Breakfast or Dessert?

Wow, I made these delish pancakes for dessert tonight and to say they were a big hit with the kids would be a HUGE understatement!

I served mine with a scoop of stewed apple (with some brown sugar in it) and a good shake of icing sugar over the top. They'd be yummy for a special Sunday breakfast too. Either way, I'll be making them again!

The Long Weekend...

went too fast.

We had friends to dinner, Hubby took an overnight fishing trip, the kids and I went to the lake and we sweltered with temps in the high 30's (around 100 for you lot in the U.S.). I fitted in an afternoon nap, lost count of how many loads of washing were done, caught up on last week's episode of Revenge - man, I am loving that show - and got some more work done on a fundraising project that I'm working on for the kids' school. Right now I have this sausage hotpot in the slow cooker and I'm avoiding the overflowing ironing basket.

Here's the Pear Tartlet we had for dessert the other night. They were totally delicious and received lots of compliments. They're from Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals but mine took a bit longer because I didn't have the pre-prepared bits his recipe called for so I did the whole lot from scratch. And yes, I'll do it from scratch again.

And here are the kids at the lake. With their swimming noodles. Don't ask. Offspring #1 was still exclaiming at the chill factor of the water in this shot while Offspring #2...

... well, he's trying to make farting sounds by blowing into the hole in the middle of the noodle. It's a boy thing. 

And here's a totally random photo of the sky. Just because it was a beautiful shade of blue, with fluffy clouds and I love the gum trees around the lake.

Dessert, In A Hurry

Finally my energy has returned. I had a hectic day at work, raced out the door just after 2pm, pulled into my driveway at 3.02pm, raced inside and changed clothes then trotted off around the corner to collect the kids from the school bus for 3.15. I'd already done my 4km walk this morning but figured that another 2km's or so would definitely help shift the last few kilo's I'm trying to get rid. The bus is a new development for us - I'm the anxious one who worried needlessly while they loved the bus ride and grinned like lunatics as soon as they saw me waiting at the bus stop.

We wandered back home where I got on with the house cleaning and the kids got on with some play-dough. I managed a couple of loads of washing, cleaned the house and got dinner on and they, amazingly, kept their fighting to a minimum. Wins all round. We were most of the way through dinner when the question came up. Is there any dessert? Despite all the sweet stuff you see on this blog we don't actually have dessert all that often. And they knew the Daddy of the house had finished the last of the ice-cream in a late night freezer raid earlier in the week. Hmmm... what could I do for dessert. An idea slipped into my head and, with a wee bit of help from Google, dessert was created. This is a recipe that did the rounds a couple of years ago but I never quite got around to trying it. There are literally hundreds of different versions and the one I followed was good but I've made a few changes to the recipe that will make it fabulous. Offspring #1 scored my efforts a 9/10 so I think that means he liked it! The recipe is for one cake - I made two and we shared them between the four of us. In my opinion one serving of this recipe is waaaaay too big for one person. I had some cream in the fridge so had some with this but ice-cream would definitely be the way to go.

3 Minute Chocolate Cake In A Mug

You'll need:

1 large coffee mug

In the mug place 4 tablespoons plain flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon cocoa, 1 tablespoon chocolate chips and mix them together.

Crack 1 egg into the dry mix and stir well

Add 3 tablespoons milk, 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, dash of vanilla extract. Mix thoroughly, making sure all ingredients are combined.

Microwave on high for 3 minutes.

Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

Cheesecake With A Twist

I'll freely admit that while this recipe had me excited it also had me a little perplexed. How on earth do you make a cheesecake without gelatine, or some sort of setting agent? Without a crust? And as for serving it warm? Well, that's just plain weird. But... this is easily one of the best desserts I've made. I took it to our Christmas in July dinner and it was absolutely delicious, perfect for a wet, cold winter's night and totally simple to put together.

Sticky Date Cheesecake

from The Australian Women's Weekly Cheesecakes Pavlovas and Trifles

This cheesecake can be served warm or at room temperature

1 cup (170g) dried dates, pitted, chopped

3/4 cup (180ml) water

3 x 250g packets cream cheese, softened

2 eggs, beaten lightly

2/3 cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon mixed spice

1/2 cup (40g) flaked almonds

1 teaspoon cinnamon sugar

2/3 cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar, extra

1/2 cup (125ml) cream

100g butter, chopped

Grease a 23cm springform tin; line base and side with baking paper

Combine dated and water in medium saucepan; simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. Strain dates over medium saucepan; reserve liquid, cool dates.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to moderately slow (160C). Beat cheese in large bowl with electric mixer until smooth; add egg, sugar and spices; beat until combined, fold in dates.

Place tin on oven tray, pour cheesecake mixture into tin. Sprinkle with almonds and cinnamon sugar. Bake in moderately slow oven about 1 hour, or until firm. Cool in oven with door ajar.

Stir remaining ingredients to reserved date liquid in pan, stir over heat until butter is melted; simmer, uncovered , 2 minutes.

Serve cheesecake with warm sauce.

Husband Trickery

Hubby is not a fan of baked cheesecakes. He thinks they are dry and crumbly and generally not very nice. He's quite vocal in his dislike of them refusing to order a baked cheesecake off a dessert menu and generally making rude comments if I so much as suggest making one. Luckily for all of us I quite often pay no attention at all to his moaning and whinging and go on my merry way making whatever takes my fancy. And so I present for the you the creamiest, smoothest, yummiest baked cheesecake I have ever tasted. It was easy to make, looked spectacular and impressed all who tasted it. Even Hubby. It impressed him so much he wants me to make another one really really soon.

Baked Cheesecake with Passionfruit Topping

from Good Taste magazine, June 2009

1 x 250g pkt plain sweet biscuits (I used Arnott's Nice biscuits)

125g unsalted butter, melted

2 x 250g pkts cream cheese, at room temperature

155g (3/4 cup) caster sugar

2 tsp finely grated lemon rind

2 Tbs fresh lemon juice

2 Tbs plain flour

5 eggs

125ml (1/2 cup) pouring cream

1 Tbs cornflour

80ml (1/3 cup) water

1 x 170g can passionfruit pulp

55g (14 cup) caster sugar, extra

1. Release the base from a 20cm (base measurement) springform pan and invert. Line with non-stick baking paper, allowing sides to overhang. Secure the base back into the pan.

2. Place biscuits in the bowl of a food processor. Process until finely crushed. Add butter. Process until well combined. Transfer to pan. Use the back of a spoon to spread and press firmly over the base ands side of pan. Cover with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.

3. Preheat oven to 160C. Use an electric beater to beat cream cheese, sugar and lemon rind in a large bowl until smooth. Add the lemon juice and flour. Beat until well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the c ream and beat until well combined.

4. Pour the cream cheese mixture into the biscuit base. Place on a baking tray. Bake in oven for 1 hour 10 minutes or until the cheesecake is just set in the centre*. Turn the oven off. Leave the cheesecake in the oven, with the door slightly ajar, for two hours or until cooled completely (this prevents the cake from cracking). Place in fridge overnight to set.

5. Combine the cornflour and water n a small bowl. Transfer to a saucepan. Add the passionfruit and extra sugar. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until the mixture boils and thickens. Set aside to cool slightly. Pour over cheesecake. Place in fridge until set.

*Don't worry if the cheesecake is slightly wobbly in the centre when you turn off the oven - it becomes firmer as it cools.

Going Bananas

I scored a huge bag of bananas for $2 while I was doing the grocery shopping yesterday. There was at least a couple of kilograms of lovely yellow bananas - I have no idea why they were going out cheap and, frankly, I don't care. Hubby and the kids go through bananas faster than I keep up but this was a heap of them, even by our standards, so I got busy searching out some recipes. Last night we settled for plain old banana splits - nothing fancy mind you, just banana split lengthways and some ice-cream, today I made our favourite banana bread and tonight I tried a new banana dessert.

This recipe was easy, fabulous and a huge hit. Even Offspring #2, who is fussy at the best of times and prefers her ice-cream unmarred by other sweet things, succumbed and declared it to be "very deee-lish-us". I doubled the recipe to make four one-cup puddings and realised, too late, that the servings were going to be far too big. Next time (yes, there will be a next time!) I'll make the recipe as is but put them into half-cup ramekins.

Banana Maple Puddings

from No Time To Cook by Donna Hay

2 tablespoon caster (superfine) sugar

2 tablespoons maple syrup

2/3 cup mashed banana

50g butter, melted

1 egg

1/2 cup self raising flour

thick cream, to serve (we added ice-cream too)

extra maple syrup, to serve

Preheat oven to 170C. Place the sugar, maple syrup, banana, butter, egg and flour into a small bowl and mix until combined. Spoon mixture into 2 greased 1-cup (250ml) capacity ramekins and bake for 30-35 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Serve puddings warm with a dollop of thick cream and extra maple syrup.

For Iris

In case you're new to my blog Iris is one of my favourite blogging buddies. She lives in Germany where, apparently they just don't make pies. I can't imagine a life without pie. Okay, I'm not a huge fan of the Aussie meat pie (very un-Australian, I know!) but I love a juicy delicious fruit pie and what better variety than apple?

Iris has told me of her lack of pie dishes, her lack of a 'good' pastry recipe and in general the lack of pie in her life. So this pie is just for her. It doesn't need a pie dish, the pastry is easy and the end result is delicious. Iris, I hope you like this.

I mished and mashed a couple of different recipes together but they all came from the same book - Donna Hay's Simple Essentials, fruit.

Rustic Apple Pie

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

2 cups (300g) plain flour

3 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar

150g cold butter, chopped

2-3 teaspoons iced water

Process the flour, sugar and butter in a a food processor until the mixture resembles rough breadcrumbs. While the motor is running, add enough iced water to form a smooth dough and process until just combined. Knead the dough lightly, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface or between sheets of non-stick baking paper until 2-3 mm (1/8 inch) thick.

Apple Filling

6 green apples, peeled, cored and halved. Cut each half into four slices.

1 tablespoon water

1 - 2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Place the apples and water in a deep frying pan over medium heat. cover and simmer, shaking the pan occasionally for 5 minutes or until just tender. Drain and cool . Stir in the sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon.

To assemble the pie

Preheat the oven to 180C. Roll the pastry into a circle about 30cm round on a lightly floured surface, or between sheets of non-stick paper. Sprinkle 1-2 tablespoons almond or hazelnut meal in the middle 20cm (or so) circle. Pile the apples (drain them if you need to) into the middle of the pastry over the almond meal then fold the sides of the pastry up to partially enclose over the apples. Brush the pastry with a little beaten egg and sprinkle with extra sugar. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden.

A Peach Of A Dessert

Clafoutis is a French pudding that's usually made with cherries, though sometimes with other fresh fruits. I'm not a big fan of cherries but have made an apple cloufatis before and thought it was nice but this one, using tinned peaches, is about a hundred times better. The apple one was more cake-like and much heavier where this one was like a baked custard in texture. When I decided to try it I was a little concerned after Poh bombed out with a clafoutis on Masterchef this week but I had no worries. It's light, sweet and easy to put together. All I can say is: make this. It's fantastic!

Jamie Oliver's Nan's Peach Clafoutis

delicious. June issue

1/4 cup plain flour

5 tablespoons caster sugar (preferable golden)

3 large (70g) eggs, beaten

450ml milk

1 whole nutmeg, for grating (I used ground, from a jar. About 1/2 tsp)

50g unsalted butter

400g can peach halves in juice, drained (I could only find peach slices)

good quality vanilla ice-cream, to serve

Preheat your oven to 220C. In a bowl, add the flour, 3 tablespoons caster sugar and a pinch of sea salt to the beaten eggs. Mix well, then put aside. Warm the milk in a saucepan until lukewarm, then stir this into the egg mixture. Grate in about 1/4 of the nutmeg.

Grease a shallow baking dish with butter, put the drained peaches on the bottom, them pour the egg batter over them. Dot the remaining butter on top in little knobs.

Pop the baking dish in the oven to bake for 25-30 minutes until the egg has set but still has a slight wobble to it. Sprinkle over the remaining caster sugar and serve with a good spoonful of ice-cream on the top. Absolutely delicious!

*Please ignore the slightly crazed layout of this recipe. It's Blogger, not me. Honestly!

An Old-Fashioned Dessert

I was flicking through the current issue of donna hay magazine and found a recipe for baked apples. To be fair it's not something I'd choose if I was out for dinner - I wasn't a big fan back in the day when dessert was something a rarity at the dinner table, and distinctly remember giving my share of the dish away when we made it during home ec. class in high school. However, after the ridiculous amounts of chocolate we've all eaten this week I thought this might meet the kids' request for 'a yummy dessert' as well as my requirement of something slightly healthy.

This was easy to put together and, although I did buy hazelnuts for it, you could use any nuts you have on hand. I exchanged the currants for sultanas (what the heck is the difference between currants, raisins and sultanas anyway?) as the small people in the house insist on a constant supply so they're always in the pantry.

The results of this effort weren't immediately impressive. Hubby and I both had a bite and exchanged "well, this is kinda boring" looks but then... another bite or so into it the flavours really came into their own and it got a little more interesting. I'd add a touch more cinnamon and Hubby suggests a hint of honey wouldn't go astray. If you're a baked apple fan you'll love this, if you're more like me I think it's fair to say you'll like it too. I can pretty much guarantee it'll make another appearance before spring arrives.

Currant and Hazelnut Baked Apples

from donna hay magazine, April/May 2009 issue

2 tablespoons currants (I used sultanas)

1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts

1 tablespoon brown sugar

25g butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 red apples, cored (mine were quite large, I'll use smaller ones next time)

1/3 cup brown sugar, extra

1/3 cup water

double (thick) cream, to serve

Preheat oven to 180C (355F). Place the currants, hazelnuts, sugar, butter and cinnamon in a bowl and mix well to combine. Score around the middle of the apple skins with a small sharp knife. Press the currant mixture into the apples and place in a small baking dish. Combine the extra sugar and water, pour into the base of the baking dish and cover with aluminium foil. Bake for 15 minutes, remove the foil and bake for a further 15 - 20 minutes or until the apples are soft. Serve with cream. Serves 4.

I Killed The Caramel. Again.

Remember my caramel troubles just a few weeks ago? Well, it's now official. Any caramel making skills I once had are gone.

I found a recipe for a lovely new cheesecake and tried it out when we had friends call through a couple of weeks ago. I chose a caramel cheesecake, partly to see if I could get my caramel mojo back but mostly because I love caramel. Love it. LOVE. IT. Like I'd marry it if I could. Hubby isn't quite so keen on caramel so I figured he'd eat his serving of dessert on the night and then any leftovers would be mine. Boy did I figure wrong. First off I couldn't get my caramel to do that caramel-thing. It didn't completely die but it wasn't far off. Then I wasn't actually all that keen on the finished product. Everyone else liked it and Hubby lurrrrved it. So he got the leftovers and I missed out. Oh well, I guess there's a lesson in there somewhere!

Seriously, this is a nice cheesecake. It was very rich so a tiny bit is well and truly enough. It has a yummy chocolatey base, a terrific baked filling and a totally over-the-top rich dark chocolate topping. It would be perfect for a special occasion or if you were feeding a crowd. Just don't kill the caramel.

Caramel Crunch Cheesecake

from The Australian Women's Weekly Cheesecakes Pavlovas and Trifles

125g plain chocolate biscuits

60g butter, melted

2 x 250g packets cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar

2 teaspoons grated lemon rind

3 eggs

1/3 cup (80ml) cream

1 tablespoon plain flour

50g bar chocolate-coated honeycomb, chopped finely

caramel filling

30g butter

1/4 cup (50g) firmly packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk

1 tablespoon golden syrup

2 tablespoons hot water

chocolate topping

150g dark eating chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup (60ml) cream

Line base of 21cm springform tin with foil. Line side with baking paper.

Process biscuits until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add butter; process until just combined.

Using one hand, press crumb mixture evenly over base of prepared tin. Cover; refrigerate 30 minutes or until firm.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to slow. Beat cheese, sugar and rind in medium bowl with electric mixture until smooth; beat in eggs, one at a time. Add cream and flour; beat until smooth. Stir honeycomb and the caramel filling into cheese mixture.

Place tin on oven tray, pour cheesecake mixture into tin, Bake in slow oven about 1 1/4 hours or until just firm. Cool in oven with door ajar.

Spread the chocolate topping over cheesecake. Cover cheesecake refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. Remove from tin just before serving.

Caramel Filling: combine ingredients in small saucepan; stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Boil, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes or until a deep caramel colour; cool.

Chocolate topping: combine chocolate and cream in small saucepan, stir over low heat until chocolate has melted and mixture is smooth; cool.

A Pub Lunch

I caught up with a friend and her 4-year old son for lunch today. When we were planning the catch-up we were toying with the idea of heading to one of the local pubs for lunch but in the end it was much easier, and cheaper, to have her come here. I didn't want to miss out on the pub lunch so I created my own. Well, I created it with a bit of help from a cookbook or two.

First we had Shortcut Steak Sandwich from my new Donna Hay cookbook. Seriously easy and fabulously tasty.

I followed up with a dessert that had been sitting in Ugly Binder for ages. I think it was just waiting for the right occasion. I adjusted the quantities somewhat to suit the fact that only two of us were eating (and two kids who had a slightly different, and smaller, version)

Chocolate Meringues with Cherries

from Australian Table Magazine, September 2007

Serves 6

3 egg whites

2/3 cup caster sugar

1 teaspoon cornflour

1 teaspoon white vinegar

1/4 cup cocoa, sifted

425g can pitted cherries in syrup

6 scoops low-fat vanilla ice-cream

1. Preheat oven to 140c or 120c fan. Line two baking tray with baking paper.

2. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until thick and glossy. Whisk in cornflour, vinegar and cocoa. Spoon 12 oval shapes onto prepared trays and bake for 45 minutes until crisp but centre is still soft and fudgy.

3. Meanwhile, drain cherries,m pouring syrup into a saucepan. Bring syrup to boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes, until reduced slightly. Cool.

4. Place a scoop of slightly softened ice-cream onto six meringues. Top with a few cherries and drizzle with syrup. Top with remaining meringues an serve.

A Yummy Dessert

As you'd have guessed from the previous post, we had ourselves a birthday party over the weekend. Offspring #1 turns 6 tomorrow so we had a party on Sunday. I decided that I just wasn't up for a full-scale production birthday party at the moment so it was a fairly simple affair - just a family lunch for 25 or so (okay, there were a couple of extras), an easy menu, a few party games and lots of fun.

I settled on lasagna, salad and garlic bread for the main course - I made two of the biggest lasagnas you've ever seen and we had just enough left for the four of us for dinner last night. Perfect! Dessert was also simple. A delicious pavlova, a fabulous new baked cheesecake and the brilliantly executed and very yellow Star Wars birthday cake.

I have absolutely no idea where the cheesecake recipe came from. It was hand-written and in the ugly binder - probably a long-ago library loan. It was next to a recipe I used at #2's christening so it's been floating around for a while. This was decadent and delicious and, unlike a lot of baked cheesecakes, it was surprisingly fluffy. It went down a treat at the party and Hubby and I just enjoyed the last piece after putting the kids to bed.

Baked White Chocolate Cheesecake
Serves 10

180g good-quality white chocolate

150g granita biscuits (didn't have them so used Marie's instead)

80g butter, melted

500g cream cheese, softened, chopped

300g sour cream

3/4 cup caster sugar

3/4 cup caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs, at room temp

Thick cream to serve (I used whipped cream)

1. Preheat oven to 160C. Line base and sides of a 7cm deep, 22cm springform pan with baking paper.

2. Break half the chocolate into pieces. Place in food processor and process until roughly chopped. Transfer to a bowl. (My processor went on strike and I ended up grating the chocolate.)

3. Place biscuits in processor and process until fine crumbs form. With the motor running, pour butter down feed tube. Press biscuit mix into base of lined pan/ refrigerate for 30 minutes. Wash and dry food processor.

4. Place cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla in food processor. Process until well combined and smooth. With motor running add eggs - 1 at a time, processing well after each addition. (Again, the processor was on strike - I used the hand held electric beaters and they did a fine job.)

5. Pour cream mix over prepared base. Sprinkle chopped chocolate over top and swirl through filling (oops, I added it to the mix and gave it a good stir). Bake for 50-60 minutes or until just firm in the centre. Allow cake to cook in oven for 2-3 hours. Refrigerate for four hours.

6. Spread cream over cake. Grate remaining chocolate and sprinkle over on top (I used some milk chocolate too - the all white was a bit boring!).

Best. Pie. Ever.

This was fantastic, delicious and scrumptious! I can't think of any other way to describe it. Just make it. In fact, it tasted so good I left the photo taking till after we'd polished off more than half of it. And just because we're gluttons, we had it with custard, ice-cream and cream!

Note: I did add lemon juice as directed but, not wanting to tempt fate too much I added rather less than the recipe asked for. I could still taste it and it definitely added to the taste.

High Top Apple and Sultana Pie

from Donna Hay Magazine, April/May 2008

12 Granny Smith Applies, peeled, cored and chopped

1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice (I used a little less, closer to 1 1/2 teaspoons)

1/2 cup caster (superfine) sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup sultanas

1 quantity basic vanilla pastry (see below)

1/3 cup almond meal (couldn't find it in the pantry so used hazelnut meal instead)

1 eggwhite, lightly beaten, for brushing

granulated sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 180C. Place the apples and lemon juice in a large, deep frying pan over medium heat. Cover and cook, shaking the pan occasionally, for 6-8 minutes or until just tender. Set aside to cool. Add sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and sultanas and mix to combine. Set aside.

Halve pastry and roll out each piece to 3mm thick. Line the base of a lightly greased 22cm metal pie tin (I used a ceramic pie dish) with a piece of pastry. Sprinkly over the almond (hazelnut!) meal and pack the apple mixture tightly into the pastry shell. Top with remaining pastry. Press the edges to seal and trim the excess. Cut several slits in the top of the pastry, brush with eggwhite and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until pastry is golden and crisp. Serves 8

Basic Vanilla Pastry

1 2/3 cups plain (all purpose) flour

1 tablespoon caster (superfine) sugar

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

180g cold butter, chopped

1/3 cup iced water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place flour, sugar and baking powder in a food processor and process to combine. Add butter and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. With the motor running, gradually add the water and vanilla and process until the mixture comes together to form a smooth dough, Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes before using.

One Of My Favourite Desserts

I love Banoffee Pie and have tried a couple of different recipes. We had friends to dinner last night (the round of 'last dinners' has begun) so it gave me a chance to try one I'd had floating around for awhile. This one's pretty good, though it's very rich so just a little slice goes a long way.

Banoffee Pie

Australian Table, November 2007

1 1/4 cups plain flour, sifted

125g cold butter, chopped

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1 egg yolk

395g can sweetened condensed milk

60g butter, chopped

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons golden syrup

3 bananas, thickly sliced on the diagonal

whipped cream and grated nutmeg to serve

1. Grease a 22cm loose-based flan pan. Sift four into a large bowl and rub in butter, using fingertips, until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in sugar. Add egg yolk and 1-2 tablespoons cold water and mix with a metal spatula, until mixture comes together. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 20 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 200C (or 180C fan-forced). Roll out pastry between two sheets of plastic wrap until 5mm thick. Ease into prepared pan, press into sides and trim edges. Chill for 15 minutes. Blind bake for 15 minutes. Remove paper and filling and bake for another 15 minutes, until golden. Cool.

3. Meanwhile, combine condensed milk, sugar and golden syrup in a heavy-based saucepan on low heat. Stir for 10 minutes until golden. Cool.

4. Pour caramel into pastry case and chill for 2 hours, until firm. Arrange bananas on top (I drizzled melted chocolate over the bananas - banoffee pie needs a touch of chocolate!). Spoon whipped cream on top, sprinkle with nutmeg and cut into wedges to serve.

In other news, I'm off to Perth with work for most of the week. Dinner with the girls on Monday night, dinner with the two staff I just hired (Yay for me!! I finally managed to hire staff for Port Red Dirt) and a possible meeting with some Perth bloggers on Wednesday night. I'm going to be way too busy to work LOL. Fingers crossed, by the time I get back to Red Dirt Central we'll have some news on housing for when we move and the removalists will have given us an uplift date.

That's Cheating!

Here's an ice-cream recipe from the December issue of delicious. magazine. It's totally a cheat's version; quick, simple and yummy! The flavour was a little too strong for my taste but I'll do it again next year with a couple less fruit mince pies. As you can see from the picture, layering it with plain vanilla ice-cream works well too. If you like cookies-and-cream ice-cream you'll probably like this one.

Basically you take two litres of good quality vanilla ice-cream and let it soften a little. Then grab about 9 fruit mince pies and throw them, along with the ice-cream into a blender or food processor. Give it a whizz so that the pies are broken up and the ice-cream is good and smooshed without getting too runny. Put it into a container and stick it back in the freezer for about 4-5 hours. I didn't make the whole two litres worth, just a quarter or so of that was fine for us. For what it's worth, I think it would be fabulous with some sort of chocolate sauce!

Simply Wonderful

I have only attempted to make a sponge cake once before and, let's just say that it wasn't a raging success. I don't have that 'lightness of hand' that is so necessary for fluffy sponges and it took many many many attempts before I mastered the art of scones. I don't think it helped much that a certain eldest offspring of mine was determined to "help stir" the sponge mixture and his hand is most definitely not light LOL.

So it was with some trepidation that I approached this recipe. I'd torn it from a magazine half planning to make it and half dreaming that it might magically spring from the page ready-made. I finally worked up the courage and decided to take it for dessert to a bbq with friends. Oh my, this is simply wonderful.

The sponge was so fluffy and light - everything you could want in a sponge. It wasn't difficult to make and the couple of extra steps added so much to the end result that it was well worth the effort. I have to say that, while it was lovely for dessert, it really came into it's own the next day (we all ended up with a little bit of the leftovers) when the flavour of the filling had worked through the cake. This is a delightfully delicious addition to my repertoire and I'll be trotting it out again, I just have to work out when.

Mascarpone and Fig Sponge
(Pan di Spagna con Fichi e Mascarpone)
Australian Table, July 2006

5 eggs, separated

1 cup caster sugar

2/3 cup plain flour

1/2 cup cornflour

1 cup fig jam

Mascarpone Filling

2 eggwhites

500g mascarpone, at room temperature

2 tablespoon icing sugar, plus extra icing sugar to dust

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and lightly flour a 24cm springform pan.

2. Using an electric beater, beat egg yolks and half of the caster sugar for 5 minutes, until pale and thick. Gently fold twice-sifted flour and cornflour through yolk mixture.

3. Using an electric beater, beat eggwhites until soft peaks form. Beat in remaining caster sugar, a tablespoon at a time, until thick and glossy. Fold into yolk mixture. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake for 35 minutes, until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Transfer cake to a wire rack to cool.

4. To make Mascarpone Filling, beat eggwhites using an electric mixer until firm peaks form. Gently fold mascarpone and icing sugar through eggwhites. Using a serrated brad knife, cut cake into three layers. Spread half of jam over base and top with half of Mascarpone filling. Repeat layers once more, finishing with top of cake. Dust with extra icing sugar before serving.

The Best Pav, Ever.

Sorry for the delayed absence. Let's blame a particularly social weekend, tutoring headaches and a spike in the maximum temps up this way - it was 37 on Saturday - for keeping me from the computer. We can also blame the computer itself as it is slowly dying and causing problems.

We had a great weekend, a little busier than I would normally want in just a few days but lots of fun. Friday night was #1's soccer club wind up and all the kids were presented with medals (photos will be forthcoming in a day or two) and then enjoyed a sausage sizzle. It was lovely to see all the kids at the presentation - they were so chuffed with their medals, or metals as #1 insists on calling them. While we were there a friend phoned to see what I was doing for dinner and if I could be persuaded to join her and another friend at a local restaurant. I was easily persuaded and enjoyed a 'girls night' with a yummy meal, nice wine and fun conversation. Saturday dawned a little earlier than I really wanted but since Red Dirt Daddy had been great about letting me have a little extra sleep during the week I thought it would be nice to return the favour. That night I went round to visit a friend whose hubby is away for three weeks. She has twins in #1's class at school and was in need of some grown-up company. More wine, pizza and lots of gabbing led us to midnight when I declared that I really really had to go home. Again dawn arrived waaaaaay too early. Then we had friends to dinner Sunday night! Three families from soccer and/or school came over for a bbq - we purposely made it an early start so the kids wouldn't be too late and everyone was gone by 8.30. Everyone contributed to the meal and we had some great food, more wine (for someone who rarely drinks I did fairly well this weekend) and a terrific afternoon/evening. One of our guests is gluten intolerant so I racked my brains for a gluten-free dessert that she could eat that didn't have citrus in it so that I could eat it too and finally settled on pavlova. This was the first time I'd made a full-sized pav, I usually make mini ones or just meringues and I also made it using the convection setting on my microwave. It was a little flatter than I expected (but I think I spread it out too far which didn't help) but was absolutely delicious. Certainly, there are more simple pav recipes but this one was worth the extra effort. It received outrageous compliments and went straight to my top 10, which is mostly made up of desserts anyway!

Pavlova
The Margaret Fulton Cookbook (2006 ed.)

4 egg whites

a pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

300ml cream, whipped (I used 600ml)

punnet of strawberries

pulp of 3 passionfruit

Preheat oven to 200-210 degrees Celsius. Place a piece of baking paper on a baking tray and mark a 20cm circle (the pavlova will spread a little).

Beat the egg whites and salt in an electric mixer until they stand in stiff peaks. Sift the sugar and gradually sprinkle in 1 tablespoon at ta time, beating at full speed only until all the sugar has been added. Lastly fold in the vinegar and vanilla. Spoon large dollops inside the circle on the baking sheet and smooth over the top lightly. Place in the oven (reducing the temperature to 150) for 1 hour. Turn off the heat and leave the pavlova int he oven until cold. If using a gas oven , bake at 150 for 1 hour, reduce heat to 120 for a further 30 minutes and then turn oven off and leave the pavlova in oven until completely cooled.

When the pavlova has cooled, slide onto a large, flat cake plate and remove the baking paper. Don't worry if the pavlova collapses slightly, also expect cracks on the surface. Whip the cream until stiff and scoop over the top of the pavlvova. Hull and slice the strawberries and scatter them over the cream. Spoon passionfruit pulp over the top.

Yes. It's Another Dessert!

We were out to friends again and I took a slice for dessert. They are a hard family to cook dessert for as, not only do they not have a single sweet tooth amongst them, they don't like sweet foods that are overly sweet, rich or heavy. I searched for a recipe that would fit the bill and finally came across this one. It was a big hit (thank goodness!) and kept everyone happy.

Berry Custard Tart Slice

from Super Food Ideas, January 2006

Base

200g butter, softened

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted

1/2 cup dessicated coconut

Berry Topping

450g mixed fresh berries

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

1/3 cup caster sugar

1 3/4 cups thickened cream

3/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a 3cm deep, 24cm x 29.5cm (base) slab pan. Line with baking paper, leaving a 2cm overhang at both long ends.

2 Using electric beaters, cream butter and sugar until well combined. Stir in flour and coconut. Mix well.

3 Press pastry evenly over base of prepared pan. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until light golden. Remove from oven. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool.

4 Make berry topping: Spoon berries over pastry base. Whisk eggs, egg yolks and 1/4 cup caster sugar in a large jug. Add cream and milk. Whisk to combine. Strain custard through a sieve (didn't have one so just poured it straight on) over the berries.

5 Bake for 30 minutes or until centre is set. Cool for 1 hour in pan. Combine nutmeg and remaining 1 tablespoon caster sugar. Sprinkle over warm slice. Lift slice out of pan. Cut into pieces and serve warm or cold.

A Real Bargain

At long last we have bought a dining room table (yes, and chairs!). When we were first living together Hubby and I were in housing supplied by our workplace which came semi-furnished. Basically everything was provided except a bed. For the first few years we had no need to buy furniture then when we bought our first house and moved back 'home' we bought some stuff and gratefully accepted various cast-off and hand-me-down bits from family members. One of the hand-me-downs was hubby's Grandpa's original 1920's art deco dining table and chairs. It wasn't in great condition but it was gorgeous and, more importantly at the time, it meant we had somewhere to eat our meals. When we moved house the table went with us but when we decided to head up here we thought that the table probably wouldn't cope with the heat, humidity and air-con so handed it back to Hubby's parents (aka Grandma and Grandpa). Upon moving to Red Dirt we initially ate all our meals at the kitchen bench - we'd bought the stools from home and they fitted quite nicely but the bench was very small and trying to prepare, serve and eat all in the same tiny space grew a little tiresome (okay, I nearly went stark, raving mad LOL) so we borrowed a table and chairs from Hubby's work and kept our eyes peeled for an affordable suite that we liked, would fit into the relatively small dining area of this house and wouldn't look out of place when we eventually go home. We trawled through garage sales (man, they have some good ones up here!), checked out all the sales and specials at the furniture stores and kept coming up empty. Then... yesterday I lucked out. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Grandma and I ducked out to a couple of garage sales before the 'boys' went crabbing and found this.

This is my new dining suite. It has a few dings and scratches but nothing too obvious. Not a bad buy for $200! Hubby was well impressed with my bargain buy and even better, it fits in the dining area! Yes, the towels are where the kids sit - not particularly classy, I admit, but easy to clean up after a meal.

Last night's dessert was a success. It was light and sweet and everyone enjoyed it. I'll be making this one again. Probably fairly soon! I made a few changes to the original recipe, mainly because I couldn't get it to work. The original filling involved ricotta, honey and the liqueur-ed strawberries but I ended up with a big gloppy mess that was never going to set or stay on the cake so I ended up using cream, thus the name change.

(Not Entirely) Guilt-Free Chocolate Cake

originally from delicious, October 2003

Cooking spray to grease

4 eggs, separated

150g golden caster sugar (I used normal caster sugar)

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

225g almond meal (only had 200g)

1 teaspoon baking powder

300ml carton whipping cream

500g small strawberries

1/4 cup strawberry liqueur

icing sugar, to dust

Hull and chop half the strawberries place in a bowl with strawberry liqueur. Stir through gently and set aside to soak.

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Grease three 20cm sandwich (sponge) pans with cooking spray and line the bases with baking paper. Beat the eggwhites until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale. Fold the eggwhites into the yolk mixture, then fold in the cocoa, almond meal and baking powder. Divide between the 3 pans and bake for 15 minutes or until the mixture has just started to shrink away from the sides of the pans. Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Whip the cream. Drain strawberries and fold gently through the whipped cream.

Place one cake on a serving platter, spread with half the cream, then place another cake on top. Spread with remaining cream, then finally add the remaining cake. Halve the remaining strawberries and place on top of the cake. Dust generously with icing sugar.

Another New Dessert

We're off to a friends for dinner tonight and, once again, I'm in charge of dessert. Just in case you haven't worked it out yet, I have a sweet tooth. A very sweet tooth. So making desserts is not exactly a difficult task. In fact, it's one of my favourite things to do.

Here's today's effort.

I hope they like it. I'll be back tomorrow with the results and the recipe.