Sweet NZ August, sweet indeed

Plum Kitchen was the host of Sweet NZ this month, a great initiative set up by Alessanda Zecchini bringing together some delicious treats to share from Food Bloggers all around New Zealand. If these goodies dont have you reaching for the sugar and a mixing bowl I dont know what will....

First up Jemma over at Time for a Little Something with a rather gorgeous Whittaker's & Whiskey Cake. Dense, dark whiskey flavoured chocolate cake, this is a contender for me for this years Christmas cake (I am one of those odd souls who dont really like fruit cake....), while I am not a whiskey drinker I love the depth of flavour it gives to cooking and baking. It looks so beautiful to, thanks Jemma

For a luscious exotic pudding treat Leslie at Eat Etc has shared a Cardamom Spiced Rice Pudding. I adore Cardamom, and Mr PK is mad for anything containing raisins, so pretty much our ideal winter pud. Warm or cold, this is creamy scented comfort eating, and how gorgeous is that blue cloth? Thanks Leslie

For a fab teatime treat that also happens to be Gluten Free, Lydia at Grace Cakes has posted a Flourless Orange Cake. The method for this one is intriguing and involves boiling whole oranges, for really intense orange flavour. What a treat with a cup of Earl Grey tea (and yes, a large dollop of cream or yoghurt on the side:) thanks Lydia

Mairi over at Toast has shared her recipe for Back Up Brownies. These came about after a wee sponge "mishap", I was lucky enough to have one (ok, several....) so let me assure you there is nothing "backup" about moist rich chocolatey brownie topped with tangy freeze dried strawberry powder. Not only do they look so pretty, they were completely scrumptious , thanks Mairi

For a sweet pudding treat Alli at Pease Pudding has sent us Winter White Sago Pudding with Lime & Coconut Sugar. I adore creamy style puds , so cant wait to give these a whirl, especially with tropical lime coconut flavours, it may be pouring with rain but I can turn the heating up and pretend.....thanks Alli (p.s where did you get those wonderful spoons???)

Continuing the tangy citrus theme, Sue from Couscous & Consciousness sent in Nieve de Limon, a zingy fruity Mexican inspired Lemon-Lime Sorbet. How much do you want to be sitting in the sun eating this right now? So light and refreshing, I am really looking forward to making this for Mr PK, who does not tolerate creamy ice cream very well, what a fabulous treat. Pretty pic to, thanks Sue

Another favourite fruit of mine, apple, is the base for a decadent treat from Genie at Bunny Eats Design. Nifty little cinnamon spiced apple hand pies with a rich butterscotch sauce, this is much easier than it sounds, and could very well make an extremely wet chilly Monday night perfectly bearable. And how cute is that rabbit?(his name is Tofu:) Thanks Genie

Alessandra  has contributed an indulgent Tirimisu, and being Italian we can be assured she knows what's what when it comes to this lovely dessert. I smiled when I saw this picture as the twist with this recipe is the use of Whiskey instead of coffee. Glenffidich was Dad's favourite, he would have had a terrible dilemma handing over the whiskey bottle, not wanting yet more of his precious drop to go into "cooking" but wanting to try the finished product, I will certainly be making this for my next whanau gathering, thanks so much Alessandra

Our last entry this month is courtesy of Angela at The Cook's Sponge, who has shared with us an Apple Fruit Bar. Perfect for kids and adults alike, this will be a perfect portable morning tea treat, much more delicious and sustaining than a big doughy muffin, and way better for me to! I am keen to try the original, and the suggested Apricot variation , which would be a nice change. Thanks Angela (and welcome to Sweet NZ)

What a line up, I hope you are inspired to get cooking, Sweet NZ for September is being hosted by Alessandra Zecchini so make sure you get your sweet delights to her for sharing at the end of next month.

Sweet NZ....a Chocolate Biscuit by any other name.....

Let me start by saying I don’t know why this biscuit is called an Afghan. Extensive research (i.e. me surfing numerous websites when I should have been working) has proved fruitless, except that maybe Afghan rolls off the tongue a little easier than Yummy Chocolate Cornflake Biscuit with a Walnut on Top? Whatever you want to call them they are simply a great sweet treat.
Easy to whip up (I made these while cooking dinner), universally adored , they are like the sweet version of a sausage roll,you wont win prizes for originality, but sometimes originality is over rated. I'll have another biscuit while I think about it........

The homemade version is a million time better than brought, even the fancy ones. Such a simple recipe, but it does require a couple of things. Use real butter. Use good dark cocoa. Don’t use sweetened cornflakes.

Ok, enough of my bossiness, on with the show…..

This recipe is courtesy of the Edmonds Cookbook, I have tried others, but I like this one best

Afghan Biscuits
200gr butter, softened (I use unsalted, and add a pinch of salt)
75gr sugar
175gr plain flour
25 gr cocoa
50 gr cornflakes

Pre heat the oven to 180C/350F

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter & sugar until light & fluffy. I do this in my Kitchen Aid but a hand held beater also works fine..

With the beater speed on slow add the sifted flour & cocoa, and beat until combined.

Lastly add the cornflakes, beating in until they are just combined, but not crushed to nothing
Put teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto a greased baking tray & cook for 12-15 minutes. They will still be soft when you take them out of the oven, but crisp up on cooling.
Ice with the following mixture, and top with a walnut (obviously optional, but traditional) You may notice I have used Pecans instead, I still have no idea what I did with the bag of walnuts I thought I had in the freezer....

Icing
1 ½ cups icing sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
½ tsp butter
Boiling water

Mix together the icing sugar & cocoa. Pour approx ¼ cup of boiling water over your knob of butter & let melt. Add the water to the icing sugar cocoa mixture, stirring until you have a thick spreadable icing. The butter adds a slight sheen to the icing.

The result is quite short, with a slightly crumbly texture. The actual biscuit is not overly sweet, but the icing more than compensates. Two of my sisters also make Afghans, one makes a biscuity version, another a slightly more cake type variation, they actually had an “afghan off” to decide which was best. Really. Obviously I was Geneva in these proceedings, I actually think my version is the best, but we won’t tell them that……

This is my entry into Sweet NZ this month, which I am really happy with, cant wait to see what everyone else has entered:) Check out Alli over at Pease Pudding who is hosting this months event.

Chelsea Buns (not Man. U buns)

I wanted to bake something gorgeous for morning tea for Mothers day, and Chelsea Buns seemed just the thing. Mr PK thought I was baking for him, and declared they had to be excellent with a name like Chelsea. Sadly my buns proved rather more fabulous than his teams on pitch performance, they went down 2-1 to Manchester United this morning. Well that was worth getting up at 5.30 for......and no, your wife wasn't keen on getting up and making coffee since she was "awake anyway'.

This recipe is from the latest NZ Gardener Homegrown, which is chock full of good baking & preserving ideas. I think it is based on the original Edmond's recipe, with a bit of fiddling. I didn't have mixed fruit, so used a few spoons of candied peel, as many raisins as I could find in the box (about 1/2 cup) and some currents because they were the only other dried fruit we had. I have always found currents to be rather mean joyless little fruit, but the Chelsea fan loves them, and they did bulk out the fruit quota.

These may seem like a wee bit of a faff, but they were actually really easy. I made the dough and left it to rise while we had coffee and breakfast, stirred up the filling and cut the buns, then while they were rising put some washing out . The actual baking time is about 20 mins, then just ice with a super simple lemon icing. You will be thrilled with the results, as will the lucky people you share with.......

Iced Chelsea (not Man. U ) Buns

Buns
1/4 cup of warm water (about blood temp.)
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp dried yeast ( I use the Tasti brand from the supermarket)
3 cups high grade flour (plus a little more if necessary)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
3/4 cup warm milk (about blood temp)
3 tbsp melted butter

Filling
In a bowl mix together with a wooden spoon
50 gr soft butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1 1/2 cups dried fruit

Icing
Mix 1 cup icing sugar with enough boiling water to make a thickish icing (to thin and it will just slide off your buns) adding a squeeze of lemon juice

Mix the warm water with the sugar & yeast and leave in a warm spot for 10 mins to froth up while you get your dry ingredients ready. If it does not froth your yeast is old, so buy a new bottle & start again.
Put your flour in a large bowl (I use my Kitchen Aid) with the salt & sugar and stir together. Add the milk, butter & yeast mix, and either process in your mixer with a dough hook attachment, or if doing this by hand, mix with a wooden spoon until a rough dough forms. Turn out onto a floured bench, and knead for 8-10 minutes until you have a smooth, springy dough. Kneading isn't tricky, you simply push the dough away from you with the heel of your hand, then pull it back using the other hand, turn & repeat the process. You will quickly get the hang of it, what you are doing is working the gluten in the flour to create a springy elastic dough. It is very relaxing, so no need to stress. If it seems a bit wet add a little more flour, but be sparing, it is easy to add to much and have to keep adjusting till you have enough dough to feed the army. Pop your dough back into the bowl, which you have rubbed with a little oil, then cover with a tea towel & leave back in a warm spot to rise for another hour or so. If you don't have a warm spot, turn your oven to the minimum setting for a couple of minutes, then turn the heat off & pop your bowl in. As long as you can touch the tray and sides of the oven it is not to hot.
After an hour or so, take the dough out & roll into a rectangle about 20cm x30cm. Don't use a ruler, a guesstimate is fine. Spread with your filling, roll up like a sponge roll and slice into buns about 2cm wide.

Pop into a tin & leave to rise covered again for 30 minutes or so, then bake at 190C for 20-25 minutes until golden & smelling like heaven.
Ice while warm, and distribute to waiting fans, footie or foodie

You may remember at school making a scone dough based version of these buns, I think we called them cinnamon twirls. I don't think they are a patch on a yeasted dough, but then I do have a certain ambivalence to scone dough. This perhaps stems for Mrs Bossycow's Form 2 cooking class (I cant actually remember her name, so we shall use a pseudonym) when, paired with Sandra Sporty, I had to make scones. Sandra was a dear, and her skill on the netball court unrivalled (certainly by me, my one and only attribute at sport was being tall for my age) but in the kitchen she was a klutz, bless her. After one misweighed bowl of flour dropped on the floor too many I tactfully (for me) suggested she sit quietly, wash up & not touch anything, while I made her scones & my own. So please explain dear reader why my scones achieved a lowly B, and Sandra's a mighty A??? The same batch!? I know I need to build a bridge, but really, the injustice.....