Honey Oat Slice

Not too long ago I posted a link to a recipe for Honey Oat Slice, only I accidentally sent you all to the wrong place.  So here it is again, a super yummy slice recipe that keeps a long time and packs great in a lunch box.  Just a few tips, it does seem to make a large mix, but it really does all go into one slice tin.  Just make sure have lined up a little past the sides of the tin if you use shallow tins like me.  And 300g of butter does seem like a ridiculous amount, but I promise it works.

Date slice

I stumbled across a yummy and easy slice recipe this week.  I had to do some late night baking for the builders yesterday (another request for passionfruit slice) and thought I would make another slice at the same time as the lunch box supplies were getting a bit low.  The cupboard was pretty bare (no more coconut - so many slices need coconut!) and I only had 125g of butter left.

This Best Recipes date slice worked a treat, really quick and easy, yummy, and travels well.

Caramel slice?

This is a very special and yummy recipe.  I am very pleased to be able to share it with you.  My cousin-in-law (is there such a thing?) was recently handed down by her grandmother a handwritten recipe book.  It was her grandmother's collection from a life time of cooking.  A very special gift.

Now this recipe is called caramel slice, but I am not sure I agree with the title.  More like a "date slice" or a "date and caramel slice".  On good advice I topped it with a very thin layer of chocolate icing (made from icing sugar, water and cocoa powder).  It is very moreish!

By the way 1/4 of a pound of butter is about 112g.  Needless to say I left out the nuts so that I can use it for a school snack too.

COOOOOOOOKIES!

I'm in the market for some kitchen artwork from the They Draw and Cook website (much to my husband's disgust).  I want a picture that I like but the recipe has to be good too.   This quest led me to try out the COOOOOOOOKIES! by Pietro Duchi recipe last night.  I added choc chips and it was really easy.  Not sure if I was meant to but I melted the butter and used 125g which came pretty close to the 6.5 tablespoons. I figured there was no other reasonable way to measure out tablespoons of butter.  Anyway the recipe worked well but I am not so in love with the artwork, I am after something with a bit more colour.

Take a look at the other ones that are high on my list to try out:

Banana bread by Amy McKay
Black coffee by Pedro Menezes 
Summer vegetable soup by Ekaterina Muratova

But what I would really love is for someone to do one of my favourite apple pie recipe... any takers?

Easy apple pie: (this is an adaptation of this recipe, just a bit simpler and if you work smartly only 1 bowl to wash up plus the pie dish!)

• 1 tin pie apple
• 125g butter melted
• 1 egg
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup raw sugar plus an extra tablespoon

1. Spread the pie apple into a pie dish and sprinkle the tablespoon of raw sugar on top
2. In a large bowl, melt the butter
3. Add the flour, sugar and egg and mix well
4. Spread the mixture evenly over the top of the apple, doesn't matter if there is not enough to cover all the way to the edges, just spread it roughly over the apple as in the picture below
5. Put in a 170C oven until the top turns a lovely golden colour - I usually set the time for 45 minutes then check on it regularly
6. Serve with cream or ice cream

More baking treats

Over the weekend I had to do some more midnight baking.  All my baked goody supplies were gone and we were visiting friends so I needed to take something along.  I decided on two new recipes I hadn't tried before.  I chose this Honey Oat slice because Mr 3 loves the Anzac slice that I make.  I was looking for something similar, but a bit different that he might like (and succeeded!).

The cake I came across by chance in a Donna Hay magazine a friend has lent me.  It was actual an advertisement for Equal.  Hilariously, I just used caster sugar instead of Equal (did I miss the point?).  I also substituted walnuts for hazelnuts.  The cake was lovely and moist - the boys did not like it by the friends we were visiting did.

A busy midnight kitchen

I have been a bit slack in posting this week, but that doesn't mean there haven't been yummy things happening in the kitchen.  I have had a couple of late night baking sessions.  Plenty of mouths to keep fed: not just the boys but the builders too.  This week I have made Anzac slice (Mr 3 loves this one, its the only slice that I make which he eats), Passionfruit slice and also a new Apple and cinnamon slice I wanted to try (I had sour cream to use up).

If you haven't already made this Anzac slice, you really need to.  Its so quick, no fancy ingredients, makes the house smell lovely, keeps really well and is great with a cuppa.  I leave off the final sprinkle of coconut.

This passionfruit slice, in the picture on the right below, is a regular from my kitchen.  I have a recipe handed down from a girlfriend that I use.  But it is almost identical to this one on the Taste.com.au website.  Only I gave the lemon a miss and used half a tin of John West passionfruit instead.

The apple cinnamon slice ,pictured on the left below, was nice, but not sure it makes it high on the list of ones to make again.  It just was hard to cut and crumbled easily.  Still yummy but didn't quite make it on to my favourites list plus none of the boys liked it.  Also the fact you need to use a cake mix doesn't rate highly with me.  I like baking from scratch so I know exactly what is going in.  If we are going to eat sweet treats, they can at least be made from "wholesome" ingredients and free from additives.

Mother-in-laws and scones

There are a few things in this world that I will never be able to do as well as my mother-in-law.  I am sure this is a statement mirrored by many wives!  Don't get me wrong, I love my mother-in-law dearly and don't suffer from any nasty/stressful type of in-law relationship (and no, I'm not just saying that because she reads my blog).  But there are some things that she is really, really good at and making scones is one of them.  For this reason I often don't make them; nothing worse than feeding your husband something when you both know they are no where near as good as the ones his mum makes.  But today I threw caution to the wind and made scones. 

I used a recipe I picked up in a second hand cookbook found at a book stall earlier in the week.  Yes, I am the proud new owner of 3 more cookbooks! I am hoping there is room (and money) in my new kitchen to build a cookbook bookshelf so I can have them all close to hand.

Anyway, haven't tried the scones yet, but you can almost guarantee with generous helpings of jam and cream they will taste fine!

A quick, easy chocolate and coconut slice

I like to bake my own snacks and treats for school.  I know these are not the most healthy things to do but I remember the school yard as a difficult place, where it can be really really important as to what is in your lunch box.  Nothing worse than opening your lunch box to only find a Vegemite sandwich and an apple.  My theory is at least if I make most of our treats I know exactly what is in them and I can choose healthier options, or make smaller portions. I figure the older they get, then if I don't make an effort to provide yummy food then the more likely they are to supplement their packed lunch with treats from the canteen or hot chips on the way home.

I found this chocolate slice the other day and decided it was worth a try given weetbix were the main ingredient.  I didn't have any cocoa on hand (what is going on with that!) but I had drinking chocolate instead and this substitution worked out really well.  Only the end result wasn't as dark as the picture in the recipe.  I also used a half/half mixture of wholemeal SR flour and normal SR flour.  This slice packs and transports really well too, I lugged some around in my handbag for most of the weekend and it stayed intact (what wasn't eaten!). I will definitely be making this one again.

School snacks and sweet treats

How good is weekend baking!  We are heading to a picnic with friends this evening so I am cooking roast beef and potato salad to go with fresh rolls and a garden salad for our feast.  The house smells beautiful!  Lazy days are few and far between so I am doing a bit of baking: home made LCM bars (thanks for the recipe @BrendonWalker) and the most scrumptious biscuit ever, Russian Tea Cookies.

LCM bars

• 8 cups rice bubbles
• 1 tin condensed milk
• small pack of choc chips

1. Grease and line with baking paper a slice tin, put on oven at 160C
2. Mix everything together in a big bowl
3. Spread mixture evenly in tins and smooth down
4. Bake for about 20 mins at 160C (keep your eye on them I expect they are easy to overcook)
5. Let them cool in the tin then slice into bars and store in an air tight container

Note that I probably should have put mine in one tin rather than two as they ended up too thin and really didn't work out well as they were not thick enough to slice (see we all have kitchen failures from time to time!).  Another friend swears by a slightly different recipe for these which you can find here.

Russian tea cookies
Alas this is not my (or a friend's) recipe to publish.  But I can guarantee they are the yummiest biscuit you will ever eat.  Reading is one of my greatest pleasures, and one of my most re-read series of novels of all time is the Paullina Simons Bronze Horseman trilogy.

If you have read these three novels (The Bronze Horseman, The Bridge to Holy Cross and The Summer Garden) you will be familiar with the main character, Tatiana's love for food.  In fact such a huge theme that food and cooking plays in these books (and one assumes the author's too), has no doubt resulted in the "companion" Tatiana's Table cook book.  In this little gem of a book you can find the recipe for Russian tea cookies (on page 102).   This recipe alone is worth purchasing this book, or at the very least making a trip to the library. A lovely light, sweet biscuit with a hint of chewiness and

Note that the recipe uses walnuts for coating the biscuits, in my opinion the biscuits are just as yum without the walnuts and it means you can send them to school too.

Lest we forget

An early rise here to trek around to the (yet again) rained out dawn service.  Followed by inviting back a few friends for pancake breakfast.  After midday naps and too much TV on a cold and miserable day we made, of course, some (chewy) ANZAC biscuits. 

But oh no!! They didn't work out well at all... too dry and I am sure I followed the recipe correctly.  I am so disappointed I won't even post the link to the recipe I tried.  The ANZAC slice I made the other day was much much nicer.  Or maybe I should have researched the true origins of the biscuit before I headed into the kitchen and used this "authentic" recipe.