Weetbix Slice

Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line a 18 x 28cm tin.

125gm butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup rye flour
1/2 cup wholemeal flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
6 weetbix, crushed
1 cup dessicated or shredded coconut
1/2 cup dried fruit, chopped (raisins, dates, dried apricots, cranberries.. whatever is in your pantry will do!)
1/2 cup dark chocolate bits

Combine butter, syrup and sugar in a pot and stir over a medium heat until the butter melts.  Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before adding vanilla and egg.

Mix in flours and baking powder.  Add remaining ingredients and stir until evenly combined.

Press mixture into lined tin and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the centre is as firm as the edges.  Remover from oven and cool for 5 - 10 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack.  Allow to cool completely before cutting into slices else it will fall apart!

You can drizzle melted chocolate over the top before slicing if you're feeling fancy too!

Spiced Pumpkin and Chocolate Chip Muffins

Oh man, I love autumn!  It's been pouring down for the past couple of days and my boys are on school holidays so it's been the perfect time to get in the kitchen and get a few things done.  Mr B bought a massive butternut squash a few days ago so I have a freezer full of pumpkin puree for Baby B and 30 muffins just about to come out of the oven..

Spiced Pumpkin and Chocolate Chip Muffins

Makes about 24 muffins

1 1/4 cups caster sugar
1/2 cup rice bran oil
4 eggs
2 cups mashed pumpkin
1/2 cup milk

3 cups plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
pinch salt
1 cup dark chocolate chips or chunks (as always, be generous)

Preheat oven to 200C.  Grease and line 24 muffin tins 

Mix sugar, oil and eggs in a large bowl.  Add pumpkin and milk and combine thoroughly.

In another bowl mix together the dry ingredients.  Add to wet mixture and stir through chocolate chips.  Do not over mix!

Spoon mixture into prepared muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes or until muffins spring back when you press lightly on the tops.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy cookies

Super easy.  Super lemony.  This recipe scales up easily as well, if you're baking for a crowd (or if you want to give them away at Christmas time)

125gm butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
grated rind of one lemon 
1 egg
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Line cookie sheets with baking paper.  Preheat oven to 190C.

Cream butter, sugar and lemon until light and fluffy.  Add egg and beat well until it's incorporated fully.  Add flour and baking powder and continue to beat into creamed mixture.  Roll teaspoonsful of mixture into balls and place on oven trays.  Flatten with the back of a fork or your thumb.

Bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until cookies are just starting to brown.

Gingerbread Cookie Dough Truffles

These. Are. Awesome.

They taste like Christmas... but I'll be they're great any time of the year.

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup golden syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon all spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoon ginger
pinch salt
Dark chocolate for coating (I just used chocolate melts, but better quality chocolate wouldn't go amiss here.  The dough is pretty rich)

Beat butter, syrup and sugar with an electric beater until it's light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add vanilla and then flour, spices and salt.  Beat on a slow speed until everything is incorporated.  Chill dough for 30 minutes or until it's firm enough to handle.  Meanwhile, line 2 or 3 cookie sheets with baking paper and make some space in your freezer.

Form dough into teaspoon sized balls.  Don't be tempted to make them too big as the dough/chocolate ration will too sickly!  Arrange on lined cookie sheets and place in freezer for at least 15 minutes.  Melt chocolate in the microwave, being careful not to overheat.  Using a skewer, dip truffles in chocolate and tap on the side of the bowl to remove excess chocolate.  Quickly return to the cookie sheet and repeat for the rest of the truffles.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge once they're set.  They keep well for a few days.. possibly longer if you don't eat them before that!

Perfect Match

Is there anything better than marmite and cheese???  (Except, maybe, gin and tonic!)

I forgot to buy bread at the supermarket today so I had to think up something else for the boys' lunch boxes tomorrow.  Oh for a kombini just downstairs huh ;)

This marmite and cheese scroll recipe is so simple and you'll almost definitely have all the ingredients already.  Perfect!

Marmite & Cheese Scrolls

Makes 8

8gm instant dry yeast (1 sachet) 

1 teaspoon honey

1 cup lukewarm water

2 1/2 cups high grade flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

Marmite

Approx 1 cup grated Colby cheese

Preheat oven to 200c

Combine water and honey in a small bowl and stir until honey is dissolved.  Add yeast and put aside for a few minutes or until it's nice and frothy.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt.  When yeast mixture is ready, pour it into the flour along with the olive oil.  With an electric mixer, beat with dough hook on a medium speed until ingredients are combined.  Increase speed to high and knead for 1 minute.  Leave dough to rest in a warm place for 15 minutes.

You can knead the dough by hand if you don't have a mixer, it'll just take longer (and you might need that G&T).

Roll rested dough into a rectangle, approximately 1cm thick.

Thinly spread marmite over all but the top 3cm of the rectangle.  Make sure you go all the way to the other three edges!  Next, generously sprinkle grated cheese over marmite.

Starting at the bottom edge, roll dough into a long sausage.  Use your fingertips to wet the top edge with water and seal the roll.  Cut into even sections.  I like to cut in half, then each half again, and again to get 8 even scrolls.

Place rolls snugly into a lined cake tin.  I used a square tin tonight, but a round one will do fine!  Bake for 30 minutes at 200C.  If you love cheese (you know you do!) sprinkle a bit more over the top of the scrolls about 5 minutes before they're due out of the oven.  Yum!!

Awesome in a Pie

I've been saving this one up for this week as Mr B didn't seem too keen (maybe because of the leeks?!) when he was home.  We had roast chicken for lunch on Saturday so this was a perfect opportunity to use up the leftovers!  You need about 1/2 a cooked chicken, or you can use two chicken breasts baked in the oven and then roughly shredded.

Julia's Chicken & Leek Pie
(serves 4-6)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large leek, very thinly sliced
2 tablespoons dijon mustard (or more, if you like.  Pretty sure the amount I threw in was more!)
Dash white wine (Selaks sauvignon blanc tonight)
1 household tablespoon flour
1 small can whole kernel corn, drained
Approx 1 cup salt-reduced chicken stock
400gm creme fraiche - Tatua creme fraiche is on special at Countdown this week.  You could substitute Philadelphia Cooking Cream but it will alter the flavour slightly
1 T fresh thyme, if you have it
1/2 cooked chicken, roughly shredded
1 block frozen puff pastry, thawed, divided

Preheat oven to 200C (190C fan forced).  Spray pie dish with cooking spray.

Heat a large frypan over a medium heat.  Saute leeks in olive oil until soft.  Reduce heat slightly then add mustard and flour.  Stir through and then add wine and keep stirring till the flour has thickened the liquid.  Slowly add chicken stock, a little bit at a time.  Stir and allow the stock to be absorbed into the leeks before adding more.  You need to keep the mixture quite thick.  

Add fresh thyme now if you're using it.  Turn off the heat and add the corn, then the creme fraiche and stir until well combined.  Add lots of cracked pepper now (or not, if you don't like it) and the shredded chicken.

Divide pastry (2/3 - 1/3) and roll the larger piece to line your pie dish with a bit hanging over the sides.  Pour chicken and leek mixture into pie dish and top with the rolled smaller piece of pastry.  Fold edges over to seal and brush with egg wash.  Pierce the top of the pie with your knife a couple of times to allow the steam to escape too.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until pastry is golden.  Allow to rest for about 10 minutes before cutting into it - this will allow the cream to thicken up again!

Here's hoping the boys enjoy it tomorrow else I'll be eating pie for the rest of the week! ;)

Easy Peasy Fish Cakes (or Post-Rugby madness)

So easy Ms Comer's cat Basil could do it!

I made these solely to use up some leftover mash and veggies from Sunday night, but they were so good I had to share! 

Fish cakes (makes 6)

2 185gm tins flaked tuna, drained

Approx 1 cup mashed potato

1/2 broccoli, chopped roughly and steamed

1/4 cup edamame (soy beans, get them in the frozen section at Countdown)

Parsley, finely chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Flour

2 tablespoons olive oil 

Blend steamed veggies in a food processor or blender till you have a chunky purée.  Combine in a bowl with drained tuna, mash and chopped parsley.  Season now if you want to.

Form palm-sized fish cakes, about 2 cm thick.  Coat lightly with flour and set aside.

Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.  I cooked 4 fish cakes at a time, for about 5 mins on each side.  You want them to be crispy and golden brown.

The boys had theirs with baked beans, peas and sweet corn after rugby practice tonight and wolfed them down!  Mr B and I had ours with a big salad, garlic aioli and chilli sauce.  Yum yum.

Ps - you can easily substitute any steamed veggies for the broccoli and edamame: peas, courgette, carrot...