Shortbread shapes for the lunchbox

It's getting to that time in the school term when lunchbox filling inspiration starts to wear thin. Sometimes the biscuit choices of 6 year old's can be a little fickle, so I was more than happy when our Little Miss settled on a shortbread making project. 
This is a recipe I make often. Most people appreciate the fruit and nut variation, but this time I decided on adding a little chia. The chocolate is a concession to our Little Miss. 

Fruit, Nut and Chocolate Shortbread Shapes

255g butter
115g icing sugar
115g flour
115g custard powder
115g cornflour
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons chopped preserved ginger
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons chopped cranberries
2 tablespoons chia seeds
2 tablespoons white and dark chocolate buttons
a beaten egg white 

Preheat the oven to 150deg. C and line a large baking sheet

Cream the butter and icing sugar until pale and fluffy.

Sift the flour, custard powder, cornflour and salt.

Fold the dry ingredients into the butter and sugar and turn out onto a sheet of plastic wrap.

Chill for half an hour. 

Prepare the ginger and walnuts by slicing them into chunks.

Roll the shortbread out between two sheets of plastic food wrap. 

Gather your selection of biscuit cutters and press out as many biscuits as will fit on the shortbread. 








Place the biscuits onto a lined baking tray. 


Gather up the off cuts and re-roll them between the plastic. Continue to cut the biscuits until all the mixture is used up. 






Beat the egg white until fluffy. 

Brush onto each biscuit and sprinkle with the toppings. I combined the cranberry and chia, and the walnut and ginger. Little Miss arranged hers with chocolate drops and mini teddies. 

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes. They will brown a little where they have been glazed. 

Little Miss was very happy to take a little parcel of biscuits to both her classroom and ballet teacher. Happy baking xx

Spicy Cranberry and Raisin Pinwheel Scones

It's no secret that I recently had a milestone birthday. If there is one thing we all learn with age, it's that it is not the things we accumulate over our lifetimes that matter, it's the friends we make along the way. I can hardly believe I'm forty! That's like twenty twice! How did that happen? I had a great birthday week celebration with family and friends. 

I whipped up these scones for one of my most fabulous old friends and her beautiful family when they popped round to our house for a catch up.

Spicy Cranberry and Raisin Pinwheel Scones

Scone Mix
2 cups plain flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
100g butter
1 egg 
enough milk to top up the egg to make 200ml of liquid
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Filling
1/2 cup Raisins
3/4 cup dried cranberries
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter - melted
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice

Preheat the oven to 200deg. C and line a baking sheet with baking paper.

Start by making the spicy fruit filling: Melt the butter and stir in the remaining filling ingredients. Put aside while you make the scone dough.









Sift flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Grate the butter into the flour mix and add the brown sugar; then rub the butter in with your finger tips until the mixture resembles crumbs.

Whisk the egg and milk mixture together. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the egg mixture.





Use a table knife to gently combine the ingredients until just mixed. The mixture should be quite wet.










Sprinkle some extra flour onto a sheet of plastic food wrap. Turn the scone dough out onto the wrap and use a gentle floured hand to spread the dough into rectangular shape. 







Evenly spread the spicy fruit filling onto the scone dough.










Use the plastic wrap to help roll the dough into a 'sushi roll'.

Make sure the join is on the underside, and with a sharp floured knife cut the scone roll into 3cm slices. Try not to squash the roll shape.

Place the scones onto the baking sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until well risen and golden brown.



The best way to test a scone for doneness is to tap the bottom and listen for a hollow sound - then you know it is cooked.

Time to switch the coffee machine on and get the butter out!

A Baked Fruit Pudding with Friends

We had a lovely dinner with friends last night. With the working week at an end we are always in danger of a quick take out, so it was lovely to be invited out. Our contribution to dinner was the pudding. With a cold breeze blowing and bursts of rain, a lovely homely baked pudding was the perfect dinner choice. I mixed it at home and popped it into the oven at our friend's house. It's a great quick mix and the choice of fruit can be varied depending on what's in the pantry.

Baked Fruit Pudding

1 small cup plain flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 - 3 cups dried fruit - I used golden sultanas, cranberries, standard sultanas and crystallised ginger
3 tablespoons butter
1 small cup milk
1 teaspoon baking soda

Pre-heat the oven to 175deg. C.
Mix the dry ingredients and fruit. Warm the milk and melt the butter. If you do this together ensure the mixture is not too hat as you don't want to cook the flour before it goes in the oven. Add the soda to the milk and butter and stir. It will froth up a bit. Mix the milky mixture into the dry ingredients and fruit and pour into a shallow, greased oven dish.

The dish needs to be quite shallow as the pudding is quite dense and will take too long to cook in a deep dish. 

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until the centre bounces back when pressed and the pudding is golden brown.







We served it with whipped cream and custard. Ice cream is also a good accompaniment.

It was great to catch up with friends and watch our daughters playing. Two little blue ballerina's having a ball! They couldn't have been happier!

Fruity Chocolate Caramel Slice

OK, so adding fruit and rolled oats is not going to make this any healthier, but it does make it quite tasty. I have adapted this Donna Hay recipe to make it  bit more interesting; I substituted rolled oats instead of coconut in the base, and sprinkled lots of fruit on the base before adding the caramel.

Fruity Chocolate Carmel Slice

1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
125g butter - melted
approximately 1 cup dried currents, cranberries and crystallised ginger

Caramel filling:
1/3 cup golden syrup
125g melted butter
2 x 400g cans of condensed milk
1 block of dark chocolate
a tablespoon of vegetable oil
Preheat the oven to 180deg. C
Mix the flour, oats, brown sugar and melted butter. Spread into a lined slice tin and bake for 15 minutes or until brown.










Sprinkle the base with the dried fruit.













To make the filling, place the golden syrup, butter and condensed milk into a large heavy based saucepan and stir over a low heat until the caramel thickens.










Pour the caramel over the fruit and base and smooth out. Return to the oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes until the caramel is bubbly. Leave to cool.











Once the base is cold, melt the chocolate, add the oil, and spread it over the base. Leave until cold before cutting into small squares.

The perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea in the garden.

Spicy Fruit Loaf

Our Grandmothers knew a thing or two about domestic harmony. Keeping everything and everyone happily ticking along nicely. Seemingly simultaneously attending to the baby, keeping the coal range stoked, cooking the dinner, and mending the children's jerseys.
Many of that generation's recipe books are packed with recipes for loaves of every description. I've never been one for making fruit loaf. It never seemed enough of a challenge, or even technically interesting enough to worry about. But when I dived into my copy of Recipes from Edna's Kitchen in a desperate search for quick Sunday night lunch box bakes, the significance of the good old fashioned loaf all fell into place: made with good pantry staples, melted and stirred up in a flash, and happily left to bake for an hour while more pressing matters are attended to.

I adapted this recipe from Edna Low's Ginger Fruit Loaf recipe.

Cranberry and Sultana Spicy Fruit Loaf

125g butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 cups flour
50g slivered almonds
2 teaspoons baking soda
pinch salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon mixed spice
200g dried cranberries and golden sultanas

Preheat the oven to 175deg. C.
In a saucepan, melt the butter, sugar, golden syrup and milk. Leave to cool then stir in the dried fruit.
Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add the nuts.












Make a well in the centre and fold in the butter mixture until smooth.












Pour into a greased and lined loaf tin. I used a silicone tin that doesn't require lining as the sides just peel away.











Bake for approximately 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean.











When cold slice and butter to serve.

And so on a Monday morning domestic harmony has been restored, and Little Miss 3 heads off to her day job with a tasty snack in her lunch box.