What we’re eating ….

From the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook (but written out in my own words)

Brownie

200g dark chocolate
200g unsalted butter
250g icing sugar
3 eggs
110g plain flour

Cheesecake

400g cream cheese
150g icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 170C/325F

brownie

Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over water. Beat butter and sugar together until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour. Mix at medium speed until well combined and smooth. Slowly pour in melted chocolate and mix until well combined. Pour into 33x25cm baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper. Smooth mixture.

cheesecake

Beat together cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth and thick. Add eggs one at a time and continue mixing. Beat until smooth and creamy but do not overbeat or the cream cheese will split. Spoon over the brownie mix and smooth.

Bake for 30-40 mins. The cheesecake should be firm and light golden around the edges. Allow to cool then refrigerate for at least two hours.

If desired, beat together 300ml whipping cream, 100g of icing sugar and 150g raspberries and use as topping.

Pikelets (from Australian Women’s Weekly Babies and Toddlers Good Food)

1 cup self-raising flour

2 tablespoons caster (extra fine) sugar

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

Combine flour and sugar in a bowl, gradually whisk in egg and add enough milk to make a smooth batter.

Drop spoonfuls into a hot pan and cook until bubbles appear, then flip and brown on the other side.

  This is a photo of the only remaining brownie … 

 200g/7oz dark chocolate

200g/70z white chocolate

250g / 8 oz butter

300g / 10oz sugar

4 eggs

140g / 5 oz plain flour

Butter and line a 23cm / 10″ brownie tin.

Preheat oven to 180C/350F

Put the dark and white chocolate into two separate large bowls and add half the butter to each.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave or double pan.

Stir until completely combined.

Add 1/2 sugar and 2 eggs to each bowl and beat until smooth.

Add 50g/2oz flour to the dark chocolate bowl and the remaining 90g / 3oz flour to the white chocolate bowl.

Spoon tablespoons of butter into the pan, alternating colours. Repeat with a second layer, alternating colours.

To marble, pull a skewer through the pan and swirl.

Bake for 35 mins or until light golden and set on top.

Leave to cool in the pan and then cut into squares.

Notes : I made 1/2 the recipe and it was quite a lot of brownies. I also didn’t use the whole amount of sugar and it was still very sweet.

This is Beth’s recipe but its soooo goooood.

APPLE CRISP

1 cup golden brown sugar

1 tbl ground cinnamon

3 1/2 lbs (about 1.5kg) Granny-smith apples, peeled, cored, sliced

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 cup (2 sticks/250g) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces

preheat oven to 450 F/210C. Butter 13×9 glass baking dish.  Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in large bowl.  Add apples and toss to coat.  Transfer apple mixture to dish.

Combine flour, sugar and butter in medium bowl.  Using blender or fingers, blend ingredients until coarse meal is formed.  Spread flour mixture evenly over apples.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Reduce oven temp to 350F/180C bake additional 30 minutes or until apples are tender and topping is golden.  Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Saturday – pizza after a playdate that finished later than we expected

Sunday – dinner at Alison’s. We made apple pie for dessert.

This is the Country Apple Pie recipe from the AWW French Cooking Made Easy cookbook

Pastry

1 3/4 cups plain flour

1/4 cup self raising flour

1 tablespoon icing (confectioner’s) sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 egg white

2 tablespoons apricot jam

Filling

5 large apples (I always use green ones, usually Granny Smith)

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspon grated lemon rind

To make filling, place apples and water in a large pan, bring to the boil and simmer over low heat, covered fo 5mins.  Stir in sugar and rind, cool.

To make pastry, combine flour and sugar, rub in butter, Add the egg and enough lemon juice to make a firm dough. Refrigerate for 30 mins. Roll 3/4 of pastry out to fit 23cm (11″) pie / flan dish. Cover pastry case with baking paper and rice/beans and bake for 7 mins at 210C/425F. Remove paper and beans and bake a further 7 mins. Spread cooled filling into pastry case. Roll remaining pastry out to 3mm (1/8″) thickness and cut into thin strips. Place over pie in lattice pattern and brush with egg white. Bake at 210/425F for about 20 mins or until pastry is golden brown. Brush warm pie with jam.