Milk Arrowroot Biscuit Slice

I've spoken before about Grandma having incomplete recipes in her cookbook, but I think this recipe takes the cake so far in terms of just how little information is given.

The recipe in the book was just a list of ingedients (below), and didn't even include the ingredient thats in the title!

40g Butter

2 tablespoons syrup

1 tin condensed milk

Topping:

White chocolate

2 tablespoons copha

The only thing I could think to do in order to make a slice out of these was to crush the milk arrowroot bikkies and add that to the butter, syrup and condensed milk. 1 packet of biscuits added to the other ingredients made a mixture that held together, however, even after chilling for quite some time it was still far too sticky to be picked up. I ended up solving this by making a cheesecake base by crushing another half a packet of arrowroot biscuits and mixing the crumbs with melted butter. This worked well and I then just melted chocolate with the copha and added it to the top of the slice. 

The end result is really quite yummy (and really sweet!) but I have no idea whether it is actually anywhere close to what Grandma actually would have made. 

The recipe below is what I did in order to make this slice (with a couple of modifications).

Base:

70g Butter (melted)

1/2 packet of crushed milk arrowroot biscuits

Filling:

2 tablespoons syrup

1 tin condensed milk

1 packet crushed milk arrowroot biscuits

Topping:

220g White chocolate

2 tablespoons copha

Mix melted butter and crushed biscuits and press into lined slice tray. Chill until set. 

Mix syrup, condensed milk and crushed biscuits and spread of base. Chill until set.

Melt chocolate and copha, spead over slice and chill until set. 

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Scones

I finally worked up the courage to attempt scones. I'm not sure exactly why scones scared me so much. Maybe it was that I know that if you aren't careful they can come out quite heavy and tough. It is also a little intimidating trying to replicate Grandma's number one dish (well as far as I'm concerned!). However I shouldn't have been worried as it turns out that they are easy to make!

Sift 2 cups S.R. Flour and pinch of salt into a basin. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter or margarine. Beat one egg, pour into cup with melted butter then fill up with milk and pour all into flour all at once. Stir with a fork or knife. Press out and cut with a floured knife. Bake 10 minutes in a hot oven.

If liked sweet, add 1 tablespoon sugar.

Brush over with milk before putting in oven. 

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The trick with these is to handle them as little as possible. There is no need to knead them at all, you just want to bring the mixture together in the bowl. 

Walnut Slice

I was typing this recipe up on the weekend and was struggling to decipher Grandma's writing on the really old paper but thought I could make out the word streusel. I had never heard of streusel before! Strudel sure, but not streusel. However wikipedia informs me that streusel is a crumb topping for cakes, breads and slices of German origin that is made from butter, flour and sugar and with nuts and spices sometimes added. Of course, it makes sense that this would be in Grandma's recipes given that both her and Grandad's heritage is German. Hopefully I will come across more recipes with such heritage along the way.

2 ozs (60g) butter, ½ teaspoon vanilla, ½ cup sugar, 1 egg, ¼ cup milk, 1 cup S.R. Flour

Cream butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla. Beat well, sift dry ingredients and add to mixture alternatively  with milk. Spoon into greased tin. Spread with streusel mixture. Bake moderate oven. Ice when cold with coffee icing.

Streusel mixture:

½ cup brown sugar, 1 pkt walnuts (I used 185g packet and this was pretty well right), 2 tablespoons plain flour or cornflour, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 2 tablespoons melted butter, ¼ cup coconut. Mix all ingredients together.

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I made a simple coffee icing just from icing mixture and an espresso shot. In the future I think I would just drizzle this icing over rather than putting a full layer as it overpowers the other flavours a bit and you also miss out on seeing the streusel effect. Chocolate icing would also be super yummy!

Chocolate Cookies

I'm a little behind on this blog at the moment. I've got quite a few recipes that I have made but just haven't had the time to write the blog posts up for them. Sorry! I will try and catch up.

I made these biscuits a couple weeks ago when I was planning to head away for work. They are super yummy and the good thing is that they travel quite well as they are a crunchy biscuit and they kept for well over a week in just an airtight container. I doubled the recipe to try and use a bit more of the condensed milk but I think you could actually get 3 batches out of a can. I've done a bit of research and it would appear that the raw dough is suitable to be frozen and used later, so that would be a great option to use all the condensed milk but not end up with a huge pile of biscuits.

¼ lb butter (115 grams)

2 ozs castor sugar (60 grams)

6 ozs S.R Flour (180 grams)

3 tablespoons condensed milk

1 heaped dessertspoon cocoa

Cream butter and sugar. Add cocoa, condensed milk and flour. Roll into balls. Flatten with fork. Bake at 180 degrees C for approximately 15 mins or until just firm.

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Mrs Tilett's Piklets

This weekend I had the opportunity to go to my first baby shower. It was a lovely day spent with good friends and was made even more special as it was a surprise shower for the mum to be. I certainly know a lot of great cooks as the food was devine! These piklets were part of my contribution to the day and were quite tasty!

2 eggs

1 tbsp sugar

2 dessert spoons syrup (golden)

1 teaspoon butter

2 cups SR Flour

1 ½ cups milk

Pinch salt

Beat the eggs, sugar, syrup and butter. Add the flour, milk and salt and fold until just combined. Heat a frypan and melt a touch of butter. Add spoonfuls of mixture to the pan and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip and cook on the other side. 

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Honey Chilli Chicken

I love honey chicken. Whenever we treat ourselves to some chinese takeaway, I always say I'm going to try something new but at the last moment change my mind and order honey chicken. The honey chicken I love isn't covered in mountains of batter, it is the one with the light crispy shell and the super moist chicken inside and I never thought it would be something that could be replicated at home. How wrong I was! This recipe tastes exactly like my favourite honey chicken but with the added flavours of chilli.

As I was typing this recipe up I realised that I forgot to put in a couple of the ingredients. Oops! I left the garlic, ginger and sesame seeds sitting on the bench. I can only imagine that those extra ingredients would add even more flavour to this awesome dish. Will just have to make it again now! 

6 chicken fillets, skin removed

2 egg whites

3 tablespoons cornflour

Salt and pepper

Sesame oil

1 teaspoon soy sauce

Sliced root ginger

1 clove garlic, bruised

2 chillies, seeds removed and cut into fine strips

2 tablespoons honey

¼ teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted

Oil for frying

Cut chicken fillets into strips. Place into a  bowl with unbeaten egg white. Add cornflour, salt, pepper, a few drops of oil and soy sauce and mix well. Heat oil with ginger and garlic in an electric wok. When hot remove garlic and ginger, add chicken (not all at once), cook until golden. Remove and drain on paper towel. Repeat until all chicken is cooked. Drain oil, leaving approximately 2 teaspoons in wok. Add chillies, cook for 30 seconds, then add honey and return chicken, toss until coated in honey. Serve with sesame seeds and accompany with fried egg noodles. 

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Russian Caramels

Warning: These little sweet treats are extremely moreish!

I tend to get put off by confectionery recipes that say you need to have a thermometer in order to get it right... sounds far too complicated for me, not to mention I don't even own a thermometer! That's why I like this recipe. Its simple and produces really good results: the caramels turn out really hard and chewy with a nice caramel flavour. Just make sure you follow the recipe.... I decided that you couldn't really need the baking paper between layers of cut caramels... well.... you do. Although, I suppose having all the pieces stuck together in a giant caramel blob do make them last a little longer! 

1 tin condensed milk

6 ozs butter (180grams)

3 tablesp syrup (golden)

1 cup sugar

Melt butter, syrup and sugar. Gradually add cond. milk. Boil for 20 minutes stirring all the time. Pour into buttered tin. Cut into squares when cold and wrap in greaseproof paper. 

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Note: Instead of buttering the tin I just used baking paper. It makes it nice and easy to get out. Also you really do need to stir the entire time, so make sure you set aside the time with no other distractions.