Christmas stars

This is the traditional gift that we bake and give to our neighbours around Christmas time. It's a combination of plain shortbread and some spicy biscuits cut into variously sized stars. Then we wrap it in some pretty cellophane and tie the bundle up with a ribbon. Recipes are oldies-but-goodies out of the Edmonds cookbook (shortbread) and Alison Holst's big red book (spicy biscuits).

Shortbread
(to be inserted once I find my Edmonds cookbook again!)

Spicy butter biscuits
225 g butter
1 c brown sugar
1 egg
2 c flour
2 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp mixed spice

Cream softened (but not melted) butter in the mixer. Add remaining ingredients, mix to combine, then form into a roll 70 mm thick. Roll in plastic and refrigerate until firm.

Roll mixture out on floured bench and cut into desired shapes (like stars!) using cookie cutters. Bake at 180 degrees Celcius for 8-10 minutes until biscuits darken slightly. When cool, transfer from tray to an airtight container.

Rice paper rolls with Vietnamese dipping sauce

From way back at the November Bake Club, this is a version of the little rice paper rolls I made. This recipe suggests BBQ roast duck (which you can buy already cooked from Peking House restaurant on Kent Terrace) but I usually just use cooked chicken instead. This recipe came from the SBS website.

Peking duck and hoisin rice-paper rolls recipe

Created by Allan Campion and Michele Curtis

Ingredients

50 g cellophane noodles
½ roast duck, flesh removed and thinly sliced
75 g (½ cup) chopped roasted peanuts
2 tbsp chopped coriander
1 small carrot, finely grated
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
12 Vietnamese mint leaves, shredded
12 large rice-paper wrappers

Preparation

Place noodles in a large bowl and cover completely with boiling water. Stand for 5 minutes to soften, and then drain well.

Place noodles, duck meat, peanuts, coriander, carrot, hoisin sauce and Vietnamese mint in a large bowl and mix well. Season to taste.

Fill a large bowl with hot tap water, then soak the rice-paper wrappers one at a time until softened. Remove carefully and drain on absorbent paper or a tea towel. Lay the wrappers out flat, then place the filling on the bottom centre of each softened wrapper. Roll end up over filling, fold in the sides and continue rolling up to the top.

Serve with Vietnamese Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

2 tsp grated palm sugar
2 tbsp lime juice
60 ml (¼ cup) fish sauce
1 small red chilli, sliced
1 tbsp water

Preparation

Dissolve the sugar in lime juice. Add the fish sauce, chilli and water. Allow the flavours to infuse for 30 minutes before using.

Recipe from Everyday Cooking by Allan Campion and Michele Curtis with photographs by Greg Elms. Published by Hardie Grant Books.

Candied orange peel

Well, after my nightmare day of flop cooking in January 2012, this was about the only recipe that flew! A great use for the left-over peel when the family are churning through the oranges in the warm weather.

4 oranges
3 cups sugar
1 cup water
sugar (for rolling them in) or chocolate (for dipping)

Harvest the peel from the oranges leaving a clean pith. I usually score each orange in half and then half again, then peel the orange quarter-by-quarter. Then slice into long strips of peel about 1/2 cm wide.

Place peels in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Heat on high until boiling. Pour off the water. Repeat twice more.

Combine sugar and water in the saucepan and bring to boil over high heat for a couple of minutes. Add peels and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer until peels are translucent (30 minutes or longer).

Remove peels from syrup and roll in sugar if desired, and set on rack to dry (4-5 hours minimum or overnight). Work fast when taking peels out of syrup!

Once the peel is dry, you can dip them in melted dark chocolate and place on foil, wax paper, or a baking sheet to dry.

If you want to see some fantastic step-by-step photos of the process, check out Jennifer Yu's food blog "Use Real Butter".

Chocolate & cherry torta di nonna

by Celia Harvey from Cuisine magazine (issue #150)

Photo by Kieran Scott

Serves: 8Torta della Nonna ('grandma' s cake') is often made with a ricotta custard and pine nuts, but to refine its rustic nature a little I have replaced these components with a chocolate custard.

You could use sliced plums or peaches in place of the cherries

Sweet pastry
100g unsalted butter, cubed
300g flour
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
100g sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
Butter and line a 24cm springform tin with baking paper.
Place the butter, flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg and yolk then pulse until the dough just comes together. Turn out and press the mixture together with your fingers – it doesn’t have to be too smooth.
Using your fingertips, gently press the pastry over the base and up the sides of the tin, working quickly so that the dough doesn’t become too warm. It is meant to be a rustic-looking tart shell, so don’t worry too much about making it perfect. Refrigerate while you are making the chocolate cream.
For the chocolate cream
150g caster sugar
4 eggs
3 tablespoons flour
500ml full-cream milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or brandy
200g 70% dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
200g fresh cherries, stoned
Preheat the oven to 170°C. In a bowl, whisk the sugar and eggs together until thick and creamy, then whisk
in the flour.
Bring the milk to the boil in a saucepan then slowly pour it into the egg mixture, whisking well to combine. Stir in the vanilla then return the mixture to the saucepan and place over low heat. Add the chopped chocolate and cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon. It will thicken quickly, so take care to whisk constantly and keep an eye on it.
Pour the thickened custard into the chilled tart shell. Sprinkle the cherries over the custard then bake for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the tin before carefully removing and cutting into slices.

January 2012 - Almond Fingers

Great Bake Club today thanks ladies! Thanks heaps for hosting Julie :)

This is from Alexa Johnston's Ladies, A Plate - Traditional Home Baking.

Ingredients
115g flour
1/4 t baking powder
pinch salt
55g butter
115g sugar
35g ground almonds
1 egg, separated
1/4 t almond essence
60g icing sugar
40g chopped/slivered/flaked almonds

Method

1. Sift the flour, bakingpowder and salt into a bowl and rub in the butter until it is well incorporated.
2. Add the sugar and ground almonds and mix to a stiff paste with the egg yolk and 1-2 tsp of cold water if necessary. If you liek the favour of allmond essence, add about 1/4 tsp with the egg yolk.
   
3. Make the paste into a rectangle, wrap in waxed paper and chill for about 10 minutes. Roll out on a floured board to a rectange about 6mm thick. (I lined a cake tin with baking paper, and pressed the paste out into the bottom of that instead of rolling it, then lifted the baking paper out and put it flat on a baking sheet.)
4. Beat the egg white until stiff and then beat in the sifted icing sugar in spoonfuls to make a spreadable meringue. Dollop it onto the biscuit base and spread it out thinly to cover the whole surface - a small palette knkife is good for this. Sprinkle evenly with the additional almonds. Now a tip from Lois Daish: Leave the whole thing on the bench for an hour. The surface will dry a little and make cutting less of a sticky job.
   
5. Turn on the oven and preheat to 180C.
6. Use a sharp knife to cut the mixture into fingers, wiping the knife blade between each cut, then carefully lift the biscuits with a palette knife onto the prepared baking tray. Leave small gaps between them.
   
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating the tray after 10 minutes. The meringue will be pale gold, the almonds slightly toasted and the almond pastry nicely browned underneath.
8. Cool on a wire rack and store airtight. Makes about 32.
   

Lemon Syrup Pound Cake (Ray McVinnie)

Pound Cake
200g unsalted butter
350g caster sugar
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
5 eggs
250g plain flour

Preheat oven to 180C. Butter a 20cm diameter loose bottomed cake tin & line the bottom with greaseproof paper.
Cream the butter, caster sugar and lemon zest, beating until pale and fluffy.
Breat the eggs in one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the flour until well mixed, but do not beat.
Pour the mixture into a tin and bvake for 45minutes to 1 hour, until a bamboo skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven and let cool. Remove from tin and place on a wide platter with sides.

Lemon syrup
400g sugar
250ml water
grated zest of 1 lemon
juice of 3 lemons

Put the sugar, water, lemon zest and juice into a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the suigar. Boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
Pour the syrup over the cool cake and keep spooning the syrup over the cake as it soaks it up. Put into the refrigerator and cool.

Serve the cake in wedges with whipped cream or Greek yogurt.

The pound cake is very versatile and Ray McVinnie does a number of versions of it from the basic recipe above in his book "The Modern Cook" (published 2001). I've tried a couple of versions and they've all been easy to make and scrummy!

Six- Spice Gingerbread (Lebkuchler style)

My contribution to Xmas bakeclub back in November... thanks to Cuisine Issue 115 (Nov 2005)...

2 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground star anise
1/8 tsp white pepper
125g unsalted butter, cubed
1 packed c soft brown sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 c crystallised ginger

Preheat oven to 190C.

Sift the flour, baking soda & spices into a bowl then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, then the golden syrup, egg and crystallised ginger and mix to a dough.
Shape the dough into a squared off log of around 25cm x 6cm. You can carefully flatten one edge diagonally for a slanting effect. Cover well with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour until firm.
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Unwrap the dough and carefully cut off 5mm thick slices. Place on the prepared tray and bake for 12 minutes until golden. Makes 42.