My First Challenge in a Long Time

Well, I am finally participating in the Daring Bakers challenges again. This month we made Cheesecake Pops thanks to Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasms & Deborah from Taste & Tell who chose this recipe from the cookbook 'Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey' by Jill O'Connor. My main challenge this month was actually getting around to making the challenge recipe. I've sat out the last few months due to varying circumstances, but I decided April was the month to bite the bullet and get back into the kitchen. I'm glad it wasn't some elaborate cake with lots of layers and different techniques, because I probably would have ended up in tears on the kitchen floor. Luckily the hardest part about this challenge was making sure I didn't spill the boiling water from the water bath all over myself when retrieving the cake from the oven.

They were really delicious, albeit hard to eat! I ended up taking them off their sticks (which helped when trying to dip them in the chocolate), and just eating them as the balls of chocolate covered cheesecakey goodness that they were. Probably not the best thing for the waistline, although if you could manage to stick to one it would be good portion control - instead of eating a large slice or something.

I'm so glad to be back doing the Daring Bakers challenges, thank-you to Ivonne & Lis for your patience with me lately! You guys are doing a wonderful job keeping this group running. This month has also seen the rise of a new Daring Bakers forum where non-DBers can ask all those baking questions that have been eating away at you! You can also find out how to join the Daring Bakers and ask questions about altering recipes for gluten free, vegan, lactose free and other alternate diets in the Alternative Forum. Now for this months recipe!

Cheesecake Pops (Makes 25-30)

Position rack in moddle of the oven and preheat to 160C. Beat together 1135g cream cheese, 2C sugar, 1/4C plain flour & 1/4tsp salt on low speed until smooth. Add 5 whole eggs & 2 egg yolks one at a time, mixing thoroughly between additions. Beat in 2tsp vanilla extract & 1/4C heavy cream. Grease a 25cm cake pan (not springform) and pour in batter. Place the pan in a large roasting dish and fill with boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, around 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours. Once firm, scoop cheesecake into large balls, about 55g and place on a baking paper lined tray. Insert a lollipop stick into each ball and freeze, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1-2 hours.

When the cheesecake balls are very hard, prepare the chocolate for dipping. Melt 500g chocolate (I used dark) with 2Tbsp copha in the microwave in short bursts until smooth. Quickly dip cheesecake balls into chocolate and roll in assorted decorations (I used sprinkles and butterfly cake decorations). Keep refrigerated or frozen until required.

Something Fresh...

... from Marie Claire 'Fresh'!

This book is really well set out with a chapter dedicated to each season, so naturally I only went through the current Autumn section when choosing the recipe I would make. But I couldn't decide on just one recipe to make, so I went with two. We had a nice vegetarian stew for dinner and followed it with a rich chocolate mousse, that was slightly alcoholic. The recipes in this book are quite easy to make, but some of them do include expensive or hard to source ingredients. The photography throughout the book is stunning, unlike my half assed attempts below. Ah well, sometimes you're just too hungry to take nice photos of your food!

Capsicum & Potato Stew (Serves 4)

Heat 2Tbsp butter, 2 diced red onions, 2 crushed garlic cloves & 1 large pinch of saffron threads together in a large saucepan over a medium heat. When the onion is soft and transparent, add 400g tinned tomatoes, 1tsp brown sugar & 500ml water. Cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes. Add 700g waxy potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces to the tomato mixture along with 1 red capsicum, cut into thick strips & 1tsp thyme leaves, then cover and simmer for a further 35 minutes. Season to taste with sea salt & freshly ground black pepper and serve sprinkled with the 15g coriander leaves & 30g finely chopped chives. Serve over rice.

Jaffa Mousse (Serves 4-6)

Melt 140g bitter chocolate & 2Tbsp grand marnier in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, add 4 egg yolks, stirring each one well before adding the next. Chocolate may stiffen but will become smooth, take off the heat and cool a little. Fold in 4Tbsp cocoa & 2tsp grated orange zest to 3/4C whipped cream and fold this into the chocolate. Set in the fridge for several hours. Peel 4 oranges with a sharp knife and cut them into slices. Put the orange slices in a bowl with 2 tbls of grand marnier. Divide the oranges between four to six dessert plates and top with a large spoonful of the mousse.

The next Cookbook Challenge book is 'All-Time Favourite Beef Recipes' by Better Homes & Gardens. Seems as though the LibraryThing widget has gone back to its older book loving phase, which always results in some... interesting... recipes. So keep your eyes peeled for that coming up soon.

Lest We Forget...

Here in Australia, today is ANZAC day. A fact that anyone in Australia or New Zealand or who has ties to this area would know all too well. For those of you in far off lands who might not know, ANZAC day commemorates the day of the first major military action of Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian & New Zealand Army Corps, today is the day that we stop and remember the ANZACs and all that they sacrificed. For more information on ANZAC day and the efforts of the ANZAC soldiers go to the Australian War Memorial Website, which is also where I got the recipe from.

ANZAC biscuits came about because soldiers mothers and partners were concerned about the nutritional quality of the food the soldiers were receiving while away at war. They therefore came up with a biscuit that contained the highest amount of nutritional value they could, while keeping in mind that they would be sent to the soldiers on merchant ships that had no refrigeration. The biscuits also had to be able to last for several months as it took them at least 2 months to reach the soldiers. For these reasons the biscuits didn't contain eggs to bind them together, using golden syrup or treacle instead.

By todays standards ANZAC biscuits are not really all that healthy. Most people today do not need as much energy as the ANZACs did all those years ago! However, they do contain more fibre than most biscuits do - due to the oats, which also have healthy effects for the heart.

ANZAC Biscuits (Makes approx. 25)

Preheat oven to 180C and grease a couple of biscuit trays. Combine 1C plain flour, 1C sugar, 1C rolled oats & 1C dessicated coconut in a bowl and mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl melt together 1/2C butter or margarine & 1-2Tbsp golden syrup (or treacle). Dissolve 1tsp bicarbonate of soda in 2Tbsp boiling water and add to butter mixture. Pour butter mixture over dry ingredients and mix gently to combine. Spoon small dollops of mixture onto the prepared baking trays, leaving plenty of room for spreading. Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes (If you like them soft and chewy like I do - the untraditional way - cook for no longer than 15 minutes, if you like them crunchy and traditional-like, cook them for 20 minutes). Allow to cool on trays for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. Can be stored in airtight tins for a very long time!

Happy Birthday!!

It has been one year since I started this little blog with a rant about the reasoning behind its name. Since then, this blog has been not only the hub of my cooking adventures - with many recipes being shared, participation in food blogging events and lots of challenges with the Daring Bakers - but an extension of my private world. A place to share my concerns and successes and a place through which I have met some wonderful people and made some likeminded friends. There have been some rough times in the life of this blog when I haven't posted as frequently as I would like, but other times have been full of cooking triumphs. I would like to thank everyone who has welcomed me into the foodblogging community with open arms and patience. Here's to many blogging years to come!

(And no, I haven't forgotten about the most recent Cookbook challenge book, I will be posting a couple of recipes from it in the next few days...)

2 More Donna Hay Recipes!

As it turns out, I hadn't already cooked anything from this weeks Cookbook Challenge book, 'The Instant Cook' by Donna Hay, so this week I made dinner & dessert from it. It was all pretty nice, my one problem with this book is that the cooking times are a fair bit out. The chicken took twice as long to cook and the dessert needed and extra 10 minutes to get it to brown. I will admit that the oven in our current rental property isn't the greatest oven in the world, but I don't seem to have had trouble with other recipes taking so long to cook in it. Maybe Donna Hay forgot to adjust the times from her super expensive, extra hot crazy oven to the average everyday persons oven times.

The chicken & vegetable stacks were quite nice with salad, but next time I would add some kind of chutney or chunky Italian tomato sauce underneath the chicken as there was some flavour lacking. It probably wouldn't be a problem with in season tomatoes though. As it was I ended up covering my chicken with the leftover salad dressing, which was just tomato chutney, pesto and balsamic vinegar dressing all mixed up, that gave it the kick that it needed.

As for the dessert, I couldn't fault it, it was absolutely delicious. I can't wait to try it with apples sprinkled with cinnamon for something a bit different though. Another plus is that it is really easy to prepare and if you have an ovenproof frying pan, which I don't, it is all made in one dish - so easy clean-up as well!

Chicken, Tomato & Eggplant Stacks Serves 4

Preheat oven to 180C and line a baking tray with baking paper. Cut 4 thick slices from 1 eggplant and place on the tray, spread thickly with tomato chutney (not needed if tomatoes are in season) and top with 4 roma tomatoes, thickly sliced. Sprinkle with 1Tbsp oregano leaves and season with salt & pepper. Butterfly 2 skinless chicken breast fillets and halve to make 4 fillets, place on top of vegetable stacks. Finally, top with 1/2C grated parmesan cheese & 1/2C grated mozzarella cheese. Bake for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through, finish under grill to brown cheese. Serve with salad.

Caramel Banana Tarte Tatin Serves 4

Preheat oven to 200C. Place 80g butter or margarine, 1/3C brown sugar & 1Tbsp light cream in a 22cm ovenproof frying pan. Stir the mixture over medium heat until the sugar has melted and the caramel is simmering. (If you don't have an ovenproof frying pan, like me, then you can microwave this mixture in short bursts until it is bubbling and pour it into the base of a 22cm tart/cake tin, then you won't have an extra frying pan to clean up.)

Slice 3 bananas lengthwise and arrange over the top of the caramel. Cut a circle to fit the pan out of 1 sheet puff pastry and place over the top of the bananas. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden. Stand for 5 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate and serve with cream or ice cream.

Next weeks Cookbook Challenge book is 'Fresh' by Marie Claire.

Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni

It seems that the love for Donna Hay that my LibraryThing widget has been displaying lately is starting to rub off on me. I must admit though, I have been using this recipe for cannelloni for a few years now, ever since I lived with Leanne and she fell in love with it. So when Leanne was coming around on the weekend to catch-up (and to meet Aaron of course), it seemed like the perfect thing to make for dinner. It went down wonderfully, as it always does, and there are still a couple of servings left in the freezer for lonely meals - because it makes a truckload! Consider yourself warned.

This one is adapted from 'Donna Hay Modern Classics Book 1' and I am sending this dish over to Ruth at Once Upon A Feast for this weeks Presto Pasta Night. Once again, it is nothing fancy, but some more comfort food to get me back into the swing of cooking again. This one is better for you than last weeks effort though, with much less fat and more fibre & mineral content with the spinach and tomatoes. I must apologise for the dodgy photo, I forgot to take one of it fresh out of the oven, so this is a picture of one of the frozen serves that I ate for lunch today.

If the last couple of posts haven't satisfied your Donna Hay needs, I cooked dinner and dessert from this weeks Cookbook Challenge book, The Instant Cook, and I will be posting them in the next couple of days. I wonder if the widget will choose another Donna Hay book for next week?


Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni Serves 6-8

Preheat oven to 180C. Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook 2tsp olive oil, 4 chopped garlic cloves & 1 chopped onion for 4-5 minutes or until tender. Add 2 x 440g cans crushed tomatoes, 4tsp brown sugar, 2Tbsp balsamic vinegar & 1/4C chopped basil leaves and simmer for 10 minutes until thick and pulpy.

Blanch 2 bunches trimmed English spinach in a saucepan of boiling water for 5 seconds, drain, squeeze out any moisture and chop. Alternatively, use 500g frozen chopped spinach, defrosted. Combine spinach with 750g fresh ricotta cheese, 1C finely grated parmesan cheese, 2Tbsp chopped parsley, 1Tbsp chopped dill & 1/2C breadcrumbs. Season with salt & pepper.

Spread 1/3 of the tomato sauce mixture over the base of a large baking dish. Use spinach and ricotta mixture to fill 250g pkt cannelloni tubes and arrange over the base of the baking dish. Pour the remaining tomato sauce mixture over the top of the cannelloni and sprinkle with 1/2C grated parmesan cheese. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until cheese has melted and tubes are cooked through.