Biscotti For Tea

I'd like to think these are pretty healthy as they don't require any butter or oil so it's always good to have a couple in the cookie jar handy. You never know when you feel like a good satisfying biscotti to dunk into your coffee right? The best thing about these cookies are how long they are able to last. If stored in an airtight container, it can last for about 2-3 weeks, but you most probably won't need all that time anyway to finish off these moreish goodies.

 

Pistachio and Cranberry Biscotti

- Makes about 35 

Ingredients

• 1 cup caster sugar
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• 2 eggs
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• 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
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• Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
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• 2 tsp. cocoa powder, sifted
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• 2 cups plain flour, sifted
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• 1/2 tsp baking powder
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• pinch of salt
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• 1/2 cup dried cranberries (or more if you want)
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• 1 cup pistachio nuts (or more if you want)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a large baking tray with baking paper.
2. Place sugar, eggs, extract and grated lemon rind in a large bowl. Beat with electric beaters until pale and thick.
3. Divide equally into two separate bowls and add the cocoa powder to one of them.
4. Fold in half of the sifted flour, baking powder, salt, cranberries and nuts into one of the egg/sugar mixture, then use your hands to lightly knead dough on a floured work surface until the dough is smooth. Repeat with the chocolate egg/sugar mixture
5. Divide each dough in half- which means you now have 2 white and 2 chocolate dough. Form long logs about 25cm long x 2.5cm wide. Place the white dough next to the chocolate one on the prepared baking tray and push lightly (using wet fingertips to make handling the sticky dough easier) from the sides to make sure the white and chocolate dough are blended in the middle. Repeat with the remaining two logs, leaving space between them. 
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the dough is firm to the touch and slightly golden. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely (about an hour).
7. Preheat the oven to 140°C.
8. Once dough is cool, use a small serrated knife to cut each log on the diagonal in 0.5cm slices.
9. Lay slices flat on the baking tray and return to oven for 15-20 minutes, turning once, until completely dried out. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. 
10. Serve with coffee or tea, or even cordial like me :)

Mother's Day Breakfast- Eggs Benedict!

So last, last sunday was mother's day here in Australia so my sisters and I decided we were going to make her a special breakfast! The other day we were at Bali, we stayed at this hotel and for on of the days, mum ordered the eggs benedict. It was her first time having it and she just LOVED the mix of the soft yolks from the poached eggs with the toasted english muffin and generous dollops of hollandaise sauce... So yeah, you could probably guess what we were going to make for her now !

Eggs Benedict

- Serves 4, recipe adapted from here

For the eggs: 

• 4 fresh eggs, at room temperature

• 2 tsp white vinegar or fresh lemon juice

• 1 tsp salt

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1. Working with 1 egg at a time, crack an egg on to a small bowl. Fill a wide saucepan with water until approximately 8cm deep. Add vinegar/lemon juice and 1 tsp salt. Bring to the boil over medium-high heat. 
2. Reduce heat to low-medium - water should be just simmering, with small bubbles rising from the base of pan and small ripples across the top of the water.
3. Fill a bowl with cold water and set aside. Using a wooden spoon or whisk, stir simmering water in one direction to create a whirlpool (this will help to give your poached eggs a neat shape). 
4. Slide egg from saucer into centre of whirlpool, as close to water as possible. Cook for 2-3 minutes for a semi-soft yolk or 3-4 minutes for a firm-set yolk, without stirring.Using a slotted spoon, transfer egg to the bowl of cold water (this stops the cooking process).
5. Remove and drain on a plate lined with paper towels. During and between cooking eggs, use slotted spoon to skim any foam from water surface. Repeat with remaining eggs. 
6. To reheat eggs, bring a clean pan of water to the boil then remove from heat. Add eggs. Stand, covered, for 1 minute. Remove and drain on a plate lined with paper towels.

For the Hollandaise Sauce:

2 egg yolks 

1-1/2 tsp lemon juice

pinch of teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter (melted)

1. Add the egg yolks, lemon juice, salt and cayenne (if using) into your blender. Blend the egg yolk mixture at a medium to medium high speed until it lightens in color, about 20-30 seconds.2. Turn the blender down to its lowest setting (if you only have one speed on your blender it will still work), and drizzle in the melted butter slowly, while the blender is going. Continue to buzz for another couple seconds after the butter is all incorporated.3. Use within an hour or so. Keep it warm by placing it in a warm water bath so as to not thicken the sauce. 

To Assemble:

Toast 4 english muffins, top with ham and poached eggs, drizzle with warm hollandaise sauce. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with herbs if desired.

I also served mine with some parmesan topped roasted tomato halves, hash browns and sauteed mushrooms which was just delish !

And we also made her some classic sponge with jam and cream for afternoon tea. Thank you so much mum for everything and again, happy mother's day to all other mothers out there! 

Green Tea Opera Cake

Lately, all I've been craving for is green tea flavoured things... I envisage green tea macarons, green tea mochi filled with azuki beans, green tea milk buns. The craving won over me and I thought: well, I don't really feel like making anything too finicky so macarons were definitely out of it and yeast really isn't my thing so after researching other recipes using green tea, I came across THE perfect one, if the glossy chocolate ganache doesn't tempt you, well sorry, I don't really think that's possible! It was quite finicky too but definitely so so worth it. All the members of my family gave me a BIG tick of approval for this one, it was so much better than any other green tea based cake I've had from bakeries etc. so that says alot. The whole process was really fun- it was kind of my first time making layer-y cakes and if I can do it, you can too! Enjoy. 

Green tea opera cake

Serves around 8

Recipe Adapted from Closet Cooking

NOTE: The only thing I did differently was that I just changed the white chocolate to dark chocolate as I thought the colours of the layers would look more defined with the dark chocolate. And plus, I didn't have a jelly roll, I just spread the sponge mixture thinly onto a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper. 

Cream Puffs Two Ways- Green Tea or Vanilla

Ever since the local Japanese cream puff store closed, it's been so hard to get my hands on these cream filled goodies. So, after months of grazing on other food blogs for recipes and video tutorials on cream puffs, I realised the only thing that can satisfy this crave is of course, to have a crack at them myself! I mean, I became so confident I'll be able to enjoy these in no time having seen  Gordon Ramsay's  tutorial where he  whips it up in a matter of seconds! But the downside was, it really needed a much much longer baking time than I expected (and a fail batch) but the results were just pure amazingness! 

Green Tea and Vanilla Cream Puffs with Chocolate Sauce

Makes around 30 3cm sized cream puffs

For the choux pastry:

125ml milk 

200ml water 

150g plain flour 

1 tsp golden caster sugar (I managed with normal caster sugar)

 ½ tsp salt

100g unsalted butter (or if using salted like I did, omit the extra salt)

4 medium eggs, lightly beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 190˚C. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and set aside
2. Place the milk, cold water, salt, sugar into a pan and set over a low heat. Once the sugar and salt has dissolved add the butter. Once the butter has melted, bring down to boil
3. Turn off the heat then tip in the flour and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon. As soon as the mixture starts to come away from the side of the pan, stop beating and tip onto a clean bowl to cool slightly (around 3 minutes is sufficient)
4. Gradually beat in the eggs with a wooden spoon, a little at a time, mixing well between each addition, until you have a smooth paste. 
5. Line a baking tray with 2 layers baking paper (this is crucial as to not burn the bases of the pastry like I did in my first batch!). Spoon the choux pastry into a piping bag fitted with a large plain nozzle (about 1.5cm in diameter). 
6. Pipe to desired size in a swirling motion, spaced well apart. Flatten the peaked tops with the tip of a wet finger 
7. Place into preheated oven for around 10-15 minutes, making sure the bases are not overbrowning and firm to touch.Then, turn the right down to 160˚C and bake for a further 20-25 minutes to dry out the insides and until golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped. To check if it's ready, take one out and cut it in half and touch the insides. If it is sticky/wet put it back in the oven for a further 10 minutes, if it is only slightly wet, don't worry, you're good to go!
8. Take it out of the oven and let cool before slicing in half (not fully) and dust with some icing sugar