Steamed Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce

I had never had steamed pudding until coming to NZ, and after purchasing my own pudding steamer container this weekend, I had to try to make one!  I picked sticky date pudding because everyone seems to love it, but every single time I had it, it always was too dry...until now.  This cake is deliciously moist and oh so very good.  Seriously, we basically ate the entire cake between two of us in one night because it was just that good.  We.could.not.stop.eating.it.

       

 

Sticky Date Pudding

250g pitted dates

300ml water

1 tsp baking soda       

60g butter

2/3 cup caster (superfine) sugar

3 large free range eggs

1 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder 

 

Butterscotch Sauce            

1 cup (220g) brown sugar

125g butter

375ml thickened cream

1 tsp vanilla essence

 

Directions:

1. Combine the dates and water in a medium saucepan and bring it to the boil.  Mix in the baking soda and remove from heat.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Gradually beat in the eggs one at a time. Add in the date mixture and blend together for about a minute. Add the flour and baking power and blend until just combined.
3. Lightly grease a 1.5 litre (6-cup) pudding basin. Pour the mixture into the basin. Cover the pudding with a greased piece of wax paper or foil and then the lid.
4. Put the bowl inside a covered steamer with boiling water coming halfway up the sides of the basin. Boil for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. Add in water as required. NOTE: If you don't have a covered steamer, this will take about 2.5 hours to cook like mine did...but oh so worth it!
5. Once the pudding is cooked and ready to be eaten, combine the sugar, cream and vanilla in a small saucepan. Stir constantly over medium low heat until mixture boils.  Let boil for 2 min and remove from heat.
6. Stir in the butter into the sugary cream mixture.(The sauce will thicken as it cools)
7. Serve the pudding drizzled with the sauce. (Our sauce is still quite warm because we couldn't wait!)

 

Yummy!

 

Yummier!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recipe provided by:

http://allrecipes.com.au/recipe/611/steamed-sticky-date-pudding-with-butterscotch-sauce.aspx

Exotic Spice Cookie

I have no idea what the actual name of this cookie is, nor if it has one.  What I can tell you is that they are DELICIOUS and have their very own unique flavour....oh yeah, and the lady that created the recipe won $25,000 on the Food Network recipe challenge in 2008 (not me of course!!!) http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ultimate-recipe-showdown/exotic-spice-cookies-with-ginger-cardamom-and-rose-water-recipe/index.html Anything that dares to use rosewater, cardamom, loooots of ginger, AND coriander and black pepper is worth a try!  You won't regret it!

Exotic Spice Cookie

2¼ cups all-purpose flour
2¼ teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
 ¾ teaspoon ground cardamom
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¾ teaspoon salt
¾ cup chopped crystallized ginger
 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
½ cup vegetable shortening, room temperature
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
¼ cup honey
1 teaspoon rosewater
¾ cup turbinado (raw) sugar, for rolling

 

Whisk the flour, ground ginger, baking soda, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, pepper, and salt in a medium bowl until blended. Mix in the crystallized ginger. Set aside momentarily.
 

 In a large bowl beat the brown sugar, shortening, and butter with an electric mixer until fluffy (do not overbeat-it will add too much air). Add the egg, honey, and rosewater and beat until blended. Stir in the flour mixture with a wooden spoon, mixing until just until blended. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.
 

 Preheat oven to 180 C (350°F). Lightly spray 2 cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray. Spoon the raw sugar in thick layer onto a small plate. Using wet hands, form dough into 1¼-inch balls; roll in sugar to coat completely. Place balls on prepared sheets, spacing 2-3 inches apart.
 

Bake cookies until cracked on top but still soft to touch, 11-13 minutes. Cool on cookie sheets for 1 minute. Carefully transfer cookies to wire racks; cool completely.

These are so yummy!  They taste almost like a gingernut, but so much more full of flavour!

English Muffins

Since my boyfriend, now newly fiancé, is English, it seemed appropriate to attempt to make these little babies.  (They were featured as the technical bake on Great British Bake Off--I like to tackle all the Paul Hollywood recipe challenges!  Bring it on Bread God!  This recipe is taken straight from the BBC)  Interesting fact: Even though it's an English muffin, the English still call it an English muffin.  I would have thought it would just be a muffin...anyway, I digress...

 

English Muffins
300g/10½ oz strong white bread flour, plus extra for flouring
6g fast-action yeast
6g salt
15g/½oz sugar
15g/½oz softened butter, cut into small pieces
1 medium free-range egg (about 22g/¾oz), lightly beaten
170ml/6fl oz milk (should make a soft dough – you can add up to about 30ml/1floz extra if needed)
oil, for greasing
15g/½oz semolina or polenta

 

Method

Tip the flour into a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle the yeast on one side of the flour and the salt into the other side of the flour. Add the sugar, butter, egg and milk, then mix all the ingredients together to form a soft dough.
Turn the mixture out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, or until soft, smooth and stretchy.
Lightly grease a large bowl with oil. Place the dough in the oiled bowl, cover and leave to prove for at least one hour to double in size.
Tip the dough out onto the work surface and roll out to about 1.5cm/¾in thick. Leave to stand on the work surface for 15 minutes, to prevent the muffins from shrinking.
Dust two baking trays with half of the semolina or polenta.
Using a 9cm/3½oz straight-sided cutter, cut out eight muffins. (I just used the top end of a glass) Place four muffins, evenly spaced apart on each of the dusted baking trays. Dust the remaining semolina or polenta over the top of the muffins.
Leave to prove for another 30 minutes. 

After 30 min proving.  (Ignore the wonky one in front...it was all my leftover dough and I didn't use a cutter!)

 Preheat the hot plate or a heavy-based frying pan on the hob to a very low heat. Griddle the muffins for approximately 5-6 minutes, then flip over and griddle for another 5-6 minutes on the other side.

 

 

Slap some butter and jam on.  Enjoy!
 

FairTradeAid Chocolate Pecan Pie

When I randomly found out about a baking competition using Fair trade products, I instantly wanted to enter...and so blossomed my very own recipe for Chocolate Pecan Pie using four different Fair trade products.

 

For the Crust:

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon Trade Aid cane sugar

1 teaspoon salt

226g chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

PASTRY RULE #1:  The key to pastry is to keep everything REALLY cold until you are ready to put it into REALLY hot, meaning bake it!

 

 

 

Sift together the flour, sugar, and salt.  Add the cubes of butter and either using a pastry cutter, a food processor, or your good ole hands, incorporate the butter into the flour until it becomes meal-like.  Then add in the ice water, slowly, until the dough just comes together.  (I always use slightly less than 1/2 cup.) Form the pastry into a ball.  Wrap it in plastic wrap, and then pop it in the fridge to chill. Refrigerate for at least an hour. (See rule #1) 

 

For the Chocolate Pecan Pie, this crust will need to be blind-baked (put in some parchment paper over the crust, add in some rice, lentils, or ceramic pie weights), so heat your oven to 220C (425F) and bake for 20-25min.

 

Unbaked and before ceramic weights

 

 

For the Chocolate Pecan Filling:

2 cups pecans

1 cup Trade Aid cane sugar

3 free range eggs

1/2 cup liquid glucose (or light corn syrup)

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla (I looked for the Fairtrade vanilla but couldn’t find it!)

1 1/2 teaspoon Trade Aid instant coffee

1/2 teaspoon salt

100g Green & Blacks Fairtrade dark chocolate

70g Green & Blacks Fairtrade milk chocolate

Adjust oven temperature to  190C (375F). 

Spread the pecans on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 6-10 minutes, stirring occasionally until lightly toasted.

 

Whisk the eggs, sugar, glucose, butter, and vanilla until blended.  Chop both of the chocolates and melt in the top of a double broiler or in a microwave on medium (50% power) for 1 ½ to 2 minutes.  Whisk one quarter of the filling into the melted chocolate, then blend the result into the remaining filling. (Careful!!! Don't cook your eggs!) Stir in the chopped pecans.

 

 

Pour the filling into the crust.  Cover the edges of the pie crust with aluminium foil to prevent burning--this is a must!  Bake until the edges of the pie are slightly puffed and the center seems set but still has a slight wobble, 25-30 minutes.  Let cool on a rack for a good 2 hours minimum.  (It'll probably still be warm with a gooey center, but set enough so that it holds together--like the picture here...because we couldn't wait any longer for it to cool! Serve warm or at room temperature. 

 

This pie is so incredibly rich, so I like to cut the richness with some whipped cream....om nom nom.  Warning: To get through the piece of pie in the photo, you will feel sickly by the end!!! :)

 

SPCA Cupcake Day! Getting fancy with the fondant...

I'm an animal lover at heart, but when I heard about the SPCA cupcake day and realized that my passion for animals could be combined with my passion for baking yummy treats, I was delighted!  This post however, isn't actually about the baking, it's about the decorating! (I'll share my treasured cupcake recipe later...)  This is more of a keepsake for me than anything else because I worked so hard on these little buggers!

 

 

I wanted to have a cohesive theme, so I focused on making figures that highlighted all the wonderful things the SPCA does...the SPCA lists it as "SPCA in action."

 

First up we have my educated cat...

 

Followed by my adoption cupcake...

 



 

 

Here I did a cute palamino to represent horse welfare...

 



 

 

This is my superdog to display animal rescue...

 

 

The SPCA also prosecutes people that mistreat animals, so I felt this was appropriate...

 

 

To represent their BirdWing program where they rehabilitate wild birds, I did a Kiwi since it is NZ...

 

 

They also help to rehabilitate animals that have been injured...

 

 

And lastly, they help to reunite lost pets with their owners!

 

 

 

This was my first time ever really trying to do figurines with fondant, and although very time consuming...I'm hooked!!!

 

 

I also managed to raise $40 for the SPCA!  Fun and rewarding!!!



 











Pumpkin Bread

I adore pumpkin bread, and I love to have it all year round because it's delicious and shouldn't only be allowed during November and December.  I made these mini loaves because it meant I could just have a little pumpkin bread at a time and freeze the rest for when I want some more.  Good plan?  Gooooood plan.

Pumpkin Bread

3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs 

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon cloves

 

Preheat your oven to 180C (350F). Place 4 mini-loaf pans on a baking sheet, and spray with cooking spray.

 

In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar and eggs. Whisk in pumpkin, canola oil, and vanilla until well combined.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the wet, being careful not to over-mix.

Divide the pumpkin batter evenly between the 4 loaf pans.

Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a couple crumbs. Cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then remove from the pans and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.