Wednesday 23 December 2015

Chocolate Macadamia Brownies ( Originally Posted From Camille's Pantry 14/9/10)

Chocolate Macadamia Brownies

(c) 2010
Ingredients and Equipment
1/4 cup macadamia nut oil
250g dark chocolate buttons
1 cup caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup besan flour
1/4 cup potato flour
1/4 cup yellow maize corn flour
1/4 cup white maize corn flour
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1 muffin tray with paper liners (12 muffin tray)
Procedure
1. Preheat Oven 180 C and put paper liners into muffin tray.
2. In a medium heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water heat macadamia oil and chocolate buttons. Stir slowly to ensure chocolate and oil blend well. Becareful not to let water get into the mix as chocolate will “seize,” or turn into a grainy, clumpy mess in the bowl.
3. When chocolate and oil are blended slowly add sugar. Mix well after each addition. Sugar may not melt, it just needs to be mixed into the chocolate and oil.
4. Remove bowl from heat. Add vanilla, eggs and nuts, mixing after each addition.
5. Flour will need to be sifted together and slowly added, again, mixing well after each addition.
6. Spoon mixture into the paper muffin cases. You will only need to fill the cases half way as the batter will rise. Cover remaining batter and place to the side to use for next batch. Do not put the remaining batter into the fridge as the sugar and chocolate will solidify and you will not be able to spoon the batter into the muffin cases easily.
7. Put tray into oven for 20-25 minutes or until the brownies are firm.
8. Allow the brownies to cool for 5 minutes in the tray and then remove the brownies carefully. If they are still warm they will bend in the paper cases and be misshaped. Cool at room temp.
9. Reline the tray and spoon batter for next batch.

Chocolate and Vanilla Layer Cake ( Originally Posted From Camille's Pantry 15/11/10)

Chocolate and Vanilla Layer Cake

This cake will take some effort and time. It is not a cake to make if you are in a hurry or have lots of other 
things to do but it is worth the time. It is similar in preparation to an Indonesian Layer Cake.


Ingredients
8 Eggs
1 2/3 cups icing mixture
1 Tsp Vanilla
100mls Macadamia oil
1/3 cup Almond Meal
250 grams Chocolate




1. Line and grease a 17cm square cake tin.
2. Separate the eggs, whisking the whites until they form stiff peaks.
3. Slowly beat the sugar into the egg whites until the mixture is meringue like.
4. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks and vanilla together.
5. Add the Macadamia Oil and Almond meal to the yolk mixture and beat well.
6. Pour egg yolk mixture into the egg white mixture and fold gently.
7. Halve the mixture.
8. Melt the chocolate (can use either the microwave method or stove top method)
9. Gently fold chocolate into one of the mixtures.
10. Turn on grill (180 C or 350F).
11. Add approximately 1/3 - 1/2 cup of the chocolate mixture into the cake tin and rotate so mixture evenly 
coats the bottom. Put under the grill for approximately 1 minute or until the mixture lightly browns.
12. Repeat step 11 but use the vanilla mixture.
13. Continue to do steps 11 and 12 until you have used up both mixtures.
14. Turn cake out on a wire rack and allow to cool completely before cutting.
15. Sprinkle the top with icing sugar, trim edges and cut cake into desired number of pieces.


Chocolate and Vanilla Layer Cake - (c) 2010

Zucchini Slice (Originally posted From Camille's Pantry 15/11/10)

Zucchini Slice

Ingredients
2 large zucchinis
1 medium carrot
1 large onion
2 cloves of garlic
3 rashes of bacon (can be omitted for vegetarians)
1 cup of grated tasty cheese
1/2 cup of grated parmesan
1 cup of gluten free self raising flour 
(I use the flour mix on page 10 of wheat free world and sift baking powder into it.)
5 eggs
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 180 C and grease a lamington pan (or baking tray) that is approximately 16 x 25 cm.
2. Coarsely grate zucchini (with skin), carrot and onion together.
3. Add minced garlic to the mixture and mix well.
4. Chop Bacon and add to the mixture and mix well.
5. Add tasty cheese and parmesan and mix well.
6. In another bowl whisk eggs together and then egg mixture to the vegetables and cheese, mix well.
7. Slowly add flour to the mixture. mixing well after each addition.
8. Season with salt and pepper, mix well.
9. Cut tomato into thin slices.
10 . Spoon mixture into tin or tray and arrange tomato slices on the top. 
11. Bake in moderate oven for approximately 30-40 minutes.

 
Zucchini Slice served with Aunty Pics slow roasted tomatoes - (c) 2010
The slice can be eaten hot but is best cooled and then sliced. It seems to cut better when it is cold. 
I believe it could be due to the gluten free flour. It then reheats fine.

Tuesday 22 December 2015

Passionfruit and Polenta Loaf (originally posted 9/4/12 From Camille's Pantry)

Passionfruit and Polenta Loaf

Equipment
Large loaf tin, approximately 15cmx25cm

Ingredients
125mls  Macadamia Nut Oil
1 cup  Sugar
Tb sp lemon juice
3 eggs (separated)
1 1/4 cups corn flour
1 cup polenta
1/4 cup Tapioca (arrowroot) flour
3 tsp baking powder
175g can of Passionfruit pulp or 1/2 cup fresh pulp
      (save a Tbsp of pulp for icing)
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
1 cup icing mixture (gluten free)
1 Tbsp butter

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees, line and grease loaf tin.
2. Set up 3 mixing bowls - one for the dry, wet and egg mixes.
3. Using a sifter mix corn flour, tapioca flour and baking powder in dry mix bowl. Add Polenta and make 
sure the dry mix is thoroughly combined.
4. In the wet mix bowl (could be a large jug) mix the oil, egg yolks, yoghurt and passionfruit.
Do not use a blender or hand blender to mix as the passionfruit seeds will get crushed. Mix by hand using 
a whisk or mixer on low speed. When combined the mix will look like a custard.
5. Place the lemon juice in the third bowl and using a paper towel wipe the bowl out with the juice. Place 
the 3 egg whites into the bowl and beat till stiff peaks form, then slowly add the sugar. Beat in the sugar 
until it is dissolved and stiff peaks form.

You now have 3 separate mixes.

6. Gently fold the wet mix through the egg whites. 
7. Gently fold the dry mix  through the egg whites/wet mix.
8. Pour the batter into the loaf tin.
9. Bake in a moderate oven for 40-50 minutes. Loaf is cooked when a skewer comes out clean.
10. Allow to cool in pan for 10-15 minutes before turning out. The cake is very crumbly when warm, cooling 
allows it to set.


Allow to cool fully before icing.
Icing - beat butter till soft, add icing mixture and passionfruit pulp.






Passionfruit Polenta Loaf (c) Daisy Hedge

Monday 21 December 2015

Ginger Beer Holidays (published in Weekend Notes 24/6/2012 and From Camille's Pantry 30/6/2012)

Ginger Beer Holidays

This was the article I had published in Weekend Notes on the 24th June 2012- 
http://www.weekendnotes.com/ginger-beer-recipe/.  
I have started my first batch and will keep you posted.

Day 1 of the Ginger Beer Plant

Ginger beer.....it brings back memories of summer holidays when I was about 12 or 13. My father 
religiously maintained the ginger beer plant and then nearly every weekend any friends of ours who 
happened to be at our house, my two sisters and I would be enlisted as the child labour to process 
and bottle the ginger beer. In retrospect, the recipe my father used was meant to be non alcoholic 
but my science background makes me wonder as alcohol levels depend greatly on sugar content 
and length of fermentation. I believe after many months of plant production and errors in 
measurement........


Anyway, there is a great stall at the Jan Powers Markets selling ginger beer. My two year old son 
and husband were very impressed with the brew and I must admit it reminded me of those 
summers 20+ years ago. The taste of real ginger, a little bit of sediment in the bottom of the 
bottle, certainly a thirst quenching and satisfying drink while walking around the markets. 
Next time I go to the markets I will be locating the ginger beer stall first, but this weekend my task 
is to make a batch of my own. My dear old dad doesn’t have the recipe he used but online there 
are hundreds if not thousands of variations.
It is great a activity for kids too (not just for slave labour). Not all learning is done at school and
 the process of making ginger beer has some gems - measurement, process skills, problem solving and not to mention- 
fermentation. 
Try out some different recipes and do some taste comparisons - you will get either a great sweet reward or at the other extreme an 
explosive mess but the kids will be excited by it anyway! These school holidays are a great time to try as the latter result is less likely
 in the cooler weather.
I am going to give this recipe a go this weekend as it looks similar to my fathers and ones I have tried in the past.
For the Ginger Beer Plant:
A clean jar, cloth lid and rubber band
1/2 teaspoon dried yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons ground ginger
For the Sugar Syrup and resulting Beer:
4 cups sugar
1.5 litres cold water
4.5 litres warm water
1/2 cup strained lemon juice
Strainer, muslin cloth, funnel, large metal or plastic spoon, large boiler, measuring equipment, large glass /jar for plant filtrate.
sturdy bottles for about 8 litres of beer (glass beer bottles can be dangerous if the mixture gets a little too carbonated, well cleaned 
recycled soft drink bottles are good as they will generally only distort with pressure. If you want new bottles you can try brewing stores 
or packaging companies like Plasdene (Northgate) who will sell direct to the public).
Step 1: Making the Ginger Beer Plant (7 day process)
In the jar mix all of the ingredients, cover the jar with the cloth lid and rubber band and store in a safe place in the kitchen at 
room temperature. Don’t use a screw on lid as the plant needs to breathe but you don’t want dust and insects to get in.

Feed the plant everyday by adding 1/2 teaspoon of both sugar and ginger. Kids will love to watch the plant bubble like a 
volcano after a couple of days.
Step 2: One week later
Strain the plant through some muslin cloth, retaining the filtrate in the glass. The filtrate and half of the plant will be used for the beer 
and the remaining half of the plant will be discarded.

In the large boiler bring the cold water to the boil and add the sugar. Dissolve the sugar, turn off the heat and add the 4.5 litres of warm
water (can be from the hot water tap) and lemon juice. Allow the mixture to cool. If it is too hot the Ginger Plant filtrate will die when 
added.

When the mixture is hand warm, add the filtrate and stir with the large spoon. It is best not to use a wooden spoon as the wood fibres 
might have other flavours or contaminants that will alter the brewing process.
While waiting for the mix to cool, put the remainder of the plant into the clean a jar with 1 cup of water and feed each day for a week 
again to make another batch.

Bottle the brew, leaving about 5 cm from the top of the lid to allow for gas. Store in a safe location. I have put mine in the past in an esky
 in the laundry so if the the bottles expand and rupture  the mess will be contained. My father put his in an old tucker box freezer (not 
turned on of course) for the same reason but he used to used glass bottles - the mess was truly spectacular!

Leave the bottles to ferment for 3 -7 days. This will depend on the temperature and when the bottles feel very firm refrigerate to stop or 
slow the fermentation. Sometimes when you open a bottle it can be like opening sparkling wine/bubbly so it may be better done over a 
sink.
Remember - the alcohol content is minimal but not 0% and it by no means is sugar free so be mindful when giving to children. 
Looking back at my childhood though - I think we drank it constantly for one Christmas and two of the child labour force (they stayed with
 their grandma across the road every holiday) are now doctors. It didn’t appear to do us any harm and we had a ball making it and 
drinking it!

Coconut, Mango, Millet Slice ( originally posted 15/3/2015 on From Camille's Pantry)

Coconut, Mango, Millet Slice

Coconut, Mango and Millet Slice (Photo by Daisy Hedge, 2013)
I have been working on this recipe for a few weeks. I like to experiment with different flours and recently 
as I was poking around a new Indian/African supermarket I noticed Millet flour. Apparently it is used for 
flat bread in those cultures but I have chosen to use it in baked goods. I have tried about 6 versions, 
luckily I had lots of mangos! Not only did my husband the Coeliac like it but my 3 yr old son, sister who 
is a chef and nieces and nephews all gave it the thumbs up. After so many versions I started to freeze 
it and it comes back really well from frozen. I just put a piece in the microwave for 20 secs and it is all good, 
I even put one batch in the oven at about 130 for 30 minutes and they came out sweet and warm.

One tray (approx 20x 25 cm) made 16 slices and we calculated them to be 5 weight watchers pro points 
each (my husband is doing Weight Watchers)

Ingredients 
1 1/2 cups millet flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 x 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup of desiccated coconut
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 cup mango flesh
1 egg
1 cup low fat milk
1 tablespoon macadamia oil


1. Preheat oven to 150 C and line a tray with baking paper ( you need to lift this slice out of the tray so 
purely greasing a tray will not work).
2. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl.
3. Add 1/4 brown sugar and desiccated coconut to flour mix. Mix till well combined.
4. In a blender or using a hand blender combine mango and the other 1/4 cup of brown sugar. 
Place to the side to use later.
5. In another bowl mix egg, milk and oil.
6. Make a well in the flour mixture and add the wet mix to make a batter. Do not over mix. 
Best done with a wooden spoon rather than a electric mixer.
7. Put batter into the slice tray.
8. Pour mango mixture on the top of the batter to create another layer.
9. Using a knife, run the knife through the mixture ( as if cutting into to slices) so the mango blends 
with the millet batter layer.
10. Sprinkle the shredded coconut over the top of the mango layer.
11. Place in oven 40-50 minutes. Watch that the coconut doesn't burn. 

The mango layer will turn to a jam and thicken as it cooks. I used the old cake testing method of seeing 
whether the cake layer was cooked by putting a toothpick in the centre and seeing if any batter stuck to 
the toothpick.

Allow the slice to cool fully before cutting into slices.

Saturday 19 December 2015

Gluten Free Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding (originally published 5/6/13 From Camille's Pantry)

Gluten Free Self Saucing Chocolate Pudding
There is nothing nicer than warm chocolate pudding on a cool winter night. A few weeks ago when the weather started to change I went looking for a pudding recipe to make with my son. When I was kid the old self saucing pudding was a huge favourite every weekend after the Sunday night roast. Mum liked it because it was cooked in the same bowl it was mixed up in. The kids liked it because we got to make it as well as eat it and Dad always liked a bit of dessert after dinner!
Gluten Free Self Saucing Chocolate Pudding
(c) Daisy Hedge 2013

There are heaps of recipes out there and I couldn't find the old one that my sisters and I used to make so this is an amalgamation of about 4 that I found and amazingly my experiment worked first time - 2nd, 3rd and 4th attempts to get the gluten free version just right!

Equipment: I use a oven proof pudding/mixing bowl that is about 8 cups or 2 litres in size. You could mix this in a bowl and transfer to some over type of oven proof dish but this way really reduces the washing up.

Ingredients

Pudding
1 cup GF self raising flour (I used Woolworth's Macro Range)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup GF cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1 teasp vanilla essence
30g melted butter

Sauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 3/4 cups boiling water
1/2 cup GF cocoa


Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180 C (160 C fan forced).
2. Take the pudding bowl and combine all the dry pudding ingredients.
3. In a measuring jug combine the milk, butter, and vanilla.
4. Make a well in the centre of the dry mix and pour wet mix in combining well.
5. In a measuring jug combine the brown sugar, cocoa and boiling water.
6. Gently pour the sauce mixture into the bowl. This can be done by pouring the liquid onto the back of a spoon resting on the inside edge of the bowl. The batter will be covered by the liquid but it will rise up through it as it cooks.
7. Put the bowl carefully into the oven and bake for 45 minutes.
8. When baking has finished allow the pudding to cool for 15-20 minutes. This allows the sauce to thicken. 
9. Serve with cream or ice cream. You could do what we kids did - just eat out of the bowl!

Sunday 20 September 2015

Day one of the Daisy Hedge.

Day One of the Daisy Hedge.

This is the daisy hedge.

It has been a project of mine for a few years now but it is only now that I am starting to take it seriously. Well as serious as you can make a daisy hedge! The kidlets have made gardening a little impossible over the past couple of years but now that they are walking talking little people who can follow instructions and don't require constant eyeballing; it means I can do some things around the house I enjoy without fear someone will ingest something poisonous while I am 10 metres away in the garden. They like to help now as well. As you can see the kids toy mower has been in use. I just hope they are as eager to push the real mower around in ten years time as much as they want to push around the plastic one!


This is my other project - the vegie boxes. We have a little useless area around the side of the house where these boxes used to live. It was too dark for them and the rodents that seemed to live in the neighbours palm trees were harvesting more than we were! I have moved them to the back yard in the hope that they may be more successful. Hopefully the giant mango tree will not put too much shade on them. I have had to reline the boxes so I have only one going at the moment with some poorly performing dwarf beans and some very vigorous daikon radish.

Underneath the planter boxes I have some pots and old kids pools. I have a small backyard and it seemed like a waste to not use the space beneath. All the water and fertiliser drains out and into the pots below and it is like to get a double use of the water and fertiliser. I plan to grow most things from seed but until I get things started I am just going to buy some seedlings.

The front footpath.

The front petunia pots.

The front yard has been coming along nicely. The petunias are going made in the pots so I have tried to plant some on the footpath. I was hoping to soften the front wall a little. The pink petunias in the pots are grown from seed, the footpath ones are seedlings. I am going to try to collect the seeds and grow from scratch.

Finally here is the photo that I am most proud of. I think it is a little native bee, but I could be wrong. Regardless my flowers are starting to encourage in the little insects. Hopefully that will mean some good vegies!