Week 6 - Banana Coconut Pikelets

So an abundance of overripe bananas has me making as much banana flavoured things as possible these past two weeks, last weeks Banana Loaf was made twice again and packed up for hubbies lunch box at work much to his delight!


So this week something that is a standard lunch box suggestion, but with a bit of a twist. They take a little bit of extra time to cook, but they are worth it :)


These are great cold in the lunchbox with butter and jam, or even served warm for breakfast, or with ice cream for dessert.


BANANA COCONUT PIKELETS
Ingredients
1 cup SR Flour
2 tbsp Caster Sugar
3/4 Cup Coconut Milk
1 Egg
1 Large Banana
1tsp Vanilla Essence


Method
1. Sift flour and sugar into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre.
2. Mash banana, add egg and coconut milk and vanilla essence and mix well. Pour into the flour mixture and stir well. Whisk until smooth. 
3. Spray a large fry pan with oil or add a little butter. Add tablespoons of mixture and cook until the surface bubbles. Flip over and cook for a further minute or until golden brown.
4. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel, if serving straight away serve warm, if freezing lay them in a single layer until cool (to prevent sweating)
5. To freeze, place them in single layers in large ziplock bags and freeze in a flat position. 


Notes
You can use evaporated milk with coconut essence instead of coconut milk. If the mixture is too dry add more milk, if it's too wet add more flour. It should be quite a thick batter, still pourable but will hold together once in the pan and not spread too much.


To thaw I have simply been taking them out of the freezer in the morning when getting the school lunches ready, putting a bit of butter and jam on them and wrapping in glad wrap. The kids tell me that they are soft and fluffy and not goopy or dry at school. 


You can add a little cinnamon or nutmeg, pinch of salt even but they are quite tasty without. If you wanted to make them look a little nicer then have slices of banana ready to go, and once the mixture is in the pan add a slice to the top of the pikelet before you flip. 


They turn out denser than a normal fluffy pikelet because of the banana, so you can omit that and just use the slices instead, or even use buttermilk. You can also add dessicated coconut to the mixture for even more flavour. 


I doubled the recipe and got approx 30 pikelets.


As a side note they didn't get rejected from the super strict kindy either!

Week Five - Banana Bread

Almost forgot to come and update the blog this week, feeling very tired all of a sudden and I think the reality of #5 being here in just 13 weeks is starting to hit home! I'm really hoping that I can keep this up with a newborn as well as the cooking because at the moment I'm actually really enjoying making something different each week, and it gives the kids a chance to get involved in baking something for themselves too.


This week I had to bake two cakes, one for the kids and one for hubby, he wouldn't let me hear the end of it if I didn't make him one too!


This cake is the easiest recipe I have come across for banana cake and it always turns out moist and full of flavour. 


BANANA BREAD


INGREDIENTS
160gm white sugar
60gm margarine
2 eggs
3 medium bananas (or 2 large)
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla essence
225gm Plain Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder


METHOD
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Spray one loaf pan (see notes) with non stick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl beat the butter and sugar for 10mins until pale and creamy.
3. In a separate bowl mash the bananas, add the eggs, milk, vanilla essence and stir to combine. Add to butter mixture and beat for a few minutes until well blended.
4. Sift the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder into the banana mixture. Stir to combine.
5. Pour into pan and bake for 60min. Cake is done when a skewer inserted comes out clean.
6. Rest the pan on it's side for 10mins before turning cake out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.


NOTES
The pan size is a big factor here. I have a smaller size pan which measures around 8.5in(L) x 3in(W) x 2.5in(D). I cook my cake for 65mins and it comes out perfectly every time. I tried to cook it in a larger 9x5x3 inch loaf pan and at the 60min mark it was too far gone. I would suggest testing it at 50mins, and giving it 5mins each time until its done.

You can add a variety of things to this bread, I have tried chocolate chips, walnuts, flaked almonds on top, coconut or oats throughout and sprinkled on top, chopped dried apricots, sultanas, cranberries etc etc etc I really just like the original, but the variations are good if you want to change things up.


I've never had to use baking paper in the pan, it always comes away easily and has never stuck.


When cooled, cut into slices and individually wrap for school lunches, or snacks for yourself. With the slightly smaller loaf size I got 9 decent slices, plus the two end pieces. 


It freezes well and holds it shape, doesn't dry out when defrosted and stays nice and moist without going soggy. I recommend freezing it in slices because if its anything like this house one loaf will do one afternoon tea with no leftovers!

Week Four - Cheese and Herb Scones

I realised last night at 7pm that I hadn't made the school snacks, so grabbed my latest foodie mag and had a quick skim through to see if there was anything I could make. Luckily for me this month they had a section of 5 recipes specifically for lunch boxes that are freezer friendly, so I'm going to try them all out eventually.


Settled on the Cheese and Herb Scones this week because I know I can make scones without screwing them up and I was really too stuffed to put too much effort into anything else!


Nice simple recipe and one that I hope you'll enjoy.


CHEESE AND HERB SCONES


Ingredients
3 1/2 cups of Self Raising Flour
1tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp salt
60gm butter, chopped
2tbsp dried mixed herbs
1tsp paprika
1 tbsp mustard powder
1 cup grated tasty cheese
1 1/2 cups of milk


extra cheese for on top
extra milk for brushing


Method
1. Preheat oven to 220C/200C fan forced. Grease a 18cmx28cm base slice pan.
2. Sift flour in large bowl, add sugar and salt. Add chopped butter and use fingertips to rub it in until it resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Add herbs and cheese to flour mixture.
4. Make a well in the centre and add milk. Use a butter knife to mix through until it forms a dough.
5. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead lightly until it comes together and then roll out to a 3cm thickness.
6. Use a 6cm cutter to cut rounds out of the dough, roll and repeat. Place them in the tray just touching each other, you should get 12 to the pan.
7. Brush scones with extra milk, sprinkle finely grated cheese over the top. Bake for 15-20mins or until light and golden and hollow when tapped.
8. Turn out onto a wire rack immediately after cooking, and separate while hot. 


Notes
Scones are best done with minimal handling. Use your fingertips to rub the butter in, and try not to let the heat from your hands melt the butter too much. Fairy fingers is what my mum says!


Same goes for the kneading process, keep it to a bare minimum so the dough doesn't become stretchy and tough. 


Variations - you can add whatever herbs you like, fresh or dried doesn't matter.  Chopped fresh chives always go well with cheese scones, add a bit of nutmeg to bring out the flavour a bit more. 


I also sprinkled the top with parmesan cheese as well as the tasty. It doesn't matter if the grated cheese goes between the scones in the pan as they puff up and the cheese helps them stick together. You could add more cheese to the mix if you wanted as well.


If you wanted to sneak more vegies in there, you could add a bit of grated carrot too.


Reviews
Scones always freeze and defrost well, and while they are served best warm and with loads of butter, these are tasty enough to be eaten on their own straight out of the lunchbox.


These scones are really quick to make, it took me literally 10mins from start to pan and that was with my two youngest 'helping' me by eating all the cheese when my back was turned, and all the other helpful things a 4 and 2 year old do while baking!

Week Three - Chocolate Weetbix Slice

This week I decided to fall back on a family favourite, the Chocolate Weetbix slice. This recipe was originally found in my high school Home Ec cooking book and is never fail! I have made a few adaptations to it over the years, and like to think that my version is better than the original ;) but it is one of those recipes that takes all of 5mins to throw together and always tastes good whatever you do with it.


I have also had a chat with my sons kindy about the appropriateness of his home baked snacks and they have provided me with a list of all the 'acceptable' lunch box ideas that they are happy with. There is no room at all for baked goods, they seem to have a stance that if it's baked at home it a 'treat' and should be eaten in the afternoon after kindy. Never mind the actual ingredients, sugar, fat and salt content that is in the home cooked snacks, it's all about appearances and they are being real stick in the muds about the whole endeavour. So, I am waving my little white flag in surrender and will just focus on things that I can put in the school lunch boxes and the kindy with their ridiculous warfare against common sense can just jump off a bridge!


So here we go...


CHOCOLATE WEETBIX SLICE


Ingredients
4 weetbix
1 cup plain flour
1 cup coconut
1 cup sugar
3tbsp cocoa
1 cup sultanas
120gm butter, melted
1/3 cup milk


Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C, spray a square slice tin with cooking spray.
2. Crush the weetbix into a bowl, add flour, coconut, sugar, cocoa and sultanas. Mix to combine.
3.Add butter and milk, mix until it all comes together.
4. Press into tin, use the back of a spoon to make sure it's all even.
5. Bake for 20min, allow to cool in tin for 20min and then transfer to fridge. Cut into small squares.


Notes
You can cut back on the sugar if it's too sweet, I've already cut back on it from the original and this is a nice level of sweetness for us.


The mixture should be quite moist when you put it in the pan, add an extra tablespoon of milk if it's just not coming together, or seems quite dry.


You can substitute the milk for an egg, I've made it both ways and prefer the no egg option. 


You can use baking paper to line the tray if wanted, I've never had problems with it sticking to the paper, but I've also found that it comes out the tray easily enough without it.


Toppings can vary. The original recipe calls for a chocolate icing, which consists of 2cups icing sugar, 1tbsp cocoa and 1tbsp milk. It goes on runny but sets hard in the fridge. I think with that topping on it the slice is way too sweet for my taste, but if you have a sweet tooth, or just want to enjoy the devilish side of life, you'll certainly enjoy it! I also had some leftover icing from a cake mix that would do the job too. Those kinds of toppings probably wouldn't do too well in the lunch box with the heat of the day, you'll see in the pic that I have just used sprinkles and they went on just before I put it in the oven. Just press them in with the back of the spoon so they don't fall off when cooked and make a mess while eating.


The slice freezes well and defrosts with no problems, no sogginess and without drying out too much. The end result of this recipe is a quite moist slice, that is lovely and a bit brownie like while eaten warm, but firms up nicely once cooled. Did I mention eating it warm? Beware if you try it this way, if you're anything like me you'll have eaten half the pan in the blink of an eye and need to make another.


Variations, there's just so much you can add! Chopped dried apricots, or any dried fruit instead of sultanas, you can throw a handful of rice bubbles or cornflakes into it, press flaked almonds into the top before baking, put chopped walnuts through it, add some crushed up chocolate chip cookies, or chocolate drops. It's really up to your imagination and the recipe is hardy enough that you can play around with ingredients and it always tastes good. I would recommend doing the base recipe first and getting a feel for the texture of the mixture and making sure that if you do change things around that the mix isn't too dry before baking.


This is really a simple recipe that the kids can make as well, so if you feel like a week off, set them up with the ingredients and sit back and relax!

Week Two - Banana, Passionfruit and Custard Scrolls

Well Week Two, and this has got to be the Epic Fail week. If anything could go wrong it did go wrong.


Firstly, I had the wrong flour, then burnt my first batch of custard, the dough was too sticky and stuck to the bench, which was a nightmare when rolling. The custard went everywhere, the baking paper stuck to the scrolls once cooked, and although they tasted lovely, the kindy refused to let my son eat his because it looked too much like a 'treat', so it got sent home!! 


So while it's a good snack for the older two, without all the hiccups along the way, it supposedly doesn't meet the kindys rather strict criteria of 'healthy' snack food because apparently it's too sugary looking. Nevermind that there is no salt and all of 1tablespoon of sugar in the entire thing. 


In any case, the kids have 'put away' the magazine I got the recipe from, so I will attempt to re-write the recipe from memory as it was pretty basic...


Ingredients
3 cups self raising flour
90gm Butter, chilled and cubed
3/4 cup of milk
3/4 cup of mashed ripe banana
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp nutmeg
Small tin of Passionfruit pulp


Custard (to make 1L with leftovers for dessert ;) )
4tbsp of custard powder
2tbsp of sugar
1L of long life milk


Method
1. Preheat oven to 220C. Grease two flat baking trays. Don't use baking paper!
2. Make custard by following box directions. As a reference, mine is much safer in the microwave! I added the custard powder, sugar and milk in a large microwave safe bowl, whisked together and microwaved in 4min bursts on med-high, whisking each time until thick. Put in fridge until starting to cool, it will thicken more as it cools.
3. Process flour, nutmeg and butter in a food processor until it resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Mix together in a separate bowl the mashed banana, milk and vanilla essence. 
5. Make a well in the centre of the flour, add the banana mixture and mix together with a flat bladed knife until it resembles a sticky dough. You may need to add more flour at this stage until the dough is firmer and manageable by hand. 
6. Turn dough onto a floured bench and knead until smooth, roll out flat with a rolling pin to approx 20cm x 30cm.
7. Smooth the custard over the dough, spread the passionfruit over the custard. Take the long edge of the dough and roll up into a log. The custard and passionfruit will slide but use the edge of a spatula to smooth it back. 
8. Place scrolls on a tray evenly spaced and cook for 20-25min. Remove from tray immediately and place on a wire rack to cool.


Notes
Ok, so I stuffed up the initial batch of custard by using the stove top instead of the microwave. Even standing over it stirring the whole time, it caught in the last minute. I'm a big believer in the microwave being a better cook than me :p and it seems to cook custard perfectly every time.


Because my dough ended up too sticky, and frankly at that point in the whole adventure I was too fed up to care, my scrolls stuck to the bench and I ended up with globs of dough, custard and passionfruit on my tray, instead of nice perfect little scrolls. BUT they still cooked, and if anything gave them nice little pockets of custard when done. 


They stuck to the baking paper, courtesy of the stickiness of the actual custard and passionfruit leaking out everywhere, so although all I wanted to do at that stage was give the dog an early dinner, I did end up painstakingly peeling off all the paper. My advice, don't use baking paper, but grease the tray really well.


Cooking time was another point of contention, 20min and they weren't quite browning on the top, 25min and they were starting to brown too much on the bottom. I put them on a middle tray for the first 20min, and finished them on an upper tray for the last 5min.


I have frozen them and they have come out well with no sogginess and no loss of flavour.


Taste Review - I intensely disliked the making of them, but the taste was good, the passionfruit adds a bit of bite and the banana keeps the dough from being an overly dry scone dough, which is all it really is. The kids enjoyed them, well all except poor Jett who didn't get to eat his today, and hubby had his smothered with extra custard and warmed up a little last night for dessert. 


All in all, if you can get it right the first time it would be a pretty simple and quick enough snack to make and they do taste good enough that I will go back and attempt them again another day!

Not the most appetising looking thing on the menu, but you can see now what I mean about just putting a glob of dough on the try and hoping for the best. Tastes a lot better than it looks!

Back To School - Week One

I am so sick of making new years resolutions and never sticking to them, so I thought about aiming a little lower this year and trying to keep it simple. I have four kids and another one due in June this year and budgeting and healthy food options is always high on the agenda, also time for me to do things I enjoy is right up there too. I thought about the things I like to do and cooking is one of them, writing is another. So my aim is to make something for the lunch boxes each week, something that's healthier and not packed with sugar and salt, and in process getting my me time by enjoying some time to myself in the kitchen and in the blog world.


The first school week for QLD for 2012 is almost upon us. Today is Wednesday and the kids go back on Monday. I don't know who's more excited, them for getting back into their social circles, or me for having the house back to myself for a few hours a day without the constant bickering that 10 and 8 year olds seem to be experts at. The kids are counting down the days and telling me at least 20 times a day how many sleeps they have left, and asking if have I labelled their books and lunch boxes, which we all know will end up being done in the late hours of the night, the last day before school goes back.


I have however stuck to my goal of making some snacks for the school week next week. I've made a slice this week, wrapped them all individually and popped them in the freezer ready to go. I've also been trawling through my magazines and all the websites I can think of to find ideas that are not only healthier options, but freezable and quick to make without hours of fiddling. 


One of our boys is off to kindy this year, it's his first time in care and will be a big learning curve for him. His kindy has really strict rules about lunch box requirements. Minimal rubbish, no 'junk' food, no peanuts, no processed foods in wrappers. Basically fresh fruit, crackers, cheeses, yoghurt (as long as it's in a washable container!) and sandwiches is all that they have on their lists. So whatever I make has to tie in with this as well and can't appear too treat like or will be frowned upon. So this should be a decent challenge! 


First recipe of the week - 
MUESLI SLICE
Ingredients
2 cups natural untoasted muesli
1 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup dried chopped apricots
1/2 cup sultanas
3/4 cup brown sugar
180gm butter
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs, lightly beaten


Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a 3cm deep, 16cm x 26cm (base) pan.
2. Combine muesli, flour, dried fruit and sugar in a bowl.
3.Place butter and honey into a microwavable bowl and microwave for 1min or until melted. Add butter mixture and eggs to muesli mixture. Stir until well combined.
4. Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool for 20mins in pan before turning out and cutting into squares.


Notes

I didn't have apricots, so I used some leftover chopped walnuts and some almond flakes. Would be nice with any dried fruit, apple or crandberries maybe.

I found the mixture to be quite wet when all combined, but it turned a rich golden colour and is fluffy and light. 

The slice itself is a little more cakey than a normal muesli bar, it's not too sweet and as long as it is cool it slices well into small squares. I managed to get 21 bite sized squares out of the pan. It is a little crumbly to eat, but overall seems to be holding together and not just falling apart completely.

I have frozen some slices and thawed them out to see how it handles it, and they are still great, no sogginess and no falling apart.

Taste wise - well no one spat it out and everyone went back for seconds, so that's a good review in my book!

I apologise in advance for my picture taking skills, I promise they will get better as time goes on!