Category: In the Den Kitchen

Nothing makes a better winter snack than a warm muffin straight from the oven. Banana muffins even better, chuck in some dark choc chips and they are even better still. So here’s a recipe for Banana choc chip muffins…

• 60g butter
• 2 cups self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 cup (200g) dark choc chips

Preheat your oven to 200°C (about 180°C fan forced). Put paper cases in your muffin trays (we used mini muffins and larger muffins).

Put all your ingredients, except choc chips, in a food processor and whizz until combined. Add choc chips and pulse til stirred through.

Spoon into cases. Cook about 15-20 minutes until firm on top and lightly browned. Leave in the tray for about 3 minutes. Put onto rack to cool (or eat them hot – your choice)

Don’t have a food processor? Here’s the original recipe instructions…

Melt butter in a small saucepan or heat-proof bowl in the microwave. Set aside to cool slightly.

Sift flour into a mixing bowl. Stir in sugar. Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients.

Using a whisk, lightly beat milk, eggs and butter in a jug. Add to dry ingredients, along with mashed banana. Using a wooden spoon, gently mix ingredients until just combined. Stir in choc bits. Don’t beat the mixture or the muffins will be tough.

Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin cases. Bake for 20 minutes or until firm on top when lightly touched. Leave in the tray for 3 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a rack to cool.

More baking. This time Chocolate Coconut Slice from The Organised Housewife It’s a family favourite and I cook it quite often.

Another family favourite I baked last week – Cinnamon Scrolls. Can’t remember where I got the recipe from but here it is for your cooking pleasure

For the dough you will need:

• 2 cups self raising flour
• pinch of salt
• 85 grams butter
• 2/3 cup milk

For he filling you will need:

• 100 grams butter
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon

For the icing/glaze you will need:

• 1 cup of icing sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons water

1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C (180°C fan forced)
2. Sift flour and salt, rub butter into flour until all combined then add milk and cut the mixture together with a knife.
3. Place dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until combined.  Roll dough into a rectangle roughly 30 x 30 cms and about ½ cm thick.
4. Cream butter and sugar for the filling, then still in the cinnamon.
5. Spread the filling over the entire surface of the dough.
6. Roll up the dough and cut it into 2.5 cm pieces.
7. Place pieces onto a greased (or lined) tray, allowing enough room for them to double in size.
8. Bake for 12 -14 minutes or until golden brown.
9. Mix icing sugar & water to make glaze. Drizzle glaze over hot scrolls.

These are best eaten warm (trust me lol)

Miss K, now all of 3 1/2, has decided she loves to cook. She’s done cooking at day care – Anzac biscuits, honey joys, gingerbread men. She’s even talked me into teaching her how to make cupcakes, which she took to day care. It’s a nice simple recipe – chuck everything in the food processor, whizz, put in cupcake cases and cook. Simple enough that a 3 yo can do it (& yes she can work the food processor once I’ve put the mixer blade in and put the lid on).

Simple raspberry cupcakes*

• 100 g Butter, at room temperature, chopped
• 1/2 cup Caster Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
• 2 Eggs
• 1 cup Self-raising Flour
• 1/3 cup Milk
• 1 cup Frozen Raspberries, thawed

1. Preheat oven to 170°C or 150°C fan and line 12 medium muffin tins with paper cases.
2. Put all your ingredients, except the raspberries, in the food processor and mix til combined.
3. Add raspberries and pulse til mixed through (you don’t want the raspberries to mush up too much).
4. Spoon into prepared cases. Bake for 20 mins, or until the cakes are springy to a light touch. Leave in tin for 5 mins, then lift out onto a wire rack to cool.
5. When cool ice with your favourite buttercream icing (or leave plain – totally up to you)

* Not my recipe and I can’t remember where I got it from

Another great recipe I’ve taught Miss K to make is Shortbread. I’ve simplified the recipe – I now do the mixing in the food processor then roll out, cut & bake.

Today we made rocky road. Nice and easy. Measure, melt chocolate and mix. Only did a half batch cause I needed some of the chocolate for another recipe.

Rocky Road

• 400g melting chocolate
• 250g marshmallows
• 200g lolly snakes
• 80g coconut

1. Melt chocolate either in a double boiler or in microwave stirring every 15-30 secs til smooth
2. Roughly chop snakes & marshmallows and add marshmallows, snakes & coconut & mix through.
3. Pour into baking dish or patty papers and pop into fridge to set

Did you know the last time I did a foodie post was in April? No? Neither did I til I went looking for something else on me blog :/

Lately we’ve been trying to cut down on food waste and trying to spend less on our grocery bill. Actually I’ve been trying to do thing a bit more naturally and live a more ‘down to earth’ life. Mainly thanks to reading the book Down to Earth & the $120 Food Challenge (I met Sandra last year at DPCON12 and she is lovely). I’ll be blogging bits and pieces of our journey as we go.

Anywho, that’s not totally the point of this post 😉 Leftovers from roast. We nearly all have them. We nearly all have no real idea what to do with them. This week I thought I’d look at some ideas for leftover chicken.

Most times when we have leftover chicken roast the next nigh we do fried rice with chicken. Then there’s chicken pizza (on BBQ sauce if your me, tomato base for hubby), chicken shredded into a salad, chicken noodle soup (heck most chicken soups), chicken shepherd’s pie and lately chicken pasta bake.

I whipped up this pasta bake the other night and it’s so simple and delish I thought I’d share it with you

Nightwolf’s Chicken Pasta Bake
(amounts will vary depending on how much you want to put in)

• leftover roast chicken
• carrot, diced
• frozen peas
• frozen corn
• red onion, diced (or any type of onion)
• pasta (your choice, I used small shells just cause that’s what I grabbed first)
• cheese sauce
• grated cheese

Shred your chicken and put it in a casserole dish. Cook onion til soft. Add onion and other veg to the casserole dish.
Cook pasta to desired doneness. Drain. Add to casserole dish. Give everything a stir. Sprinkle with a little grated cheese (just cause I felt like it).

 

Make your cheese sauce (or use a bottled one, your choice). Pour into casserole dish. Stir through. Cover in grated cheese. Put in a preheated oven, about 180°C. Cook until cheese is golden and bubbly. About 25-30 minutes. Serve.

 

I’d love to hear what you do with leftover chicken roast, if you have any leftovers 😉

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared what I’ve been cooking. We’ve had lots of the usual food but now I’m doing a bit of additional cooking cause Miss K is at day care (or play care as she likes to call it) one day a week. Favourites for lunch so far include my mum’s pumpkin soup and impossible quiche cooked in muffin tins.
Chocolate is one of the things the littlies aren’t allowed to take with them to day care so weekends I like to cook treats for Miss K like Chocolate cake with fudge frosting (can’t remember where the original recipe is from, I scanned it from a recipe book)

500ml water
660g caster sugar
250g butter, chopped
35g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon bicarb
450g self raising flour
4 eggs, lightly beaten

Fudge icing
90g butter
80ml water
110g caster sugar
240g icing sugar
35g cocoa powder

Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease & line a baking dish/cake tin*
Combine water, sugar, butter and combined sifted cocoa and bicarb in a medium saucepan; stir over heat, without boiling until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil; reduce heat; simmer 5 minutes. Cool to room temperature – which takes ages. Well it felt like ages and I ended up being impatient so mine was still warm.

Add flours and eggs to the mixture. Or if you’re me, do it the other way around. doesn’t seem to make a big difference. Mix until smooth and changed to a paler colour. Pour mixture into cake tin/baking dish.

Bake for about 50 minutes, yup 50 minutes maybe a little more if it’s still raw cake mix in the centre. Take out of the oven and leave it in the tin for 10 minutes. Guessing this lets it finish cooking. Who knows? Turn onto a cake rack to cool.

And here is where I learnt a valuable lesson. Cook the cake the night before. Not the night you want to eat it. Especially when you start cooking it at 7 at night – it will still be warm 2 hours later! When it’s cool (so in my case the next day) spread with fudge icing.

To make the fudge icing combine butter, water and caster sugar in a small saucepan; stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Sift icing sugar and cocoa into a small bowl then stir in the hot butter mixture.
Cover; refrigerate about 20 minutes or until icing thickens. Beat with a wooden spoon until spreadable. Second lesson learnt. If you make your cake of an evening don’t make your icing at the same time. It will b rock hard by the time your cake cools and you’ll need to let it come to room temperature so you can do anything with it – ie the next day. And you will be tempted just to give the icing a try – with a spoon – more than once. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

 

* I used a 12in square cake tin

Welcome to another edition of From the Den Kitchen. I’m taking a quick break from the Christmas festivities to share with you some of my favourite recipes I’ve been cooking lately.

I’m slowly working through my list of recipes to try and the following two have been a big success and asked for again.

The first is a chicken shepherd’s pie.

 The original recipe came from Kidspot but we modified it slightly.

For the pie filling you will need:

• oil (we used veg oil)
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 rashers bacon, diced
• 50g butter
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon chicken stock powder
• 3 cups water
• 1 double chicken breast, cooked and cubed (I boiled mine till cooked, let it cool then cubed it)
• frozen peas & corn, as much as you like
• For the topping – mashed potato

Preheat oven to 180°C. Get out your pie dish, casserole dish or whatever you’ll put your pie in. I used a deep lasagne dish.
Heat oil in a saucepan and cook onion, garlic and bacon for 2 minutes. Add butter and flour to pan, cook 2 minutes. Gradually stir in water and stock powder. Cook until sauce thickens. Add your chicken and frozen veg to the pan then bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour into pie dish, top with mashed potato. Bake for 35-45 mins.

Last night we had Fruity Beef Casserole. Originally from Taste. This is the recipe for 2 adults & a nearly 3yo (plus leftovers)

You will need:
olive oil
500g stewing steak, cubed
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 carrot, peeled & thinly sliced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 cups beef stock
1/2 cup plum sauce

Preheat oven to 170°C.
Heat oil in a large frypan. Add beef and cook in batches until browned all over. Transfer to plate and set aside to rest.
Add onion to the pan, cook 1-2 minutes until softened. Add carrot, garlic, tomato paste and flour. Stir to combine and cook for another minute. Add lemon juice, beef stock and plum sauce. Return beef to pan.
Bring to the boil and allow the sauce to thicken slightly.
Pour into casserole dish and cook for 2 hours until beef is tender.
Serve with creamy mashed potato.

Last week I shared with you the Butterfly biscuits I made using the recipe (& cutters) from the Cake Decorating magazine.

This week I’m sharing what I cooked for my afternoon tea I held on Saturday as part of my fundraising efforts for Frocktober

Also in issue 1 of Cake Decorating was a Victoria Sponge. Never made one so thought I’d give it a go. If it was a failure hubby’s RPG group was always coming round so they could snack on it.

Was delish. What’s an afternoon tea without cupcakes. This is pretty much my go to recipe when I want plain cupcakes.

• 2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
• 125g butter, melted & cooled
• 2 x eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
• Icing
• 1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar
• 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons water
• a couple of drops of food colouring (I used teal as teal ribbons are for Ovarian Cancer)
• Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease a 12 x 1/3-cup capacity muffin pan. Alternatively, line holes with paper cases. Combine flour and caster sugar in a bowl. Make a well in the centre. Add milk, butter, eggs and vanilla to flour mixture. Stir gently to combine.
• Spoon mixture into prepared muffin pan. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
• Make icing: Sift icing sugar into a bowl. Add food colouring and water. Stir until smooth and well combined. Spoon icing over cupcakes.

Since the theme of the afternoon tea was Frocktober and frocking up I decided I had to make a Dolly Varden cake, or as they are now know in our house – a baked Barbie cake. Never made one before. Don’t own a varden cake tin. Pudding basin, yes, so went with that. OMG how long do these things take to cook! Not as long as the recipe said anyway. She turned out ok though.

I also made these lemon tarts. If you love lemon curd/butter you will love these delicious lemony morsels. I will definitely make them again.

Finally we had these raspberry melting moments. Can’t comment on what they tasted like as they had all gone by the time I got to them. Will just have to make them again I guess.

What’s your favourite afternoon tea food?

I can’t claim this is my recipe. It was made at the first Chef’s Toolbox party I went to and it’s been a family favourite ever since. It is so super easy. I’ve adapted it a little as I don’t have the Saute Pan they recommend to cook it in.

You will need:

• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1 cup plain flour
• Good pinch of salt
• 1 rounded teaspoon of dried yeast
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 cup lukewarm water

1. Chuck it all in a bowl together and mix.
2. You can then either roll it out a bit or just chuck it in an ovenproof dish/pizza oven/whatever you want to cook it in and press it down to fit.
3. Top with your favourite toppings and cook until brown on the bottom and your top is all cooked.
4. Slice
5. Enjoy!!