Baked Doughnuts

this recipe was posted on a forum I visit and is originally from 101 cookbooks. I am definitely going to be giving these beauties a go.Don't over bake these, if anything, under bake them a bit - they will continue baking outside the oven for a few minutes. You want an interior that is moist and tender - not dry. Also, be sure to cut big enough holes in the center of your doughnuts - too small and they will bake entirely shut. Remember they rise, and they rise even more when they are baking. These really need to be made-to-order, but you can make and shape the dough the night before if you want to serve them for brunch. Instructions: after shaping, place doughnuts on baking sheet, cover and place in the refrigerator overnight. Pull them out an hour before baking, and let rise in a warm place before baking.

1 1/3 cups warm milk, 95 to 105 degrees (divided)

1 packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)

2 tablespoons butter

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

5 cups all-purpose flour (alternately, white whole wheat might work - haven't tried it yet)

A pinch or two of nutmeg, freshly grated
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 1/2 cups sugar1 tablespoon cinnamon

Place 1/3 cup of the warm milk in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the yeast and set aside for five minutes or so. Be sure your milk isn't too hot or it will kill the yeast. Stir the butter and sugar into the remaining cup of warm milk and add it to the yeast mixture. With a fork, stir in the eggs, flour, nutmeg, and salt - just until the flour is incorporated. With the dough hook attachment of your mixer beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed. This is where you are going to need to make adjustments - if your dough is overly sticky, add flour a few tablespoons at a time. Too dry? Add more milk a bit at a time. You want the dough to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl and eventually become supple and smooth. Turn it out onto a floured counter-top, knead a few times (the dough should be barely sticky), and shape into a ball.

Transfer the dough to a buttered (or oiled) bowl, cover, put in a warm place (I turn on the oven at this point and set the bowl on top), and let rise for an hour or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.

Punch down the dough and roll it out 1/2-inch thick on your floured countertop. Most people (like myself) don't have a doughnut cutter, instead I use a 2-3 inch cookie cutter to stamp out circles. Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet and stamp out the smaller inner circles using a smaller cutter. If you cut the inner holes out any earlier, they become distorted when you attempt to move them. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes.
Bake in a 375 degree oven until the bottoms are just golden, 8 to 10 minutes - start checking around 8. While the doughnuts are baking, place the butter in a medium bowl. Place the sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl.

Remove the doughnuts from the oven and let cool for just a minute or two. Dip each one in the melted butter and a quick toss in the sugar bowl. Eat immediately if not sooner.

Makes 1 1/2 - 2 dozen medium doughnuts.

Birthday Creations

I've really started to get into birthday cake making, I enjoy browsing through the numerous cake books and then selecting and making some gorgeous cakes, or even just letting inspiration strike and making something yummy but simple.

Here are some photos of cakes that I have made for my family.

This little beauty was for DH, it is a vanilla cake topped with cadbury drinking chocolate icing, sprinkled with crushed flake, crunchie and maltesers, not for the diet concious. Taleisha loved it and was a late night stealer of the cake balls :)

Taleisha's 3rd Birthday cake- banana cake with cream cheese icing freckle and jelly bean butterflies and spearmint leave trees

Mackenzie's 1st Birthday party cake - same as Taleisha's 3rd, but with licorice decoration.
Mackenzie's 1st Birthday cake - custard orange cake with cream cheese icing, licorice decoration, sprinkled with lemon jelly crystals and yellow edible glitter.
cupcake tower for Mackenzie's birthday party, orange cupcakes and mixed berry cupcakes decorated with marshmallow flowers.

Master Chef - Chocolate and Jaffa Souffle

http://www.masterchef.com.au/video.htm?vxSiteId=fefcb37d-8e38-4dbc-a768-e8bb503ed226&vxChannel=MC1%5FMasterclass&vxClipId=2664_286MCTT200509&vxBitrate=300&vxTemplate=MasterChef_Index.swf&vxClickToPlay=false

Banana Pikelets

Preparation time: 15 to 30 minutes

Ingredients
2 cups self-raising flour
Pinch salt
⅓ cup sugar
1½ tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1½ cups milk
2 bananas, mashed

Method
Sift self-raising flour and salt into a bowl.
Whisk in sugar, butter, eggs and milk until smooth.
Add mashed bananas and stir mixture well.
Heat a frying pan with a little oil or butter and pour batter to form small circles.
When pikelets bubble on top, flip and cook the other side until brown.

Really easy to make too. Alternative, try adding blueberries.

Crumpets

Recipe 1
3 2/3 cups flour ( I used all plain, but you could use wholemeal, and probably some other flours as well if you wanted I guess)
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
2 1/4 cups lukewarm water
10 grams of salt
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
2/3 cup lukewarm milk

Sift flour and cream of tartar in seperate bowl, mix yeast with sugar and 3/4 cup water. Leave til foamy, then add the remaining water.
mix yeast and flour vigourously with wooden spoon, cover with plastic wrap and rest for around an hour until it rises and falls again.
add salt and beat well.
rest for 15 to 20 minutes.
dissolve bicarb soda in milk and mix gently into batter. It shouldn't be stiff - if it feels a bit stiff add a bit more milk.
Heat frying pan to moderatly hot, I grease with butter, but whatever you like works If you have crumpet rings, grease them too and place in frying pan
add batter 1/3 cup at a time. it should bubble straight away, if not the batter is too stiff and needs more milk or water.
when the top is set and nicely holey they are ready to flip. to cook them nicely it takes about 7-8 minutes cos you need the heat fairly gentle. once you have flipped them they only need another 2-3 minutes and you are done.
If you are using crumpet rings they need to be greased between each use, which I find a pain in the arse, so I don't use them. If you don't use them you end up with something that looks more like a pikelet, but tastes like a crumpet.
I also found that the ones I made later in the day from the same batter were lighter and nicer for having had more time to rise, so next time I'd probably do that batter fairly late the night before and just leave it out to rise over night and make them in the morning.

Recipe 2
CRUMPETS
1 ½ teaspoons dried yeast
1 cup plain (all purpose) flour
1 cup corn flour
1 ½ tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarb (baking soda)
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups warm water

METHOD
Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and slowly add the water to a make a smooth batter. When it's completely mixed, put it aside for half hour to rise.
You will need some egg rings or a metal form to contain the crumpets in the frying pan. I used heart shaped cookie cutters. Grease the rings with oil.
When the batter has risen, heat your frying pan over a low heat and place the rings in the pan. Spoon out the batter so it's almost at the top of the form. Slowing cook the crumpets on one side. As it's cooking you will notice holes forming from bubbles in the batter. That is good. Make sure the bottom doesn't burn, have your heat low. When the batter has set and the bottom is cooked, turn the crumpet over, take off the form and let the crumpet cook on the top for a short amount of time to make sure it's cooked. Then place it on a cooling rack.
To serve, toast the crumpet in the same way you'd toast bread. When it's golden brown, serve hot with butter and honey, and a cup of tea. I freeze the crumpets when they're cold so I can have them for breakfast on and off over the following couple of weeks.
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Tuna Risotto Cake

Ingredients (serves 6)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 brown onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 cup basmati or jasmine rice, rinsed
1 3/4 cups stock
425g can tuna in oil, drained, flaked
1/2 cup (125g) sun-dried tomatoes, drained, finely chopped
200g baby bocconcini cheese/ goats cheese, drained, roughly chopped
50g parmesan cheese, finely grated
100g baby spinach leaves, shredded
3 eggs, lightly beaten

Method
Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook, stirring often, for 7 to 8 minutes or until onion is soft. Increase heat to high and add rice. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in stock. Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stand, covered, for 10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool. Preheat oven to 190°C. Grease and line base of a 6cm deep, 20cm (base) springform pan. Add tuna, tomatoes, bocconcini/goats cheese, parmesan, spinach and egg to cooled rice mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Mix until well combined. Press rice mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until set and crisp around the edges. Stand in pan for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge to loosen pie. Cut pie into wedges and serve warm or cold.
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White chocolate and macadamia brownies

Melted butter, to grease
150g white chocolate, chopped
150g unsalted butter
3 eggs, lightly whisked
150g (1 cup) plain flour
60g (1/2 cup) whole milk powder
60g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
180g white chocolate, extra, chopped
145g (1 cup) whole macadamia nuts

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Brush a 20cm (base measurement) square cake pan with the melted butter to grease. Line the base and sides with non-stick baking paper, allowing it to overhang the sides.

2. Place the chocolate and butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until chocolate and butter melts and are well combined. Set aside to cool slightly. Add the eggs to the cooled butter mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined.

3. Sift the flour, milk powder, sugar and baking powder into a medium bowl. Stir in the extra chopped chocolate and macadamia nuts. Add the butter mixture and stir until just combined.

4. Pour into the prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 50 minutes or until moist crumbs cling to a skewer when inserted into the centre. Remove from oven and set aside to cool completely in the pan.

5. Cut into 16 squares.

To freeze (for up to 2 weeks): Place in single layers between sheets of non-stick baking paper in an airtight container. Label, date and freeze.To thaw: Place in the fridge for 8 hours. Remove from the fridge and set aside for 30 minutes to bring to room temperature.