inner pickle

healthy blueberry muffins

 

I'll be honest: blueberry muffins aren't my favourite. 

When I was at uni, the cafe in Manning House sold these enormous ridiculously processed choc chip muffins that set the bar for all muffin action since. I loved them.

Henry loves blueberry though. And there's nothing like a Henry to get me baking (even after seven hours in a commercial kitchen.)

Henry: Mum, this dinner is GREAT. REALLY great. You are the BEST COOK EVER. Hey would you make me some blueberry muffins for my lunch?

Oh, charm. His father's son.

 

 

These are quick to make and are low in fat (and relatively low in sugar.) Given their whole-grain-ness I've used two thirds of a cup of sugar (below) to keep the yummo factor. If you have kids who'll tolerate it, drop the sugar further and just use half a cup. 

 

BLUEBERRY AND QUINOA MUFFINS

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

⅓ cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 cup wholemeal flour (self raising or add 2 tsp baking powder)

1 cup self raising flour (or use all-purpose and add 2 tsp baking powder)

⅔ cup raw sugar

1 cup quinoa flakes

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

 

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C

Whisk the milk, oil and eggs together in a jug or bowl.

In a big bowl combine the flours, sugar and quinoa flakes.

Stir the wet (milk) mix into the dry (flours) mix, and mix well.

Lastly, gently stir through the blueberries.

Spoon into muffin pans - makes 12.

Bake for approx 15-20 mins or until spongy and golden.

 

xxx

 

P.S. The amazing and wonderful Cassandra Allen is having an INSANE sale over at her shop. 90% off if you use the discount code "CRAZYSALE". There are a few prints left, be quick, that's amazingly cheap and they are really gorgeous, check them out here!

recipe for honey cakes

There's something about honey cakes that makes me feel medieval. In a good way.

Honey was the sweetener of choice in the early Middle Ages (my period) and I always imagine people sitting outside little one room houses in small villages surrounded by enormous forests, nibbling honey cakes.

Which of course they weren't as they were too busy farming or sewing or brewing or baking or praying or fighting. 

I also had one of these:

 

Duck eggs are fabulous in baking! My neighbours have a duck and gave me this. 

How better to use it up than make up a pretend medieval recipe? Perfect.

These are a cross between a scone and a biscuit. Not very sweet, just a bit crumbly. Probably excellent with mead or hippocras (spiced wine) if you have them on hand. Lovely with a cup of tea. Great in a school lunchbox. 

HONEY CAKES

Ingredients:

125 butter, melted

1 tblsp honey

1 egg (chook egg is fine, duck if you have one!)

2 cups self-raising flour

1 good tsp garam masala

2 tblsp milk

 

Method:

Stir together the melted butter, the honey, the egg and the milk until mixed well. Then sift over the flour and garam masala and mix well.

Spoon onto a greased or lined baking tray into golf ball sized balls. 

Bake on 180 deg for approx 20 mins or until golden. 

 

 

What's in your lunchbox this week?

xxx

stopping by for a scone

Hi!

Can't chat, am actually working tonight (for Amazon book money!) so better get back to the numbers and thought I'd leave you with a snack. 

Morning tea (or afternoon). 

Fresh scones with butter and jam. Does it get any better?

I think this recipe may be my Nan's. Or Grandma's. Unsure of origin. Have made these so many times this may be the first time I've written it down. 

Champion Scones!

INGREDIENTS

3 cups self raising flour (I use wholemeal or unbleached)

About a tbsp sugar

Approx 80g butter

1 cup milk

METHOD:

Mix the flour and the sugar then rub in the butter. Stir through the milk. Knead, and cut into scone-like shapes (scone cutters are good for this.)

Cook on about 210 for about 15-20 mins or until golden on top. 

That's it. 

I actually like it better than this recipe because I don't have to remember to buy lemonade. 

Unsure if scones work with gluten-free flour, for the gluten-free readers? Anybody?

Better get to it! (Motivated by this book on my Amazon list which isn't in any of the libraries around me!)

See you tomorrow.

xxx

 

school holiday picnicing

One of the things I love most about the school holidays is that not rushing out of the house, hanging out, lets have a picnic kinda feeling. 

 

It doesn't even need to be out of town. An urban park will do me fine. Look at these fantastic old trees!

 

An afternoon picnic MUST be accompanied by snacks. 

Snacks are very important. 

We like these:

Kamut crunch

and messed-with Anzacs

These biscuits are essentially this recipe, but with treacle instead of golden syrup (ran out) and oatbran instead of oats (really should go grocery shopping, shouldn't I.) 

The kamut crunch is my own evil invention. Such a smackerel. 

Kamut is a relative of durum wheat. I buy an organic one, so I can kid myself this is a healthy snack. 

Er, you decide.

KAMUT CRUNCH

Ingredients:

90g butter

1/3 cup white sugar

1 tbsp honey

4 cups kamut

Set oven to 150°C.

Melt the butter, sugar and the honey together on the stove until a bit frothy. Add the kamut and stir up well. Dump out into a greased and lined slice tin, don't pack down. 

Cook in the oven for about 10 mins. When you pull it out, break it up with a fork. 

When it cools it'll be more stuck together, break up, or sneak a whole nice chunky bit if no one's looking and reminding you you're s'posed to be eating superfoods and all things wholesome and un-sugary. Bugger that. This stuff is delicious. 

And life's too short to have a picnic with just fruit and raw almonds.

xxx

P.S. I will post the recipes for the superfoods post yesterday but I just need to try them again first! (And write down the ingredients I use!)

It was one thing to chuck up a draft recipe when I first started this blog and a couple of poeple might make it, now there's more than three of you following along, I want to not completely fudge it!

xxx

Recipe for homemade wheat crackers!

I've been planning to figure out how to make homemade crackers for ages and have never gotten around to it. 

I found some great wholewheat organic flour last week and figured it was time to give it a go. 

I gave it a bit of thought. We didn't want them to rise, right, so plain flour, no yeast. No egg. No sugar. What about rolling out plain old flour and water? 

Here is my first batch:

Kinda cracker like, but they puffed up. Must prick them with a fork. Also: pretty darn tasteless.

Next batch:

The addition of salt and seeds improved them, but they're still too thick. 

Take number three:

You know, I don't want to sound big-headed but they're pretty darn good.

Really good!

In fact, Adam has declared that they might be the best thing I've ever made up, like, ever. 

The chunky salt on top (of the second batch) was too, um, salty, so I put the salt in the third batch and they taste much better. 

Here's how to make them:

Homemade wheat crackers

INGREDIENTS

2 cups plain wholewheat (wholemeal) flour

¾ cup water

½ tsp salt (dissolved in the water)

METHOD

Mix the flour and the salty water together to form a dough. Give it a bit of a knead, it needs to feel smooth. Roll it out as thin as you can. Cut it into rectangles or use a biscuit cutter for round crackers. Dab the top of the crackers with wet fingers and sprinkle with seeds (adds flavour, the water makes them stick.) Prick with a fork and bake on 180°C for approx 15 mins and watch them closely. As soon as they begin to brown, pull them out. 

That's it. Cracking crackers on your plate. Made from scratch. So you know exactly what's in them.

HOW GREAT IS THAT?!?!

Next: gotta figure out rice crackers.

xxx

weekendiness

Saturday brunch: homemade grainy toast with grilled haloumi, eggplant and field mushrooms with coriander.

So delicious.

See, you don't need bacon! (Can someone tell Henry?)

Have a wonderful weekend, gorgeous people. 

xxx

making yoghurt

I've been thinking about this for a while, as a committed from-scratcher, so to speak. Or would that be from-scratchie? Anyway, you've given me advice on making yoghurt in the past, thank you, but I've been balking at the idea of leaving it to incubate on the bench.

I'm the daughter of a dairy farmer. 

You do not leave milk on a bench.

'Specially not to incubate.

So then I saw this post (have you discovered Bubala yet? Full disclosure: a lovely friend of mine!) Anyway, I bailed Jo up to find out which yoghurt maker she was using... turns out it was available on special at less than half price, and although we are valiantly decluttering and getting rid of stuff, I snuck a yoghurt maker, this one, into the kitchen. And it's WONDERFUL.

Really, you don't need one, as Soulemama demonstrates beautifully. But damn it makes it straightforward and easy. 

My first attempt was passionfruit yoghurt (I had some pulp in the freezer from summer) and it was delicious. 

Thick and creamy. And a litre, for the cost of a litre and a half of milk and some starter yoghurt and milk powder. Awesome. 

The second time I started taking photos mid-process, I was all cavalier and confident by now. 

The first thing you do is heat the milk up to almost boiling point. I am so all over this, at this point. 

Henry chose strawberry yoghurt this time so here I am being all arty with a berry shot:

Meanwhile, back at the yoghurt, things are going horribly wrong. 

When I look back, there were two clear instances when I blew it. The first was tipping the hot milk into another container to cool it down quickly. You have to cool it fast, but experts recommend a sinkful of cold water. I don't know why I thought I knew better. Too much aeration. Fatal.

If that wasn't enough, I stirred the yoghurt as it was setting (to see if it was setting.) Again, experts (including Jo) say don't stir it while it sets, it might curdle. 

And so I tipped a litre of curdled strawberry yoghurt into the bin. 

Being a quick learner, I re-read the instructions. And followed them, this time. And batch number three was so yummy we've nearly eaten the lot in 2 days.

(We do have Adam's parents staying at present! It's not all me!)

(OK, mostly me.)

Ah, breakfast. 

Bedhead, paper, lego. Yoghurt. 

 

VANILLA YOGHURT - makes 1 litre

(based on Bubala's recipe)

Ingredients:

1½ litres milk

¾ cup full cream milk powder

½ cup natural yoghurt (with active cultures)

2 tblsp sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence.

Method:

Heat milk to almost boiling - 90°C - stirring regularly so  skin doesn't form on bottom. 

Take off heat and put into a sink of cold water and bring it down to about 40°C. 

Then stir in the milk powder, yoghurt starter and sugar and essence (or any other fruit etc you like). 

Put into yoghurt maker and set to "5" - it'll incubate for about 4-5 hours and if it's not set enough when it's done (don't stir it!!) set it for another hour. Pop into fridge to set further for at least 3 hours or preferably overnight.

It's cheap, it's easy, it's homemade, it's delicious and thicker and creamier than I expected.

And you could just as easily incubate it on the bench which a heat source a la Soulemama if you don't suffer the dairy girl genetics I have which make me smell every bottle of milk every time I make a cup of tea. What is that?

(Photo by Jim Walmsley. Thanks Jim!)

xxx

 

 

 

Vegetarian "Sausage" Rolls

Really.

So good. And no need for any animal to die for you to totally get the sense of a sausage roll! (Am I about to discover sausage rolls are really an Australian-ism?)

Anyway, I made these up initially for Henry's birthday party. They were OK - I made them creamier with sour cream and cheese in them - but I wasn't happy with the texture so tried again. And these are delicious. Really happy with them. Have to blog them so I don't lose/forget the recipe!

I served them with sweet chili sauce at the party, but for dinner will serve with steamed vegies. Or a spinach and haloumi salad would go perfectly too.

VEGETARIAN 'SAUSAGE' ROLLS

Ingredients:

3 sheets of puff pastry (I have yet to make my own. Coming soon. I used the frozen version.)

1½ cup wholemeal breadcrumbs

½ cup rolled oats

1 large zucchini, finely grated

2 carrots, finely grated

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 eggs

1 cup chickpeas (cooked)

1 tablespoon tahini

salt and pepper

Method:

This recipe is easiest if you have a food processor, but you can easily do it without. If you have a processor, whizz your bread into breadcrumbs, and throw in your oats and process till fine. (Otherwise make up your breadcrumbs and bash up your oats in a mortar/pestle.)

Add your zucchini and carrot into the processor and whizz (or add to breadcrumbs and oats in a big bowl and mix well.)

Add the chick peas to the mix and process well until smoothish.

Add the eggs and tahini and process again.

(Or just stir up well in the bowl!)

Add seasoning to taste.

Lay out a sheet of puff pastry and cut in half (into 2 rectangles). Spoon some mix down one long side. Paint edges with milk (to help stick) and roll up into long sausage. Cut into 4 (so each sheet makes 8) and paint the top with milk. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

I think I used a total of 3 sheets, making approx 24 rolls. I think. I'll make it again and update this if I've got that wrong.

Bake in a moderate oven (180°C) for about 20 mins or until golden.

Hide them from the kids unless you want them all eaten (note to self.) Also hide from Adam. In fact, make an extra batch because they freeze beautifully (uncooked) and you can take them out and cook from frozen for a snack.

Because it's all about satisfying snacks.

(I am a mad breastfeeding woman. You there, back away from the bakery item.)

Or any excuse, really.

xxx

apricot lunchbox snacks

My friend Lucie put me onto this book, for which I am very very grateful. 

Julie Maree Wood is full of truly excellent ideas about boosting the nutrition in the food of a small person who won't eat much of anything. 

These apricot balls, which she calls Iron Booster Balls, went down pretty well here. They look and taste like a treat! What's not to love.

Unless you buy organic apricots you'll be using apricots with preservative 220 (sulfur dioxide) which can be dangerous for asthmatics and has been shown to cause hyperactivity and behavioral problems. Like many additives and preservatives, really. 

I'll be honest: I don't always buy the preservative-free apricots, even though I know this. We have so few additives and preservatives around here that if I saw any effect of a handful of apricots a couple of times a week, I'd abandon them. Sometimes the rotten look of blackish organic apricots is a little too much for me. 

Apricot Balls (Iron Booster Balls)

Recipe by Julie Maree Wood, Feeding Fussy Kids

INGREDIENTS

½ cup dried apricots

½ cup dried peaches

2 tbsp boiling water

¼ cup almond meal

½ cup desiccated coconut

1 tbsp orange juice

2 tbsp wheatgerm

¼ cup skim milk powder

½ cup extra coconut

METHOD
Put the apricots and the peach into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add boiling water and leave to soak for ten minutes. Add almond meal, coconut, wheatgerm, milk powder and orange juice. Blend until a firm dough forms. Add extra water if needed. Roll into balls and roll in coconut. Store in the fridge. 

xxx
 

what do you do to feel normal?

If the world is slightly outta whack, even in the best way possible, what do you do to feel grounded? Have a bath? Glass of wine? 

My house, while mostly entirely lovable, does not have a bathtub.

And my pregnancy disinclination for wine is still hanging around. 

So I bake.

We have lots of lovely visitors at present, and I cannot resist a bit of kitchen experimenting!

And so we have:

OATMEAL CHOC CHIP COOKIES

Ingredients:

125g butter, melted

½ cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup rolled oats

1½ cup self-raising wholemeal flour

1 tblsp wheatgerm

½ cup desiccated coconut

¼ cup orange juice

½ cup chocolate chips

Method:

Melt the butter and add the sugar. Add the egg. Stir through the oats, flour, wheatgerm and coconut. Add the OJ and then the choc chips. 

Bake on cookie trays for approx 12 mins on 180°C. Makes 24 (I think. I didn't actually count them.)

Titbit for the day (I apologise, dreadful, I know) - it takes approximately twice as long to type a post one handed if you blog while breast feeding.

(I did apologise!)

xxx