Feijoa Oatcake

Wow. Welcome back. This is my first blogpost in 8 months! But more importantly, how have we been in lockdown for six weeks and I have only just decided to reboot the blog? I mean, we've been baking up a storm, cookies, cakes, bread, slow cooks, stir frys, curries. Heck we even recreated the famous Big Mac one night, which by the way was SO GOOD! (Find the recipe we used here).  So why haven't I shared on here yet? Well, I'm a mum. A 3 year old, and a 21 month old. Who for the past six weeks have been stuck at home, like every other kid in the country, with no kindergarten reprieve for me. Don't get me wrong, it's been great. The two of them have begun to play together more, (and fight just as much), we've done walks, crafts, and baking. Plus we made a panic buy, (no not toilet paper) the day the impending lockdown was announced: a trampoline. A great outlet for all! 

So yeah, two little ones keep me pretty busy. Plus most of what I have been making this past 6 weeks is other peoples recipes. My creative outlet was on autopilot. But this morning, feeling slightly under the weather (thanks delicious bottle of red wine last night) I was in the mood to be a bit more experimental and it sure paid off. The smell wafting through the house when I pulled this out of the oven was incredible. We ate it warm, without cream or yogurt, but having a dollop on the side would only add to the experience. The rest eaten cold, was soft aand chewy and extremely moreish.  It will keep in an airtight container for a day or two, 3 or 4 days in the fridge, but it's pretty low in sugar and lots of moist fruit so is best eaten within the first couple of days. 

This is a twist on a traditional shortcake recipe, which I've made 'healthier' if you will. Slightly less sugar, added oats, and spice, plus a switched to wholemeal flour. 
I've used feijoa, like most people who have trees, you end up overrun and out of ideas on how to use them! Once scooped, they freeze well and can be added to muffins, crumbles or used in this delicious Oatcake. 

If you don't have feijoas, any fruit would do. Fresh or tinned peaches or plums; Berries - fresh or frozen; Stewed apple or pear. Also, any flour would work. I used wholemeal just to up the fibre content, and make me feel better about serving the kids adult sized pieces. I mean, they'd have eaten the whole tray had I let them. But plain flour would work just as well. 

As for the spices, mix and switch to suit the fruit. Feijoa and ginger work together perfectly, but I'd put cinnamon with apple. Perhaps a pinch of nutmeg and clove with the cinnamon for a plum one - mixed spice, a touch of cardamom with peach. Suit yourself.



Ingredients (9 - 12 generous servings):

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 170g butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence 
• 1/2 cup oats 
• 3/4 cup wholemeal flour
• 1 1/2 tsp ginger - optional
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups of fruit - as described above 

Method:

Line a 20cm square baking dish with baking powder. Preheat oven to 180*C.
Cream butter and sugar together till light in colour. Add vanilla and egg, beat well. 
Mix in oats, flour, ginger (or other spices) and baking powder, until you have a soft dough. 
Take 3/4 of the dough and press it into the lined baking dish. 
Arrange fruit over the top. 
Dollop lumps of remaining dough over the fruit. It will spread as it bakes. 
Bake for 40 mins till golden brown and the fruit is bubbling through the cracks in the top. 
Allow to cool for 15 mins before cutting and serving. 
Serve with lightly whipped cream or Greek yogurt. 
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days - if it lasts that long. 

Louise Cake

I'm amazed at how many people have never heard of Louise Cake... if you have, you're clearly one of the lucky ones. Buttery moist cake like base (it's almost a pastry to be honest!), baked, then smothered in jam (traditionally raspberry), then topped with a coconut meringue, before being baked again. 

I recently purchased a slice of Louise Cake to take away from a cafe, and to my horror when I arrived home and sat down (with my cup of tea) to eat it, I realised they had given me the wrong one. Instead I had a caramel meringue slice - yuk. Okay, it was still pretty tasty, but I'm not the biggest caramel fan so it was a bit overwhelming for me. Needless to say, my Louise Cake crave was not fixed. 

You can find a classic Louise cake recipe in your Edmonds recipe book, it's one I've made dozens of times, but find you need about three pieces to feel satisfied. It's true with many of those old school recipes, the portions and ratios of base to topping were much smaller. So my version has a thicker more decadent base, and today I've chosen to smother it in homemade feijoa jam, but you could use any of your favourite jams, preserves, or even a lemon curd. The coconut topping is also thick, and I've tried not to add too much sugar. I find with the base and jam, the meringue doesn't need to be overly sweet, however it does require enough sugar to give it that wonderful thick glossy texture. 

Tips: 
Room temperature eggs are best for baking with. 
To separate eggs I just crack them in the middle and pour the egg yolk between the two halves over a bowl until the white drops out and the yolk is remaining in the shell. If you're not confident to do this then you can use a fancy egg separator contraption. 
The key is that you don't want any yolk in with the whites, but a bit of egg white with the yolks is A-Okay.    

Ingredients (makes 20-25 pieces):

Base

• 180 grams butter
• 1 cup sugar 
• 1 tsp coconut essence (use vanilla if you don't have coconut essence) 
• 3 egg yolks 
• 2 1/4 cups self raising flour 

Topping

• 1 cup of jam 
• 3 egg whites 
• 1/2 cup sugar - caster sugar is best
• 1 1/2 cups of desiccated or thread coconut 

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius, and line a 20 x 25cm baking tray with baking paper (allow the baking paper to come up higher than the tin if possible. 

Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamed. If you have a freestanding cake mixer it makes this job really really easy. Once creamed add your egg yolks and coconut essence, mix till well combined.

 

Now add the flour and stir, or mix well until you have a crumbly dough. Press the dough evenly into your lined pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes till risen and lightly golden on top. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for ten minutes before adding the toppings. Increase the oven temperature to 180 degrees Celsius. 

While the base bakes, prepare the topping. If you are using the same bowl on your mixer, make sure that the bowl is thoroughly cleaned. You don't want any of the butter residue in the bowl otherwise the whites will not whip properly. Beat the egg whites on high using a freestanding or hand electric mixer. 

Once thickened, gradually add the sugar. I add a few spoonfuls at a time while continuing beating. You eventually want the mixture to be thick white and glossy, like meringue. You may want to rub a little of the mix between your fingers to check that the sugar has dissolved. If it still feels quite grainy, beat for another couple of minutes. Finally fold in the coconut. 

On the slightly cooled base, spread your jam evenly, getting right to the edges. (Note: If your base has shrunk down during cooling, that's fine - remember it's a cross between a cake and a pastry). Use a spatula to dollop and spread the coconut meringue mixture evenly across the top of the jam. 

Once spread, I rough up the top a bit so that it's not too smooth. Pop back into the oven for 20-25 minutes until lightly golden on top. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before using a sharp knife to slice the still warm slice into 20-25 pieces. Then leave to cool completely before removing from the tin. 

This is ideal served with mugs of hot tea. Enjoy x

 

Chocolate & Peanut Rice Bubble Crunch

There's something insanely delicious about nostalgic foods like this. We would always have these at birthday parties growing up, except mum would make the honey version (she was a health nut), which although tasty, is mighty boring compared to these!

I searched the internet high and low for a recipe for ones which were peanut butter and chocolate - only my favourite flavour combination - but surprisingly the internet failed me. All the recipes I found were either a peanut butter crunch with a chocolate topping, or made using cocoa, not actual chocolate, so instead I made my own up, and (thank goodness) it's a flavour hit! Kind of reminds me of M&M's, a cross between the crispy ones, and the peanut butter ones, good luck finding them in NZ, seems to be more of an American thing.

Best of all this recipe is so so easy. I whipped it up in 15 minutes, plus it's easy for little helpers (just be careful on the melting part). Oh, and be sure to lick the bowl!

Ingredients (Makes 1 large 30 x 20cm tray, about 25 pieces): 

• 6 cups of rice bubbles 
• 250 grams of milk chocolate 
• 250 grams of smooth peanut butter 
• 60 grams of butter
• 60 grams of icing sugar
• extra 30 grams chocolate and 1 tbsp butter for topping - optional

Line a large baking tray with cling film, so that the sides over hang. 

In a large bowl, measure out 6 cups of rice bubbles. 

Create a double boiler, in a small saucepan put a little bit of water, place a metallic bowl on top so that it seals the edge. Make sure the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl. Place this onto a low heat. In the bowl, put the chocolate, butter and peanut butter, stirring frequently until melted and smooth. 

Sift in the icing sugar and mix well to combine. 

Use a spatula to pour all of the peanuty, chocolatey goodness into the bowl with the rice bubbles. Mix well until all the rice bubbles are coated. Then pour it all into the lined baking tray. Use the back of a spoon to press it down into the tin. If you hear some of the rice bubbles crunching, that's fine. Once pressed and smoothed, fold the sides of the cling film over to cover it, and pop it in the fridge for an hour (at least) to set. 

Once set, remove from the fridge. You can add some chocolate drizzle as a topping if you like. Simply use the double boiler method to melt the extra chocolate and butter. Once melted use a spoon to drizzle this over the top of the slice. Give that about 20-30 minutes to set, before using a large knife to cut the slice into pieces. 

This is best stored in the fridge (particularly in hot weather) until required.