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.

Stuffed French Toast

The Kidlet loves French toast. (And strawberry jam, for that matter.) So I figured the idea of French toast stuffed with cream cheese and strawberry jam would be a big hit. And it was!

I think the concept for this recipe is sound. I just question their instructions.
As written, the recipe recommends using one loaf of challah and cutting it into six 6-cm thick slices. Now, first of all, even considering that you'll be suffing the slices, that is insanely thick. And, secondly, how big are their loaves of challah that you can get six 6-cm slices out of one loaf? That would mean that the whole loaf would have to be a little over 36cm long! (A little over, because you need to trim the heels off.) I consider a "standard" loaf pan to be between 20 and 23cm long. So, that is one monster loaf of bread they have there.

I asked TF to cut our loaf into four 5-cm thick slices. And even those were (in my opinion) still much too thick. I'd definitely go for five 4-cm slices next time. And TF thinks that those might be too thick even still. She suggested that 3-cm slices might be more appropriate. And, honestly, I think she might be right. That said, I'd want to try it with 4-cm slices first and see how that works out before moving down to even thinner slabs of bread.

Given that we ended up with only four slices for our rendition of this recipe today, I reduced the amount of custard and filling somewhat. However, since I'm writing up the recipe for a larger number of thinner slices, I've scaled the filling and custard amounts back up. Hopefully these amounts should be about right, but feel free to play around with the proportions a bit.

French Toast Stuffed with Cream Cheese and Strawberry Jam

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 loaf of bread¹
• 170g cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 c. strawberry jam
• 5 large eggs
• 1 1/4 c. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. butter, divided
• maple syrup, to serve

Directions

1. Trim off the heels and cut the bread into five or six very thick slices (3-4cm each).
2. Cut a slit into the top of each slice of bread to form a pocket that extends through the centre of the slice to within ~2cm of each of the other three sides.
3. Combine the jam and cream cheese and mix well.
4. Carefully spoon some of the cream cheese mixture into each bread pocket, doing your best to divide it evenly.
5. Beat the eggs with the milk and vanilla.
6. Melt ~1/2 a tsp. of butter over medium-low heat.
7. Dip one stuffed bread slice into the custard to thoroughly coat the outside.
8. Place it in the pan and cook until underside is golden brown. Flip and cook until other side is similarly golden.
9. Repeat cooking process with remaining slices.
10. Serve topped with maple syrup.

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Variants

French Toast Stuffed with Mascarpone and Apricot Jam

Ingredients

• 1 loaf of bread
• 170g mascarpone
• 1/3 c. apricot jam
• 5 large eggs
• 1 1/4 c. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. butter, divided
• maple syrup, to serve

French Toast Stuffed with Banana and Nutella

Ingredients

• 1 loaf of bread
• 1 banana, mashed
• 1/3 c. Nutella
• 5 large eggs
• 1 1/4 c. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. butter, divided
• maple syrup, to serve

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¹ A relatively close-grained bread will be best for this. Something with a fairly light, but fine crumb so that the filling won't leak out. Challah, brioche, and pain de mie are all good choices. I used a loaf of Sister Virginia's bread based on a 19th century Shaker recipe. It is a fairly basic white bread very slightly enriched with a bit of milk, sugar, and lard. But anything that's not too heavy, too open, or too savoury would work well here. ^Back

Peach and mustard is a good combo with pork. This recipe reminds me a bit of our Christmas ham recipe. This just uses an uncured pork shoulder rather than ham and makes the sauce with lots of tomato and vinegar to create something more like a barbecue sauce.

I think this would've been beautiful done on the barbecue, but it's cold and I was tired, so I just did it in the oven. I think it really would have benefitted from a long, slow, cooking over indirect heat on the grill. As it was, I found I needed to tweak the oven cooking a bit.

I initially just cooked it at 300°F for 5 hours as directed in the recipe, but I failed to check the internal temperature before removing it from the oven and, after resting it for a while, TF found that it was a bit undercooked when she went to shred the meat. So, back into the oven it went! We ended up nudging the temperature up to 350°F and cooking it for another hour. That did the job and got it up to the desired internal temperature, but I think it would've been nice with an even longer cook time. We were just hungry and tired and wanted to get it done, so we rolled with it as it was.

Pulled Pork with Peach-Mustard Sauce

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 bone-in pork shoulder (~3kg)
• 1 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 Tbsp. black peppercorns
• 1 Tbsp. mustard seeds
• 2 c. cider vinegar, divided
• 1 c. water
• 7 onions, 4 sliced, 3 chopped
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter¹
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 400mL crushed tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 c. peach jam
• 1/2 c. Roman mustard² or Dijon mustard
• 1/2 c. bourbon³
• 1/2 c. honey
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1-2 Tbsp. hotsauce
• buns, to serve
• coleslaw, to serve

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C (300°F) and grease or oil a roasting pan.
2. Combine the salt, pepper, mustard seeds and grind.
3. Slather the ground spices over the entire surface of the pork shoulder and place it in the prepared roasting pan.
4. Pour the water and 1 c. of the vinegar into the roasting pan.
5. Add the sliced onions over and around the pork.
6. Cover with foil and bake at 160°C (300°F) for 4 hours.
7. Remove foil and return to oven for another hour or two (until internal temperature reads at least 80°C/175°F).
8. If pork is still not done (or if you'd like to brown the outside a bit more), increase the temperature to 180°C (350°F) and cook for another 30-60 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, melt the butter over medium heat and add the chopped onions and garlic. Cook until onions have softened and started to brown (~10 minutes).
10. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, jam, mustard, bourbon, honey, sugar, and hotsauce.
11. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat then reduce to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 2 hours.
12. Once pork is done, set aside to cool for ~1 hour.
13. Remove pork and onions from roasting pan. Shred the meat and discard the fat.
14. Add ~1/2 the sauce to the shredded pork and mix well.
15. Serve the pork on buns with extra sauce and coleslaw.

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¹ The original recipe called for 1/2 c. of butter! I cut this back to 2 Tbsp. and I'm perfectly happy with the results. Next time I might even be tempted to skip the butter altogether and just skim some fat off the pork drippings to use in my sauce. Either way, I don't think you need 8 Tbsp. of butter to make a good sauce for your pork! That just seems excessive. ^1
2 I only ended up putting 1/4 c. of mustard into our sauce. I wanted to taste it first and see if it seemed like it needed the whole 1/2 c. I think it was fine with only half the amount, but more would've been better. I just got a bit frazzled toward the end of the evening and forgot about adding the rest of the mustard. At least now I'll know for next time! ^Back
3 I didn't have any bourbon handy, so I just tossed in some rum. Not the same, I know, but I didn't want to go out to the LCBO just for that, so I made do with what I had. ^Back

I think this is my favourite of the cottage cheese bowl variations so far. I liked the savoury one with the tomatoes and cucumbers, but I liked this one even better. In fact, it's the only one that I've ended up having two days in a row so far!

The peanut butter is fairly calorically dense, but if you pair it with a low-sugar jam, it actually makes a reasonably healthy (and low-Point) breakfast. The original recipe calls for 1/4 c. of rolled oats, but I had a little bit of chocolate granola left, so I had it with that instead and quite liked it. I might try it with plain oats at some point, but I'm really liking the granola with it so far!

PB&J Cottage Cheese Breakfast Bowl

Slightly adapted from Budget Bytes

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. cottage cheese (fat-free to keep the calorie/Points count low)
• 1 Tbsp. jam (preferably a low-sugar or reduced-calorie variety)
• 1 Tbsp. peanut butter
• 2 Tbsp. granola

Directions

1. Combine everything in a bowl.
2. Mix, eat, enjoy!

Ube Halaya (Purple Yam Jam)

I had a bunch of grated ube left after my ube waffle experiemnts the other day, so I decided to go looking for ideas of what to make with it. I contemplated various cakes and puddings but, after consulting with TF, we opted for ube halaya as it's delicious on its own and also an ingredient in many other ube-based desserts.

I ran across a few different variants on the basic theme of ube, sugar, and milk (either dairy, coconut, or both). Most included coconut milk and sweetened condensed milk. Some also included evaporated milk, granulated sugar, and/or brown sugar. And a few called for grated cheddar.

Most of the pictures of homemade ube halaya that I've seen show it being quite thick. As in, moldable and sliceable. I got tired of cooking and stirring mine, so I stopped it before it got that thick. Mine came out more like Nutella or tahini than butter or membrillo.

Ube Halaya

Slightly adapted from Decorated Treats

Ingredients

• 300g thawed frozen grated ube
• 1 tsp. ube extract
• 150g sweetened condensed milk
• 150g coconut milk
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 45g unsalted butter

Directions

1. Combine the ube, ube extract, sweetened condensed milk, and coconut milk and mix well.
2. Cook over medium-low heat¹, stirring constantly, for 30 minutes.
3. Mix in the salt and butter and continue cooking and stirring for another 10-15 minutes.
4. The original recipe called for cooling the jam with the lid on, periodically wiping away condensation before transfering to the fridge for storage. I didn't do this; hopefully my jam won't suffer for the missed step.

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¹ The original recipe called for cooking it over low heat, but after 35 minutes at low, the mixture still wasn't thickening up as much as I'd hoped, so I nudged it up to medium-low. After another 20 minutes at low, it still wasn't sliceably thick, but I was tired of standing over the pot, so I called it. I'm hoping that if I put it on medium-low from the get-go next time, I can get it to a reasonable consistency within the original 40 minute timeframe given. ^Back