This week's recipe comes from Women's Weekly's "Easy cakes and biscuits". They are just what they say they are: easy.
My boyfriend loves jam biscuits, and I for some reason have never tried to make any sort of thumbprint or jam drop biscuit before. So here was one to tick off the list.
The dish for this week came from another op shop pickup by my dad: "Inspiring Tastes". This book is another of those promo dealies, this one by Masterfoods. The theme for this is that every dish uses a Masterfoods product or four. But, despite the fact that I usually do buy Masterfoods products, they can be easily subbed for any brand, or even fresh herbs.
Now, lamb is my favourite red meat in the world. In fact, it's my favourite meat period. But it is also one of the most expensive meats going around, so it's seldom had in my household. As a poor uni student, I usually only stock our freezer with chicken, mince and sausages where protein is concerned. So this dish was a bit of a special treat.
Some time ago, my father picked up Family Circle's "Crazy for Chocolate" book for himself. Now, this is a rarity, as most dessert books he buys on his op-shopping expeditions are for me. I didn't see it for the longest time until one weekend he handed it to me to have a look through. He told me it wasn't great, that there was "nothing really decadent in there". It was in this moment my father was classified as certifiably insane. Not is it the greatest chocolate cookbook I have ever seen, it is right up there with my favourite desserts of all time. I want to bake this book from cover to cover, and I probably eventually will. He told me I could have the book, but I think he already knew I was not leaving his house without it.
Last night, I turned to it in an attempt to rid myself of some of the 7 punnets of strawberries my dad bequeathed unto me. I came across the following recipe and decided that it would be a suitable dessert for a lazy Sunday in: Chocolate Shortbread Stacks…
The cookbook I use for this weeks challenge was one of those "if you buy this product, you get this book free!" type deals from Leggo’s. In said cases, I usually expect nothing much. A few pasta recipes, some spaggy bol, nothing I haven't seen before. I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity in this book, with twists on old classics like a gnocci bake, and then there's the diversity of meaty dishes. The catch with said books is that you usually have to buy their products to make the recipes, however the theme is simply that all use Leggo's tomato paste, which can be subbed by an sort of tomato paste or puree. Whilst trying to think of something to cook for dinner the other night, I rummage through this book and found something that I both had never made (or eaten!) before, and had the ingredients for.
For this week's challenge I baked from Murdoch Book's "Bake It".
This one was a gift from my boyfriend's brother and sister in law a while ago. It's your typical baking book with a difference: most of the recipes have some sort of twist from the old classics. This usually involves use of spices or various substitutes for flour, like polenta or semolina. They're definitely not your typical ingredients-you'll-find-in-your-cupboard type recipes, but they are nice to try something new! There are some ginger cupcakes I've been wanting to do for ages, which I was planning to do this week. But I haven't found time to grocery shop, so had no cream. So I've gone for the choc fudge cookie sandwiches instead.
Wow. It did not take me long to fall off the band wagon with this one. Lately, finding time to cook anything that isn't 2-minute noodles is an achievement within itself.
But here's one to fire this challenge up again. This one comes from Mary-Lou Arnold’s “The All Occasion Chicken Cookbook”.
A move from the sweet and to the savory: though you probably won't be surprised to hear that it involves pastry.
I mean, how many times have you heard me say I love pastry?
A belated post, and a rushed one (I’m not keeping up with this challenge very well).
This week I turned to one of my most disliked cookbooks. This is one part of a 4 pack of Pilsbury’s “Cookies, Brownies and Chocolate Galore”, this one being the “Cookies, Brownies and Bars” book. Another op-shop find from my dad, and was chosen for this week by my boyfriend.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some great looking things in here. But all recipes advocate using their brand, most of the recipes advocate using something that isn’t easily substituted.
I live in Australia. I can’t get most of it here.
Oh well.
But a cookie pizza? Cinch to sub.
For this week of the challenge, I am turning to one of my favourite mini books. My boyfriend’s mum got me New Idea’s “Ultimate Chocolate Cookbook”, a tiny book that has 25 delicious recipes inside. One of my favourite aspects of the book is the troubleshooting chapter in the back, which shows you how to recover failed recipes by morphing them into something new. I haven’t had to resort to this myself yet, but I think recipes books need more of these.
As for the recipes, they range from the fun to the decadent. I think I have cooked almost all of them, so finding an untouched one was a challenge in itself. I happened to cook two recipes out of it today. One being white choc chip banana pikelets. The other being this molten chocolate torte:
The first season of MasterChef coincided with two other significant events for me: the first cake decorating book my dad bequeathed unto me, and the time around which my dessert-loving boyfriend and I stopped spending every waking hour at live music concerts and more time hanging out at home and, subsequently, cooking for him.
It reignited a love of food and baking that I’d had flashes of as a child, but had lost touch with as other things filled my life.
Julie Goodwin, Australia’s first MasterChef, won many hearts during a competition throughout which she often appeared out of her league. She was so lovely I couldn’t be upset when she beat my favourite contestant, Poh, in the Grand Final. But I think the moment she won the most hearts was when, during one of the final challenges, she revealed the idea for her cook book. Every chapter to tell of a chapter in her life. It would be filled with stories and photos of her family and their favourite recipes. But the final chapter would be left blank, for us to fill with out of tales, photos and recipes.
Win she did, and with her publishing deal she released exactly the book she’d promised on the show, titled “Our Family Table”.
Cakecrumbs 