Catalan Easter Cake

Rainy day sunday in the Blue Mountains and I decided to do some baking. Lots of easter recipes are starting to appear and so I chose a lovely decadent looking cake - a Catalan Easter Cake from this months Masterchef magazine. According to the magazine "in Spain this cake is given to godchildren and decorated with eggs to indicate their age" . With I thought was a smashingly lovely idea. A special ingredient used in the cake icing is orange-blossom water - a scented water made in the middle east made purely from Orange blossoms infused in water. I found a beautiful one at our local deli from Iran - brand Pariya (www.pariya.com).

Here's mine...

Banana Bread (take 2!)

With more overripe bananas lurking on our kitchen bench I dived in for my second attempt at Banana bread in as many weeks. Again using duck eggs this time I used a different recipe than previously - this one being far yummier than last weeks. The recipe is below (i think it has been adapted from the 'Joy of Cooking'). I baked in a loaf tin and did as the recipe suggested and placed sliced bananas on top.
Here is the result - (half eaten!)

From various for blog

BANANA BREAD 
Adapted from Joy of Cooking

INGREDIENTS:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 ripe large bananas, mashed well (about 1-1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Garnish: (Optional)
A few slices of banana

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to around 180c (350f) . Butter and flour the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. Set aside.
   
2. In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
   
3. In a medium-sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla.
   
4. With a rubber spatula, lightly fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients just until combined and the batter is thick and chunky. (The important thing is not to over mix the batter. You do not want it smooth. Over mixing the batter will yield tough, rubbery bread.)
   
5. Scrape batter into prepared pan and place the slices of banana on top of the batter for garnish.
   
6. Bake until bread is golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 60 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the bread from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.
   
   Makes 1 – 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf of banana bread / banana cake.

Baking bread

Yum. I have been going mad baking bread in an old Breadmaker machine that we had in the back of the closet. I don't think I have ever used one, and once I discovered it I have been like a woman possessed! In the past few days I have made three normal white loaves and one foccacia type bread. (made on the dough setting! Yes! and then popped into the old fashioned oven).

Ooooh - the delay button - what's this!? [she asked, pondering the possibilities]. The next morning at 5am on cue the dogs started barking madly as the bread machine turned on like magic to bake us some Saturday morning bread.

Below is a photo of my very first one. I have worked out that with the bulk breadmix I bought - that it comes to about $1 a loaf - but we would go through 2 for every one of a normal shop bought sandwich loaf - so that works out about $2 a loaf. Still pretty good. {not sure about all the power used to bake it though!). I have also made with just normal flour, yeast etc, rather than the breadmix. My next experiment will be to use the 'dough' setting for pasta. And make some more home made pasta.

From various for blog

Banana Cake from Edmonds Cookbook

Today we made a classic banana cake from the classic NZ cookbook Edmonds. I actually found it from another blog here - (so thank you!).
We made the cake with our duck eggs of course! Yummy! I made it in two sandwich tins - but next time will just do the one. I also added a couple of drops of vanilla.

Lemon Meringue Pie - with Duck Eggs

What do you think? Tonight I made a Lemon Meringue Pie with some of our duck eggs. I found the recipe online here (using chook eggs, but I swapped) Both girls are laying every day now - so I need to keep baking baking baking! - Which isn't hard to do - as I have hungry mouths here - and I love it anyway. Thank god for Master Chef. Apparently our single older gentleman neighbour next door likes to bake and is happy to receive duck eggs instead of the Chook eggs we regularly give him. Now to eat....

From various for blog

From various for blog

Sponge cake using Duck eggs

Well the duck eggs are now coming in thick and fast. So I was due to start experimenting with them. Our first go - probably unwisely- was to poach them. Ick! Put us off them. Second go, was to 'bake' with them. All the googling had led to lots of recommendations for baking with them - especially sponges and meringue. So I just googled "duck egg sponge cake" - don't you love google? Up came a Duck Egg Sponge Cake recipe! This is the link for those interested. And below is the result.
!

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Bread & Butter Pickles and Sun Ripening Tomatoes

My Mum came to visit this weekend. The weather was Finally fantastic. Blue skies and a perfect temperature of around 25 26 degrees. We got stuck into harvesting my tomatoes and cucumbers and doing interesting things with the bounty. First up were picking about 4 cucumbers and making a batch of 'Bread and Butter Pickles'. Basically a pickled cucumber, left for around 2 months, then served as a side with cheese or a ploughmans lunch - even on a sandwich. This was an 'easy' recipe I picked up from the internet, which I would supply here but the link is now broken. The basis of it was 4 lge cucumbers, 4 onions, white vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds and fennel seeds. Salting the cucumbers and onions for about an hour prior to adding the vinegar mixture. - That's the basis!

From various for blog

Then it came to my tomatoes. They have almost taken over -day of the triffids style - and my mum gave the wise advice of pruning them right back so sunlight was getting in. So we (well she) picked all the ripe tomatoes at the same time and so this evening I have made a roasted tomato and red onion puree sauce for future pastas. I have frozen the bulk in an ice tray for single servings with pasta. (we did sample tonight the fresh sauce however - and it was scrummy.). After picking the tomatos I also left them in the sun all day today for the extra ripening.

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Our new Ducks

Please meet our new Ducks. Just brought home only a few mintues ago. Muscovy ducks are apparently the best 'pet' ducks to have - don't really quack and get along fine with chooks. Now while they aren't the most attractive adult duck - in fact a lot look like they are just plain ugly - I am sure raising them from ducklings I will acquire an attachment to them. And importantly for me they will contribute to our sustainable mission with their Duck eggs. (good for pavlovas apparently!). Click here and here for some recipe uses (including pavlova)

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Chocolate Mint Truffle Torte

I have found a recipe for my chocolate mint. I am very excited about this new herb I have and am planning wonderful things for it. The first recipe below:

CHOCOLATE MINT TRUFFLE TORTE

Makes 1 cake, 12 servings.

This torte uses yet one more technique for infusing fresh herbs. This time you steep mint leaves in warm butter, strain them out, and use the scented butter in the cake. Flourless chocolate cakes are familiar to most serious chocolate lovers because they are the most intensely chocolate cakes imaginable. They are, in fact, cooled dense chocolate soufflés and very simple to make. The fresh peppermint flavor in this version gives it a refreshing taste.

About 1 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened, for the pan
1 tbsp. all-purpose flour, for the pan
6 ounces (1-1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (gently packed) fresh chocolate mint or peppermint leaves
12 ounces premium bittersweet chocolate chopped
6 large eggs, at room temperature
6 tbsp. granulated sugar
Garnish with powdered sugar

Preparing the pan: Generously butter a 9 inch springform pan and lightly dust the interior with the flour. Turn the pan upside down and bang out the excess flour. Wrap a large square of heavy-duty aluminum foil around the bottom of the pan and partially up the sides. Turn the pan right side up and set it in a shallow baking pan or on a half-sheet pan.

Infusing the butter: Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the mint leaves and let the butter sit in a warm place for about 30 minutes to absorb the flavor of the leaves.

Butter and chocolate mixture: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Create a double boiler by selecting a medium (10-12") stainless-steel mixing bowl that will rest on top of large (6-quart) pot. The top of the bowl can extend beyond the rim of the pot, but the bottom of the bowl must not touch the water. Put about 2" water in the pot and bring it to a simmer. If the butter has cooled, heat it again to thin it. Pour the butter through a fine sieve into the mixing bowl and press the leaves with the back of a spoon to extract all the butter. Add the chocolate to the bowl and place it over the simmering water. Stir until the chocolate is completely melted, then remove the bowl from the water.

Eggs: Beat the eggs and granulated sugar with an electric mixer on high speed for a full 10 minutes. They should quadruple in volume and become light colored, very thick and fluffy. Fold 1/4 of the egg mixture into the chocolate mixture, then very gently fold in the remaining egg mixture until completely incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Baking: Put the baking pan with the cake on the center oven rack and pour in enough water to come about 1/2" up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until an instant-thermometer inserted in the center of the cake register 155 to 160 F, 25 to 30 minutes. The top of the cake will lose its glossiness and be slightly mounded, but it should not bake so long that it rises and cracks. If you insert a skewer into the center, it should come out gooey. Let the cake cool completely in its pan on a wire rack. Run a thin knife around the edge of the cake and remove the outer ring. The cake will keep tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. Dust the top of the cake with powdered sugar and serve with whipped cream, ice cream or custard sauce.

Recipe from: "The Herbfarm Cookbook" by Jerry Traunfeld.

Dried Lemon Balm

Here is the Lemon Balm - dried and being put into some tins. I intend to make various things out of this - will post my various failures and successes.

The first thing I am going to start is this :) check back for results :

Melissa Liqueur
Home made Lemon Balm Liqueur

2 ½ tsp dried lemon balm

sliced and scraped peel of ¼ lemon

a pinch of coriander

a pinch of cinnamon

2 peppermint leaves

1 cup vodka

½ cup sugar syrup

Place all the ingredients in a bottle and steep 3 weeks. Shake the jar daily during the steeping period. Strain and filter into a dark bottle, adding more sugar to taste. Mature for 2 months.

Sugar Syrup

1 cup white granulated sugar and ½ cup water

Bring to a boil, and stir until all the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is clear. Always cool before adding to alcohol mixture.

Dried Lemon Balm

Lemon Balm and Honey biscuits

I made Lemon Balm and Honey biscuits today. Great recipe - although I needed to half it. I couldn't bring myself to use that much butter.

The Lemon Balm is of course from our recent surprise crop!