Honey and Dried Fruit Muesli Bars

It’s been a long time. A really, really long time. I must admit to a certain lack of baking inspiration – when I feel the need for baking goodness, I’ve stuck to quick, proven recipes rather than experimenting (Salted Caramel Bars, anyone? Om nom). And the last few weekends have been somewhat hectic – and the weeks hence are about to get crazier with a six week teaching practice. I cease to function on a level that is not required for school when on practice, so if you see a post, be amazed. Be very amazed. Because something magical will have occurred.

Anyway, today’s bakingy goodness is probably not something I’d actually eat. Because it has dried fruit in it, and its slight healthiness might taint me and my world will come to a crashing halt. But my mother requested baking goods to take with her on her weekend away, and she seems to like these muesli-bar-fruit things. But I’ll admit they are kind of fun to make – all that chopping and mixing together. Just making it makes me feel all alternative and healthy, even though I don’t at all intend to follow through with the good intention it inspires.

Honey and Dried Fruit Muesli Bars

Ingredients

200 g finely diced dried fruit and nuts
210 g honey
200 g rice oil
260 g oats
80 g desiccated coconut
40 g sugar
60 g almond meal
1 tsp cinnamon
2 pinches of salt 

Method

1. Spend for goddamn ever chopping up fruit and nuts. I used cranberries, goji berries, mango, apricots, walnuts, pecans and peanuts. I decided to reconstitute the goji berries quickly, because they were quite hard.



2. Measure the liquids (honey – because it’s easier to manipulate when warm – and rice oil) in grams... weird, right?



3. The easy part! Measure the rest of the ingredients out and biff them into the bowl and mix it until all is combined.



4. It looks pretty! And the thief says it tastes nice.



5. Press it firmly into a large plan and fling it into a oven preheated to 160 degrees celsius for thirty minutes, or until nicely golden.



6. Take it out when it is nicely golden and let it cool. Once it is cool you can hack it into smaller peices and store it in an airtight container. Because most of the ingredients were already dried, it should keep for a fairly long time.



My father just told me I was not allowed to give this away to anybody because it was too good, which means he wants to hoard it for himself. I guess I’ll have to make him some more as it’ll be good for him to take a piece when he goes off doing... well. I’m not sure what. He seems to just vanish for the day, and not necessarily accomplish anything. But it certainly tires him out, and something like this would be good, because it’s full of energy-stuff.

So I guess they were a success? I had heaps of fun making these at least! And the bits without fruit in them taste good. Maybe I’ll make a non-fruit version? Ooooh. That sounds like yum.

Halfway Cookies, or Chocolate Meringue Slice

I believe I’ve gone a little bit insane. So far today I’ve baked six things and the content of this blog makes number seven. And I could keep going! Except I’m going to run out of butter soon, and I so can’t be bothered paying service station prices for some more. Plus I’m kinda out of ideas. Why am I baking so insanely? Well, a prize in a recent raffle was some of my baking. I didn’t actually expect anybody to want the prize, but apparently somebody does and so here I am baking like mad. And I also organised to swap baking for a hat – and said hat is adorable, cute, and now in my possession. So baking for her too! My kitchen looks like the cupboard and fridge threw up on it. That’s a delightful image for a baking blog, isn’t it? Vomit, it makes the world go ‘round.

I’m making ‘halfway cookies’ now, which I think is an entirely useless and stupid name. It is actually a biscuit based chocolate meringue slice. I don’t quite understand the American obsession with naming everything that isn’t a cake a cookie. Do they not believe in slices? Are they slice-ist? This is serious business, people. Anyway, this is a slice.

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cup brown sugar, separated
2 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks

Method

1. Cream the butter and two types of sugar until light and very fluff (only 1/2 cup of the brown sugar).



2. Remember you have banana bread in the oven, and swear as you grab it out.

3. Try not to be too spastic, and attempt to separate two eggs. Add the yolks into the butter mixture one at a time. At least, pretend you’re following the recipe, but completely disregard it and throw the yolks in at the same time.



4. Biff in all the dry ingredients nd the water in and mix until it forms a nice, cohesive dough.





5. Then you press it into a pan, and cover with chocolate chips!



6. Remember the separated eggs? And how you have whites left over? Well now you get to beat them! When they’re getting all frothy and starting to stiffen, slowly add in the second lot of brown sugar, and then continue letting them beat until they form glossy, stiff peaks.





7. Skilfully spread over the stuff in the pan. If you manage to do it skilfully, you’ll be doing better than me.



8. After it’s been in the oven for about five minutes, cover the meringue with a piece of cooking paper so it doesn’t colour any more. As we’ve used brown sugar in this meringue, it’s going to be a bit chewier, and a bit nuttier in flavour. I’m totally looking forward to it! Let cook for another 15 minutes.



9. Rather than take it out of the oven immediately after it’s finished cooking, leave it in the oven once you’ve turned it off for ten minutes. It’ll keep cooking a bit, which is why I’ve cut the original cooking time down, but it’ll also help make sure that the meringue doesn’t flop.



10. Slice into squares and consume. This is extra yummy while still warm.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Bars

It's been a while. I feel a bit out of the swing of things, though that may have to do with the fact that I'm baking at 3 am, rather than baking at all. But still, getting into the blogging thing is hard! All this typing, and thinking.

Anyway, I’m making something called salted caramel chocolate bars, which as you can tell, involves caramel and salt. And chocolate. Sounds pretty damn awesome right? It better, because I have very high expectations at the moment; I want something easy but awesome to bake. I’m easing myself back into the strenuous world of midnight baking. And that jar of Hershey’s caramel was expensive, though come to think of it – it wouldn’t really take that much more effort to make my own and replace it in the recipe. I might do that if I make this a second time. Somebody remind me I said that.

On with the show.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Bars

Ingredients

1 ½ c flour
1 ½ c rolled oats
1 ¼ c brown sugar
200g butter, melted
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
Enough chocolate chips to evenly cover the base
5 tbsp flour
16 ounces caramel sauce (I used Hershey's)
¼ tsp flakey sea salt, ground up roughly (no chunks, but not as fine as table salt) 

Method

1. Locate your mixing bowls. If you live in my house, they like to go wandering. To obscure places in the kitchen. I suspect my sister again, she’s back from Australia for a holiday.

2. Gather all your measuring cups (and drop them), and measure out the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and baking soda. Biff them all into the bowl and mix together.



3. The original recipe says you now need a cup of butter – what a stupid measurement, right? (I’ll measure it for you, so you don’t have to battle!)The best way to actually do this is have soft butter and smush it into the cup, then melt and pour into the mix. Not all at once though. So let’s see how this goes!

4. Unexpectedly, it works out perfectly. The dough is still very crumbly, but it’s moist and the butter covers everything.



Insert rant: Yummm. This mixture is awesome. Very Anzac biscuit-y, but with a deeper, slightly nutty flavour (from the cinnamon and brown sugar). I think I might have to play around with this; half the baking soda, add some baking powder and make some awesome biscuits.

5. Restrain yourself from eating it all, and press half the mixture into a square baking tin. Then throw it in the oven for ten minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.



6. Open the jar of caramel sauce. Yell at it if you need. Swear words are acceptable, because what the hell? Those things are so hard to get into! Anyway, after you’ve done that, pour it into a smaller bowl.



7. Add the 5 tablespoons of flour, and mix away!





8. Once your base is out of the oven, let it cool for ten minutes, then spread the chocolate over top of it and then sprinkle the course salt over top (you can add more chocolate if you like). Salt seems weird right? But it’s unbelievably awesome with things like caramel and chocolate, as it brings out the flavours and provides and awesomely vivid contrast. Omnomnom.



9. Finally, sprinkle on the rest of the cake mixture stuff. Do not press it down – you can pat gently, but even that is going to make it squidg around. I could have done with a slightly bigger pan, but anything else I had was too big... so that’s what I was stuck with. Plus, it has a false bottom, so makes for easy removal later!



10. Then into the oven for twenty minutes. My tip would be to put a tray or some baking paper under the baking pan so that if any caramel does escape, it won’t get onto the bottom of your oven and become horribly stubborn and refuse to leave.

11. Leave it to cool completely before you cut into it, otherwise the caramel will just ooze everywhere.

While this tastes like a giant chocolately, gooey anzac biscuit ... thing, and is very tasty, next time I would halve the caramel. It's just all over the place! But then again, lots of caramel is yummy... so it's your own choice, I guess.

ANZAC Biscuits

This post is a little more serious than usual, because I intend to make ANZAC biscuits. And with those comes the inevitable subject matter of the First World War (WWI). I’m not going to give you a history lesson, mostly because I can’t be bothered and also because most of you that read this already know the details. But for Australians and New Zealanders, this time of the year is weird. For New Zealand, definitely, in this day and age it’s so difficult to reconcile so many deaths with an argument that wasn’t our own, and I can’t help but think of what it may seem like to those multicultural members of New Zealand’s society. Because really, we’re not simply former English colonists now. And yet, whilst I don’t quite understand the motivation, I can’t help but respect and admire those men who did go off to war, and especially those who did not make it back. It makes me think though, about the kind of recognition they get here. Celebrations in New Zealand are so low key – there are quiet, simple dawn parades, and each family remembers their own hero in their own way. The contrast is so striking when compared to things like the American Memorial Day. I like what we do, but you’ve got to wonder if maybe we should do something bigger? I have noticed in the last few years, the trend seems to be heading that way.

That was a bit heavier than I intended. All for an introduction to a very simple biscuit! I’ve made ANZAC biscuits tonnes of times, and really, you can’t beat ‘em. I’m not a fan of oats (much too healthy for my liking), or coconut, but something about these biscuits makes me love them. Incidentally, this is my ANZAC celebration. I don’t really have any family members that I know of who fought in the war, but I’m sure there were some. So this is my way of saying, I-know-you-existed once-upon-a-time-and-hey?-thanks. Also, dipping the bottoms of these in melted chocolate is awesome, so if you want to do that, I’m sure your ancestors would approve. Because people loved chocolate way back then, too. These biscuits are also great with icecream and a bit of caramel sauce. What? Just giving you ideas here, people.

ANZAC Biscuits

Ingredients

1 Cup plain flour
1 Cup sugar
1 Cup rolled oats
1 Cup fine coconut
125g butter or margarine
2 Tbsp golden syrup
2 Tbsp boiling water
1 tsp baking soda

Method

1. Drag yourself into the kitchen. Realise you have no butter. Bitch loudly and leave the house to get some.

2. Return with the butter, still bitching.

3. Measure out your dry ingredients (minus the baking soda) and chuck them into the pretty blue mixing bowl you happened to buy when you were getting the butter.



4. In a separate bowl, mix together the melted butter, hot water and golden syrup (I find it’s easier to dissolve the golden syrup in the hot water first), and then finally add the baking soda. Watch it do awesome stuff.





5. Mix the two sets of ingredients together and then eat all the mixture before you cook it. Or not, but you could, because ANZAC mixture is sooo good. Mmm. Also chase your father out of the kitchen with a knife.



6. If you decide not to eat all the mixture, roll it into balls and then squish them out onto your baking tray, but leave a lot of space between the biscuits as they will spread. Thanks to a lovely friend, I have been reminded that I actually forgot to put a cooking temperature and time. Sorry. So.. 180 degrees celcius until very golden.



7. Eat. Chase your father away again. You may use two knives this time.



I don’t want to be cheesy, but I kinda want to say thanks to anybody who fought in a war and stood up for what they believed in. Pretend these biscuits are for you. I am now over being patriotic – see, it doesn’t last for long. I’m also not very good at it.

No Bake Lemon Cheesecake

I can’t decide if I like cheesecake or not – I think my opinion is best summed up fussily by saying I like cheesecakes that aren’t baked, and can take or leave those that are. And really not at all a fan of Japanese cheesecakes (and yes, I’ve had the authentic ones, from Japan). If I eat a cheesecake, I really like to be able to taste the tart sharpness of the cream cheese, and prefer citrus ones to sweet. Probably because the cream cheese is so cloying, I need that sharpness to cut it. I’m so fussy, maybe this is why I generally stick to chocolate – you can’t screw chocolate up.

So anyway, from that, you can probably guess I’m making cheesecake, and most likely of the non-baked, citrus variety. Ten points! Wait, that’s for running over old ladies. Or is that just a New Zealand thing? I think it is. Just to reassure you, it’s just a joke, we don’t really go around violently driving over elderly people. Carrying on!

No Bake Lemon Cheesecake

Ingredients

Base
1 c biscuit crumbs (I used malt biscuits)
50 g butter

Innards
1 tbsp gelatine powder
3 tbsp water
250g cream cheese
60g castor sugar
2 large egg yolks
Zest from 2 lemons.
3 – 5 tbsp lemon juice
150ml cream, whipped

Method

1. Find one of your many spring form pans, that your sister in one of her last cleaning binges, relocated to some obscure realm of the kitchen and then neglected to tell you (probably in hopes of you never using it again, and therefore not making another mess ). Then line the bottom with cooking paper.

2. Mix the biscuit crumbs and butter in a bowl, then press firmly into the tin. Into the fridge to set, whilst you make the innards. I mean, ... what do you call it? We’ll stick with innards until my brain starts working. After all, it is only midday as I write this (maybe not as I post it).



3. Mix the gelatine and water together, making sure you combine them properly. Just set aside and forget about it.



4. Cream the cream cheese (hehe – I’m sad) and sugar together.



5. Zest the lemons and separate eggs. Grumble because somebody took apart your awesome zest catchy tool, and you can’t get it back together. Give up and use the normal grater. Then add the zest and separated yolks to the cream cheese mix. It’s already looking more cheesecakeish! Eee.



6. Now do something weird. Remember the gelatine? It’ll look weird now. Anyway. Get a small sauce pan and set up a double boiler, setting the bowl of gelatine stuff on top. Apparently it needs to dissolve again.

7. While that’s happening, squeeze some lemon until you have 3 – 5 tbsp of lemon juice. I like lots of lemon flavour, so... we can guess which way I’m going.

8. When the gelatine is dissolved again, take it off the heat and mix it into the ... innards. It will look quite runny here – but this is why we’ve added gelatine. Then follow with the lemon juice. Set aside for five minutes.



9. Use your five minutes wisely and whip some cream to soft peaks – no over whipping, students!



10. Very gently fold the cream into the rest of the mixture, and marvel at how cool it looks. Resist tasting it, and fail. Make stupid noises.



11. Pour onto the refrigerated base, then shake gently to even it out and cover with glad wrap. Shove it back in the fridge, for at least four hours!



Many hours later, during which I went to work, thought about the cheesecake, did some shoping, thought about the cheesecake, tidied stuff up, and thought about the cheesecake some more.

This cheese cake is delicious. Really tart though - so if you're not a huge fan of citrus, make sure that you don't put a lot of lemon juice in it. My family especially enjoyed it because whilst it may have a high fat content, the sugar in this cheesecake is relatively low. Which makes it pretty good for diabetics (which my mother just happens to be), so it was cool that she could actually enjoy some of my baking for once. Especially awesome with even more fat. I mean whipped cream.