Sweet Tooth Experiments

Author Archives: Ella

Apple Crumble Pizza

Posted on Posted in Unique .

Apple Crumble Pizza

Apple Crumble Pizza recipe

 

So by now you would notice that I frequently experiment with vegetables in sweet baking, love to make traditional unique world treats and play with textures.

However, lately I have really started to take an interest in turning ‘traditional’ savoury meals into sweet alternatives.

Based on this new found curiosity I decided to experiment with a very well known easy dish that is properly one of the most popular meals around the world….Maybe this wasn’t the smarted thing to play with every households family favourite food, but I think if you try this recipe you will let my off the hook as its that good!

Now this recipe does have quite a few parts (5 in fact), but each part is super easy using pretty much the same ingredients so please don’t be turned off by this, especially since 2 of the parts take between 2-5 minutes to do!

So if you’re a fan of pizza and have a soft spot to a warm winter apple crumble…humm you will LOVE my Apple Crumble Pizza!

 

Pizza Base:

  • 1 cup of warm water
  • ½ tsn salt
  • 2 tbsn sugar
  • 2 tbsn oil
  • 3 cups plain flour
  • 1 tbsn dry yeast

Cheese Spread:

  • 125g cream cheese
  • 2 tbsn brown sugar
  • 1tbsn lemon juice
  • ¼ tsn nutmeg

Apple Topping:

  • 65g butter
  • 5 Granny Smith apples (4 apples if very large), peeled and thinly sliced
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 3 tbsn plain flour
  • 2 tsn cinnamon

Crumble Topping:

  • ½ cup plain flour
  • 2 tsn cinnamon
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup butter, softened
  • ½ cup oats

 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190c and line a 16-inch pizza tray with baking paper.

Pizza Base:

2. Pour flour and yeast into a large bowl, stir.

3. Add the water, salt, sugar and oil  into the dry mix.

4. Knead into a smooth dough for 5 minutes and cover with a tea towel to rest for at least 15 minutes. In the interium:

Cheese Spread:

5. Add cheese spread ingredients into a bowl and whisk until well combined.

Apple Topping:

6. Place the flour, sugar and cinnamon into a medium sizes saucepan, stir until sugar is dissolved.

7. Add the butter and apple and turn the hotplates to medium, stirring constantly.

8. Once mix comes to the boil turn to low and continue to mix until the apples are tender.

Crumble Topping:

9. Place all ingredients into a bowl and with hands rub to combined.

Assembling:

10. Place dough onto the tray, punching down dough to make a large circular base.

11. Spread the cheese spread with the back of a spoon to evenly distribute.

12. Evenly place apple mix onto the spread layer.

13. Sprinkle the crumbling topping over the apple mix evenly.

14. Cover the pizza for 15 minutes in a warm place with a tea towel on the top.

15. Place the pizza in the oven for 25-30minutes or until browned and golden.

 

Notes:

  • Brown sugar is not essential if you have none just use white sugar.
  • If you don’t like nutmeg again this is not essential so you can omit this, but to be honest you wont taste the ingredient it just enhances the others flavours.
  • This recipe does make a MASSIVE pizza. It is very easy to half the mix if you don’t have an army to baking for 🙂 (you will notice this from the step pictures).
  • I recommend using a mandolin to get quick and easy apple slices and granny smith apple as they hold their shape quite well when you cook them.
  • Make sure you punch the dough down well and spread evenly as the dough will rise quite a bit and you don’t want it really thick in the centre but thin on the outsides.

 

Apple Crumble Pizza recipe

Ingredients

Apple Crumble Pizza recipe

Step 4

Apple Crumble Pizza recipe

Step 4 con’t

Apple Crumble Pizza recipe

Step 5

Apple Crumble Pizza recipe

Slicing the apple. Use gloves and vegetable holder when slicing.

Apple Crumble Pizza recipe

Step 8

Apple Crumble Pizza recipe

Step 9

Apple Crumble Pizza recipe

Step 10

Apple Crumble Pizza recipe

Step 14

Apple Crumble Pizza recipe
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Orange Lemon and Chocolate Cannoli Tart

Posted on Posted in Tarts .

Orange Lemon and Chocolate Cannoli Tart

Orange Lemon and Chocolate Cannoli Tart

I have this absolutely awesome Cannoli recipe where I usually cheat and buy the Cannoli shells from my Italian grocery down the road. I buy the shells as I’m not a fan of deep frying food and to be honest try to opt for the more healthier versions of sweets if I can.

Now, my Italian grocery has recently been taken over and I don’t like my chances of being able to get my hands on the usual traditional Italian products I have in the past. So I had a though…What would happen if I tried to make my awesome Cannoli’s in a tart instead of the fried shells?

Sweet pastry is quite simple to make (especially if you have a food processor) therefore by turning my Cannoli’s into a tart I won’t have to deep fry or make my own shells.

The outcome – This by far would have to be one of the best sweets I have made in a long time. The only difference from my Cannoli recipe is I added an egg and baked this version and OMG I had people telling me how much they adored my tart that had never commented on my baking before.

Orange Lemon and Chocolate Cannoli Tart recipe

Ingredients:

Pastry

  • 2 cups flour
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • ½ tsn salt
  • 2 tsn cocoa powder
  • 100g butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbns milk

Filling

  • 375g ricotta
  • 165g icing sugar
  • 1 egg
  • I lemon
  • 1 orange
  • 100g 70% cocoa dark chocolate

 

Method:

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 175c and spray a tart tin with oil.
  2. Place the flour, sugar, salt and cocoa powder into a food processor and pulse a few times to mix.
  3. Dice the butter into small pieces and process until combined.
  4. Add the egg and milk and process until combined.
  5. Wash hands and turn dough out into a ball onto baking paper.
  6. Using a rolling pin roll the dough into a circle shape and place into the tart tin and place tin into the fridge for 20 mins.
  7. Place the ricotta, egg and icing sugar into a bowl.
  8. Grate the chocolate, orange zest and lemon zest into the bowl.
  9. Stir until all ingredients are combined well.
  10. Spoon the mix into the tart tin and smooth the top.
  11. Place into the oven and cook for 25 mins or until the party is browned and the filling has puffed up a bit.
  12. Once cooked let the tart cook before removing from tin.

 

Notes:

  • If you don’t have a food processor combine flour, sugar, salt, cocoa ponder and diced butter in a bowl. Rub butter with dry ingredients until it resembles breadcrumbs. With your hands mix in the egg and milk until the dough is formed.

Orange Lemon and Chocolate Cannoli Tart recipe

Ingredients

Orange Lemon and Chocolate Cannoli Tart

Step 5

Orange Lemon and Chocolate Cannoli Tart recipe

Step 6

Orange Lemon and Chocolate Cannoli Tart recipe

Step 9

Orange Lemon and Chocolate Cannoli Tart recipe

Step 10

 

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Licorice Biscuits

Posted on Posted in Biscuits .

 

Licorice Biscuit recipe

Licorice Biscuits

Its been a while since I have heard the word licorice, its not a food that I would go out and buy but would eat if it was in front of me.

After attending a wedding that had a lollie (candy) buffet with an amazing chocolate covered licorice I decided that I wanted to bake something with this ingredient.

After some though I felt a licorice pie could be a goer, a cake…maybe, but the easiest and quickest way to incorporate this ingredient into baking would have to be biscuits, (easy and quick as I planned to bake a few variations to get that scrumptious recipe).

Outcome – a few attempts (too chewy, too hard, too soft then one perfect with a shortbread consistency version) I have decided to share this awesome recipe. This biscuit is super tasty but only for a licorice fan as I have gone ‘generous’ with the flavor.

Ingredients:

  • 250g butter
  • 130g sugar
  • 80g condensed milk
  • 2 tsn anisette essence
  • 300g plain flour
  • 1 + ½ tsn baking powder
  • 80g licorice pieces

Method:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 160c and line 3 big baking trays with baking paper.
  2. With electric beaters beat the butter and sugar for 5 minutes until light and creamy.
  3. Add the milk and essence then beat for another few minutes until smooth.
  4. Add the flour and baking powder to the mix and beat.
  5. Add the licorice cut into small pieces and beat until well combine.
  6. Roll mix into balls with hands to small golf ball sizes (30g in size).
  7. Place balls on the trays and slightly flatten with hands.
  8. Bake for 18 minutes or until golden.
  9. Once cooked place on a rack to cool.

Notes:

  • Licorice is not the easies to dice I actually used scissors to cut the pieces into small diced pieces.

 

Licorice Biscuit recipe

Ingredients

Licorice Biscuit recipe

Step 7

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Biscuit Coconut and Jelly Slice

Posted on Posted in Slice .

 

Biscuit Coconut and Jelly Slice

Biscuit Coconut and Jelly Slice

Biscuit Coconut and Jelly Slice

A few weeks ago I went shopping at an Asian grocer and got my hands on Taro Jelly powder. I love Taro and wanted to use this flavour in a cake which got me thinking back to a slice I once made with chocolate, coconut and raspberry layers, where the taro could work as the top jelly layer.

Now, coconut works well with Asian food but the chocolate…that needed to be replaced to a plain flavour. The end result was so interesting with varying textures and beautiful flavour.

However, the best part about this recipe is that it is so substitutable. YOU can be the experimenter and use whatever biscuit you want as well as whatever jelly flavour you like.

This recipe is all about inspiring you to make your own creation. A fan of strawberries and cream? Use a vanilla biscuit as the base, replace the coconut milk with cream and use a strawberry jelly on the top. Or maybe you love cherry ripe? Try a chocolate base with a cream middle and cherry jelly. The variations are endless!

Biscuit Coconut and Jelly Slice

Ingredients:

  • 250g sweet biscuits
  • 100g butter
  • 2 tsn gelatin powder
  • 2 tbsn warm water
  • I cup thickened cream
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • ½ icing sugar
  • 85g packet of Taro pudding powder (or any flavor jelly you like)

 

Method

  1. Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper.
  2. Place the biscuits in a food processor until blitzed, pour into a bowl.
  3. Pour the butter melted into the bowl and mix with the biscuits until combined.
  4. Press into the slice tin and place into the fridge.
  5. Place the gelatin into a bowl with the water and whisk to combined (it should look like a yellow tinged gel).
  6. Place the cream, milk and icing sugar on a pot on the stove and whisk ingredients until the mix is warm – not boiling.
  7. Add the gelatin and whisk on medium heat for 3 minutes.
  8. Allow the mix to cool slighting and pour over the biscuit base.
  9. Place back in the fridge and let the layer set for 2-3 hours.
  10. Make the jelly according to the packet directions, let it cool completely then pour over the coconut layer.
  11. Refrigerate for 4 hours or until set.

 

Notes:

  • I used Nice biscuits for the base.
  • If you don’t like coconut just use 2 cups of cream instead of the coconut milk.
  • This is such a simple recipe but you do need to let each layer set so it will take time to make, however 95% of the time is the gelatin setting in the fridge.

Biscuit Coconut and Jelly Slice

Ingredients

Biscuit Coconut and Jelly Slice recipe

Step 3

Biscuit Coconut and Jelly Slice recipe

Step 4

Biscuit Coconut and Jelly Slice

Step 7

Biscuit Coconut and Jelly Slice recipe

Step 9

Biscuit Coconut and Jelly Slice recipe

Step 11

 

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Citrus Dark Chocolate and Ricotta Cannoli’s

Posted on Posted in Italy, Traditional .

Citrus, Dark Chocolate and Ricotta Cannoli’s

 

I have actually made these Cannoli’s on quite a few occasions and in variations each time.

In this recipe I have tweaked to provide you with what I think the best variation (and the easiest as I cheat a little). I’ve made this before with alcohol, pistachios, candied fruit peel, glace cherries, you name it!

I have also made these from scratch (the cannoli shells that is) and to be honest they take a very long time while being fiddly and messy. As I have an Italian grocer down the road buying a pack of 12 shells for $5 is so much more easier.

Cannoli’s are a traditional Italian dessert consisting of fried pastry filled with a cheese filling (usually ricotta or mascarpone). Variations of the filling are also common with cream or custard being piped in the shells.

Also stay tuned on this post, in a few weeks time you will see how I experiment with this recipe to produce a delightful and to die for sweet treat alternative using the fillings.

 

Ingredients:

  • 300g fresh ricotta
  • ¾ cup of icing sugar
  • Finally grated rind on 1 orange
  • Finally grated rind of I lemon
  • 100g dark chocolate grated

 

Method:

  1. Mix together all ingredients until smooth.
  2. Spoon into a piping bag with a star nozzle (Witlon tip size up to you).
  3. Pipe the filling into the shells generously starting from one end to the other.
  4. And it’s as simple as that.

 

Notes:

  • This will fill easily 12 medium size shells or 18 small shells.
  • This filling is actually really good as a filling in the middle and on top of a chocolate cake or sponge cake to give a basic cake a twist of variation.
  • The filling can also be piped into profiteroles as a change up from cream or custard (I shared my profiterole recipe in January).

 

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Chocolate Bacon Cake with Maple Frosting

Posted on Posted in America, Cakes .

Chocolate Bacon Cake with Maple Frosting

Chocolate Bacon Cake with Maple Frosting

 

We saw cake-pops, marshmallows and salted caramel sweet treat baking trends last year. This year is an interesting one, where one trend really caught my eye and became a must on my list to experiment with – the sweet and salty combo, more specifically salted bacon praline.

Very interesting, sugar and bacon – how gross. However, the sugar and bacon comb delivers sweet and salty, which is the big craze at current.

French toast with maple syrup and bacon is a norm in America on diner breakfast menus that is slowly migrating onto AUS breakfast menus (think brioche bread, mascarpone cheese, bacon and maple syrup – sometimes with poached pears).

So after doing some research (at a few cafes for breakfast of course) I decided to make a choc bacon cake and cupcakes and top it off with maple icing and bacon praline. Don’t knock this until you try it, you can’t taste the bacon in the cake but the sweet-salty taste is quite amazing.

 

Chocolate Bacon Cake with Maple Frosting

 

Ingredients:

  • 250g bacon, diced
  • 2 cups of cake flour
  • ¾ cup of cocoa powder
  • 1 + 3/4 cups of white sugar
  • 2 tsn baking powder
  • ¼ tsn salt
  • 1 tsn baking soda
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ cup strong coffee
  • 1 + ½ cups buttermilk
  • ½ butter

Frosting

  • 135g butter
  • 2 cups icing sugar
  • 1 cup rice flour
  • 140g maple syrup
  • Extra, ¼ cup white sugar (optional)

 

Method:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 180c and line a 25cm round cake tin with baking paper.
  2. Place bacon in a frying pan and fry for 10 mins or until crisp and brown.
  3. Place the bacon onto paper towel to drain off excess oil.
  4. Place the bacon in a food processor until fine.
  5. Sift the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a bowl, mix together.
  6. In another bowl whisk by hand the eggs, coffee, buttermilk and butter.
  7. Place the wet mix and ¾ cup bacon into the dry mix bowl and whisk together until just mixed through.
  8. Pour into the cake tin.
  9. Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
  10. Cool in tin for 10 minutes then on a baking rack until cool.
  11. To make the icing – cream the butter in a bowl with electric beaters for 10 minutes.
  12. Add the sugar, flour and maple syrup and hand stir until almost combine. Now beat for 5 minutes until fluffy.
  13. Cut the cake into 3 even layers, spread the frosting in between the cake layers, top and sides.

Optional:

  1. To decorate place the left over bacon on some baking paper.
  2. Place the extra sugar in a pan on the stove and stir until sugar starts to dissolve. Once sugar has turned into a syrup pour over the bacon.
  3. Once set place into the food processor until fine pieces have formed then sprinkle over the cake top.

 

Notes:

 

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Chocolate Bacon Cake with Maple Frosting

Ingredients

Chocolate Bacon Cake with Maple Frosting

Step 3

Chocolate Bacon Cake with Maple Frosting

Step 4

Chocolate Bacon Cake with Maple Frosting

Step 5

Chocolate Bacon Cake with Maple Frosting

Step 6

 

Strawberry Frosting

Posted on Posted in Icing .

Strawberry Frosting

Strawberry Frosting

You may not be aware but I actually do a lot more baking than what you see on this blog…of all the baking I do only the recipes that I think are absolutely scrumptious – that I would actually recommend to people make it to this site.

The purpose of this blog originally was to have a place to put all my favourite amazing quirky recipes (scribble on paper is not the best way to store recipes) – like my own online recipe book or library.

I am opening this post with this fact becuase last weekend I made a Moscato cake with strawberry frosting. The cake had an awesome texture but the flavour the Moscato produced was quite underwhelming. When it came to the icing (frosting if your American) I didn’t know if using strawberries, frozen berries, essence, or jam would produce the best taste and texture. So I decided to make a patch of each, testing as I went along, each with varying pros, therefore see below and take your pick!

 

Strawberry Essence Frosting:

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 4 tsn strawberry essence
  • 6 drops red food colouring
  • 1 + 1/2 cups icing sugar

Method:

  1. Beat the butter, essence and food colouring in a bowl with electric beaters for 10 minutes until light and fluffy.
  2. Beat in the sifted icing sugar for a minimum of 5 minutes.

Notes:

  • This is the easiest and quickest method (15 mins tops with one bowl). However, will not have the real rich fresh strawberry flavour (but is still super delicious and very much strawberry tasting).

 

Fresh Strawberry Frosting:

Ingredients:

  • 250g (punnet) strawberries
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 tsn vanilla extract
  • 1 + 3/4 cups icing sugar

Method:

  1. Hull the strawberries and place them in a food processor until texture resembles liquid.
  2. Push the mix through a sieve to get rid of any pieces.
  3. Beat the butter and extract in a bowl with electric beaters for 10 minutes until light and fluffy.
  4. Beat in the strawberry mix on low until combined.
  5. Beat in the sifted icing sugar for a minimum of 5 minutes.

Notes:

  • This is the lengthiest method however, will produce the most amazing tasting icing!

 

Frozen Strawberry Frosting

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup frozen strawberries
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 tsn vanilla extract
  • 3 drops red food colouring
  • 1 + 3/4 cups icing sugar

Method:

  1. Place the berries in the microwave until warmed and thawed.
  2. Place in a food processor until texture resembles liquid.
  3. Push the mix through a sieve to get rid of any pieces.
  4. Beat the butter, extract and food colouring in a bowl with electric beaters for 10 minutes until light and fluffy.
  5. Beat in the strawberry mix on low until combined.
  6. Beat in the sifted icing sugar for a minimum of 5 minutes.

Notes:

  • This method is as close to the fresh strawberry method as you can get which will come in handy when strawberries are out of season. Frozen berries can be stored in the freezer for a looooong time, all year round.
  • This method is also a lot cheaper than using fresh berries.

 

Strawberry Jam Frosting

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup strawberry jam
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 3 drops red food colouring
  • 1 + 3/4 cups icing sugar
  • 3/4 rice flour

Method:

  1. Pushthe mix through a sieve to get rid of any pieces.
  2. Beat the butter and food colouring in a bowl with electric beaters for 10 minutes until light and fluffy.
  3. Beat in the strawberry mix on low until combined.
  4. Beat in the sifted icing sugar and sifted rice flour for a minimum of 5 minutes.

Notes:

  • This is the easiest and quickest method using a type of ‘real strawberry’.
  • This is also the most convenient as everyone has strawberry jam in their fridge but chances are you don’t have fresh berries, essence (unless you bake a lot) and frozen possibly but this adds in extra steps.
  • I have added in rice flour as it produces the same texture result as the icing sugar, howver without the sweetness that sugar has (as the jam is already very sweet). Omitting the rice flour would equate to a super ridiculous sweet icing!

 

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Devil’s Food Cake

Posted on Posted in America, Cakes .

So my all-time favourite dessert in the world is Tiramisu. Coffee, chocolate and Marsala is there a better flavour combo in the world? (I don’t think so)!

This got me thinking about other desserts that hold similar flavours, where I was led to the Devil’s Food Cake. This cake has many variations, some with red food colouring, some with beetroots for the colour, some with coffee, some with chocolate, and some with only cocoa powder for the taste.

After assessing variations I decided on my ingredients mix that would provide the most rich (but not too sweet) result with a lovely dense texture.

To do this I have elected for coca powder and only used chocolate in the icing. I have a good amount of coffee, which complements and amplifies the chocolate taste. Also I have used sour cream for the icing to pull back the sweetness again (as the icing is mostly chocolate).

 

IMG_5026

Devil’s Food Cake

Ingredients

  • 180g butter
  • 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
  • 2 tsn vanilla essence
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/3 cups self-raising flour
  • 1/2 cup plain flour
  • 2/3 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsn bicarbonate of soda
  • 4 tsn (5 if you are a coffee fan) instant espresso coffee powder
  • 5 drops red food colouring
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1/3 cup milk

Chocolate ganache

  • 300g dark chocolate
  • 3/4 cup sour cream

 

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180c and line a 23cm round cake tin with baking paper.
  2. Using electric beaters beat the butter, sugar and essence for 5 mins or until it is light and fluffy.
  3. Add in the eggs one at a time and ensure you beat thoroughly between each addition.
  4. Sift in the flours, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into the sugar mix, stir.
  5. Add 3 tsn of the coffee powder to the water, stir.
  6. Add remaining tsn of coffee powder to the mix as well as the food colouring, water mix and milk.
  7. Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
  8. Once cooked leave the cake in the tin for 5 mins, then place onto a cooling rack to cool.
  9. To make the chocolate ganache place the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on medium (50%) for 1 minute, and then stir every 30 secs with a spoon until just melted. Following stir in sour cream.
  10. Cut cake into 3 layers. Spread the ganache on top of the 3 layers as well as the side of the cake.

Notes:

  • This cake is super rich with flavour, however I have deliberately have not had it super sweet. The sugar level is lower than most devils food cakes and there is no chocolate in the actual cake only cocoa powder. Additionally instead of cream I have used sour cream again to slightly off set the ganache sweetness. Though I LOVE sweet but I think this cake the flavour needs to dominate. Though it is still very much sweet blisss…
  • If you don’t like coffee you can omit the coffee powder, however it more enhances the chocolate taste not so much had its own flavour. This will then just be a red velvet cake.
  • I added an extra 2 steps to this for decoration. I placed kit kats around the cake which held in place thanks to the ganache. Then I placed M&Ms on top.
  • Deciding against the coffee and red food colouring would mean this is just a dense chocolate cake.

 

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Devils Food Cake

Step 10

Devils Food Cake

My additional step 11 (see notes)

 

 

 

 

Strawberry Cake Biscuits

Posted on Posted in Biscuits .

strawberry cake biscuits

Strawberry Cake Biscuits

I don’t tend to make many biscuits, I more skew to cakes and slices. Biscuits (or cookies if you’re from the states where some of my lovely readers are) tend to be either chocolate, chocolate chip or chocolate with nuts. You don’t get many biscuit variations like slices and cakes (when was the last time you ate a strawberry biscuit or orange and poppy seed?)!

Still on topic but to give you some context to this recipe, I was at the supermarket the other day and noticed a whole massive section to cake mixes, cupcakes and muffins but only 2 types of biscuit packs – chocolate and choc chip.

People must want to try other flavours…or maybe they just don’t sell..guess I will never know.

However, this got me thinking, what happens if I buy one of the more unique cake mixes and turn it into biscuits instead?

I don’t recall the last time I ever used a pack mix for baking but this could be a very interesting experiment indeed.

That brought on the Strawberry Cake Biscuit recipe.

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 (500g approx.) cake packet mix – I used Betty Crocker Strawberry
  • 1 tsn baking power
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/3 cup butter
  • ½ tsn vanilla extract
  • 1 cup of small white chocolate chips (optional)

 

Method:

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 175c and line 2 large baking trays with baking paper.
  2. Mix together the cake mix and the baking powder.
  3. Whisk by hand the eggs, butter, and vanilla extract.
  4. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry until the dough is formed.
  5. Mix in the choc chips if you are opting for this ingredient.
  6. Using hands with a little oil/butter roll the dough into balls about 30g in size (this is about the size of a 50c piece). Place on the baking paper.
  7. Bake for 10 minutes or until they are almost (but not) about to get slightly brown.
  8. Wait a few minutes and transfer onto a baking rack to cool. Once on the rack slightly push them down with a spatula if they have risen a lot in the center.

 

 

Notes:

  • You can use any cake mix. I almost went for the white chocolate and raspberry swirl.
  • This is a bit of a cheat recipe but it is just so simple and you can make biscuits you have never even tasted before!
  • They take a whole of 20 minutes to make and bake!
  • The biscuits are quite sweet so it wouldn’t hurt to make them smaller than I have recommended if you don’t like things too sweet.
  • The mix I bought came with an icing mix, if yours does too you can make the icing and use it to make a biscuit sandwich (similar to a melting moment type biscuits).

 

Strawberry Cake Biscuits

The ingredients

strawberry cake biscuits

Step 4

 

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Rice and Almond Tart

Posted on Posted in Tarts .

rice tart

Rice and Almond Tart

If you are a fan of almonds and want to try a recipe with a very interesting and unique texture then this tart is for you.

I’m not really a big rice eater nor almond, however incorporating rice in a tart seemed interesting and got me wanting to experiment.

This tart is not super sweet but goes very well with a dollop of cream or ice-cream on the side for a filling sweet treat.

rice tart

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups of rice milk
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 1 tsn cinnamon
  • ½ cup medium grain rice
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ cup almond meal
  • ½ tsn almond essence
  • 1 tbsn lime rind finally grated
  • 1 x 28cm sweet short crust pastry shell or store brought sweet crust pastry.

 

Method:

  1. If using store brought pastry, roll out on a lightly floured surface and transfer pastry into a lightly greased 25cm loose-bottomed tart pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. If you are using a bought tart shell omit this step.
  2. Preheat the oven to 200c.
  3. Line the pan with baking paper and fill with rice (this is called blind baking which stops the center of the pastry in the tart rising).
  4.   Bake for 15 minutes, remove paper and rice and cook for a further 5 minutes until ever so slightly browned.
  5. Place milk, sugar and cinnamon in a pan and stir over the stove on low until the sugar is dissolved. Boil, add the rice then simmer covered, stirring every 5 minutes for 25 minutes or until the liquid has been absorbed by the rice. Cool.
  6. Blend the rice with a mixer/food processor until smooth.
  7. Mix the rice mix, eggs, almond meal, almond essence and rind in a bowl.
  8. Pour into the pastry shell and cook on 180c in the oven for 20 minutes until golden.

 

Notes:

  • This can be served with cream or ice-cream.

 

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