Gingerbread House Decorating with the Boys

Last year I really wanted to make some gingerbread houses for the boys to decorate but things got so hectic I didn't get any time to do it. This year I was determined to fit it in along with all the other birthday/Xmas preparations there are to do. Also my friend Leigh had made some gingerbread houses last year and again this year with her children and nephews so seeing how well that went, I felt even more determined and inspired to make sure that my boys got to experience it too.


As I was on night shift, (and have only just come off the things so am rather vague doing this post), I had to make the gingerbread itself when I got home from work to leave it in the fridge for the day. They say this step is imperative to the success of the gingerbread so both the gingerbread and me slept for some of the day. When I got up after only a few hours sleep I rolled out the dough and cut out the templates for the house. It is really quite warm here in NZ so I had to work fast and get creative putting the dough onto the baking sheet as it softened so quickly making it too soft to transfer the normal way. The mixture baked very well and although I overcooked a few pieces, it made a biscuit that seems to have the right texture for a gingerbread house and is not only crisp and able to stand up to the rigours of all those lollies, but tastes fantastic too. I did add in a few spices to my mix though as I think it adds a complexity to the flavour of the gingerbread. 


Gingerbread Recipe (adapted from Donna Hay)


7 1/2 cups plain flour
3 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground ginger (20 mls)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
375g butter
1 2/3 cups golden syrup

Place half of all the ingredients into a food processor and process until they come together into a dough. Remove the dough from the processor, then process the remaining ingredients. Combine both lots of dough and knead lightly to bring it all together. Divide the dough into 4 pieces, press it into discs, wrap each piece in cling film and refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes before using.


Roll out and cut into the shapes you want then bake 180 C for around 10-15 mins....try not to forget what went in when as I did.


Remove to a cooling rack to cool.


For the size of my templates this dough made enough for two rather large houses.

Cooling some of the pieces

Assembly using cans for support....this step was much easier than I thought it would be!

Finished unadorned houses waiting for some love

Getting down to the business of decorating the houses. I had to help Harry with the piping of the Royal Icing but otherwise he did the whole thing himself!

Harry with his finished product

From all angles....

Reubs with his finished product...he loved making these!

Again form all angles

So the boys had a wonderful time doing these and I coped remarkably well after no sleep AND I didn't even try to intervene in the design only doing as I was directed by Harry. Reubs did the whole of his on his own including the piping. We will definitely be making these again next Xmas and I might even try putting in 'stained glass windows' too. Thanks Leigh for the push/inspiration to get this happening!

Baking for Nightshift- Vanilla Cupcakes

For my nightshifts last week it was Jodie's birthday. She and I do the same job in our unit. It was a very busy and unenjoyable birthday for her as we have been so horrendously busy she didn't get a minute to sit down and relax for a break for the whole 13 hours. No wonder the poor thing was shattered by her last day! I thought I would whip up a batch of cupcakes for her so she could at least have a sweet treat for the end of the day. As she is a girly-girl I thought there was only one way to go and that was PINK! Therefore I made these delicious vanilla cupcakes and coloured the buttercream icing pink then threw on some sprinkles to pretty them up. I used my large Wilton tip but I think they almost look a little like pink doggy poos...I'm trying to see as more of a soft serve effect for obvious reasons!


This is a very easy recipe and makes lovely light cupcakes. It is from a book called 'Divine Cupcakes' by Tamara Jane. Tonight for night shift I have made another batch of Christmas Mince Tarts. Things are so busy at this time of year as not only is it Christmas time, but also the end of the school year and all that goes with that, and my baby Harry's birthday too, (not to mention the birthdays of two little friends of his called Ruby and Billy). Anyway here is the recipe if you want to give these a go. The recipe says that it makes 24 but I get around 30 from this mix.


Vanilla Cupcakes


415 gm plain four
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
230 gm butter
330 gm sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
250 ml milk


Oven to 170 C and line cupcake tins with papers.


Whisk flour, salt and baking powder together.


In a large bowl beat the butter for a couple of minutes until it is nice and creamy. Add sugar in 2 lots beating well after each until it is light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time beating for at least a minute ofter each addition. Beat in the vanilla.


Add 1/3 of the flour mixture alternately with the milk. Don't over beat after each addition but make sure the mixture is smooth.


Put into the cupcake cases.


Bake about 18 min or until cooked. Transfer onto a rack out of the tins and cool before icing.

Baking for Nightshift- Christmas Mince Tarts

Last night was my second of two overtime night shifts. As usual I slept badly in the middle of them so when I got up I thought I would make something to take to work. I had already made cupcakes (to be posted on later), for the first night shift so I thought it was time to get into the Christmas spirit and use some of my Xmas mince and whip up some of these. I make a fresh batch of Xmas mince each year to use the following year. I keep mine in the fridge where it lasts for around 15 months. This time I tried some of the tarts with the freshly made mince and some with the aged mince to see if there was a taste difference. I think the aged stuff has more complexity of flavour. It seemed to lack a bit of 'sharpness' and to my taste I think it tastes better. Here it is in the food processor and in the jars...

In the food processor

Ready for the fridge

The recipe I use is one that a friend gave me a few years back and I really like it. Sometimes I put things like dried cranberries in it but this year I kept it quite traditional with sultanas, raisins and currants. I also like to process mine as I would rather not have whole fruit especially as the tarts I make tend to be made in a mini muffin tin so are therefore quite small. 


Christmas Mince


400 gm sultanas
400 gm mixed fruit (I used raisins and currants)
3 small apples unpeeled but cored and chopped up roughly
1 lemon, rind and juice
1 orange, rind only
1 c brown sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp grd cloves
1/2 tsp grd nutmeg
1/3 c brandy, whiskey or rum 


Mince fruit and apple in a a food processor (not until it's smooth though). Add all other ingredients and process. Spoon into clean jars and store in the fridge.

For the pastry I have tried many different recipes but the one I used last night is the best so far. It's short, but not too short, and complemented and carried the Xmas mince perfectly. I adapted it a bit so here is the recipe...


Sweet Pastry


2 c flour
1/2 c icing sugar
1 egg lightly beaten
1 Tbsp iced water
175 gm cold butter


In the processor mix the flour and icing sugar. Add the cold butter and process until it makes fine crumbs. Add the egg and the water and process until it almost comes together. Don't over do the processing unless you want tough pastry.


Tip out onto the bench and bring it together. Spray the tins with oil or baking spray then roll the pastry into balls (about 20 gm each is perfect), and tamper them in with one of these, (or else roll the pastry out and cut out circles to line the tins which can be quite time consuming). 

Available from Milly's

Put the pastry lined tins in the freezer for at least a half hour. Save some pastry for the stars, roll and cut those out, put them on a plate and put in the fridge or freezer until you need them. Fill with Xmas mince, put the stars on top and bake at 180 C for about 15-20 mins. Take out from the tins as soon as you can.

Pavlova and a Night With the Whanau

In full glory

Unadorned

After many many years and acrimony between New Zealand and Australia it has finally been proven that WE invented pavlova!! Sorry Aussies but sometimes you just have to give it up...especially when you have already tried to steal some of our greatest assets like Phar Lap, Russell Crowe (hmmm do we really want him though...), Split Ends/Crowded House and list goes on. Pavlova, however, truly and rightly belongs to us....according to the Oxford Dictionary anyway.


This wonderful dessert is so easy to make and looks spectacular. You can have a number of different toppings but my favourite is fresh strawberries followed by fresh passionfruit. Excuse the photo quality but they were taken in a bit of a hurry. Last night we had a big family BBQ as Dons' brother and our soon to be sister in law were over from Melbourne to do some wedding stuff and catch up with the family as they won't be here for Xmas. Dons has a big family with 6 brothers and sisters so it was sure to be a bit busy as well as a lot of fun, (unfortunately Gaz and Maz couldn't make it). The night was lovely with good (and lots of) food, lots of talk and laughter as well as catching up with Bex and Marc before they go back to Melbourne on Tueday. Bex's mum and her partner also came to dinner so it was really nice to meet them. Dinner was a BBQ with a whole lot of salads that I made along with the obligatory garlic bread. Dessert was Pav, a couple of chocolate logs (one with cherries and one with strawberries) and ice cream. Needless to say we were all pretty full afterwards. ALl the kids ran around and played like mad things until they all left at about 1130pm. Needless to say Harry was rather tired and is more than a little shattered today.


Pavlova's can be quite variable. I personally like mine to be more crunchy on the outside with only a bit of a marshmallowy centre rather than for it to have too much of a marshmallow middle. To make Pav you need only a few ingredients and a scrupulously clean bowl. I wipe my bowl out with a bit of lemon juice or vinegar as any trace of fat can affect how the eggs will whip up. I also use the Kitchen Aid which makes the recipe so much easier to make. This one I made more flat so it would go around further but I usually make it so it's stands a bit taller. But I think it looks pretty regardless of how flat or tall it is. I always use the same recipe too as I have tried many and this one seems to work the best for me.


Pavlova (from Nigella Lawson's 'How To Eat') 


4 egg whites at room temperature
250 gms caster sugar
2 tsp cornflour
1 tsp white wine vinegar
pinch salt
few drops vanilla extract


Oven to 180 C
Beat the egg whites with the salt until soft peaks form.
Slowly add the sugar beating well. This takes about 10 min all up. Make sure it is dissolved properly so when you rub some mixture between your fingers you can't feel the grins of sugar. 
Fold in the cornflour, vinegar and extract.
Put onto a baking paper lined tray and shape how you like it.
Put it into the oven and immediately turn it down to 150 C.
Bake 1 1/4 hours then turn the oven off and leave in, with the oven door closed, overnight to cool.


Some photos from last night...

Jen and Tam

Marcel and Dennis

Barbara (Bex mum), Bex, Marc and Dennis (Bex's stepfather)

Marc and Dons

Dion, Jen, Jack, Tam, Kiwi, Hollie and Harry

Cousins

Brothers and sisters (no Tarn though)

The girls

The boys

Harry, Hollie, Tia very late at night

Baking for Nightshift- Stem Ginger Cake

I made this cake for nightshift last night. If this post is a little vague it's because I was last in bed at 2pm yesterday and it is now 9.30 pm the following night. It's amazing how frantic things get before Xmas and we are still a month out from it. My to do lists for each week are just ridiculous. Harry turns 6 in December as do a couple of his little friends so it all adds up to the busyness of the month for us. Hopefully there will be a couple of good posts for his birthday cake and the cake pops I intend to make. But more on that in the next few weeks....


I first saw this recipe on a program we had here called Nestle Hottest Home Baker which is a bit like a (much) cheaper version of Masterchef but for the baker. While the show itself was a bit unfortunate I felt compelled, as someone who likes to bake, to watch it. On the first show a woman called Emma made this cake which got rave reviews. It had stem ginger in it which it quite hard to find here and also is quite pricey. I had seen it in the more upmarket stores like Farro and Nosh but at a cost of around $15 a jar. NO WAY was I paying that!!! So I eventually found it at a Chinese store at a cost of $8.60 for 400 gms.

Of course the main reason for the purchase was to make this cake. I whipped it up yesterday after it was just too hot to sleep and it was very easy to make. It was well worth the half asleep effort as the cake it amazing. It's full of punchy flavour and is moist and light. the lemon drizzle icing totally complements it and cuts through the richness of the cake. Make this if you can find the stem ginger as it is a real show stopper. The girls at work loved it and in fact next time I'll make 1 1/2 times the recipe to make a 23 cm cake so it goes further.


Stem Ginger Cake


225 gm self raising flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
115 gm butter
115 gm dark muscovardo sugar
115 gm treacle
115 gm golden syrup 
1 c milk
1 egg lightly beaten
85 gm stem ginger, grated


Grease and line a 20 cm tin.


Oven to 180 C
In a food processor put in the flour and dried spices. Add the butter and pulse to form fine crumbs. Put into a bowl.


Heat the sugar, treacle, golden syrup and milk until the sugar dissolves. Bring almost to the boil. Remove from the heat and add the stem ginger. 


Add to the flour mix then add in the egg and beat well so it's combined.


Bake 50-60 mins.


Ice with a simple lemon drizzle icing which is just icing sugar, lemon rind (finely grated) and lemon juice. 

Roasted Strawberry and Rhubarb Compote

The other day my favourite magazine 'Dish' arrived in the post. I love this magazine!! When it first started I thought it was pretentious and a bit 'wah wah'...so to speak, as all it seemed to do was to be an advertisement for her cookshop (the name of which alludes me at this early hour of Saturday morning). I guess it was fair enough as it kind of went hand in hand that she would want to promote her business as well. As time has past the cookshop has gone and this is the focus she has (she being Catherine Bell), and very quickly this magazine became my most favourite. I'm one of those people who can't say no to cooking magazines and cookbooks. I subscribe to quite a few and buy the ones I don't get in the post. At this time of year it gets a little overwhelming as I have so many recipes around that I get confused or else want to make everything. As well as that there are the new and old cookbooks and the ones I get out of the library to see if they are worth buying. Needless to say my coffee table is now a sea of books and magazines and my mind is a messed up web of recipes.

I spotted this recipe in the Dish immediately. I love fresh fruit compotes and as we eat a lot of nice yoghurt as well as my homemade granola, and I do make crepes or pikelets when the boys are home on my weekends off, I thought this would go nicely. It's a very easy recipe but I think  I may have overcooked it a bit as it is quite jammy. It does, however, taste amazing. Strawberries are so cheap at the moment and after the immediate rush of eating them as they are because of the novelty of having them at all is so fresh, after awhile yo want to do something different with them. This is so lovely and well worth a go. I think I may even make it for Christmas morning breakfast as it would go well with granola and yoghurt, and would even be nice with the pastries I always buy from Sabato.

Without further ado here is the recipe:

Roasted Strawberry and Rhubarb Compote (from issue 33 of Dish magazine)

500 gm strawberries
350 gm rhubarb
finely grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
1/3 c caster sugar
1/3 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Oven to 180 C

Hull the strawberries and cut the big ones in half. Cut rhubarb into 6 cm lengths and combine all ingredients into a baking dish that will hold them snugly (this is important so the syrup doesn't catch.

Roast uncovered for about 40 mins stirring every 10 mins until the liquid is reduced and syrupy. Stir carefully so the fruit doesn't all mush up.

Store in the fridge.

Fruit unadorned and looking beautiful

Ready for the oven

Out of the oven for the last time

YUM!

Baking for Nightshift...and Helen- Mini Pecan tarts

The boys grandmother has been sick recently and was in hospital for a few days. Happily she has now recovered and I thought I would make her something that I know she loves for a glad-your-feeling-better treat. I make these mini pecan tarts every year for Xmas and I know these are her favourite thing I make. Therefore she has a standard request for them each year. They are easy to make and taste really lovely and they also make wonderful Xmas gifts. The nuts can be varied depending on what you have in the cupboard. This time I made double the quantity so I could take some into work tonight, so I made pecan and walnut tarts as I didn't have enough pecans. 


The pastry is made quickly in a food processor until it forms a ball which you just push together to make sure it isn't too dry. I have never had to alter or add anything here so the quantities of each ingredient are perfect just keep that processor going until it does form a ball and you will end up with something that looks like this...

I use my digital scales to measure how much pastry I will need. I find that around 20 gms gives the perfect amount of pastry for each mini tart.

Out of the freezer

Quite possibly one of the best things I have ever bought was a wooden tamper from Millys which means you can roll a ball of pastry, put it in the greased or oiled tin and instead of mucking about trying to line it by hand you just push the tamper in to give the perfect thickness. These are very cheap and an absolute must for making these easy and quick to prepare. I also have the standard size one and I think they even have a Texas size one too.

I forgot to take progress photos so here is a quick one taken with the oven door open

Cooling on a rack

A couple of tips... turn them in the tins as soon as you can. I find that leaving them for a few mins is ok and doesn't kill my fingers; the mixture doubles well; remove them from the tins as soon as you can or they will be hard to take out; oil the tins well; finally try to hold yourself back from eating lots of these.


Mini Pecan/Nut Tarts


Pastry


125 gm cold butter
1/2 c icing sugar
1 c flour


Process until a ball forms then line about 16-18 mini muffin tins which have been pre greased (I use spray oil). Freeze or refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour.


Filling


1 egg
1 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
60 gms melted butter


Mix together well.


Into the prechilled cases put in some finely chopped nuts. Pecans are best but a mix of other nuts is great too. Then top with some of the mixture but be careful to not overfill the cases.


Bake at 180 C for around 20-25 mins.


AS soon as you can give them a little twist in the tin to release the pastry. Then remove them to a rack as soon as you can lift them out. You can see that some of my bases stuck but they can be put together easily enough. It was that particular tin I used I think.