Macaroni Cheese (Edmonds)

Last Tuesday was my last Te Reo class. (I can't believe how fast the term went!) And, since it was our last day, we had it as more of a social, take-a-plate event. I really wanted to make butter tarts for everyone, but the instructor had said "no chips, no sweets, no lollies", so I was worried that it was meant to be all savoury, dinner-type stuff. In the end, I decided to make the butter tarts anyway, since they're such a Canadian thing. But I opted to throw together a quick mac & cheese as well, so that I'd have something savoury to contribute to the table. Just in case.

This isn't my favourite mac & cheese. But it's a good, solid stand-by. And it is easy to throw together on short notice. And you could certainly gussy it up with some extra inclusions. Edmonds suggests bacon as an option. (Although I didn't end up adding any since I knew that there were at least a couple of people in the class who couldn't eat pork.) I think a bit of Worcestershire sauce and/or a few veggies (maybe some carrots or peas) wouldn't go amiss either. Just a little something to amp up the flavour a bit and give it a little more variation in each bite. Still, this version was completely fine and a nice, safe, reliable option. And the Kidlet loved it! I'm pretty sure she managed to cram about half the tray into a single bowl and wolf it down all in one sitting. So, definitely no complaints from her!

Photo goes here.

Macaroni Cheese

Slightly adapted from Edmonds

Ingredients

• 2-3 Tbsp. butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 1/2 tsp. dry mustard
• 2 c. milk
• 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce (optional)
• 1/8 tsp. ground cayenne (optional)
• 1/8-1/4 tsp. sweet paprika (optional)
• 2 c. grated cheese¹, divided
• 1 c. frozen peas (optional)
• 1 c. diced carrots (optional)
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 300-500g macaroni², cooked
• 2 Tbsp. dry breadcrumbs
• 2 Tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsely (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) and lightly grease a 23x23cm (9x9") pan.
2. Melt the butter over medium heat.
3. Reduce heat, add the onion, and cook until softened (5-10 minutes).
4. Add the flour and cook until foaming, but not yet browning (2-3 minutes).
5. Add the mustard, sizzle for a few seconds.
6. Whisk in the milk and continue stirring until mixture becomes smooth.
7. Mix in the Worcestershire suace, cayenne, and paprika (if using).
8. Stir in half of the cheese (~1 c.).
9. Add the peas and carrots (if using).
10. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
11. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens.
12. Stir pasta into sauce and mix well.
13. Pour pasta mixture into prepared baking dish.
14. Combine breadcrumbs and parsley (if using) with remaining 1 c. of cheese.
15. Sprinkle the cheese mixture over the pasta.
16. Bake at 190°C (375°F) until top is nicely crispy and pasta is heated through (15-20 minutes).

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¹ Edmonds calls for "tasty cheese", which, as far as I can tell, is New Zealish for "old Cheddar". That said, I think mild Cheddar or even a mix of Cheddar and mozzarella would also work reasonably well here. ^Back
2 Edmonds called for 2 c. of cooked macaroni. I cooked a whole box of noodles (I forget whether it was 400 or 500g) and then, once they were cooked, measured out 2 c. of the cooked pasta and stirred it into the sauce. It was nowhere near enough! I tried adding more pasta, a little at a time, until it looked about right. But, by then, I'd added nearly all of what I'd cooked. So, at that point, I figured I might as well add the whole box! That said, if you're planning to add lots of veggies, I'd probably skip (or at least scale down) the amout of pasta being mixed into the sauce. Maybe just 300g + a bunch of veggies; just to keep the ratio of sauce to everything else nice. ^Back

Spaghetti Bolognese (Edmonds)

I've made a few different versions of spaghetti with meat sauce, but it turs out that I'd never made the Edmonds version. And Reiver quite likes it. And we had a busy weekend and were in need of some good, hearty comfort food, so I figured a nice pot of spag-bol wouldn't go amiss. And I was right! We actually ended up all having seconds and demolishing the whole pot in one night!

Recipe as written, Edmonds recommends this amount of sauce for 250g of spaghetti. I started with that amount, but then ended up cooking up some more noodles to go with the left over sauce before the end of the night. I think you could probably manage to stretch it to work with 500g of noodles. Especially if you added some veg and a little pasta water to the sauce.

Photo goes here.

Spaghetti Bolognese

Slightly adapted from Edmonds

Ingredients

• 1-2 Tbsp. oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
• 100-200g mushrooms, sliced (optional)
• 1 bay leaf
• 500g ground beef (preferably extra lean)
• 1/4 c. tomato paste
• 400g diced tomatoes
• Parmesan rind (optional)
• 1 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 2 c. chicken or beef stock
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/8 tsp. ground cayenne (optional)
• 1 Tbsp. tomato sauce or ketchup (optional)
• 1-2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce (optional)
• 100-200g baby spinach (optional)
• 400-500g spaghetti, cooked
• 1 c. reserved pasta water
• grated Parmesan, to serve
• extra basil, to serve

Directions

1. Heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened (~5 minutes).
3. Add the mushrooms (if using) and cook until mushrooms release their juices (~10 minutes).
4. Add bay leaf and ground beef and cook until meat is no longer pink (5-10 minutes longer).
5. Add the tomato paste, tomatoes, Parmesan rind (if using), basil, oregano, chicken stock, and pepper.
6. Bring to a boil and cook for a few minutes, then taste and add cayenne, tomato sauce/ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and/or more salt and pepper as desired.
7. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 45-60 minutes.
8. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil and cook your spaghetti according to package directions.
9. Reserving ~1 c. of the pasta cooking water, drain the noodles.
10. Add the reserved pasta water and the spinach (if using) to the sauce, give a good stir, and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
11. Add the pasta to the sauce, give it another good stir, and toss to combine.
12. Serve topped with grated Parmesan and fresh basil.

I was a little disappointed in this cake. It wasn't bad, it was just a little dry and lacking in flavour. On the bright side, it rose beautifully! And it used up the last little bit of lemon juice I had saved in the fridge. So that was helpful.

I'm too tired to figure out how to convert all the thoughts in my head into a nicely written blog post, so I'm just going to drop some note in here as a reminder to future me and not worry too much about making it super articulate.

• Batter seemed too stiff/dry, so added extra egg
• Added extra 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice (just to use it up)
• Baked in 8x4" loaf tin; maybe needed larger tin due to extra egg?
• Baked in upper oven, but forgot to move rack down; rose into broiler element
• Still underbaked at 40 minutes; needed 60 to test done, but then dry (and crust too thick)

Next time try baking in 8.5x4.5" tin and make sure to move rack down before preheating oven. Try using even more lemon juice and zest to boost flavour a bit more?

Madeira Cake

Slightly adapted from Edmond's Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 200g sugar
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 4 large eggs
• 2 c. soft (plain/stardard/cake) four
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 tsp. caster sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 22cm x 11cm (8.5x4.5") loaf tin.
2. Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy (~3 minutes).
3. Add the lemon zest and salt.
4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
5. Sift in the flour and the baking powder and mix until combined.
6. Mix in the lemon juice.
7. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
8. Sprinkle with caster sugar.
9. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 40 minutes.
10. Cool in tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake (Edmonds)

Looking at the blog, we have made A LOT of chocolate cakes over the years! From the Kidlet's beloved Mississippi mud pie to our recent adventures with Texas sheet cake, cupcakes (in various flavours), snack cakes, mug cakes, Bundt cakes (including the formidable tunnel of fudge), sourdough cakes, flourless cakes, square cakes, round cakes... even train-shaped cakes! Not to mention the phenomenal chocolate pecan torte or the double chocolate banana bread recipes that we've got kicking around. So, what I'm saying is that we really like our chocolate cakes¹.

Given that, I know I don't really need any more chocolate cake recipes. We've already got lots of great ones. But I haven't tried all the Edmonds cake recipes yet! And I had some buttermilk in the fridge that really wanted using up. So this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out a new chocolate cake recipe!

It's actually written as a gluten-free recipe using "Edmonds gluten free plain flour". But, since none of us are celiac or otherwise avoiding gluten at the moment, I just made it with regular soft (pastry) flour.

The icing was nice and easy to make. And the relative lack of butter meant that it tolerated my impatience well when I spread it onto a still-warm cake. I did end up needing to add a lot more wet ingredients than the recipe called for though. I used ~30% more butter and twice as much milk as called for. Plus I added a tsp. of vanilla extract! It was fine once the extra milk went in though. Just be careful with how much you use and add it in very small increments so that you don't overshoot.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

Slightly adapted form Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

Cake

• 1/2 c. butter²
• 125g dark chocolate
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 c. buttermilk
• 3 large eggs
• 1 3/4 c. 1:1 gluten-free flour or soft (plain/standard/pastry) flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground

Icing

• 190g icing (confectioners'/powdered) sugar
• 1/3 c. cocoa powder³
• 2 Tbsp. butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2-3 Tbsp. milk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 22cm (9") round cake tin. (Use cocoa powder instead of flour if you want to be fancy.)
2. Melt the butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring often.
3. Remove from heat and mix in sugar.
4. Stir in buttermilk and eggs.
5. Sift the flour, baking powder, and baking soda into the pot. Add the salt on top.
6. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
8. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 40-45 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and cool in tin for 10 minutes.
10. Turn cake out onto wire rack to finish cooling.
11. Meanwhile, sift the icing sugar and the cocoa together.
12. Use a wooden spoon to mix in the butter, vanilla, and 1 Tbsp. of the milk.
13. Add the remaining milk 1/2 tsp. at a time until desired consistency is achieved.
14. Once cake has cooled, transfer it to a platter and spread the icing in an even layer over the top and sides.

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¹ And cake-adjacent baked goods. I didn't even get into all the brownies and chocolate cookies and various other things that we've made over the years. ^Back
2 I used unsalted butter, but I believe that salted is standard for most Kiwi recipes. Either is probably fine in this case. ^Back
3 I used Dutched/alkalized cocoa for this, but natural cocoa is also fine here. ^Back

These bran muffins were fantastic! I'm used to bran muffins being full of tonnes of oil and sugar, but these were pleasingly lean while still being moist. The high oven temperature worried me a bit, but I followed the recipe and they came out great! (I did add a few raisins to my muffins and swap out the white sugar for brown, but I didn't make any changes to the proportions or baking time or temperature.) I might consider adding a pinch of cinnamon next time, but they're honestly great just the way they are.

Bran Muffins

Slightly adapted form Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 1 c. soft (plain/standard/pastry) flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 1/2 c. wheat bran
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon (optional)
• 1/2-1 c. raisins (optional)
• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter¹
• 1 Tbsp. golden syrup
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 c. milk
• 1 large egg

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F) and grease a muffin tin (or line with papers).
2. Sift together the flour and baking powder.
3. Mix in the salt and the wheat bran.
4. Mix in the cinnamon and raisins (if using).
5. Melt the butter with the golden syrup and stir in the brown sugar.
6. In a separate container, mix the baking soda into the milk.
7. Pour the butter mixture, milk mixture, and egg into the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
8. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin.
9. Bake for 12-15 minutes.
10. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

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¹ The original recipe presumably used salted butter since it doesn't specify what type and my understanding is that salted butter is always the default in NZ. I don't generally keep salted butter on hand though, so I just used unsalted and didn't bother reducing the salt called for in the recipe like I normally would. ^Back

I was looking for something to make for dessert tonight and decided to give the brownie recipe from Edmonds a try. I haven't tasted it yet, but TF and the Kidlet both report that it's very good.

When I was mixing it up, the batter seemed a bit stiffer than I tought was ideal, but the results seem fine, so maybe this is just an unusually thick batter. That said, some of my eggs were a bit on the small side, so it's also possible that that shifted the proportions a bit as well. I might try adding either an extra egg or just a splash of milk or something next time (unless I'm dealing with larger eggs, of course). Either way, the final product seemed rich and dark and chocolatey, so I'm happy overall.

Chocolate Brownie

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 150g butter¹, melted
• 1 c. cocoa
• 4 large eggs
• 2 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 c. soft (plain/standard/pastry) flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 250g dark chocolate, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F) and grease a 23x33cm (9x13") pan².
2. Stir the cocoa into the melted butter.
3. Beat the eggs in, one at a time.
4. Mix in the sugar and the vanilla.
5. Sift in the flour and the baking powder.
6. Stir in the chocolate.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread into an even layer.
8. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 35-40 minutes.
9. Let cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting or removing from tin.

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¹ My understanding is that when Edmonds just says "butter" without specifying whether it should be salted or unsalted, it should be understood as salted butter. However, my default butter these days is unsalted butter, so I just used that. I probably should've added a pinch of salt in to compensate for the unsalted butter, but I forgot. ^Back
2 The original recipe called for an 18x27cm tin, but I don't have any tins that size and, as far as I know, that isn't a standard size here. (At least, I've certainlly never heard of that size before now.) So, my options were: 20cm (8") square tins, a 23x33cm (9x13") tin, or one or more of my various round tins. If you end up going with a different tin, you may find that you need to adjust your baking times somewhat. Check often and be careful not to overbake! ^Back

I made these a while ago, but it doesn't look like they ever got written up. I remember encountering a few issues which meant they didn't come out quite as intended, but they were still fine. And they were fun to make. I'd love to try them with cornflakes next time!

Chocolate Crackles

From Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 250g vegetable shortening
• 1 c. icing sugar
• 1/4 c. cocoa powder
• 4 c. crispy rice cereal or cornflakes
• 1 c. fine desiccated coconut¹

Directions

1. Melt the shortening over medium-low heat.
2. Sift in the icing sugar and cocoa powder and mix well.
3. Stir in the rice cereal and coconut until thoroughly combined.
4. Spoon into paper cupcake cases and chill for 30 minutes.

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¹ The recipe doesn't specify whether the coconut should be sweetened or unsweetened. Having now tried it with unsweetened coconut, I feel fairly confident in saying that it's meant to be sweetened coconut. That said, they were still perfectly edible with the unsweetened variety, just not as sweet as I'd normally expect a dessert to be. ^Back

I watched these being made as one of the "technical bakes" on an episode of Great British Bake-Off. They looked pretty fiddly. Maybe not as fiddly as brandysnaps or some of the other technical bakes, but still not all that approachable.

It's been a while since I made these, so some of the details have gotten a little fuzzy. But, if I recall correctly, the chocolate was the biggest issue for me. I couldn't get it to coat the bottom nicely and I had trouble getting it to hold the marks from the fork. I think I probably needed to let it cool down a bit more to give it a bit more body and thicken up.

Florentines

From Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 150g butter
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 45g honey
• 2 Tbsp. cream
• 130g sliced (flaked) almonds
• 15g soft (plain/standard/pastry) flour¹
• 1/2 c. chopped glacé cherries
• 2 Tbsp. chopped mixed peel
• 150g dark chocolate

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
2. Melt the butter, sugar, honey, and cream in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
3. Reduce heat to low and add the almonds, flour, cherries, and mixed peel.
4. Cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes.
5. Place four 1-tsp. portions of the mixture on each baking sheet and spread each one into 7-cm circle. (They will spread even more in the oven, so don't crowd them.)
6. Bake the trays, one at a time, at 200°C (400°F) for 8-10 minutes. Watch closely as they burn easily!
7. Once the Florentines are then, golden, and bubbling, remove from oven and let cool on pan for 1 minute.
8. Use a spatula or knife to form them into neat circles while they're still a bit soft.
9. Slide the whole sheet of baking paper onto a cooling rack and leave to cool and harden.
10. Bake the next tray the same way and keep repeating the process until all of the mixture has been used up.
11. Once the Florentines are cooled, melt the chocolate and allow it to cool slightly.
12. Spread the underside of each biscuit with a coating of chocolate.
13. Use the tines of a fork to make wavy lines in the chocolate, then set aside so that the chocolate can cool and set.

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¹ Given how little flour is needed for this recipe, it probably doesn't matter too much whether you use hard or soft flour. I would think that this would also make it an ideal candidate for converting to gluten-free. Simply swap out the plain flour for a 1:1 GF flour! ^Back

I don't make white bread very often. I mostly stick to whole wheat. Sometimes I'll play around with other grains or legumes or various things. But plain white bread doesn't show up very often. But this was the last bread recipe in Edmonds that I hadn't made yet. And we'd been out of bread for a while and I wanted something that would come together relatively quickly. So this fit the bill.

It was fine as bread goes. Not great. A bit bland. And I think it would've worked better in 20cm loaf tins rather than the 25cm ones the recipe called for. But it is fast (as home-made bread goes) and it's fine if you just need something to put a bit of jam on. I definitely prefer something with a bit more interest, but this works as a basic recipe.

White Bread

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 625g hard (strong/high grade/bread) flour
• 20g instant yeast
• 5g (~1 tsp.) sugar
• 10g (~1/2 Tbsp.) coarse sea salt
• 400mL water
• 30mL oil

Directions

1. If using an electric mixer: Put all the ingredients in the bowl of the mixer fitted with a dough hook and mix on slow until dough forms.
   If mixing by hand: Combine the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt and mix well. Then pour in the water and mix until dough forms.
2. Mix or knead by hand until dough becomes smooth and elastic (5-8 minutes with an electric mixer or 15-20 minutes by hand). If kneading by hand, work the oil in during kneading.
3. Shape the dough into a smooth ball and place in a covered bowl to rise for ~30 minutes.
4. Grease two 20cm (8") loaf pans.
5. Knock the dough back, divide into four equal portions, and round each one.
6. Place two dough balls into each loaf pan, cover, and set aside to rise (30-45 minutes).
7. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
8. Bake loaves at 200°C (400°F) until crust is golden-brown and crumb is cooked through (25-30 minutes).
9. Cool in tins for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.
10. Brush crust with a little butter while the loaves are still hot if desired. (This will give the crust a nice shine.)

So, I've been going through cookbooks trying to find a use for some excess egg yolks that I've been hanging on to in the fridge. I sa a recipe for an egg-yolk-only white chocolate mousse in an issue of Cook's Country. That put me on to the idea of mousse in general and I figured I'd check the plain chocolate mousse recipe (in a different issue of Cook's Country) as well as seeing what Edmonds had to say on the topic of chocolate mousse.

Well, it turns out that I'd already made the Edmonds chocolate mousse and just forgotten to write it up. (Looked familiar once I was actually reading it, just didn't remember before I got the book out.)

This recipe doesn't help me with my egg yolk dilemma as it uses whole eggs, but it should still be written up. I was happy with how it came out if I recall correctly, and it's a fairly easy dessert to make.

Chocolate Mousse

From Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 100g dark chocolate
• 2 Tbsp. water or espresso
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 1 Tbsp. rum or cointreau
• whipped cream, to serve

Directions

1. Chop the chocolate and place it in a heatproof bowl with the water/espresso.
2. Set the bowl over a pot of boiling water and heat for 5 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir gently until combined.
4. Beat the egg yolks until fluffy.
5. Gradually stir in the wearm chocolate mixture.
6. Mix in the rum/cointreau.
7. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
8. Add half of the egg whites to the chocolate mixture and stir to combine. (Don't worry about deflating them at this point. The goal is just to loosen the mixture a little bit.)
9. Add the remaining egg white and gently fold into the chocolate mixture until no longer streaky. (NOW you want to be careful not to deflate it too much.)
10. Spoon into 4 small or 1 large dish and chill¹ for 1-2 hours.
11. Served topped with whipped cream.

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¹ Edmonds recommends putting the mousse somewhere cool, but not cold to set. They note that if set in the fridge, the mousse may become too firm. I set mine in the fridge anyway and just checked it fairly frequently to see when it was set enough, but not too firm. Keeping it slightly warmer (probably somewhere in the 6-10°C range) would probably avoid the risk of overly hard mousse, but I'd also worry about food safety at those temperatures. Especially given the raw egg in this recipe. My preference would be to store it colder, get it to set up as quickly as possible, and eat it sooner. Less chance of any nasties having a chance to multiply and cause problems that way. ^Back

Fruit Crumble

I was in the mood to do a little baking the other day and TF was craving some sort of fruity dessert, so we turned to Edmonds for ideas. We had one tin of NZ boysenberries left in the pantry and this felt like a very appropriate use for it.

The tinned boysenberries come with A LOT of liquid and not a huge amount of substance, so I decided to cook a Granny Smith apple and some dried currants in the juice to try to bulk it up a bit. It was still pretty soupy, so I added a bit of cornstarch as well. This got things to about the right consistency.

The Edmonds recipe is very generic. It calls for unspecified "stewed fruit" which then gets topped with a couple tablespoons of brown sugar and a generous quantity of buttery crumble topping. Depending on which fruit(s) you're using, you may want to adjust the amount of sugar and/or add additional seasonings. I found the default recipe slightly too sweet for the mix of fruits I had. It was still good, just not quite ideal. I've included both the basic formula as well as my specific recipe (with sweetness adjustments) here to give an idea of how it might be tweaked. Have fun experimenting with different fruits and flavours!

Fruit Crumble (Master/General Recipe)

From Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 2 c. stewed fruit
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 3/4 c. flour¹
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 100g butter²
• 1/2 c. sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
2. Pour fruit into a baking dish and sprinkle with brown sugar.
3. Combine flour and baking powder.
4. Cut in butter until mixture looks like breadcrumbs with a few pea-sized lumps.
5. Mix in sugar.
6. Spoon topping over fruit.
7. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 30 minutes.
8. Serve on its own or topped with cream, whipped cream, ice cream, and/or custard.

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Variations

Apple-Boysenberry Crumble

Ingredients

• 1 tin boysenberries
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1/4 c. dried currants
• 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp. cornstarch
• 3/4 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 100g butter
• 6 Tbsp. sugar

Directions

1. Drain most of the juice from the boysenberries and add it to a small pot with the apple, currants, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
2. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, over medium-low heat until apple has softened.
3. Mix a little of the remaining juice (~2-3 tsp.) with the cornstarch to make a slurry.
4. Stir the cornstarch slurry into the fruit mixture and cook until thickened.
5. Carefully mix in the boysenberries and any remaining juice and cook until heated through.
6. Remove from heat and set aside. Fruit mixture may be kept in the refrigerator for 3-4 days at this point.
7. Once ready to proceed, preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
8. Pour fruit mixture into a baking dish.
9. Prepare crumble topping as above: mixing flour and baking powder, cutting in butter, and stirring in sugar.
10. Spoon topping over fruit mixture.
11. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 30 minutes.
12. Serve alone or with toppings of your choice: cream, ice cream, whipped cream, custard, etc.

Fruit Crisp

Ingredients

• 2 c. stewed fruit
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1/2 c. rolled oats
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 100g butter
• 1/2 c. sugar

Vegan Version

Ingredients

• 2 c. stewed fruit
• 2 Tbsp. turbinado/raw sugar
• 3/4 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 100g vegan butter, shortening, and/or coconut oil
• 1/2 c. vegan (granulated) sugar and/or turbinado/raw sugar

Other Flavour Ideas

• Peach or Blueberry-Peach (add cinnamon)
• Blackberry
• Blueberry
• Apricot
• Plum
• Strawberry
• Strawberry-Rhubarb (add vanilla)
• Apple (add cinnamon and/or nutmeg)
• Pear and ginger

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¹ Feel free to use any kind of flour you like here: soft or hard, white or whole wheat. I used a hard whole wheat flour, but a soft or all-purpose white flour is the more typical choice. ^Back
2 I always default to unsalted butter for baking. That said, I believe that Edmonds typically expects salted butter. I used unsalted and was happy with my results. I'm sure that salted would also be fine if that's what you have available though. ^Back

I assumed that making flour tortillas would be pretty much the same as making corn tortillas, just with different flour. It's not. I mean, cooking them is pretty much the same, but shaping them is quite different. For corn tortillas, you want to press them. You can't roll out the masa. Flour tortillas are the opposite; pressing them doesn't work, the dough needs to be rolled.

Flour Tortillas

From Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 2 c. hard (strong/high grade/bread) flour
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 3 Tbsp. neutral oil
• ~3/4 c. warm water

Directions

1. Combine flour and salt.
2. Add oil and stir in enough water to form a soft dough.
3. Knead for 3-5 minutes.
4. Shape into a smooth ball, place in a covered bowl, and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
5. Turn out the dough and knead it for another few strokes.
6. Divide into 8 equal portions.
7. Form each portion into a ball and then flatten it into a 7-8cm disc. Keep discs covered to keep them from drying out.
8. Preheat a cast iron (or other heavy-bottomed) skillet.
9. Working with one disc at a time, roll it out to a 20cm circle, turning frequently.
10. Cook for ~45 seconds per side. Do not use any oil in the skillet.
11. While the first tortilla is cooking, roll out the next one.
12. Once cooked, place the each tortilla in a tortilla warmer (or on a warmed, covered plate) to keep them warm and pliable.

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Variations

Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas

Ingredients

• 1 c. hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour
• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 2 Tbsp. neutral oil
• ~3/4 c. warm water

A cheese-y quick bread. The basic recipe just adds a little mustard powder to the batter, but you can dress it up all sorts of ways: herbs, chili powder, cayenne, green onions, jalapeños, etc.

Cheese Loaf

From Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 3 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 tsp. mustard powder
• 2 tsp. butter
• 1 1/2 c. grated cheese
• 1 c. milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F) and grease and flour two 23cm (9") loaf tins.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and mustard.
3. Rub in the butter.
4. Mix in the grated cheese.
5. Stir in the milk to make a very thick batter. Use a little more or less milk as necessary to get the right consistency.
6. Spoon into the prepared tins.
7. Top loaves with a little extra cheese and/or paprika if desired.
8. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 30-40 minutes.
9. Allow to cool in pans for 10 minutes.
10. Tranfer to wire rack to finish cooling.

Crème Caramel (Flan)

The Kidlet's most recent birthday cake used six egg whites. This left me with half a dozen egg yolks that needed eating. I considered making crème brûlée again, but I wanted ot try something new. Flan has always made me a bit nervous. I'm not good at caramel and I've always been worried that it wouldn't set or unmold properly.

I think I did take the caramel off the heat a bit too soon. It was very pale. But, other than that, I'm really happy with how this came out! The consistency was excellent. It unmolded beautifully. And the flavour was just right.

I did end up removing it from the bain marie during the last few minutes of baking. After 40 minutes it still wasn't set, but the top was starting to brown, so I put it in for another 10 minutes without the bain marie. I was a little worried that this had turned it into scrambled eggs, but the texture was beautiful! Not curdled or eggy at all! Abandon the water bath at your own risk, of course, but it worked well for me.

Crème Caramel

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 3/4 c. + 2 Tbsp. sugar, divided
• 1/2 c. water
• 4 large eggs or 6 large egg yolks¹
• 1 c. whole (3.25%) milk
• 1 c. table (18%) cream
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F) and get a large dish or pan ready for your bain marie.
2. Gently heat 3/4 c. of the sugar with the water, stirring until the sugar has dissolved completely.
3. Once the sugar has dissolved, stop stirring, but continue to heat, shaking the pan occasionally.
4. Cook the sugar mixture until it becomes a rich, dark caramel. Be careful not to burn it!
6. Pour the caramel into a large casserole dish (or several small ramekins). Be sure the caramel coats the entire bottom of the dish(es).
7. Whisk the remaining 2 Tbsp. sugar into the eggs (or egg yolks).
8. Whisk in the milk, cream, and vanilla.
9. Pour the custard mixture into the casserole dish with the caramel.
10. Place the casserole dish in the larger dish or pan.
11. Pour hot water into the outer dish/pan until it comes halfway up the side of the casserole dish.
12. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 30-40 minutes.
13. Custard should be just set but still jiggly. If it's not set at the end of 40 minutes, you may need to remove it from the bain marie and bake it for another few minutes until set.
14. Remove from oven, remove the casserole from the bain marie, and place it on a wire rack to cool for an hour or two.
15. Once cooled, transfer to the fridge overnight.
16. The next day, run a blade or spatula around the edge of the casserole dish to losen it, then invert the casserole onto a plate.
17. Carefully remove the casserole to reveal your caramel-topped custard.

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¹ I was worried about the custard not setting and holding together properly without the egg whites, so I used 6 egg yolks + 1 whole egg. I think my eggs were slightly smaller than typical large/size 6 eggs though, so it may not have worked out to as much extra egg as it looks like on paper. ^Back

I've been itching to try making a queen of puddings for a couple years now. Ideally I'd been hoping to wait 'til I had some cake crumbs to use for it. I still didn't have cake crumbs for this baking, but I did have some frozen waffles and muffins! I still think cake crumbs would probably be better, but the muffins and waffles worked just fine.

Overall, this was a nice pudding, but quite bland. The custard itself didn't seem nearly sweet enough, especially next to the extremely sweet meringue. I suspect this is less of an issue when you use cake crumbs for the custard layer. Having a flavourful cake in the base would also likely give it a fuller flavour. If I were to do it with breadcrumbs again, I'd probably add more sugar and a bit of vanilla. I also think it could've used a lot more jam. The orginal recipe called for 3 Tbsp. of jam, I used 1/4 c. and that definitely seemed skimpy. I'd up it to 1/3 c. next time.

Queen of Puddings

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 2 c. milk
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 c. soft/fresh breadcrumbs or cake crumbs
• 2 large eggs, separated
• 6-8 Tbsp. sugar, divided
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/3 c. raspberry jam

Directions

1. Heat milk and butter until nearly boiling, then remove from heat.
2. Pour hot milk mixture over crumbs and set aside for 10 minutes.
3. Grease a 6-cup casserole dish and preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
4. Add egg yolks to crumb mixture.
5. Add up to 1/4 c. of sugar depending on how sweet your crumbs are and how sweet you'd like your custard.
6. Pour custard mixture into prepared dish and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 25-30 minutes. (Custard should be just set.)
7. Heat the jam until runny and easy to spread.
8. Carefully spread the jam over the custard. Be careful not to break the skin.
9. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.
10. Beat in 1/4 c. of sugar 1 Tbsp. at a time. Beat until stiff peaks form.
11. Spread meringue on top of the jam. (Pipe it on if you want to be fancy.)
12. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 10-15 minutes.
13. Serve hot.

TF and I were craving a dessert last night so I figured now would be as good a time as any to try this beloved Edmonds recipe. It comes together very easily. The batter is quite thick, so getting it spread evenly in the bottom of the baking dish is a bit of a challenge. I think I'd be tempted to add just a touch of milk next time since the finished pudding came out a bit hard/dry/dense in places. There was plenty of sauce, but the actual cake-y bits of the pudding had a slightly brick-like quality, especially after a night in the fridge.

Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

Sauce

• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 2 c. boiling water

Base

• 100g unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp. milk
• 1 1/4 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 Tbsp. cocoa powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 6-cup casserole dish.
2. Combine sugar, cocoa, and cornstarch for the sauce and set it aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in egg, vanilla, and milk.
5. Sift in flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder and muntil well-combined and no dry spots remain.
6. Scoop batter into prepared dish and spread evenly.
7. Sprinkle dry sauce mixture over the surface of the batter.
8. Hold a spoon upside down over the filled casserole and pour the boiling water over it.
9. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 35-45 minutes.

This originated as "Pasta Salad with Tuna and Olives" in Edmonds, and is, apart from the pasta itself, served completely uncooked. I wanted something a bit more, well, warm and cooked for dinner, so I made some changes to the preparation, as well as scaling it up to use up a standard 375g box of pasta.

Tuna & Olive Pasta Not-Salad

Heavily adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book, 69th edition, p.169

Ingredients

• 375g dried pasta; whole wheat rotini works well
• 60mL olive oil
• 1½ red onions, thinly sliced
• 5 sticks celery, finely sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1½ red or yellow bell pipers, seeded and diced
• 2 tins tuna in water, drained
• ⅓C black olive slices
• 2 tomatoes, cored and diced
• 15mL yellow mustard
• 30mL wine vinegar
• salt and pepper
• parsley
  

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large, deep skillet over medium heat.
2. Add the onion, celery, and garlic. Cook until the onion just starts to turn translucent.
3. Add the bell pepper. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Continue cooking, stirring often, until the vegetables have softened slightly and the taste of the onions has mellowed.
4. Stir in the tomatoes, tuna, olives, mustard, and vinegar. Reduce heat to low and let them heat through.
5. Meanwhile, cook the pasta al dente in salted water.
6. Toss the pasta with the vegetable/tuna mix. Serve with parmesan.

Peameal bacon was on sale a couple weeks ago, so I grabbed a big chunk and tossed it into the freezer for future use. I figured that since peameal bacon is pretty close to NZ bacon (ie. not streaky bacon) I'd have a go at making a bacon and egg pie. I ended up with a bit of a soggy bottom. I probably should've partially baked the bottom crust before baking or something. It was still delicious though.

I made the variant listed at the bottom of the page that adds onion, veggies, and chutney. I figured that would make it both a little more interesting and a little more nutritionally balanced. (Still not healthy, but at least there's some veg in there!) I used kale as my veg. I think a bit of garlic would've been nice with the veggies too. I'll add it next time.

I made this with puff pastry as Edmonds calls for either rough puff or store-bought puff pastry. I didn't feel like making my own pastry today, so I just grabbed a package of frozen puff pastry and used that. That being said, I've run into some comments from Kiwis online saying that using anything other than flaky (aka rough puff) pastry for this pie is just wrong. Use at your own risk!

Bacon and Egg Pie

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. butter (optional)
• 1 small onion, chopped (optional)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
• 1 c. frozen chopped kale or other vegetables (optional)
• 400-450g puff pastry or rough puff (flaky) pastry
• 250g back bacon, cut into pieces
• 4-6 Tbsp. Tomato & Date Chutney or other chutney (optional)
• 6-8 eggs
• pepper, to taste
• milk or beaten egg

Directions

1. If using veggies, sauté the onion in the butter until softened, then toss in the garlic and cook for another minute or two. Add the kale and cook until thawed. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F), place a baking sheet in the oven, and grease a 20cm (8") square pan.
3. Roll out half the puff pastry and line the greased tin with it.
4. At this point, I proceeded with the recipe as written. However, this resulted in a soggy bottom. I'd be tempted to try tossing the bottom crust in the oven for a bit at this point (with the caveat that I don't know whether it will actually work or not or whether or not it will actually help with the soggy bottom). Next time I'd prick the bottom with a fork and try baking at 200°C (400°F) for 20 minutes and then proceed with the recipe as written.
5. Add bacon pieces followed by veggie mixture (if using).
6. Top with the chutney (if using).
7. Crack the eggs and add them in on top of the other ingredients.
8. Prick each yolk with a fork to break it.
9. Sprinkle with pepper.
10. Roll out remaining pastry and cover the pie.
11. Trim edges of pastry. Use the off-cuts to make a pretty design on the top if you wish.
12. Brush the top crust with milk or beaten egg.
13. Cut a few holes/slashes in the top.
14. Place the pie tin on the hot baking sheet¹ and bake at 200°C (400°F) for 40-50 minutes².
15. Serve with ketchup and/or additional chutney (if using).

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¹ There was no mention of a baking sheet in the original recipe, but I've used this method to help with soggy bottoms on shotrcrust pies. I figure it's at least worth a shot for the puff pastry version. ^Back
2 Edmonds only calls for a 30-minute bake, but it was definitely still underbaked after only half an hour. I baked mine for a good 50 minutes, I think it probably still would've been fine with another 5-10. ^Back

I finally made a pavlova! I had some extra egg whites left over from making cupcakes the other day and figured that maybe now was finally the time to try making a pavlova. It's basically just a baked French meringue with fruit and whipped cream on top, but I don't really have any experience baking meringues on their own. I make French meringues quite a bit, but they're usually then incorporated into a cake batter or used as a pie topping. And while using it to top a pie technically results in a baked meringue, you're going for a completely different end result on a pie.

With a meringue pie you want the topping to be soft and pillow-y all the way through. With a pavlova my understanding is that it should be crisp on the outside and soft and chewy/pillow-y in the centre. I've never tried to make a meringue with that texture before. The recipe gives instructions, of course, but your oven and the exact dimensions of the meringue will affect the baking, so you can't just blindly follow the recipe.

I'm pretty happy with how this one came out. It was a bit more crispy than pillow-y, but it still had a bit of softness in the centre. I'm not sure whether it'd be better slightly reduce the baking time next time around or slightly increase the baking temperature and dramatically reduce the baking time. I'm thinking that slightly less time is probably the way to go. If nothing else, that'll give me another data point. Although I'll be baking it in a different oven next time, so who knows how that'll affect things?!

Pavlova

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

Meringue

• 3 large egg whites
• tiny pinch salt (<1/16 tsp.)
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 tsp. vinegar
• 1 tsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Toppings

• fresh fruit or fruit compote¹
• 1 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1 Tbsp. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar (optional)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 135°C (275°F) and line a baking tray with parchment paper (or a silicone baking mat).
2. Beat egg whites with salt until light and airy but not quite stiff.
3. Gradually add sugar while continuing to beat.
4. Beat for another minute or so to allow sugar to fully incorporate and dissolve.
5. Reduce speed to low and beat in vanilla, vinegar, and cornstarch.
6. Pile meringue onto prepared baking tray and shape into a 20cm round with a depression in the centre.
7. Bake at 135°C (275°F) for 40-45 minutes.
8. Leave meringue in the oven overnight to cool.
9. The next day, prepare your toppings: chop the fruit and/or prepare the compote and whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla.
10. Top the meringue with fruit and whipped cream and serve immediately.

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¹ I made a simple boysenberry compote for mine: 1 (400mL) can of boysenberries + 2 tsp. cornstarch, 1/4 c. vanilla sugar, and 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice boiled until thickened. ^Back

The Lancaster tart I made yesterday used up a bunch of the leftover lemon curd I had stashed in the fridge, but left me with even more extraneous egg whites. I already had three left over from last weekend's baking exploits and the tart produced two more! I considered making an angel food cake, but in the end decided to flip through Edmonds since I know there are a few recipes in there that make use of egg whites. I love angel food cake, but I wanted to try something I hadn't done before.

Edmonds has a recipe for friands that calls for five egg whites -- perfect! -- plus a bunch of ground almonds and lemon zest and I kind of liked the idea of sticking with lemon-almond theme this weekend. If you're not on a lemon kick, the lemon zest can be swapped out for vanilla extract. Different flavour, but just as tasty.

These little almond cakes were apparently originally baked in small rectangular tins. Muffin tins work just fine if you don't have anything like that though.

Friands

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 1/3 c. soft (plain/standard/pastry) flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 c. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar
• 1 1/2 c. ground almonds
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt¹, ground
• 5 egg whites
• 170g unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tsp. lemon zest or 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• sliced almonds, to decorate

Directions

1. Grease and flour a friand or muffin tin and preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, and icing sugar.
3. Add ground almonds and salt and mix well, preferably with your fingers, breaking up any lumps.
4. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until frothy and foamy all the way through, but not yet stiff.
5. Gently fold egg whites into dry ingredients.
6. Mix in butter and lemon zest/vanilla extract.
7. Spoon batter into prepared tin and decorate tops with almond slices.
8. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 20 minutes.
9. Remove from tin and place on wire rack to cool.

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Variations

Gluten-Free

This recipe is pretty ideal for conversion to gluten-free baking as it only using a very small amount of flour to begin with and the flour it does use is low-protein/gluten. The recipe as published in Edmonds actually calls for gluten free flour. I just used regular soft/pastry flour as that's what I had on hand and no one in this household is actually gluten-intolerant. Swapping the gluten-free flour back in again makes for an easy gluten-free treat.

Ingredients

• 1/3 c. gluten-free plain or all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 c. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar
• 1 1/2 c. ground almonds
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt¹, ground
• 5 egg whites
• 170g unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tsp. lemon zest or 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• sliced almonds, to decorate

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¹ The original recipe doesn't call for any salt, but also doesn't specify unsalted butter. The default in NZ is generally understood to be salted butter. Since I was using unsalted butter, I added a small amount of salt to compensate. ^Back