3 days to go!

oh Christmas, how my mouth loves you and the stomach loathes you!

Datelicious

I made this just a few days before the removal crew came to our house. I was trying to empty out my cupboards which meant lots of creative meals and making things that I have been putting off for some time.

The week seemed so long that I felt I needed dessert to spice things up a bit. I had a packet of dried dates in the cupboard and thought it would be a great idea to make date loaf.

After a bit of contemplation I asked myself when did I start considering date loaf to be dessert? Tragic. So instead I walked down to the shop and purchased a tub of ice cream and came home to make a REAL dessert - Sticky Date Pudding with Caramel Sauce!

What you need
200 grams pitted dates (more or less!)
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
1 1/2 cups of boiling water
125 grams butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups of raising flour

Caramel Sauce (the best bit!)
1 cup brown sugar
300 ml cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
60 grams of butter


How you do it
Place the dates and the bicarb soda into a small saucepan. Pour the boiling water over the dates and let sit for around 15 minutes.

In another bowl beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs. Sift the flour over this mixture and then add the dates and water (which should now look like chunky brown glue) and use a spatular to combine.

You can make this as a large pudding or individual puddings. Spoon the mixture into your desired pan and bake in a 180 Celsius oven for approximately 35 minutes.

For the sauce - place all the ingredients into a medium saucepan. Stir over a medium heat until it begins to boil. Simmer for a few minutes. The sauce will be runny and delicious and this MUST be served with ice cream.

Gingerbread Boxes

how I felt about my gingerbread box project

Source: memebase.com via Holly on Pinterest

how it actually turned out

My mum and I had a fantastically hilarious two nights in the kitchen constructing these four little (dare I say) "masterpieces"! 

It was our very first attempt with gingerbread-like cooking. It involved a lot of rolling and cutting and baking not to mention the huge amount of patience it took to actually put the things together. As well as baking all the tasty, delicious treats to put inside the boxes. 

As a side note, I keep calling these 'gingerbread' ....here's the thing. Gingerbread burns my throat and mouth. It smells weird. It sometimes makes my eyes water. So instead of using ginger I used cinnamon. Best. Choice. Ever. 

My Gingerbread Box Recipe 

(3 batches of this made four boxes)

125g butter (softened)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup golden syrup

1 egg, separated

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1/2 teaspoon ginger (or more if you like)

2 teaspoons cinnamon (or more if you like)

1 teaspoon bicarb soda

Icing

3 egg whites

3 cups pure icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius (or 160 for fan forced) and prepare baking trays. 

Beat the butter and brown sugar. When it is nice and creamy add in the syrup and the egg yolk and continue to beat lightly. Sift in the flour, ginger & cinnamon and bicarb soda and use a spatular to combine.

Tip the mixture out onto baking paper and knead gently then split the mixture in half. Put one half to the side. Roll the other one out. I find rolling very tricky. I put another piece of baking paper on top of the dough and roll over the top if it to stop the dough sticking to the rolling pin. I rolled my dough to about 3mm. I think this might have been a bit too thin but at the same time I don't think it really matters. It rises slightly as it bakes plus ....do what you feel is best, it always works out better that way! 

After the dough has been rolled cut it to size. You can use some pre-cut cardboard as a guide or save yourself some hassle and get a Gingerbread House Cutter Set. After the pieces have been cut put them in the fridge for about 10 minutes. I don't know why but every recipe I have read recipe I have read suggests this. Also some suggest you put the dough in the fridge after you roll but before you cut it. 

After the pieces have been chilled put them in the oven. Bake for about 10 minutes and the let the pieces cool. If you're not making the houses or boxes straight away put the cooked pieces in the fridge. I left mine in a container on the bench over night and found they became a bit soggy making the construction part much harder.

The Icing

(this was a real test of skill!)

Beat the egg whites until peaks start to form. This takes a while so be patient! Slowly add in the icing sugar constantly beating until it the mixture becomes thick.

Think of this as glue - everything it touches will become sticky, it also dries quite quickly so it is important to do things fast but carefully! 

I put the icing into a piping bag and piped it onto all the pieces of my boxes. This was very tricky and I'm so thankful I had an extra set of hands (my mum!). I began by placing the base onto a piece of cardboard I had wrapped in aluminium foil. I then piped icing along the bottom edge of one long side piece and using a tin can held it onto the base. I did the same with the other long side. I then added the two ends and used tin cans to help hold it all together. I piped inside and outside the edges just because I had no idea what I was actually doing. Basically just fill in all the gaps and hope for the best!

Again, if you have space put the boxes in the fridge otherwise they become a bit soggy. We filled ours up with Hedgehog Baubles, Maple Nut Tarts, Rocky Road, Red Velvet Christmas Trees and White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies (recipes to come!).

Seriously, I had so much fun doing this and, on reflection, I am super impressed with them and loved giving them to friends and family as gifts. I feel next years efforts will be better but, as a first attempt I'm pretty darn happy!

Spicy Lamb in Coconut Sauce

Yay!! We have finally got our new life started. After a 5 hour flight delay we are finally back together in our "old-new" house and it is great. The best part: the kitchen! I'm talking bench space. Dishwasher. One and a half ovens!! And to top it all off - Christmas is just around the corner (but more on that later). Tonight I cooked my first meal in the kitchen I designed - Spicy Lamb in Coconut Sauce.

I always get a bit funny about lamb cutlets. Sometimes they are really fatty or there isn't much meat on them and I never seem to cook them quite right but I totally committed to cutlets tonight and it was awesome. Also, they are called "spicy" but they really aren't and you can decide how spicy you want them to be anyway.

Spicy Lamb in Coconut Sauce

What you need

250g pumpkin

1/3 cup peas

small tin chickpeas

coriander leaves

parsley leaves

lamb cutlets 

1 teaspoon curry powder (more or less!)

1/3 cup coconut milk

1 clove garlic

2 tablespoons chicken stock

What to do

Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius and dice the pumpkin into about 1cm chunks. Pop in chunks into an oven dish with a splash of oil and put into the oven for about 10minutes.

Rub the lamb cutlets with curry powder (as much as you like) and place into a lightly greased fry pan on medium heat. 

Meanwhile add peas, chickpeas and leaves to the pumpkin and return to the oven on a 140 Celsius until the cutlets are cooked as desired. 

Once cutlets are cooked, put on top of vegetables and leave in the oven to keep warm. In the fry pan add the coconut milk, garlic and stock and bring to the boil. Let the sauce simmer until it is as thick as you like. 

Serve the cutlets layered on the vegetables and drizzle sauce over the top.