Spice Crisps

I recently went on a cookbook buying binge.


Owning cookbooks is a bit of an obsession. I decided that I was going to one day have an epic collection of cookbooks and they would all be arranged in a magnificent bookcase in my wonderful kitchen.


I remember reading an article about people's obsessions with cookbooks in The New Zealand Herald Canvas magazine (I think). How many of your mums own cookbooks but have made only one or two things from each one? I bet they bought them because they liked the look of the things inside. We buy cookbooks that have nice rustic pictures with beautiful platters and table settings because we crave the lifestyle portrayed by those books. We crave those lazy Sunday mornings where a wonderful rustic inspired brunch is whisked up. We want to lead the lives of those people who are always entertaining friends and family over  a late lunch or evening meal with seemingly perfect meals that they just whipped up from this and that.


When we buy cookbooks, we buy the ideal.

Or so the article said.

Sure the best part of cookbooks are the pictures. I tend to dislike cookbooks that don't have a picture for almost every recipe. I like being able to see what my food should look like in the end, afterall we eat with our eyes. We choose what we want to eat based on how it's texture and colour appear.


Cookbooks to me are also a source of knowledge. If you take the time to read the blurbs before each recipe and the page or two written by the author you may or may not find yourself learning something new. A new technique, a new trick, anything. The authors take the time in the first few pages to talk about their inspirations for the book. That may be their childhood, recent travel adventures or friends and family. It is actually an interesting read. Books that are published by cafes tend to have a bit at the front that tells the story of how the now successful cafe or restaurant came to be and hurdles that had to be overcome.


One of the recent purchases I made was Ladies a Plate: Traditional Home Baking by Alexa Johnston. This book is particularly interesting as each recipe comes with a mini history lesson on how this recipe came to become a New Zealand household classic. Photos of old Women's Institute cookery books and school fundraiser cookbooks are included. The recipes included are the ones that our nanas used to make and the pages provide a real sense of nostalgia.


While I find I might not make the majority of recipes in this book it is still a really good one to have in my collection. What makes this book special is the amount of detail and effort that went into sourcing and researching these recipes.


I love gingernuts. They are so great. Dunked into a nice hot cup of tea they are amazing (except when it crumbles to the bottom of your teacup and in the last gulp of tea you get a mass of soggy crumbs. Gross!).

I tried making ginger nuts from the Edmonds Cookery Book but unfortunately they did not have the same crispness that the good old Griffin's biscuits provide. These ones however are delicious. Before you bake them you roll them in sugar which gives them an excellent crispness. They are nice and spicy and I guess are quite a perfect little treat to make this time of year. The smell of them baking in the oven is amazing! It is one of the best baking smells to have wafting around the house.


These are super easy. The method says to leave the mixture in the fridge for at least and hour to firm up. I went to the gym whilst I was waiting to them to cool and I have to say it did make a huge difference when rolling them. They formed perfect smooth little balls which then flattened into perfect circular biscuits when they came out of the oven.

The recipe said to use treacle but unfortunately I still have not invested in treacle. I used golden syrup instead and they still turned out great.


These make a good homemade substitution for the trusty Griffin's gingernut and are best consumed when still slightly warm! Dad was most stoked with these biscuits. He is always one to complain about how the Griffin's gingernuts hurt his teeth but these ones are much more pleasant on the dental work.


Spice Crisps
Adapted from Ladies, A Plate by Alexa Johnston
Makes 48

170g butter, softened
200g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg
100g golden syrup (or treacle)
280g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup extra white sugar for rolling

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla, egg and golden syrup (or treacle) and beat on high until very fluffy.

Sift in the flour, baking soda, salt and spices and mix until combined.

Glad wrap the bowl and place in the fridge to cool and firm for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees on bake.

Make large marble sized balls of dough by rolling well between the palms to make a smooth ball.

Roll each ball in sugar before placing on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Don't flatten them with a fork as they will flatten themselves but make sure they are well spaced.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until they are dark golden in colour and the tops have cracked just be sure not to overcook them.

Transfer to a cooling wire rack to crisp up.





Enjoy!!

So many noms.


Gingerbread Cupcakes

I love gingerbread.



Its so great. I love the crunchy crust that forms on the top. Oh and when it is still warm and the butter melts into it. Ahhh so good.



It's another one of those Christmassy treats that can be made this time of year for no proper reasoning other than that it is Christmas time.



I basically made gingerbread. In a cupcake case. That had stripes on it. Cool eh?



And what makes everything better?



Cream cheese icing.


That's right, sooo delicious.

We are all moving Nana into her new place tomorrow so Mum asked me to make something to fill her tins that we could snack on during the day. She asked for cupcakes, or gingerbread or something.

Two birds. One stone.

I got this recipe here from my Cake Days book (no surprises there). You guys really should buy it. So worth it. The recipe said to add black treacle. Unfortunately we didn't have any here, I just substituted in the same weight of golden syrup. This makes the final sponge not as dark as it should and the black treacle would have lent a deeper flavour. But never mind, there is always next time. Which there will be! These are delicious!


Gingerbread Cupcakes
Adapted from Cake Days
Makes 12-16 regular sized cupcakes or 20 scalloped cupcake case sized ones

140g softened butter
200g caster sugar
120g golden syrup (or 60g black treacle and 60g golden syrup)
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
310g plain flour
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoon baking powder
240ml hot milk

Icing:
50g cream cheese
50g butter
400g icing sugar, sieved
A couple of tablespoons of milk
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees and line two muffin trays with cupcake cases.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the golden syrup (and treacle), eggs and egg yolks and beat until fluffy.

In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture in three lots, alternating with the hot milk.

Once all the ingredients have been added, beat until the batter is smooth.

Pour the batter into the cupcake cases until they are two thirds full.

Bake for 20 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.












Once they are cool, prepare the icing by creaming together all the icing ingredients until light and fluffy.  Add as much milk as you need to smooth the icing out.



Enjoy!

I did :)



Banana Chocolate (and Spice) Cupcakes

Hello!

Sorry it has been so long. I dunno, I guess I have just been lazy. This is more of a post on how NOT to make these cupcakes. Everything was going hunky dory until I misread the important wee bit of info regarding the baking powder. Turns out it was 1 TABLESPOON not 1 teaspoon. So my lovely fluffy cupcakes to be turned out as little runt cakes that were about as flat as my chest (which is VERY flat haha). Anyway they still tasted mighty fine so I decided to go ahead and write up this post. Haha thank goodness I didn't make the black bottomed cheesecake cupcakes tonight. That would have been tragic had I ruined good cheesecake. Since dear Jamal isn't around this weekend to consume cheesecakey things I decided to do these ones instead. Thanks Jamal for sort of helping me avoid cheesecake CATASTROPHE!!



As per usual I got the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook (I have my cakelet eye on their Cake Days one - oh it looks amazing!).

They called these Banana and Chocolate Cupcakes, but the only chocolate in them is from the icing and I was surprised to find that there was ginger and cinnamon in the recipe. I think they would be more accurately called banana spice cupcakes. For the chocolate icing, I just made a normal butter cream (with not that much butter really) and mixed in around 1 1/2 teaspoons of ginger and maybe 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon into it. It gives the chocolate this lovely warming sensation, just like ginger chocolate. Do it :)

So you will need:

120g plain flour
140g caster sugar
1 TABLESPOON baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
80g butter at room temperature (they say unsalted and then include a pinch of salt in the recipe - I don't have unsalted so I just use normal and then exclude the pinch)
120ml whole milk
2 eggs
120g mashed banana

Chocolate icing (with another 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground ginger and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon added if you wish)


A few words on bananas. The browner the bananas the better. The blacker the bananas are, technically the riper they are. Ripe bananas (ie when they fall off the tree) are black. The starches in the flesh have been broken down into their simpler sugar constituents resulting in a more caramelised, sweeter baked result. Bananas are a climateric, ethylene dependent fruit. To speed up the browning process either throw your bananas around about an hour before you need them (against a wall works well) or pop them in a paper bag with half a cut apple. The bruising causes the production of ethylene (the ripening hormone) which speeds up the process of ripening. Apples are naturally high ethylene producers so their ethylene can be used to ripen other fruits as well. Make sense? Or you could just hide a few bananas behind your couch for a week. That too would make good black banana . . .


Anyway  . . . the method:

(Makes 16)

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees on bake.

In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until combined.

Sieve in the flour, baking powder, ginger and cinnamon then mix until a sandy consistency is reached. Make sure you scrape down the edges of the bowl with a spatula regularly though the batter making process.

Slowly pour in the milk, beating well until it is all combined and the mixture is smooth.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating until they are well incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Remember to scrape those edges.

Stir in the mashed banana using a spoon.

Spoon the mixture into patty cases until they are two thirds full.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown on top and the sponge bounces back when touched.

Leave the cupcakes to cool in the muffin tray for a few minutes before removing and transferring to a wire rack or clean tea towel.

Once the cupcakes are completely cool, whip up your chocolate icing (75g softened butter, 250g (ish) icing sugar, 100g (I think) of cocoa, a few tablespoons of boiling water and a teaspoon or two of ginger and a teaspoon of cinnamon). Either ice them using a palate knife, butter knife or pipe the icing on using a nozzle and bag.

Enjoy!!


 The method in pictures for all you visual learners out there . . .



Ok children, so caster sugar and butter. Go!



Beat until it looks like this.


Oh dear, the egg went for a bit of a wander . . .




So sieve in your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, ginger and cinnamon).


Beat until a sandy consistency is achieved.


Like this :)


I have started making up milk powder milk. I know it sounds gross (it does smell odd I have to admit) but lovely my flattie Alix and I consume a vast (I mean VAST) quantity of custard at very odd times of the night. We go through a lot of milk between the three of us (Lucy sometimes joins us on our late night custardapades) and I figured if we make the custard up with milk powder milk we a) wont taste the milk powder and b) save $1 per litre of milk we use. I figure I can also use it in baking, it has the same solids content as fresh milk. All milk powder is is fresh milk that has been homogenised, pasteurised (like fresh milk) and then spray dried. I have started to get used to it. I even had it over my cereal at lunchtime (haha slash managed to drink a litre of it in the last 24 hours).

What are we doing again? Ah right, adding the 120ml (aka half a cup) of  milk. Add it slowly and beat until the batter is smooth and starts to fluff up.




Next beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat until they are well incorporated and the mixture is . . . you guessed it . . . smooth!



Next the gross bit. Mashed banana *shudder* I hate the stuff. It activates my gag reflex. It is all right in cake though. Actually it is excellent in cake. Excuse the 10g too many of banana.


Mash up the banana and then mix it gently into the batter.


Spoon into the patty cases until two thirds full.


Pop these in the oven for around 20 minutes (or until they are golden brown etc etc you know the drill).


If you have any bananas that are looking a bit sad, peel them, pop them in a snap lock bag and then freeze them. Next time you want to make banana cake/loaf/cupcakes, just whip these bad boys out and you will have instant mushy banana. Just a word of warning, they will go really black and gloopy looking. Why all the better for baking with! They are safe to eat don't worry :) They have just undergone cellular damage during the freezing process (oh god I am a nerd).


Haha remember how I said I didn't put the right amount of baking powder in? These looked fine when they first came out of the oven but as they cooled they started to sink. They sunk until the tops were wrinkled like cerebral cortex. Lovely.




Icing time!




I used a 1M nozzle. But just ignore the poor icing effort. I was disheartened by my brain looking dense cakes so I didn't put any effort into piping them into a nice ruffley swirl.







Oh yeah, then I dropped my camera into one of them :( Shot Sophie.







So there you go :)

They were actually really tasty. I love the ginger in the icing. Next time I will remember to put the right amount of baking powder in haha as these were very cakey and squidgy not light and airy. If at first you do not succeed . . . hide all evidence that you tried :) so I am in the process of mass cupcake consumption.

catch you later alligators!

Oaty Ginger Slice

 Hello!

So today I am blogging about my Mum's most recent delicious discovery that is Ripe Deli's Oaty Ginger Slice. Once again it was recommended by the wonderful Sue. I blame Sue for many ingested calories over the last few years. She should probably stop giving Mum all these recipes, but then again maybe not. Anyway Mum loves ginger crunch and originally I thought this was a ginger crunch recipe but it turned out to be an oat slice crossed with ginger crunch. Which is excellent. I love oats. Especially when they are in ANZAC biscuits.

Hmm isn't that delicious looking? Unfortunately I didn't have a camera on me at the time of the slicing so I had to make do with my good old trusty phone :)

Ok here goes Ripe's Oaty Ginger Slice as told by the Ripe Deli cookbook . . .


Oaty Ginger Slice

Base:
200g unsalted butter
3 tablespoons golden syrup
1 cup soft brown sugar
1 cup desiccated coconut
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger

Topping (I doubled the recipe):
1 cup icing sugar
75g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 tablespoon ground ginger

You will also need a good trusty slice tin approx 20x30cm in size and a big chunky knife to cut it once set. A flimsy butter knife won't cut the mustard. Or in this case a very chunky solid base.

So first up, preheat your oven to bake at 170 degrees.




 So my friends, the next first thing you will want to do is to pop your base butter in a saucepan and heat until metled.




Next add the brown sugar and golden syrup and stir over a low to medium heat until all the sugar has dissolved.



Oh yeah a trick with golden syrup if your Mum hasn't already taught you is to pour boiling water over the spoon you plan to use before dipping it in the syrup. The heat melts the syrup making measurements more accurate, the syrup more pourable and less gets stuck to the spoon.






In a separate bowl mix all your other ingredients together such as your flour, oats, coconut, baking powder and ginger. Mix until evenly distributed.














 Pour your hot butter mixture over the top of your dries (just like in ANZAC biscuit making) and stir until well combined.










Once all nicely mixed, line your slice tin with baking paper like so.




And proceed to mold the base mixture to the base of the tin, making sure it is nice and even and goes right to the corners.

I find using the bottom of a half or full cup measure works really well to flatten the base evenly. This base is quite greasy so you don't need to flour the cup but for more doughy bases dip the cup's base in flour to stop it from sticking.




Sweet we are now ready for the oven. 20 minutes at 170 degrees.






Now this base looks quite dark in the next few photos, almost over done. But I have found that it needs to be cooked until that colour for the base to be crunchy enough to carry the soft, smooth topping. It's all about preferences. I love really hard crunchy ginger nuts but my Dad can't stand them so of course I want mine to be as crunchy as possible. Make sure you leave this to cool before pouring on the topping.

So now for the topping. It's dead easy. Like I said up the top, I make a double recipe, Mum does a one and a half. It doesn't really matter. One and a half is for people who arn't as fatty as myself but is more than sufficient.


In your trusty saucepan, melt your butter and then add your icing sugar, ginger and golden syrup.




Stir stir stir until it is all melted and smoother than the inside of Chris' thigh. Not joking about that either. Women would kill for such sparse thigh hair growth. TMI? Yeah thought so too. Anyway the idea is that you want it molten and smooth.


So that when you pour it, it looks like this.




Tilt the tray around to spread it around the base.


Oh doesn't that look good?





Leave to cool for a few hours on the kitchen bench. Our first batch was cooled in the fridge. Mum seems to think the fridge made it soft. Once all nice and set take to it with that big knife of yours and cut it up into delectable wee pieces. Did you know they say ginger is a natural blood thinner and can help to ease cramping when you get your monthly bill? What an excellent excuse to eat lots of this at a time when you are already feeling fat, bloated, cranky and sore! haha.

Ok time for me to right up the oaty cookies that I made simultaneously :)

See you soon!