Tag: baking

PB and J biscuits

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I saw the divine Reece Hignell and Jess Lemon (from Australia’s Masterchef ‘Back to Win’) share an epic 3 ingredient peanut butter biscuit recipe on Instagram.

So I thought, “let’s make it PB&J – but healthy?”

The original recipe is just 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of peanut butter and 1 egg, mixed together into balls and flattened with a fork, baked at 170*C for 12 minutes.

I changed mine up a little and used:

  • Baked at 170*C for about 15 minutes, then drizzled with Noshu low sugar white chocolate chips and served with a dollop of Natvia low sugar raspberry spread – bliss!

    • Quarantine baking: spiced banana bread / muffins

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    When life hands you mushy overripe spotty bananas – put them to good use!

    This recipe has no added sugar due to the overripe bananas being naturally very sweet, but if you’d prefer something sweeter, add 1/2 cup of brown sugar as well. 

    Ingredients 

    • 3 very overripe mushy bananas (the more spotty the better)
    • 2 eggs
    • 1 + 1/2 cups almond milk
    • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • 1 + 1/2 cups self raising flour
    • 1/4 cup vanilla protein powder
    • 1 tsp cinnamon
    • 1/2 tsp cardamom
    • 1/2 tsp ginger

    Method

    1. Preheat the oven to 180*C
    2. Mix the wet ingredients
    3. Add the dry ingredients
    4. Pour into loaf tin or muffin cases and bake until a skewer comes out clean (will take ~ 25 minutes for the muffins but about 45 minutes for the loaf; start checking with a skewer as soon as the top is browned).

    Vegan Pumpkin Soup

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    Warms the soul as well as the belly!

    Ingredients (serves 2-3)

    • 200g butternut pumpkin
    • 4 large carrots
    • 125g can coconut cream
    • 4 fresh sage leaves
    • 1 sprig fresh rosemary
    • 1 litre vegetable stock
    • Chives to serve

    Method

    1. Preheat the oven to 200*C and roast the pumpkin and carrots until soft and golden. Allow to cool slightly.
    2. Place the roasted pumpkin and carrot, sage, rosemary, stock and coconut cream in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Alternatively, place the mixture in a large bowl or saucepan and blend with a stick blender until smooth.
    3. Serve hot with chives on top.

    Pie Maker Savoury Muffins

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    After a recent baking spree for night shift, I can now truly appreciate why people are going nuts over these pie makers!

    You’d be surprised at what people can create in such a short space of time with one of these (a real bargain considering they’re only $29 from Kmart). For some epic recipe ideas, definitely look up the Australian Kmart pie maker recipe group on Facebook!

    As part of my experimentation, I made an old recipe of mine, a cross between a muffin and a frittata – a fruffin if you will (because mufftata sounds a bit risky).

    I made two different flavours of these by changing the spice, otherwise the base recipe is the same!

     

    Ingredients (makes 12)

    Method

    1. Turn on the pie maker.
    2. Beat the eggs, then add the milk, flour, yogurt and spice mix and stir well to combine.
    3. Place spinach leaves at the base of the pie mould, then pour 1/8th cup of filling mixture on top. Place a small piece of cheese, then add another dollop of filling mixture to cover.
    4. Cook in the pie maker until golden brown (about 3-5 minutes). These will cook more evenly the more full the mould is.
    5. Store in an airtight container in the fridge if they don’t all get eaten!

    Lemon quince Pterodactyl wings

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    Sorry for the radio silence! Between studying for fellowship and moving, I’ve barely had time to function this year.

    Now, I know this is not my normal kind of recipe, but if these make dinner easy and delicious for anyone else who’s busy like me then I’ll be happy!

    These enormous turkey wings were cooked in my brand new oven, and what can I say, I’m impressed!

    Ingredients

      Turkey wings (about 800g which was 5)
      • 2 tablespoons lemon infused olive oil (I used

    Cobram Estate

      )
      2 tablespoons quince paste

    Method

    1. Preheat the oven to 170*C.
    2. In a bowl, mix the lemon olive oil and quince paste together. Spread the mixture on top of the turkey wings.
    3. Wrap the turkey wings all together in a parcel of baking paper (so that the quince doesn’t burn) and bake until cooked through (about an hour). Allow to rest before serving with your favourite greens!

    Pumpkin, banana and rhubarb loaf

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    This was an experiment I’ll admit, but it was a rather delicious one. This is a great way to use up any leftover roast / boiled pumpkin as well as old bananas. The rhubarb is entirely optional and was just what I had in the fridge!

    Ingredients 

    • 1/2 cup flaxseed meal, 1/2 cup buckwheat flour and  1/2 cup vanilla pea protein  –> BUT you can substitute ALL of this with 1.5 cups of plain flour of your choice + 1 tsp vanilla
    • 1 tsp baking soda
    • 2 over-ripe bananas (must be over-ripe for this to work!)
    • 100g roasted or boiled pumpkin
    • 2 eggs
    • 1 cup almond milk (or whatever milk takes your fancy)
    • 2 tbsp Nuttalex olive oil spread (or just use butter or coconut oil)
    • If using rhubarb – bake 4 stalks of rhubarb until soft, then mush with a fork until it forms a rough puree

    Method 

    1. Preheat the oven to 200*C and line a brownie tin with baking paper.
    2. Place the pumpkin, banana, milk, eggs and butter in the blender and blend until smooth.
    3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flaxseed, buckwheat, protein powder and baking soda, then stir in the mixture from the blender until well combined.
    4. Pour into the baking dish and swirl in the rhubarb by placing small blobs on top and dragging through the mixture with a butter knife.
    5. Bake until firm and risen (about 25-30 minutes). Allow to cool, the cut into slices (I find it easier to cut into 9 chunks, and then cut these in half through the middle).

    Hazelnut Cherry Cheesecake

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    This is not healthy in the slightest really BUT it is deceptively easy to make! To ease up on the calories (because every little bit counts), I use fat-reduced cream cheese and ricotta, and I don’t add any more sugar. It does produce a slightly more tart cheesecake though, so if you’re after something sweet, add 1/2 cup of caster sugar to the filling.

    Ingredients 

    • 250g block of cream cheese
    • 125g smooth ricotta
    • 2 eggs
    • 1 tbsp flour (can use gluten free plain flour if required)
    • 1/2 cup hazelnut spread
    • 200g chocolate biscuits (I used chocolate ripple, but substitute for whatever suits your diet)
    • 70g butter, melted
    • To decorate – cherries, chocolate lindt balls (+/- 200g chocolate with 2 tbsp cream for ganache).

    Method 

    1. Preheat the oven to 180*C. To create the layered look, I used three different sized cake tins but in reality, a single 24cm springform tin will suffice! Line the base and sides of the tins with baking paper.
    2. Crush the biscuits until fine crumbs, and mix with the butter until starting to form clumps. Spread onto the base of the lined tin/s and bake until starting to firm (about 10 minutes).
    3. Use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese, ricotta, eggs, hazelnut spread and flour until well combined. Pour into the lined cake tins and bake until firm (about 20 minutes but keep and eye on them!). Return to the fridge to cool as the mixture will reduce down and become much more firm.
    4. If using ganache as part of the decoration, melt the 200g chocolate and cream in a pot over a saucepan of boiling water until melted. Allow to cool slightly. Once the cake is firm, assemble the layers with toothpicks if you’ve used different tins. Then pipe or drizzle the ganache around the edges, then decorate with cherries and lindt balls (again, use tooth picks to hold them on!).

    Carrot and Parsnip Gratin

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    After I made my amazing mushroom cauliflower sauce, I remembered I had bought some parsnips from the market. Time to make gratin!

    Ingredients (serves 2 as above)

    Method

    1. Preheat the oven to 180*C. Lightly grease a baking dish with olive oil.
    2. Grate the carrot and parsnips. Mix with the sauce and pour into the dish.
    3. Sprinkle with quinoa flakes and then mozzarella. Bake until cheese is melted and golden (approx 20 minutes).

    Honey Mustard Pumpkin Seeds

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    Don’t throw out your unwanted pumpkin seeds – turn them into this tasty snack instead!

    Ingredients

    • 1/8 cup pumpkin seeds
    • 1 tsp mustard
    • 1 tsp honey

    Just multiply the recipe for bigger quantities, works a treat! I’ve also thrown in buckwheat groats and tigernuts to increase the volume before and they taste amazing. 

    Method

    1. Preheat the oven to 180*C and line a tray with baking paper.
    2. Toss the pumpkin seeds with the honey and mustard, then roast until golden – be vigilant as these can burn quickly, then only need 8-10 minutes max!

    S’mores Brownies

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    Life is all about balance. And sometimes, that involves eating brownies that make your soul incredibly happy, even if your pancreas isn’t. After a little trial and error, I’ve discovered the perfect way to make your usual brownies taste just like s’mores – and wow do these little s’moresels (hehe) pack a punch!

    Ingredients (makes 12-24 depending on how you cut them, I prefer mine smaller as these are pretty rich!)

    • 1/2 cup mini marshmallows
    • 1 packet McVittie’s digestive nibbles (or similar, but essentially you need small balls of digestive biscuits that are entirely covered in chocolate – normal digestive biscuits will just go soggy in the mix!)
    • Your usual favourite brownie recipe (or packet mix, there is no shame in using a packet mix!)

    Method

    1. Preheat the oven as per your usual recipe or packet mix instructions. Line a brownie tray with baking paper.
    2. Prepare your usual brownie recipe or as per the packet mix instructions.
    3. Just before baking, mix in the marshmallows and the digestive nibbles, stir well to combine.
    4. Pour into the tray and bake until just cooked through. Allow to set and cool in the fridge before cutting as the marshmallow will be incredibly sticky while hot!!