All posts tagged: sweet

Fragrances for Foodies

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Was duty free shopping an all-ages field trip in your family? As a kid, I spent a lot of time at duty free stores. My uncle worked in duty free and we always had family or friends going to or coming back from Hong Kong. My sister, cousin and I spent hours browsing the displays, snacking on beef jerky or kiwifruit lolly samples, and reviewing all the perfumes. We collected all the paper test strips in our teeny-tiny handbags to enjoy later. We never noted the names of the perfumes and of course, the strips marinaded together in our bags and smelled sickly sweet, but it kept us amused. Gourmand fragrances I have always been always drawn to gourmand fragrances. A gourmand fragrance has notes like candy/fruit, honey, chocolate or vanilla and are also known as foodie fragrances. Gourmand fragrances appeared in the early ‘90s and were descendants of Oriental fragrances which were made with exotic notes from the Middle East and India. There are gourmand fragrances for both women and men. Sugary sweet The …

Hot Cross Buns with Custard and Cognac

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  I’m not much of a baker so we feast on store-bought hot cross buns every Easter. No shame. If you’re itching for something a little fancy this Easter, I recommend trying this version of bread and butter pudding. This recipe serves six adults (or two giant gluttons with regret). Bread & Butter Pudding Hot Cross Buns with Custard and Cognac (adapted from jamieoliver.com) Serves 6 Ingredients 2 cups milk 2 cups cream 1 vanilla pod or 1/4 teaspoon vanilla paste 4 eggs 3/4 cups white sugar 6 hot cross buns, cut in half and smeared with butter butter for buns 1 handful of sultanas soaked in 2 tablespoons Cognac overnight 1 tablespoon Cognac Icing sugar for dusting 1-2 cups cream for serving Preparation Pre-heat oven to 170°C / 325°F. In a large pot, bring the milk and cream to just before simmering point. Cut the vanilla pod in half and scrape out the seeds into the pan. In a bowl, whisk the eggs with sugar until pale, then pour egg and sugar mix into the …

SweetNZ: My First Carrot Cake

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Our oven has been cold for a week and I hope a new oven is on it’s way soon. Not new new, but newer will do. Until then, no oven-based recipes. At least I can bask in the glory of this wee cake that I baked over my holidays. I’ve been meaning to make an “easy” cake for a while now. Those I know who bake always say to start with a banana cake or a carrot cake. Tofu the bunny adores carrots and carrot cake sounded delightfully blog worthy. When we eat carrots, Tofu gets the tops and the peel. Carrots are gold in this house. I also figured it was worth finding out what exactly was in the cream cheese frosting that I adore so much. I used Mama Dorosch’s Carrot Cake recipe from KitchenTrials.com and it was a successful first go. The cream cheese frosting is as follows. Cream Cheese Frosting Makes plenty for one cake  Ingredients 250 grams cream cheese 100 grams butter  2 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar) Preparation Bring …

Brown Sugar Stewed Apples

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With all the delicious winter apples we’ve been receiving in our CSA box, I wanted to do something with them that was easy and warming. It’s hard to eat cold fruit when you feel cold yourself and stewed apples are a great way to use up apples. My simple recipe uses ingredients you probably already have. I did a similar treatment to rhubarb last summer and you can see that recipe here. Brown Sugar Stewed Apples Makes 2 to 4 servings Ingredients 2 apples 1/2 cup soft brown sugar 1 tablespoon cornstarch Optional: 1 shot limoncello  Preparation Peel apples and cut into quarters. Slice off centre, pips and discard. Cut the remaining quarters into 5 or 6 pieces each. Add apple and the other ingredients to a small saucepan on medium heat. Cook for 10 minutes stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Be careful not to burn the sugar, so if the sauce becomes thick and sticky, it is done. Serve on porridge, cake or ice cream. Refrigerate what you don’t use. Note: Under no …

Make Cornbread – Savoury and sweet

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Cornbread. Southern States. The Green Mile. Comfort food. Wholesome. The word cornbread just feels round and nice in your mouth. You say it with warm, drawn-out Rrrr sounds. Southern States remember? I think of the movie The Green Mile and how cornbread was presented as a heartwarming thank you present. John Coffey: I’m smellin’ me some cornbread. Paul Edgecomb: It’s from my missus. She wanted to thank you. John Coffey: Thank me for what? Paul Edgecomb: Well, you know… Paul Edgecomb: For a helping me. John Coffey: Helping you with what? Paul Edgecomb: You know. John Coffey: Ohh. Was your missus pleased? Paul Edgecomb: Several times. We don’t eat cornbread here in New Zealand but they talk about it so much in the movies that I’ve always wanted to try it. I always assumed it was a bread eaten in place of a bread roll for hearty meals. But now I see that it has more of a cake texture. I used the basic cornbread recipe over at The Fresh Loaf only I used polenta …

A Bunny Christmas

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This post is an entry for Sweet New Zealand, a monthly blogging event open to all Kiwi bloggers. Founded by Alessandra Zecchini, this month’s event is hosted by Bron Marshall. See here for more info on this month’s event. This week, my friend Miss A developed a deep and sudden obsession with making a gingerbread house. Her flash of enthusiasm roped me on board. I was super apprehensive about the mission as I’m not a baker. No sir! But I was keen to decorate a gingerbread house. So, with her leading the baking and I leading the decorating, we made this after work, over wine and 2 nights. We didn’t have much of a plan but we are stoked with how it turned out. All we knew is that we were going to make a house, but we ended up with a house, 4 trees, 3 bunnies, a fence and a snowman. Wafer makes a lightweight and authentic roof, but goes soft after just a day. We used this recipe by Tamara Jane of the Good Morning show for the gingerbread …

Lemon Sugar and Elephant Ears

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This post has been written as part of the new Sweet New Zealand blogging event founded by Alessandra Zecchini. It’s a chance for kiwi bloggers to share their sweet treats, so if you are a kiwi blogger and are interested in participating, check it out for this month. This month’s event is event number 2 is hosted by Allison at Pease Pudding and more information can be found here. Lemon Sugar I’ve been wanting to make flavoured sugar for a while and with our lemon tree growing some beautiful, thick skined beauties this spring, I knew I had to do something with the zest. Using my microplane zester (I love that thing), I lightly scraped the outside layer of a lemon and let the zest dry for about an hour on a chopping board. I then layered zest and white sugar into a jar. Leave the sugar for at least a few days for the lemony oils to permeate into the sugar. The result is pretty, but I haven’t used this sugar just yet. With the zest that was …

Looks like poo, tastes like awesome.

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I did my best to make this look pretty, but there’s no two ways about it, stewed fruit and melted chocolate looks horrible. I made this recipe up based on what I had on hand. No reason why you can’t do the same. By all means, experiment! And eat the evidence. Feijoa  (pronounced fee-jo-ah) can be replaced with berries or stone fruit. Feijoa Custard with Chocolate and Cointreau Makes 2 Ingredients 12 feijoa 1 tablespoon sugar 1 shot of Cointreau 12 chocolate buttons plus 4 extra for garnish 1 cup of custard (chilled) Preparation Cut feijoas in half and scoop fruit out and into a small sauce pan. Add sugar and Cointreau. Simmer for 5-10 minutes. Stirring with a wooden spoon and breaking up the fruit as you go. When the fruit is all broken down and resembling baby food, drop in 12 chocolate buttons. Give the mixture gentle mix and divide into 2 ramekins. Top with custard and make a butterfly garnish on each dollop of custard using 2 extra chocolate buttons.

Unbelievably Easy Feijoa, Chocolate & Custard Pastries

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Tofu the bunny has been eating feijoas (pronounced fee-jo-ahs) and I have to check the lawns every day so that he doesn’t over eat. I toss any half eaten feijoas into the worm bin. The uneaten feijoas get turned into all sorts of yummy things. I made these babies for Natahma’s baby shower last week. It was the first baby shower I’ve ever been to and it was mostly just eating yummy food, talking about girl stuff and drinking champagne and feijoa wine. We didn’t play any silly games and the experience didn’t put me off having babies for life. These pastries are really easy to make and if you have a heavy feijoa tree in your yard, this is a good way to get rid of some. If you don’t have feijoas, I’m sure you could experiment with other fruit. I considered using plums and maybe still will at a later stage. I made something similar over a week ago but the latest ones are much, much better because they have chocolate in them. …