Pop Therapy : baking

Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts

Tuesday, 10 February 2015

Diary Free Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

Recently I've gone on a dairy and soy elimination diet - never did I realise it would be so hard!! Diary and soy are in practically everything, even bread!! I've been on the hunt for some diary and soy free recipes to satisfy my chocolate cravings - these Hazelnut Chocolate Biscotti sure are a winner!!

They're the perfect treat to have with a morning coffee and were fairly easy to make too. I think these will become part of my regular baking rotation!!

Because these babies are double baked, they can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks, and make a great gift. They'll also be great to have on hand for when friends pop by for coffee!!

I modified the recipe based on this one, from taste.com. Based on the original recipe, I also added in some coffee (because everything is better with coffee!) and doubled the original amount of cocoa to make them extra chocolatey!!

Ingredients

1 cup raw hazelnuts
1 and 2/3 cup plain flower
4 tablespoons dutch cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 eggs, lightly beaten
Finely grated rind of 1 orange
1 tablespoon espresso coffee disolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water

Method

Preheat oven to 200C. Roast nuts on an oven tray for 10 minutes or until golden and skins are flaking. Rub well in a clean tea towel to remove skins. Chop coarsely.

Sift flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl. Combine eggs, orange rind, coffee and nuts in a separate bowl. Gradually add egg mixture to dry ingredients, stirring to form a dough. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface. Knead briefly then halve. Shape into two 25cm-long logs. Place logs on a baking paper-lined oven tray. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Stand for 5 minutes.

Slice logs diagonally into 5mm-thick slices. Place slices on oven trays and return to oven for 10 minutes or until dry. Cool on a wire rack.

Friday, 5 December 2014

Lemon Bars

Keeping with my lemon themed baking (see my lemon yoghurt cake here!!), I decided to give these delicious lemon bars a go!! They're based on the recipe from the Tartine Cookbook, but I saw the recipe on the Late Afternoon Blog and they looked so good I had to give them a go!!

Sometimes I have those days where I get it all wrong!! I attempted these two nights ago after just getting my little baby to sleep. After making a beautiful base and having the filling ready to go, I some how managed to burn the hell out of the base, set off the smoke alarm and wake my poor bubba!! I didn't have enough butter left to try and re-bake the base so had to throw away my filling after hand squeezing so many lemons!! :( Baking fail!!

My oven seems to be set to overdrive so today I tried again but made a few temperature tweaks.

It was worth the second try!! They look impressive, but were actually quite easy to make. They're very sweet, so I'll be having mine with coffee!! They also keep in the fridge for 4 days.

Ingredients:

Crust

1/2 cup icing sugar

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cups unsalted butter at room temp

Filling

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 1/4 cups caster sugar

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (approx 5 large lemons)

6 large whole eggs

1 large egg yolk

Directions :

Pre-heat the oven to 175 Degrees Celsius and butter 9 by 13 inch pan.

To make the crust, sift the sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the flour and butter. Beat on low speed until you get a nice soft dough. Evenly spread the dough on the bottom of your buttered pan (I just patted it down with my fingers).

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Make sure the crust is cooked evenly.

While the crust bakes, prepare the filling. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and mix together. Add the lemon juice and a little bit of lemon zest. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Next add all of the eggs and whisk well.

When the crust is ready, pull out the oven rack keeping the pan on the rack and pour the filing directly into the hot pan. Drop the temp down to 150 Degrees Celcius and bake for 25 minutes or until the filling is no longer wobbly.

Let cool almost all the way through. Cut into rectangles, top with powdered sugar and serve.

Saturday, 1 February 2014

Baking Therapy Part 2 - Impromptu Tea Party!!

There is nothing more delightful on a Sunday afternoon then an impromptu tea party!! This afternoon I decided to bake some scones, following this recipe.

They turned out to be delicious, especially with a very large serve of jam and cream.

Baking is far more fun when you have someone to share it with. Today I invited a friend over for a good cup of tea, some gossip and scones!!

In a study by Diener and Seligman (2002), groups of happy people and unhappy people were compared. The group of happy people were showed to have good social relations, including socialising regularly and having strong social relationships.

Want to be more happy? Start with a good catch up with a friend!!