weekly winter warmer 3

Today's mouth-watering delight comes from Claire's mum, Ber, who's given us a delightful and super easy recipe for a courgette cake. 

 

Don't worry, your courgette cake won't come out looking like a chocolate choo choo. As it's Claire's birthday today, and as it's just so darn cute, we decided to use this pic of Ber and little Claire instead of a regular cake picture.

Ber's Courgette Cake

Preheat your oven to 160C

Dry ingredients:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar (brown or white)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped walnuts

Combine all the dry ingredients in a big bowl.

Wet ingredients:
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup sunflower oil
2 cups finely grated courgettes

Combine the wet ingredients in a bowl.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients together with a wooden spoon.

Grease 2 x 1kg loaf tins and divide the mixture between the two.

Bake for one hour, take out of oven, cool in the tins for ten minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack.

Tastiest enjoyed warm.

winter warmer recipe no.2

Apologies to those who had a baking filled gap on Sunday but this winter warmer recipe had to travel a little bit farther than our others.  Luckily, it's particularly scrumptious and tastes great any day of the week.

Kirsty's Granny's Traditional South African Melktert 

 

Meaning 'milk tart' in Afrikaans, melktert, is a South African dessert. It is a sweet pastry crust containing a creamy filling made from milk, flour, sugar and eggs. The ratio of milk to egg is higher than in a traditional European custard tart or Chinese egg tart, resulting in a lighter texture and a stronger milk flavour. Cinnamon is often sprinkled over its surface. In America, the dessert is known as 'velvet custard'.

Ingredients

For the pastry:
125g butter
100g castor sugar
Pinch of salt
205g cake flour
5ml ground mixed spice
2 egg yolks
30ml ice cold water

For the custard filling:
1.125 litres milk
50g butter
2-3 sticks of cinnamon
200g castor sugar
40g cake flour
35g corn flour
Pinch of salt
3 eggs
5ml vanilla essenc
Ground cinnamon for sprinkling

Method
For the pastry (can be done by hand or in the food processor)
1. Cream together the butter, sugar and salt and then rub or pulse in the flour, mixed spice and egg yolks. Add the ice-cold water and knead/process to form a firm dough, taking care not to overwork the pastry.
2. Roll the pastry into a large, fat sausage. Wrap snugly in cling film and rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Grease a 30cm metal tart mould.
3. Slice the pastry into think slivers approx. 3-5mm thick and line the tart mould. Simply press them together, level out and then tidy up the sides by pushing with your thumb. Alternatively, roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and transfer gently to the tart mould. Prick all over with a fork. Freeze for at least an hour before baking.
4. Preheat the oven to 200C. Bake the pastry shell direct from the freezer until crisp and golden, this should take about 15 minutes. Reomve from the oven and allowe to cool before filling.

The custard filling
1. Pour the milk into a large glass bowl suitable for microwaving. Add the butter and stick cinnamon and bring to the boil.
2. Whisk together the castor sugar, cake flour, corn flour, salt and three whole eggs.
3. Pour this mixture gradually into the hot milk mixture while whisking continuously. (A note from Kirsty's granny - "I know this should be done the other way around but I have found that by whisking vigorously you can prevent clumps from forming. Also, the secret is to have really hot milk to start off with so that the mixture starts to thicken almost immediately.")
4. Microwave on high for three to four one-minute intervals. Whisk after each interval until the mixture is cooked.
5. Remove the stick cinnamon and add the vanilla essence. Mix well.
6. Pour the hot mixture into the pastry shell. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon and allow to cool before serving.

Yummmmmm.

welcome back old friend

After twelve months of hibernation our old friend lemon, honey & ginger is back again as our latest smoothie of the month.

A warming glow is returning to us already. Kind like in those old ready brek adverts, just without the bad rapping and break dancing.