Blogging by mail

Yey! I got a surprise in the post yesterday. A Blogging by mail (BBM) package!

My first package sadly went astray. But Cakelaw from Laws of the Kitchen was my BBM angel and sent me a replacement one! I hadn't been expecting a replacement - I just chalked it up to bad luck that mine got lost. So you can just imagine my excitement when I received a parcel. I couldn't wait to get into it!

I got:

A selection of Haigh's chocolates
Chocolate hearts
Chocolate with pink peppercorns
Coffee candies
Olive tapenade
Raspberry shiraz conserve
A cute egg cup
And frangipani lip butter

I love it!

A big thank you to Stephanie from Dispensing Happiness for the mammoth task of organising and following up on the event, and a gigantic thank you to Cakelaw for my package. It was so generous and kind to send a replacement and I can't express how much I appreciate it!

I eat I drink I work

I eat. I drink. I work. Although sometimes I didn't have to do the latter. Work gets in the way of my cooking, baking and blogging time!

But enough about me. IeatIdrinkIwork.com.au is an Australian website set up primarily for hospitality job ads. It also showcases food related writing and snippets from blogs, and I'm happy to announce that off the spork will be one of the blogs profiled over the next 10 weeks.

Check it, and the other showcased blogs, out!

Peanut brittle cookies

Starting the apple, dried cranberry, and almond loaf got my baking mojo flowing, so I harnessed that energy to make something else.

I felt like making biscuits and flicked through the Australian Women's Weekly "Bake" (you may have noticed that I have been using it a lot lately!). I came across a recipe for peanut brittle cookies that sounded good.

First I roasted peanuts to make the peanut brittle. I already had the loaf in the oven, so I popped the peanuts in with it. Then I wandered away to do something else, getting distracted and by the time I remembered the peanuts, they had just gotten past the stage of roasted. They weren't burnt, but were very, very close and tasted darker than I would've liked.

Next was the caramel to pour over the peanuts. I was vigilant and stayed at the stove to watch it. It took about 10 minutes for the sugar to deepen and become golden brown – once it started to colour it happened very quickly.



After the brittle was made, it was a quick process to get them the cookies into the oven. 12 minutes in the oven resulted in a soft cookie. I found that the peanut brittle melted in the oven which gave it the cookies a cracked kind of appearance – quite attractive, I thought – but it did make me wonder about the worth of making the brittle! I think I would have preferred a firmer cookie with bits of crunchy brittle, but I can't figure out how to do that without the caramel melting. Any ideas?



Peanut brittle cookies

From Australian Women's Weekly Bake

Makes 18-24


125g butter, softened
1/4 cup (70g) crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup (100g) firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 & 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Peanut Brittle
3/4 cup (100g) roasted unsalted peanuts
1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
2 tablespoons water

Make peanut brittle: Place nuts on a baking paper lined oven tray. Stir the sugar and water in a small frying pan over heat, without boiling, until sugar is dissolved; bring to the boil. Boil, uncovered, without stirring, until golden brown. Pour mixture over nuts; leave until set. Crush coarsely in food processor.

Preheat oven to 160°C/140°C fan-forced. Grease oven trays; line with baking paper.

Beat butter, peanut butter, sugar and egg in small bowl with electric mixer until combined. Stir in sifted dry ingredients and crushed peanut brittle.

Roll heaped teaspoons of mixture into balls with floured hands. Place about 5cm apart on oven trays; flatten slightly (and top with extra crushed brittle if desired).

Bake cookies for about 12 minutes. Cool on trays.

Apple, dried cherry/cranberry and almond loaf

A couple of weeks ago, the Good Food and Wine Show was here in Melbourne. Like we do most years, Bro and I went along. This year seemed quite good, and there were some new products/stalls that I hadn't seen before. Previously there were lots of stalls with cheese and yoghurt – and there were hardly any this year. I'm not sure what that means, but I found it interesting.

I had a good time, and came home with some souvenirs, which included heavy show bags and 13 blocks of Lindt chocolate! My lovely Bro helped carry the heavy bags home without complaint <----- that is a lie! He complained the WHOLE TIME! But I better be careful or he won't carry them next year... love you, Bro! ;)

One of my souvenirs was a Bill Granger DVD that had a few snippets from his cooking show. Alastair and I watched it last week while we had breakfast (crumpets with butter and honey if you're interested). The first recipe was for an apple, dried cherry and almond loaf.

The loaf he made looked pretty good, so I decided to turn on the oven and do some baking. Dried cherries aren't a pantry staple of mine, but I had a pack of dried cranberries that I used instead. Apart from the cranberry substitution, I basically followed the recipe outlined here on lifestyle food.

I read recently that if you're measuring honey, you should oil the measuring cup/spoon. (Clever bakers may know this already.) The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of honey so I got to try it out - and whatdoyouknow! The honey slid straight out!

After the loaf had baked I was sooooooo patient and waited until it had cooled completely before slicing and tasting it. It was good - not too sweet, but with bits of tangy fruit and nuttiness from the almonds and oats.



It's not a very moist loaf though, and the next day it seemed to have dried out. In the DVD, Bill suggested toasting it and eating it with ricotta. I tried toasting a slice and found that it helped revive it (plus it smelt amazing). Worth a try if you're after something for morning/afternoon tea. Or maybe even breakfast!

Lime coconut syrup cake

A few years ago we lived in Fitzroy, in a little house with a little courtyard. There wasn't much to the courtyard out back: a few bushes, brick paving, and a lime tree. We never looked after the tree - didn't even water it - but it seemed to thrive on neglect. When it fruited, there were so many limes I couldn't get rid of them fast enough. I kept forcing limes on people; bags and bags and bags of the bloody things.

At our place now, I have another lime tree, but mine hasn't fruited yet. So it's back to buying limes for us. I bought a bag the other week, and haven't found much to do with them apart from putting wedges in a drink. To ease my guilt over having so many limes sitting around, I decided to use up a few in a cake.

The cake is a fairly simple butter cake with lime syrup poured over it while still warm. While some of the syrup is absorbed, I think it would've been better if I had poked some holes in the cake first. I also think it would've been better if half of the syrup had been reduced down further to be used as a glaze. Ho hum. We went over to our friends' place for pizza and took the cake for dessert. Everyone seemed happy with it. I left the rest of the cake there, and I was told later that a piece was eaten for breakfast. Hearing that made me strangely happy!

(The garnish on top is shredded coconut tossed in a few drops of red food colouring. The plate that the cake is sitting on was a Xmas present from my boss a couple of years ago. It's a beautiful plate, but when I took it out for the cake I saw there was a scratch on it. Boo.)



Lime coconut syrup cake

From Australian Women's Weekly Bake

Serves 8

125g butter, softened
1 tablespoon finely grated lime rind
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups (260g) self raising flour
1 cup (90g) desiccated coconut
1/2 cup (125ml) yoghurt
1/2 cup (125ml) milk

Tangy lime syrup
1/3 cup (80ml) lime juice
3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) water

Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease 2cm baba pan well.

Beat butter, rind and sugar in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in sifted flour, coconut, yoghurt and milk, in two batches. Spread mixture into pan.

Bake cake about 45 minutes or until cooked through. Stand cake in pan for 5 minutes; then turn out onto a wire rack over a tray.

Make the tangy lime syrup; drizzle hot syrup over the hot cake.

Tangy lime syrup: Stir ingredients in a small saucepan over heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Simmer, uncovered, without stirring for 3 minutes.