coconut sweet-slice

Originally this was intended to be Caramel Slice from my Kitchen Classics Picnic Hamper cookbook, but due to impatience and decidedly not enough coconut, I created my own desert. Hah.

125g / 1 c. self-raising flour
90g / 1 c. dessicated coconut
115g / 1/2 c. superfine sugar I used standard sugar
125g unsalted butter, melted

Filling
2 tins of sweetened condensed milk
20g. unsalted butter
4 T. honey
40g. dessicated coconut

Topping
approx. 1 c. toasted coconut

Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease a shallow tin of your choice and line with baking paper, leaving thepaper hanging over the two long sides.

Sift the flour into a bowl, then mix in the coconut and sugar. Add the melted butter to the bowl and stir thoroughly. Press firmly into the tin and bake for 12 - 15 minutes, or until lightly coloured. Allow to cool.

To make the filling, put all the ingredients into a saucepan over low heat. Slowly bring to boil, stirring constantly, and let slightly caramelize. Quickly poor over the cooled base, spreadin evenly. Bake for 10 - 13 minutes. Meanwhile, toast the coconut in a frying pan over low heat, stirring constantly. Set aside. Remove tin from oven, top with coconut and place in fridge to set for at least 30 minutes.

When ready to serve, lift the slice form the tin and cut into pieces.


***this is so rich that a domino sized-slice is MORE than enough. VERY coconutty, sweet and goopy...delicious.

Blueberry Soured Cream Cake

Blueberries bake very well into cakes, as their purple skins keep in their juicy centres!

175g butter, softened
175g sugar
3 large eggs
225g self-raising flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. vanilla essence, 1 t. almond essence
4 T. soured cream (preferably 14% m.f.)
1 c. blueberries, fresh or frozen.

preheat the oven to 300F. Butter the base of, depending on what you would like, two standard cake tins for a 2 layer with shallower cakes, or 1 standard cake tin for a full, one layer cake.

Put the butter, sugar, ggs, flour, baking powder and essences in a bowl. Beat for a few minutes untill pale and well mixed. Beat in the soured cream and blueberries.
Tip the mixture into tin(s) and level. Bake for 30 - 40 minutes until firm to the touch and a fork inserted in the centre comes out clean.

For the frosting
1 packet of cream cheese
1 lemon, zested and juiced
icing sugar, to taste.

soften the packet of cream cheese and place in bowl. Beat with lemon zest and juice until smooth and add icing sugar to taste until desired sweetness is reached. Frost.

Luscious Lemon Loaf

Joe noted last night that I was waxing rhapsodic about summer foods (I think it was the wish for a big bowl of potato salad that clinched the deal).

Lemon sort of goes hand in hand with summer for me and I was wanting to give this a try so...

1/2 c softened butter
3/4 c white sugar
2 T VE Lemon Chiffon Fruit Dip Mix
2 eggs
1 1/2 c flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 c milk

Preheat to 349F (or round up if you insist). Prepare your loaf pan with your removal facilitator of choice and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar till fluffy and then beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk and then spoon into the pan and bake for 50-55 minutes or until golden. Cool before icing with Lemon Chiffon Icing (1/2 c of "spreadable light cream cheese" with 1 T of VE Lemon Chiffon).

Okay, warning: this is not a recipe for a wee loaf pan, this is a big loaf. The yield said 5 oz which sounds positively scant (oh, barely over a half cup!) but when it's given in metric, the truth is revealed... 1.5 L. Think about that for a second, think about how big a 2L milk carton is! If I seem especially fervent about it this time, it's because I'm cleaning burnt cake batter off of the bottom of my oven this afternoon. In my defense, this gets a lot of loft for something that, in batter form, closely resembles a pound cake. It made for the edges of the pan like a champ and was spilling over in no time.

The other thing to note is that the icing is probably only meant to cover the top of the loaf. I really like the looks of loaves that have been turned over on the plate though, I think they look like big chocolates so I tried. One half cup is a ridiculous amount of icing to try to spread over a cake and I really shouldn't have tried (I'm a professional, I should know better) but... anyway. The icing is scary it's so good (especially after I whipped it) and you really wouldn't want much more than that on the cake.

I left the Lemon Chiffon Blueberry Squares recipe for Erin to try. Over to you!

Gateau D'Adieu - Goodbye Cake

This was requested of me, so I must oblidge. The name Gateau D'Adieu literally translates to "Goodbye Cake", although mentally I am reading it like "Goodbye, Cake", as it disapears into my tummy.

I found this recipe in the forever reveared and mysterious all-that-is-good "101 Cakes And Bakes" and prepared it at my sending-off party before I left for Sweden. Lest I digress, it was a smashing sucess and I would much enjoy making it (and eating it) again. The lime and fresh blueberries add a certain...je ne sais quoi.

Gateau D'Adieu

225g self-raising flour
1 t. baking powder
200g caster sugar
200g. butter, softened
4 large eggs
2 t. vanilla extract
1 T. milk

Icing
400g. cream cheese
grated zest of 2 limes + juice of 1
100g icing sugar
blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350.

Put the flour, b. powder, sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla into a large bowl and combine all ingredients. Stir until no lumps are present and incorporate the milk.

Spoon the mix into your choice of baking tins (it looks specacular as a 3-tiered cake) and bake for 50 - 60 minutes.

to make the icing, beat the cheese with the lime zest, juice, and the icing sugar. Spread onto each layer and the rest on the top. arrange the blueberries in tight circles on the top of the cake.

GD'A will keep for about a 8 days in the fridge, 5 on the counter and indefinatly in your freezer.

** Editorial Note: To see a picture of this gorgeous cake click here**

Quick Pudding

This is a really excellent recipe for those days that you really need a treat and chocolate isn't going to do it (not that I'm dissing chocolate in any way, shape, or form). This has a nice, warm, cinnamon-y, raisin taste to it. The recipe makes a nice desert for 6 but on treat days it makes 4 nice-sized comfort portions. The best part is that you make both parts in the same mixing bowl, that takes all of 5 minutes (just long enough to preheat the oven in my kitchen) and then it's out of the oven in 30 minutes. The second best part is that all of the ingredients are pretty standard "pantry" ingredients so there's nothing at all stopping you from making it (Nancy, I'm going to try it with the brown sugar Splenda one of these nights. If you feel adventurous and get to it before me, post it in the comments, please.)

1 c flour
1/3 c brown sugar
2 T butter, softened
2 t baking powder
1/8 t salt
1/3 c raisins
1/2 c milk
1 3/4 c hot water
1/2 t cinnamon
1 t vanilla
2/3 c brown sugar

Measure the first 6 ingredients into a bowl and stir. Add the milk and mix. Turn into a 2L casserole dish and smooth the top. In the same bowl, combine the last 4 ingredients and stir. Pour carefully over the top of the batter. DO NOT STIR!! Bake uncovered for 30 minutes @ 350F. They say to serve it hot but if you let it cool a bit, the sauce gets thicker and you don't suffer from second degree sugar burns on the roof of your mouth (sometimes my purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others).

I think I originally got this from a Company's Coming cookbook. It's actually a lot like the Hot Fudge Monday recipe that I posted before only, you know, without the fudge (have I mentioned that I love chocolate just as much as the next girl? If said girl had a thing for lemon meringue and raspberries maybe).

Just Had To Share

I promise that I'll goad Erin until she posts about the actual trifle but I had to post this video of the chilled and strained custard that was one of the tasty components.

For hip and modern ladies like us, there just isn't that much call for a fine custard as there was in, say, our grandmothers' days but I have to confess that I'm developing a real appreciation for foods that require that I actually stand in front of the stove and stir (i.e. custard, risotto, bechemel). It's just really kind of cool to watch them thicken as the temperature rises or the starch starts to soften or whatever sort of chemical magic they succumb to.

Okay, now that I've waxed rhapsodic about food, I'll get to my real point: Jiggly custard is really funny. Colin, Liam and I had way too much fun last night just wiggling that bowl back and forth.

You should try it. And then make trifle with it :D

** Editorial correction: I've been reminded that, while still hip and modern, not everyone posting on this blog falls into the category of "ladies". Sorry Joe! **

Ice! Cream! Yaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

This has been on my 100 List from the first whack at it and I finally tried it!  Twice!  I wanted to take a lovely food porn picture of that ice cream but I just couldn't make it last that long, thank God we've still got some at Erin's (maybe).

Mocha Chip Ice Cream (10 x 1/2 cup servings)

1 c whole milk, well chilled
3/4 c granulated sugar
1 1/2 T cocoa powder
1 1/2 T instant espresso powder
2 cups heavy cream, well chilled
1 t vanilla extract (I have a heavy hand with it though)
4 oz chopped up semi-sweet chocolate

Beat milk, sugar, cocoa and espresso into the stand mixer and let it beat for about a minute on "low".  Stir in cream and vanilla.  Turn the ice cream machine on and then pour the stuff in (VERY important that the machine be already running when you start pouring the stuff in because those freezer chests are REALLY cold and it will block up the beater if you don't have it in motion already).  Beat for about 20 minutes, till it's recognizably ice cream but it's not frozen solid yet and then pour the chocolate into the top and let it stir for another 5 minutes.  Pour it into a bowl and put it in the freezer to firm up a bit.  It was... divine.

The blueberry frozen yogurt was a little more spontaneous.  We mixed 2 cups of vanilla yogurt (well, technically 1 3/4 cup vanilla and 1/4 c plain), 1 cup of whole milk (was supposed to be 1/2 cup but I made a mistake and no one noticed), a GENEROUS splash of vanilla (I didn't mean it to be quite so generous but...) and about 1 1/2 cups of frozen blueberries.  The recipe that I found said that you were supposed to puree and strain the berries but I threw them in whole and frozen and it worked out just fine.  Bright purple but tasty.

Cedar Plank Salmon and Hot Fudge Monday

Our fish was a little further along in the process than the one in the picture but all of the pictures of cedar plank salmon were boring. So I've never tried this method of cooking fish before and I bought the Tyee Fish Rub without tasting it first. I mixed some into about a 1/4 cup of olive oil until it was sort of somewhere in between sauce and paste. I soaked the planks in a big bowl in my bathtub for about 6 hours then I rubbed a little oil over them, put the salmon down and covered them with paste (and doesn't that sound appetizing?) Threw them into the oven at 325 F (found that number on the net, I didn't know if it was supposed to be a really hot over or not) for about 25 minutes.

After about 10 minutes, Meag came out and predicted that we would soon be hearing from the smoke detector. I didn't know that cedar planks, as they dry in the over, warp upwards into an arch (as opposed to warping downward into a bowl). This meant that, as the fish cooked and released some of the juices with the olive oil mixed in (it's not always attractive but it's really tasty), they were sliding down the arch and dropping to the superhot oven floor. So, note to self: next time you're cooking cedar plank salmon, put a cookie sheet on the rack below.

We never did hear from the smoke detector and if someone can explain to me why I can fill the entire room with acrid woodsmoke it doesn't do a damn thing yet when Meag is boiling water for pasta, we're having to fan it with towels every five minutes, I will bake them their own Triple Ginger Pound Cake.

To console myself over all of the smoke (and because I was having a chocolate jones) I made Hot Fudge Monday. You know those Dr. Oetker Cake & Sauce packages, they come in chocolate, apple, lemon, caramel, etc? It's just like that only you know what's going into it (not that I don't trust Dr. Oetker, he invented baking powder, you know)

Hot Fudge Monday (6 servings)

Cake: 1 cup flour
3/4 cup unpacked brown sugar
1 1/2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
2 t baking powder (thank you Dr. Oetker!)
1/4 t salt
1/2 cup skim milk
2 T vegetable oil

Sauce: 1 cup unpacked brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups boiling water

Prepare the cake batter, the original recipe does the separate dry and wet mixing but I just threw them all in a bowl and it worked out just fine. Spread batter evenly in an ungreased 8"x8" baking pan (I've only tried it in pyrex).

Mix the brown sugar and cocoa for the sauce together and sprinkle them evenly over the top of the cake batter. Pour the boiling water gently over the top but don't stir it in (very important!). Bake @ 350 F for 40-45 minutes and then let it stand for about 5 minutes before serving warm. Spoon the sauce from the bottom of the pan over the individual servings of cake. (Only 17% fat)

Oh, yeah. The salmon was f---ing amazing. I ate my first piece of it while standing and dishing the food out onto the plates. It was that good.