Manjar and Alfajores

Chileans are a nation of sweet tooths. Most popular of all ingredients in their sweet treats is the inclusion of dulce de leche, or manjar, a thick rich caramel made by boiling down milk and sugar. They use it to make tarts, tortes, biscuits, and toppings for icecream and pancakes. My favourite was the chuchufli which is a hollow tubular wafer filled with dulce de leche and dipped in chocolate....very addictive!

I took a jar of manjar home with me as the supermarket was FULL of choice and it really is quite delicious. The only option here in NZ is to make your own from scratch, boil a can of sweetened condensed milk or buy a can of Nestle caramel. Those last two options really are super sweet and don't give the richness of flavour to the caramel like making it traditionally does.

So I attempted to give it a go following this recipe by Laylita. She shows a step by step process and it is excellent. I used regular white sugar and as I had some palm sugar left in my pantry I included that as well which gave it the most amazing flavour. I also halved the amount as I didn't have enough milk for 8 cups but next time I think I'll make the larger amount, given that it takes a fair few hours to make.

To keep going with a traditional latin america theme I also made alfajores, little shortbread biscuits sandwiched with dulce de leche. Usually sprinkled with a bit of icing sugar but as it is already a very sweet cookie I thought perhaps it might go into sugar overload! I also made these quite thin as I preferred them like that. In Chile they vary in size and thickness - mostly they were so large they needed halving and sharing!

Manjar:

8 cups whole milk

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Add all ingredients together and over a medium low temperature and stir until sugar is dissolved.

Keep on low temperature and let sit for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

After 1 1/2 hours you will need to watch it more carefully as it will start to thicken. Give it regular stirs to keep it from burning or boiling over.

After about 3 hours it will have thickened and darkened in colour. It is ready when it has a thick cream-like consistency. It will thicken even more once cooled.

This makes about 4 small jars and keeps in the fridge.

Biscuit dough:

125g butter

1/2 cup castor sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 egg

1 cup plain flour

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg and mix well. Add sifted flour and beat until well combined.

Using two sheets of baking paper roll out dough to about .5cm thick and cut out with a round cookie cutter.

Bake for 10 mins in 180 deg C oven.

Cool and then sandwich with dulce de leche.

Peanut Butter Stuffed Chocolate Cookies

This is a recipe that is in my book, and since I've had development of that on hold while the rest of my life carries on I thought I'd at least share a few recipes with you all.

This one is a recipe that my biscuit mad older brother, and a not-so-sweet-tooth younger brother have declared the best cookies ever.

They are rich, semi sweet chocolate with a smooth nutty centre and a total crowd pleaser for those that love that perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter.

Recipe:

125g softened unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla paste

1 egg

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup smooth peanut butter

1/2 cup icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Cream butter, 1/4 of the peanut butter and the sugars together until light and creamy.

Add the egg and vanilla and beat until mixture is really fluffy.

Stop mixing, add sifted flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa and stir it in until it is well combined. Set aside.

Next in a separate bowl stir together the icing sugar and remaining peanut butter until it is smooth and even consistency.

Take a tablespoon size portion of the chocolate cookie dough and form a circle, indent the centre with your thumb and fill with about 1/2 teaspoon of the peanut butter mix. Carefully wrap the rest of the cookie dough around this and place on the baking tray as a slightly flattened cookie.

Do this until you have used up all the mixture, sometimes I have a little peanut butter left over.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until set.

Also, a tip: Use smooth peanut butter if you can as it works much better. Also, if the peanut butter mixture looks too dry just add a teeny tiny bit of oil to soften it.

Mum

This post is a tribute to my beautiful and quite amazing mum.

This year she is up in Auckland while I'm down here so we won't be with each other like I usually am so instead I'll give this rather public shout-out to how much my mum means to me.

Me just born...at home. Mum looks amazing!!!

My brothers and I were lucky enough to have mum at home waiting for us every day after school. She made amazing food. She was great helping with homework. She made school holidays fun.

She was firm, but loving. Immensely huggable. She fixed everything when it went wrong.

My worst moment was as an 8yr old being picked up from school by someone else because mum 

had broken her nose and needed to go to A & E. Until then I thought she was indestructible.

She also changed her hairstyles as often as her wardrobe...I still don't know her real hair colour.

In my later, and particularly important teen years she was approachable and open. Honest, wise and patient. She still is all these things. Practical, hardworking, selfless, loving, kind, beautiful, clever, funny, silly...she loves lemons, bubbles, babies, her family, her job, cooking, a well made gin and tonic, jelly babies, a good boogie on the dance floor and singing. 

We weren't really this orange...

Everytime something goes wrong or even right, she is the first person on the scene. She is always to be found in the kitchen where her love of cooking delicious food for her family (and then some) is masterful. When she qualified as a nurse we couldn't have been prouder but she achieved her Masters I was convinced of her geekness and her addiction to study.

This woman has given a lot of herself to others. So almost 35 years of being a mum to three children, then three grandchildren later she is at the centre of all of that. I can only hope that I will follow in her footsteps in raising my children as well as she did my brothers and me.

Mum. I love you so much. I miss you all the time.

Happy Mothers Day.

xx

Yummy Mothers Day Scrolls

This week for lunchboxes I've been trying to change it up a bit. Sandwiches are great but I've been having a lot come home in the lunchbox, still untouched. And its only the first week back at school after the holidays!

This dough recipe is my absolute favourite go-to when making pizzas in a jiffy, or for a quick flatbread but not so good for loaves. The best part about it is there is no long waiting for the dough to rise so it makes it perfect to make on a school morning without having to fuss around the night before, or wake up at the crack of dawn. This week I've used this recipe to make scrolls. The kids favourite by far is the scroll with cheese and ham and they get gobbled down pretty fast. I thought however, for a weekend and/or a great mothers day morning or afternoon tea treat this version is perfect. It's really delicious, a perfect amount of tartness and sweetness and the dough comes up a real treat.

So, here's the recipe.

The Dough

1 1/2 teaspoons active dried yeast

1 cup lukewarm water
2 1/2 cups high grade flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons oil

Put the water into a small bowl and add a pinch of the sugar, stir to dissolve it. Then add the yeast and put aside for a few minutes.

While waiting for the yeast to activate, combine the flour, remainder of the sugar and salt into a mixing bowl. If you have an electric mixer fit the dough hook on the machine. When the yeast is ready pour it, along with the oil into the mixture and beat on medium for 10 seconds until it is all combined. Then increase the speed for 30 seconds and beat well.

Leave the dough for 10 minutes - don't worry about covering it even.

Filling:

Softened butter

2 tablespoons icing sugar

2 tablespoons dessicated coconut

1/2 cup frozen raspberries

handful of chocolate bits (white or dark, or both)

Roll out the dough into a rectangle shape to approx 1cm thickness.

Spread the butter thinly over the dough, but leave a 3cm gap at the bottom edge

Sift icing sugar over this evenly.

Sprinkle the coconut and then the raspberries over this evenly.

Add the chocolate bits.

Roll the dough up in a long sausage, as if making a sponge roll and using your finger and a little bit of water wet the gap at the bottom edge and seal the roll.

Cut the roll evenly into sections, I end up with roughly 8 scrolls.

In a lined cake tin (square or round) place the scrolls in snugly and bake for 30 minutes at 200 deg C.

When you take them out of the oven you can then drizzle some melted white chocolate on them, they'll look fantastic.

Eat and enjoy!

Sweet NZ April Roundup

Well here it is, my round up of all the delicious and wonderful creations whipped up this month. Fruit featured heavily in the recipes for this month, and its not hard to understand why. All the beautiful stone fruit collected over summer, the new season apples and feijoas and the zingy fresh taste from berries, it's hard not to bake without having fruit, or in one case beetroot, as inspiration.

So, lets begin...

First up was Bridget from After Taste with a recipe of a Late Summer Plum Cake. This looks so perfect and in her own words is "moist, tender and wonderfully fruity" and can be made with apples, nectarines or peaches. Sounds pretty perfect to me.

Next was Alessandra with two recipes she actually managed to send while away in South America battling with ovens that don't work. Her first one from Only Recipes is Fresh As lychees, raspberries and feijoas dipped in dark chocolate.

And the second one from her Alessandra Zecchini website is a Very Easy Semifreddo Dessert...which looks delicious, and not only very easy to make but would go down a real treat at any dinner party to impress guests. Happy travels Alessandra!

Mairi from Toast made the most amazingly flavour combination shortbread with her Lime, Clove and Pinenut Shortbread. I bet her kitchen smelled delicious while these were baking.

Lesley from eat,etc made Coffee and Walnut Cupcakes which sound like my ideal morning tea snack. I LOVE coffee cake.

Coffee lovers will love these little mouthfuls of coffee and walnut cupcakes, light in texture, rich in taste.

The lovely Nicola from Homegrown Kitchen made an amazing Pink Butterfly Cake for her daughters third birthday. Isn't it beautiful?

It is moist and light, while dairy- and egg-free, low in sugar and boosted with the power of beetroot. Iced with a cashew 'cream' icing, delicately coloured with a few drops of homegrown beetroot juice.  

Zo from Two Spoons made a Magic Custard Cake with Raspberries and Caramel Sauce. I'm a sucker for anything custardy so I'm pretty sure I'm going to try and make this!

Frances from Bake Club made a chocolate version of a louise cake with this Chocolate Cherry Louise Cake. Yummo!! 

Sue from from one of my favourite blogs Couscous & Consciousness gives us a recipe for Fig, Vanilla and Chocolate Jam. After reading her post I wish I was having the same breakfasts she is enjoying with this jam!! Oh my goodness it sounds amazing.

Lydia from Lydia Bakes has had an exciting new blog extreme makeover, so you should check her out just for that, let alone these swoon worthy Passionfruit Cupcakes with Passionfruit Curd Filling!

Don't they look divine? I've got a whole load of passionfruit pulp sitting in my freezer from an amazing summer haul, so I'm thinking the curd recipe alone is a great way to use them up.

And Lydia says "These delicious cupcakes are filled with delicious and easy to make passionfruit curd, then topped with creamy passionfruit buttercream (I even show you how to decorate them!) I'm not lying when I say these are one of my favourite cupcakes I've ever made!"

And lastly, myself with my Apple Meringue Pie recipe from all the abundant apples I've had this month. This is a warm filling dessert perfect for the cooler evenings, with a bit more glam than your average apple pie.

That's it folks - go and check each of these wonderful blogs out and get some baking inspiration. And if you haven't done so yet join us in May for the next Sweet NZ entry. May is being hosted by  Bridget from After Taste.

Setback, for a little while anyway.

Why oh why is nothing ever easy?

In my last post I announced a date for my surgery had finally been decided and I had been fitted into a date vacated by someone else. Three years of waiting to be fixed were going to be over by next Thursday afternoon.

So I rang my mum, who booked her annual leave, I teed up friends to share the childcare duties. I even started mentally packing my bag for what would be a minimum 4 night stay and prepared for the recovery. I was even quitting sugar, caffeine and alcohol in preparation. I've been doing over 40 sit ups a day to prepare my abs for excellent use (they would be using those muscles to fashion a breast shape with).

And then this morning, as I was standing out in the forecourt of a tyre shop, after just getting half my body drained with blood for my pre-op check I got a phone call from my super nervous breast nurse (nervous because she had to break the news to me. Don't worry I didn't shoot the messenger). They had to cancel. A surgeon on the op team was unavailable.

Lucky I was wearing sunglasses as tears of frustration immediately came to the fore. And I'm still upset. To say I'm gutted is an understatement.

This is not some minor procedure, this is a massive deal and getting everything organised for post op is a big ask of a lot of people.

So, no new boobs for now. It's been postponed.

But you have four rowdy bouncing kids with you its hard to stay sad and feel sorry for oneself, so I took them for a ramble around The Mount and fed them hot chocolate and hot chips before heading home to break the news to my family. It's disappointing but not life threatening. It's out of my control, but it really really really really sucks all the same.

* I have two beautiful 11yr olds in my kitchen right now making me a chocolate fudge cake to make me feel better. And my 8yr old told me I deserve a glass of wine. Kids are pretty damn awesome aye?

A Date...

So I think my prayers have been answered.

This afternoon I got a call from my breast team.

They've had a cancellation...and they thought that I would be best to replace with.

I'm booked in for two weeks from yesterday. 9th of May. 

There's a crap load to sort out, childcare arrangements to be made and my stomach is already rolling with nerves.

My long road is nearly at an end.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. Now I'm off to have a cry, a cry of relief and happiness.

xx

Valle de la Luna: Valley of the Moon

Valle de la Luna. This is where to go to see the most amazing sunset in the world. And its called the Valle de la Luna because the terrain looks otherworldly, perhaps like the moon. Or perhaps what like Mars might look like. In fact it replicates as close as possible what Mars might be like terrain-wise that NASA used this area to test their Mars rover.

The sun hits the red rocks and makes them glow, the salt in the valleys shine like snow and every detail of every grain of sand shows. It's amazingly beautiful. I took photos but I feel like even they don't do enough justice...but they're the best I could do. The light here was perfect in every way.

 We climbed to the top of a dusty peak filled with a million other tourists and hippies and watched the sun hit the landscape and disappear behind the mountains over in Peru. It felt magical (I've used that word a lot in relation to this area) and breathtaking and I walked back down feeling so privileged to be able to have seen such an event in all its beauty and being again in awe at the majesty of God's handiwork. No wonder the hippies were there meditating, it was a very spiritual place. Although judging from all the tourists it wouldn't have been a very calm place for meditation!

I passed this lady being helped up the hill by a younger woman. I'm not sure if she ever made it to the top in her choice of footwear...

There were no other kids up there and I was really struck by how lucky our kids were to have seen this at their age. Behind us on the way down the mountain were some young backpacking girls from the UK, all talking about their mum's home cooking and what meals they missed. I reckoned they were travelling on the baked beans variety cheap and had spent their summers probably saving for this trip...and here were my kids tripping around these amazing places and taking it all in their stride. I know that sounds horribly like I'm boasting but I'm not because this trip was a real miracle for us to have gone and we owe this opportunity to some very special people. I just really really hope the kids will remember this forever and be grateful for the experiences they've had on this adventure. I know I am. 

We nearly missed out on going as the proprietor of our hotel told us it closed at 6pm, and it was already 6.10pm when we left our hotel for the 10 minute drive there. So we raced to the gate to find the Valle closed at 7pm for the sunset. 

Thank you Monic for ignoring her!! xx