Cheese and Onion Muffins

To make 12 muffins start by preheating oven to 180 degrees fan forced.  Melt 60g of butter in a measuring jug then add 1 cup of milk and 1 egg. Whisk with a fork to mix.  In a medium mixing bowl mix 250g plain flour, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of dried rosemary and 1 tablespoon of baking powder until evenly distributed.   Add to this 1 packet (200g) of Kraft's Italian Cheese blend, 1 finely diced onion and 2 cloves of crushed garlic.  Mix again.  Make a well in the middle of the dry mix and add wet mixture. Mix until just combined; about 15 strokes.  Grease a muffin tray with olive oil spray and distribute the mix evenly.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until brown on top and muffin springs back when poked.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

A variation of Nigella Lawson's recipe because I don't measure with cups and tablespoons anymore and I can't find red food colouring paste.  I used this handy website to convert the recipe.

Makes 12 cupcakes
100g unsalted butter
225g of caster sugar
3 tbsp red food colouring (eg Queens Pillarbox Red)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 XL eggs
210g  plain flour, sifted
2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup of milk

Cream butter and sugar together then add vanilla and food colouring gradually.  Beat in eggs then sift in half the powders.  Fold in. Add the milk and fold in. Add the balance of powders and fold in.  Beat on high for 2 minutes.  Bake at 170 degrees C fan forced for 20-25 minutes.  Cool then add icing. For the icing, beat 100g of unsalted butter with 1/2 tsp of vanilla essence.  Then add 200g of icing sugar and beat until fluffy.

nom nom nom Merry Xmas!

I usually bake Xmas cookies for my colleagues at work in December using the frozen Ikea cookie dough.   Unfortunately Ikea no longer sell this dough, but I found this recipe on Taste.com.au and it worked brilliantly!

I used spring-loaded cookie stamps to shape them. Snagged them at Matchbox in last year's post Xmas sales.  I had intentions to decorate them with icing pens and cachous (shiny edible ball things). But I got a bit lazy towards the end,

Gingerbread cookies

125g butter, softened
130g brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 egg
375g plain flour
1/2 tsp sodium bicarbonate
1 tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp of ground cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in syrup and egg. Sift flour, bicarb, ginger and cinnamon over mixture and mix manually to combine.  Knead until smooth and cover in clingfilm and refrigerate for an hour.  Preheat oven to 180 Degrees Celsius (160 if fan forced).  Roll out between 2 sheets of baking paper until 5 mm thick and cut your shapes out.  Bake on baking paper for 15 to 20 minutes.  Cool for 5 minutes on the tray then transfer to a wire rack to cool before decorating (or devouring).

Cherry Ripe Slice

Dear Nestle, thanks for this brilliant recipe in your promotional cook book.  <3 Suebie

Chop up 150g of glace cherries in a food processor and mix with 200g of dessicated coconut and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk.  Set aside.  Blitz 200g of Scotch Finger biscuits with 25g of cocoa powder in a food processor and add 90g of melted butter.  Press biscuit mix into the bottom of a prepared 20x20cm square tin with the back of a spoon.  Add the coconut layer, press and refrigerate.  Melt 200g of dark chocolate with 1 tbsp of oil and pour over the top. Refrigerate until firm.

World's Best Caramel Slice

I got the recipe for this Aussie classic from a Nestle promotional cook book from the local supermarket.  It lived up to it's name so I thought I'd share.

Mix 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup dessicated coconut with 125g of melted butter.  Press into a 20x20 prepared square cake tin and bake at 160 C fan forced for 15-20 minutes.  Meanwhile, melt 100g of butter 1/3rd cup golden syrup and 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk over low heat.  When the biscuit base is cool, tip the mixture in and bake for another 20-25 minutes.  Cool and top with melted chocolate.  Refrigerate until set and slice.

Tiramisu

The recipe from Savoiardi biscuit packaging.

Pasta Carbonara

Pan fry some bacon pieces and put 80g of pasta onto the boil.  Whisk up a mixture of 1 egg, a splash of cream, cracked black pepper and grated parmesan/pecorino.  When pasta is ready, turn the bacon down to low heat and add 2 tablespoon of pasta water to the bacon.  Add the hot drained pasta and egg mixture and stir for no more than 30 seconds.  Pour into bowl and add more grated cheese and serve immediately.