time for the holiday season. We’re very proud of the final result! This bread and apple stuffing is one of the many recipes that are in the book. The recipe book can be bought from any Amazon store and put on your Kindle or other device. The best thing is, that all the proceeds will go to the charity Action Against Hunger: a world-wide organisation supporting those in need. So, get yourself a gift for Christmas and help hungry people at the same time!

By Lisa Watson

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Bread and apple stuffing

This stuffing is perfect to make for Thanksgiving or Christmas too, as you can prepare it the day before up to the last step where you uncover it and put it in the oven to crisp up.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 45

Total Time 1 5

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

300 g Rustic bread 10.5 oz
1 medium Onion
150 g Celery 2 stalks
250 g Granny Smith apples 2 medium
50 g Butter 1.7 oz./3½Tbsp
250 ml Apple cider 1 cup
350 ml Water 1½ cups
2 Eggs
1 Chicken Bouillon Cube
1 tsp Salt

Instructions

Heat the oven to 180 C/350 F.
Chop the celery and onion. Peel and dice the apple into rough cubes.
Cut the bred into cubes, approximately 2cm/1 in square, and put in a large bowl.
Melt the butter in a large frying pan. Sauté the celery, apple and onion for 10 minutes on a medium heat. Stir frequently. Take off the heat.
Mix the cider, water, eggs, salt and bouillon cube together, then pour over the bread and stir well.
Add the celery mixture to the bread and stir.
Scrape the prepared mixture into a baking pan that is at least 20 x 30 cm/ 8 x 12 inch. Cover the pan tightly with aluminium foil.
Cook in the oven for 35 minutes.
Uncover the pan and bake for a further 15 minutes.
The first cooking step can be done a few hours in advance. When you are almost ready to serve your meal, put the stuffing in the oven for the last baking step and bake for 20 minutes.
Make this stuffing vegetarian by adding vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.

Mrs Rawnsley’s Sponge Cake

Lisa — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 10:37:28 +0000

Discovering history through an old recipe book

Who is Mrs Rawnsley? Where did she get this recipe for sponge cake from? Did she make it up herself? Did she get it from a friend or a neighbour? These are questions that I’d love to have the answer to, but unless one of Mrs Rawnsley’s descendants is reading this post, I don’t think I’ll ever find out. I found her recipe for sponge cake when I was carefully leafing through a very old cookbook that belonged to my grandmother (the one you can see below). I mentioned the book briefly in my last post about growing up in New Zealand. The recipes are faded; some are so faint that they’re illegible. Beside almost all of the recipes is the name of the person who gave them to my grandmother.

A life in recipes

This makes the book more than a collection of recipes. It makes it the story of my grandmother’s life; who she knew, where she lived and how people ate at different periods of her life. There are also some recipes in it, written very carefully by my mother when she was a little girl. I can imagine her sitting at the dining-room table, studiously writing them down, with her tongue caught between her teeth in concentration.

The sponge cake is very easy to make. It is more the consistency of cake rather than sponge, but tasted it wonderful! It should be eaten within a day or two of making it. I noticed that it goes stale quite quickly.

A little bit of soul searching

The cookbook leads us along the path of my grandmother’s life from when she started collecting recipes from my great-grandmother, to when she got married, left home and started to meet new people. We all have a book like this inside of us: a trail of people we’ve met. Some of them are passing acquaintances and some become friends. Each and every one of them has some sort of impact on your life, just as you have an influence on theirs. Just remember that next time you smile at a stranger. That could make the difference in their day! So, enough of the philosophy for now. Here’s the:

Travel Photo Of The Week

Of course, this week it’s a photo of New Zealand. How can I make a sponge cake from New Zealand and not show you a photo from there too? My brother and his family are very lucky to live close to this beach called Mangawhai Heads, up in the North of New Zealand. It’s known for its surfing, though it was pretty calm the day we were there (and empty!). We had great fun poking through the rock-pools with the kids. The kids had great fun rolling and running down the huge sand-dunes behind the beach. We left that one to them and waited sedately for them at the bottom.

By Lisa Watson

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Mrs Rawnsley's Sponge Cake

Mrs Rawnsley's Sponge Cake is a very old recipe from New Zealand, discovered in my grandmother's faded, falling-to-pieces cookbook.

Course Dessert, sweet

Cuisine New Zealand

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 20

Total Time 30

Servings 1 cake

Ingredients

3 Eggs
150 g White Sugar 3/4 cup
125 ml Milk 1/2 cup
40 g Butter 1 1/2 oz
120 g All-purpose flour 1 cup
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

Instructions

Grease a cake tin with butter and line the bottom with baking paper. Heat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF).
Beat together the eggs and sugar until they become pale and thick.
Boil the milk and melt the butter in it. Pour the milk mixture slowly into the creamed egg while beating the batter constantly.
Mix together the flour, baking soda and cream of tartar.
Gently beat the flour mixture into the batter.
Bake the cake for 20 - 25 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch.
Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes before running a knife around the edges and tipping out onto a wire-rack to cool completely.
Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Russian Fudge From New Zealand

Lisa — Fri, 18 Dec 2015 13:45:52 +0000

The international history behind Russian fudge

When I was a kid, my mother used to make fudge often for us. As we got older, fudge was one of our favourite things to help her cook on a rainy weekend when there was no chance to go outside to slide around in rivers and make mud-balls (actually we also did that when it was raining), run through the fields exploring, go fishing for eels, or make tree-huts in the branches of the huge pine-trees that swayed behind the house.

Why this fudge is called “Russian” is a mystery. If anyone can figure out why, please let me know! I’m pretty sure that this is a New Zealand recipe, but don’t quote me on that, unless you’re talking to an Australian, then you can argue until you are blue in the face that it’s a pure Kiwi recipe and the Australians stole it. 🙂

Note: Since I wrote this post, I have talked to a French friend who spent many years living in Russia. She made this recipe for fudge and said after tasting it that it’s exactly what Russians eat as candy all the time and that it really does come from Russia! Ha! That’s amazing that it really IS Russian originally!

The photo below shows three stages of the cooking process to help you when you are making the fudge. The first is just as the butter is melting into the other ingredients, the second is the gentle boiling stage about 5 minutes into the cooking, the third is about the colour it should be when you take it off the heat. Have a look at the recipe instructions below on how to tell when it’s cooked if you don’t have a thermometer

The secret to making the perfect fudge

The secret to making it set properly is to beat it well for at least 5 minutes. It can be a little tricky to get it right until you’ve tried to make it a few times.

Russian fudge makes a wonderful handmade holiday gift, or can be just an excuse to have a delicious sweet treat at home!

Travel photo of the week

This week’s Travel Photo is of a beach called Hahei Beach in New Zealand. If you look at a map of the North Island, it’s on the little peninsula called The Coromandel, which juts up from the East side of the island, just below the city of Auckland. I used to go camping all the time here with my friends. It’s fabulous for snorkling in the small bays nearby, body boarding on the waves at this beach and is as good of a place as any to eat lots of fudge!

This is my last post before the New Year rolls around. We going to Italy to go skiing on stones and grass for the week if the weather doesn’t change very soon. All the more reason to sit around drinking cappuccinos and eating pizza! I hope you all have a great holiday season with lots of good things to eat and drink! See you next year!

By Lisa Watson

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Russian Fudge

A delicious sweet treat that makes a great holiday gift

Course sweet

Cuisine New Zealand

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 20

Cooling time 15

Total Time 45

Ingredients

700 g Sugar 1 1/2 lbs
110 ml Milk 1/2 cup
125 g Butter 4 oz
200 ml Sweetened Condensed Milk 1/2 can
2 pinches Salt
1 Tbsp Golden Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Instructions

Stir the sugar and milk together in a heavy-bottomed pot, then cover and heat slowly until it starts to boil.
Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the vanilla extract and stir.Put the lid back on the pot.
Boil gently at a low setting, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes. The mixture will turn a golden-brown colour. If you have a cooking thermometer, cook the mixture until it reaches 117°C (242°F). If you don't have a thermometer, after 10 -12 minutes, drop a teaspoon of mixture into a dish of cold water. It should set and the lump should be soft and not hold its round shape when you scoop it out of the water.
Take the fudge off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Leave with the lid on to cool until the thermometer reads about 80°C (175°F). This will take about 15 minutes.
Beat the fudge with an electric mixer for at least 5 minutes, until it thickens.
Pour into a greaseproof paper lined baking dish that is about 20cm x 20cm (8 in x 8 in) in size.
Leave to set. When set, cut into small squares or rectangles.

Stewed Red Cabbage and Apples

Lisa — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 09:40:56 +0000

Enjoying the food in Munich, Germany

Recently, we were lucky to be able to visit the beautiful city of Munich, Germany and took in a visit to Legoland. The Munich part was for the adults in the family and the Legoland part was to convince the younger members of the family to wander around a city for a couple of days. Nothing like a good old-fashioned bribe of a near-future visit to a fun place to get the kids to not whine about their tired legs and about how we’ve already seen two churches and why do we have to see another one! Aside from the architecture, one of the great things to do in Munich is eat (you thought I was going to say “Go to the Oktoberfest and drink like a fish, didn’t you!). Well, the Oktoberfest wasn’t on, and with a couple of kids in tow, fish-drinking is not the done thing, so we went to eat. One of the delicious sides that you can get everywhere is red cabbage stewed with apples; a dish that brought back many good memories from when I used to live in Heidelberg many years ago. To make sure that I hadn’t forgotten anything, I also made myself eat large helpings of fabulous cakes and pastries. Of course, it was only in the name of research and something I would never normally do…..

Red cabbage everywhere!

While wiping pretzel crumbs off our faces, before moving onto a beer hall to eat large amounts of meat with sides of red cabbage, potatoes and sauerkraut, we stopped to watch the show of the Glockenspiel in the tower of the town-hall on Marianplatz. At certain times of the day a whole procession of figures cavort around to the tune of the chiming bells: knights, dancers and wedding guests all take a turn to spin in and out of sight of the crowds watching below. The different scenes show events that marked Munich’s history. It’s worth reading about before you see it (um, which I didn’t do) so that you can really appreciate the show.

Must-buys when you go to Munich

After stuffing ourselves, we went window-shopping and decided that maybe the traditional dirndls and lederhosen weren’t quite for us. Though it would certainly make us into talking-points if we wore them back in the French village where we live. It maybe better just to stick to recreating the red cabbage and apple side dish and leave the dirndl wearing to the Bavarian experts.

Just a note for slicing the red cabbage: if you have a mandoline slicer, it’s actually very quick to shred. Chopping it by hand will take quite a long time, unless you are an expert knife-wielder.

This cabbage goes exceptional well with brined turkey!

By Lisa Watson

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Stewed red cabbage with apple

Stewed red cabbage and apple is a typical South German side dish. It's good enough to eat by itself!

Course Side Dish

Cuisine German

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 2 15

Total Time 2 15

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

1 Red Cabbage
50 g Butter 2 Tbsp
1 Onion
2 Apples
1/2 lemon juice
2 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
150 ml Red Wine 1 cup
150 ml Vegetable Broth 1 cup
1 tsp Sugar
2 Bay leaves
4 Cloves
3 Juniper Berries
1 Tbsp Flour
1 Tbsp Redcurrant Jam optional
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Slice the cabbage into thin strips. I used a mandoline slicer for this.
Chop the onion finely. Peel, core and chop the apples.
Melt the butter in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Sauté and onions and apple until the onion becomes translucent.
Add the cabbage and lemon juice. Stir.
Sprinkle with 1 - 2 tsp salt, then add the vinegar, wine, broth, bay leaves, cloves, juniper berries and sugar.
Cover and simmer on a low heat for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, stirring every 10 -15 minutes.
Mix the flour with a little water in a cup to make a runny paste. Add this mixture to the cabbage and stir in to thicken the sauce.
Add the redcurrant jam, if using.
Taste and season with more salt if needed.
The cabbage can be made a few days in advance and kept refrigerated until needed.

Turkey: Make The Juiciest One Ever!

Lisa — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 23:02:12 +0000

Why you should adopt holidays from other countries

I can’t believe it’s the beginning of November already! What’s happened to the rest of the year? It feels as though I’ve just put away the New Year’s Celebration things, went to bed, and now I’ve woken up, it’s nearly Thanksgiving and Christmas time again! Well, that may mean that I celebrated New Year’s Eve for waaaay too long, but either way, I’m feeling a little cheated that the time is flying by so quickly. Every year for the last few years, we’ve been celebrating American Thanksgiving with a California girl transplanted to France. We say it’s to make her feel less homesick around the holiday season, but in actual fact, it’s because it’s a fabulous excuse to eat turkey and tons of other food, and drink wine with our friends!

The perfect way to roast a Thanksgiving turkey

Every year, we’ve been preparing the turkey the same way. The first year we decided to make a Thanksgiving meal, we were both turkey-roasting novices, so pulled a recipe out of my falling-apart San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook. The recipe worked so incredibly well, that we’ve tweaked it here and there a tiny bit, but for the last few years, we’ve stuck to it. We found out that the secret to make the juciest, most tender turkey possible is to stick it in brine the day before. It works every time! The Chronicle guys , in turn, got the recipe from one of the best restaurants in California called Chez Panisse. I had the huge pleasure to go there once. It’s one of those restaurants that’s really hard to get a booking for. They take bookings one month in advance, and you have to try to call as soon as the day starts to get in. It’s a little like calling to get on a radio-show competition: you dial and redial until you get through. There’s a set menu each evening, depending on what the chefs found at the market that day.

who thinks of taking photos when you are in the middle of Thanksgiving?

You will have to excuse the dark, slightly out-of-focus photos. By the time the turkey is ready, everyone has had a few glasses of prosecco, and are very eager to eat, so taking good photos is not a high priority. I scanned back over the last five years of us doing Thanksgiving together and this was the best I could come up with (so, imagine what the rest of the photos are like!).

Some table decoration ideas

I lived in California for five years, and only ate a Thanksgiving meal once when I was there, but now I live in France, it’s a nice way to remember my time in the States. There’s nothing like picking up random holidays that you like from other countries you’ve lived in and celebrating them because you like them. I think our kids are very confused about who does what and where in the world they do it!

My Californian friend is a fantastic table decorator. She does the table every year, and each year she chooses a different colour scheme. I found two examples below to maybe give you some ideas for decorating your own Thanksgiving table. I’m so glad she’s good at the whole table thing as I would probably just put out paper plates otherwise (I’m shocking at preparing tables to look beautiful!).

The most important tool you need for roasting turkey

I haven’t put a cooking time on the turkey as it depends on the size as to how long it roasts for. It usually says on the bag how long it should take. The absolute best piece of equipment you can buy for getting the turkey cooked to the perfect point is an oven-proof thermometer. Then there’s no second-guessing and no killing people with salmonella-infested raw turkey meat.

One more very important hint before I go: don’t forget to take the plastic bag with all the giblets in it out of the turkey before cooking it! No matter how well you cook the turkey, if you leave the bag in, you’ll contaminate the whole bird! Other than that, the turkey roasting is remarkably easy. The only tricky thing is the size and weight of the bird. You may need two people to lift it out of the oven.

This turkey goes wonderfully with side dishes of Crispy Roast Potatoes and colourful Stewed Cabbage and Apples.

By Lisa Watson

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Brined Roast Turkey

How to make the juiciest roast turkey you have ever tasted!

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 3

Brining time 1

Total Time 1 3 30

Servings 1 turkey

Ingredients

10 L Water 2 1/2 gallons
450 g Large crystal Salt 2 cups
220 g Sugar 1 cup
3 Bay Leaves
1 head Garlic
4 Allspice berries crushed
5 Tbsp Dried Thyme
5 Juniper Berries crushed
1 Turkey
5 - 6 Tbsp softened Butter
Turkey stock instructions below

Instructions

To Make The Turkey Stock:

Cover 2 turkey legs, one peeled and halved onion and four peeled carrots with water, and simmer for 2 hours. Top up the water if it gets too low. This broth can be made in advance and frozen until the day it's needed.

12 - 24 Hours Before Roasting:

Get a large container that can hold the turkey. Line it with a clean large trash bag.
Peel the garlic cloves.
Place all the ingredients from the water to the bay leaves in the bag and mix.
Carefully put the turkey into the water mixture and tie off the top of the bag.
Leave in the fridge, or somewhere where the temperature is between 0 - 5°C (30 - 41 °F) for 12 to 24 hours.

To Roast The Turkey:

Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
Take the turkey out of the brine, rinse it under running water, then pat it dry with paper towels.
Smear butter all over the turkey.
Place the turkey in a large roasting pan, legs facing upwards. Cover the breast with aluminium foil.
After 45 minutes, take the foil off the breast part. Ladle 2/3 cup of turkey stock over the turkey, then continue to roast it.
Repeat the basting with the juices from the pan every 15 -20 minutes until the turkey is cooked. The time it takes will depend on the size of the turkey (see note below). Use an oven-proof meat thermometer stuck into the thigh to check the progress of the cooking. (Don't let it touch the bone). When the turkey is ready, the internal temperature should be at 75°C (165°F).
At this point, take the turkey out of the oven and place it on a large serving plate. Leave it to sit for 20 minutes before carving it.

Notes

The turkey cooking time can vary greatly depending on the size of the bird. As a rough guide, calculate 20 minutes per pound ( about 40 minutes per kg) to get the total time needed.

Snickerdoodles: The Great American Cookie

Lisa — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 23:00:45 +0000

What is a snickerdoodle anyway?

I spent a few years living in California, which is where I was introduced to these fabulous cookies called snickerdoodles. When I first heard the name “snickerdoodle”, I thought it was another one of those strange poodle crosses, like the labradoodle (now, who wouldn’t want one of those?!). In fact, I eventually found out that snickerdoodles were butter cookies rolled in sugar and cinnamon, which was a little disappointing, but much easier to keep as a pet. The origins of the strange name seem to be lost in the mists of history. My guess is that one day some cook just decided that it would be terribly funny to make everyone in the world try to say snickerdoodle as often as possible.

What to use instead of cream of tartar

Snickerdoodles call for an ingredient called cream of tartar, which can be difficult to get in some countries. My supplier (i.e. my mother) brings it into France when she comes to visit from New Zealand. If you can’t get hold of cream of tartar, apparently you can replace it with 2 tsp of lemon juice for the taste, and/or 1 tsp of baking powder. Now, I haven’t tried either of these replacements, so I can’t guarantee that they will taste/work the same (although the internet assures me that they do!). I can’t see that they would hurt the snickerdoodles, so if you try it, let me know how it goes.

Snickerdoodles keep well for a week or so in an air-tight container after they’re made. It’s very unusual that they last that long though.

Travel Photo of the Week

This photo comes from the U.S.A.: the home of snickerdoodles. This is one of the most spectacular places I’ve ever hiked to. Arches National Park lies in the State of Utah near a very hip small town called Moab. The park is full of eye-bending rock arches, but this one is the most stunning, in my opinion. The rock formation is called Delicate Arch, for obvious reasons. It is perched on the edge of a cliff that drops away into a deep valley. I’ve hiked up here a couple of times, and the best time was just before sunset. The sun setting on the orange rocks turns them a deep red colour. If you go, take a headlamp with you so you can find your way back down the trail!

This recipe for snickerdoodles is adapted from a recipe from a fantastic cookie book called (wait for it!) “Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt In Your Mouth Cookies” By Alice Medrich.

By Lisa Watson

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Snickerdoodle cookies

How to make Snickerdoodles: The Great American Cookie

Course Dessert, sweet

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 10

fridge time 30

Total Time 50

Servings 35 - 40 cookies

Ingredients

225 g Butter 7.9 oz
275 g Sugar 9.7 oz
2 Eggs
380 g Flour 13.4 oz
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Cream of Tartar
For The Coating:
4 Tbsp White Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon

Instructions

Cream the butter (at room temperature) and sugar together until fluffy.
Add the eggs and beat in.
In a separate bowl, mix together the rest of the ingredients, except those for the coating.
Add the flour mixutre to the creamed butter and stir until the dough becomes smooth.
Cover the bowl with clingfilm and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, or up to one day.

When you are ready to make the cookies:

Heat the oven to 180°C (375°F).
Mix the sugar and cinnamon for the coating in a shallow dish.
Roll the cookie dough into walnut-sized balls, then roll them in the coating mixture.
Place them on a cookie sheet covered with baking paper. Leave about four fingers of space between each cookie so that they can spread. I usually fit 12 cookies on a regular-sized cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 - 12 minutes until the cookies are golden in colour. Take them out of the oven and leave them to cool on the tray for a few minutes.

Hot Cross Buns For Easter

Lisa — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 12:39:16 +0000

Hot cross buns, chocolate eating, and musings about the Easter Bunny

Easter is nearly here. I can hear the hoppity-hop of little bunny paws as they stuff their baskets with Easter eggs…..well, there must be more than one Easter Bunny, right? Otherwise how would he get the Easter eggs to all the kids on time? You can’t tell me that he does the Santa trick! He doesn’t have a sleigh, OR reindeer! Anyway, aside from eating way too much chocolate, another thing I love to eat around the Easter holidays are hot cross buns. I’m not sure why hot cross buns and actually called “hot cross buns”, as they don’t have to be hot when they are eaten, though they do taste awfully good with butter melting into them when they’re straight out of the oven. The cross is obvious. I’m sure it has religious (or pagan) significance, but I’m not going to get into that stuff here. Just make the hot cross buns and enjoy them, and don’t worry about the symbolism behind them!

Multi-purpose rolls

This recipe comes from my mother. When I was in New Zealand this time last year (yes, it’s taken me an entire year to get this recipe up!), I made them without the spices and brushed the tops of the buns with milk before cooking them to give them a nice shiny top, and they came out fabulously as dinner rolls. So, not only can this recipe be used for Easter, but you can make the rolls for Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or just for the heck of it, if you like.

A quick recipe

The hot cross bun dough only goes through one rising, which also means that they’re quick to make (well, quick in making-bread terms). You can have them on the table in only 2 1/2 – 3 hours from when you weigh out the flour to when you take them out of the oven. The photo above is before the rising, and the photo below is after, just to give you and idea of how much they should grow.

Hints and tricks from experience

I actually forgot to put the sultanas in when I made these as one of my sons ate the ones that I’d weighed out in anticipation of adding them to the dough, and I didn’t notice. So, I can tell you after scientific testing, that they taste good also without the sultanas, just not as sweet. The cross is an optional extra. It doesn’t add anything to the taste. You can do it just to prove that the rolls are indeed hot cross buns. I think next time I would just brush milk over them and forget about the cross. As you can see in the photo below, unless you have a piping bag that you can use, making the cross with the edge of a teaspoon can be quite messy.

So, I wish you all a very happy, and non-rainy Easter full of good things to eat (we’re having a leg of New Zealand lamb, of course!).

Travel Photo of the Week

This is Whangarei Heads, a small peninsula which juts out from the East coast of New Zealand near the town of Whangarei. I spent a lot of time here when I was growing up, getting into all sorts of trouble with a friend whose parents owned a farm just across the peninsula from where this photo was taken on top of a monolith of craggy towers called Mount Manaia. It takes about an hour or so to wend your way up the slopes through the forest (where once I got lost with the aforementioned friend: a story for another time). The view from the top, as you can see, is spectacular!

By Lisa Watson

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Hot cross buns

An easy and quick recipe for home-made Hot Cross buns from New Zealand.

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 20

Rising time 2

Total Time 35

Ingredients

300 g All-purpose flour 2 cups
10 g Dry Yeast 2 Tbsp
50 g Sugar 4 Tbsp
1 tsp Salt
250 ml cold water 1 cup
250 ml boiling Water 1 cup
50 g Butter 2 Tbsp
2 Eggs
2 tsp Cinnamon
4 tsp Mixed Spice
500 g All-purpose flour 3 3/4 cups
50 g Sultanas (or currants) 1/2 cup

Instructions

Mix the first lot of flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix.
Add the cold water, then the boiling water and mix until smooth. Leave for 2 - 3 minutes.
Add the second lot of flour, the cinnamon and mixed spice. Mix, then add the sultanas.
Knead for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth. Keep sprinkling flour on the dough if it is sticky.
Put a clean tea-towel over the bowl and leave on the bench for 15 minutes.
Line two trays with baking paper, then break off pieces of dough approximately the size of an egg. Roll them into balls and place them on the trays, spacing them so that there is room for them to expand.
Leave to rise for 2 hours until they double in size.
Heat the oven to 200ºC (375ºF). If you would like the buns to be shiney on top, brush them with milk. To make the crosses, put 2 tbsp of flour into a cup. Dribble water in and stir until a thick paste forms. Use a piping bag or the side of a teaspoon to draw the crosses on top of each bun.
Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until the tops of the buns are golden-brown.

Chocolate Caramel Cookies

Lisa — Sun, 01 Feb 2015 16:23:40 +0000

Why it’s time to make your own cookies

My kids have been eating way too many commercial cookies out of a packet recently, so I decided it was time to get baking. I often make ginger/cinnamon cookies with this recipe that I am going to share with you, but decided it was time for a change. I used the same dough, but added some cocoa powder instead, and Lo and Behold! Out came chocolate caramel cookies! And they were great! Usually when I make cutout cookies, the kids spend ages decorating them with all sorts of garish coloured sugar pearls and stars. This time I managed to make these chocolate caramel cookies while they were out, so we adults can now eat them too without feeling sick from the sugar rush. If you want to make them a little prettier, you could always drizzle chocolate glaze over the top of them. Or find some random kid to smush silver balls and coloured sugar confetti all over them.

Tips to make the cookies more quickly

If you don’t want to do the whole thing with cookie cutters, you can roll the dough into a cylinder, wrap it in plastic wrap, refrigerate it, then slice it onto the cookie tray to bake. If you want to be super lazy, don’t even cook the dough. Just eat it raw. But, that may be going a little far. If you’re that unmotivated, it might be better just to get some store-bought chocolate caramel cookies in the shape of stars. You can’t find them in the supermarket? Well, that’s a good reason to make these cookies then! My cookie-cutters are a little wonky after years of indelicate use from young children. The star looks like it’s imploding and the gingerbread man cutter seems to have one skinny leg and one fat, but I like them that way as it reminds me of all the times my boys and I spent around the kitchen table together when they were smaller. They’re not so enthusiastic about making them anymore, but they do still like to eat them though.

Just a note about this recipe. If the dough doesn’t stick together very well, add a little milk or water, a teaspoon at a time until it clumps together. If you have no golden syrup, or don’t want the caramel side of the cookies, add the equivalent volume in milk.

For another kind of delectable cookie, you could try chocolate afghan cookies instead.

Travel Photo of the Week

This is a beach on the island of Sardinia, Italy. I think the photo says it all! Pack your bags and go (after baking some chocolate caramel cookies).

By Lisa Watson

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Chocolate caramel cookies

Chocolate Caramel Cookies: better than store-bought! Use this recipe to make cookies with your kids!

Course cookies, Dessert, sweet

Cuisine New Zealand

Prep Time 40

Cook Time 8

Resting time 30

Total Time 48

Servings 35 - 40 cookies

Ingredients

275 g All-purpose flour 2 cups and 2 Tbsp, 10 oz
30 g Cocoa powder 4 Tbsp
100 g White sugar 1/2 cup, 3.5 oz
1 tsp Baking powder
75 g Butter 3 oz
75 g Golden Syrup 3 Tbsp
1 Eggs

Instructions

Sift all the dry ingredients into a medium-sized bowl.
Add the room temperature butter and rub it into the dry ingredients with your fingers until the mixture ressembles breadcrumbs.
Mix the egg and golden syrup together then add it to the dough. Mix in with your hands until the ball forms. If the dough is too dry and won't stick together, add a tiny bit of water and keep kneading the dough. Continue adding a teaspoon of water at a time until it sticks together.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. You can keep it like this for at least two days.
Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Take the dough out of the fridge and let it softn on the bench for 10 -15 minutes.
Roll it out on a floured bench until it is about 1 cm thick. Use cookie cutters or a glass to cut out the cookies and place them on a cookie tray lined with baking paper.
Bake for 8 - 10 minutes.

Goat Cheese and Pistachio Souffle

Lisa — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 15:47:35 +0000

Souffles are not as hard to make as they seem

Now, don’t let the fact that there is the word “souffle” in the title scare you off. Souffles have an undeserved reputation (along with sponge cakes and meringues) of being difficult, if not impossible to make at home unless you are some kind of magic whizz-kid in the kitchen. I’m here to shatter the myth that surrounds them! This souffle recipe was inspired by a book I’ve just been reading (that’s also just comes out as a movie) called The Hundred-Foot Journey By Richard C. Morais. The book itself was relatively forgettable. It had a lot of promise as a concept, but seemed to get itself lost about halfway through. The inspiring bit came from the recipes they make in the restaurant during the course of the story. One that caught my imagination was souffle with goat cheese and pistacho nuts. I already had a good recipe for cheese souffle so decided just to modify it a little. Now, I’m not sure that I want to go back to eating just plain old cheese souffle! This was so much more interesting!

Hints and tricks for making a fail-proof souffle

So, here are the tricks to making a good souffle that rises just as it should. There aren’t that many, and they’re not difficult, so bear with me…..don’t let your attention stray just yet! The most important thing you need to know is how to make a bechamel sauce. Wait! Don’t go away! Also bechamel is easy. Get yourself a medium-size pot and a whisk and I’ll explain everything below. After that, the rest is easy!

So, the few hints are:

Don’t touch the inside of the souffle dish with your fingers once it’s buttered. The grease/dirt (!) on your fingers with stop the batter from sticking to the side as it rises.
Have all your ingredients measured so you don’t panic halfway through the process.
Make sure the beaten egg whites are really stiff. They should be able to stand up in peaks when you pull the beaters out.
Fold the egg-whites in very slowly. Patience is everything in this step (and I have very little!).
Do NOT open the oven door in the first half of the cooking time.
Make sure everyone is sitting at the table when you take the souffle out of the oven as it will fall quite quickly.

If the souffle falls, act like it was supposed to do that

So, that’s it! See, there’s not that much to it! Go on, have a try! Even if the souffle doesn’t rise much, or falls as soon as you take it out of the oven, it will still taste good. Some restaurants even serve dishes called “fallen souffle”. You can just tell your guests that you meant to do it like that. If you don’t like/can’t get goat cheese or unsalted pistachio nuts you can try other combinations, like cheddar and hazelnut, gruyère and walnut, or Monterey Jack and macadamia nuts. Your imagination is the only limit!

You can make the souffle batter up to 2-3 hours before baking it. Just cover it with clingfilm and place it gently in the fridge until you’re ready to cook it. Take it out of the fridge about 15 -20 minutes before baking to let it warm up a bit.

Travel Photo of the Week

Since this recipe is french (well at least the goat cheese and souffle parts are!), I’ll leave you with a photo of one of my favourite places in the South of France: The Pont du Gard just outside Avignon. It’s a beautiful Roman aqueduct that is still standing. The area around it has been turned into a park. Absolutely worth visiting if you’re down in Provence!

By Lisa Watson

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Goat Cheese and Pistachio Souffle

How to make souffle. Tips and tricks to help you make a fail-proof souffle.

Course entree, first course, Main Course

Cuisine French

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 45

Total Time 1 5

Servings 6 - 8 people

Ingredients

1/2 - 1 Tbsp Dried breadcrumbs
65 g Butter 1/4 cup
70 g All-purpose flour 5 Tbsp
1 pinch Paprika
1 pinch Nutmeg
60 ml White or rosé wine 1/4 cup
300 ml Milk 1 1/4 cups
6 Eggs
1 tsp Salt
60 g Hard goat cheese 2oz
40 g Unsalted pistachio nuts 1/4 cup
25 g Grated Parmesan Cheese 1/4 cup

Instructions

Weigh out all the ingredients first. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Butter a large souffle dish or 6 small ones. Sprinkle the bottom with dried breadcrumbs (this makes the bottom crunchy and helps it to not stick). Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat. When it has melted add the flour all at once and stir with a whisk for two minutes.
Add the paprika and nutmeg.
Add the milk and wine and whisk constantly until the mixture thickens to the consistency of custard. Add the parmesan cheese.
Take it off the heat and leave it to cool for 2 - 3 minutes.
Whisk the egg yolks and salt together, then add them to the bechamel (yes, you've done the heardest bit!) and whisk them together.
Beat the egg whites until they are stiff (when you take the beaters out the whites should stand up in peaks).
Now use a wooden spoon. Take 1 spoonful of the whites and stir them into the bechamel. Gently fold the rest of the whites into the mixture.
Crumble or cut the goat cheese into small pieces (depending on how hard it is). Stir it gently into the mixture.
Chop or crush the pistachio nuts into tiny pieces. Add 3/4 of the pistachios and stir them in. Pour the batter into the already prepared souffle dish(es).
Sprinkle the rest of the pistachios on the top of the souffle.
Put in the oven and turn the temperature down to 170°C (375°F).
Bake one large souffle for 45 - 55 minutes and small souffles for 12 -15 minutes. Don't open the oven for the first half of the cooking!
Serve IMMEDIATELY!