Last minute chocolate spiders

May 16, 2013

Picture this. It’s 4pm on a Saturday afternoon and you’ve just got a phone call. Your friends are having an impromptu BBQ at 6pm and because you always bring the sweets they’ve asked you to bring something for dessert. The problem is you are currently watching Real Housewives of Beverley Hills and really don’t want to hang out in the kitchen for the next two hours. Solution? Super simple chocolate spiders! Ingredients 1 packet of original fried noodles (from the Asian aisle in your supermarket) 2 tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter or Gianduja 200grams Belgian dark chocolate 1. Microwave dark chocolate and peanut butter or Gianduja in a microwave safe bowl for about 60 seconds on high. If not melted, then microwave again in 5 second intervals. 2. Mix well until it is a smooth paste. 3. Add noodles and coat them well. 4. Spoon the mixture onto a grease-proof paper, or into individual paper

Gelato al Torrone ~ Nougat Gelato

March 8, 2013

~ a recipe by the Cali family as featured in The Gourmet Traveller. “…[this recipe is] from the Piedimonte Etneo pasticceria Caffe Cali. The gelato features characteristically Sicilian ingredients: almonds from the town of Avola, pistachios from the town of Bronte and hazelnut and citrus from Etna.” Ingredients 60g almonds, coarsely chopped 60g hazelnuts, coarsely chopped 50g pistachios, coarsely chopped 80g mixed glace fruit finely diced 50g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped 1 litre (4 cups) milk 250g caster sugar 200ml pouring cream 150g dextrose 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped Method 1. Preheat oven to 180C. Roast nuts separately on oven trays until golden (5-10 minutes), rub skins from hazelnuts, cool, coarsely chop, combine in a bowl with glacé fruit and chocolate and set aside. 2. Combine milk, caster sugar, cream, dextrose and vanilla seeds in a saucepan over high heat, bring to the boil, place in a

Almond & Lavender Biscotti

February 13, 2013

– submitted by Kitchen Angel Ingredients 1 packet Mandorla Delicata baking mix 4 jumbo egg whites 25 grams culinary lavender Method 1. Preheat your oven to 175oC. Line a tray with baking paper. 2. Empty the contents of the baking mix into a bowl and create a well in the middle. 3. Add the egg whites and lavender and mix well until the dough is moist and smooth and all lumps removed. 4. Place mixture into a piping bag with a medium star nozzle. Pipe swirls of about 3cm in diameter onto the tray. 5. Bake at 190oC for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Stelline

November 24, 2012

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and these Stelline are the perfect snowflake addition to your dessert table! – submitted by Kitchen Angel Ingredients 1 packet Bacio d’Alassio baking mix 1 packet Pearl Sugar 4 extra-large or jumbo egg whites Method 1. Preheat your oven to 175oC. Line a tray with baking paper. 2. Empty the contents of the baking mix into a bowl. Add in the egg whites and mix well, making sure all lumps are out of the mix. The moisture should be smooth and moist. 3. Place the mix into a piping bag with a medium size star shaped nozzle (around 9mm is perfect). Pipe stars onto the baking tray. For whatever size star you choose, remember to keep the size all roughly the same on the tray to ensure even cooking. 4. Sprinkle the biscuits with the pearl sugar. 5. Bake at 190oC for 15

Easy Peasy Muesli Mix

July 12, 2012

– submitted by Cat Ingredients 5 cups chopped mixed dried fruit and nuts* 2 cups rolled oats 1 cup dessicated coconut 2 crushed oat or vita brits 175 g butter, melted 4 tablespoons maple syrup Method 1. Preheat oven to about 160C 2. Throw all the ingredients into a bowl and stir until well combined. 3. Spoon mixture into a paper-lined baking tray and press gently with hands to flatten the mixture slightly. It helps if you wet your hands with water first to avoid the mixture sticking. Bake until golden, approximately 30 minutes. * Use whatever dried fruits and nuts take your fancy for this muesli mix. For my version I used dried pear and apricots, cranberries, sultanas, hazelnuts, pistachios, blanched almonds and macadamia nuts.

Cranberry Pistachio Semifreddo

July 6, 2012

mum wasn't the only one who enjoyed the semifreddo

This week was my mum’s birthday. And to celebrate, I decided to make her a cake. But not just any cake. A cake that would use up stuff in my fridge that I had decided I wanted to clean out. Yeah, that’s the kind of daughter I am … always thinking of my mum and always trying to kill two birds with one stone. So I spent probably a good half hour scouring the internet for a recipe to use up eggs, cranberries and white chocolate which led me to this great blog and cranberry pistachio semifreddo recipe on The Fifi Report. I’m known to not be the kind of person who follows dessert recipes all that well. Firstly because I can’t stand having to wash up all those bowls and utensils and secondly because I have better things to do than to spend time on getting my mls, cups and ounces absolutely

Spinach, Pomegranate, Persimmon and Nut Salad

June 28, 2012

– submitted by Laura Cali Ingredients 1 cup roast hazelnuts, pistachios or macadamia nuts * 1 packet spinach leaves (about 2-3 handfuls) 1 pomegranate (seeds and juice extracted) 1 persimmon, sliced thinly extra virgin olive oil 1/2 purple onion (optional) Method 1. Throw everything into a salad bowl 2. Season with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. The pomegranate juice will act as the acidic part of your dressing. 3. Mix well and make sure when tossing that you get your nuts back on top. I normally eat this salad with some goat cheese or poached chicken, but it really is up to you. * I personally prefer to use roast hazelnuts but if I don’t have them at home, I use raw macadamia nuts or pistachios instead. I think they work better raw in this salad.

Sicilian Inspired Cous Cous

June 7, 2012

– submitted by Kitchen Angel Ingredients 3/4 cup pine nuts or pistachios 1 medium sized eggplant extra virgin olive oil 1 cup shallots and / or purple onion 3 juicy roma tomatoes parsley (as little or as much as you like) 3/4 cup sultanas 1/2 an orange or lemon, juiced 1 cup cous cous Method Dice the eggplant into 1cm cubes. Heat 3-4 tablespoons of oil in a frypan and fry the eggplant until golden. Drain on absorbent paper. Toast the pine nuts until they start to turn golden. Dice the shallots / onions, tomatoes and parsley into similar sizes as the eggplant. Cook the cous cous per the instructions on the packet. Once the cous cous is cooked, transfer it to a bowl and add the eggplant, pine nuts, shallots / onions, tomatoes, parsley, sultanas and orange juice. Mix well. Dress with a drizzle of oil and serve with a

Pistachio Butter

April 26, 2012

– recipe courtesy of www.101cookbooks.com Ingredients 1 cup pistachios 1 cup blanched almonds 3/4 cup granulated sugar or honey 1/2 cup or so of hot water 1-2 pinches of salt Method Blanch the pistachios by dropping them in a pot of boiling water for a minute or two. Drain the pistachios and (patiently) remove the skins. I found it easiest to pinch the skin to help coax it off. Place the blanched almonds, pistachios, your choice of sweetener and salt into a food processor. Add about 1/2 the water and blitz. Add the rest of the water, a little at a time, to thin the butter out – it really depends on your preferred spread consistency. Place the spread into a clean, airtight container and refrigerate. I often have a jar of pistachio butter in my fridge as a diary free spread, gluten free and preservative free option. Bottle this spread up

Lemon Frangipani Tart

April 20, 2012

– submitted by Kitchen Angel Earlier in the month we stumbled across a fantastic blog, Sweet Adventures Blog Hop, created by a group of talented Australian foodies and bloggers. Each month one of these bloggers will announce a blog hop adventure (theme) for participants to create a dessert and link-up with other talented people either participating in the adventure themselves or for the many of us who love browsing beautiful and inspiring recipes. We loved the idea created by the blog hop hostesses so much that we decided to participate in the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop – Lemons theme hosted by Delicieux this month. We hope you like our entry. We certainly can’t wait to see all the other beautiful lemon recipes! Ingredients 1 sweet flan / tart case (see note) 1/2 packet Pasta di Mandorla baking mix 1 lemon zested and 1/4 cup of juice 2 extra-large or jumbo

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