I struggled through my early scone making attempts, producing inconsistent batches of dense, flat biscuits that looked more like flapjacks than scones. Most recipes I read remarked on how easy they were to make, but Aunt Edna I was not and edible, far from it.

I fortunately stumbled across a recipe for lemonade scones sometime back that instantly improved my scone baking sessions.  I combined this great, and yes, simple  recipe with some important preparation watch points and voilà  – the Eiffel tower of scones were mine for the buttering. Great Aunt Edna would be proud.

Some watch points to take into consideration when making this scone recipe

Scones like a light gentle touch. Do not overwork the scones when mixing the dough as this will result in dense, flat scones. In some master scone makers view, this is one of the most, if not the most important step.

When mixing the wet ingredients into the dry, use a butter knife to work the ingredients into a crumbly dough. This should only take 30 seconds of gentle cutting through with the knife.

Work quickly and lightly. The dough doesn’t like to sit around once it’s made. Heat the oven before you start mixing so you can pop the scones straight into the hot oven.

Use the lemonade at room temperature. This will produce a better dough which will be easier to work with and require less handling.

Use Self raising flour that is not passed its use by date. This  is an important step in achieving well risen scones. Old self-raising flour will have lost some of its raising agent potency, so buy a new bag of flour if you have had yours sitting around your pantry for a while.

As well as preheating the oven, pre heat the baking tray. This will kick-start the scone raising sequence.

Set the oven shelf in the top 1/4 of the oven. As heat rises, this is the hottest part of the oven which scones like.

Use the rolling-pin lightly. Some scone making purists insist on not using a rolling-pin at all as it knocks the delicate dough about too much, but provided you use a gentle touch, rolling the dough lightly will result in a smooth looking attractive scone.

Roll the dough out thickly, not thinly. The ideal height of the dough is 2.5 to 3cm in thickness or just over 1 inch. In Delia Smith’s kitchen this is believed to be the number 1 way to produce great scones. Rolling out too thin will not give you the finished height, so always roll thicker than you think.

Use a heavy round cutter to cut out the scones. Dust the cutter in flour each time you cut a scone and push don’t twist the cutter. Twisting the cutter will tear and push down on the dough edges causing the scones to rise unevenly.  If you’re using a knife to cut out your scones, make sure it’s sharp so it doesn’t tear the dough and pinch it together by being blunt.

Place the scones snuggly next to each other on a small baking tray. I use a half-size roasting tray which causes the scones to sit next to one another giving them support as they rise.

Lemonade scones

Makes 12-14 scones

Ingredients

3 cups of self-raising flour
1 teaspoon of sea salt flakes
1 cup of lemonade
1 cup of cream

1 egg yolk beaten with a tsp of cream for glazing the scone tops
Extra flour for dusting

Method

Pre heat the oven on fan bake at 220C with the shelf in the upper part of the oven. Pre heat the roasting tray that you intend to bake the scones on as well.

Into a large bowl place the flour and salt and mix to combine. Into a measuring jug combine the cream and lemonade.

Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the liquid. Using a bread knife, mix   lightly, cutting through the flour until a crumbly dough is formed. This step should take no longer then 30 seconds of gentle mixing.

Turn the dough out on a floured surface and gentle form the dough into a round disc.

Using a rolling-pin, lightly roll the dough until it is  2.5 to 3 cm in thickness. If your unsure of the thickness measured the dough with a ruler as this step is vital in achieving scone making success.

Once your happy with the thickness, dust a heavy round cutter and tap out the scone rounds sharply, bringing the  cutter straight down into the dough and removing by pulling straight up without twisting.  Twisting will cause the dough to rise unevenly.

Once the circles are tapped out, lay them closely touching each other on a preheated flour dusted baking tray.

Lightly brush the surface of the scones with  the beaten egg yolk mixed with a teaspoon of cream. This will give the scones a beautifully glazed top.

Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until golden and well risen. Remove from the oven and allow to sit for couple of minutes in the tin before removing to a wire rack.

Serve immediately with lashings of creamy butter, homemade jam, freshly whipped or clotted cream, or for savory options, grated cheese and Marmite.

Hotcakes, flapjacks, drop scones, pfannkuchen, griddle cakes,  crêpes, pikelets  or pancakes. It seems every nation on earth has their own version of sweet, savory, stuffed, thick or thin pancakes. Despite the numerous guises and flavor combinations that can be found on all four corners of the culinary planet, one thing remains constant across all borders, pancakes are comfort fodder for the masses.

Evidence of pancake creation can be linked back to prehistoric times, where a batter of milk, flour, egg and spice was prepared on searing hot stones  to resemble what we have come to expect the humble pancake to be today.   The great Roman gourmand and author Marcus Gavius Apicius wrote about a batter that incorporated pepper and honey, a version that would be worth giving a try some 2,000 years after he penned the recipe.

My history with this famed pan cooked batter does not stretch back as far as ancient Rome, but it does come after years of trial and error having   cooked and created hundreds of breakfast brunch stacks in many  professional  kitchens over the last 20+ years.

This pancake recipe is a cross between the New Zealand style pikelet and the North American pancake, a pikelet usually being smaller, thinner and sweeter than its star spangled cousin, the pancake.  This pancake recipe uses the addition of melted butter to give the edges a crisp quality and helps to make the texture short and flaky rather than stodgy.

Here are a few watch points to bear in mind when preparing and cooking your next stack:

Mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately. This will help to achieve a uniform batter that is well incorporated and lump free.

Cool the melted butter before incorporating. Adding hot butter to the wet ingredients could scramble the egg yolks.

Allow the batter to rest for an hour before using, or better still make the batter  and rest overnight covered in the refrigerator. Resting will allow the gluten in the flour time to relax so the batter doesn’t become gluey when cooked. Take the Batter out of the fridge 30 minutes before you intend to use it.

Use butter to cook the pancakes, not oil. This will add to the overall flavor and will also help maintain the correct temperature in the pan whilst cooking the pancakes.  If the butter burns, the pan is too hot to add the mixture. Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool slightly before placing back on the heat and adding the batter. The best time to add the batter is when a bit of butter melts and sizzles without colour.  This will ensure the pancakes cook evenly with golden crisp edges.

My… Best Pancake Recipe

Ingredients

Makes 15 pancakes

100g butter – melted and cooled
1 3/4 cups of milk
1/4 cup of cream
2 egg yolks
2 cups of plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Extra butter for frying

Method

Into a measuring jug  whisk together the milk, cream and eggs. Add the cooled butter and combine well.

Stir the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. Slowly pour in the liquid ingredients, whisking continuously until a smooth pourable batter has formed.

Heat a skillet on medium heat or induction setting 6 with 1/2 teaspoon of butter until it sizzles.

Add a small ladle approx 60mls or 3 tablespoons of batter to the pan and allow to cook for 1 minute or until bubbles begin to form in the cake. Flip carefully and cook on the other side for a further 45 seconds.

Repeat the last 2 steps until all the mixture is used up, stacking the pancakes as you go.

Serve warm with all The usual suspects like maple or golden syrup, grilled bacon and fresh banana, stewed fruit, fresh berries, or cream and jam. For something a little different try mango cheeks with  grated palm sugar and yogurt, lemon juice and vanilla sugar, or grilled pineapple rounds with grated ginger.

The Secrets to a GREAT Banoffee Pie!

Like a lovers first kiss, I fully remember the first time I succumbed to  Banoffee Pie. Its decadent toffee flavour seduced me at first bite and whispered sweet tropical nothings in my ear. What clever wizardry is this that four basic ingredients can taste so fantastic together?  The simplicity of this dish has always astounded me. How could something so simple as Banoffee Pie, taste so right? In a culinary world  where we are bombarded with multiple layers, exotic flavour combinations and gastronomic contortions, it’s so wonderfully comforting to know that simple still works deliciously.

Banoffee pie is a blend of words or portmanteau being  1 part banana to 2 parts toffee otherwise known as the “Banoffee” A biscuit base is processed and then pushed into a fluted tart mould, chilled and then covered in fabulous toffee, sliced banana and whipped sweetened cream. It couldn’t be easier and more effective. A dessert invented in the 1970’s in Sussex England, it has stood the test of time with its abilities to raise heart felt “ooohhhs and aahhhs” whenever it is served.

A fine example of Banoffee Pie can be found at the chic and ever so cool Cafe Sopra at Fratelli Fresh in Sydney, where I once indulged after a salad of white sardines and heirloom tomatoes with vincotto. As I was dining with 3 lunch companions we stupidly chose to share a banoffee pie between the four of us , something I vow to never do again!

When invited to attend the Electrolux Cooking School at  Fratelli Fresh for a  hands on cooking class  in Sydney’s Food destination of Danks Street, Waterloo,  I jumped at the chance and was enchanted to see that the three course menu we were to put together did in fact have the Fratelli Banoffee Pie as its sweet course. The chefs at Fratelli did all the hard work for us, which was the boiling and cooking of the cans of condensed milk which forms the toffee or dulce de leche, but I  have seen jars of pre- made toffee in delis for those wishing to short cut this process.

Chef Andy Bunn from Cafe Sopra at Fratelli gently guided us through the Banoffee Pie assembly process, to which we all got the opportunity to step back on to our individual cooking stations and whip up a treat with a chilled glass of Pinot Grigio’s firmly in hand!

The Banoffee Pie Secret

The secret to their Banoffee Pie success Andy said, was the use of ripe bananas so the flavour is sweet and starchy. You also need to assemble this dessert only moments before you intend to serve it as the bananas will go black if left to oxidize. I have to say that there was no fear of this dessert being left to go brown as we were happy to whip into it as soon as it was ceremoniously unmolded from its metal confines.

I did  get to take some home  in a little takeaway container for a late night snack in front of the refrigerator, along with a basket full of wonderful produce from Fratellis own warehouse style produce and deli market.  This was only possible thanks to the wonderful spread that was put on by Andy the team at Fratelli once our class was over.  A special thanks to Andy  for sharing his luscious Banoffee Pie recipe.

How to Make Banoffee Pie

Recipe by Andy Bunn, Cafe Sopra at Fratelli  Fresh

Serves 12

Ingredients

2 x 395g cans of sweetened condensed milk

180g unsalted butter, chopped

375g digestive biscuits, halved

60ml thickened cream

2 vanilla beans, seeds scraped out

75g icing sugar, sifted

4 bananas

30g dark chocolate, finely grated

Method

• Place cans of the condensed milk in a large saucepan of water and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 2 hours adding water if necessary to ensure cans remain covered, remove cans and cool in the fridge for a couple of hours.
• Meanwhile melt butter in a small saucepan, and then cool slightly. Using a food processor crush biscuits into fine crumbs, add the butter and process briefly to combine. Pres crumb mixture over the base of a greased 28cm loose based tin, then refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm the base.
• Open cooled cans of condensed milk and spoon caramel evenly over the biscuit base and refrigerate overnight until firm.
• To assemble pie: Using electric mixer whisk cream, vanilla bean seeds and sugar to stiff peaks. Cut bananas into thin slices. Remove pie from the tin and loosen base and place on a plate. Spoon or pipe half the whipped cream over the caramel filling, then place bananas in an overlapping circle working from the outside in. Top with remaining cream and sprinkle with grated chocolate.
• Cut into slices with a hot dry knife and serve immediately.

Tips: To stop noise of the cans rattling in the saucepan, place a folded tea towel in the base before adding the water. Enjoy your Banoffee Pie!

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Is The Barbecue Still a Male Domain?

I have to ask the question, is the Barbecue still a male domain? Australians in particular are known to cook barbecues 2-3 times a week in the summer months and of those 2-3 times a week, is that dinner being cooked by the male contingent within the household? If the answer is  YES,  the Barbecue is still primarily a male destination hang out spot.  I’m going to have to  get me a new Barbecue to encourage more time for Mr 88 to discover his inner Masterchef!

With the culture of barbecuing fully indoctrinated into our Aussie and Kiwi lifestyles the humble barbecue has  now evolved into  an appliance that can stand up to any that we may find amongst our indoor appliances. Design and functionality can now go hand and hand with our primal need to light fires and and place food on the grill to cook. No longer just a hunk of steel that sits idly in the back yard waiting for some bright spark to heat it up, barbecues can be a delicious addition to your outdoor room that has more than design at the hub of its benefits.

I want a barbecue that’s versatile, heats up quickly, evenly and STAYS hot, is easy to clean and dismantle, maneuverable so I can get it out of wind’s way if needed and looks like  a sexy edition to my backyard.

Homework and research lead me to the latest offering from the Electrolux stable of premium barbecues and with a bit of luck I found myself invited to a barbecue lunch hosted by Chef Ben O’Donoghue to allow me time to get up close and personal with the barbecue of my dreams. Looking like he had just stepped out of the pages of The 1950′s Teen Hit Parade Magazine, Rock and Roll Chef Ben O’Donoghue complete with  sunflower yellow canvas sneakers and James Dean haircut treated us to a delightful afternoon under the watchful eye of the Sydney Opera house.

Barbeque with Ben O’Donoghue

Ben shared his food, knowledge and good humor  over the course of the afternoon including some sound advice for those of us looking to step up a notch or two in the barbecue stakes.

The Barbecue he used to cook our delighful lunch was the Electrolux E:volution  Barbecue.  A larger style full stainless steel barbecue  with dual cooking zones, so you can roast on one side of the barbie with the use of a hood, while the other plate can be used to cook steaks or fish. Despite a stiff breeze coming straight off the harbour, the barbecue’s abilty to stay hot was impressive and within no time we were treated to a Thai style barbque fish salad and marinated lamb back straps.  It was also nice to see that the same barbecue came in a smaller size for those of us who have postage stamps for backyards.

Ben used a form of indirect cooking to achieve his barbecue success with a beautiful piece of king fish which he quickly seared  on the barbecue before placing it on baking paper away from the direct heat source by utilizing the resting rack that sits above the grill. At the same time he was gently cooking the kingfish fillets, he used the other cooking zone to grill his marinated lamb back straps. Simple, effective and thankfully quick, as I was starving and the two glasses of bubbly were quickly losing its effervescence. “She was Last scene lounging back on an outdoor recliner with champagne flute in hand watching the circling seagulls…”

Luckily lunch  hit the spot and my overall impressions of the Electrolux Evolution barbecue was that it was hitting all my barbecue spots and ticking all the right boxes. Thank you to Chef  Ben for an inspirational  barbecue masterclass to which I think he answered the age old question of whether the barbecue is still a male domain?

Men, you are welcome to hangout/ dominate the barbecue area… provided the ladies get to go shopping for the hardware!

Ben O’Donoghues Thai Style Barbecue Fish

SERVES 4

1 whole fish (up to 2 kg), scaled and cleaned (ask your fishmonger to do this)
Sunflower oil
5 tablespoons Thai Sweet Chilli Jam
2 kaffir lime leaves, very finely sliced, to garnish
2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves to garnish
1 lime, cut into wedges to garnish

MARINADE
5 coriander roots, washed and chopped
8 garlic cloves, peeled
5 Thai pink shallots, peeled
1 birdseye chilli
1 tablespoon minced turmeric or turmeric powder
2 tablespoons freshly ground white pepper
3–4 tablespoons fish sauce to taste
2–3 tablespoons lime juice to taste
¼ cup coconut cream (skim off the top of a cold can of coconut milk)

This dish works best with a nice white-fleshed reef fish – a pan-sized snapper, coral trout or even a tasty bream. It’s best to use a fish basket and cook over the direct heat of coals or gas.

METHOD

Using a sharp knife, cut incisions along both sides of the fish, about 1 cm apart.

To make the marinade, place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Rub the fish with the marinade and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes while you prepare your barbecue for direct cooking over a medium–high heat.

Take a suitable sized piece of baking paper and place your fish on it and then place directly on to the BBQ grill. Place over direct heat and cook for 5 minutes on one side, then turn the fish over and cook for another 5 minutes. Then turn off the direct heat beneath the fish and leave the outer heat on, so as to cook indirectly (like an oven) with the hood down.

Meanwhile, warm the chilli jam with a little water to make a brushable paste. When the fish has cooked, brush the fish liberally with the chilli jam paste and cook for a further 2 minutes as just described.

Remove the fish from the basket. Brush with any remaining jam and serve garnished with kaffir lime leaves, coriander and lime wedges.

What’s your favourite barbecue dish?

Cookbook Review: Planet Cake Cupcakes by Paris Cutler

How to become a cupcake decorating machine!

MUCH has been frosted, filled and written about cupcakes, and I emphasis the MUCH with a capital M! The  Global Cupcake phenomena and cupcake decorating craze has been raging for a couple of years now and there seems to be no letting up as cupcakes get tastier, more adventurous in combinations and more extreme in decoration. These  individual teeny tiny cakes have become the chic vehicle for announcing birthdays, weddings, christenings and farewells to a generation of adoring fans.

Paris Cutler, author and owner  of Planet Cake in Sydney’s Balmain says she originally saw the cupcake craze as just a fad and looked at cupcakes as being the poor cousin of the more serious “big cakes”. If not for a chance remark by one A-list celebrity had Cutler reevaluate  her feeling towards cupcakes, and has seen her shop and business embrace  cupcakes popularity with gusto. What once was looked at as passing faze is now described as “magic you can eat” and a mix between fantasy and comfort thats made just for you.

Cutlers latest cookbook “Planet Cup Cakes” is not your ordinary cupcake decorating book. There isn’t a single photograph of  piped frosting and sprinkles insight. These cupcakes are design- er. They are intricate and carefully thought out to gain from  the eater, maximum cupcake reaction. You would expect more than a simple “oh thats nice” if you were to toil over the cupcakes in this book.

There is a well needed  page on How to use this book which I highly recommend you familiarize yourself with before reading on, as cupcakes start to get down to business in the next few pages. Cutler advises that you take your time and have all your Mis En Place (everything in place) before you begin decorating.  Essential planning and preparation for the cupcake session should begin 1 month prior to when you will be requiring the masterpiece so this is definitely a ‘plan ahead cookbook’ as opposed to a spur of the moment  ` let’s decorate some cupcakes’ style cookbook.

And the cupcakes are just that, little works of art with some of them so cute and delicate it would almost seem a shame to eat them ~ almost. The book grades the cupcake decorating designs from easiest  at the start of the book to more complex towards the end with some knowledge of basic cake decorating under your belt being certainly helpful as you negotiate your way through ganaching, coloring fondant and piping with royal icing.

There are 21 different cupcakes design elements in this book ranging from cute little baby faces dressed in animal costumes, bad mannered monsters poking tongues. mosaics, prints and modeled woodland creatures. within those 21 designs is a mountain of techniques, tips and tricks to make you a great cupcake decorator as well as recipes for making vanilla, chocolate and gluten free cupcake bases, ganache and fondant. There are also pages on equipment, materials, foundation techniques and a handy trouble shooting section as well just in case you run into cupcake drama along the way.

With Christmas just around the corner this would  make a wonderful ‘Chrissy prezzie’ for a loved one who likes the intricate nature of cake decorating and would appreciate what goes into such beautiful cupcake decorating designs. If you buy it for them before Christmas, they can be in charge of whipping up a  non-traditional Christmas cupcake scene as Santa and his crew have got to be the cutest guys around!

Planet Cake Cupcake book retails for $45.00 AUD and is available in bookstores from November 2010 .

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Grilled Tomato Recipe

Summer is so close I can smell it. The City is dancing  to the sound of  Havaiana flip flops slapping on the hot pavement  and produce in the local farmers  markets are getting more rosy by the day. Summer means  buxomous strawberries, voluptuous watermelons and of course, one of my summertime ‘steadies’,   juicy flame red tomatoes.

Summer wouldn’t be summer without a box load of tomatoes from the market and when I’m not making Tomato Chilli Jam to use up the multitude of glass jars I have been hoarding throughout the winter, I looking for exciting ways to salute one of natures cheapest and most accessible superfoods.

As breakfast is the most important meal of the day, we might as well start with a simple breakfast recipe to kick start my tomato tribute. Watch this space for more wonderful ways to enjoy tomatoes.

Spiced Grilled Breakfast Tomatoes

Serves 4 as a side dish for breakfast

Ingredients

8 medium to large firm yet ripe roma tomatoes ~ sliced in half length ways

3 heaped teaspoons of cumin powder

3 heaped teaspoons of garam masala

2 teaspoons of cumin seeds

2 Tablespoons of Dark brown sugar

Sea salt and black pepper

Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Method

• Preheat the oven on fan grill or grill at 180C and place the rack in the position just above half way, but not right at the top of the oven as you don’t want to have your tomates kissing the top element as they will burn thanks to the sugars present.
• Place the tomatoes in a a deep oven tray in a  single layer with the cut side facing up.
• Sprinkle the tomatoes generously with the cumin powder, garam masala and brown sugar making sure the mixes are evenly distributed on top of the tomatoes.
• Sprinkle over the cumin seeds and dust with some sea salt flakes and a good grinding of black pepper.
• Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and place under the grill for 15-20 minute until wonderfully caramelized and cooked through gently.
• Remove from the oven and serve as a delightful side dish to breakfast eggs and fresh avocado.

With only 362 days until next Halloween, you may be wondering if that mountain of candy and chocolate will last till then. With the chances of that highly unlikely, and your Sweet tooth ready to pack up and go on vacation, you may experience that stage of thinking “What’s the best way to use up all that leftover candy?”

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble. With nothing quite as Sinster as what the witches in Macbeth were brewing up, I have concocted the Top 10 ways to use up all that Halloween Loot.

Be a Star not a Monster and DONATE your leftover candy!

There are loads of worthy places where you can donate any leftover candy.

For those less fortunate than yourself, create some candy gift-bags and drop them off at the retirement home, local homeless shelter, or donate them to organisations like Operation Gratitude that will ship your candy as care packages to overseas troops.

Photo by Sifu Renka

Christmas and Thanksgiving Gift Bags

Repackaged Halloween Candy tastes even better the second time around.

Add all the candy to Christmas and Thanksgivings gift-bags for an adult indulgence.

Photo by stevendepolo

An excuse to SMASH a Pinata!

Fill it, hang it, swing it and SMASH it. What a great excuse to throw a pinata party.

Any party can turn into a thrashing, and any excuse will do!

photo by StayRAW

Did someone say VODKA?

Now before you take off down the road to buy a huge bottle of vodka, just remember that the cheaper quality vodka will taste just so.

Go for a medium priced range vodka and simply soak all those left over candies in the vodka for a delicious grownup candy drinks! The hardest thing about creating your own candy alcohol is allowing it to sit for 24 hours before drinking it. Recipe here!

photo by BeInspiredDesigns

Create a Candy Wreath to Welcome in the Holidays!

With Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays just a hop, skip and a jump away,take some time to create a beautiful sentiment

to grace your front door. Check out Martha Stewart’s Candy wreath project for some sweet inspiration.

Photo by Simply recipes

T’is the Season to Bake Stained Glass Cookies!

Here’s a wonderful Holiday project that will make beautiful Christmas decorations and gifts.

Try this delightful recipe from Simply recipes, and mix and match your own special cookie cutter designs.

Photo by candywrapper crafts

Eaten all the candy? What about all those left over wrappers?

There’s a craft project for everyone! No need to dispose of all those leftover candy wrappers,

you can learn how to make your own candy wrapper bags for the ultimate in recycled chic.

photo by stevendepolo

Just FREEZE it!

Bag and freeze your candy so it will last till Halloween 2011!

Thats right, Candy can be kept for up to a 12 months in the freezer and is great to use up when  ever you need a sugar hit or want to cook a few candy inspired recipes.

photo by lintmachine

Wrestling with your demons. For those that must EAT it all!

If you really must eat all your candy, you could try a few ways to mix up the delivery.

Blend a chocolate bar with milk for a milkshake. Add ice cream for a chocolate bar smoothie or place it on bread and pop it in the toaster oven for a couple of minutes before spreading for chocolate toast.

photo by Delish.com

Get some Fruit into them!

I’m not sure how healthy these treats are, but it could be one way of getting a bit of fruit into the young ones and using up a bit of that leftover candy. The fact that they look super cute is bonus. Try this fantastic recipe from Delish.com.

What great ways do you have to use up that leftover Halloween Candy?

The Top 10 Delicious Pineapple Recipes on the Internet

The first time we drove through a Pineapple plantation I thought the sky was raining sugar. The air was so sweet and perfumed with the delicious fragrance that is so uniquely pineapple. I hung my head out the car window and instructed everyone in the car to wind down their windows so we could capture as much of the sweet pineapple air as possible.

I was surprised to see a flat row of beds on either side of the windy road. No towering pineapple trees hanging low laden with fruit, but a squat  outcrop of leaves which inside grows a single pineapple. Pineapple loves full sun and one plant will produce a pineapple anywhere from 7-24 months which is about a full cycle for the plant.

Ideal growing conditions can be found in Australia’s tropical Queensland where  just north of Brisbane, 22 growing families are supplying the market with The king of fruit  all year round. Over 10 MILLION pineapples a year are harvested from this fertile growing region where the air must be heavy with the fragrant aroma of sweet juicy fruit.

With such an abundance of tropical pineapple, rather than gave you one recipe to try, here are The Top 10 pineapple recipes on the internet. All use fresh pineapple and are a great source of inspiration to get you into the kitchen for some truly sun drenched recipes.

Click on the picture to be taken directly to the recipe!

Pineapple Salsa by My Adventures in Food

Pineapple Upside down Cheesecake by Todays Nest

Pineapple Upside Down cake by Sea salt with Food

Coconut Pineapple Pancakes by Cooking Pleasures

Malaysian pineapple tarts by House of Annie

Thai Cucumber and Pineapple Salad by Closet Cooking

How to cut a whole pineapple by Jun-blog

Pineapple rasm a South Indian soup by Veggie Belly

Pineapple upside Down cupcakes by cookbookmaniac

A Pineapple Vinaigrette by Kitchen nonsense

Guilt Free Banana Bread Pleasures!

Would you believe it if I told you that you can have your banana cake and eat it too! Well, with this fabulous banana bread recipe that is exactly what you can do.  It’s not only sugar free but this banana bread is also free from butter AND oil. As a replacement of the sugar, agave nectar makes an appearance and we opt the butter out of the equation as well as the oil and replace them with yogurt and grated fresh pineapple.

Easy Banana Pineapple and Almond Bread

Not only is this banana bread delicious and easy to make, but it remains moist as well. Banana bread is a great treat to send to school with the little ones and just to spoil them a bit  more, why not make them into fun shapes as well? I love my BakewaresBest silicone moulds, which leaves the banana bread with a lovely shine and the shapes remain intact and perfectly formed once the bread is removed from the moulds. Take a look at the picture above and know why I’ve fallen head over heels for silicone moulds, and that’s not even mentioning how easy they are to store, clean and even travel with!

I made a ‘grown ups’ style loaf,  a couple of stars and a gingerbread person for the school age in the household who were most grateful and couldn’t wait to take them to school the next day. I plan on taking an extra large banana bread slice with me to the office tomorrow for some guilt free Monday morning munching.

Banana Pineapple and Almond Bread Recipe

Ingredients

4 very ripe large bananas ~ mashed well with a fork

125mls/ 1/2 cup of agave nectar

6 Tbsp unsweetened yogurt

6 Tbsp fresh grated pineapple and its juice

2 large eggs

1 Tbsp milk ~ boiling

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 cup of whole almonds ~ roughly chopped

2 cups of cake/pastry flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp sea salt flakes ~ coarsely ground

Method

• Preheat the oven on fan cooking at 350F/180C. As this banana bread recipe doesn’t require any creaming of butter and sugar it’s nice and fast so the sooner you the get the oven heating the quicker you can cook the banana bread!
• Into a large bowl mix together the banana and the agave nectar until well combined
• Add the yogurt, pineapple and eggs and continue stirring until the mixture has come together evenly
• Mix the boiling milk with the baking soda and add to the wet ingredients and combine well.
• Mix through the almonds and sift on the flour, baking powder and salt.
• Using a large wooden spoon, gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until the banana bread is well mixed in.
• Pour the banana bread mix into your molds and place in the oven. Remember that if your using silicone molds, this banana bread recipe is even MORE healthy as you don’t have to butter or grease silicone molds! If you are using metal molds make sure you grease the entire surface of the tins,  paying special attention to the corners which is where the bread tends to stick.
• Bake the banana bread mixture in the oven for 45 minutes for a large loaf or 20-25 minutes for small breads or shapes. The best way to tell if your banana bread is done is to insert a skewer into the center of the bread. If the skewer comes out clean the bread is ready.
• Allow to cool slightly on a wire rack before peeling back the silicone mold to reveal your gorgeous banana bread.

Olio Cafe Chocolate Chewy Biscuits

I first tried this little chocolate chewy biscuits treat whilst partaking in my first Kopi Luwak Experince at the Olio Cafe and Bar in Sydney’s St. Leonard’s. Kopi luwak is heralded as the world’s rarest and most expensive coffee and passionate coffee provedors Nicholas Aspros of Olio and Sam Gabrielian of Caffe Di Gabriel boutique coffee roasters have made it their mission to source the best and rarest coffee beans from the around the world and make them accessible to all.

Olios Kopi Luwak experience consists of an espresso or picillo of the famed brew served alongside a lime and ginger soda and these gorgeous little chocolate chewy biscuits flavoured with chocolate, ginger and almonds to complete the coffee journey.

I was so impressed with these little nuggets of chocolate chewy biscuits goodness that I begged Nicholas to share the recipe with me, which he more than happily agreed to do so. The perfect coffee accompaniment.

Olio Chocolate Chewy Biscuit

Ingredients

1 large free range egg

50g vanilla sugar

100g bittersweet chocolate

300g butter ~ cut into cubes

100g plain flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp grated ginger

40g slivered almonds ~ chopped

100g icing sugar

Method

• Into a large mixing bowl or with a cake mixer mix together the egg and sugar until the chocolate chewy biscuits mix is well combined and silky.
• In a metal bowl over a saucepan of simmering water melt together the chocolate and butter and stir to combine evenly.
• Cool slightly before incorporating the chocolate mixture into the egg and sugar and mix together well.
• Using a separate bowl combine the remaining ingredients and add to the wet ingredients, stirring carefully to combine.
• Cover the bowl with cling film and allow the mixture to rest in the fridge for 2 hours, but preferably overnight.
• When ready to cook, preheat the oven on Bake at 170C.
• If making small petite four style biscuits, form the chilled mixture into 3cm round balls and dust generously with icing sugar by rolling the balls through a bowl of icing sugar.
• Place the balls on a baking paper lined cookie tray and bake in the oven for 9 mins.
• Watch the cooking time carefully as the balls should be soft and chewy when cooked. Over-baking will result in crunchy biscuits which is not ideal for this style of cookie.
• Remove from the oven and allow the chocolate chewy biscuits to cool on a wire rack before storing for 3-4 days in an airtight container.