I've made a few different feijoa cakes before, but this one is by far the simplest. No other fruits, no icing or garnish, and just a bit of vanilla to flavour it. I really like how it came out though: moist, sweet, tasty, and uncomplicated. And I appreciate that you don't need any special ingredients on hand beyond the feijoas themselves.

Reiver did suggest that a bit of chopped apple might make a nice addition and I think he's right. But it also doesn't need anything else so feel free to enjoy this cake in all of its glorious simplicity.

Feijoa Cake

Slightly adapted from the Versatile Feijoa

Ingredients

• 125g butter
• 200g sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 4-6 feijoas, scooped and mashed
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and chopped (optional)
• 1/2 tsp. lemon zest (optional)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/4-1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 23cm (9") square pan.
2. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
4. Mix in feijoas, apple (if using), and vanilla.
5. Sift in flour and baking powder and mix until combined.
6. Dissolve baking soda in 1/4 c. milk.
7. Mix the milk into the batter.
8. If the batter seems to stiff, mix in the additional 1/4 c. of milk.
9. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth the top.
10. Bake at 180°C (350°F) until cake tests done (40-45 minutes).

Fall Fruit Crumble with Feijoas and Almonds

This was originally supposed to be a pear and feijoa almond crumble, but I decided to do it with a mix of apples and pears and up the feijoa content. I also reduced the almonds slightly and added in some rolled oats to give it more of the classic crumble texture.

Fall Fruit Crumble

Adapted from NZ Women's Weekly

Ingredients

Fruit Mixture

• 2 pears, peeled and chopped
• 3 apples, peeled and chopped
• 6 feijoas, scooped and sliced
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 6 Tbsp. water, divided
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Topping

• 1/2 c. ground almonds
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 80g butter
• 1/2 c. rolled oats
• 1/4 sliced (flaked) almonds

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Combine pears, apples, feijoas, sugar, and 1/4 c. of the water and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until fruit is tender.
4. Combine the cornstarch with the remaining 2 Tbsp. of water to make a slurry.
5. Stir the slurry into the fruit mixture and cook until glossy and slightly thickened (1-2 minutes).
6. Dump the fruit mixture into a 23cm (9") square baking dish.
7. Combine the ground almonds, flour, sugars, and butter and thoroughly combine.
8. Mix in the oats and almonds.
9. Crumble the topping over the fruit.
10. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 20-25 minutes.
11. Serve with cream or ice cream.

We had to clear some things out of the freezer when we swapped the fridge over and that left me with a batch of sourdough pastry that needed using. In theory this pie is meant to have a spiced almond-spelt pastry, but I figured the sourdough pastry would work just fine. And I took the spices that were meant to go into the pastry and added them to the filling instead.

The result was okay, but not great. That said, it was the filling, not the pastry that was the issue. The recipe called for "apple purée". I had a can of unsweetened applesauce on hand, so I used that and then added a sliced apple to make up the missing volume. I don't like how mushy the filling came out though. I think next time I'd just use sliced apples rather than sauce or purée. The recipe also didn't make enough filling, so I ended up having to chop up a couple of extra feijoas to add to the mix. I also feel like it could've done with more spices and a little extra sweetener as well. So, all-in-all, probably not one that I'd bother making again. At least not in this form. But I'm glad that I tried it.

Apple-Feijoa Pie

Adapted from NZ Women's Weekly

Ingredients

Pastry

• sourdough pastry
OR
• 125g butter
• 1 1/2 c. ground almonds
• 1 1/2 c. spelt flour
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 large eggs

Filling

• 2 c. chopped feijoa flesh
• 2 c. sliced apples
• 1/3 c. honey
• 1/4 c. brown sugar (optional)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract (if using sourdough crust)
• 1/2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon (if using sourdough crust)

Topping

• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 Tbsp. sesame seeds or sugar

Directions

1. For spelt pastry, add butter, almonds, flour, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and baking soda to a food processor and pulse until mixture looks sandy. Then, with processor running, add eggs, one at a time, and process until mixture comes together. For sourdough pastry, follow instructions for that recipe.
2. For either pastry, chill for ~30 minutes before continuing.
3. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
4. Roll out 1/2 to 2/3 of the pastry and use it to line a 23cm (9") pie plate.
5. Combine the feijoas, apples, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon (if using) and dump into the pie shell.
6. Roll out the remaining pastry and use it to make either a plain or a lattice top for your pie, then crimp the edges.
7. Brush with egg and sprinkle with your choice of sesame seeds or sugar.
8. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 35-40 minutes.
9. Serve with cream or ice cream.

I haven't gotten much baking done this year, but I really wanted to try a few more feijoa recipes and I finally found a little time and energy to do so today. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but it smells delicious!

Photo goes here.

Feijoa Slice with Coconut Crumble Topping

Slightly adapted from NZ Women's Weekly

Ingredients

• 220g salted butter, softened
• 200g sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 c. dessicated (fine shredded) coconut¹
• 1/2 c. thread (coarse shredded) coconut
• 10 large feijoas², peeled and sliced
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Grease and line a 18x20cm baking tray and preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Cream butter with first measure of sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in vanilla.
4. Sift in flour and baking powder and stir in with spatula.
5. Stir in dessicated (fine) coconut.
6. Separate out ~1/3 of the mixture into a separate bowl and set aside. (This was ~245g for me.)
7. Press the larger measure of dough into the prepared baking tray.
8. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 10-12 minutes (until just starting to brown).
9. Meanwhile, mix the thread (coarse) coconut into the remaining dough and chill for 10 minutes.
10. Toss the feijoas with the remaining sugar and cinnamon.
11. Once the crust is par-baked, dump the macerated feijoas on top of it and spread into an even layer.
12. Crumble the coconut mixture on top.
13. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 25 minutes.

---

¹ I didn't have any of the fine dessicated coconut, so I just used "tread" coconut for both coconut portions. It didn't mix into the crust as well, but I think it'll still be fine. ^Back
2 My feijoas were very large indeed and I still found that I needed all 10 to make enough filling for my slice. If you have average-sized feijoas, I'd recommend using up to 20 for your filling. ^Back

It's feijoa season again! So I'm taking the opportunity to try to tick off a few more recipes.

This sponge was very unusual. It starts with making an Italian meringue! You then beat the egg yolks into your marshmallow-y meringue, followed by the dry ingredients. It also contains a somewhat alarming amount of ginger. And uses mostly corn starch (cornflour), rather than regular white (wheat) flour, as the main component of the dry ingredients.

I've made a lot of cakes that incorporate beaten egg whites. And a few that incorporate a French (uncooked) meringue. And I've seen icing and pie recipes that call for cooked meringues (like Swiss or Italian). But I've never seen a cake that uses a cooked meringue before. It was unusual, but did seem to work quite well. The Italian meringe was very stable and took the egg yolks nicely without a noticeable loss of volume. And the resulting sponge was very very light. Reiver noted that it had a very slight graininess to it, but I'm not sure whether that was down to the meringue, the cornflour, the ginger, or something else entirely.

The original recipe calls for splitting the sponge and filling it with whipped cream and feijoas. And, while there's nothing wrong with this approach, it does mean that you need to eat the whole cake fairly promptly. So, as an alternative, Reiver suggested that we just cut and top individual wedges of sponge to make it easier to enjoy over the course of a few days.

Photo goes here.

Ginger Sponge with Feijoas and Cream

Slightly adapted from NZ Women's Weekly

Ingredients

• 4 eggs, separated
• 6 Tbsp. sugar
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 7 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1 Tbsp. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 5-6 tsp. ground ginger, divided
• 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
• 300mL heavy (35%) cream
• 1-2 Tbsp. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar
• 2 c. feijoa flesh, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line the bottom of a 23cm (9") springform pan with baking paper. Do not grease the sides of the pan!
2. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks.
3. Beat in the egg yolks.
4. Sift in the cornstarch, flour, 4-5 tsp. of the ginger, and the baking powder and gently fold to combine.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
6. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 25 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and drop onto counter or floor once or twice (to help prevent it from sinking in the middle, apparently).
8. Allow to cool in tin for 10 minutes.
9. Run a knife or spatula around the sides of the tin, then remove the sides.
10. Turn cake onto a cooling rack and carefully remove the bottom of the pan and peel off the baking paper. Allow to cool completely.
11. Add the icing sugar and the remaining ginger to the cream and beat until stiff.
12. Either split the cake and fill it with the cream and chopped feijoas, dusting the top with icing sugar as desired, or top individual slices with cream and fruit.

RM put me onto this recipe a while ago. I had hoped to make it with some fresh limes from Reiver's tree while I was in NZ, but I never quite got to it. Luckily we had a bunch of limes in the freezer here though and Granny Smith apples are easy to come by, so I decided to give it a try after I got home instead.

I cut back the sugar significantly in the cake. And I was tempted to skip the icing altogether. But TF was keen on having a bit of frosting, so I did end up using it in the end.

The icing was good. Although I was definitely glad to have cut back the sugar in the cake once the frosting was added. That said, I think that next time I'd be inclined to swap out the American buttercream for a cream cheese icing. I think the cream cheese tang would complement the other flavours nicely. And cream cheese icings tend to need proportionally less sugar and butter to begin with. So, while still not a health food by any stretch, it would still make for a marginally less sweet and calorific topping.

Green Apple and Lime Slice

Adapted from Twisted Citrus

Ingredients

Cake

• 2 Granny Smith apples, grated
• 2 limes, zested and juiced
• 125g butter
• 3 Tbsp. golden syrup
• 240g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 125g unsweetened applesauce
• 2 c. dessicated coconut
• 1 c. sultanas
• 1 c. dried currants
• 2 large eggs

Icing

• 100g butter, softened
• 240g cream cheese, softened
• 1 lime, zested and juiced
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 250-300g icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 23x33cm (9x13") baking dish.
2. Mix the lime zest and 2 Tbsp. of the juice with the grated apples.
3. Combine the butter and golden syrup in a small pot and melt over low heat.
4. Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl with the apples and mix in the salt, cinnamon, sugar, applesauce, coconut, sultanas, and currants.
5. Pour the butter mixture into the bowl and stir to combine.
6. Add the eggs and mix well.
7. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan and smooth into an even layer.
8. Bake at 180&det;C (350°F) until done (~30 minutes).
9. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan.
10. Meanwhile, make the icing byt beating the butter with the cream cheese until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes).
11. Beat in the lime juice, lime zest, and vanilla.
12. Sift in icing sugar until desired consistency is reached.
13. Once cake has cooled completely, spread the icing on top.
14. Cut into squares and serve.

My last feijoa recipe for the year! I managed to bring a few home with me and we've been enjoying them, but this tart used up the last few. Luckily, it was delicious, so I feel pretty good about using them up this way. And I doubt they would've kept much longer anyway. After a week, they were definitely reaching their "use by".

TF and I both liked this pie. Although, I have to admit that I found it a bit too sweet. I think I'd cut the sugar significantly next time. I might also try swapping out some of the flour for oats, since I do enjoy a crumble with oats in!

Feijoa and Custard Crumble Tart

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 1/2 recipe sourdough pastry or sweet shortcrust pastry
• 3 large eggs
• 50g sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream or half-and-half (10% MF)
• 1/2 c. flour
• 50g brown sugar
• 100g butter
• 1/2 c. rolled oats
• 250g fejoas, scooped and sliced

Directions

1. Make your pastry, wrap, and chill it for at least 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) and place a baking sheet in the oven.
3. Roll out the pastry and use it to line a 23cm (9") pie plate, crimp the edges, and line it with baking paper and fill it with baking beans.
4. Blind bake the pastry shell for 15 minutes, then remove the baking paper and pie weights and continue baking for another 5 minutes.
5. Remove the pastry shell from the oven and set aside and reduce oven temperature to 160°C (325°F).
6. Beat the eggs with the sugar, vanilla, and cream.
7. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and brown sugar and cut in the butter. Then mix in the oats.
8. Place the feijoas in the pastry shell and pour in the custard, then sprinkle with the crumble topping.
9. Return to oven and bake at 160°C (325°F) until custard is just set (~25 minutes).
10. Serve with whipped cream and or powdered sugar.

My square pan is dead! I didn't know it was dead. TF had literally just used it to make brownies. I cleaned the brownie crumbs out of it and put it to use for this crumble. And everything seemed fine until we went to dish it up and found that the fruit had turned strange colours and had a funny aftertaste to them. I think the pan must have reacted with the fruit. Which has me feeling incredibly bummed. I managed to bring fresh feijoas home all the way from NZ and make a crumble immediately while they were still at their peak. To have it ruined by a faulty pan is just heartbreaking! I'm so mad at myself.

I mean, I'm still going to eat the crumble anyway. It's still decent. It's just not nearly as good as it should be. Because my pan failed me!

As far as the recipe itself goes... I found this one very interesting. It is a crumble without oats! The topping is composed almost entirely of ground hazelnuts! With just a bit of flour, honey, and butter to hold it together. It's a tasty combo. And there's enough ginger in it that it actually comes through quite nicely. And I enjoy the sweetened topping with the unsweetened fruit. (Although it would've been even better if the fruit hadn't picked up that slightly nasty pan aftertaste, but... oh well. Not much I can do about that now!)

I'm not sure I'd bother too much with this recipe in the future when the basic crumble is so good. But it was definitely an interesting experiment. And it was fun to try something a bit different.

ETA: So, my feijoa failure is even weirder and more complicated than I'd originally realized. It looks like it's not just that the pan was a little old and scuffed up. It was a reaction between the nuts, the acid in the fruit, and the metal in the pan. If the pan had been in better shape (or I'd used a non-metalic pan), then this wouldn't have happened. Or if I'd made a nut-free crumble, it also would've been just fine. Or even if we'd simply eaten the crumble right away rather than letting it sit all day. But nope! The combination of those three factors caused a chemical reaction -- basically forming iron gall ink in the pan -- and caused my fruit to turn a disturbing purplish-blue and taste funny. Whoops! Oh well... at least it was an interesting failure mode!

Photo goes here.

Feijoa, Apple, and Hazelnut Crumble

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 1 c. hazelnuts¹, ground
• 1/2 c. flour
• 1 Tbsp. ground ginger
• 50g butter
• 1/4 c. honey
• 2-3 apples, peeled and sliced
• 400g feijoa pulp, chopped
• ice cream and/or whipped cream, to serve

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 23cm (9") square pan. (Preferably a glass or stoneware baking dish and not a metal one.)
2. Combine the hazelnuts, flour, and ginger and mix well.
3. Cut in the butter and mix the honey through.
4. Bring the apples to a gentle simmer with a little water and stew until just softened.
5. Drain the apples and mix them with the feijoa pulp.
6. Pour the fruit mixture into the prepared pan and spread in an even layer.
7. Sprinkle the crumble on top.
8. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30 minutes.
9. Serve topped with ice cream and/or whipped cream.

---

¹ The recipe didn't specify skin-on or skin-off for the hazelnuts. Mine were skin-on and peeling them is always a huge pain, so I just used them that way. This was fine, but I do think they probably would've been slightly better peeled. I recommend using skin-off if you can find them. ^Back

Yet another feijoa recipe! This one is very handy if you'd like to save some feijoas to enjoy out of season. And, the really great thing about it is that their feijoa character still comes through really well! They're cooked and lightly spiced, but they still taste like feijoas.

Photo goes here.

Poached Feijoas

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 1L apple juice
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 star anise
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 Tbsp. orange zest
• 20-40 feijoas

Directions

1. Sterlilze some jars by baking them in the oven for 10 minutes at 120°C (250°F). Boil the lids.
2. Combine the apple juice, sugar, star anise, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and orange zest and bring to a boil.
3. Halve and scoop 20 feijoas and add them to the poaching liquid.
4. Reduce heat and simmer until feijoas are just tender (5-8 minutes).
5. Spoon the feijoas into the sterilized jars and pour in enough of the poaching liquid to completely cover them.
6. If desired, reheat the poaching liquid and make a second batch with another 20 feijoas.
7. Place the lids loosely on the jars and boil in a hot water bath for 20-30 minutes.
8. Remove the jars from the hot water bath and seal tightly.
9. If the safety buttons on any of the jars do not go down, store in the fridge and eat within a week. Properly sealed jars may be stored at room temperature until opened.
10. Serve with ice cream, yogurt, brownies, or cereal.

NZ Woman's Weekly calls this a "boozy feijoa and gingernut pudding". But that's a terrible name for it. It's long, unweildy, and -- despite giving you half the ingreient list in the title -- tells you very little about what the dessert is actually like. But, having made it now, it's basically a tiramisu. But with feijoas instead of custard/saboyon, gingernuts instead of ladyfingers, and sherry or feijoa brandy instead of coffee.

Okay, yes, that is a lot of subsitutions and the final result doesn't taste anything like a traditional tiramisu. But the technique, form, and texture is very tiramisu like, even if the flavour profile is very different. So I stand by this being a "feijoamisu".

Photo goes here.

Feijoamisu

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 250mL heavy (35%) cream
• 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 200g mascarpone cheese
• 500g feijoa pulp, mashed
• 1 packet Gingernuts
• 1/4 c. sherry or feijoa brandy
• 10-20g dark chocolate, grated

Directions

1. Whip the cream with the sugar and the vanilla.
2. Stir the mascarpone and feijoa pulp.
3. One at a time, dip the Gingernuts in the sherry, spread each with a generous quantity of the cream mixture, and place it in a 23x13cm loaf tin to make two parallel rows of cookies and feijoa cream.
4. Once all the Gingernuts have been used, scoop the rest of the cream mixture into the pan to cover up the biscuits.
5. Cover and chill for at least an hour.
6. Uncover, dust with grated chocolate, and serve.

This is an unusual flavour pairing that I probably wouldn't have thought of on my own, but it did make for some tasty muffins. That said, I do feel like the flavours could use some re-balancing. The cheese in them was delicious, but I don't feel like the feijoa came through quite as strongly as I would have liked. And, since I was working with dried thyme rather than fresh, I cut it back to only half a teaspoon, but I think it could have done with a bit more in the end.

The original recipe called for a 3:1 ratio of plain flour to whole wheat. I decided to skew it more toward the whole wheat and do a 1:1 mix. But, having tasted the muffins, I think 100% whole wheat would have been even better!

If I were willing to take even more liberties with the recipe, I might try adding a bit of lemon zest to the batter along with the thyme. I think that would provide a nice complement to the other flavours and give a little sharpness to round everything out.

Feijoa Muffins with Blue Cheese and Thyme

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 100g butter, softened
• 100g brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 c. milk
• zest of 1/2 a lemon
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 250g whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. thyme (fresh or dried)
• 5-10 grinds each of salt and black pepper
• 300g feijoa pulp, mashed
• 6 small feijoas, halved and scooped
• 75-100g blue cheese, crumbled

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a muffin tin.
2. Cream the butter with the sugar.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
4. Stir the lemon zest and baking soda into the milk and add the milk mixture to the butter mixture. Mix well.
5. Sift the baking powder into the flour and add the thyme, salt, and pepper.
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to combine.
7. Stir in the feijoa pulp.
8. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin(s).
9. Press a feijoa half into the top of each muffin and top with a sprinkle of blue cheese and a bit of extra pepper.
10. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 18-20 minutes.

More feijoas! I only have a week left, so I'm going to have to kick it into high gear if I want to get through the rest of them before I go!

This cake was delicious! Rich and moist with just a hint of spice. I loved it.

Photo goes here.

Feijoa Walnut Cake

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 1 large egg
• 100g butter, melted
• 100g sugar¹
• 300g feijoa pulp, chopped
• 1 c. (~120g) chopped walnuts
• 1 c. dried cranberries, sultanas, and/or raisins
• 120g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 2 tsp. mixed spice²
• 2 tsp. baking soda

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 20cm (8") springform pan³.
2. Beat the egg with the butter.
3. Add the sugar, feijoa, walnuts, and dried fruit and mix well.
4. Sift in the flour, mixed spice, and baking soda and stir to combine.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 180°C (350°F) for ~45 minutes.
6. Serve warm or at room temperature.

---

¹ The original recipe called for 3/4 c. caster sugar. I opted to use 100g (~1/2 c.) of granulated sugar. I was perfectly happy with the results from doing it this way. I found the cake was sweet enough to taste like a special treat without being cloying. That said, with the raisins/cranberries in, I think you could probably take it as low as 75g if you wanted to. I'd also be tempted to try it with brown sugar next time. Just to see how it compares. That said, I don't think either of these modifications are necessary, they'd just be interesting experiemnts to try. ^Back
2 Reiver didn't have any mixed spice ready to hand, but did have a surplus of pumpkin pie spice, so I just used that. While the two mixes are not the same they are very similar, so I usually find that I can get away with substituting one for the other in most cases. ^Back
3 I didn't have a 20cm springform pan available, so I just used a 23cm (9") one instead. It will bake a little faster in the larger diameter pan, but works fine otherwise. ^Back

The recipe calls for icing these loaves, but I honestly really liked them as-is.

I'm sure they'd be fine with icing. But would require extra time, effort and ingredients. And while they would probably look prettier for it, I'm not convinced they would be significantly tastier, so I just left it off.

Photo goes here.

Feijoa-Ginger-Nut Loaves

Slightly adapted NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 260g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 100g brown sugar
• 1 tsp. mixed (or pumpkin pie) spice
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 c. bran flakes
• 1/2 c. (~60g) chopped nuts (walnuts, pistachios, almonds, pecans, etc.)
• 1 c. milk
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 c. oil
• 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 250g feijoa pulp, chopped
• 1/2 Tbsp. baking soda

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour two small 18x8cm (7x3") loaf pans.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, mixed spice, ginger, bran flakes, and nuts and mix well.
3. Beat the egg with the milk and mix in the oil, applesauce, feijoas, and baking soda.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir to combine.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake at 180°C (350°F) until done (~45 minutes).
6. Let cool in pans for 5-10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.

I messed this one up. I should've known better, but I was tired and lazy and foolishly assembled my upside down cake in a springform pan. Which, of course, meant that all of the butter and sugar for the topping ran out the bottom of the pan. Very sad.

I thought that I'd gotten the baking paper high enough up the sides that everything would be contained. Evidently, I was wrong.

The cake was great otherwise! I really liked the bit of almond flour in the batter. It gave it a nice flavour and texture. And it was still tasty even without its caramel topping. I just wish that I hadn't wasted the ingredients. Next time I'll do it in a standard 20cm (8") round pan. (Really, I probably should've just done it in a 20cm square baking dish and called it a day. I might not've been able to unmould it from the square casserole dish, but at least it wouldn't've leaked! Oh well... like I said: next time.)

Photo goes here.

Feijoa and Apple Upside Down Cake

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 50g butter, melted
• 1/3 c. brown sugar
• 6-9 large feijoas, halved lengthwise and scooped
• 1 apple, peeled and diced
• 125g butter, softened
• 100g sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 180g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 60g ground almonds (almond flour/meal)
• 2 tsp. baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 20 or 22cm round cake tin, then line the bottom with baking paper.
2. Pour the melted butter into the bottom of the pan and sprinkle with the brown sugar.
3. Arrange the feijoas, cut-side-down, on top.
4. Fill in any gaps with pieces of apple.
5. Cream the softened butter with the sugar until light (~3 minutes).
6. Mix in the vanilla.
7. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
8. Add the flour, ground almonds, and sift in the baking powder, then stir it all together until just combined.
9. Spoon the batter over the fruit and smooth into an even layer.
10. Bake at 180°C (350°F) until cake tests done (45-55 minutes).
11. Let cool in pan for ~15 minutes before inverting onto plate.
12. Serve with yogurt, whipped cream, and/or ice cream (if desired).

Another feijoa recipe! Shocking, I know! But the fruit onslaught continues. And I haven't even tried all of the feijoa recipes yet! So, here's another one for the books.

I will admit that I adulterated this one somewhat. I stuck mostly to the recipe. But I did omit the sprinkle of sugar over the tops of the muffins. And I also added a bit of sourdough starter to the batter. I think I probably ended up adding a bit too much starter. But it was an interesting experiemnt nonetheless.

I think next time I'd try using a bit less starter and/or adding some mashed banana to balance things out. They were still pretty good overall though. And, perhaps most importantly, it was a good way to use up a bunch more feijoas!

Photo goes here.

Feijoa, Lime, and Poppy Seed Muffins

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 125g butter, softened
• 100g brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 250g feijoa pulp, chopped
• zest and juice of 1 lime
• 250g sourdough discard @ 100% hydration (optional)
• 1 banana, mashed
• 1/4 c. milk
• 125g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 90g whole wheat flour
• 2 Tbsp. poppy seeds
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 11-12 small feijoas, halved and scooped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease your muffin tins.¹
2. Cream the butter with the sugar.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
4. Combine the feijoa pulp, lime zest, and lime juice and stir it into the creamed mixture.
5. Stir in the starter and banana (if using).
6. Mix in the milk.
7. Add the flours and poppy seeds and sift the baking powder and ginger on top, then stir to combine.
8. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins.
9. Press a feijoa half into the top of each muffin.
10. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 18-20 minutes.
11. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

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¹ As originally written, this recipe claimed to make 15 "small" muffins. With the added cup of sourdough starter, I got 22 muffins each with a diameter of ~5cm out of mine (but a couple of them were a bit skimpy). If you also added the banana, then you'd probably be able to get 22 generous muffins or 24 slightly short ones. ^Back

I'm still working my way through all of the feijoa recipes (in an attempt to work through all of the fejoas). Today's recipe was pancakes with a feijoa-based sauce.

Both the pancakes and the sauce were very quick and easy to put together and they made for a nice breakfast. I ended up using old-fashioned rolled oats ("whole grain oats") for my pancakes even though the recipe called for "rolled oats", which I think is the equivalent of what we would call "quick oats" in North America. This worked fine, but I think the quick oats probably would've been better. I debated using instant oats (aka "creamy oats" to you antipodean folks), but the package of "whole grain oats" was already opened and the "creamy oats" were still sealed, so I figured I'd just see how it came out with the more toothsome old-fashioned oats for now.

I cut the sugar in the sauce back to only a 1/4 c., but you may find you need more or less depending on the sweetness of your fruit (and your tooth). The original recipe called for 1/2 c. modulo fruit sweetness.

Photo goes here.

Oat Pancakes with Feijoa-Apple Sauce

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

Pancakes

• 150g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 3/4 c. milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Sauce

• 1 large apple, peeled and chopped
• 300g feijoa pulp
• 1/4 c. sugar (or to taste)
• 1/4 c. water

Directions

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
2. Mix in the brown sugar.
3. Beat the egg with the milk and the vanilla.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined.
5. Set aside while you prepare the sauce.
6. Combine apple, feijoa, sugar, and water and bring to a boil over medium heat.
7. Cook until fruit is very tender and easily mashed with a fork (10-15 minutes).
8. While the sauce is cooking, make the pancakes.
9. Heat a pan, tawa, or griddle over medium heat and grease as necessary.
10. Use ~1/4 c. of batter for each pancake and cook until underside is nicely browned and sides are starting to look dry, adjusting heat as necessary during cooking.
11. Flip pancakes and cook until other side is browned and pancakes are cooked through.
12. Repeat process with remaining batter.
13. Serve pancakes topped with the feijoa-apple sauce and plain Greek yogurt.

Not the most appealing name, I know, but this fruit paste was amazing! It looks cool. It was very satisfying to make. It was time-consuming, but not particularly difficult. And it tastes delicious!

I love that it uses the feijoa peels as well as the flesh. I mean, you strain them out after boiling, so they don't get left in the final product. But at least you get to make use of them for their pectin content before you toss them. Very cool.

I also found that I was able to make this with significantly less sugar than the recipe called for. Now, of course, this means that it won't keep nearly as well. But, that's okay! I suspect we'll end up eating it pretty quickly anyway.

Feijoa Paste

Slightly adapted from Twisted Citrus

Ingredients

• 2-3 apples¹
• 500g feijoa pulp + skins
• 400g sugar

Directions

1. Chop the apples. No need to peel or core!
2. Trim the blossom ends off of the feijoas, then halve and scoop them. Measure out 500g of pulp and set it aside. Discard the trimmed ends, but reserve all of the peels.
3. Add the feijoa skins and chopped apples to a pot with just enough water to cover them.
4. Bring to a boil and cook until mushy.
5. Strain and reserve the liquid, pressing down on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the solids.
6. Return the liquid to the pot and add the feijoa pulp.
7. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until tender.
8. Mash, stir in sugar, and reduce heat to low.
9. Cook, stirring every few minutes, until mixture thickens and darkens significantly (~2 hours).
10. Line a 20x20cm (8x8") square pan with baking paper and pour the paste into the prepared pan.
11. Set aside to cool and set.
12. Once set, cut the paste into squares and serve with cheese.

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¹ The original recipe calls for 3 apples. My apples were quite large, however, so I only ended up using two. ^Back

Reiver needed to take a plate to the office the other day. So, of course, I viewed this as an idea opportunity to try out yet another feijoa recipe.

These were lovely little socnes. And because the jam was just a "quick jam" thickened with chia seeds, it didn't require the normal amount of sugar and came out not-too-sweet and deliciously fruity! The low-sugar nature of it means that the jam won't keep the way a traditional jam will. But as long as you eat it relatively quickly, it makes for a delicious (and relatively healthy) way to use up a few feijoas.

Photo goes here.

Feijoa-Ginger Scones with Quick Feijoa-Strawberry Jam

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

Scones

• 375g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 2 3/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 Tbsp. ginger
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 50g butter
• 3-4 feijoas
• 3/4 c. buttermilk
• 0-2 Tbsp. milk

Jam

• 250g feijoa pulp
• 1 c. frozen strawberries
• 2 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 2 Tbsp. chia seeds
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

Scones

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, and ginger.
3. Add sugar and stir to mix.
4. Cut in the butter.
5. Scoop and chop the feijoas.
6. Stir in the feijoas and the buttermilk.
7. Mix to form a shaggy dough. If the dough won't quite come together, add a little milk until it does.
8. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and pat into a disc ~2-3cm thick.
9. Fold the dough into quarters and press flat again.
10. Use a biscuit cutter of your preferred size to cut out your scones and place them on a baking sheet.
11. Combine the scraps, press flat, and cut out a few more scones. Repeat until you can't make any more scones.
12. Bake at 200°C (400°F) until cooked through and just starting to colour on the outside (~15 minutes).

Jam

1. Combine the feijoas, strawberries, and maple syrup and cook over medium heat until very soft.
2. Remove from heat, purée, and stir in the chia seeds and vanilla.
3. Pour into a jar and allow to cool.

Assembly

1. Split scones and serve topped with whipped cream and jam.

The feijoas started ripening a couple of weeks ago. And now the limes on the tree out front are starting to ripen too! And we still have a surplus of coconut in the cupboard, so this cake seemed pretty much perfect. It came out so nice!

The original recipe called for a cream cheese icing to top it with, but I didn't bother to ice it. I'm sure it would have been nice, but it was just lovely as-is without it too.

Feijoa-Coconut-Lime Cake

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 150g butter, softened
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 150g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1 3/4 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 c. dessicated coconut
• 250g feijoa pulp, chopped
• zest and juice of 2 limes

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 20x20cm (8x8") cake tin.
2. Cream the butter with the sugar.
3. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
4. Mix in the vanilla.
5. Add the flour and sift in the baking powder, then mix it in.
6. Stir in the coconut, followed by the feijoa pulp, juice, and lime zest.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin.
8. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for ~45 minutes.
9. Let cool in tin for 15-20 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

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