tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10932567096965657322024-03-05T19:07:19.224+13:00The Cook's SpongeSoaking up culinary knowledgeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-28066765136622713492013-08-03T20:24:00.001+12:002013-08-03T20:24:59.686+12:00Moving HouseMy dearest readers,<br />
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The Cook's Sponge, alive and cooking since June 2012, is moving house. For a while now I have been considering creating a blog that encompasses more than cooking, and the time has come. It makes sense, I believe, to incorporate this blog in to the new one. I have certainly slowed down recently when it comes to cooking and writing, life is catching up with me a bit. I don't imagine I will post as often about cooking as I used to, but hopefully you'll find other topics along the way to interest you, and I am inspired to get back in to it.<br />
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I feel a tinge of sadness at the end of this chapter, but I am trying to fend it off, as this is not an end, just a change. I have loved this first year of blogging, thank you for joining me, and may it continue!<br />
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Come and join me over at... <a href="http://soakinguplife.blogspot.co.nz/" target="_blank">The Sponge</a><br />
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Here's a glimpse of what's coming up soon, food-wise, on The Sponge:<br />
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<span id="goog_907412234"></span><span id="goog_907412235"></span><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-5666618384206606962013-07-16T12:57:00.001+12:002013-07-16T12:57:35.699+12:00Only GlucoseI've been all geared up to let you know about some exciting progress with my glucose baking, when I have come across some rather difficult information about eating both glucose and sugar. A very kind friend recently gave me a copy of the follow up to David Gillespie's "Sweet Poison," called "The Sweet Poison Quit Plan. How to kick the sugar habit and lose weight."<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Gillespie is 100% positive about glucose as a sugar substitute, and says this, "We are perfectly adapted to control how much glucose we eat and our appetite control system will accurately monitor every calorie of glucose we ingest. Glucose is the perfect substitute for the recovering sugarholic." (Pg 64)<br />
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But he does give a warning:<br />
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<i>"Do not eat foods sweetened with glucose until you have completed withdrawal from sugar."</i><br />
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And goes on to explain:<br />
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"While you are still eating sugar, your appetite control system is still broken. If significant quantities of fructose are still in your diet, then eating glucose-sweetened foods will make the problem worse, not better. Glucose is metabolised fast and makes its way quickly into the bloodstream. If your appetite control system is broken, any food will cause you to overproduce insulin in a desperate attempt to clear the accumulation of blood sugar. Eating glucose in this state will simply add (extraordinarily efficiently) to the blood sugar load and encourage even more overproduction of insulin. For this reason, you must not substitute glucose until you are certain your appetite control system is operating normally." (Pg 64)<br />
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This is pretty important stuff. Pretty hard to get your head around, but important. I'm swinging from "oh no, I've been doing at all wrong" to "it's ok I don't eat much sugar" to " I need to eat less sugar"!<br />
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My biggest question is - how much fructose is a problem? We know that some is ok. In the second sentence above, Gillespie says "If significant quantities are still in your diet..." But how much is significant?<br />
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I've been feeling quite good about the drastic reduction of sugar in my diet. I have found the switch to glucose easy, and I do feel as though my appetite control system is working better; I am eating less and feeling full quicker.<br />
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But I do eat sugar. People offer it to me, in my home and their home, and it is very hard to refuse. It feels rude in other people's homes. I also like to try things in cafes, and while I eat a lot less sweet cafe food than I used to, I do still have some. What all this adds up to, I don't know.<br />
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What do you think, glucose consumers? How does this make you feel? How is the glucose working for you, and how much sugar do you think you are eating? Do you have a particular sugar downfall or two? What kind of balance of glucose and sugar do you have?<br />
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It's hard, when you know all that we do. We can't ignore the facts about sugar, and now we can't ignore this. I'm feeling a little defeated by it all just now, but it seems to me the only answer is to really look after ourselves and continue making sure we eat less and less sugar. Will you do this with me? Perhaps I need to open a cafe one day with some glucose baking, so we can all enjoy it while we're out too?<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-21975650490474812892013-06-27T14:16:00.000+12:002013-06-27T14:17:46.390+12:00Apricot and Chocolate Bread and Butter PuddingI don't know if I convinced you regarding bread and butter puddings last time I gave them a try, though I see there was some interest and maybe even some willingness to come round to the idea. I was pretty convinced myself, enough so to try another version that I came across recently.<br />
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The recipe came in a little pamphlet I was given about slow cookers. I've never really been interested in doing puddings and soups and all those different things in my slow cooker, I've only ever wanted to use it for casseroles and meaty dinners. But this time the idea appealed, and the flavours of the recipe were very tempting. <br />
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And the thing I have learnt about cooking a pudding in a slow cooker, is that you make it at 2pm instead of 5pm. And that's about it. The results were very good, just as they are when you bake a pudding in the oven. Cooking meat in a slow cooker results in lovely, tender meat that falls beautifully off the bone, in a way that you just can't replicate in a hot and hurried oven. A similar comparison can not be made with an oven vs slow cooker pudding (I state, after one experiment) but I have no problem with this. Certainly if pudding is a top priority for your day, getting it all done and out of the way by mid afternoon is pretty useful. <br />
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I made a slightly smaller amount of pudding than the recipe suggested and had to fiddle with the ingredients a little bit - I think the problem was we had such a beautiful loaf of soft white fresh bread that we kept eating it until we nearly didn't have enough for the pudding. Someone needs to learn some self-control around here. The recipe gives amounts in grams for the butter and jam, which there is no way I was going to weigh out, and I'm going to make you take the same casual approach - I hope you can handle it.<br />
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I also found it a little hilarious and just plain wrong that there were all kinds of attempts to make this a healthy pudding. The recipe suggests wholegrain or multigrain bread, reduced fat spread and trim milk. Are you kidding me?! You know I am interested in health, both mine and yours, but "multigrain and reduced fat spread pudding" just ain't the same thing as a bread and butter pudding. Ugh. There are plenty of spreads out there that I wouldn't let past my doorstep (for health reasons as well as flavour), and using trim milk in a pudding full of sugar is not going to make a big difference. So call in the glucose, keep off the fructose for the rest of the day (you can't avoid it completely here), and go easy on the portion size (a lesson I failed to remember each time I dug in to the fridge for another round of leftovers).<br />
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Have you ever done a pudding in a slow cooker? What's the advantage for you? Do you think they do a better job? <br />
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Thanks to the Healthy Food Guide for their inspiration for the recipe below (and their desire to keep us healthy, despite my complaints).<br />
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<i>nb. 1 - 2 day old bread is fine, and you may choose to add chopped dried apricots if that appeals.</i><br />
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Apricot and Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding</div>
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5 large fat slices white bread (approx 300g)</div>
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Butter for spreading</div>
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Apricot jam for spreading</div>
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1/3 cup chopped chocolate</div>
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2 3/4 cups milk</div>
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3 eggs</div>
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1 tablespoon vanilla essence</div>
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scant 1/3 cup glucose (or sugar)</div>
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Preheat cooker to low.</div>
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Cut the bread slices in half and spread really generously with butter and jam. </div>
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Beat together the milk, eggs, vanilla and glucose/sugar. Make sure the eggs are beaten really well in to the milk.</div>
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Lay half the bread slices in the cooker and scatter with half the chocolate.</div>
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Add the remaining bread and the rest of the chocolate.</div>
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Pour the milk mixture over the bread.</div>
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Bake for 4 1/2 - to 5 hours.</div>
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Don't leave pudding in the cooker for more than 5 hours, and serve straight away.</span> </div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-84040279009317790702013-06-01T13:25:00.001+12:002013-06-01T13:26:27.578+12:00Red Velvet Cupcakes<br />
I visited a friend last week and arrived just as she was finishing off baking. Great timing huh? Her teenaged children had been eating, and raving about, red velvet cupcakes so she decided to make some for the first time. I was fascinated of course, and barged in, stirred the icing, licked the icing, read the recipe and asked a million questions. When it comes to something a little bit different like this, I am always curious to know what makes it different. What IS a red velvet cupcake?<br />
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The questions are simple really. What makes it red, and what makes it velvety? The first part is simple - red food colouring! Wikipedia tells me that red velvet cakes have been around since the great depression, and that they were coloured either with red food colouring or boiled beetroots, I'm guessing it was appealing to use something cheap to liven things up and make them a little more exciting.<br />
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As for the velvet part, well, a glance down the list of ingredients is often a good way to see what is different about a recipe and what might be different about the result. It read much like a chocolate cupcake recipe with two slightly different ingredients, buttermilk and vinegar. Buttermilk is not uncommon in baking, but I wondered if perhaps that contributed to the velvetyness of the cake. I did read that the reaction between the buttermilk and vinegar somehow acts to really bring out the red colour in the finished product. My baking friend didn't have any buttermilk so used a splash of cream instead, and hers were certainly way more cocoa-coloured than red, so it seems this is indeed true. <br />
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Being sure to follow the recipe exactly when I tried these at home, I came to the conclusion that the word velvet is really just a name, not a texture. These were mildy chocolately cupcakes of an unusual colour and, well, <i>nothing more. </i>As you know cupcakes don't get me jumping with excitement, and these had not much to them other than a bit of colour. And a really nice icing. Red velvet cupcakes are traditionally topped with cream cheese icing, or sometimes butter cream icing. I didn't fancy buying cream cheese for this experiment, so did butter cream with a splash of lemon and a crazy dollop of sour cream that I happened to have and it was actually a rather inspired addition.<br />
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We have a builder at our place at the moment and my Mum was here the afternoon I was experimenting, and they both kept commenting on how good the icing was. There wasn't really much to say about the cake. I know many cupcakes are all about the prettiness and inch-thick swirls of the icing but I'm not so keen on that. May as well just eat the icing out of the bowl if that's all you're after. <br />
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Have you ever had red velvet cupcakes? Have you seen them everywhere? Have you made them? Do you love them? Am I being unfair?! I'd love to know if perhaps I'm missing something or you feel a need to defend them. They certainly made for a very enjoyable afternoon tea, and are a nice thing to grab from the freezer when you're heading out for the morning and think you'll need a snack along the way. <br />
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A bit of an internet hunt had me reading quite a few blog posts about red velvet cupcakes, and many seemed to conclude that the Hummingbird Bakery had the best recipe. <a href="http://hummingbirdbakery.com/" target="_blank">Hummingbird Bakery</a> are based in London, and they create "authentic American cakes and desserts." In fact! Londoners! Perhaps you should <a href="http://hummingbirdbakery.com/our-bakeries/" target="_blank">head in there</a> and do some research on their red velvet and let me know what it's like. Check out this link to their<a href="http://hummingbirdbakery.com/order/cakes/red-velvet-cake/" target="_blank"> red velvet cake </a>(they do cupcakes as well but that cake looks phenomenal).<br />
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Thanks to Hummingbird for the recipe below, and to all those other bloggers who have bought the recipe book so that I can have the recipe. Do try it. It is fun to have something different.<br />
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By the way, I know my icing skills are appalling. Making icing look pretty is on my list of things to learn - feel free to send me your tips. <br />
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Yes I did use glucose in place of sugar. I think that pretty much goes without saying from now on. <br />
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Red Velvet Cupcakes </div>
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60g butter</div>
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150g caster sugar</div>
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1 egg</div>
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2 tablespoons cocoa</div>
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20 ml red food colouring</div>
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1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract</div>
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120 ml buttermilk *</div>
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150g flour</div>
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1/2 teaspoon salt (optional I say)</div>
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1/2 teaspoon baking soda</div>
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1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar</div>
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Soften the butter a little and beat with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg.</div>
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In a separate bowl, mix the cocoa, food colouring and vanilla together to make a thick paste. Add to the butter mixture and mix in well. Scrape round the bowl and mix again if need be.</div>
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With the mixer on slow, add half the buttermilk and half the flour, and once incorporated repeat with the rest of the buttermilk and flour. Beat on high until you get a smooth mixture. </div>
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Add the salt, baking soda and vinegar and mix until smooth.</div>
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Pour in to 12 cupcake cases and bake for 20 - 25 mins at 170 degrees.</div>
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<span style="background-color: #cccccc;">Ice with cream cheese icing or buttercream icing.</span></div>
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* Make your own buttermilk by mixing half a cup of milk with 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar. Let stand for 5 minutes.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-28181702155278436572013-05-06T11:51:00.000+12:002013-05-07T20:48:13.516+12:00Victoria Sponge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I think I MAY have done it. No doubt you will remember my sponge challenge, and the raging success I had with the <a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/cornflour-sponge.html" target="_blank">Cornflour Sponge</a>. But while I was happy to bask in the glory for a short while, I soon realised that I still hadn't mastered a Victoria Sponge, or, some would say, a<i> real </i>sponge. I still hadn't really nailed it, and I was still feeling a little defeated. </div>
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Something happened the other day that made me want to get back in to the kitchen, and back to the sponge challenge. I think it was the fact that I had a few moments of child-free daylight hours - an extremely rare thing of late. </div>
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Things stared out badly when I went to find a recipe and lots of great advice that a lovely reader sent me via my Facebook page, and I couldn't get back far enough on my page's history to find it all. Very disappointing. But I was determined to get on with the job while I had the motivation, so I turned to Nigella. </div>
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And here's the thing. Her recipe was <i>simple</i>. I have done so much reading about how to make a great sponge and there are so many ideas out there. Use only room temperature eggs, sift the flour three times, beat the egg whites, fold <i>gently</i>, use only a certain kind of cornflour, drop the tins on the floor when you get them out of the oven, jump through hoops and stand on one leg. I've tried almost all of them. But nothing was working. </div>
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Then finally it came to my attention that I could blame my equipment. Thank goodness! I had never really thought about it before, but my cake tins are awfully large and I don't think they've been doing me any favours. They are 22cm, and the norm is 20 cm. It's hard to get a cake to rise up high when it has so far to spread. So here I was jumping through all these hoops when I just needed the right tins. </div>
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My mother-in-law has a couple of 18 cm tins so I used them this time. I don't know if there's a point where your tins are so small that you're kind of cheating in your bid to get height (and end up with hardly any width) but I guess cheating is fine if you get the result you want. And I think this result was pretty good. A very respectable height, and an extremely tasty cake. I've never though of sponges as being particularly tasty but this was really very good. Very buttery actually, which I like. It's not as light as air - the Cornflour Sponge was like candy floss in comparison - but I'm coming to the conclusion that perhaps it's not supposed to be?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Jt6kq8MlaHbaMvEIXWB7hhuL23PXb78aXaMGLfOM7vBbAc5IVcRFzmhGiHw4ME6jvfEazzUdH3nndtOWi_0J0AKwlSCZovmh1dcyj4B0rL3kvGJwCvHD7jj_q-_QXIYxXsNmRD3fL38/s1600/IMG_6373.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Jt6kq8MlaHbaMvEIXWB7hhuL23PXb78aXaMGLfOM7vBbAc5IVcRFzmhGiHw4ME6jvfEazzUdH3nndtOWi_0J0AKwlSCZovmh1dcyj4B0rL3kvGJwCvHD7jj_q-_QXIYxXsNmRD3fL38/s640/IMG_6373.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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So what's the deal with all these fancy techniques and nifty family secrets on how to cook the best sponge? I just don't know. Nigella just had me putting the ingredients in the bowl and mixing them up like any old cake. Actually, she said I could choose to cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs alternately with the flour, or I could just biff it all in and mix (I chose the former - I mean, I have my limits). Many would throw up their hands in horror at such an idea, though many also advocate it. Perhaps, when I am ready to tackle this all again, I could try the same recipe but use every technique I've ever heard and see if it makes a difference. That will be the only way I can ever find peace on the topic.<br />
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Do you or your mothers/aunts/grandmothers make sponges? Do they have special techniques that they swear by? Secret ones perhaps? I'd love to you to ask and share what you can.<br />
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Three more points:<br />
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I believe traditionalists don't use cornflour, but those who do say it gives a better texture. Having not grown up with Victoria Sponges I'm happy to forego tradition (to a very small degree) to get a good result. Feel free to try and convince me otherwise, though the argument "because we've always done it that way" doesn't tend to work with me. <br />
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I am a cream fan and will have it with almost anything. In all my experimenting with sponges I have always topped them with whipped cream. However, this time I thought the cake would last a little longer if I served cream on the side, and I wanted to keep the traditionalists happy by doing icing sugar on top as is <i>always </i>done (just don't tell them that I snuck some butter cream in the middle with the jam). But, I tried my second slice without cream and actually preferred it this way. I know, it's nuts, and I'm not sure if I can explain it. I think I could just taste the cake better without the cream, and all the buttery flavour perhaps didn't need another round of heavy dairy. If you're a cream fan I dare you to try it without. <br />
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Using glucose instead of sugar doesn't work when you use the whipping egg white and folding in sugar technique. You're making a meringue base which needs standard sugar. I didn't try glucose this time as I have had enough sponge failures, but it occurs to me that it may work as there is no meringue technique involved in this recipe. It looks like I have plenty more experimenting to do. I'll have to make sure I have plenty of eaters around when I do. Perhaps you could join me in the baking experimenting too?<br />
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Thanks to Nigella for the recipe below. Her ingredients and ideas, my words. <br />
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225g butter</div>
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225g caster sugar</div>
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1 teaspoon vanilla</div>
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4 eggs</div>
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200 g self raising flour </div>
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25g cornflour</div>
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4 tablespoons milk</div>
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Soften the butter, then cream the butter and sugar. Add vanilla.</div>
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Add the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour in between each egg. </div>
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Gently mix in the rest of the flour, including the cornflour.</div>
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When incorporated, add the milk. </div>
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Pour in to two greased and lined tins (no need to line them if they are loose-bottomed).</div>
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Bake for 25 mins at 180 degrees. </div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-40719949572871776322013-04-27T14:32:00.002+12:002013-05-12T11:54:32.415+12:00Anzac BiscuitsIt's been a while, and I must admit it's a very gentle return, as there's not much here that's new. Though I'm actually not convinced I have made Anzac biscuits before (!!) so it was a little something different for me. Thursday was Anzac Day in New Zealand and Australia, the day when we remember those members of the Australia New Zealand Army Corps who fought and died at Gallipoli in World War 1, and indeed all who have died fighting on behalf of our countries in many wars.<br />
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And as well as having a holiday, we have a biscuit. Anzac biscuits. I say all this really for any international readers, as the rest of you know them like you know pavlovas and buzzy bees. So let's just get down to business. And pictures... <br />
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Having never made these before I had to find a recipe from somewhere and there is certainly no shortage of them around. After all the recent enthusiastic Annabel Langbein talk in my life I decided not to muck around and chose to use her recipe - hopefully a guarantee for success. I would say, with all due respect, that she has mucked around a bit with the original recipe, and added sultanas and nuts, none of which I believe belong in a true Anzac biscuit. So I've gone back to basics in the version below.</div>
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They came out soft and chewy and I think I prefer them hard and crispy, so next time I'll try pressing them a bit flatter before baking. How do you prefer yours? And do you like them unadulterated or with additions?</div>
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Anzac Biscuits</div>
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1/2 cup rolled oats</div>
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1/2 cup flour</div>
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1/2 cup brown sugar</div>
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1/2 cup coconut</div>
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60g butter</div>
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1 tablespoon golden syrup</div>
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1 tablespoon water</div>
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1/4 teaspoon baking soda</div>
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Heat the butter, golden syrup and water together until the butter melts and add the soda.</div>
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Mix the dry ingredients together, then stir the wet to the dry. Roll in to balls (approx 12) and press down with the back of a fork or your fingers.</div>
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Bake at 160 degrees for 12 - 15 mins. </div>
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I did learn something else new on Thursday. I learnt that Kent's Grandmother, Win, would have turned 100 that day if she were still alive. I saw a photo of her recently and have been wondering about what she was like and what bits of her can be seen in our children.<br />
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Let's never forget our Grandmothers, Grandfathers, and all those who have had an impact on our lives. I'm sure we won't. <br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-61782933701207929392013-03-28T10:26:00.001+13:002013-03-29T22:02:07.837+13:00Hot Cross BunsReuben hopped in to bed with me the other morning after the Monkey Clock told him he was allowed to get up, and I decided it was time I explained Easter to him. You see, apart from it being probably the most important event to have happened in the history of the world, we have this whole "Easter" "Esther" problem to contend with. It has arisen (ha ha) a couple of times - we saw hot cross buns in the supermarket a while back, and when I said they're for Easter, I admit it did sound a lot like "they're for Esther."<br />
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So, you know, I gave him the run down. Told it straight, kept it
simple.
We talked about Jesus rising again so that we could go to Heaven. He
knows all about Heaven. I
think we'll leave sin for another year, and I dodged the whole cross
thing. Well, I skimmed quickly over "the cross is a symbol of Jesus
dying" and
hoped he didn't say "what?" He didn't. I felt as though the cross had to
be
mentioned as I was planning on making hot cross buns. Other than that I
think nails-in-to-hands is also a topic for another year (/decade). I
must admit I've done more than enough talking about death with Reuben,
and boy I wish Jesus wasn't the only one who could rise again. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Easter Esther</td></tr>
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Two years ago Reuben and I developed a wonderful habit of sitting down,
always on the blue sofa, for a morning tea of hot cross buns. He LOVED
them and it was a lovely tradition. I don't know how many weeks it
lasted for, but I remember thinking "the supermarket won't be selling
these forever, at this rate I'm going to have to start making them." I
think we got through on bought ones, but last year I did have a go at
making them a few times. I'm delighted that 'Bear and Lilly' requested
on a recent post that I share my hot cross bun recipe, so they must have
been good! I think they are, and I don't expect we'll be going to back to the supermarket for HCBs again.<br />
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In the spirit of soaking up new knowledge, and for the sake of your viewing pleasure, I decided that this time I would actually make the crosses and add a glaze. I confess I've never bothered doing this before. The glaze made them look, well, shinier, and they were a whole lot stickier. And the crosses felt right, given that this is Easter after all. It was awfully simple and now I know just one more little thing that I didn't know before - that crosses are simply made from flour and water.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"When I'm finished this one I'll have that one"</td></tr>
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I use a bread machine to make my hot cross buns and use the bread machine's recipe for cinnamon raisin bread. I use the machine to mix the dough and then make them in to buns. If you want to do it all by hand you can do this of course, but I'm not an expert and can't give a lot of advice. In fact perhaps you can advise us! The recipe below is for a 2lb loaf recipe - use your machine with this in mind.<br />
<br />
My crosses went fairly flat and wide, and I wonder if perhaps my paste was a little too wet. Again, if you have any thoughts on how to improve them I'd love to hear - I'm sure plenty of you know what you're talking about. I was surprised to read that the glaze goes on warm <i>after</i> the buns have been cooked. <br />
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A few more important things before you get started:<br />
<br />
i. If you plan on coming round to our place over the next couple of days, make sure you get your pronunciation of Easter right, or we'll all just get confused. <br />
ii. If you want to get a real explanation of Easter, have a read of <a href="http://sacraparental.com/2013/03/26/easter-sort-of/" target="_blank">this post</a> by the brilliant Thalia on her site <a href="http://sacraparental.com/" target="_blank">Sacraparental</a>. <br />
iii. Thank God for Easter. We will see Kent again.<br />
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Hot Cross Buns</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1 cup warm water</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1/8 cup milk</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1 egg</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1 1/2 tablespoons butter or oil</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
3 1/2 cups flour</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
3 tablespoons sugar/glucose</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1/2 cup raisins*</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
2 teaspoons cinnamon</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1 teaspoon salt</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
2 teaspoons dry yeast</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
*If your machine has an add in beeper, add the raisins later at the time indicated.</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Set your machine to dough for the mixing and first stages of rising.</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
When finished, remove dough and shape in to small buns, keeping them fairly close together.</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Leave to rise in a warm place for 40 minutes.</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Mix 1/2 cup flour with 5 tablespoons of water. Place in to a snaplock bag and trim a small corner off the bag. Pipe crosses on to buns just before they go in to the oven.</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Bake at 180 degrees for 15 mins.</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Warm 1/3 cup water
on the stove with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Stir constantly while
bringing to the boil, and simmer for 5 minutes. Brush on to the buns
while the glaze and buns are still warm.</span> </div>
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<i>If you wish to make these by hand, mix the ingredients together with a knife, and finish with your hands. Put on to a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Place in to an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and leave in a warm place for 1 - 1 1/2 hours until dough has doubled in size. Punch dough down to original size and knead until smooth. Shape in to buns and follow the instructions above. These tips come thanks to <a href="http://taste.com.au/">taste.com.au</a></i><br />
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PS - since writing I have made these again and found that a thicker paste makes the crosses really messy. The paste sort of blobs out of the hole instead of running. Do the full 5 tablespoons of water and let me know if you have any other ideas.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-5210505730166810602013-03-19T13:12:00.002+13:002013-04-13T10:38:22.771+12:00Chocolate Cupcakes<br />
We're not strictly soaking up new knowledge today as there's not a lot here that's new, but I thought I'd like to tell you about my cupcake experimenting. Cupcakes, I have to say, are awfully trendy, which has sort of put me off them a bit. I've never really been a trendy girl, as many of you will know. I started baking brownies only years after everyone else did, I started wearing leggings only when they became mainstream, and the phrase "lol" has never and <i>will </i>never cross my fingertips (that didn't count).<br />
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I kept away from cupcakes for a long time because I didn't see a great need for them in my life and, if faced with a choice, I would always go for a slab of cake rather than a cupcake. But I concede, they are quite fun to bake, fun for kids (well, other people's. Mine won't eat them) and, it turns out, fun to have in the freezer. <br />
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You see I've been baking chocolate cupcakes with glucose and putting them in my freezer. When I just fancy a bit of a treat I have something only moments away that is a real treat but is also fructose free. It saves me from being tempted to dig in to the chocolate tin or find something else that is fructose-laden. I highly recommend it, as long as your need for a treat isn't a twice daily occurrence.<br />
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As you know, I've been experimenting a bit with different chocolate cake recipes and have transferred this to my cupcakes. Sophie Gray's <a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/its-been-chocolate-cakey-week.html" target="_blank">Dana's Chocolate Cake </a>has been my favourite standard chocolate cake recipe for quite a while, and Annabel Langbein's <a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/annabel-langbeins-ultimate-chocolate.html" target="_blank">Ultimate Chocolate Cake</a> is, at this point, a very close second with its stunning centre but dry edges (I must try it again to see if I can solve that problem). I tried Annabel's recipe as cupcakes, but Dana's is still my favourite even in the cupcake stakes. Last time I thought I'd sneak a good idea from Annabel's recipe and used some yoghurt in place of milk in the Dana recipe and it was a hit.<br />
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To save you looking up the recipe again I'll put it down for you here with cupcake baking times and that yoghurt addition (but do just use milk if you don't have any yoghurt). You may like to halve the recipe and you'll still get plenty of cupcakes. <br />
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May I also take this opportunity to say please, please, please don't be nervous about trying glucose in your icing, it's definitely sweet enough, tastes fantastic and is better for you. Do you need a recipe for normal old icing? Soften a wedge of butter, beat it hard with lots of spoonfuls of glucose (in place of icing sugar) and a spoonful of cocoa. Let me know if you'd like something more scientific than that. <br />
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Thanks to Sophie Gray for the recipe below, with a small adjustment from me. <br />
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Chocolate Cupcakes<br />
</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1 1/2 cups flour</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1 1/2 cups glucose/dextrose (or sugar)</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
2/3 cup cocoa</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1 teaspoon salt</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1 cup plain unsweetened yoghurt </div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1/2 cup milk</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
100 grams melted butter</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
2 eggs</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1 teaspoon vanilla</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Put all ingredients in to a food processor and mix.</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Pour in to cupcake cases in muffin tins (or straight in to greased muffin tins if you like).</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Bake for 15 - 20 minutes at 180 degrees.</span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-53794717868765233062013-03-13T10:35:00.000+13:002013-03-13T10:35:05.523+13:00Panko BreadcrumbsI have a refreshing change for you today. It's not baking! I've been curious about panko breadcrumbs for a while, and my supermarket conveniently placed them in a basket by the fish counter, so after walking past them for a few weeks I finally fell for their trick and bought a packet. But at least my curiosity has been satisfied.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just one pic today I'm afraid. Only truly professional food bloggers are prepared to let their dinner go cold for the sake of photographs.</td></tr>
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Panko breadcrumbs are a Japanese breadcrumb that make for an extra light and crispy coating. We are pretty keen on home made fish and chips in our house, so I coated our fish with them. Both of my kids are allergic to egg, so I dipped their fish in milk first, then the breadcrumbs. I used egg to coat mine, but I must say they stuck not too badly to the milky fish and it was barely worth cracking an egg just for me (except for the research for your sake of course).<br />
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I fried the fish, as usual, in quite a lot of oil. But it would take true deep-frying to really make the breadcrumbs look like they do on the packet. My result was good though; lovely, crispy and crunchy, but I have to say only a little better than using ordinary old breadcrumbs. I am pleased to have a whole packet to use up but after that I think I will stick to using freebie homemade breadcrumbs. Perhaps I'd try them again if I had someone special (such as any of you guys) coming for dinner <i>(not that my kids aren't... you know... it's just they don't always appreciate fine cuisine).</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-16379980834013773042013-03-06T12:05:00.001+13:002013-03-06T12:05:20.576+13:00Baking Top TipsIt occurred to me recently, when visiting a non-baking friend, that there are plenty of us who have never been taught some of the basics when it comes to baking. I really believe that anyone can bake if they just know what to do. You don't have to have the knack, just a few facts! I've put together a few of my top tips for baking but also, more importantly, what are yours?<br />
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<li>Always turn the oven on before getting started, and make sure it is up to temperature before you put your baking in the oven. On all the ovens I know, the light will switch off once it has got to temperature (it will continue to go on and off from then on, as it is on a thermostat).</li>
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<ul>
<li>Temperatures in ovens are not perfectly accurate, so get to know your oven. Some will take a little longer to cook than the recipe suggests, and others will be quicker. </li>
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<ul>
<li>Cakes, muffins and cakey puddings are ready when you put a skewer (or small knife) in to the centre and it comes out clean. Biscuits and pastries can be judged by their golden glow.</li>
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<li>Put your tray in the middle shelf of the oven unless instructed to do otherwise. If you have more than one tray's worth of baking, don't attempt to cook them at the same time. I suggest shaving a minute or two off the cooking time for the second batch as, like it or not, your oven will be a bit hotter. </li>
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<ul>
<li>Creaming butter and sugar together means you need to soften the butter first (on low in the microwave is easiest). Beat it hard with the sugar in the mixer until you get a light mixture or, if doing it by hand, you'll have to give your arm a really good workout. </li>
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<ul>
<li>Once you start adding the dry ingredients to the wet when making muffins, you need to mix very lightly and gently so you don't get tough muffins. This doesn't apply to cakes or puddings.</li>
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<ul>
<li>I never sift my flour and very rarely use my sieve at all. Don't bother I say, unless you have something you really think needs it - like cocoa that has clumped a bit. I also very rarely bother with caster sugar as opposed to standard sugar, unless perhaps I'm making something more delicate such as a meringue. Even then, if I don't have any available I wouldn't worry.</li>
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<li>If you have to rub butter in to flour (often required for scone mixtures and crumbles), chop the butter up small and beat it hard and long in the mixer with the flour. I have tried everything and this is by far the easiest way. </li>
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<ul>
<li>Taste the mixture! This will be my Mum's number one tip. She visited a neighbour decades ago who had done some baking and left out a key ingredient. "But didn't you lick the mixture?" Mum said. No, she hadn't. This has always served my Mum as a great excuse to have a taste, though you're not likely to notice if you've left out the baking powder, so checking the recipe is probably a good idea too. (I once made a chocolate moussey something when my brother was coming for dinner. I didn't taste the mixture as it was too eggy I suspect, but as it turned out I had put salt in instead of sugar. Everyone has to do that once in their life).</li>
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These are the tips that come to mind for me. No doubt many of you have some great ideas. What are your top tips? And fledgling bakers, do you have any questions? I can't guarantee I can answer them, but I bet my readers can.<br />
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Oh and one more thing:<br />
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<li><i>When blogging about top baking tips, don't ever, ever leave your 16 month old in the kitchen near a rack of cooling biscuits. Not ever. All I can say is I'm glad I had a second tray cooling in a different spot, and a good vacuum cleaner. </i></li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWbOVA7eYAC4BZT9p7BFLhD0KW1RvbySRNEfekz99FKINVgtDOwe6i1t8vkt9R_9RXm_oMk8phNBpGBKygECW3r_cwhnirYnbgv4NiHNDQvwaPypMiKTZRcVzvHQrZQLX-PRt9aDFjhvU/s1600/IMG_6001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWbOVA7eYAC4BZT9p7BFLhD0KW1RvbySRNEfekz99FKINVgtDOwe6i1t8vkt9R_9RXm_oMk8phNBpGBKygECW3r_cwhnirYnbgv4NiHNDQvwaPypMiKTZRcVzvHQrZQLX-PRt9aDFjhvU/s640/IMG_6001.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The little RASCAL demonstrating Nana's Number One Tip.</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-51417183600022224932013-02-26T12:56:00.000+13:002013-02-26T12:56:25.449+13:00Sesame and Oregano LavoshAround the time I was getting excited about <a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/scottish-oatcakes.html" target="_blank">making crackers</a>, a friend of mine was visiting her niece who had not only recently given birth and brought a newborn home (enough of an achievement don't you think?), but was also was also pulling crackers out of the oven and serving them up to her guests with blue cheese.<br />
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A clever cook herself, my friend got a copy of the recipe, made them, and delivered some to me, wrapped up in baking paper and tied with a ribbon. Talk about the way to my heart! (Well, she was there already). And they were <i>amazing</i>. I am still catching up with the idea that you can make crackers at home, never would I have imagined they could be this good. <br />
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Obviously the next step was to make them myself, but when I was primed and ready to go I couldn't find the recipe. Fortunately the words "sesame" and lavosh" were in my head, so I googled them and found the first recipe in the list to be from Annabel Langbein. And whaddya know, it was the exact same recipe as I had been given (I'd read it enough times to recognise it). A couple of my friends are big Annabel fans, and as you know one of them recently gave me one of her recipe books. I'm beginning to notice that people who discover Annabel seem to fall for her hook, line and sinker. Once you discover her, you love her! I've read her recipe book while staying up too late on many occasions, but have only ever made her <a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/annabel-langbeins-ultimate-chocolate.html" target="_blank">Ultimate Chocolate Cake</a>. A bit more experimenting and presumably I will fall too...<br />
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And as it turns out, the Lavosh recipe was in the very book that I had been given, quietly sitting on my bookshelf all that time.<br />
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The challenges involved in this recipe are around having the right ingredients and the time it takes to roll the dough out and get the many trays in to the oven. But to paraphrase Nigella, if you're going to the supermarket to buy bread and cheese and eggs, you may as well go to the supermarket to buy sesame oil and sesame seeds and ... well, that's probably all you will need to buy for this. You see her point, it's not hard to buy something you don't have, though you need to think ahead.<br />
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Rolling the dough out takes some time, but I have to say it is lovely dough. Beautifully soft and a delight to roll - not a phrase I ever imagined myself saying. You will need to use quite a lot of flour when rolling to stop the dough sticking. I recommend using a sieve to shake your flour on to the bench top and on the dough, it makes it so much easier and you'll find it's well worth digging it out of the cupboard. My first batch of crackers came out a bit floury, so when brushing the oil on in the final step, make a point of dusting a bit of the flour off at the same time. <br />
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If you make the full recipe you will end up with a lot of crackers, and this means sending tray after tray through the oven (one at a time of course) so it takes more time than just throwing a batch of biscuits in and being finished. I did a half recipe the first time and still got three trays worth.<br />
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If you want to go easy on the salt, as many of us do when we're feeding our kids, I suggest you reduce the amount of table salt in the mixture, but don't deny yourself the lovely taste of the rock salt on top. When halving the recipe I just did a good, generous pinch + rock salt on top. See what you think.<br />
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As always I prefer the no-flavour of grapeseed oil to the strong flavour of olive oil, but do as you please. I've also suggested a little less cooking time than Annabel does as this worked better for me. You'll have to experiment and see what your oven does best. <br />
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Thanks to <a href="http://www.annabel-langbein.com/" target="_blank">Annabel Langbein</a> for the recipe below, and thanks to friends who deliver me paper packages tied up with ribbon!<br />
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Sesame and Oregano Lavosh</div>
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1 C white flour</div>
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1/3 C wholemeal flour</div>
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2 Tbsp each black and white sesame seeds (or 4 Tbsp of one kind)</div>
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1 Tbsp finely chopped oregano or 1 tsp dried oregano</div>
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1 tsp salt</div>
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1/4 C olive oil</div>
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1 tsp sesame oil</div>
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1/2 C water</div>
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To finish: olive oil and flaky sea salt</div>
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Stir together flours, sesame seeds, oregano and salt. Mix the oils and water together and add to the dry ingredients. Stir to form a soft, pliable dough.</div>
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Divide the dough in to four pieces and roll each one out on a floured board in to rectangles as thinly as possible. Cut each rectangle in to individual crackers and roll each piece again - they need to be paper thin.<br />
(Keep in mind that as you roll each individual piece the second time it will approximately double in length).</div>
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Transfer the pieces to a tray lined with baking paper, brush lightly with oil and sprinkle lightly with sea salt.<br />
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Bake at 165 degrees until crisp and pale golden for about 12 - 15 minutes.</span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-73451471224608675832013-02-24T14:13:00.000+13:002013-03-08T12:55:53.162+13:00Sweet Poison by David GillespieMy journey in sugar reduction got serious after I watched <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM" target="_blank">The Bitter Truth</a>, a seminar by Dr Robert Lustig (see my summary <a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/what-is-wrong-with-sugar.html" target="_blank">here</a>). Most of my motivation has come from him, however I have also recently read <a href="http://sweetpoison.com.au/" target="_blank">"Sweet Poison. Why Sugar Makes us Fat"</a> by David Gillespie, and I have found his research to be extremely influential. If you are either interested or yet to be convinced regarding our need for sugar reduction, I highly recommend you have a read. I picked it up at my local library, but have since bought a copy. In the meantime, here's a brief summary for you.<i> </i><br />
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<i>When David Gillespie's wife announced that they were to have twins - and they already had four children - he realised it was time for drastic action. He was seriously overweight, lethargic, not sleeping properly and had given up on dieting. He did an extraordinary amount of research and discovered some </i><i>seriously </i><i>scary stuff about sugar, specifically fructose. By cutting fructose out of his diet he not only lost 40kg but also stopped feeding his body with poison. </i><br />
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<i>Here's a very simple summary of what he has to say:</i><br />
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<b>Sugar, our bodies and insulin</b><br />
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Our bodies require glucose in order to survive. Pretty much everything we eat gets converted by the body in to glucose. "As far as our body is concerned, everything we eat is just glucose in disguise." (p14)<br />
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Insulin converts the glucose (ie. pretty much all the food we have eaten) in to energy - fuel for the body to run on. It also helps to send the message to our brain that we have eaten all we need. (p19)<br />
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There are only three important simple sugars: glucose, fructose and galactose. <br />
Any other sugar you may know of (eg, lactose, maltose, sucrose) is made up of a combination of some or all of these three. (p11)<br />
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Sucrose - what we know as ordinary old table sugar - is 50% glucose and 50% fructose. Obviously this applies to all sucrose, whether it is highly processed or not.<br />
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Our bodies are designed to eat fat (yes, even saturated fat) and not become fat. Our bodies have been beautifully designed to convert food in to energy, to make use of the energy, and to tell us when we have eaten enough. (Chp 2)<br />
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<b>The Fructose Loophole</b><br />
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However: <br />
"Fructose bypasses the control mechanisms we have evolved to stop us eating too much of it." (p61)<br />
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There is a fructose loophole in our appetite control system:<br />
"Every piece of food we consume stimulates the release of one or more of the "enough to eat" hormones once we have had enough to eat. There is one substance that does not. That substance is fructose. Fructose skips the fat control mechanism in the liver and is directly converted in to fatty acids (and then body fat) without passing through either of the major appetite control gateways (eg insulin). Fructose is also invisible to our built in calorie counter. We can eat as much fructose as we can shove down our throats and never feel full for long." (p78)<br />
This loophole opens up only after we have consumed the amount of fructose found in approximately 2 pieces of fruit. Our bodies can handle the amount of fructose found in a couple of pieces of fruit per day.<br />
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"Fructose jumps a critical step in our metabolism that would ordinarily stop our arteries filling up with circulating fat. Eating fat still puts fat in our arteries, but we have a built in control to stop us eating too much fat. No such control exists for fructose." (p79)<br />
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A glass of milk contains 8g of fat and no fructose. A glass of apple
juice contains- very proudly - no fat, and 16g fructose. This fructose
is converted to about 7g of circulating fatty acid (about the same
amount of fat as in the milk). However, when drinking the apple juice no
appetite control mechanism kicks in. In order to feel as full as
when drinking the glass of milk, we would need to drink 5 times as much
apple juice as milk. If we were to do that, another 35g of circulating fatty acids would be created. (pg 141-142)<br />
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<b>Exercise</b><br />
<br />
"The average can of soft drink contains about 150 calories. In other words, it contains enough energy to light a room for three hours, or run a human for 90 minutes." (p137). Yes that's right, an hour and half of jogging to burn off all the calories from an average can of soft drink. Exercise is good for us, but it's not answer. We can't just decide we're going to burn off all that fructose. We're not, as a general population, getting fat because we're lazy and don't do enough exercise. We're fat because we're eating the wrong things.<br />
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<b>Quick History</b> (Chp 7)<br />
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Sweet tasting sugarcane grasses were discovered in Papua New Guinea about 9000 years ago and grew in fame and popularity. They made their way to India and about 7000 years ago it was discovered how to crush the grasses to produce a sap. By the year 300 they learnt that if they dried the sap they were left with a crystal that could be added to any food to make it sweet. It wasn't until the 1200s that this sweet "spice" was available in England, but only for those few who could afford it.<br />
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As the British Empire grew to include tropical lands where sugarcane was grown, and the Prussians discovered sugarbeet, refined sugar eventually became widely available. "Everybody really liked the sweet stuff. Demand for sugar grew more quickly than even the exponential growth in world population." (pg 88).<br />
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At the beginning of the 19th century people were consuming on average less than one kilo per year of fructose - via fruit and some honey. By the end of the century they were consuming 13kg of fructose - via 25kg of sugar per year.<br />
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By just 1909 US sugar consumption was up to 40kg of sugar per person per year, and it steadied at 50kg through the middle of the century. But then we added soft drinks/soda and fruit juice in to the mix, and by the end the century the average American was eating 33kg of FRUCTOSE per year in the form of sugar, high fructose corn syrup and fruit juice. Australian statistics - perhaps a little closer to NZ - show that Aussies were eating 22.5kg of fructose per year by 1999. <br />
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<b>Rat tests</b><br />
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"The research had revealed to me a lot more than why I was fat. A lot of
those rat experiments were telling me that being fat was the least of
my worries. Sure fructose was making me fat, but the rats were suffering
far worse fates than being giggled at by the other rats at the gym.
They were dying of truly horrible diseases. Diseases that sounded like
those that I had been reading about more and more in the newspaper.
Things like heart disease, diabetes, stroke, liver cancer, pancreatic
cancer and breast cancer. " (p95)<br />
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Gillespie explains testing on rats carried out by Dr Sheldon Reiser from 1975 to 1990: "Study after study that concluded without a shadow of a doubt that it was the fructose half of sugar that was doing all manner of damage in his furry subjects. On the high fructose diet, the rats developed severe problems with vital organs. Liver, heart and testes exhibited extreme swelling, while the pancreas atrophied, invariable leading to the death of the rats." (p57)<br />
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At one point Reiser conducted a study on humans, looking at fructose and
a low copper diet. The study had to be terminated when four of the
twelve the men being fed the high fructose diet developed cardiac
problems, including a tripling of the heart rate and mild heart attacks. (p58) <br />
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Funny that those of us who like to know about these things are vaguely aware that artificial sweeteners are bad for you (probably found during testing on rats ) but none of us know about studies such as Dr Reiser's.<br />
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As Gillespie says, "A range of interesting rat tests have revealed some some intriguing facts about the way we ingest fructose (yes, everyone was still too scared to test fructose on humans - except at the local juice bar)" (p64)<br />
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And one more quote regarding rat tests to finish: <br />
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"A lot of the people conducting experiments on rats were being criticised for giving the animals unrealistically high doses of fructose. 'Of course the rat would die. Look how much fructose you gave it.' they would cry. 'No person actually eats that much fructose.' These figures tell a different story. Every man, woman and child in the United States (and Australia) is eating that much fructose and more. The USDA rats were actually on lower fructose diets than most of the people feeding them." (pg 93) Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-56688210458601262602013-02-18T20:29:00.000+13:002013-02-18T20:34:38.340+13:00Sugar TimeWell it's time I asked. How's it going? Your new reduced-sugar life I mean. Have you given it a go? Are you eating less sugar? Are you convinced that you need to?<br />
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Actually, I know quite a lot more than you may think...<br />
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I have had SO many conversations with so many of you. In person, on facebook, in emails, even over the phone (remember those?) about sugar and about glucose. I'm so excited that so many of you have worked hard to reduce your sugar intake and, best of all, started baking with glucose. Yesterday I was delighted to go to a friend's birthday party where she baked two cakes with glucose. They were magnificent cakes, and in no way inferior to the sugary versions. While she did all the work and I did not a bit, I couldn't help but feeling a little bit proud that all this sugar-talk did everyone a bit of good yesterday. Or at least, it didn't do them any bad!<br />
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To celebrate how far we've come I'd love to hear from you about what changes you have made regarding sugar, and how you are getting on with glucose, if you have used it. If you haven't made any changes, I'd also love to hear from you about what's stopping you. Are you not so sure you need to, are you skeptical about glucose, do you just love your sugar too much..?<br />
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I know many of you have already had these conversations with me, particularly those of you who have made changes, but I would love you to write in and and tell us about it here, to encourage others and to bring our little community together. If signing in here is too hard I'll even let you write on our facebook page instead.<br />
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Speaking of knowing more than you think, I know how many readers are out there, so come and introduce yourselves!<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-21811511312521024512013-02-13T14:42:00.001+13:002013-02-13T14:43:33.891+13:00Summer Jam<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="color: #666666;">My friend Summer emailed me recently to talk about the possibilities of making jam with glucose. I've never made jam before, though hope to one day, so really didn't know what I was talking about. Summer has, however, and we had quite a discussion about the properties of sugar and about pectin in fruit and decided it was well worth a try. So she went away and did the hard work, while I just watched my letterbox for a few days until some was delivered.</span></div>
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And what a fantastic success! Summer rang me, of course, to tell me how it had gone (in fact we have had some ridiculously lengthy discussions long in to the night about sugar and glucose) and I could hardly wait to try it. I felt as though a whole new world had opened up - jam without sugar! And I hardly ever even eat the stuff.</div>
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Summer's apricot jam was fairly tart, certainly not as sweet as we are used to. And it was <i>apricoty</i>. As Summer and her husband agreed "<span style="font-size: 11pt;">it tastes a lot more like actual apricots, rather than a sweet spread with a vague resemblance to the real taste of apricots." </span>And that can only be a good thing.</div>
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<span style="color: #666666;">You will see in the recipe that she kept her glucose to a minimum, so if you prefer your jam sweeter, just increase the amount you use. But I would encourage you to try it not-so-sweet. It's time we all got used to a little less sweetness in our lives, and how about actually </span><i style="color: #666666;">tasting</i><span style="color: #666666;"> that fruit. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">If you're a jam maker, all I can say is, grab your fruit and some glucose and get to it. If not, Summer's instructions below couldn't be clearer, and I'll be using them one day to give it a try (as soon as I find the energy to stone all that fruit - any tips?). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">For those of you buying glucose here in NZ and enjoying all our current summer fruit, here's another comment from Summer: "</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">in total I got almost 7 jars of <span class="il">jam</span> for my 1.5kg of fruit. The apricots cost me $3 and my glucose was roughly $7, so a total of $10 and I got almost 7 jars of <span class="il">jam</span>! It’s delicious and very cost effective if you can get the fruit cheap enough."</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">* Since making this jam, Summer has tried a cherry jam and a peach and nectarine jam. She increased the amount of glucose for both, and found that after the jars had been opened for a while the jam developed a white fuzz. We're yet to work exactly what has happened here. It may have been the amount of glucose used, or the apricots may have been happier without the fructose than other fruits are. For now, you may like to keep your glucose levels on the lower side. </span></i><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;">Huge thanks to Summer for her bravery in experimenting and her recipe below.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Summer Jam </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">500g apricots (stones removed, skin on)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">350g glucose powder/dextrose</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Chop
up the apricots and put in a large saucepan, mix with glucose and stand
for about 20-30 minutes, occasionally stirring. Mixture will soften and
turn into a nice gooey mess. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Thoroughly clean your <span class="il">jam</span> jars and place in the oven, preheated to 100 C. Leave in oven for 20 minutes (or until <span class="il">jam</span> is ready to bottle).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Heat
the apricot/glucose mixture on the stove until boiling, once boiling,
turn heat right down and simmer for about 25-30 minutes until the <span class="il">jam</span> thickens. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">To test for readiness, put about half a teaspoon on a plate and run your finger through the middle. If the <span class="il">jam</span> remains separated it is ready to bottle. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Remove hot jars from oven and bottle <span class="il">jam</span> immediately, seal jars.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-26843184995055378372013-02-04T19:30:00.000+13:002013-02-13T14:23:17.726+13:00Cornflour SpongeIt's probably time I told you the truth. I've been trying to achieve a few things soaking-up-culinary-knowledge-wise and they've been miserable failures. I mean really miserable. I suppose there is nothing wrong with posting about failures, but instead I have decided to plug away on these in secret, and reward you when I get a result. And my goodness what a *<i>triumph</i>* I had this week!<br />
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For a long, long time I have wanted to try cooking a sponge. I gather they can be pretty hard to make, some people can never pull it off, and others just have the knack. I have long remembered a comment my father made when I was a child about his aunties making sponges from heaps of eggs, which I thought just sounded fun, and decadent. So when the Cook's Sponge began, baking a sponge was at the top of my list. I've never really believed that baking is about magic, or having the knack, it's just about having the knowledge. Following the recipe.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Check out the HEIGHT on that baby!</td></tr>
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So I tried. And I tried and I tried. And I don't really want to talk
about it. I rang my own aunt who is a bit of pro, and read all sorts of
things and got all sorts of advice, on how to beat the eggs and how many
times to sift the flour and which brand of cornflour to use and whether
to grease the sides of the tin. My favourite tip was the one where you
drop the tins on a hard floor as soon as they come out of the oven to
knock the air bubbles out of the cake and stop it from sinking. I
definitely tried that one, whipping out the back door and dropping them
with great delight straight down on to my patio. But really I should have just thrown them
across the patio.<br />
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They were all sort of edible, but that's not really the ultimate aim of cooking is it? The problem that kept repeating itself was how flat they were. <i>Hopelessly</i> flat. I even started getting suspicious of my oven and started blaming my tools...<br />
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<br />
So we've been away for a few days in Greytown this week, staying on a
farm. As always, the Saturday DomPost featured a recipe from Alison and
Simon Holst. I have never been particularly inspired to try their
Saturday night contributions, but I certainly raised an eyebrow when I
saw their Cornflour Sponge. And I couldn't believe how high it had risen! I was also curious about a recipe that had only cornflour, and no standard flour. Perhaps this was the key.<br />
<br />
<br />
And that was that, I had to try. With two children rising at a revoltingly early hour because they were sleeping in strange beds, I had plenty of time to fill. It's just a pity I had to turn the oven on in the 34 degree heat. <br />
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The result was fantastic! They were higher than I could ever have believed! What do you reckon? I think I have cracked it, and won't look at another sponge recipe ever again. Thanks Alison and Simon.<br />
<br />
There's actually not a lot to do. Just keep your wits about you and follow the instructions closely.<br />
<br />
I know the traditionalists only do strawberry jam and cream in the middle with icing sugar on top, but I wanted cream on top, so I added mock cream to the centre (beat equal quantities butter, sugar, boiling water).<br />
<br />
Does this excite you? Do you want to make a sponge? Do you want to <i>eat</i> a sponge? You don't find them in cafes these days, and even if you did, would you choose it over a brownie or a lemon syrup cake? I really enjoyed it very much, but feel as though it's a rare occasion that calls for a sponge. Perhaps just an ordinary Sunday summer afternoon is all you need. I could definitely eat this often. It's a sugar hit though, so don't do it every Sunday. Glucose/dextrose doesn't work so don't attempt it (believe me), you'll have to go for the full-fat version this time.<br />
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Aside from a few wording changes from me, all credit to Team Holst for the recipe below.<br />
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Cornflour Sponge</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
4 large (size 7) eggs</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1/4 teaspoon salt</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
3/4 cup (170g) sugar (caster if you have it)</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1 teaspoon vanilla</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1 cup (150g) maize cornflour</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
3 teaspoons baking powder</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
2 tablespoons boiling water</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Separate eggs, placing whites in a large bowl and keep yolks to one side. Add the salt to the whites and beat until they form soft peaks. Gradually add the sugar, beating the mixture until it becomes glossy and shiny and forms stiff peaks. Gently fold in the yolks and vanilla.</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Sift the cornflour and baking powder into another bowl, then sift again in to the egg whites. Add the boiling water and fold the mixture together.</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Line two 20cm cake tins with baking paper, and grease both the paper and the sides (with butter or non-stick spray). Smooth and level the tops as much as possible.</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Let cool a little in the pan, then tip on to a cooling rack covered with a tea towel.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"></span><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-3950789010425690652013-01-27T21:11:00.001+13:002013-01-27T21:12:48.861+13:00Oat, Chocolate and Cinnamon biscuitsSomeone kindly delivered me a batch of oaty chocolatey cinnamony biscuits recently. It's amazing how much baking you get when people are thinking of you.<br />
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They were really good and I missed them when they were gone, so I thought I would make some more. It was pretty easy to take
my simple <a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/glucose-as-sugar-alternative-and.html" target="_blank">vanilla biscuit recipe</a> and add oats, chocolate and cinnamon,
and it's good to have a recipe that is now about three times as
interesting. The plain version is really pretty plain, especially when
made with glucose instead of sugar. But, as I suspected, when you add a
few exciting flavours you don't notice the reduced sweetness at all.<br />
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Apart from eating them, the other reason I wanted to bake biscuits was to try adding a <i>little</i> sugar, to see if mostly-glucose-but-some-sugar would have a positive effect on the crunch factor. You just can't create a crunchy biscuit without sugar. The small amount I added did improve the texture, and while I wouldn't call them crunchy they were definitely less soft than the all glucose version and I did enjoy them more. <br />
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I think I can live without a crunchy biscuit for the sake of my health, but it was worth experimenting with, and I may add a shake of sugar sometimes if I feel like it. You may like to do the same, try different combinations to see what suits you, but I have done the groundwork for you.<br />
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And if you haven't bought glucose/dextrose yet, <i>what are you waiting for?</i><br />
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See you soon for some more serious sugar talk. Hold on to your hats.<br />
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Oat, chocolate and cinnamon biscuits</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
250g butter</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
3/4 cup glucose or sugar (I tried 1/4 c sugar, 1/2 cup of glucose) </div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
2 teaspoon vanilla</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1 egg yolk</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
2 cups flour</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1/2 cup rolled oats</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1 teaspoon cinnamon</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Chocolate chips. As much as you like. I used 14 chopped squares of dark Whittakers.</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Beat butter and sugar until pale
and creamy. Add the vanilla and egg yolk and beat until well combined.
Add the chocolate, cinnamon and flour and beat until a smooth dough forms.
</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Roll in to large
teaspoons size balls and place on to a greased tray. Press down slightly
with the back of a spoon. </div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
</div>
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"></span><br />
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Bake for 10 - 15 minutes at 180 degrees.</span> </div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-44462208746933401682013-01-17T21:31:00.000+13:002013-01-17T21:40:16.360+13:00Annabel Langbein's Ultimate Chocolate CakeI believe that cakes are good for celebrations, but I have also discovered over recent months that baking is good for the soul. So when my soul and I didn't know what to do with ourselves this afternoon, we baked.<br />
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We lit a candle for Kent this morning, exactly one year after he died and the light went out of my life. I did a few things for him today, most of it involving crying, but purposely had very little planned and once again felt drawn to my kitchen. I think he'd really like that I baked a huge, outrageous cake (intermittently padding up the hallway to open the door to bunches of flowers, you lovely lot) and that I even put it on my new cake stand.<br />
<br />
I baked Annabel Langbein's chocolate cake which has been<a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/its-been-chocolate-cakey-week.html" target="_blank"> put up for contention as the best chocolate cake recipe around</a>. I have eaten it a couple of times in the past, not knowing it was hers, and have been wanting for a while to make it myself and cast my vote.<br />
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The results are... awkward. I baked the cake in two tins rather than one large one, so had to guess at the cooking time, and I believe I got it just right. My knife came out pretty clean, but not <i>quite</i>. Always keen to not overcook (a dry cake is a waste of everybody's time), I definitely didn't want to cook it any longer. But I don't think it would have wanted any less, given the remnants on the knife. Interestingly, I found the outside edge of the cake, perhaps until about 1/3 of the way in, disappointingly dry. But the further in I went, the better it got, and the middle third was gorgeous. Moist, fudgy, and all I could ever ask for. So is it better than <a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/its-been-chocolate-cakey-week.html" target="_blank">Dana's Chocolate Cake</a>? Well, the outside: no way. The inside: yes! Do we have a winner (so far) in the Chocolate Cake Best Recipe competition? Uummm... I don't know. If I could sort out that dry outer edge, I think this would be it. I highly recommend you give it a try.<br />
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Annabel recommends you cook this massive cake in a large 30cm tin, or two 20cm ones. I cooked mine in two 23cm ones, and it wasn't a problem. Her instructions say to just biff all the ingredients in to the mixer and turn it on. But she lists many dry ingredients first, and I just couldn't see how I could mix soft butter in to a bowlful of flour and sugar. While I would never question her brilliance on these matters, I started with the soft butter and eggs, as per usual, and so have listed the ingredients in my own order. <br />
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When cooling the cakes on racks after cooking, I recommend you put them up the right way, as one of mine collapsed a bit because it was upside down. <i>(Ha! Or read Annabel's instructions properly and let them cool in the tin. I see now.) </i>When it comes to all the additions, inside and out, I just suggest you do whatever you like. Jam, buttercream, chocolate ganache, whipped cream, icing sugar, fruit...<br />
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As always, I used glucose instead of sugar.<br />
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Annabel Langbein's Ultimate Chocolate Cake</div>
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200g butter, softened</div>
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2 cups sugar (or glucose)</div>
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1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla </div>
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3 large eggs</div>
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3 cups self raising flour (or standard flour + 3 teaspoons baking powder)</div>
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3/4 cup cocoa</div>
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2 teaspoons baking soda</div>
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1 cup milk or unsweetened yoghurt</div>
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1 cup boiling hot coffee</div>
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Put all ingredients in to a bowl or food processor, mixing as you go until combined.</div>
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Pour in to greased, paper lined tins, and bake at 160 degrees. 30 minutes for 23cm tins. 1 hour for a 30cm tin (or check earlier). </div>
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Today was more about the eating and the thinking than the photos. If I remember to photograph before eating tomorrow, I''ll put some more up. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-84595160658005956062013-01-09T13:52:00.002+13:002013-01-09T14:54:48.911+13:00Scottish Oatcakes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Kent's Mum likes to cook and bake things she has never done before (perhaps she should write a blog), and we have often been recipients of her experiments. Recently she dropped off a few samples of some Scottish Oatcakes, and I must say they didn't look very appealing. They just looked so <i>plain</i>, but I think I also expected some unpleasant flavour lurking beneath. But I had a try, and they were indeed plain, pleasantly plain, fairly crunchy, and just right for carrying butter/cheese/avocado/cream cheese, or whatever you like on your crackers. </div>
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I have been looking at cracker recipes lately, I'd love to be able to make my own, and just needed to decide on a recipe to begin with and get going. Reuben loved Gran's Scottish version and I was curious, so what better place to start. </div>
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I asked Gran what was in them and she said something like "well, just oatmeal and not really anything else." I was pretty sure there had to be <i>something else</i>, and kept digging for more information, but she had thrown away the recipe because she didn't enjoy having to turn oats in to oatmeal. Fortunately there's this thing called Google on my computer, so I found more recipes than I could ever need online, and chose one from <a href="http://www.greedygourmet.com/" target="_blank">Greedy Gourmet</a>. <br />
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I don't have any oatmeal, but I do have porridge oats, so I blitzed them in my mini-chopper until they were fine and powdery. I found the dough a bit too dry to roll out with a rolling pin, so added a slosh more water. The extra slosh helped, but not quite enough, and I found it easier to press the dough out with my hands. The end result was a little bit dry, and a little bit thick, so I recommend 2 extra sloshes of water (if you try to roll it and it keeps cracking, try a bit more water), and see if you can get it thinner that what you see in the photos.<br />
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Speaking of photos, I was keen to get on with the job but fairly uninspired as to how to go about it. Fortunately Reuben, Esther and my front porch came to the rescue (all of them accidentally colour coordinated). I have nothing else to say about these simple biscuits, so find your way through the photos to the recipe below. Actually, I will say these are really good to have around if you have children to feed under urgent circumstances, and I discovered thanks to a friend they are great with sun dried tomato cream cheese.<br />
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The recipe is based heavily on the one from Michelle at <a href="http://www.greedygourmet.com/" target="_blank">Greedy Gourmet</a>, with a few changes from me. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Oh you'd like to photograph my biscuit? OKAY THEN!"<br />
I'd just like to say that I hadn't said anything, all I'd done was point the camera at her.</td></tr>
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Scottish Oatcakes </div>
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225g (2½ cups) medium oatmeal, plus extra for dusting</div>
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1.25ml (¼ tsp) bicarbonate of soda</div>
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1.25ml (¼ tsp) salt</div>
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15ml (1 tbsp) unsalted butter</div>
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(or salted butter and just a pinch of salt) </div>
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Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Put the
oatmeal, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl and mix well. Heat the
butter and 150ml (3/4 cup) water in a small pan until the butter
melts. Remove from the heat before boiling, so as not to cook the oats (porridge, anyone?).</div>
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Make a well in the centre of the oatmeal mix, pour in the liquid and
use a palette knife to mix everything together.</div>
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Lightly dust a clean work surface with oatmeal. Tip out the dough,
then roll out to about 5mm thick. Use a small biscuit cutter to stamp out
the oatcakes or a knife to cut in to squares. Re-roll any trimmings and
continue to cut out the biscuits. </div>
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Brush off any excess oatmeal, then space the oatcakes over 2 baking
sheets. Bake for about 20 minutes, carefully turning the oatcakes every 5
minutes or so to stop them from steaming and going stodgy (porridge, anyone?). When cooked
they should be crisp and lightly golden. Lift onto a wire rack and leave
to cool. Store in an airtight container.</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-10950994646800933672013-01-08T15:13:00.000+13:002013-01-08T15:24:29.674+13:00This time of yearHappy New Year friends! I'm having real trouble getting started today. They say you should never start a post saying sorry that you haven't posted for a while, so I won't do that, but perhaps you could just read in between the lines? It's been a tough few weeks. In <a href="http://griefprint.blogspot.co.nz/" target="_blank">my upside down life</a> the best times become the worst times, and getting through Christmas was a challenge. You will be proud of me though, we put up the Christmas tree and I bought presents for all. I even finished making those Christmas stockings that bring back memories of this time last year. And yes, I made some food for Christmas Day...<br />
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In our family we share out the meal preparations. Everyone brings a dish or two, but with much consultation to ensure we have everything properly covered. And - important perhaps only to me - to ensure that it all <i>matches</i>. As with most families in New Zealand we've developed our own food traditions over the years, a combination of the classic British traditions and our own suitable-for-warm-weather favourites (It was 29 degress here in Welly, the hottest Christmas Day since Nineteen Thirty Something).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Balmy Wellington, and proof that I do domestics other than cooking.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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I have to say I like it this way. Our traditions are a roast chicken, a cold ham, new potatoes, salad, freshly podded peas and/or asparagus, Christmas pudding (always made, so far, by my English mother-in law) and another cold pudding. This year the salad was red capsicum and feta (as it often is) with the peas in the salad and asparagus on the side. The cold pudding was chocolate mousse and strawberries. I usually make a platter of bite-sized food to eat during the morning present-opening session and whenever anyone finds a space to fill during the day.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQqYYBd-zvGPZDfH0rnQFaYBjWJlNxYMkeWZoDeO-PTWFAfOh5p5i1LAPuUtGBW6qz9FaAglkeSHI0zAftiJTvvd5AL1Bmm-fLK6X2vzbbibClKtwW1pq4C9BP1wdI600Qq_W7tpJ0-NE/s1600/IMG_4949.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQqYYBd-zvGPZDfH0rnQFaYBjWJlNxYMkeWZoDeO-PTWFAfOh5p5i1LAPuUtGBW6qz9FaAglkeSHI0zAftiJTvvd5AL1Bmm-fLK6X2vzbbibClKtwW1pq4C9BP1wdI600Qq_W7tpJ0-NE/s640/IMG_4949.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My line up at Gran's Christmas table (actually, they weren't ALL mine)</td></tr>
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A more recent tradition I am keen to nurture is ham sandwiches for tea (supper/dinner) - and with this year's fresh homemade rolls and ham from just down the road that won NZ's best ham of 2012, along with the salad leftovers, it couldn't have been better. It being so hard to squeeze all your favourite christmas food in to one belly in one day, I am also happy to have it at other times instead. I had fruit mince pies in the weeks leading up to Christmas, and my mother usually makes a cake that gets divided up amongst the family to be chomped through over January. Cherries always feature somewhere too, of course.<br />
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I like the flexibility of our traditions, and the way that if anything takes your fancy you can fit it on to the menu. Sometimes the potatoes are roasted, other times we have boiled new ones. Beans straight out of the garden are another favourite, especially for my Dad. We have a done a turkey before, and one year I was really keen on trying salmon, and we had a magnificent, huge salmon instead of chicken and ham - fantastic!<br />
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I'd rather like to be able to slip a bit of salmon in to the day every year if possible actually. This year I bought a few slices of smoked salmon, sliced it finely, and mixed it with creme fraiche and lemon juice and served on small rice crackers. Besides some feta and brie, our other nibbles were sweet:<br />
<br />
Biscuit truffles - One packet of flavoured chocolate biscuits - mint or berry flavoured Tim Tams, or Mint Slices, blitzed to crumbs (or rolled with a rolling pin to crush), mixed with one pot of cream cheese and rolled in to balls. Dip in to melted chocolate to coat, and refrigerate.<br />
<br />
Hedgehog slice/Refrigerator slice - Chopped plain biscuits mixed with butter, sugar, coconut, vanilla, sultanas and egg. Press in to slice tin, ice with chocolate icing and put in fridge to set. Soak the sultanas in alcohol first if that makes you feel more christmassy. More details<a href="http://www.kidspot.co.nz/recipes-for+1590+35+Cake-stall+Hedgehog-slice.htm" target="_blank"> here.</a><br />
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I'd love to hear about what you had for Christmas, and how you feel about traditional foods vs mixing it up a bit.<br />
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I'm looking forward to talking with you a bit more about sugar, and actually, will be asking soon how your sugar reduction is going. I'll just give you a few more days to recover from Christmas and get back on track before you have to share! You'll be pleased to know I have plenty of things in mind to learn about this year, and will even post a new recipe tomorrow to make up for the quiet over the last few weeks.<br />
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I've added a new page to The Cook's Sponge - you'll see a tab at the top called Recipes. This will help you (and me) get quick access to anything you've seen here. I look forward to hearing about your experimenting. And don't be a sneaky reader, let me know you're out there, remember bloggers LOVE comments.<br />
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See you tomorrow. X<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No I didn't teach her that.</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-24546520279772855132012-12-17T14:03:00.001+13:002012-12-18T14:18:54.801+13:00Caramelised Onion and Blue Cheese FocacciaShall we just get down to the nitty gritty? I made my upgraded focaccia a week ago and seem to have been struggling to get it on the table (metaphorically speaking of course, believe me, it's been eaten). As I mentioned, we went out for dinner recently with the KR family and had this amazing bread that inspired me to try making focaccia, in the hopes that I could replicate it.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The restaurant was <a href="http://www.elmatador.co.nz/" target="_blank">El Matador</a>, an Argentinean/Spanish place on Cuba St, and I have done my research.
I'm afraid the Argentinian version wasn't focaccia at all (surprise
surprise) but fugazza, which is a South American pizza usually topped
with onions and without tomato sauce. El Matador's version was a
particularly fat base, hence my desire to try it with focaccia, and
while my version was simply a stealing of flavour of ideas, I wasn't
complaining and neither will you. <br />
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I wanted a fatter, squishier bread than last time when I made plain focaccia, so I increased the amounts, and then added more oil - I am told you can really just keep adding oil to bread to make it more moist and stodgy (in a good way). I also wanted just a bare touch of wholemeal, which I remembered after measuring out my flour(!) so removed about 1/4 cup of the white and replaced with wholemeal. Hence my awkward measurements below - and just a reminder that this is the blog of a total amateur. The tray that I used is 26 x 38cm and has edges, but if you only have bigger, the dough is solid enough that you can just make it the right size and it will stay roughly where you want it. Despite making a larger quantity, I baked this bread for the same amount of time, and the end result was just right: moist and stodgy (in a good way)!<br />
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I also worked on getting the right amount of salt here, looking at other bread recipes to help me out. The Marie Claire focaccia recipe I used last time simply said "a good pinch of salt" which I found far from helpful. I believe you have to get the amount of salt just right in bread - too much OR too little is a very bad thing. I think I have it about right here, though any mistakes are disguised by the strongly flavoured toppings. I will certainly be adding more than "a good pinch" next time I make plain focaccia. <br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">To caramelise onions, slice two onions thinly and sit over a low heat in butter or oil for 45 - 60 minutes, stirring only occasionally (ensure they don't turn brown). Or buy some in a jar. </span><br />
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Caramelised Onion and Blue Cheese Focaccia<br />
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675g flour (minus about 1/4 cup and replace with wholemeal flour)</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
3 teaspoons salt </div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
3 teaspoons dried yeast (or 23g fresh yeast)</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar </div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
375ml (1 1/2 cups) warm water</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
6 tablespoons oil (olive, or I use grapeseed)<br />
<br />
2 onions <br />
Blue cheese<br />
Grated cheddar</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Put the yeast and sugar in to the warm water and set aside for 10 minutes for it to start frothing.</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Measure
out the flour and add salt, then stir in the yeasty water and
oil. Work the ingredients together then move to a floured surface. </div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Knead
the dough until it is smooth and elastic. Place in to an oiled bowl,
cover with a teatowel, and leave in a warm place for 1 hour.<br />
<br />
Caramelise onions (see above). </div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Turn
oven on to 200
degrees. Put the dough on to an oiled 38 x 26 cm tray and press it out
until it covers the tray. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Leave to rise for a further 20 minutes. </span><span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Top with caramelised onions, slices of blue cheese and grated cheddar (as much or little as you like)</span><span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">, then bake for 20 minutes. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Slice in to big squares and eat without any additions. </span><br />
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This post is for the KR family for taking me out to dinner, for Basil and Nana who painted my front fence on baking day and helped out with the eating, and to Ann, the only one waiting on the edge of her seat for this installment.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-54455109120917293272012-12-05T09:30:00.000+13:002012-12-18T14:23:58.804+13:00FocacciaI have been thinking of tackling bread for a long time. It's on my list of things to try and has kept coming to mind lately. Today I had some semi-quiet time at home, as in, Reuben was out and Esther was at home. Despite the great opportunity, I frankly didn't feel like doing anything. I do get stuck like this as times. I tried to settle in to making christmas stockings for the kids, a job I was in the middle of at this time last year, when my whole world fell down around my ears and I haven't looked at them since. It didn't go very well. So I abandoned it and escaped to the kitchen, and, once again, getting out the flour and the mixing bowls and turning on the oven brought the life back to my bones.<br />
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The truth is I have actually made bread before. Funnily enough, it was another recipe that came from my brother's home economics classes that we persevered with for quite a while in our family. I remember my Dad making it quite regularly, even on a camping holiday in Pauanui! Lately the bread machine has renewed my enthusiasm for homemade bread, and I have enjoyed making rolls, using the bread machine to do the mixing and rising. </div>
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So anyway. Focaccia. I'm going to be one of those annoying people who says although it takes a bit of time, and a bit of work, it really is quite easy. The time involved is mostly about waiting for it to rise, and doing the right things at the right time, so you need to be at home for a couple of hours. The effort is just the kneading of the bread, which you only need to do once. And the thing is, I enjoy doing this. If you don't enjoy it it would probably be a bit of a hassle, in which you can just rely on other people making your bread for you. Though, as my friend says to her children about new food, you don't have to like it, but you do have to try it once.</div>
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The only thing really different about making focaccia is the shape you press it in to just before baking, and the dressings you add to the top. I had intended to add rosemary to mine but I forgot(!). I was partly inspired to make this by an amazing bread I had the other night while eating out with <a href="http://sacraparental.com/" target="_blank">TKR</a>, MKR and SBJ. Next time I'll give that a go, so make sure you come back soon for a more exciting version.</div>
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Next time I'll try making my bread a little fatter, and will perhaps cook it for a couple of minutes less than the recipe suggests. But give it a try and see what your oven does, and what your belly thinks, and let me know how it goes. </div>
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The following recipe is from Marie Claire "<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marie-Claire-Kitchen-Michele-Cranston/dp/1740453662" target="_blank">Kitchen</a>."</div>
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Focaccia</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
450g flour</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
Pinch sea salt </div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
2 teaspoons dried yeast (or 15g fresh yeast)</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
1 teaspoon sugar </div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
250ml (1 cup) warm water</div>
<div style="background-color: #eeeeee;">
3 tablespoons olive oil</div>
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Put the yeast and sugar in to the warm water and set aside for 10 minutes for it to start frothing.</div>
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Measure out the flour and add salt, then stir in the yeasty water and olive oil. Work the ingredients together then move to a floured surface. </div>
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Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. Place in to an oiled bowl, cover with a teatowel, and leave in a warm place for 1 hour. </div>
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Turn oven on to 200
degrees. Put the dough on to an oiled 34 x 24 cm tray and press it out
until it covers the tray. Use your fingers to make dimples in the dough and drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sea salt. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Leave to rise for a further 20 minutes, then bake for 20 minutes. </span></div>
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* For a slightly larger, moister bread, and more accurate salt measurement, I recommend reading my next post, <a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/caramelised-onion-and-blue-cheese.html" target="_blank">Caramelised Onion and Blue Cheese Focaccia</a>.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-60372156257377040562012-11-24T22:42:00.001+13:002012-12-07T19:48:17.486+13:00Banana Berry IcecreamReuben requested icecream recently when I was in the middle of a haze of glucose experimenting. I froze at the idea (ha ha, hope you like the pun) of him eating sugar and wondered how I could get around it. Actually no, I didn't. He eats very little sweet food, he's just not in to it (with a few exceptions). He turns his nose up at my baking and tells me his favourite food is broccoli (though I can hardly believe it). So I wasn't afraid of a little icecream.<br />
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It did, however, give me a great idea and moved me swiftly in to action. I had just been reading "<a href="http://www.nigella.com/books/view/nigella-express-6" target="_blank">Nigella Express</a>" where she does a quick cheat's icecream - just whipped cream with additional flavours, thrown in to the freezer with no need to churn.<br />
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So while Reuben wasn't going to wait half a day for my clever idea to freeze, it was mixed and in the freezer almost before he had finished his bowl of <a href="http://www.tiptop.co.nz/products/tubs/" target="_blank">Tip Top Neapolitan</a>.<br />
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Conveniently, I had a whole lot of cream in my fridge, having bought that 2 litre bottle when I was <a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/butter.html" target="_blank">making butter</a>. I also had a few berries in the freezer, plenty of bananas and, of course glucose. <br />
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The amounts were based on what I had plus some very quick guess work. The result was not very sweet, and a stronger flavour would have been good, though we all loved it as it was. I used a whopping 500ml of cream because that's what I had. If you buy the usual 300ml bottle, I suggest still using the same amount of berries, banana and glucose as listed here, to up the flavour.<br />
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I'm also very excited about the million other flavour combinations that could be used. Do give it a go and I'd love to hear your suggestions. Sometime a while back I bought a rather below par brand of icecream and was horrified at the very long list of ingredients on the box, many of which I had no idea what they were (I know that doesn't <i>necessarily</i> make them bad, but...). I would love to always have homemade in my freezer, and can't wait to experiment. It's pretty heavy on the dairy, if you know what I mean. When it starts to melt, you know you're eating cream. But then if you take out all the junk, what is ice cream other then icy cream plus tasty bits?<br />
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Banana Berry Icecream</div>
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500 ml cream</div>
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1 banana</div>
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Handful frozen berries</div>
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2 tablespoons glucose *</div>
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Lightly whip the
cream. Blitz the banana and berries, or crush with a fork. Stir fruit and
glucose in to cream. Freeze. Wait at least 6 hours, if you can, before
eating.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">* For my second batch I included 1 tablespoon of Sweet Freedom for an extra kick of sweetness.</span> </div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-56535856643220172592012-11-19T20:01:00.001+13:002012-11-19T20:33:07.865+13:00So where to from here? Making a plan.The time has come. No more thinking, it's time for action. We need to start eating less sugar and we need to figure out how we're going to do it. Below I have outlined all kinds of things to think through and made some suggestions as to how you might decrease your sugar intake. I'd like you to have read, make a plan, and tell us about it in the comments section below. It might be really simple, it might be just one thing, it might be complex, it might be easy to achieve or hard to achieve. But make it concrete and put it in to words. And it'll start this week. Buy what you need to, banish what you need to, and let's all be doing something different by the weekend. <br />
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<b>Total eradication (of processed sugars)</b><br />
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If you intend to no longer eat sugar and don't wish to use sugar alternatives, it is fairly simple in theory (though may or may not be harder when it comes to willpower). I would suggest cutting out the obvious foods first; cakes, biscuits, puddings and sugary drinks. Meanwhile you would need to look at how to avoid the hidden sugar in other foods (see below) which will be a lot more challenging. You would need to take care with this, ensuring that you are still consuming a healthy balanced diet. If you feel a need to cut sugar entirely from your diet I would strongly urge you to seek professional advice first, particularly as you don't want to be depriving yourself of other necessary foods as you seek to avoid sugar. <br />
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<b>Sugar alternatives (particularly for baking)</b><br />
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I have researched and experimented with a number of options, and found a variety that I am pretty happy with. Using a variety of options strikes me as a sensible, balanced approach. If you intend to make significant changes to your sugar usage, I'd encourage you to continue the research yourself. Here are my top favourites and my understanding of them:<br />
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<i>Glucose</i> - sugar is made up of 50% glucose, which is a vital part of life; all living organisms require it to survive. It's the good part of sugar, our bodies process it well and only a very small portion of it gets turned in to fat. Glucose can be purchased as a powder (and as a liquid) so is an easy substitute for sugar, and it is very reasonably priced. It generally behaves like sugar in baking, but is less sweet. Glucose has a very high GI and is marketed towards sports people for its energy giving qualities. This perhaps highlights the inappropriateness of hoeing in to a bowl of chocolate pudding at 8 o'clock at night just before bedtime, but this is the case with a glucose-made pudding or a sugar-made pudding. It seems many of us tend to do just do it anyway. Glucose is also known as dextrose and is generally found in the supermarket.<br />
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<i>Xylitol </i>- a naturally occurring sugar extracted from plant materials (it is not an artificial sweetener despite its name sounding like one). It has 2/3 the calories of sugar and is low GI. Much sweeter than sugar, so less can be used. Actively good for your teeth. Expensive and only found in specialty stores. Apart from the cost, xylitol seems too good to be true, and I keep waiting to hear some bad news. But so far everywhere I turn it has a good report. This seems like a great option to combine with glucose in some recipes where you want that extra bit of sweetness (particularly if you are keen to make the much cheaper glucose your main player). Too much xylitol will cause gas and have a laxative effect. If you are interested in xylitol and want to know more, may I suggest a gaze around google (though I'm happy to receive questions, I can't guarantee I'll know the answers). This is a really exciting option. Don't be put off by the fact that you have to pop in to a different store to pick it up.<br />
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<i>Sweet Freedom </i>- A syrup made 100% from natural fruit extracts (apples, grapes and
carob). Has 25% fewer calories than sugar, plus
you can use less as it is very sweet. Contains 24% fructose, as opposed to the 50% in sugar. So a great
improvement and relevant alternative. I haven't tried it in many things
yet, but suggest using in place of honey, golden syrup, maple syrup
and possibly condensed milk. Use on pancakes and french toast, on porridge, when baking homemade muesli, instead of honey on toast... in fact it seems you can't do breakfast without it. Use in baking when you need to stick things together. I have struggled to get my head around using a liquid as a replacement for dry sugar, and our lovely reader Alex has had a go with not ideal results, despite an ability to understand complex mathematical equations and a strong willpower to make it work. So far I have only found it in the
UK and ordered it online. Which is not hard. Easier than going to the
supermarket actually.<br />
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See my <a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/sugar-free-sweetness.html" target="_blank">Sugar Alternatives</a> page for more details on costs and purchasing (and possibly mention of other alternatives you may be wondering about).<br />
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<i>(I am hoping Stevia will make it to my list of top favourites. Despite some apparent controversy I am hearing many good things. I'll let you know. I've also started seeing some interesting info on molasses and palm sugar. I'll update ASAP. If you have any knowledge on these, do pass it on)</i><br />
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<b>Hidden sugar (reading the packets)</b><br />
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We've talked a whole lot about baking so far, but sugar lurks in all kinds of surprising foods, particularly packets and tins that we pick up at the supermarket. I am yet to learn how significant this it. Though it is listed as an ingredient in many, many items, it's hard to know how much there is, and how much it matters. Perhaps converting the figures on the backs of packets in to amounts that we understand will help us to learn. Sugar can be found in your baked beans, tomato sauce, and in fact many sauces, crackers, chips (crisps), pesto, soups, flavour packets of all kinds, tinned fruit (look for natural juice), tinned veges. It could be in your pre-marinaded meat. It's in cereal, of course. And most obviously, fruit flavoured yoghurts that people love to give their kids is packed with sugar (that's not hidden at all actually!).<br />
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I'm interested in doing further posts looking at just how much sugar we get though these means, and whether it is worth making changes to what we buy (homemade crackers, anyone?). For now, you may or may not choose to make changes here, depending on how much of this hidden sugar food you use. But do be aware of it at least, without becoming paranoid. And without cutting everything out of your diet to avoid all mention of sugar. I'd love your help on researching what products sugar is in and at what levels.<br />
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It may be that you would prefer to not eat soup and crackers with sugar in them so that you can happily enjoy a big slab of sugary cake instead, but I'm not sure the amounts are very equivalent, and anyway I've just given you some great options above for making cake without sugar. <br />
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<b>Savoury snacks</b><br />
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We have spent alot of time looking at how we can get what we really want without feeling bad (or unhealthy) about it. How 21st century is that? Perhaps it's time we also looked at the option of actually eating less sweet stuff and getting some other seriously healthy things in to our bodies instead. Or if not seriously healthy, at least not sweet! We shouldn't expect to have what we want all the time. I am planning to do a post soon asking you for ideas for savoury snacks (not yet please!) and I encourage you to really start thinking about what you (and you children) can have between meals or after meals when you are likely to have reached for something sugary sweet. <br />
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I have had a couple of phases over the years where I have cut out all sugary snacks for a period of time. I have found the key to success has been finding enjoyable, satisfying, tasty alternatives. Let's think of some. Lots. <br />
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<b>Cafes, parties and eating out</b><br />
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My only suggestion here is to make a plan. If you like to eat out and don't want to miss out on the treats, decide what your limit is. Have a look at what non-sugary options there are (not many in cafes, I find, unless you're actually having lunch). You might decide that one cafe visit per week with a chai and a friand (my current cafe weaknesses) is ok, but any more than that will see you with a cheese scone and a cup of tea.When I go out for dinner I couldn't possibly pass up an opportunity to order off the dessert menu, but I don't go out anymore so it's not a problem. If eating out and dessert menus are a regular part of your life just factor them in. <br />
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When I mention parties I confess I was thinking of children's birthday parties! Just take care not to waste too much of your sugar allowance accidently eating too much fairy bread and sticky popcorn, unless that's your top priority at the expense of other things of course. On the other hand, you may know some parents who do amazing party food that you wouldn't want to miss, so you can skip the chai and friand that week.<br />
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<b>Don't waste your allowance (aka. cut the crap)</b><br />
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If you want to reduce your sugar intake I suggest you avoid eating sugary rubbish that's actually not that enjoyable, and save your sugar allowance for treats that are <i>really</i> good. For me, packet biscuits, supermarket baking, and pretty much all the food at a couple of cafes I occasionally accidently frequent are a complete waste of time. Decide what's a waste of time for you and leave it alone.<br />
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<b>Contingency plan (for when you blow it)</b><br />
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If you have serious plans to eat less sugar but find yourself scoffing half a packet of chocolate one night, you can still put the other half away and begin again tomorrow (on the serious plans I mean, not the chocolate). If you head to a cafe planning for a cup of earl grey but find yourself desperately ordering a gigantic hot chocolate, you can still say "hold the marshmallows" and walk past the slices. Keeping some semblance of control will help you next time, and will still keep your sugar intake less than it might have been.<br />
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<i>So, how are you going to tackle this?</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-50998066887660923442012-11-18T14:23:00.001+13:002013-03-05T08:10:53.246+13:00Glucose as a sugar alternative, and vanilla biscuits.Well for goodness sake. It is so simple really. What does sugar contain? Fructose and glucose. What is bad for us? Fructose? What is good for us? Glucose. What should we not be eating? Fructose. What should we be eating? Glucose. What should we be baking with? GLUCOSE.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vanilla biscuit with glucose by Reuben </td></tr>
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I don't know if this was going to be obvious to you, or whether you even knew powdered glucose existed. But I grew up with a container of it in our pantry. My Dad would give me a teaspoon of it stirred in to milk before I went to gymnastics competitions. A 1980s energy drink. The milk drink was yummy and the powder itself wasn't too bad either - I distinctly remember dipping my finger in (licking it first of course to make it stick) for a taste (or many). It is a very fine powder and dissolves quickly on the tongue, and it almost has a slightly minty taste, though I have said this about xylitol and it's not nearly as strong as that. It's not as sweet as sugar, in fact Robert Lustig shows this in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM" target="_blank">Sugar: The Bitter Truth</a>, with a chart rating the sweetness of different food items. Where sugar rates 100 on the sweetness scale, glucose is at 74.<br />
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I have mentioned that I recently came across the blog <a href="http://www.cravingfresh.com/" target="_blank">Craving Fresh</a>, where I discovered that Emma is also looking in to reducing and replacing sugar. She had a recipe up for <a href="http://www.cravingfresh.com/2012/10/grain-free-chocolate-brownie-recipe.html" target="_blank">brownies</a> using glucose (and all kinds of other things) and it was a lightbulb moment for me. Of course! Glucose! I have also read an <a href="http://sweetpoison.com.au/?page_id=308" target="_blank">interview with David Gillespie</a>, author of <a href="http://sweetpoison.com.au/wordpress/?page_id=100" target="_blank">Sweet Poison</a>, who advocates baking with glucose. <br />
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So I have been doing a whole lot of experimenting. And here's the deal: it works really well, though it's not quite as sweet. I've used it in vanilla biscuits, <a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/choclate-pudding-in-ya-mug.html" target="_blank">chocolate pudding</a>, chocolate cupcakes and chocolate butter cream icing (I halved <a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/its-been-chocolate-cakey-week.html" target="_blank">Dana's Chocolate Cake</a> recipe to make cupcakes, and was reminded once again what a fantastic recipe this is).<br />
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The vanilla biscuits were OK, but noticeably less sweet. The second time I made them I added a teaspoon of <a href="http://www.sweetfreedom.co.uk/" target="_blank">Sweet Freedom</a> which was a small improvement.
The chocolate pudding was great. I do find it a little uninteresting as
is, and like the addition of square of chocolate in the centre (which introduces sugar back in to the mix, though not much) but using glucose instead of sugar was very successful. The cupcakes were
outrageously good - that recipe really is stunning - and that was the
moment when I thought, yes, glucose really is working for me. I was keen
to make cupcakes partly as an excuse to try icing with glucose, and
wanted to do this before I reported back to you. I made buttercream
icing and the glucose was an easy substitute for icing sugar. I could
tell the difference in the taste here, that <i>slightly</i>
minty/dissolvy taste/feeling was present, but it certainly wasn't
unpleasant and I was mostly just so excited at what a great sugar
substitute this is. <br />
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If you find glucose doesn't make things sweet enough, my suggestion would be to go half-half glucose and xylitol. Xylitol is still a top favourite option for me, my biggest problem being <a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/sugar-free-sweetness.html" target="_blank">how expensive it is</a>. In my experimenting so far, it is only the vanilla biscuits that really were lacking the sweetness. Another option with these is to try adding something else to get some interesting flavour in (cocoa, cinnamon...). I don't know if I've really sold you on these biscuits, but I originally did them just with sugar, and they were really very good. Nice and buttery and great for decorating. I think if you want something that looks pretty at a kid's party they're a good option - add a little colour and excitement on top, and you still have a very low sugar option if you've baked the biscuit with glucose.<br />
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Two more things you should know:<br />
Glucose is also known as dextrose. It's exactly the same thing. Pak N Save have it as glucose and New World have it as dextrose.<br />
Glucose has a very high GI rating.<br />
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The recipe below is from <a href="http://www.donnahay.com.au/" target="_blank">Donna Hay</a>'s 2010 Kids' Magazine. I find that the biscuits are ready at 10 minutes, and that their bottoms get fairly dark so I raise the oven rack up one slot. I tend to halve this recipe, especially when experimenting!<br />
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Vanilla Biscuits</div>
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250g softened butter</div>
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3/4 cups sugar or glucose (or a combination)*</div>
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2 teaspoons vanilla extract</div>
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1 egg yolk</div>
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2 1/4 cups flour</div>
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Beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the vanilla and egg yolk and beat until well combined. Add the flour and beat until a smooth dough forms.</div>
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Roll in to large
teaspoons size balls and place on to a greased tray. Press down slightly
with the back of a spoon (and decorate as you wish). </div>
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Bake for 10 - 15 minutes at 180 degrees.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"> * I don't recommend using xylitol in biscuits as it dries them out and they lose their crunch.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">If using all glucose you may like to make it a generous measure to add to the sweetness. </span> </div>
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As always I've updated my <a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/sugar-free-sweetness.html" target="_blank">sugar alternatives</a> page with the new info about glucose, including cost (it's reasonable!)<br />
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I have actually tried glucose in one more thing, but it was so much fun to make and to eat and to photograph, that it's going to get a post of its own. Coming soon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1093256709696565732.post-46574462909371721762012-11-14T13:52:00.000+13:002012-11-15T07:44:29.886+13:00And on that bombshell...Well I told you it was going to be bad news. And you could have guessed that anyway. I hope you found the <a href="http://thecookssponge.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/what-is-wrong-with-sugar.html" target="_blank">summary </a>of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM" target="_blank">The Bitter Truth</a> interesting - I was certainly engrossed in every detail and it really blew my mind to be honest. There was a lot of chemistry involved but, unlike at school, I was seriously interested in the results of the lesson, and that had me hooked. For a sleep deprived, breast-feeding, grieving mother of two small children, I think working through all that information makes me <a href="http://sacraparental.com/2012/11/02/i-am-brilliant-and-amazing/" target="_blank">brilliant and amazing</a>.<br />
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But there's a lot to talk about. For today, let's see if we can look at the questions you have raised, and the questions that have come to my mind as well, and next time we'll look at where to from here. <br />
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<b>Honey</b> - Oh dear. Well I've learnt that honey is high in fructose and higher in calories that white sugar. But it's just so hard to believe it's not better for you. I feel like I want to keep working on it until I find some better news. I know it has vitamins and minerals and antioxidants, but that doesn't improve the fructose and calorie levels. What about Lustig's comment, "When God made the poison He packaged it with the antidote"? I thought the answer was going to be that there is fibre in honey - but there is just 0.2 grams per 100grams. Perhaps it's better if we eat it on a nice fibre-y bread? Despite the bad news on honey, I think I will still be passing it firmly to my son when he asks for honey or jam (if I can't convince him to have something else).<br />
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<b>Fibre</b> - Actually, I'm not joking about the fibre. Lustig says to get more fibre in our diets to reduce the effects of fructose. Perhaps if we really want to bake some good old-fashioned sugary chocolate chip cookies, we should throw in a good dose of oats. Not only are oats better for us than the white flour they are substituting, they'll help reduce the effects of the fructose. I'm not sure that it makes eating three chocolate chip cookies per day suddenly OK, but if we're going to have one anyway, we may as well make a small improvement. Perhaps we'll look in to this a bit more, it would be good to know how much fibre really makes a difference<br />
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<b>Fruit juice </b>- we don't have fruit juice in the house so this is a bit of a non-issue for me. If it's around and my 3 yr old son shows an interest, I'll slop some in to a glass of water for him and I'm happy with that. I can see that some of you are conscious of the fact that your kids like to drink juice regularly. If you want to try and reduce their intake, you may like to look in to sugar levels of the different options available or you may be able to work on some fun and creative alternatives. I'd love you to share your ideas here, but I won't be doing any research on it myself. <br />
I have to tell you - I realised yesterday at breakfast - that I do still have some juice in the house. I have an old fashioned "lemonade" (not a fizzy one) that I have a tiny glassful of at breakfast. There's something about the strong, tangy, turn-your-mouth-inside-out hit that I love after my last bite of breakfast. It's not going anywhere for now. <br />
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<b>Sugar in packaged/savoury foods</b> - we've focused alot on baking because I have been looking at sugar alternatives, rather than sugar... removal, shall we say. Yes, there certainly is sugar in all kinds of savoury items that we pick up at the supermarket. Whether avoiding these is a) something we are willing to attempt and b) an effective way of significantly reducing our fructose intake, I don't know. I am keen to follow this up in some way, so there will be further posts about it, though I would love your help and input if you are interested. It may involve some serious label reading and calculations, though surely someone somewhere on the internet has already done it all for us?<br />
May I suggest that unless you have previously given this whole sugar thing some serious thought, you and your family are probably consuming a lot more than you think you are. Speaking of which:<br />
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<b>Dried fruit </b>- dried fruit is extremely high in sugar, higher than fresh fruit. If you want to know more you can have a read online - a quick google search got me some interesting info, have a look <a href="http://www.zoeharcombe.com/2011/12/for-the-record-the-real-truth-about-dried-fruit/" target="_blank">here</a> and scroll down to the questions in blue font. <br />
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<b>Mind your Ps and Qs</b> - Despite being the bearer of bad news I have not apologised for it (though I very nearly did in the paragraph above Hannah!), as I think it is *fantastic* to have this information and understanding. How great to have this knowledge, and the ability to make some changes. In return I ask you to not apologise to me if there are some foods that you just can't give up. Any choices you make are for you and your family, <i>not</i> for me! It will be awesome though, to travel this journey with some of you and to give and receive support.<br />
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<b>Men</b> - Emma from <a href="http://www.cravingfresh.com/" target="_blank">Craving Fresh </a>has been doing work on removing sugar from her diet and educating her readers, and she is setting her sights way above mine. Her blog is well worth a look, and you may be particularly interested in her <a href="http://www.cravingfresh.com/2011/11/fresh-reviews-sweet-poison-why-sugar.html" target="_blank">summary of a book called Sweet Poison</a> by David Gillespie. It is explained here that women's oestrogen, much like fibre, helps to protect them from the artery clogging effects of fructose. Sugar eating women send the fat to their hips, sugar eating men send the fat to their arteries. Sit up and take notice men - this sugar-reducing thing is not a bunch of women trying to make themselves look skinnier. Don't leave your wife and children behind after a heart attack in your 40s because you couldn't resist pudding. <br />
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<b>What about, well, everything else?</b> - Obviously there are a myriad of things to consider when looking at what we eat, and I'm not planning to cover them all at The Cook's Sponge. I must, however, give a nod to the concept of GI (Glycaemic Index) which you can read a bit about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index" target="_blank">here</a>. Fructose, though bad for us as we have read, is low GI. Glucose, though a crucial part of life, is high GI. It may be hard to find sugar alternatives that are low in fructose and also low GI. If low GI is important to you, keep this in mind. And I am aware that if you have other dietary considerations you will need to mold our ideas here around those. Feel free to share how that is working.<br />
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<b>Moderation</b> - I don't go with the concept of everything in moderation. At least, not if that translates in to, "everything is good in moderation." My view is that sugar (other than in fruit) is all bad, and that we would be better off without any of it at all. But I like to eat it and it's hard not to. So I will continue to, but at a reduced rate. I am yet to work out what I think is an acceptable amount for me and my family, or what my ultimate aim is. I'm the one doing the research and delivering it to you, but I sure ain't gonna be setting the gold standard. You should <i>see</i> what I had at a cafe this morning (actually, it was fairly normal, but with all my new knowledge that made it even worse, both because of what I ate, and because it was so normal).<br />
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It should be fairly clear to you long-term Cook's Sponge readers that I am pretty fond of baking too, both the making and the eating. I think I am finding some good ways around this with some great sugar alternatives, and I'll do all I can to let us have our cake and eat it too. <br />
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Next on this topic we'll look at where to go from here. In the meantime it might be time for a few pretty pictures and a recipe or two. And I should probably pay some bills and do some dishes and pay some attention to my kids. <br />
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<i>A couple of you have mentioned some further possible sugar alternatives. Thank you - I'll write about them shortly. </i><br />
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