Whey Scones

I always have whey in the fridge (this is how I make it)as I use it to make my Honey & Oat Loaf which is our everyday bread.  It also makes a fantastic substitute for Buttermilk and is MUCH cheaper!  Scones (I think they are called biscuits in the US) are a quick and easy treat, great to whip up if someone pops over unexpectedly, or even for afternoon tea when the kids get home from school.  Using whey or buttermilk just gives them that extra oomph!  Here's how I go about it:

For a printer friendly version of the recipe (without pictures), click here.

Ingredients
2 Cups Flour
4 teaspoons Baking Powder
40g (2 tablespoons) Cold Butter
250ml Whey (or Buttermilk or Regular Milk)
Extra Flour

Method
Briefly process the flour and baking powder.  (I'm a lazy cook and believe if you have the tools at your disposal, you may as well use them!

Add butter and process in pulses until it looks like breadcrumbs.  Pour into a bowl.

Add milk and combine with a knife in a cutting action.  I prefer to do this part by hand rather than in the processor because you want to work the dough as little as possible to get it nice and flaky.  If you're not as fussy as me, you can do this part in the processor.   Just pulse it until it all comes together.

Turn out onto bench and very gently bring together with your hands.  Press out to about 1 inch thickness.

Cut with a round cutter.  You want to cut it rather than shaping it as it needs the cut edges to rise properly.

Place very close together but not touching on a tray and brush with the extra milk.  They need to be close enough together that they give each other support to rise, (sounds lovely doesn't it!!) but not actually touching as you want the air to be able to circulate between them when you first put them in the oven.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and wrap in a tea towel until cool (if you can leave them that long!)  This is what gives them that special crust.  If you leave them out on a rack to cool, they will get too hard.  (I should be in the CWA! lol!)

We love them slathered in butter and golden syrup or even better still, homemade jam and whipped cream - and served with a cup of tea on the side of course!

Pikelets

I'm guessing that pikelets are as popular in your home as they are in mine.  They take only a minute or two to whip up and are usually gone before they even hit the plate.  I especially love them with whipped cream and homemade raspberry jam!

For a printer friendly version without pictures, click here


Ingredients
2 Eggs
350ml Milk (or whey)
3 tablespoons white sugar
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
20g melted butter

Method
Whisk together the eggs, milk and sugar.

Sift in the flour and baking powder and whisk until smooth.  The batter should be the consistency of thickened cream.  If it is still too thick, add more milk.

Whisk in the melted butter.

Pour 2 tablespoons of batter at a time into a greased frying pan.  (I like to grease it with butter - I think they brown better and the taste is much better than with oil).

After 1 or 2 minutes, bubbles should start to form and pop, flip them over and cook for another minute or so on the other side.

Serve and enjoy!

Honey, Oat & Buttermilk Bread

I came across this recipe on one of my favourite food sites Food 52, and had to try it.  It has rapidly become our family favourite to the point where I have stopped buying bread and just make this.  I usually only have to bake it once or twice a week as I double the recipe and as soon as the bread has cooled, I slice it and pop it in the freezer.  That way we can just take out as many pieces as we need, when we need them.  It slices lovely and thin for sandwiches and also freezes really well.  It makes the most luscious french toast, regular toast and AMAZING toasted sandwiches.  Sometimes I throw in some soaked dry fruit and spices and make fruit loaf too.

I know alot of people think that baking your own bread is time consuming, hard work and an all out hassle, but honestly this is so quick and easy, especially if you have a bench top mixer with a bread hook.  There is very little that you actually have to do, as most of the recipe is sitting time when you can be doing something else.  I usually get the mixing part underway in the morning while I am making school lunches and controlling the feeding frenzy that is breakfast and have the bread rising by the time the girls are on the school bus.

For a printer friendly version of the recipe (without pictures and my ramblings) click here

Ingredients
1 teaspoon sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons dried yeast
45ml warm water
220ml buttermilk (I use whey which is left over from my ricotta, but you could also use regular full fat, low fat or no fat milk.  I prefer whey as it is slightly tangy and gives the bread an almost sourdough like taste.)
1/2 cup oats (rolled or quick)
30g softened butter
45ml Honey
1/4 teaspoon bicarb soda
3 cups bread flour  (I like Laucke)

Method
Combine the sugar, yeast and water in a small bowl.

Cover with a tea towel and leave until foamy.  The time will depend on the temperature of your room.  If it is a really cold day, I like to put a bowl of boiling water next to it under the tea towel.

In the bowl of your bench top mixer (I looooooove my Kenwood Chef!) combine the remaining ingredients with the yeast mixture.  Mix on low with the dough hook attachment for 10 - 15 minutes.  If you are lucky like me and your machine has a timer, you can just set it and walk away.  Just be sure to make sure that you don't have a "walking" mixer.  If you do, put a piece of non-slip matting covered with a tea towel under your mixer and it should hold it in place.

After 15 minutes, remove the bowl from the mixer stand and cover with a tea towel.  Leave the dough to rise until it has doubled in size.  Again, this depends on the temperature of your room.  On a hot day, it can take as little as 30 minutes.  In winter, I usually sit it about 1 foot in front of the fireplace.  If you don't have a fire and it is cold, place it in a cold oven next to a bowl of boiling water.

After the dough has doubled, punch it down and turn it out onto the bench.  Shape it how you like.  Sometimes I make a round free form loaf, but for school sandwiches, I use a loaf pan.  Cover it with a tea towel and let it rise again until doubled in size.

Preheat your oven to 180C (or 160C if it is fan forced).  I like to slash the top of the loaf as it helps it to expand and rise in the oven (and it makes it look pretty!).

Bake for about 50 to 55 minutes, or until the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it.

Once it has cooled completely, you can slice it up however you like.

Wood Fired Duck....

A few weeks ago, my brother and his girlfriend Eloise popped down to visit for 2 nights on their way through to Canberra.  We had promised them, that in their honour, we would slaughter one of our birds for dinner.  Being as they are somewhat partial to duck, and we had 2 drakes, we decided duck it is!  Steve and I are both members of a food forum and are quite passionate not only about what we eat, but the preparation as well, so we decided to document the process from duck pen to plate.  There are some photos of a beheaded duck, so if you don't like that sort of thing, now would be a good time to click to another page.  If you truly love good honest food, and appreciate where it comes from, then read on!

The duck of choice was Frank, the one in the foreground.  Why you say?  Well, for one, the other drake is much larger and better looking, so if we ever want to sell or swap, he would be a better choice.  Also, poor old Frank hurt his leg 2 days earlier and was hobbling around, so we may have had to put him down anyway.

Hubby is in charge of "Catch and Dispatch", so he took Steve outside as his trusty assistant.  I'm not sure how much help he was though, because he managed to take quite a few photos during the process!



Once the "deed" was done, they brought the duck inside where I had filled one sink with boiling water and a few drops of detergent.  We dunked the duck a couple of times (the hot water and detergent help dissolve the fat that holds the feathers in and keeps the duck waterproof),



then Eloise and I set about plucking the duck (and yes I must admit, the old Hey Hey It's Saturday Plucka Duck song was going through my head at the time) while Steve took some more photos.



I was beginning to notice that our city boy was taking lots of photos of EVERYONE ELSE doing all the work, and so far had managed to avoid getting his hands dirty all together!  Ha ha says I to myself, I know just the job for him!

When we had finished plucking, I handed the duck and a sharp knife to Steve and said "here you go, you're turn to do something."  I figured he could get the gizzards out (at this stage I knew how much they smell, but he didn't).



He was pretty keen to get in to the action, to be fair, until that waft came out and went straight up his nose.  "Oh, don't they smell like that when you buy them from the shop" I giggle!



Anyway to be fair, he did a good job (despite the wrinkled up nose and funny look on his face - where was the camera then eh???), we kept the liver for the sauce and gave the remainder of the giblets to Chloe our trusty dog.



Waste not want not!  Next job was to clean out the cavity and rinse the bird thoroughly.



Back inside, and the duck was plunged into a large pot of boiling water, this is to open all the pores to allow the fat to ooze out during the cooking process and provide maximum crispiness to the skin.



After a few minutes, we took it out, and dried it off thoroughly with the hair dryer (and people reckon I never use it!  Meh!  Although I must admit I did send the hair dryer photo to my hairdresser!  Hee hee hee!!!)



Next stage was to season the duck with salt and pepper, drizzle it with a bit of olive oil, and place it on a bed of chopped veggies, whole garlic cloves and various herbs from the garden.





Then in to the oven it went.  No, not your standard gas or electric oven, in to the wood fired oven!  Yum yum yum!





When the duck was cooked, we put some bread rolls in to cook while the meat rested (and yes, a few smirky comments were made about me having "buns in the oven"), and quickly made up the liver sauce to pour on top, eh voila.....



Roast Duck Nana Glen style!  Is Yumalicious a word?  If not, it should be, because that is what this dinner was!

If you liked these photos, you can see more of Steve's awesome pics on his Flickr page here.

Foodie Fights!!! Peaches and Tarragon

Peach and Tarragon Verrine with Tarragon Flecked Tuilles

If you've been following my blog, or even only read a post or two, you have probably realised a couple of things by now:
1.  I love food
2.  I love to cook
3.  I love a challenge; and finally
4.  I spend far too little time doing housework, and way too much time surfing the net looking at pictures of food!
Once you've taken all of these things into consideration, they kind of come together in the various challenges that I have partaken in so far.  I guess it was only a matter of time before I came across Foodie Fights.  Needless to say, my interest was immediately piqued, so I put in my application to participate in the next challenge.  I was very excited to see my name on the list of 10 participants for this fortnights challenge - Peaches and Tarragon.  Hmmm, this was indeed to be a challenge!  We are amidst the throws of winter here (although you wouldn't know it today...being 35oC!!) so fresh peaches are not exactly available.  Added to that, I'd only ever eaten them fresh - never cooked.  Then there was the Tarragon.  I knew it was a herb, often used in French cooking and usually paired with chicken?  I think????  So now I had to come up with a tasty recipe using an ingredient that I couldn't get with an ingredient I had never used, let alone tasted.  The announcement was out on Wednesday which gave me a few days to ponder my predicament.  Inspiration hit me at about 2am on Saturday morning.  Peach icecream with tarragon tuilles.  I have made icecream before - the old beater and freezer method as I don't have an icecream maker, and have wanted to make tuilles for ages after reading various peoples entrants in the a previous Daring Bakers Challenge.  However, we ended up with a really busy weekend and I didn't even get a chance to get in to town to buy ingredients until this morning, so I had run out of time for icecream.  Helene of Tartelette to the rescue!!  She is my absolute idol.  Amazing cook, fantastic food stylist, and unbelievable food photographer.  I jumped on her recipe for Mango and Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Pannacotta.  Perfect.  This looked yum and I figured I could adapt it easy enough, and still use my tuilles as a garnish.  I made a few changes to the original recipe, so here is what I did:

Peach and Tarragon Verrine

1 cup pureed tinned peaches (thank god for the canning process - I used 8 halves of peaches in natural juice!!)
3/4 teaspoon finely chopped fresh tarragon
1 tablespoon water
1 3/4 teaspoons powdered gelatin
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream (extra)
3/4 cup full cream milk

Puree the tinned peaches with half of the finely chopped tarragon and divide among 4 glasses, being careful not to spill any excess on the inside of the glasses.  Place the glasses in the freezer.

Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and let it bloom.

In a medium saucepan, heat the 1 cup of cream with the sugar, remaining chopped tarragon and vanilla until the cream is just about to boil, stirring occasionally to make sure the sugar dissolves completely. Remove from the heat and stir in the gelatin until completely dissolved.

Let the mixture cool for about 10 minutes then add the extra 1/4 cup of cream and the milk. Allow to cool to room temperature. You can speed up the process by placing your saucepan over a bowl filled with ice but keep and eye on it as it will thicken faster. Once the cream is cooled, slowly pour it over the frozen fruit and let set in the fridge, at least two hours, preferably overnight.

Tarragon Flecked Tuilles

65 grams softened butter

60 grams sifted icing sugar mixture

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork - I use duck eggs for baking)

65 grams sifted plain flour

1/2 teaspoon finely chopped tarragon

Preheat oven to 180C or 160C fan forced.

On low speed, cream together butter sugar and vanilla until just combined.  Gradually add egg whites and beat only until combined to a smooth batter.  Be careful not to overmix.
Line a tray with baking paper.  If using a stencil, place it on the paper

and hold down with one hand while using an offset spatula with the other to gently smooth the batter over the stencil.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3449/3851368295_53abcba21b.jpg
You want a thin but even layer of batter.  Now, very carefully remove the stencil.  I found it easiest to start at a corner and pull the stencil up on the diagonal.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2444/3851368409_70640c597d.jpg
Make 3 more in this way then place in the oven for 4-5 minutes until lightly browned around the edges.

As soon as they are cooked, remove from the oven and shape over a folded piece of cardboard.  You have to do this really fast before they cool and set.

This is why you only want 4 biscuits at a time on the tray, otherwise they snap when you try to bend them.  Mind you, the kids think it's a good thing because they get to eat all the broken ones!!  Allow them to cool completely before removing them from the card to a SAFE PLACE away from curious little fingers!  (Like I said, the kids like to eat the broken ones - they don't care who breaks them!!!)

When ready to serve, place one or two of the tuilles on top of the cream mixture in the glass, then sit back with a spoon and enjoy!!

So, what did we think of the taste??  Yum yum yum!  The kids both loved it, and Matthew said it is a definate must next time we have people over for a meal.  I was feeling really dubious about it, having never combined fruit and herbs like this, and not being a great fan of pureed anything as it just looks like regurgitated baby food to me, but this blew me away!  The peach puree was lovely and cold and refreshing, and the tiny bits of tarragon through it added a lovely extra "note".  The cream layer set into a beautiful, silky concoction which delicately melted away with a creamy, but not fatty mouth feel.  The coolness of the fruit perfectly balanced the mousse-like texture of the cream.  The little tuilles on top were a cute finishing touch with a lovely vanilla taste and soft bite.  The tiny flecks of tarragon in them left a really pleasant aftertaste, which also tied them in with the main part of the dessert.

I am definately going to make this dish again, and can't wait for the arrival of summer so I can make it with fresh juicy peaches.  Thanks Helene for the inspiration and thank you also to Foodie Fights for pushing me out of my comfort zone to find a new favourite dish!  Definately a success!!  Now I've just got to go and plant some tarragon in the garden......

Oh yeah, and if you like the looks of this, please head on over to Foodie Fights and vote for me (Nana Glen Mum).  thanks heaps!