take two for anzac day

While no original Anzac diggers are left and the number of World War II veterans is sadly diminishing, isn’t it wonderful to see so many more young Australians rising before the sun to attend dawn services.  

From our place we head down the beach by 5am to Currumbin Surf Club, where thousands of “mates” are already gathered.  A very special Anzac commemoration begins. A service steeped in history and tradition that’s now broadcast around Australia. If you’re coming to Currumbin, I’d suggest getting settled in the night before or taking the RSL’s park & ride offer which commences at 3.30am. The official March starts at 4.45am.

If you let the half-light of dawn play tricks with your eyes, Currumbin Beach takes on Gallipoli-like form.  At that favoured time of attack, the shadows, pounding waves and rocky outcrops set the scene. 97 years fly by and that foreign beach doesn’t seem quite so far away.  Millions of silent messages sent to lost Aussie soldiers.  

This recipe is an original, sourced from the Australian War Memorial, as provided by Mr Bob Lawson - an Anzac present at the Gallipoli landing.  Any believer in tradition will resist the temptation to tamper with this recipe. Despite modern adaptations, these biscuits never need chocolate cream filling, fruit, nuts or dipping in melted choc to make them taste this good. There’s less butter and syrup in this original one too.  I use brown or white sugar.

The Original Anzac Biscuit Recipe  

Ingredients

1 cup each of plain flour, sugar, rolled oats and desiccated coconut ❤ 4 oz butter (115 grams) ❤ 1 tablespoon treacle (golden syrup) ❤ 2 tablespoons boiling water ❤ 1 teaspoon bi-carbonate soda, dissolved in the boiling water

Method

Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F). Lightly grease your largest biscuit tray or cover with baking paper. 

Combine all the dry ingredients. Melt together butter and golden syrup in a medium sized saucepan. Combine water and bi-carb soda and add to the pan. Add to dry mixture and combine. Drop teaspoons of mixture onto tray, allowing plenty of room for spreading. No need to flatten the tops down before cooking.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden.  Allow to cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to cooling racks. They do harden on cooling. Makes approx 2 dozen.

If my family doesn't want porridge for breakfast and I can’t resist baking something else with rolled oats, I’ll make this ‘anzac’ tart base and bake it with a light passionfruit filling for afternoon tea.

 Passionfruit Anzac Tart

Ingredients

for the Anzac Base

1 cup plain flour ❤ 1 cup desiccated coconut ❤ 1 tablespoon golden syrup ❤ ½ cup quick rolled oats ❤ 100 grams butter ❤ ½ cup lightly packed brown sugar 

for the Filling

4 free range eggs ❤ 1 cup white sugar ❤ ⅓ cup plain flour ❤ pulp of 2 passionfruit ❤ juice and rind of 2 limes or lemons ❤ 1 ½ cups (12 fl oz) cream

Method

Preheat oven to moderate 180°C (350°F). Grease a 4cm deep 22-23cm round loose-bottom tart tin. 

Sift flour into a medium sized bowl and add coconut and oats. Toss to combine with your fingertips. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt and combine the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in butter mixture.  Combine with a wooden spoon and transfer to tart tin.  Press out and evenly spread and smooth base mixture over bottom and sides of tart tin. The base shouldn’t be too thick. Bake for 15 minutes.

While the base is cooking, make the filling. Whisk eggs and sugar together until pale. Sift flour over the top and add passionfruit pulp, citrus juice, rind and cream to the bowl.  Stir well with a wooden spoon to combine.

Pour carefully over the cooled tart shell and bake for a further 40 minutes or until set in the centre.  Allow to cool completely in the tin before serving. Serves 10.  You can also use this filling in your regular sweet pastry tarts, large or smaller individual ones.

 Lest we forget

A beautiful and respectful shop window last Anzac Day. 

way too many easter eggs slice

Recipe

 ❤  way too many easter eggs slice

Are the kids still gorging themselves every time your back is turned?  I’ve “negotiated” a solution to the chocolate excess of Easter Sunday.  This easy no-bake slice.  And it really doesn’t matter what sort or brand of chocolate eggs you’re gently melting down. I use any eggs my girls are happy to part with, once they've put their treasured stash in ziplock bags in the freezer for the coming weeks.  Seems even 4 year olds understand the true value of a Lindt bunny over no brand chocolate.

Up till now, all cocoa beans for chocolate made in Australia have been sourced from overseas, imported from Ghana, Ivory Coast, Brazil, and Nigeria.  Malaysia, the Caribbean Islands, Cameroon and PNG are also growing cocoa trees. Read my jotting below about the exciting Australian Cocoa Bean and Vanilla Industries taking shape in Tropical Far North Queensland. 100% Aussie homegrown Chocolate at last - currently harvesting! 

250 grams (8 ounces) unfilled plain chocolate biscuits (I use Arnott’s Chocolate Ripple) 

1 cup of coarsely chopped shortbread biscuits 

100 grams (3 ounces) unsalted butter, chopped coarsely

½ cup (125 ml) sweetened condensed milk

400 grams (12 ½ ounces) Chocolate Easter Eggs, chopped coarsely to melt

20 - 30 small Chocolate Easter Eggs whole

1 tablespoon canola or grapeseed oil

Method + Tips

Grease a 24cm square slice tin. Line base and sides with baking paper, extending paper 5cm (2 inches) above the sides. 

Blend or process 200grams of the chocolate biscuits until become fine crumbs. The other 50 grams chop coarsely. 

Combine condensed milk and butter in a small saucepan over low heat, stir until smooth.

Combine all biscuits, fine and coarse, in a medium sized bowl. Add the butter mixture and stir through. Press into the prepared tin and smooth with the back of a teaspoon. Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Combine chopped easter eggs and oil in a heatproof bowl, placed over a saucepan of simmering water to melt. Don’t overheat. Best to turn the heat off as soon as chocolate is almost melted. Continue stirring off the heat until smooth and glossy. Pour and spread over the biscuit base. 

Use the extra whole Easter eggs to decorate, placing evenly on top.  Refrigerate until set, at least one hour before cutting.

Top Tips - any un-iced, unfilled chocolate biscuit works well. Use your sharpest knife to cut neat bite sizes, heat the knife first by pouring boiling water over it. Store bites in an airtight container in the fridge for one week or they freeze well too. Makes 20 large bites or 30 smaller ones.

Jotting

Daintree Estates is about to harvest the first commercially grown Cocoa Plantation in Australia, located in the Mossman area north of Cairns, Far North Queensland. Fantastic!  The climatic and environmental conditions are just right for growing cocoa in FNQ. The beans are sent to Melbourne to be processed into the finest 100% Australian chocolate. Foodies all around Australia can’t wait to get their hands on it.

Until recently 100% of Vanilla Beans were also imported into Australia. However our ingenious farmers are also creating an Australian Vanilla industry - a market for Australian grown and produced vanilla beans in the cane country of Port Douglas, Far North Queensland.

Vanilla Australia in the foothills of Port Douglas , Broken Nose Vanilla in Miriwinni and Daintree Vanilla & Spice are all producing beautiful vanilla beans. The creamy-green vanilla orchid flowers open in the morning warmth for just a few hours.  Every small flower (and there are thousands of them) has to be hand pollinated during the cooler winter months. It is a long labour of love from green bean-like pods to supple and fragrant brown pods ready for use, or for further processing into pure extract or paste. That heady familiar aroma of vanilla makes our ice-cream, cheesecakes and pannacotta outstanding. Whenever possible, always use the bean, pure extract or paste in your baking - avoid the imitation essence with its chemical taste.

Australian Year of the Farmer is a 2012 Celebration of the vital role Aussie farmers play in all our lives. Just click the link to get involved. Thanks for reading and enjoy your Easter Monday holiday.

shrewsbury easter biscuits

Recipe

❤ Shrewsbury Easter Biscuits

English baking is (for many of us) our source, what we grew up with on our kitchen table. For all the mixed banter about English cuisine and meat 3 veg, I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t love traditional English biscuits; ginger nuts, jam drops, the wheaty digestive, cornish fairings or this little Shrewsbury. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (how’s that for a Pommy name) of the UK Guardian wrote a funny piece on the British biscuit last year.

The Shrewsbury biscuit dates back to the 1700‘s.  Often described as one of England’s finest medieval market towns, lovely Shrewsbury  is in Shropshire UK, close to the Welsh border.  I have adapted this recipe from Loretta Sartori’s - a talented Melbourne based Pastry chef. She shares her recipe in Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Companion Book - 760 pages of amazing Easter reading for passionate cooks and gardeners just like us. You can substitute the currants for the carraway seed version if you like.  Traditionally lemon was used but I think orange is just perfect with the currants and cinnamon. 

Ingredients

370 grams plain flour

¾ teaspoon baking powder

100 grams currants (or 1 teaspoon of caraway seeds)

finely grated zest and juice of 1 orange (or lemon if you prefer)

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

200 grams unsalted butter, softened

100 grams caster sugar

50 grams soft brown sugar

1 free range egg, lightly beaten with a fork

1 free range egg white, whisked lightly with a fork

white sugar, for rolling dough in

(Makes approx 40 small biscuits)

Method + Tips

Measure out currants and put them into a small bowl covered with boiling water. Leave for 5 minutes before draining into a colander.  Return them to the bowl and pour over orange juice and refrigerate for 1 hour (or longer). Even overnight is ok if you’ve got time.  When ready to bake biscuits, drain the currants and discard orange juice.

Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon together and set aside. 

Using a mixer with a paddle or dough attachment, beat together butter, sugars and orange zest until light and pale. Best to scrape down the bowl at least once with a spatula to ensure all mixture becomes light. With the motor running on low speed, add whole egg and mix to combine.

Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed only until just combined. Add drained currants and mix briefly without tearing the fruit. 

Cover two baking trays with a sheet of baking paper.  Divide your dough equally between the two trays.  Roll each into a long log, smoothing with your hands before twisting paper at each end until firm.  Refrigerate for 2 hours or until quite firm (even overnight is fine too).

Preheat oven to moderate 170°C (340°F). 

Whisk egg white with a fork and scatter plenty of sugar onto the baking paper. Unroll biscuit dough logs and brush them all over with egg white using a pastry brush.  Roll logs in sugar to coat. Using a serrated knife, slice dough logs into even 7mm-thick slices. Place on baking paper-lined trays and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer biscuits to metal cooling rack.  Once cold, store in an airtight container for up to one week.

 

Happy Easter - I’ve really enjoyed posting each day this week, instead of my usual every 2-3 days.  My oven needs a good clean though.  Self-cleaning...ha! 

I’ll be back next week with a sparkly oven and outlook as relaxed and fresh as my new MFK Banner and Jam labels. Hope you like them.  Will share my favourite no-bake slice recipe I've re-named  "Too Many Easter Eggs leftover Slice” plus lots more. Have a great weekend. Enjoy your baking in the kitchen or sunshine and good food with family and friends. Susie x

 

chocolate cream cookies (homemade oreos)

Recipe

❤ Chocolate Cream Cookies (Homemade Oreos) 

Have you noticed Oreo Cookies are down to $1 a packet? Piled high and low, and strategically placed at the end of the supermarket aisle, my girls love grabbing at them. But have you also noticed the Oreo packaging - Nabisco Kraft Foods “Product of China”.  In fact I'm guessing you've noticed our supermarkets are swamped with Chinese biscuits. 

I’m hoping that once you’ve baked a batch of these cookies your little ones will be very content to eat homemade from here on. The grown-ups in our house love em too. Crumbs in my keyboard to prove it.

Ingredients

250 grams (9 oz) butter, softened

150 grams (5 ½ oz) icing sugar

230 grams (8 oz) plain flour

80 grams (3 oz) cocoa powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

Chocolate Cream OR Vanilla Cream filling

Chocolate Cream - 250 grams (9 oz) plain chocolate broken into pieces & 100 ml (4 fl oz) double cream

Vanilla Cream - 120 grams (4 oz) unsalted butter, softened, 1 ½ cups (240 grams) icing sugar, 2 tablespoons milk

(makes approximately 20 depending on size)

Mostly I fill these with vanilla cream for a regular treat. But the Chocolate Cream filling (it’s a ganache really) is really good and just right for Easter and other double choc occasions.

Method + Top Tips

Preheat oven to moderately slow 160°C (325°F). Line two baking trays with baking paper. 

Put butter and icing sugar into a large bowl or mixer and beat together until light and fluffy.  Sift the cocoa, flour and ground cinnamon in and mix until a soft chocolate dough forms.

Place the dough between two long sheets of baking paper. Using your rolling pin, roll the dough out until 3 mm thick.  Cut out biscuit circles (6cm) or Easter shapes and place onto prepared baking tray carefully, using a floured knife to get underneath and lift dough from baking paper.  They don’t expand a lot but do leave a few cms between biscuits so they don't join up.

Bake in pre-heated oven for 15 minutes or until just firm to touch. Cool for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile make the filling by placing the chocolate and cream in a saucepan over a saucepan of simmering water.  Turn heat off as soon as chocolate starts to melt and continue stirring until smooth and glossy.  Don’t allow this ganache to get too hot or the chocolate will go grainy.

Miss 4 years made some bunny shaped ones 'for the Easter Bunny Mum', ha! 

Chill chocolate or vanilla cream filling for 2 hours in the refrigerator before sandwiching between two biscuits.  Sometimes I just leave it out on the bench covered overnight and ice them in the morning.  Make the filling a fairly thick layer and evenly spread for the best result. Dust with icing sugar or cocoa as desired.

Call me old fashioned, call me off my soap box... but should our Aussie kids really be eating cookies made in China from Chinese ingredients? Will I be chastised for crying out - Boycott Imported Biscuits!  When buying biscuits, choose Paradise Foods or one of the other few Aussie made and owned biscuit companies. Keep them going strong. 

The Arnotts story is an amazing and historic one, established 1865 in Newcastle, NSW.Worth clicking the link to hear their full story. On the flipside of this import/export debate, Arnotts now sell Tim Tams (Tian Dian in Mandarin) to over 700 stores in China and around the world.  I remember touring their Brisbane factory 30 years ago on a school excursion and taste testing vats of strawberry and orange cream. What a shame this iconic Australian food business was sold to the Campbell Soup Co. in 1997. f.y.i Here’s other iconic Aussie brands now owned by foreign companies. 

I did promise you this Easter Inspiration Week would be about more than ‘just chocolate’. So tomorrow let’s catch up again, with a modern take on a classic savoury tart that’s ideal for next Sunday Easter brunch.

melting moments

Recipe

❤  Melting Moments 

If there is one biscuit that sums up Classic Country Cookie then Melting Moments would have to fit the bill.  I adore them piped into a Viennese biscuit shape to make long fluted ones, rather than rolled and pressed round.  They are dainty and much easier to eat in this shape. Just pipe the biscuit dough out with a fluted (No.17) tip. You’ll be thrilled with the result - so professional looking and they really do melt away in record time.

Ingredients

250 grams (8 ounces) good quality unsalted Butter, softened

1 teaspoon pure Vanilla extract (not imitation)

½ cup (80 grams) Icing sugar

1 ½ cup (225 grams) Plain flour

½ cup (75 grams) Cornflour (cornstarch)

Butter Cream

60 grams unsalted Butter

1 cup (125 grams) Icing sugar

PLUS

1 teaspoon finely grated citrus rind & 1 teaspoon juice (lemon or orange) OR

1 tablespoon of fresh passionfruit pulp OR

1 tablespoon of fresh strawberries pureed OR

1 tablespoon of cocoa

You decide on your favourite flavour for the butter cream.  Just keep to natural fruit in season without buying essences or imitation flavours. Citrus rind or fresh berries whizzed are hard to beat.  Passionfruit and lemon ones are my downfall. Chocolate is great too - add 1 tablespoon of cocoa to the butter cream mix.  This recipe makes 13 double layer biscuits and can easily be doubled if you wish to make 2 dozen at a time.

Method + Tips

Preheat oven to moderately slow 160°C (325°F). Line 2 large oven trays with baking paper.

Beat butter, vanilla extract and sifted icing sugar in a small bowl using a hand held electric mixer. Cream until pale and fluffy. Transfer butter mixture to a larger bowl. Sift both flours together and add to butter mix. Toss and stir gently until combined.

Place cookie dough into a large piping bag fitted with a large fluted tip. Pipe onto prepared baking tray, twisting bag slightly to finish off each biscuit end.

Bake for 15 minutes until very light golden. That’s my Mum talking. She’s in my head - 'don’t let your baking go brown Susie'!   Stand for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. 

While biscuits are cooling, make the butter cream. Beat together butter and sifted icing sugar (and rind if using) until pale. Add flavouring - citrus juice or fruit puree/pulp.  Leave in the fridge for 10 minutes tops.

When biscuits have cooled completely, sandwich them together using butter cream in the middle. Dust with lots of icing sugar. 

My hibiscus (variety name: Limoncello) is a treat right now, covered in buds.  I notice even Wheel & Barrow are all in yellow at the moment.  Isn't Easter Yellow pretty... 

Top Tip: Buy yourself a couple of quality Piping Bags and a set of nozzles. In fact it’s best to have two piping bags in your baking drawer - a small one with small nozzles for little decorating jobs and a big bag for these sort of biscuits with larger quantities. I use ‘Loyal’ brand.  They are the best icing accessories in my humble opinion and last for ages - especially if you wash and dry them well after each use. Stockists: Coastal Kitchenware Bundall Gold Coast, Kitchenware Plus Loganholme,  Executive Chef South Brisbane and many online stores sell commercial grade baking accessories. Keep unfilled biscuits for up to a week at room temperature in a sealed container. Otherwise they freeze well too, iced or un-iced in a container.

Tale 

Truth No.8.  I’m very good at eating biscuits but I must admit biscuits are something I find difficult to master. I sometimes get a sense that beautiful biscuits need a special kind of love and attention that I can't always muster or don't have time for.

Never fear. Not these melting moments! This is such a good, quick and easy recipe.  

For many years at Gold Coast Farmers Markets, a gingham tablecloth thrown over a long trestle table has been home to 1000's of trays of freshly baked melting moments.  A long line of eager customers have waited patiently, snaking their way up to reach top of the queue. Lizzie from Mount Tamborine became “THE Biscuit Lady” long before I set up shop in The Pavillion and became “THE Lemon Butter/Cake Lady”.  It’s a miracle Lizzie’s wrists didn’t give up long ago. So much beating, piping and icing.  

Thank-you Lizzie for the thousands of melt-in-your-mouth biscuits that my family and all our customers enjoyed over the years.  You elevated this humble classic to new heights.  I hope readers here feel the same sense of pleasure and achievement when their lovely home baked melting moments come out of the oven.