Mothers' Day Baking - Basic Scones

Happy Mothers' Day to all the mums out there! Hope you are all having a lovely day with your special people.

Scones always remind me of my mum. Partly because neither of us really had the knack for making them! And partly because we would always order scones with jam and cream at every cafe we went to.

I've tried dozens of different recipes and although I've come close to great scones, they were mostly just good. This recipe may not be 100% perfect but they were seriously the best scones I've ever made. Light and fluffy and beautifully risen. And they were made with the help of my 3 yo son who absolutely loved rubbing the butter and flour together and making as much mess as possible!

Basic Scones
Recipe from Taste.com.au

3 cups self-raising flour, sifted
80g butter, cubed
1 to 1 1/4 cups milk
plain flour for dusting
Milk for brushing

Preheat oven to 200°C and lightly dust a baking tray with plain flour.

Sift self-raising flour into a large bowl. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add 1 cup of milk and then mix gently with a flat-bladed knife until mixture forms a soft dough, adding a little more milk if required.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently just until the dough comes together. Pat dough into a 2cm-thick round. Using a 6cm round cutter, cut out 9 rounds. Press remaining dough back together and cut out another 3 rounds.

Place scones onto the baking tray, leaving about 1cm between them. Brush the tops with milk. Bake for approx 20 minutes or until golden and well risen. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Makes 12.

While jam and cream is traditional, I like mine hot from the oven with butter and golden syrup. Delicious! And a perfect treat for mothers' day.

Gourmet Garden Blog Off/Cook Off!

After nearly missing the deadline (that'll teach me for not checking my email more often) I have registered for the Gourmet Garden Blog Off/Cook Off! A fantastic competition for bloggers/cooks with great prizes including the chance to cook off at Food and Wine Shows around the country, a bloggers' week in Noosa and a major cash prize. 

All of that sounds very exciting but I was actually most excited about getting some wonderful free Gourmet Garden products to cook with! I assume everyone got the same pack of herbs, but here's what I received:

Chunky Garlic

Basil

Thyme

Coriander

Hot Chilli

Thai

Keep an eye on the blog from next week as I will be posting my recipes using these herbs between the 14th and 20th May. Wish me luck!

Cranberry-Apple Crisp

Apple crumble is one of the easiest and tastiest things you can make for a quick dessert. And of course the bonus is that it makes a great breakfast the next day! 

Rather than make a standard apple crumble or crisp, I was inspired by Dorie Greenspan's version as we just happened to have one last lonely pack of frozen cranberries leftover from Christmas.

Cranberry-Apple Crisp

Recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours, p422

Topping

3/4 cup plain flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup dessicated coconut

1 ts cinnamon

1 ts ground ginger

125g butter, chopped into small pieces

Filling

4 apples, peeled, cored and chopped into a fine dice

1 cup frozen cranberries

1/2 cup sultanas

1/3 cup sugar

1 tbs plain flour

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Spray a 1.8 litre baking dish with oil and set aside.

To make the topping, combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Rub the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs and is clumping together.

To prepare the filling, combine all ingredients and mix well. Pour into prepared baking dish.

Spread the topping evenly over the fruit filling and bake for approx 1 hour or until the top is a deep golden brown and the fruit is bubbling up around the edges. Allow to cool slightly before serving with ice-cream or custard. Enjoy the leftovers (if there are any!) for breakfast the next morning.

Serves 6-8.

This was really, really good! Such a shame we can only buy frozen cranberries for a few weeks a year because they add such a special quality to things like this. Definitely a winner.

Meatless Monday - 'Vegiladas'

Yes I could have just said vegetarian enchiladas but vegiladas really rolls off the tongue!

We love Mexican food around here and have the standard nachos, tacos and chicken enchiladas quite regularly. These vegetarian enchiladas are filled with onion, capsicum, tomatoes and beans and have a lovely warmth (rather than heat) to them. To make them kid-friendly I didn't add any chilli but you could definitely add a whole fresh red chilli or some chilli flakes to up the heat. Topped off with salsa, melted cheese and a little low-fat sour cream they are the perfect dinner.

Vegetarian Enchiladas

Recipe adapted from Sanitarium

Serves 4

1 tablespoon rice bran oil
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium green capsicum, finely chopped
2 ts ground cumin
1 ts ground coriander
1 can Mexe-Beans, drained
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 can water
2 tablespoons lime juice (1-2 limes)
8 tortillas
1 jar mild salsa
50g low-fat cheddar cheese, grated
Salt, pepper and sugar to taste
Low fat sour cream and salad to serve

Preheat oven to 180°C. Heat the oil in a fry pan and cook the onion, garlic and capsicum until soft. Add the cumin and coriander and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the beans and chickpeas. Add the tomatoes, water and lime juice and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes or until the mixture starts to thicken, stirring occasionally.

Place spoonfuls of the bean mixture in the centre of each tortilla. Roll to enclose the filling, then place fold-side-down on a greased baking tray. Spoon any remaining filling around the edges of the filled tortillas.

Top with salsa, sprinkle with the grated cheese and bake for around 20 minutes or until the cheese is golden and bubbling. Serve with sour cream and a green salad.

Sunday Baking - Hummingbird Slice

I've had Hummingbird Cake and Hummingbird Muffins but I've never had Hummingbird Slice. That's reason enough to get baking!

This is a Donna Hay recipe and I have to admit in the past I've found her food to be really hit and miss. Always visually stunning but often lacking in flavour or with wildly inaccurate cooking times or techniques. No complaints about this one though, it was easy to bake and really tasty.

Normally I like cream cheese icing with these but in the interest of saving a few calories and making them freezer-friendly I've left them plain. Perfect for morning tea, or just anytime really!

Hummingbird Slice

Recipe slightly adapted from Donna Hay

140g brown sugar

125ml oil (I used extra light olive oil)

2 eggs
1/2 cup canned crushed pineapple, drained
1 banana, mashed
1 cup grated carrot (about 2 carrots)
115g self-raising flour

1/2 ts bicarbonate of soda
1/3 cup sultanas

2 ts cinnamon
20g dessicated coconut
30g chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 160°C.

Sift together the flour and bicarb soda and then add the cinnamon, coconut and pecans.

Place the sugar, oil and eggs in a large bowl and whisk well. Add the pineapple, banana and carrot and stir together. Add the dry ingredients and mix well to combine.

Spoon into a greased and lined 20cm x 30cm tin. Bake for approx 40-45 minutes or until it springs back when touched in the centre and starting to pull away from the sides of the tin. Allow to cool in the tin before slicing.

Donna suggest serving this slice with honey but with brown sugar and all that fruit no extra sweetness is needed. They are moist and packed with flavour and just as good, if not better, the next day.

A great treat for the kids' (or husband's) lunchboxes so get baking!

TWD BWJ - Hungarian Shortbread

Is anyone else amazed that it's May already?? Can't believe how fast this year is going by. 

I also can't believe how much butter was in this Hungarian Shortbread so I made just 1/4 of the recipe! Luckily for me it was easy to do with full cups of ingredients and 4 egg yolks to start with so no messy calculations. My 1/4 batch fit perfectly into an 6" square pan and baked in 30 minutes.

Given that I forgot what day it was there was no way I could make rhubarb jam though it sounds fantastic and is now on my 'to-do' list. I used about 1/3 cup of my favourite English breakfast marmalade and was really happy with how it turned out.

The taste test ...

 I absolutely loved this one! The shortbread was crisp around the edges, moist and chewy in the middle and offset perfectly by the tartness in the marmalade, so I think it was a great substitute for the rhubarb jam. I cut 16 little squares and froze most of them, but not before having a few with a cup of tea. Just wonderful!

While it tasted amazing I think my favourite part of this recipe was freezing and then grating the dough into the pan. It worked brilliantly and gave a fantastic result.

I will definitely be making this again and playing with different flavours. 

Lynette of 1 Small Kitchen and Cher from The Not So Exciting Adventures of a Dabbler will have the recipe up for Hungarian Shortbread on their blogs under today's date. Enjoy!

Meatless Monday - Vegetarian Cottage Pie

Now I don't want to stir up any trouble but it seems there has always been a bit of confusion about the difference between cottage pie and shepherd's pie. To me, a shepherd's pie is a savoury mince mixture topped with mashed potato. A cottage pie on the other hand has a pastry shell topped with savoury mince and mashed potato. See? Worlds apart.

I have always loved cottage pies and they were my first choice at the school canteen back in the day.

If you're on a low-carb diet you will definitely want to skip this one!

Food.Baby's Vegetarian Cottage Pie

Shortcrust Pastry

265g plain flour

125g chilled butter, diced

1 egg yolk

2 tbs iced water

To the bowl of a food processor add the flour and butter. Using the dough blade (the plastic one) pulse until the mixture resembles very coarse breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of the water and pulse again until it combines. The mix will start to clump and pull away from the sides. Stop immediately and turn the dough out onto a floured board. Press roughly together and put into the fridge to rest for at least 15 minutes.

Roll out the dough to about a pencil thickness, enough to cover the base and sides of a 25cm pan. Press into the pie dish and use a knife to trim away the excess. Patch any holes with the scraps. Place into the freezer for 30 minutes while the oven is preheating to 190 degrees Celsius.

Bake for 15 minutes. Don't worry if it shrinks a little as there should still be enough space for your fillings.

Or skip all this and use bought shortcrust pastry.

Savoury Mince Filling

1 x 300g packet Quorn veggie mince

1 can lentils, drained

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can water

1 large onion, diced

2 cloves garlic

1 vegetable stock cube

Salt, pepper and sugar to taste

2 tbs oil

Over medium-high heat, fry the onion and garlic in the oil until softened. Add the veggie mince and lentils and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to a fast simmer and cook for around 20 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated and you have a pie-filling-like consistency.

Mashed Potato Topping

1kg potatoes and/or sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped roughly

Salt

50g cheese

20g butter

Milk or hot water

Place the chopped potatoes in a large pot of cold water. Cover and bring to the boil. Once boiling cook for approx 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Drain and tip back into the saucepan. Add the butter and a splash of milk and mash until smooth. Season to taste.

To assemble

Pour your mince filling into the prepared pastry shell. Top evenly with mashed potato. Sprinkle top with grated cheese and bake at 190 degrees Celsius for 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden and bubbling.

Serve with a green salad and plenty of tomato sauce!

Serves 6.

Sunday Baking - Lunchbox Biscuits

Is it just me or does this picture look like it came straight out of a 1970s Woman's Weekly magazine?? Not quite sure how I managed that but conveniently this is a pretty retro recipe so perhaps it was meant to be.

These are simply called Lunchbox Cookies and everyone seems to have their own variation. I found this one online at Best Recipes and made a few changes. These are wonderful warm from the oven but hubby has been taking a few from the freezer every day to have with his morning coffee at work and really enjoyed them.

Lunchbox Cookies

Very slightly adapted from Best Recipes

1 cup self raising flour

1/2 cup milk powder

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup coconut

1 cup dried dates, chopped

1/4 cup sugar

150g melted butter

1 egg, beaten

1 ts cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add the melted butter and beaten egg and mix well to combine. Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls and place on a lined baking tray, allowing some room for spreading. Flatten each biscuit with a fork.  Bake for around 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let rest on tray for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Makes approx 18.

TWD BWJ - Lemon Loaf Cake

I hate leaving things to the last minute but I have to admit I only pulled this beauty out of the oven at 8am this morning! Of course that meant the kids wanted cake for breakfast :)

I adore citrus and definitely prefer fruit based cakes/desserts to chocolate ones, so this Lemon Loaf Cake was perfect for me. It was wonderful warm and just as good cold the next day. That to me is a sign of a great cake!

Of course I did make a few substitutions because we had run out of certain ingredients. I used light olive oil instead of butter and mango/passionfruit yoghurt instead of cream. So this isn't really a pound cake like the recipe at all. You can see the bubbles in each slice which I think is typical of a yoghurt cake.

But whatever you call it, it was delicious! Light, moist and full of lemony goodness. A simple icing sugar and lemon juice glaze was the perfect topping.

Our hosts this week are Truc of Treats and Michelle of The Beauty of Life. You will find the recipe for this gorgeous cake on their blogs.

Meatless Monday - Easy Pumpkin Soup

We've had some lovely cool nights and mornings and to me that signals the beginning of soup weather. However my husband hates both pumpkin AND soup so it's no surprise the boys and I had this for lunch instead of dinner!

This is just about the easiest soup you could possibly make. Just chop, throw it all in a pot for a while then blend and eat. Yum!


Easy Pumpkin Soup
Serves 4

1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
20g butter (or coconut oil for dairy free)
800g pumpkin (peeled weight), roughly chopped into 3cm pieces
approx 1 litre water or vegetable stock
salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg to taste
cream (or coconut cream) to serve

Place a large saucepan over a medium heat and the butter. Roughly chop the onion and garlic and add to the pan when the butter has melted and is starting to foam. Cook for a few minutes until the onion has softened. Add the chopped pumpkin and toss to combine. Add enough water or vegetable stock to cover the pumpkin, place the lid on the pan and bring to the boil.

Once boiling remove the lid and reduce the heat down to a simmer. Cook uncovered for 15-20 minutes until the pumpkin is soft and cooked through. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. Add a splash of cream.

You can blend the soup using either a stick blender in the saucepan (off the heat) or by pouring the soup into a food processor.

Serve with another swirl of cream, a grating of fresh nutmeg and lots of crusty, buttered bread. Delicious!

TWD BWJ - Pizza Rustica

Well I was all set to make pizza only to discover this is not actually a pizza at all! At least not as we know it. Think of it more as a quiche but with pizza-ish fillings.

I stuck to the recipe as written so used prosciutto, pecorino and parsley in the filling. It was really easy to make and I was so looking forward to trying it.

The taste test ...

Unfortunately I didn't love this. Normally I enjoy a sweet-salty combination but the crust here was just too sweet for me and it really detracted from the overall flavour. It looked pretty but the taste just didn't win me over. The kids each had a bite then just picked off the crust and left the rest.

I can definitely see the potential though with less sugar in the crust and some veges in the filling it could be a winner.

Don't let my lukewarm reaction put you off though, hubby loved it and took leftovers for lunch the next day!

For the recipe make sure you visit our hosts - Emily at Capital Region Dining and Raelynn of The Place They Call Home. And to check out what everyone else thought visit the LYL section here.

Meatless Monday - Chickpeas in Spicy Tomato Sauce

I'm sure I never ate curry when I was 2 but luckily both my kids are big fans!

This was a hit at our place this week and in spite of the name it's basically a curry with a rich tomato hit from both tinned tomatoes and tomato paste. It's also one of those dishes where you will likely have all the ingredients on hand already and can whip this up easily for a mid-week dinner.


Chickpeas in Spicy Tomato Sauce
Recipe Source - Cheap & Cheerful from The Australian Woman's Weekly, p68-69

2 tbs ghee (I used rice bran oil)
2 brown onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
20g piece fresh ginger, grated
2 ts cumin seeds (I used ground cumin)
1tbs coriander
1 ts turmeric
1ts cayenne pepper
2 tbs tomato paste
2 x 400g tins diced tomatoes
2 cups water (I used vege stock)
2 x 420g tins chickpeas, drained
1 large sweet potato (500g) cut into a small dice
300g spinach, chopped coarsely
(Salt, pepper and sugar to taste)

Heat ghee in a large pan and add the onion, garlic and ginger. Cook until the onion is soft, stirring often. Add the spices and cook for another minute. Add the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes.

Next add the sweet potato and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring well to coat in the spice and onion mix.

Add in the tinned tomatoes, chickpeas and water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes, or until the sweet potato is cooked through. Just before serving, add in the chopped spinach.

Serve on basmati rice.

I didn't make many changes to the recipe but you can see them marked above. I always use vege stock in place of water in these sorts of dishes, and I added a teaspoon of sugar to counteract the acidity of the tomatoes.

We'll definitely make this again!

Sunday Baking - Milo Muffins

In a few years I'll be baking treats for my kids' lunchboxes, but for now I am baking for the big kid in my life aka the hubby! We are trying to cut back our spending and making sure he takes lunch with him every day is a big part of that.

We have been planning our dinners pretty carefully for a while so that there are always leftover meals for his lunch, and now I am baking every Sunday so there is something sweet to have with his coffee as well. I'm such a good wife! Ha!

I stumbled across these Milo Muffins on the Essential Kids website but they are actually from one of my favourite bloggers, Melissa at Frills in the Hills.

Milo Muffins
Recipe very slightly adapted from Essential Kids
Makes 12 small or 6 jumbo muffins

1 1/2 cups self raising flour
2/3 cup milo
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
60g butter, melted
Chocolate sprinkles to decorate

Preheat oven to 190 degrees celsius. Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix until smooth. Pour into muffin papers until 3/4 full. Cover each with chocolate sprinkles and bake for approx 20 minutes.

Cool in tin for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Suitable to freeze.

I made 6 jumbo muffins which meant 1 for me and 5 for hubby's lunches. He did forget to take one one day and I got a text with sad face that morning!

Meatless Monday - Curried Carrot and Chickpea Burgers

Another Monday, another meatless meal!


My MIL sent me the link to these Curried Chickpea and Carrot Burgers on the Sanitarium website and they looked really good. Actually I was really surprised to see all the recipes there looked pretty good. I'm always a little suspicious of recipes put out by food manufacturers because they tend to feature fairly random combinations of their own products.

We had all the ingredients on hand and I whipped these up for a yummy weekend lunch. Hubby and I both loved them and even the kids had one each. They reminded me of an entree at an Indian restaurant and are on the menu again one night this week.

As you can tell by the photo we didn't eat ours as burgers. I ate mine with a rather fusion salad of tomato, cucumber, fetta and coriander. Delicious!

You can find the recipe on the Sanitarium website here.

TWD BWJ - Irish Soda Bread

For some reason I had it in my head that soda bread was made with beer and I was going to hate it. I actually groaned when I read that it was this week's choice. Well I was wrong about the beer and I really loved this recipe!

For starters, talk about easy. Just 4 ingredients mixed, shaped, plopped on a tray and baked. That's it.


So it seems that Irish soda bread is very similar to an Aussie damper with that wonderful crunchy crust and dense, slightly chewy interior. The perfect bread to eat warm with a smear of butter and lots of golden syrup. Heavenly!

My boys weren't so keen on this one, being used to lighter less chewy bread. Hubby never even saw it, as it was baked, eaten and the leftovers wrapped up in the freezer in a matter of hours. I have yet to test the "as hard as the Blarney Stone" prediction.

If you would like to make this yummy bread check out Carla at Chocolate Moosey and Cathleen at My Culinary Mission for the recipe.

Meatless Monday - Tagliatelle with Roasted Garlic, Capsicum and Tomato Sauce

Pasta and sauce is a regular on our weekly menu. It's easy, the kids love it and there's always leftovers for hubby's lunch the next day. After spying some gorgeous red capsicums and Roma tomatoes at the fruit shop on the weekend, this yummy pasta sauce was born!

It's pictured above with some egg tagliatelle with herbs from Aldi of all places. The pasta cooked up beautifully in just a few minutes and was a great partner for this sweet and silky sauce.

Roasted Garlic, Capsicum and Tomato Sauce

1 head garlic
6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
750g Roma tomatoes
450g red capsicums
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 ts sugar

Preheat oven to 230 degrees C and have 2 large baking dishes ready.

Slice each tomato in half length ways and place in one of the baking dishes. Place the whole unpeeled head of garlic in the centre and drizzle over 2 tbs of olive oil. Use your hands and toss well to combine. Sprinkle the tomatoes with salt, pepper and the sugar.

Drizzle a little olive oil over the capsicums and place in the other oven tray.

Place both trays in the oven and roast for about 40 minutes or until the the capsicums are blackened and soft. Remove the capsicums from the oven and place in a heatproof bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 5-10 minutes.

Check the tomatoes and garlic, they may need another 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven when the tomatoes are softened, collapsed and beginning to colour.

To prepare the capsicums you need to remove the skins. If they are cooked properly it should come away quite easily. Use a small sharp knife to make a slit and very carefully use your fingers to pull the skins away from the flesh. They will be hot so watch out for burnt fingers! Discard the skin and seeds and chop the flesh coarsely.

Into the bowl of a food processor, add the tomatoes, peeled capsicums and then squeeze out 5 or 6 cloves of the cooked garlic. Garlic cooked like this has a richer, milder flavour than raw garlic so you can go a little crazy here. Add 4 tbs olive oil and blitz to combine. When smooth, return to a pot to keep warm over a low heat. Check for seasoning and add salt, pepper and fresh herbs to taste. (The sauce can be served immediately or refrigerated overnight to allow the flavours to develop. I used a tagliatelle with herbs in it so did not add fresh herbs to my sauce).

Cook your pasta according to packet instructions. Drain and serve with the sauce and plenty of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

I also did a more kid-friendly version with spiral pasta and regular tasty cheese which went down a treat!

This sauce would also be fantastic on a char-grilled pizza with lots of feta or goats' cheese. I have stashed some in the freezer to try later on. Will let you know how it goes.

Meatless Monday - Gnocchi with Roasted Sweet Potato and Garlic Cream Sauce

I've been on a quest recently to get my kids (and my husband!) to eat more veggies. I mean we have some with dinner every night and I'm an expert at hiding them in sauces and stews, but there's always room for more.

So to that end I've been scouring the interwebs for inspiration and have found some fantastic vego, vegan and raw food blogs with some truly mouth-watering recipes. And even better they are recipes I'm sure I can get my boys to eat.

My plan is not only to increase the volume and variety of vegetables we eat but also to cut back on red meat. I'm not a huge meat lover anyway and neither is Charlie. So planning at least one meat free dinner per week is going to work well for us, and that means Meatless Mondays!


In honour of Veggie Mama's Meatless Mondays my first meat-free meal is her gnocchi with roasted sweet potatoes, mushrooms and garlic. Totally impossible to get a good photo of (as you can see above) but absolutely delicious.

Gnocchi with Roasted Sweet Potato and Garlic Cream Sauce
Recipe adapted from Veggie Mama
Serves 6

2 packs gnocchi
1 large sweet potato
2 tbs butter
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups sliced mushrooms
400ml pure cream
pinch salt
black pepper
plenty of grated parmesan

Cut your sweet potato into large diced, toss with a little oil and bake in a hot oven for approx 30 minutes or until cooked through and golden.

Saute the onion, garlic and mushrooms in butter, until mushrooms are soft and beginning to brown and all liquid has evaporated. Add the cream and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and add salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the gnocchi in plenty of salted boiling water accoring to packet directions.

Add the cooked sweet potato into the sauce along with a handful of grated parmasan and stir gently to combine. Carefully fold the sauce through the gnocchi and serve with lots of extra parmasan on top.

The taste test ...

All of my boys loved this, as did I! You can't go wrong with mushrooms, cream and garlic. I made a double batch and this made plenty for dinner for the 4 of us plus lunch for hubby and I the next day. Definitely one to make again!

Yeast Waffles

We've decided to make Saturday morning breakfasts a bit special around here. Hubby is out the door by 7 on weekdays, often before the boys get up and then on Sundays we are in a rush to get the kids to their swimming lessons by 8am. Crazy. But on Saturdays we're all here together with nowhere we need to go. So from now on Saturday mornings for us will be a special yummy breakfast and a trip to the park. Yay!

First up today are these yeast waffles I stumbled across on Fake Ginger. Unlike Amanda I am a real ginger and absolutely love fresh ginger, but I heart her blog!

Anyway, hubby and I got a waffle maker as a wedding present but have never used it regularly. Partly because the recipes we have tried all seemed to oily, too heavy or just too annoying. That's why I liked the look of these yeasted waffles which can be prepped the night before.

Yeast Waffles
Recipe from Fake Ginger

375ml milk
90g butter
2 tbs maple syrup
1 ts vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 ts instant yeast

Heat the milk and butter together until very hot and butter is melted. Remove from the heat and stir through the vanilla and salt. Cool the mixture to lukewarm then add the eggs, flour and yeast. Whisk well to combine and remove any lumps of flour. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.

You can cook the waffles now or place in the fridge overnight.

Preheat your waffle iron. When ready pour in 1/2 to 2/3 cup of mixture (or whatever amount your instruction book says) into the centre of the waffle maker. Close the lid and cook for about 5 minutes or until golden brown and crisp. Serve immediately or keep warm in a low oven.

We got at least 10 waffles from this mix (we lost count).

We loved ours with sliced banana and maple syrup but the possibilities for toppings are endless.

The taste test ...

Really, really good! And the aroma of yeasty waffly goodness in the house first thing in the morning was fantastic. The boys scoffed theirs in record time, probably just thrilled to have something other than cereal or toast for a change. This recipe is a keeper!

TWD BWJ - Rugelach

This week we have Rugelach! Before making them for TWD a few years ago I had never heard of Rugelach and had no idea how to pronounce it let alone how they were supposed to look or taste. I felt a bit more prepared this time around and had fun with the recipe.

I made just a 1/3 batch (using only 1 stick of butter instead of 3!!!) and used prunes, dark chocolate and walnuts for the filling. Yum!

It seemed like the humidity would be a problem for this pastry so I made it in the food processor using cold butter and cream cheese then chilled it overnight before rolling. It worked like a charm and made some seriously good pastry!

Even with a 1/3 batch I still got 24 little cookies (pastries?). They were amazing straight out of the oven and still good the next day although they had lost their crispy edges.

There's still about a cup of prune levkar left and my boys are loving it spread on their toast or stirred through porridge for breakfast.

Thanks to Margaret and Jessica for a great pick! I'm happy to have conquered Rugelach and will definitely make them again with the apricot filling too. You will find the recipe on their blogs under today's date.

TWD BWJ - Chocolate Truffle Tartlets

Wow, our second recipe for Baking with Julia and it couldn't be more indulgent! This week we have Chocolate Truffle Tartlets which contain chocolate in almost every form.

First, a chocolate pastry made with cocoa. Next comes a decadent truffle filling made with melted dark chocolate, eggs and sugar. Then it's finished off with a smattering of milk and white chocolate pieces. Can anyone say yum?!

Surprisingly these tartlets aren't over the top in sweetness. A big scoop of creamy vanilla icecream was perfect on top. Still wouldn't want to eat too much though.

I made a full batch of pastry but only used about 2/3 of it to make my 4 tartlets (with a half batch of filling). I rolled the remainder of the pastry out and baked some little biscuits with it. Hubby was a big fan of the tartlets and my 2 littlest taste testers couldn't get enough of the pastry!

Our hosts this week are Steph, Spike, Jaime and Jessica. Thanks for a great pick! You can find the recipe on their blogs under today's date.

TWD Baking with Julia - White Loaves

This is the first week of the new Tuesdays with Dorie - Baking with Julia, how exciting! We will be baking fortnightly and should have one simple and one more complicated recipe to post each month. With over 300 bloggers baking along this is going to be fun!

So, first up we have White Loaves, chosen by Laurie and Jules.

I have been making bread a lot recently but cheating a bit because I use my breadmaker. I heart my breadmaker! While it makes great bread, of course, it also makes pizza dough and I can turn a basic dough mix into almost anything. Just last week I made cinnamon rolls (no pics sorry) and in the lead up to Easter there will definitely be some fresh hot cross buns too!

It has been a while though since I made a loaf of bread completely from scratch. I had forgotten how easy it is and Oscar loved seeing the dough rising and being punched down and turned into real bread.

This is a very simple recipe and it made 2 absolutely delicious loaves of bread. I stuck strictly to recipe and made 2 plain loaves perfect for sandwiches. We go through a LOT of sandwiches in this house. It froze well too and also made great toast.

All in all a great place to start the new TWD. I hope everyone else had success too! The list of bakers should be up soon on the TWD page.

You will find the recipe on pp81-82 of Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan, or Laurie and Jules will have it in their posts due today.