Basic Meringues

INGREDIENTS

• 4 egg whites, at room temperature
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup (220g) CSR Caster Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

• Step 3
  Once all the sugar has been added, continue to whisk on high for 3 mins. Whisk in the vanilla essence.
• Step 4
  Use two teaspoons to spoon meringue onto lined trays. Reduce the oven temperature to 90°C.
• Step 5
  Bake meringues for 1 hour 30 mins. Turn oven off and leave meringues in the oven to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Apple Crumble

Ingredients

For the crumble

• 300g/10½oz plain flour, sieved pinch of salt 
• 175g/6oz unrefined brown sugar
• 200g/7oz unsalted butter, cubed at room temperature 
• Knob of butter for greasing 

For the filling

• 450g/1lb apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm/½in pieces 
• 50g/2oz unrefined brown sugar
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 pinch of ground cinnamon

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. Place the flour and sugar in a large bowl and mix well. Taking a few cubes of butter at a time rub into the flour mixture. Keep rubbing until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. 
   Technique: Rubbing in
   Watch technique0:46 mins
3. Place the fruit in a large bowl and sprinkle over the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Stir well being careful not to break up the fruit. 
4. Butter a 24cm/9in ovenproof dish. Spoon the fruit mixture into the bottom, then sprinkle the crumble mixture on top. 
5. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until the crumble is browned and the fruit mixture bubbling. 
6. Serve with thick cream or custard.
   

Cape Malay Bollas

No koesisters this morning so we made ‪#‎capemalay‬ bollas. Here's the recipe...

Bollas
Makes approximately 40 bollas

Ingredients:
25ml butter (melted)
20ml sugar
2 eggs
4 x 250ml self raising flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla essence
1 (250ml) cup milk
1 (250ml) cup water
750ml sunflower oil for deep frying
Coconut for sprinkling

Method:
Whisk melted butter, eggs and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy.
Add vanilla essence.
In a separate bowl sift flour and baking powder twice.
Add flour mixture to egg mixture.
Add milk/water and mix into a soft, sticky dough.
Allow to rest for at least 30 minutes.
Place spoonfulls of mixture in hot oil and fry until golden brown.
Hint: Dip spoon in cold water to ensure that dough separates from spoon to form neatly rounded balls when dropped in oil.

For syrup:
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups water
Boil together until sticky, you may add more water (little by little if the sugar syrup becomes too sticky)

Pour some syrup in a pan. Heat through and add bollas. Syrup bollas, one to two minutes, until glossy and sprinkle with coconut.

Variation:
Add 100ml currants to batter before frying
Not suitable freezing, but can be refrigerated before syruping.
© Cape Malay Cooking & Other Delights

Best Banana bread

Ingredients

• (All ingredients should be room tempt.)
• 3 large extra ripe bananas (1½ cups mashed)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ cup white sugar
• ½-3/4 cup brown sugar (I used ½ cup)
• 8 tablespoons butter, softened ( 1 stick)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ cup buttermilk

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Grease and flour a loaf pan.
3. In a medium size bowl, mash bananas until creamy and stir in lemon juice. Set aside.
4. In a medium size bowl, whisk together flour,baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
5. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars.
6. Beat in the eggs until combined.
7. Fold in the bananas.
8. Add in the vanilla extract and buttermilk.
9. Beat until combined.
10. Add the dry mixture into the wet mixture.
11. STIR GENTLY AND JUST UNTIL THE FLOUR IS INCORPORATED. DO NOT OVER STIR.
12. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
13. Bake on center rack for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Cooking times may vary. Check on bread at the 1 hour mark. Toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean and bread should be golden on the outside.
14. Brush the top of the bread with butter if desire when it comes out of the oven.
15. Let cool for 5 minutes and then remove the bread from the pan and place on a cooling rack to finish cooling.
16. Slice and enjoy! (flavors will intensify the next day)

Notes

*It is super important that you do not over stir the batter or it will turn out dry and tough. Stir just very gently and just until the flour is incorporated. *Taste even better the next day!! Banana flavor is much stronger. *Cooking times can vary. Check on the bread after an hour or a little before. *Add walnuts or chocolate chips if desired.   

Honeyed pears in puff pastry

Ingredients

• 4 small pears
• 4 cups water
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup honey
• 1 small lemon, halved
• 3 cinnamon sticks (3 inches)
• 6 to 8 whole cloves
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

Directions

1. Core pears from bottom, leaving stems intact. Peel pears; cut 1/4 in. from the bottom of each to level if necessary.
2. In a large saucepan, combine the water, sugar, honey, lemon halves, cinnamon and cloves. Split vanilla bean and scrape seeds; add bean and seeds to sugar mixture. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; place pears on their sides in saucepan and poach, uncovered, for 18-22 minutes or until pears are almost tender, basting occasionally with poaching liquid.
3. Remove pears with a slotted spoon; cool slightly. Strain and reserve 1-1/2 cups poaching liquid; set aside.
4. Unfold puff pastry on a lightly floured surface. Cut into 1/2-in.-wide strips. Starting at the bottom of a pear, wrap a pastry strip around pear, adding additional strips until pear is completely wrapped in pastry. Repeat with remaining pears and puff pastry.
5. Transfer to a parchment paper-lined 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Meanwhile bring reserved poaching liquid to a boil; cook until liquid is thick and syrupy, about 10-15 minutes. Place pears on dessert plates and drizzle with syrup. Serve warm. Yield: 4 servings.

Custard Cake

Magic Custard Cake Ingredients: 

4 eggs (whites separated from  yolks), room temp 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

3/4 cup sugar 

1 stick butter, melted 

3/4 cup all purpose flour 

2 cups milk lukewarm 

powdered sugar for dusting cake 

Instructions: Preheat oven to 325 F degrees. Grease and Line 8 inch x 8 inch baking dish with parchment. 

Separate eggs and add the egg whites to a mixer and beat egg whites stiff. Place egg whites in a bowl and set aside. Beat the egg yolks & sugar until light. Add butter and vanilla.  Beat for two mins.  Add the flour and mix it in until fully incorporated. Slowly start adding the milk and beat until everything is well mixed together. Add the egg whites, a third at a time and gently fold them in using a spatula, repeat until all egg whites are folded in.   Pour batter into baking dish and bake for approx 60 minutes or until the top is lightly golden.  Cool and dust heavily with powdered sugar. 

Helathy banana sweet treat

Federica's Apple cake

3 apples (I used golden yesterday)
150gr flour
200gr sugar
3 eggs
8gr baking powder
150gr fat (I tend to use margarine but butter works as well).

Just peel and cut the apples, mix everything together and stick it in the oven. In Europe it stays about 40-50 minutes at 180C. Here with my crazy oven cooks anything between 20 and 30 minutes. I just check with a toothpick as soon as I start smelling cake. It serves as many people as ate it yesterday.

Bint al sahn

To make the VERY ELASTIC dough that is the secret of this recipe you will need:

1) 1 tsp of yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup of warm water

2) 4 eggs

3) 3 cups of white flour (I used North dakota)

4) 1/4 cup of water (in addition to the 1/4 of cup in which you have dissolved the yeast)

5) 1 tsp salt

6) 1/4 cup of melted butter(or ghee if you have some at hand)

In a bowl hand whisk the eggs, add the salt, water, yeast mixture and whisk well. Slowly add the flour and knead into a dough. Slowly pour the melted better and continue kneading until all the butter is incorporated. You can use a mixer for this, but we usually knead it by hand.

The dough takes on a yellowy color from the eggs and the butter!

OVEN MUST BE PREHEATED TO 400 degrees F.

Divide into 16 balls of equal size and cover so they do not dry up ( REMEMBER to flour the plate you put them on, so they do not stick to the plate). Let rise for about 20 min. You can use a rolling pin and start opening up each circle as big as you can–each one has to be so thin that you can literally see through it. Our yemeni mothers and sisters do th is by hand. I continue with my hand here, tossing it from one hand to the other. BE CAREFUL it does not break! It will be VERY thin, almost see through.

With a spoon sprinkle some melted butter onto a round metal oven dish (about 14 inch in diameter). Then place the first layer onto the butter–make sure the edges stick to the oven dish. Sprinkle more butter on this layer and repeat the process of opening up the balls of dough–basically repeat the previous three steps–until you get the to last one. Don’t sprinkle the top of this layer with butter, but rather brush it with some egg yolk and sprinkle some black seeds on it.

Place in the preheated oven about 20 minutes, until it rises and browns on the top. Serve with HONEY

Apple Cinnamon Loaf

1/3 cup brown sugar (not packed)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1 apple, peeled and chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl and set aside. Beat white sugar and butter together in a bowl using an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, until incorporated; add vanilla extract.

Combine flour and baking powder together in another bowl; stir into creamed butter mixture. Mix milk into batter until smooth. Pour half the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Next add half the apples and half the brown sugar cinnamon mixture. Lightly pat apple mixture into batter.

Pour the remaining batter over apple layer; top with remaining apples and add more brown sugar/cinnamon mixture. Lightly pat apples into batter; swirl brown sugar mixture through apples using a finger or spoon.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes.

No bake lemon cheesecake

INGREDIENTS

Crust:
• 9 whole rectangular graham crackers (for about 1 1/2 cups crushed)
• 5 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Lemon Curd:
• 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• pinch salt
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
Filling:
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, from about 2 lemons
• 1 envelope (2 3/4 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
• 1 1/2 pounds (3 bars) cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• pinch salt
• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream, room temperature

DIRECTIONS

1. For the crust: preheat the oven to 350 degrees and adjust an oven rack to the middle position. In a food processor, pulse the graham crackers until they are finely ground. Add the butter and lemon zest and pulse until combined. Alternately, the graham crackers can be crushed in a resealable bag with a rolling pin and then poured into a bowl where the zest and butter can be stirred in. Press the mixture onto the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Bake the crust until it is lightly golden brown, about 8 minutes. Cool the crust completely on a wire rack before filling.
2. For the curd: while the crust is cooling, whisk the egg, egg yolk, sugar and salt together in a small saucepan. Whisk in the lemon juice and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick and pudding-like, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and cream. Press the mixture through a fine mesh strainer or sieve into a small bowl and refrigerate until needed.
3. In a small bowl, put the 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice. Sprinkle the gelatin over the top and let it stand until the gelatin softens, about 5 minutes. Microwave the mixture until it is bubbling around the edges and the gelatin dissolves, about 30 seconds. Set aside.
4. For the filling: In a large bowl with a handheld mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese, sugar, and salt until smooth and creamy, scraping down the sides of the bowl, about 2 minutes. Slowly add the cream and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the gelatin mixture and 1/4 cup of the refrigerated lemon curd. Beat until the mixture is smooth and airy, about 3 minutes.
5. Pour the filling into the cooled crust and smooth the top. Following the photos below, pour thin lines of remaining curd on top of the cake and lightly drag a pairing knife or skewer through the lines to create a marble appearance. I found it wasn’t quite as easy as I thought to “pour” the lemon curd into lines. I kind of scooped it out of the cup onto the cheesecake and spooned it into lines. It doesn’t have to be perfect since the imperfections are somewhat hidden after you drag through the lines.
6. Refrigerate the cheesecake until set, at least 6 hours. Remove the sides of the pan, cut into slices and serve.
7. Scoop/Pour the lemon curd into thin lines. This doesn’t have to be perfect – it’s a bit hard to pour so do the best you can. (Photo #1 below)
8. Drag the paring knife or skewer through the lines to create the decorative pattern. (Photo below)