This is the last granola recipe from the Breakfast Bible that I hadn't made yet. I made it this one according to the recipe. And it's good. But I found the proportion of walnuts way too low. I think I'd double them next time. I'd also like to try it with maple syrup instead of honey as the sweetener. I think that would go really well with the walnuts. And I'd try reducing the sugar next time. Because I found this version very sweet.

Dark Chocolate-Cherry Granola

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 c. chopped walnuts
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/3 c. maple syrup
• 1/4 c. coconut oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 c. dried cherries
• 60g dark chocolate, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Combine oates, walnuts, cinnamon, and salt.
3. In a small pot, combine the sugar, maple syrup, oil, and vanilla and heat until oil is melted and mixture is smooth and homogenous.
4. Pour the syrup mixture over the oat mixture and stir to combine.
5. Spread the oat mixture out in an even layer on the prepared baking sheet.
6. Bake at 150°C (300°F) for 25-30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so.
7. Allow to cool, then break into small chunks.
8. Add the cherries and chocolate and toss to combine.
9. Stire in an airtight container.

I still had a few passionfruit left over from the discount bulk bag I picked up last week and these passionfruit-banana soufflés looked great, so I obviously had to give them a try!

They were wonderfully easy to put together. And they rose beautifully! (Three of them also deflated dramatically pretty much instantaneously, but they still tasted good. Even if they were no longer as light and fluffy and wonderful as the ones that stayed more inflated.)

Passionfruit-Banana Soufflés

Slightly adapted from Delicious.com.au

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs, separated
• 1/2 c. sugar, divided
• 5 passionfruit (~100mL of pulp)
• 1 banana, mashed
• 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
2. Grease six ramekins and dust them with sugar.
3. Beat the egg yolks with 1/4 c. of the sugar until light and creamy.
4. Stir in the passionfruit pulp and mashed banana.
5. Combine the egg whites and cream of tartar and beat until foamy.
6. Continue beating while gradually adding the remaining 1/4 c. of sugar.
7. Beat until stiff peaks form.
8. Stir ~1/3 of the meringue into the base to loosen it.
9. Fold in the remaining meringue.
10. Gently pour or scoop the mixture into the prepared ramekins.
11. Run your thumb around the edges of the ramekins to form a small "moat".
12. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 14-15 minutes.
13. Dust with icing sugar (if desired) and serve immediately.

Chocolate Soufflé

This can be made as either one large soufflé or several small ones. I opted for the small ones today. Mostly because they don't take nearly as long to bake.

I really liked this soufflés. They were deeply chocolate-y and very light (as you would expect). I will say that I found them ever so slightly on the sweet side. I think I'd be tempted to either reduce the sugar or use unsweetened chocolate next time. I've written them up to use a bit less sugar than originally called for, but feel free to use unsweetened chocolate either instead or as well.

Chocolate Soufflé(s)

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 6 large eggs, separated
• 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 c. sugar, divided¹
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract or 1 Tbsp. Cointreau
• 250g dark chocolate, melted
• whipped cream, to serve

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F) for several small soufflés or 190°C (375°F) for one large one.
2. Grease your soufflé dish or ramekins and dust with sugar.
3. Combine the egg whites with the cream of tartar and salt and beat until soft peaks form.
4. Gradually beat in 1/4 c. of the sugar. Set aside.
5. Beat the egg yolks until pale.
6. Add the remaining 1/4 c. of sugar and beat vigorously until very pale and thick and mixture makes "ribbons" when beater is lifted out.
7. Beat in the vanilla or Cointreau.
8. Fold in the melted chocolate.
9. Add ~1/3 of the meringue and stir to combine and loosen the mixture.
10. Add the remaining meringue and gently fold it into the mixture until no longer streaky.
11. Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking dish(es).
12. Run a finger around the top edge to make a small "moat".
13. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 10-12 minutes for small soufflés or 190°C (375°F) for ~30 minutes for a large soufflé. Soufflé should be well-risen and slightly crisp on the outside, but still very soft and slightly wobbly in the middle.
14. Cut a circle of the "crust" off the top and spoon a generous portion of whipped cream over it.
15. Serve immediately!

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¹ The original recipe called for 3/4 c. of sugar total: 1/4 c. in the meringue and 1/2 c. in the base. I found this a bit too sweet for my tastes, so I've scaled back the sugar somewhat here. You could also try swapping out the dark chocolate for unsweetened, either instead of or as well as reducing the sugar. Try it and see which you like better! ^Back

Feijoa season is in full swing and, in addition to just snacking on them daily, I've been trying to use some of them up in baking as well.

I've already made two huge apple-feijoa crumbles. They're great as a quick and easy dessert to use up large quantities of feijoa pulp. But I also didn't want to end up just making crumbles forever. So I went poking around the Internet looking for other recipe ideas. And boy-oh-boy, do I have a lot now! It was hard to decide where to start!

In the end, I opted for a feijoa custard tart. Mostly because Reiver really likes custard, so I figured that might be an agreeable way to use up a few feijoas.

The custard recipe called for egg yolks. I was going to just swap out the yolks for whole eggs, soas not to end up with surplus whites kicking around. But then I saw the note at the bottom suggesting that you use the surplus whites to make these chocloate-feijoa friands.

So, on the one hand, that meant committing to making two desserts tonight. But, on the other hand, it would neatly use up all of the eggs and let me use even more feijoas! And neither recipe looked terribly difficult or complicated to put together, so I figured I'd just go for it and make both of 'em.

I haven't had a chance to try the pie yet, but these friands were incredible! I wasn't entirely sold on chocolate friands. Classic friands are so good as is, I felt like adding chocolate and fruit could only possibly detract from them. But this combination really works! It's definitely quite different from a standard friand, but, I would argue, equally as good.

Chocolate-Feijoa Friands

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 5 large egg whites
• 120g ground almonds (almond flour/meal)
• 195g icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar
• 1/2 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) or gluten-free flour
• 20g cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 200g butter, melted
• 9 small feijoas, halved and scooped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F) and grease a muffin tin (or two)¹.
2. Beat the egg whites slightly to break them up. (No need to beat until stiff; slightly foamy is fine.)
3. In a separate bowl, combine the almonds, sugar, and flour.
4. Sift in the cocoa and baking powder and mix well.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the egg whites and stir to mix.
6. Pour in the melted butter and stir until just combined.
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins. Don't fill them too full; ~2/3 full is plenty!
8. Press a feijoa half into the top of each friand.
9. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 20-25 minutes.
10. Turn out onto wire rack to cool.

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¹ The recipe claims that this makes 12 friands, but I actually got 18 using standard 5-cm diameter muffin tins. Obviously the exact number you get will depend on the size of your tins and how full you fill them. I felt like 18 was pretty much perfect though. ^Back

This worked out really well!

I'd never made a boiled pudding before. Or baked with suet. Lard, yes, but not suet. I'd used suet in cooking and making things like mincemeat. But I don't think I'd ever done a classic suet pudding before. So this was a bit of an experiment, but also a lot of fun.

I made this as a gluten-free, dairy-free clootie dumpling. I just used a commercial gluten-free flour mix and some rice-based GF breadcrumbs and then swapped in some oat milk for the cow's milk. The flour I used did have some vegetable gums added to try to compensate for the lack of gluten, but my dumpling was still somewhat lacking in structural integrity. I might try adding an extra egg next time, just to help bind it a little more. It was still delicious either way, it just didn't stay intact.

Clootie Dumpling

From BBC Good Food

Ingredients

• 175g fresh white breadcrumbs
• 175g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
• 175g beef suet, grated/shredded
• 100g dark soft brown sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp mixed spice or pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 100g currants
• 175g sultanas
• 2 tbsp black treacle or golden syrup
• 150mL milk
• 1 large egg

Directions

1. Boil a pudding cloth for 15-20 minutes, then wring it out and dust it liberally with flour.
2. Tip the breadcrumbs, flour, suet, sugar, salt, baking soda, spices, and dried fruit into a large bowl and stir to mix.
3. Whisk the treacle or syrup into the milk and egg using a fork until well blended.
4. Stir the mixture into the dry ingredients with a fork or butter knife to make a soft dough.
5. Use the floured pudding cloth to line a large bowl and then press the dough into it to make a large, round ball.
6. Dust the top of the pudding with more flour and then bring the edges of the cloth up around the top of the pudding and tie it off, leaving enough room for some expansion.
7. Fill a large pot with water, place an upturned plate in it, and bring to a simmer.
8. Place your cloth-wrapped pudding into the simmering water, cover, and cook for 3 hours.
9. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
10. Tip the pudding into a colander to drain, then carefully peel off the cloth.
11. Place the pudding on an ovenproof dish or baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes to dry it off and produce the classic skin.
12. Serve sliced with custard, cream, or ice cream—and a dram of whisky if you like.

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Variations

Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Version

Ingredients

• 175g gluten-free breadcrumbs¹
• 175g gluten-free flour, plus extra for dusting
• 175g beef suet, grated/shredded
• 100g dark soft brown sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp mixed spice or pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 100g currants
• 175g sultanas
• 2 tbsp black treacle or golden syrup
• 150mL oat milk (or non-dairy milk of your choice)
• 1-2 large eggs

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¹ As noted above, I used some dry, rice-based breadcumbs for my version in order to keep my dumpling gluten-free. This seemed to work fine. That said, I think I'd probably aim to get a loaf of GF bread next time and make my own fresh breadcrumbs. ^Back

We had pears poached in white wine last week. And from there I moved onto poached plums, which were meant to get a red wine bath. (Although my poaching liquid was a bit of a franken-mix of red and white, but... close enough!) Well, after that, I still had a bunch of poaching liquid left over. And I hated to throw it out. So I picked out another wine-poached fruit recipe.

Honestly, I'd been hoping to do poached apricots next. They required a very similar poaching liquid, but with the addition of a small amount of rosewater. My intent had been to do the apricots and then, with the leftover liquid from that make these poached pears. But I couldn't find any fresh apricots (or nectarines) at the grocery store. So I skipped over that recipe for now and moved straight to the red wine pears.

As written, the recipe called for four Bosc pears poached in sweetened, spiced red wine. It used 3/4 c. of sugar to 750mL of wine + some cloves, cinnamon, and lemon zest. Since I already had a light syrup of a mix of red and white wine, cloves, cinnamon, lemon zest, star anise, peppercorns, vanilla, and ginger; I just reused it completely unaltered. And, since my pears were quite small, I tossed a few extras in. I managed to fit seven small pears into the pot with the poaching liquid.

Once I started boiling the syrup down, I gave it a taste and decided that it was slightly undersweetened for my liking. (I'm really not sure what the overall sugar-to-wine ratio was at this point. Since I'd already amended and reused it so many times.) So I stirred in 1 Tbsp. of extra sugar and let it continue cooking down. I feel like this produced a nice final result as a sauce to drizzle over the pears. That said, this is something that will be largely down to your personal taste (and the wine you use¹).

Pears Poached in Red Wine

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 4-8 Bosc² pears
• 750mL fruity red wine
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1 strip of lemon zest (~5cm long and 2.5cm wide)
• 1 cinnamon stick (~7cm long)
• 2 whole cloves
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Directions

1. Peel the pears, leaving the stem on.
2. Using a small spoon or melon baller and starting from the blossom end, remove the cores. (Leaving the stem end in tact.)
3. Trim a thin slice off the bottom of each pear so it will stand upright.
4. Combine the wine, sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon stick, and cloves in a small pot and bring to a boil.
5. Add the pears. If there is not enough liquid to cover them, add water until it does.
6. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until pears are tender (20-30 minutes).
7. Transfer pears to dish.
8. Increase heat to medium and boil syrup down until it is somewhat thick and volume is reduced to ~3/4 c.
9. Remove from heat and stir in butter.
10. Drizzle sauce over pears and serve.

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¹ This recipe (and the one for the poached plums that I did before this) calls for a "fruity red wine" and suggests a Merlot or a Zinfandel as good options. I wasn't about to go out and get a whole new bottle of wine just for this, so I used whatever I had on hand already. And I have no idea whether it was a "fruity" wine or not. (Although hopefully all the rounds of fruit poaching in it did serve to lend it some fruitiness.) I think it was relatively dry, but I have no idea whether that has any bearing on its fruitiness or not. I am not a wine person. ^Back
2 The recipe specifically calls for Bosc pears, so that's what I used. That said, I do think it would be interesting to try it with other varieties. I ended up using Bartlett pears for the white wine version and I quite liked those. Don't get me wrong, the Bosc were nice. I'd just be interested to see how Bartlett or Anjou pears turned out when given this treatment. ^Back

Keeping the poached fruit train rolling! And this plum recipe was next up. TF and I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the pears or the quince, but it was still good. And I'm enjoying getting to try all of these different poached fruit desserts.

This one calls for one bottle (750mL) of red wine that has been seasoned with cloves, star anise, and ginger and sweetened with 1 c. of sugar. But, since I was still using leftover syrup from the previous poached fruit recipes, I just chose to add the relevant spices and 1 c. of red wine to the syrup I already had.

For the actual recipe below, I've written it up as given in the book. But I'll try to briefly run through what I actually did here. Just so that I have a record of it.

• Made a syrup of 2 c. water, 2 1/2 c. sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest; poached qince in it
• To the residual syrup, added 1 1/2 c. white wine, peppercorns, cinnamon, star anise; poached more quince in it
• To that residual syrup, added 1/2 c. white wine and fresh ginger; poached pears in it
• Finally, to the resulting syrup, added 1 c. red wine, cloves, and additional star anise; poached plums in it

Poached Plums with Vanilla Mascarpone

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 750mL fruity red wine
• 17 Tbsp. sugar, divided
• 2-3 slices fresh ginger
• 3 whole cloves
• 3 whole star anise
• 2 (7cm long) cinnamon sticks
• 900g red or black plums, peeled and quartered
• 1 c. mascarpone
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Combine the wine, 1 c. of the sugar, ginger, cloves, star anise, and cinnamon sticks and bring to a boil.
2. Add plums, reduce heat slightly, and simmer until softened (8-10 minutes).
3. Meanwhile, combine the mascarpone, vanilla, and remaining 1 Tbsp. sugar.
4. Use a slotted spoon to transfer plums to bowls.
5. Serve topped with mascarpone.

I've been on a bit of a poached fruit kick lately. First there were the quince poached in vanilla syrup. Then I was able to doctor the leftover syrup from that to make the poached quince with mascarpone, caramel, and gingersnaps. And, for this recipe, I was able to tinker with the syrup yet again to make these fabulous poached pears.

This does, of course, leave me with the same problem of how to write up the recipe. Since I don't necessarily want to have to make the previous two every time I make these pears. So, as before, I'm going to make a note of what I actually did here, but then write up the recipe (more-or-less) as given in the book.
For this rendition, I simply took the leftover syrup from the second batch of quince (which contained the leftover syrup from the first batch of quince, 1 1/2 c. of white wine, a vanilla bean, grated lemon zest, 2 cinnamon sticks, 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, and 1 star anise) and added an extra 1/2 c. of wine and a few slices of fresh ginger.

The original recipe called for 2 c. of Riesling, 1/2 c. sugar, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 strips of lemon rind, and 3 slices of fresh ginger. So, my version definitely had a few more spices in the mix, but I quited liked it. Especially the vanilla. Given that, I've included the extra spices in the recipe, but listed them as optional. Adjust as you see fit.

Pears Poached in White Wine

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 2 c. Riesling
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1-2 (7cm) cinnamon stick(s)
• 3 slices fresh ginger
• 2-3 strips lemon zest
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (optional)
• 1 star anise (optional)
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns (optional)
• 4 pears¹
• 1/4 c. chopped toasted or candied walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Combine the Riesling, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, lemon zest, and whatever other seasonings you've chosen and bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Meanwhile, peel and halve the pears. Use a spoon to scoop out the cores and remove the stems.
3. Add the pear halves to the poaching liquid, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, covered, until tender (10-15 minutes).
4. Serve as-is or topped with lightly sweetened mascarpone. (See quince recipe.)
5. Optionally sprinkle a few toasted or candied walnuts over the pears before serving.

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¹ The recipe didn't specify what type of pears to use. I thought anjou would be good here, but I couldn't find any at the grocery store. The bartletts looked quite nice though, so I went for those. ^Back

We had a surplus of mint and strawberries were on sale this week, so this low-effort dessert seemed like a natural fit.

Macerated Strawberries with Lemon and Mint

From Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 450g strawberries, hulled and quartered (or sliced)
• 2-4 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp. lemon zest
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh mint

Directions

1. Add all ingredients to a bowl and toss to combine.
2. Let stand for at least 15 minutes, then serve.

I ended up making some banana splits as my birthday dessert since I didn't have time to bake a cake. I'm posting the fudge sauce as a separate recipe because it's useful as a topping for other desserts as well and this will make it easier for me to refer back to it later.

Hot Fudge Sauce

From Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp. natural cocoa powder
• 1/3 c. boiling water
• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 Tbsp. corn syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a small pot, slowly drizzle the boiling water into the cocoa powder, whisking constantly to form a smooth paste.
2. Place over low heat and add the butter.
3. Once the butter has melted, whisk it into the cocoa paste.
4. Add the sugar and corn syrup and stir to combine.
5. Increase heat to medium-low and bring to a very low simmer. You want it gently bubbling, but not boiling.
6. Simmer, uncovered and without stirring, for 8 minutes.
7. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.
8. Cover and keep warm until ready to use.

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Variations

Vegan Version

Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp. natural cocoa powder
• 1/3 c. boiling water
• 3 Tbsp. (~40g) cocoa butter
• 1 c. raw cane sugar
• 2 Tbsp. corn syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Strawberries were on sale for Valentine's Day the last time I was at the grocery store. I picked some up because the Kidlet loves strawberries and I knew they'd disappear. Then dinnertime rolled around and, after dinner, I was feeling like I could go for some sort of sweet treat. But I was also feeling very low-effort. So I flipped through my various cookbooks a bit and eventually spotted this "recipe" for dipping strawberries in chocolate. Not exactly a new idea, but it is a relatively quick and easy one. And that's exactly what I was after, so... win!

The original recipe called for melting a little vegetable shortening into the chocolate. I didn't have any shortening, but I did have coconut oil, so I just used a bit of that instead.

Normally I ignore recipes' instructions to use chocolate chips and just chop up and equivalent amount of bar or baking chocolate instead. In this case though, I thought that I should probably stick with the chocolate chips since they generally have stabilizers in them that tend to help them set up and hold their shape a bit better than bar chocolate. I used vegan dark chocolate chips for my rendition, but semi-sweet or milk chocolate would probably also work fine. (Although the milk chocolate might take slightly longer to firm up.)

Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 450g fresh strawberries
• 1 c. chocolate chips
• 1/2 Tbsp. coconut oil

Directions

1. Wash the strawberries and set them aside. Leave the stems on.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
3. Melt the chocolate and coconut oil over very low heat, stirring, until smooth.
4. Remove from heat.
5. Working with one strawberry at a time, hold by the stem and dip in chocolate. Use a spatula to assist in getting the strawberry well-coated. Aim to coat each strawberry up to its widest point, but not all the way to the base of the stem.
6. Place the chocolate-coated strawberries on the prepared baking sheet.
7. Once all strawberries have been dipped, chill for a few minutes until the chocolate is firm and set.
8. Transfer to a plate and serve.

These were surprisingly tasty! I wasn't expecting much from a filling made up predominantly of zucchini and corn. Especially since the dish seemed to rely entirely on store-bought salsa for its seasoning. But it actually produced really nice results. A bit lacking in protein maybe, but there were certainly no issues with the flavour!

If I were doing this again, I might try swapping out half of the zucchini for some black beans, just to make it a little more filling and nutritionally balanced. But overall, it was very good.

Vegetable Enchiladas

Adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 zucchini
• 1 (400mL) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 c. frozen corn
• 1 onion, quartered and sliced
• 1 c. grated cheddar cheese
• 2 (~400mL) jars salsa verde, divided
• 12 corn tortillas (20cm/8" size)
• 1 c. grated Monterey jack¹
• 1/4 c. sour cream
• 1 green onion, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. lime zest
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 avocado, divided
• 2-4 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
2. Quarter the zucchini lengthwise and slice crosswise.
3. Combine the zucchini, beans, corn, onion, and cheddar and mix well.
4. Wrap the tortillas in a tea towel or tortilla warmer and microwave until softened (30-60 seconds).
5. Pour 1 jar of salsa into a 23x33cm (9x13") baking dish.
6. Place a warm tortilla on your work surface and put 2-3 Tbsp. of filling down the middle of it, then roll up and place seam-side-down in the prepared baking dish.
7. Assemble remaining enchiladas in the same way.
8. Pour remaining jar of salsa over the enchiladas and top with Monterey jack.
9. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes.
10. Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes.
11. Meanwhile, combine the sour cream, green onion, lime zest, salt, and half the avocado and mix very well, mashing the avocado as you stir.
12. Slice the remaining half avocado.
13. Serve the enchiladas topped with avocado slices, sour cream mixture, and cilantro (if using).
14. Radishes and tomato salsa/salsa roja also make good toppings.

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¹ I ended up swapping out the Monterey jack for 125g of sliced Swiss cheese instead, which worked reasonably well. More cheddar would also be acceptable in place of the jack. ^Back

I liked this as a quick and simple dessert idea. Unadulterated canteloupe already makes a great dessert (as long as it's perfectly ripe), but sometimes it's nice to try a variation on the theme. This doesn't take too much extra time or effort and still lets the canteloupe shine through. It can also help give your melon a little boost if it happens to be slightly under-ripe.

I definitely wouldn't bother with this all the time. But it makes for a nice, shake-it-up, once-in-a-while thing. And it also makes a nice way to make a simple fresh fruit offering seem a little more special when serving guests.

Cantaloupe in Spiced Syrup

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. water
• 3cm fresh ginger, sliced
• 1 star anise
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 cantaloupe

Directions

1. Combine the sugar, water, ginger, star anise, and lemon zest and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Stir in lemon juice and cook for another minute or so.
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
5. Meanwhile, peel, seed, and cube the cantaloupe.
6. Toss the melon pieces with the syrup and serve.

More and more people seem to be following gluten-free diets these days. Sometimes this is out of necessity (due to things like celiac or other intolerances), sometimes it's out of the belief that wheat- or grain-free diets are inherently healthier than diets that include these starches. Regardless of the underlying reasons, the result is that it's becoming increasingly likely that a given group of people will include someone who can't (or is chosing not to) eat wheat.

Given that, I felt that it might make sense to make a few gluten-free goodies to send along with the regular cupcakes for the Kidlet's class. I've generally had good luck with America's Test Kitchen recipes, so I turned to them for a good gluten-free cupcake option.

These cupcakes were okay, but somewhat underwhelming. It's difficult to evaluate fairly though because I don't like confetti cupcakes to begin with. The Kidlet says that she ranks the cupcakes themselves about the same as the non-gluten-free ones that she made from a box mix (although she didn't really care for the vegan icing that I topped them with). TF tried one and said that they were just so-so. Given that, I'll probably try a different gluten-free recipe next time.

I do appreciate that the folks at ATK explained their recipe though. They noted that since GF flour doesn't absorb fat as readily as wheat flour, they found that they needed to swap out the butter for oil and reduce the quantity in order to avoid greasy cupcakes. Then, to restore some of the flavour and richess lost by removing the butter, they added a bit of white chocolate and sour cream. The xanthan gum is needed to help the cupcakes rise in the absence of gluten. My GF flour blend already contained xanthan gum, so I didn't bother going out and getting extra, but I think I probably should have since much cupcakes did not rise very well.

This all sounded good in theory, but I wasn't super impressed with the final result. And while some of that may be down to the missing xanthan gum and the resulting lack of rising, I don't think a lighter texture would have solved everything. As noted, I'll probably be looking for a different GF recipe next time. But at least this one did the job on this particular occasion.

Gluten-Free Confetti Cupcakes

Slightly adapted from The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 115g white chocolate
• 6 Tbsp. oil
• 185g gluten-free all-purpose flour blend
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. sour cream
• 1/4 c. rainbow sprinkles

Frosting¹

• 3 c. vanilla frosting
• 3 Tbsp. rainbow sprinkles

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F) and add paper or foil liners to your muffin tin.
2. Heat oil and white chocolate gently, stirring often, until melted and smooth (3-5 30-second bursts in microwave). Set aside to cool.
3. Sift baking powder, baking soda, and xanthan gum into GF flour.
4. Mix in salt.
5. In a separate bowl, beat eggs with vanilla.
6. Whisk sugar into egg mixture.
7. Beat cooled chocolate mixture into eggs.
8. Stir in sour cream.
9. Add dry ingredients to wet and whisk until smooth.
10. Mix in sprinkles.
11. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin.
12. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for ~20 minutes.
13. Let cool in tin for ~10 minutes.
14. Turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.
15. Meanwhile, make the frosting.
16. Stir sprinkles into frosting.
17. Once the cupcakes are completely cool, decorate with frosting as desired.

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¹ I didn't want to have to make three separate batches of icing, so I skipped the vanilla confetti icing for my GF cupcakes and just used some of the vegan chocolate frosting on them instead. Perhaps not as gastronomically harmonious, but it saved me a bunch of effort, ingredients, and dishes, so that worked for me! ^Back

I remember the folks in the Something Awful cake thread being a big fan of marshmallow fondant. The consensus was that it was pretty easy to make, worked just as well as regular/commercial fondant for most applications, and tasted much better. (That's not to say that it tastes amazing, but the impression that I've generally gotten is that commercial fondant is basically inedible, so MMF is a big improvement on that.)

Despite all the rave reviews, I was still somewhat reluctant to try it. It sounded fiddly and easy to mess up. I was convinced that I'd end up with a sticky, unworkable mess on my hands. And I don't have that much call for fondant and molded decorations in the first place anyway, so I just haven't bothered with it until now.

I wanted to make some extra decorations for the Kidlet's class treats though and marzipan was out since that would've been an allergen nightmare, so I figured marshmallow fondant was the way to go. And, as it turns out, it wasn't too difficult or fiddly at all!

Marshmallow Fondant

From The Spruce Eats

Ingredients

• 225g marshmallows
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 450g icing sugar

Directions

1. Heat the marshmallows and water, stirring frequently, until melted and smooth. I did 30-second bursts in the microwave, but very gentle heat on to stovetop¹ would also work.
2. Add the icing sugar. Stir until the mixture starts to get stiff, then turn it out onto the work surface. There will still be a lot of sugar not mixed in; this is expected!
3. Knead the marshmallow like bread dough, gradually working in the remaining sugar until the mixture becomes smooth and pliable without being overly sticky. (You might not need all of the sugar.)
4. If you manage to knead in all of the sugar and the mixture is still too sticky to work with, dust the work surface and your hands with a little more icing sugar mixed with cornstarch and knead for a few more strokes.
5. If the mixture is still sticky, then adding a bit of food grade glycerin might help. I haven't tried this, but I've seen it recommended online. Shape the "dough" into a disc, pour ~1 tsp. of glycerin into the centre of the disc, and then fold it over and knead it in.
6. I've also read that greasing your hands and the work surface with vegetable shortening can help if you're having issues with your fondant sticking to everything.
7. And, if all else fails, the Internet recommends trying a different brand of marshmallows. I used No Name mini marshmallows and they seemed to work really well for this.
8. If you want to add colour to your fondant, you can separate out however much you want to colour, shape it into a disc, add some food colouring drops or gel, and then knead it in. If you'd like to colour the whole batch of fondant, you can mix the food colouring in when you first melt the marshmallows rather than waiting until after the sugar is added.
9. Wrap the fondant tightly if not using immediately and store at cool room temperature.

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¹ I've seen people recommend using a double-boiler set-up, but I think very low direct heat would also be okay. ^Back

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

We've got lots of eggs again, but I wasn't vibing with any of the egg-y breakfast ideas I looked at. I think the cooler weather has put me in the mood for more starch-y, bread-y things. So I decided to take a look at one of the breakfast cookbooks PDFs we have kicking around to see if any of that looked appealing.

The first chapter focuses on granola and oatmeal. I don't really feel like granola is a meal in and of itself, so I just ignored those recipes for now. But oatmeal works as a hot breakfast on a cool morning. I don't find it really fills me up and sticks to my ribs the way everyone seems to claim it does, but it's still nice to have every once in a while. It's quick, easy, reasonably healthy (as long as you don't add too much sugar and junk to it), and I like trying out new flavour combinations.

I ended up opting for the coconut-date-cashew variant for this morning and it was quite good. I decided to top mine with a little plain Greek yogurt rather than milk or cream in the hopes that this swap would make it a little more filling without increasing the calorie count too much. I also used a little "no sugar added" syrup in place of the honey, but I do think honey would have been nicer.

I've included the recipe for the plain oatmeal here with the various flavours and variations below it.

Basic Oatmeal

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 c. water
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 c. rolled oats ("old-fashioned" or quick)
• ~1/3 c. milk, cream, or yogurt

Directions

1. Add the salt to the water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
2. Add oatmeal, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, uncovered, stirring frequently, until thickened (5-6 minutes for old-fashioned oats, 2-3 minutes for quick oats).
3. Serve. Top each portion with ~1 Tbsp. of cream (or milk or yogurt).
4. Enjoy as-is or with additional toppings.

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Variations

Vegan Version

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 c. water
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 c. rolled oats ("old-fashioned" or quick)
• ~1/3 c. oat, nut, or soy milk

Oatmeal with Brown Sugar, Bananas, and Fresh Figs

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 c. water
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 c. rolled oats ("old-fashioned" or quick)
• ~1/3 c. (non-dairy) milk, cream, or yogurt
• ~1/4 c. brown sugar
• 2-3 bananas, sliced
• 8-12 fresh figs, stemmed and quartered
• ~1/4 c. maple syrup¹ (optional)

Top each portion with ~1 Tbsp. of cream (or milk or yogurt), 1-3 tsp. of brown sugar, ~1/2 a banana, 2 figs, and 1-3 tsp. of maple syrup (if using).

Oatmeal with Coconut, Dates, Cashews, and Honey

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 c. water
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 c. rolled oats ("old-fashioned" or quick)
• ~1/3 c. (non-dairy) milk, cream, or yogurt
• ~1/3 c. cashews, toasted and chopped
• 8-12 dates, sliced
• ~1/4 c. unsweetened dried coconut
• ~1/4 c. honey

Top each portion with ~1 Tbsp. of cream (or similar), ~1 Tbsp. cashews, 2 dates, 2-3 tsp. of coconut, and 2-3 tsp. of honey.

Strawberry-Rhubarb "Slump"

Ingredients

• 2 stalks rhubarb, cut into 1-cm pieces
• 1 c. strawberries
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. water
• 3 1/2 c. water
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 c. rolled oats ("old-fashioned" or quick)
• ~1/3 c. (non-dairy) milk, cream, or yogurt

Directions

1. Combine the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, and water and bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Cook, stirring occasionally, until rhubarb is soft (~10 minutes). Set aside.
3. Cook oatmeal as directed above.
4. Top each portion with ~1 Tbsp. of cream (or similar) and a spoonful of the strawberry-rhubarb compote.

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¹ The original recipe claims to make 4 servings and calls for 1 Tbsp. of brown sugar and 1 Tbsp. of maple syrup per serving. Personally, I feel like the protion size is way too large if you only divide this batch of oatmeal into four. Six seems like a more reasonable division. But even if you then scale down the toppings proportionately, that would mean ~2 tsp. each of sugar and maple syrup per serving. And that seems like way too much sugar to me when you've already got the bananas and the figs in there since they're relatively sweet on their own. Personally, I think I'd probably just roll with the bananas, figs, and a touch of brown sugar and leave out the maple syrup. ^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

We made this for my sister's baby shower and it went over quite well with some corn chips. We made a double batch which, in retrospect, was too much; we brought about half of it back home. I've written up the recipe for a single batch here.

We served it hot out of the oven, but it's tasty cold, too.

Vidalia Onion Cheese Dip

Cook's Country April/May 2018, by Morgan Bolling (p. 16)

Ingredients

• 2 C finely chopped Vidalia onions
• ¾ C mayonnaise
• 170g sharp cheddar, shredded (about 1½ C)
• 60g American cheese or Velveeta, chopped (about ½ C)
• ¼ C thinly sliced green onions

Directions

1. Combine onions, mayo, both cheeses, and half the green onions in a 1L casserole dish.
2. Bake at 375°F until melted through, bubbly, and browned, about 25-30 minutes. (We had trouble getting it to brown and settled for "bubbly".)
3. Top with remaining scallions and serve with corn chips, pita chips, sliced vegetables, etc.

I ran across the suggestion of making breakfast tostadas on... some blog somewhere. It was from a blogger who focused on weight loss and had a lot of Weight Watchers recipes. This one, surprisingly, wasn't a WW recipe; it was from another food blog. I didn't end up using the recipe provided, but I took inspiration from it.

I ended up using ready-made, canned refried beans, but you could easily make your own at home if you prefer. I did make my own baked tostadas for this, but you could use store-bought tostadas if you wanted to shave a little time and effort off the prep. The store-bought ones will be more Points/calories, of course, but sometimes that's a trade-off worth making. And it should still reasonably healthy (and low-Points) overall.

You can dress these up however you like. I did mine with refried beans, tomato salsa, cherry tomatoes, pickled jalapeños, fresh cilantro, avocado, and a fried egg. You could also try fresh or pickled onions on them, shredded lettuce, various types of cheese (cheddar, pepper jack, feta, cotija, etc.), bacon, chorizo, tempeh, smoked tofu... You could swap out the fresh avocado for guacamole. Try cooking your eggs a different way (scrambled, poached, or boiled come to mind). For a vegan take, you could go for scrambled tofu in place of the egg. There are lots of options!

Breakfast Tostadas

Ingredients

• 1-2 tostadas per person
• ~2 Tbsp. of refried beans per tostada
• 1-2 Tbsp. of grated or crumbled cheese per tostada (optional)
• ~1 Tbsp. of salsa or salsa verde per tostada
• ~1/8 of an avocado, sliced or 1-2 Tbsp. of guacamole per tostada (optional)
• 2-4 Tbsp. of veggies per tostada (lettuce, tomatoes, onion, jalapeños, bell pepper, radishes, etc.)
• 1 Tbsp. of crumbled bacon, tempeh, smoked tofu, or chorizo per tostada (optional)
• 1 egg per tostada (scrambled, fried, poached, or boiled) or ~1/4 c. of scrambled tofu
• ~1 Tbsp. of chopped fresh cilantro per tostada

Directions

1. Make sure your refried beans are nice and hot.
2. Spread the beans on your tostada.
3. Top with cheese (if using).
4. Top with salsa, avocado or guac (if using), and veggies, bacon/tofu/tempeh/chorizo (if using).
5. Top with egg or tofu.
6. Garnish with cilantro and serve.