Christmas 2014

Christmas has been filled with joy,  love and laughter! Thanks to everyone who has supported my little blog, I truly appreciate all your sweet messages. I would like to wish everyone a Happy New year and and a cracker 2015. 

Christmas 2014

Christmas has been filled with joy,  love and laughter! Thanks to everyone who has supported my little blog, I truly appreciate all your sweet messages. I would like to wish everyone a Happy New year and and a cracker 2015. 

Gingerbread

A gorgeous friend of mine asked me for a gingerbread recipe. The recipe below I have used for years making gingerbread houses and cookies, it is  super easy and tastes great!

You will need

3 1/2 cups of self raising flour

1 cup of plain flour

2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon of ground ginger 

1 cup of firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup of pure icing sugar

180g of unsalted butter

1/2 cup of golden syrup 

2 medium eggs 

Icing 

3 cups of pure icing sugar

2 egg whites

Method 

1. Combine flours, cinnamon, ginger, sugars, and butter in a food processor and process until mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.

2. In a jug whisk golden syrup and eggs, add to food processor and process until dough just starts to come together. 

3. Place dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. 

4. Cut dough into two pieces and refrigerate for 3-4 hours, making sure dough is well chilled. 

    *very important to work with chilled dough so dough maintains shape and you avoid spreading of          dough.

5. Once chilled roll dough out between two sheets of baking paper until at least 5mm thick. 

6. Whether you are making a house or cookies you will need to : 

     - using  a pattern you have created as a cut-out guide to cut house pieces and place in a single layer on lined baking tray. 

     - press out cookie shapes and place in a single layer on a lined baking tray.

  Freeze for 15-20 minutes, until firm.

7. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

8. Place gingerbread on room temperature trays and bake for 15 minutes or until firm. Cool on trays.

9. When gingerbread is completely cooled you can begin decorating cookies or creating your gingerbread house. 

10. To make icing for gingerbread house, in a electric mixer beat egg whites until soft peaks form and gradually add icing sugar. Beat until thick. 

      *when joining together you may need support to hold walls up and unopened cans of food are perfect until icing dries. 

11. To decorate cookies or ginger bread house use a piping bag or if you don't have a piping bag a snap lock bag with one corner trimmed will work perfectly. Use lollies to decorate house or cookies. 

If you have any questions just leave a message in the comments below, I hope you have fun! 

I love December

Things have been crazy busy but I just love school holidays and having all my children home together. 

Green Juice

I'm experimenting with juicing and today I made the best green juice and some how fluked the perfect mix. If you have a great green juice recipe can you please share below. 

Today I used, 1 apple, 1 kiwi fruit, half a lemon- adding 1slice to the bender with the skin and juice, a really good handful of English spinach, about a 2 inch piece of cucumber, 1/2 cup of ice and 1/2 cup of water. Perfect! 

I like to use my kitchenAid blender! 

Even little miss 2 loved the green juice. Great way to get lots of goodness into her diet.

I must say I was scared of green juice but it really is so good!

Share your recipes if you can. Enjoy!

Pancakes

I know we all have a recipe for pancakes and really I think maybe I'm taking simple and easy to the extreme ...... I have used this recipe for as long as I can remember and it never fails.  Great for Saturday mornings when I have more time on my hands. Nevertheless I just had to share.

You'll need

1 1/2 cups of milk

1 egg

1 tsp of vanilla

2 cups of self raising flour

1/4 tsp of bicarbonate of soda

1/3 cup of sugar 

Melted butter

Method

1. Combine milk, egg and vanilla and whisk in a medium size jug.

2. In a mixing bowl combine flour, bicarbonate of soda and sugar.

3. Make well in centre of flour mixture, add milk mixture and whisk until well combined.

4. Heat non stick pan  on medium and brush with butter. 

5. Using large spoon, spoon in mixture and cook for 3 mins or until bubbles appear. Turn and cook for another 3 minutes or until cooked.

* remember to brush pan with butter between batches

The great thing about this recipe is you can add anything to the mixture, blueberries, banana, chocolate chips and the list goes on.

Enjoy! 

CHRISTMAS WHITE CHOCOLATE GINGERBREAD TRUFFLES

Ok, so I am starting to think about Christmas treats and I think having something that is not rum balls and white Christmas for a change is great! Last year I was given this recipe but can't remember who gave it to me. I made these super easy, only three ingredients and addictive gingerbread truffles for end of year school celebrations and to give as a small christmas gift. They were a big hit! 

What you'll need

2 packets of arnotts ginger nut biscuits 

250g of white chocolate 

250g of Philadelphia cream cheese

Coconut to sprinkle on top of truffle, to look like snow or/

   Crushed candy canes sprinkled on top of truffle

Method

1. Process biscuits in processor, very finely.

2. Add cream cheese, process well.

3. Roll dough into small bite size balls.

4. Melt white chocolate, using a double boiler or the microwave. If you decide to use the microwave melt on medium heat for 1 minute, stir and melt for a further 30 seconds,  repeat if needed.

5. Use a skewer to make dipping the balls in the chocolate easy and less messy. Cover completely in chocolate and place on a tray lined with baking paper. At this stage sprinkle with decorations while still wet.

6. Place in the fridge until ready to wrap or plate and serve.

These little treats are not to overly sweet, they are just so perfectly scrumptious! They look truly gorgeous put in clear cello bags and tied with a festive ribbon. 

Enjoy!