Canberra squares

Not sure why this recipe has this name, maybe its because the coconut layer looks like ice and Canberra gets so cold in the winter, haha. I'm sure there would be a story behind it but Grandma's books gave no hint of it. I must make a note to ask her about it.

This is a simple recipe and produces a yummy soft slice but it took me a little while to work out how to get the mixture to spread across the tin. Eventually I got it done but the only way I manged it was to make sure I was working with damp hands and then get a small portion of the the dough, flatten it with my hands and lay it in the tin. The dough is so soft that trying to spread it with a spoon just doesn't work. In the future I would probably make a double mix of the dough so that I didn't have to try and get the mix so thin to get it across the tin, that might make it easier and I don't think it would affect the balance of flavours between the dough and the coconut filling.

Dough:

½ cup butter or margarine

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 ½ cups S.R Flour

1 heaped tablespoon cocoa

Filling: 

boil for a few minutes. Leave to cool

1 ½ cups coconut

2 tablespoons icing sugar

1 cup milk

Method: 

Beat butter and sugar, add egg. Sift flour and cocoa together, add & mix to a soft dough. Put half of mixture into a tray 12 x 9in, smooth. Cover with cooled filling. Top with rest of mixture, bake in moderate oven for 30 mins. Ice with chocolate icing. Cut into squares. 

3 minute (cup)cake

The last few weeks have been really busy for me as I have been doing my end of semester exams for university. Which meant that things I normally like to do, like this blog, have had to be put to the side for a little while, but I've finished the exams now and I have some time back. yay! Hopefully with 4 weeks of uni holidays I can get a heap of recipes cooked!

I did get to cook 2 of grandma's recipes while I was studying, I just didn't have the time to post the recipes, the first of these was 3 minute cake. I thought this idea suited my crazy busy schedule whilst studying ... i mean... it says it in the name: 3 minute cake, and it really was very simple and quick! I decided I wanted cupcakes however, so simply divided the mixture into patty pans.

Grandma's recipe didn't say how long it should be baked for, but I think the cupcakes took about 12 minutes and I imagine a cake would take about 30 minutes or so. They should be baked in a medium oven (180 degrees) until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

1 cup S.R Flour

Pinch of salt

2 tablespoons of butter

Vanilla

2 eggs

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup milk

Place all ingredients in a basin and mix together for 3 minutes. 

For orange add grated peel. Use juice for icing. For chocolate add 2 dessertspoons cocoa. 

Carrot Cookies

I'm coming up to uni exams over the next few weeks so the amount of baking I can do will probably drop, as such I decided I wanted to bake something today so we have snacks for the week. I was looking through the recipes and Carrot Cookies jumped out at me. I had never heard of carrot cookies before. Carrot cake; sure... (and yum!) but never carrot cookies. I was intrigued.

Well, the result is a biscuit that's more like a mini cake than a biscuit. The mixture was very wet and made it quite messy to roll in the coating but they are worth the messy hands!

2 oz butter

½ cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 large finely grated carrot

½ cup currants

½ cup chopped mixed nuts

¼ cup milk

1 cup S.R Flour

Pinch salt

Pinch bicarbonate of soda

Coating:

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ cup crushed cornflakes

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and beat well. Stir in the carrot, currants, nuts and milk. Add flour, salt and soda which has been sifted. Mix together coating ingredients and drop teaspoonfuls of the biscuit mix in the coating and bake 12 minutes (375°F/180°C)

1 oz = 30g

Note: I ended up using around 2 cups of cornflakes and 4 teaspoons of cinnamon for my coating. 

Butterscotch Pie

I finally cooked a recipe tonight that my husband has been asking for since he first saw Grandma's recipes. This butterscotch pie looked easy enough but once again there was no recipe for the pie crust. I tried a different shortcrust recipe to my last attempt and it worked quite well. Also looked a lot prettier than my last attempt thanks to my new tart tins (thanks Mum and Dad!).

Filling

1 egg

½ cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons plain flour

1 cup milk

3 tablespoon cold water

2 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Pinch salt

Prepared tart shell

Put egg yolk, sugar, milk & flour which has been mixed to paste with the cold water, and all the other ingredients into a saucepan & stir over heat until thickened. Pour into tart crust. Beat egg white & 3 tablespoons sugar, spread over top and brown in oven.

Pastry 

125g unsalted butter, chilled

1½ cups plain flour

¼ cup icing sugar

1-2 tablespoons iced water 

Process flour, butter and sugar in a food processor until mixture resembles breadrumbs. Add water and pulse until dough begins to come together into a ball, do not overmix.

Scoop mixture into a plastic freezer bag and gently press into a smooth disc. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes.

Roll out pastry between 2 sheets of baking paper to a 3mm thickness. Line a loose based 24cm flan tin with pastry, trimming the excess. Prick base with a fork and push a large sheet of foil into the pastry shell, pressing it up and over the sides.

Bake pastry at 190°C for 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake for a further 10 minutes until crisp and golden. Cool, then use as required.

(recipe from Masterchef website: http://www.masterchef.com.au/recipes/sweet-shortcrust-pastry.htm)

Peanut Butterscotch Bars

I fell over today while walking my dog and rolled my ankle and was feeling a bit sorry for myself so decided to do some baking to cheer myself up. This resulted in a batch of Peanut Butterscotch Bars.  If you like peanut butter... you will LOVE these!! They are creamy yet crunchy and with a yummy peanut flavour. But be warned, they are very moreish!

Base:

4 oz butter

½ cup brown sugar, lightly packed

¾ cup plain flour

½ cup S.R Flour

Pinch salt

Topping:

2 oz butter

3 tablespoons golden syrup

3 tablespoons peanut butter

2 cups lightly crushed cornflakes

Base Method:

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add sifted dry ingredients, mix well. Press into lamington tin. Bake in moderate oven 20 to 25 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Press topping evenly over base. When almost cold, cut into bars.

Topping Method:

Place butter and syrup into medium size saucepan. Stir over heat until butter melts and mixture boils. Reduce heat, simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in peanut butter and cornflakes. Mix thoroughly.