Best Cream Scones ever!!!

I'm all done with exams!! I had my final exam this afternoon, so now it is just a case of waiting for results.  I have the next three weeks or so and I am planning some pretty ambitious baking projects. I will share them with you in my next recipe list.

We have a bit of a snow storm planned for Dunedin starting tonight and going through till tomorrow. If this happens like it says it will this will be quite a novelty as we have already had one good dumping of snow at the end if may. As I had recently injured my ankle, I couldn't really enjoy the last snow day (ok so I do become a little bit of a kid in snow as we don't get a proper snow fall that often) so I will be definitely be having some fun this time. I am also planning on making my sister some cookies that she requested for her birthday.

Anyway on to this recipe. During my study on Sunday morning I took a break to make these scones as I had a family lunch to take them to. I found the scone recipe in a school cookbook and as they were called Meola's Cream Cloud Scones I was definitely wanting to try them. This recipe is different to the scone recipes that I have made in the past as it uses straight cream instead of butter (this does make sense as butter is just churned cream).

Now I don't believe in counting calories for myself, but out of curiousity I thought I would input these into a calculator. They weren't nearly as bad as I thought they would be coming out at 180 calories per scone (just in case you were interested).

The first time round I followed the recipe and used apricots and sultanas for the dried fruit component. They were absolutely delicious!! I loved the base recipe and was already thinking up lots of possible flavour combinations.

Initially I had planned lemon and pistachio ones, but when I went to buy pistachios they were $8.99 for 100g. There was absolutely no way I was paying that on my student budget so I had to rethink. While making something else I came across cranberries and white chocolate chips and had a wee lightbulb moment.

I am still dreaming of different flavour combinations (caramel and hazelnut sounds pretty dreamy but may have to be a dessert scone). I'll update this post of I do try any more.

Makes 12 scones

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup cranberries (or apricots for variation)
1/4 white chocolate chips or drops (or sultanas for variation)
Zest 1 lemon
1 1/4 cups cream
1-2 Tbsp milk
1 Tbsp butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.

In a large bowl sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the sugar, cranberries, lemon zest and white chocolate and stir well with a fork.

Add the cream and still using the fork mix to form a slightly sticky dough. If the mixture is not wet enough add some milk.

Once combined, with floured hands knead the mixture in the bowl for a few minutes or until it all comes together in a big ball. Brush the melted butter on to the top.

Flatten on a a floured board till about 2cm thick and roughly rectangular. Cut the rectangle into 12 pieces (3 by 4). Arrange the scones on a baking tray lined with baking paper or a silicone mat.

Bake for 15-20 minute or until the tops are starting to brown.

Recipe List 17.06.13

I'm in the middle of studying for my last exam, so I am going to make this quick. This week since the weather here in Dunedin is freezing cold, wet and horrible, I decided to do a focus on some breakfast recipes. I have decided to focus on breakfasts that are healthy but still a bit of a treat.

The first breakfast that caught my attention was these apple pie crepes. I will either have these on the morning of my exam or the day after for a lazy morning treat.

Next up is this carrot cake sandwich. I love carrot cake! Not so sure about it in a sandwich but I'm feeling adventurous.

This will make a delicious breakfast!! I will just look to adapt it to make it refined sugar free.

And last I'm in dire need of some more homemade muesli and I have some bananas that need using up so this recipe looks perfect.

So if you are rugged up inside like me, get into the kitchen and enjoy some delicious breakfasts.

Let me know what you think of them!

Upside Down Pineapple Cake

I really enjoy having a shared dinner. You can have an amazing meal, but with much less time pressure as you only have to focus on one aspect. This week we had a shared dinner with the flatmates. Now I know that this sounds kind of strange as flatmates usually eat together and a shared meal isn't something different, but because our flat is made up of 2 couples, we just cook separately. This is partly due to differing tastes and cooking styles and partly due to much less hassle for me and Hungry Male just likes to take leftovers for his lunch the next day so I don't have to buy extras.

Anyway, for our shared dinner the flatmates had some wild pork leg (one goes hunting) and lots of vegetables to use up. As the savoury side of dinner was sorted it was up to me to do the sweet. I could have made one of any number of things, but then my flatmate told me that she had a pineapple to use up if I could think of anything to do with it. An upside pineapple cake was the first thing that came to my mind.

As I didn't have a tried and true recipe for this already, I looked up a few recipes. I came across this Nigella Lawson recipe that I liked the look of as it was really quick and easy to do. Throw everything into a food processor and you are done. I adapted a few ingredients and the amounts and voila, you have delicious, easy to make pineapple cake.

After a delicious roast we sat down to our cake and....... Hungry Male didn't like it. Oh well, you can't please everyone but 3 out of 4 were happy.

NB: I used a fresh pineapple, peeled, cored and cut into rings because that is what I had. Tinned pineapple would be waaaaaaaay easier but fresh does work (just so you know)

Ingredients
6 rings tinned pineapple (should be a large tin), drained but juice reserved
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp brown sugar
150g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
150g butter, softened
150 g brown sugar
3 eggs
3Tbsp reserved pineapple juice or orange juice

Turn the oven to 200 degrees C. Place the first measure of butter in a 26cm cake tin and place in the oven for a few minutes.

Once the butter has melted, remove from the oven. Use a little of the melted butter to grease the rest of the tin.

Sprinkle the first measure of brown sugar over the top and then arrange the pineapple circles (I cut a few in to quarters for the gaps but you don't have to).

Place all of the other ingredients in a food processor. Process until the mixture is well combined. Using a rubber scraper, spread the mixture evenly over the pineapple.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. If the top begins to brown too quickly, cover the tin with tinfoil.

Leave to cool for 5 minutes, then run a spatula around the edge of the cake to loosen the sides. Place a large plate upside down over the tin and then carefully holding the two together, flip them over to invert the cake.

Serve warm or cold by itself or with ice cream, yoghurt or cream.

Recipe List 10.06.13

2 exams down 1 to go! Since I have 9 days until my next exam, I have a bit more time to get into the kitchen. With my time this week, I thought I would do some baking-type projects. I think this may be partly inspired by the fact that I have been watching a lot of the Great British Bake Off in the last few weeks.

First of all I thought I would do some form of yeast bread since I have time to wait around for it to proof. I love having toasted bagels in the morning, so I thought that I would give these seasonal pumpkin bagels a go.

I quite often reach for crackers as a snack. This recipe is for quite a simple cracker so I thought that this would be a good place to start and then in the future I can adjust flavours.

I keep meaning to use my donut pans more often and since it is now winter in New Zealand, the thought of gingerbread flavours makes me drool (not that it doesn't in summer too) so I may just have to make these gingerbread donuts. I will have to go and get some more molasses though if I want to be able to make these.

Finally, my Grandma makes bumble bees so I know that they taste good. While this isn't her exact recipe, I thought I would give them a go. Coconut, fruit and nuts with condensed milk, whats not to love?

Writing up this list has actually made me very excited for this week. I can't wait to get my bake on!

Pumpkin and Red Lentil Soup with Gingered Leeks

1 exam down, 2 to go! Although my next exam is only 1 1/2 days away, at least I can just focus on one exam at a time now instead of having to do two at once. Since my exam was on a Saturday morning I decided that I would treat myself to breakfast at the local Otago farmers market. I had a delicious Blackcurrant and Apple porridge topped with some reeeeeealy good muesli. This was delicious and perfect to keep me going through my exam. I also had a coffee to give me a caffeine boost.

Anyway, I have been living off this soup for lunches the past week as it was a perfect, easy lunch to just heat up and since the weather has been a little chilly, it was what I was feeling like. The past couple of times that I have made pumpkin soup, they have been a little bland. This time around, I wanted to make sure that this soup had lots of flavour, so I decided to amp it up with some ginger. I also used some of my homemade chicken stock which tastes delicious!

Perfect on a chilli night, with some nice crusty bread!

Ingredients
1/2 a large leek, sliced thinly
1-2 Tbsp butter
Thumb-nail size piece of ginger grated
1 kg pumpkin, peeled and diced into 2cm pieces
1/2 cup red lentils
2 cups chicken stock (or more vegetable stock)
2 cups vegetable stock
(any leftover vegetables. I threw in some cauliflower)
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot over a medium heat melt the butter. Add the leeks and gently cook for around 10 minutes or until they are soft.

Add the ginger and cook for 2-3 minutes longer, or until fragrant.

Add the pumpkin and red lentils and stir to mix well with the leeks. Add the stocks and turn the heat up. Throw in any other vegetables that you want to use. If the stock does not cover the vegetables, add more water until it does.

Turn up the heat to bring to the boil and then turn it back down to a simmer. Cook for 20-30 minutes or until the pumpkin is very soft.

Using a blender, stick blender of food processor, puree the soup. Add more water to reach a consistency that you like (we like it really thick). Return to the pot to reheat.

Serve with sour cream or parmesan.

Recipe List 04.06.13

Hey everyone. I am in the middle of exam study right now with my first exam in 4 days time. When studying for exams I like to use cooking and baking as a bit of a break, however, its probably a bit too much procrastination if I take 2 hours to do this.

I also like to snack when studying (I think its some form of procrastination too), so I thought that this would be the focus of my recipe list this week: Snacks that can be prepared in 15 minutes.

First of all these no-bake chocolate oat bars look delicious. I try to avoid too much sugar while studying. 1) I want to try to avoid sugar highs and lows and 2) I just get addicted. These bars look perfect as there is minimal sugar in them.

Next up is something that will be great to have sitting in a bowl in front of me while I study, kettle corn. I'm not sure if I will follow this recipe exactly as I think I want to try making a refined sugar free kettle corn. I really love the sweet and salty combination, so either way it will be a winner.

Sometimes I'm not always hugely hungry but I get that mid-afternoon craving for something sweet. I love Katie's different snack bites so I will definitely be making these. They rely on fruit for sugar, with some added nutrition from the nuts. I know that the bites that I have made in the past have always tasted really decadent, so fix my sweet craving.

And last up is a more substantial snack for those days when I just seem to be ridiculously hungry all the time. I know that I have a couple of tortillas left over from burritos, so these apple and sultana wraps will be a great way to use them up. I will probably just stew an apple instead of using tinned as its really not that hard to do in the microwave.

From last week's list, I made everything except for the almonds, which I will probably do this week. I have to say that the coconut oil mayonnaise is amazing! Its thick and creamy and full of flavour. It was also really easy to make while dinner was cooking in the oven.

Let me know if you make any of these recipes and what you think of them!

Slow Cooker Shredded Beef

Its a horrible wet Sunday here in Dunedin, which really makes me think that winter is here. At leasr this weekend is a long weekend, so tonight we can snuggle up and watch some movies with the fire on. The only downside?

I have to get studying! My first exam is just under a week away, so even though hungry male may get the day off, I have work to do. When I am busy studying, while I do enjoy getting to cook as a break, it is still better if I can have meals that don't take ages to make. I would prefer to use my study breaks on baking anyway.

This meal fits the bill perfectly as I think my prep time for this was all of 5 minutes. Perfect study food. I can throw it on in the morning and by dinner time it is all ready. This beef is also so versatile. You can throw it into wraps, add some chilli beans and make nachoes, use it for sandwiches and subs.... and there are probably heaps of other ways that I haven't tried yet.

So if you are busy studying, have a full on day at work or just cannot be bothered cooking, get this in your slow cooker now!

Ingredients
1kg beef chuck or blade steak (kept whole in steak form)
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup water

In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, cumin, chilli powder, coriander and sea salt.

Rub the spice paste into the steaks and place the steaks in the slow cooker. Add the water to the slow cooker.

Cook on LOW for 8-10 hours and then shred the beef with two forks.