Date scones

I hope everyone is having a good Anzac day! I haven't made (or even eaten!) any Anzac biscuits this year, but felt that these scones were appropriately Australian enough to share with you on this special day for our country. Enjoy!

Every time I make scones, I say it's an improvement on the time before (see the start of this post for Sarah's Scone Saga), and I'm pleased to say this time was no exception! I made these particular scones on a lazy weekend morning (Easter Monday actually), when I wanted a sweet, treat of a breakfast, without having to leave the house or change out of my PJs.

I based the recipe on Belinda Jeffrey's Fluffy Buttermilk Scones, from Mix & Bake, but scaled it down significantly, used all self raising flour (no wholemeal), and replaced her suggested buttermilk with a mixture of Greek yogurt and milk. I've tried this recipe before, two and a half years ago, and they were definitely better this time. Not only were they smoother thanks to the lack of wholemeal flour, but they also seemed less flat because I cut them nice and small (I used a 4.6cm scone cutter). I also added dates this time, and they were fantastic! Turns out I prefer fruit scones to plain ones! The little pops of sweetness are just so delicious! Who knew?

Dough

I patted out the dough onto a sheet of baking paper, rather than directly onto my kitchen bench. As much as I love being in the kitchen, my most loathed kitchen task is cleaning a bench after having rolled out dough or pastry on it. It's the worst!

Scone dough, patted out

Scone dough

Using the baking paper also makes it easier to lift the delicate scones, without tearing or ripping them.

Scone cutter

Ready for baking

And ta-dah! Scones! Some recipes say to cover them with a tea towel after they're baked, to trap the steam and keep them soft, but I never do this because I love a crunchy-topped scone.

Baked scones

I was so pleased with these scones! See? So fluffy on the inside!

Fluffy!

Ordinarily I love scones with jam and cream, but sadly the cream I had in the fridge had gone off. So it was butter and blueberry jam. (I would have gone to the shops for cream, but you know, PJs).

Scones

Fluffy innards with dates

Scones

Scones

Date Scones 
Adapted from the Buttermilk Scones in Belinda Jeffery's Mix and Bake

Ingredients 
1 cup self-raising flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
40 grams cold butter, cut into small cubes
50 grams dried dates, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon plain or Greek yogurt
Approx. 110 ml milk

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the butter and use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the chopped dates and mix to distribute evenly through the flour mixture.
Place the yogurt into a measuring jug, and pour in enough milk to come up to the 125 ml (1/2 cup) mark. Mix with a fork or small whisk to combine. Pour the yogurt/milk mixture into the dry ingredients, and stir gently with a wooden spoon to combine.
Tip the mixture onto a sheet of baking paper, dust lightly with flour and pat into a rough rectangle of about 4 cm thickness. Cut out scones using a small cutter (mine was 4.6 cm in diameter), dusting it with flour each time. Cut straight up and down, not twisting the cutter. Place the scones close together on a lined baking tray.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked when tested with a skewer.
Allow to cool for 5 minutes or so before eating. Serve with butter, cream, jam, honey, or whatever you like. I had mine with butter and blueberry conserve and they were dee-licious.
Makes 12

Fan Wu Cai - Rice-cooked eggplant, rice-cooked pork belly, garlic/soy dipping sauce, stir-fried bok choy, rice

Fan Wu Cai is a homely Chinese dish of meat and vegetables, layered on top of rice, which steams and cooks as the rice cooks. Technically I think you can use any vegetables or meat you like (as long as they take the same amount of time to cook as the rice does), but I love the combination of pork belly and eggplant. It's so quick and easy! Just put it all in the rice cooker and let it cook away.

I got the recipe from Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice (which, as you know, is where I get almost all of my Chinese recipes, and indeed, many of my meals!) I was worried it would be bland, but it actually is very lovely, and even nicer when you serve it with the suggested dipping sauce of soy sauce and minced garlic.

As there aren't a lot of ingredients in it, Fuchsia says it's a good idea to use high quality ingredients - we happened to get an eggplant in our organic box that particular week, and I'd also received a sample of organic tamari from Spiral Foods - what more encouragement did I need?

I bought a strip of pork belly from my local butcher - it's labelled "pork rasher", and was less than $3 - bargain! The quantity below, with half an eggplant and one pork rasher, feed two generously for dinner, with enough for leftovers for me for lunch the next day.

Eggplant, pork, rice, water

As you can see, I cooked the above in a pot, and not my rice cooker. I have a very small rice cooker and thought that using a wider pot would allow me to place more delicious meat and eggplant on top! I don't know if you necessarily need a proper recipe, as it all seems pretty self-evident, but for the sake of completeness, here's how I did it:

Place one cup of rice and two cups of water in a saucepan. Slice half an eggplant and one rasher of belly pork into chunky slices, and layer on top of the rice. Place on the heat and bring to the boil, then clamp on the lid and turn the heat down to the minimum possible. Allow to cook for twenty minutes, or until the water is absorbed into the rice and everything is cooked through.

You could just leave it like that, serving it with minced garlic and soy sauce on the side for dipping... but I can never leave well enough alone. And anytime I think of pork belly and soy sauce, I automatically think hard boiled eggs (thanks to my dad's amazing tau yuu bak!), and seeing as I had that bottle of tamari anyway, I thought I could have a go making some soy eggs while the rice cooked! I just googled a recipe and adapted it to what I had on hand.

Soy eggs

Here's how to make soy eggs.

Hardboil some eggs, then peel. Whisk together a quarter cup of tamari, half a cup of water and a tablespoon of brown sugar in a small saucepan. Add the peeled eggs and simmer gently for 20-30 minutes, turning occasionally so all sides of the eggs get to soak in the delicious sauce. Ta-dah!

I also made some bok choy to go with. Honestly, I don't really like bok choy, but we got some in the organic box, and I thought it would be a good idea to add some green veggies to the meal! I just chopped it up and stir fried it with chilli and garlic, finishing with a drizzle of sesame oil.

Bok choy

Here's the finished fan wu cai. Looks plain but tastes so good!

Cooked

Soy eggs

Rice

Here's the rice! It looks normal, but tastes better than normal rice, because the pork fat melts as it cooks, coating all the lovely grains of rice.

And here's my bowl! I added a bit of Vietnamese chilli-garlic sauce too. The meal was super tasty, so comforting and very easy. Get to it!

Apple pie, cooling on the windowsill

I made this homely looking apple pie quite a few months ago, after combining a few ideas I'd had, and it was such a success that I've immodestly labelled it my ultimate apple pie.

I used my favourite pastry recipe: Nigella's rich shortcrust (from How to Eat), which I've made before as the base for a cherry pie, and an onion tart. I love it for its flaky butteriness and its sturdiness - it's rich without crossing over into the realm of shortbread. As far as pastry goes, it's quite easy to make. When making pastry, I used Nigella's fab tip of flash-freezing the butter and flour beforehand (all measured out and cut into pieces, in a little zip-lock bag), and despite being a warm day, it rolled out like a dream!

Pastry lining the baking dish

I sprinkled a good layer of almond meal over the base of the tart, mainly to prevent the base from getting soggy, but also for a lovely mild almond flavour.

Almond meal in the base

Now, for the apples - previously I've done them in small chunks or medium chunks, but on this day I wanted to try slicing the apples very, very finely. (I used the Borner-V Slicer mandolin I was gifted from Kitchenware Direct). I thought this would enable the apples to cook through, without going soggy. (Spoiler alert: I was right!)

Apples!

I built up the apples in layers, sprinkling with demerara sugar and cinnamon every few layers. I've specified 2 - 4 tablespoons in the recipe below, but this really depends on how sweet your apples are, and how sweet you want the pie to be!

Apples, sugar, cinnamon

I built up the apples to just slightly higher than the rim of the tin, but I think you could go higher - maybe even double the height? Perhaps you'll be more daring than I was. (Don't forget the apples will sink down a little as the pie bakes).

Double crust! More pastry means more deliciousness. Mine was a bit messy, but I think it just adds to the rustic charm.

Double crust

I glazed the pie with beaten egg and castor sugar, but wasn't a huge fan of the finish this produced - I'd definitely recommend choosing either egg or sugar!

Baked pie!

Now, let's have a look inside the pie. You can see all the pretty layers of apple!

Inside the pie

It's always a bit nerve wracking baking pastry in a ceramic dish, and I was worried it might not cook through, but it came out great! The pastry wasn't just cooked through, but also lovely and crisp on the base. There wasn't the slightest hint of sogginess either - woohoo! Even the leftover slices held up fantastically over the next couple of days, no dampness, no sogginess, just delicious pie.

Slice of pie

Do you like your pie with whipped cream? Ice-cream?

Apple pie

Or why not both?

Ice-cream and whipped cream. And pie!

Sarah's Ultimate Apple Pie

Pastry recipe from Nigella's How to Eat, everything else my own creation

Ingredients

For the Pastry

240 grams self-raising flour

120 grams butter, cut into small cubes

2 egg yolks, beaten with 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract, a pinch of salt and 2 tablespoons of iced water

For the Filling

3 tablespoons almond meal

4 - 6 apples (basically as many as you need to fill the pie!)

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

2 - 4 tablespoons sugar of your choice (e.g. castor, demerara, whatever)

To finish: an egg yolk (optional) and castor sugar to sprinkle over

Method

To make the pastry

The day before you want to eat the pie: place flour and butter in a shallow dish or ziplock bag and stash in the freezer overnight.

The next day: Using your fingers, a freestanding mixer or a food processor, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Slowly add the egg-yolk mixture in, stopping just when the dough looks like it's about to come together. Press the dough together using your hands and divide into two portions, one slightly smaller than the other. Shape each piece into a fat disc, cover tightly with cling wrap and rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

To make the filling and assemble the pie

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Roll the larger piece of dough out onto a lightly floured surface until about 5 millimetres thick. Use the dough to line a 20cm pie dish. Cut off any overhang, using it to patch up any gaps or holes.

Sprinkle the almond meal over the base.

Peel and core an apple, and slice as thinly as possible using a mandoline slicer. Layer it up in the pie dish, sprinkling a little sugar and cinnamon in between each layer. Repeat with the remaining apples, sugar and cinnamon, until the pie dish is full.

Roll out the remaining dough to 5 millimetres thick and use it to top the pie. Trim off any excess and pinch together in a decorative fashion to seal. (Optional: brush beaten egg yolk over the pastry for a shiny finish). Make some slits in the top of the pie with a sharp knife.

Bake the pie at 200C for 15 minutes, then cover loosely with foil, turn the oven down to 180C and allow to bake for another 15 minutes. Sprinkle with castor sugar.

Allow to cool for about half an hour, preferably on a windowsill, before tucking in!

Makes one 20cm pie

Magic Custard Pudding Cake

We saw this Magic Custard Pudding Cake on Pinterest a little while ago, swiftly baked it, and fell totally head-over-heels in love. It's such a simple cake - no icing, no choc-chips, no flavourings apart from vanilla - but is so very delicious! It also seems to get a lot of love when I Instagram it - loads of people ask for the recipe, and one of my friends baked it twice in the week after I shared the picture!


Let's have a look at the making of the cake. You start with vanilla-infused warm milk. (I used a vanilla pod and vanilla extract, rather than just the vanilla extract suggested in the original recipe)...

Vanilla-infused milk

...a buttery, eggy batter...

Eggy-buttery base

...and whipped egg whites!

Whipped egg whites

The batter is very liquidy, and it's difficult to combine the egg whites in evenly - the egg whites seem to rise to the top as soon as you've folded them in. I figure this excessive liquidity is what enables the batter to separate as it bakes.

Cake batter

Ta-dah! You're supposed to let it cool completely before cutting it into squares, but it smells too good! I've never been able to let it cool beyond lukewarm.

Baked!

Baked and unwrapped

I made this cake as my contribution for April and Hubby's baby shower, as well as Ottolenghi's herb pie. (The recipe is in Jerusalem, as well as in his Guardian column). You see, we've started getting an organic veggie box delivered every week, and on this particular week there was a huuuuge bunch of silverbeet in there. Silverbeet is actually one of the few foods I actually loathe, and I figured I'd need a killer recipe to use it up. Ottolenghi to the rescue! I figured that a recipe with silverbeet (AKA Swiss chard), with three types of cheese, filo pastry and loads of butter would have to be good!

So much green!

It took ages to make, and it was quite a bit of work washing and chopping the silverbeet, cooking it, chopping and adding herbs and onions... and this was before assembling the pie itself. Whilst it was very tasty, I don't know if it was worth a whole afternoon of work. However, it was a good way to use up all the herbs in my fridge, as well as the silverbeet, of course!

Rather than making one big pie, I made the pie in large cylinders to make it easier to share, and to maximise the ratio of buttery pastry-to-filling!

Herb Pie

Herb Pie

Here's a pic of the food table at the baby shower... food bloggers sure know how to throw a party!

Magic Custard Pudding Cake

Recipe slightly adapted from White on Rice Couple, which itself was adapted from Pasteles de Colores

Ingredients
113 grams unsalted butter
1 vanilla pod
500 millilitres milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs, separated
150 grams icing sugar
1 tablespoon water
150 grams flour

Method
Preheat the oven to 160C and line a 20cm square baking tin with baking paper.
Melt the butter and set aside.
Slice the vanilla pod lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Place seeds and pod in a saucepan with the milk. Heat to just below boiling point, then turn off the heat, stir in the vanilla extract, and allow to infuse while you get on with the rest of the recipe.
Using an electric mixer, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Scrape into a separate bowl and set aside.
In the same mixer (no need to wash out the bowl or whisk), whisk the egg yolks and sugar until lightened and aerated.
Now, switch to a hand whisk! Pour in the tablespoon of water and the melted butter and whisk to combine. Sift over the flour and whisk gently to combine and remove lumps.
Remove the vanilla pod from the warm milk, and slowly pour the milk into the egg mixture, whisking gently.
Fold in the beaten egg whites using a whisk. (The mixture will be very liquid, so don't worry too much about getting the egg whites combined perfectly, just mix until there are no big bits of egg white left).
Pour the mixture into the lined tin, and bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown on top and mostly firm. (It should jiggle a little if you shake the pan, but it shouldn't seem liquid beneath the crust).
Allow to cool before dusting with icing sugar and cutting into squares.
Makes 1 x 20cm square cake

Rockwell and Sons

Rockwell and Sons
288 Smith St
Collingwood, VIC 3066
Ph: (03) 8415-0700
Website


We caught up with the lovely Jess for a relaxed lunch at Rockwell and Sons a couple of weeks ago. I'd been meaning to visit for ages and try their take on Americana - fried chicken and biscuits and burgers, oh my! - but wanted to wait until the weather cooled down a bit. Apparently they don't have air conditioning, and there's no way I'd be able to inhale fried chicken in the hot weather!

It was a lunchtime, so no alcohol for us - just coffees and some non-alcoholic sodas.

Clockwise from top left: Short black - $2.50 House made lemonade - $5.00 Cappuccino - $3.50 Strawberry and Cardamom Soda - $5.00

Maine-Style Tiger Prawn Roll - w/ Kewpie, Capers, Pickled Celery - $12

Jess enjoyed her tiger-prawn roll, and it looked great! Y'all know I'm a big lover of lobster rolls, but I'd really wanna try the prawn roll next time.

Double Patty Smash Burger - w/ Kraft, Special Sauce on a seeded bun - $10

Unsurprisingly, Sandra got the famous Double Patty Smash Burger. And yup, like everyone says, it does taste like a Big Mac but BETTER. No lettuce, tomato, or other unnecessary vegetables here - it's just pure burger. Two patties, Kraft cheese, sauce, pickles and a lightly toasted, slightly sweet, bun. Burger heaven!

French fries, malt vinegar aioli - $6.00

Fries with the skin on make me happy.

I'd already scoped out the menu beforehand, and totally wanted the biscuits and sawmill gravy (which I think is only available at breakfast/lunch). It does come with poached eggs though, which I suspected might be gloopy overkill. So I took Jess' advice and menu-hacked, getting fried chicken instead of poached eggs.

Best. Decision. Ever.

Buttermilk biscuits with Sawmill gravy - $16 Extra fried chicken - $9

I enjoyed this so very, very much! It was a pretty heavy dish, but each individual element was really good, and they worked so well together.

Fried chicken!

The fried chicken was really juicy and (surprisingly) boneless. I loved the different herbs and spices they used in the coating, and there were some crisp parts and some soggy parts.  Dee-licious.

Biscuit from the side

Sawmill gravy, as far as I can tell, is just a white sauce (or roux) made with lard or sausage grease instead of butter, and crumbled up pieces of sausage mixed through. (I know my description doesn't make it sound appealing, but it is really very tasty!)

My favourite part of the whole dish, however, was definitely the biscuit. Like a savoury scone, it was wonderfully fluffy on the inside, with a fantastic crust on the outside. (Look at all the layers in the picture above - beautiful!)

Check out the fluffy innards too... it's amazing how something so full of butter (and possibly shortening) can taste so light! If they sold the biscuits separately, I'd totally eat them spread with butter and jam. I must try recreating this breakfast at home.

Fluffy biscuit innards...

And that was our visit to Rockwell! I really like the place... good food, good prices ($10 for the patty smash burger is pretty sweet!) and a chillaxed atmosphere. Next time, I want to tackle their Wednesday-night fried chicken special!

Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins

Raspberries, white chocolate chips, melted butter, egg

As I'm sure you're aware, overmixing the batter results in a tough muffin, so I always stir my add-ins through the dry ingredients before adding the wet ingredients, so that they can combine evenly without overmixing.

The "add-ins" mixed through the dry ingredients

I've got a massive stash of random cute muffin papers that I bought on my last trip to Japan, and on this day I was in the mood to use these pink and white "Happy Sweet" ones!

Muffin cases!

I did overfill them a little though, which resulted in some (deliciously crunchy) overflow.

Baked

As I said above, they looked a bit plain on top, but once the paper was peeled off...

...you could see the massive stash of chocolate and raspberries within. JACKPOT!

MUFFIN INSIDES

I loved the lightly lemony flavour, the sweet white choc chips, the sour raspberries, the tender crumb and the crusty top. My perfect muffin!

Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins
Recipe based on Nigella's Lemon-Raspberry Muffins from How to be a Domestic Goddess

Ingredients
60 grams unsalted butter
200 grams plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
150 grams caster sugar
zest and juice of half a lemon
1 cup white chocolate chips
150 grams fresh raspberries (or 1 cup frozen)
120 millilitres milk
1 egg

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C and line a muffin tray with paper cases.
Melt the butter and set it aside to cool. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the salt, sugar and lemon zest, and whisk gently to combine. Add the white chocolate chips and raspberries and stir gently to coat them with flour and to distribute them evenly through the dry ingredients.
Squeeze the lemon juice into a measuring jug, and pour in enough milk to make 200 millilitres. Whisk in the egg and melted butter.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently to combine (a lumpy mixture is good!)
Spoon the mixture into the muffin tray, and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through when tested with a skewer.
Allow to cool slightly before eating.
Makes 9-12 depending on the size of your muffins (ooer!)