I have been hearing a lot about whoopie pies lately, and thought I would give them a burl. Half biscuit/half cake, they are pretty damn good and very easy to make. I used a maple/butter icing for the middle. They are extremely light and pretty addictive...there are also a million different flavour combinations to try.
2 eggs
2 cups of pumpkin mashed
1 cup oil
2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cinnamon
icing sugar
butter
maple syrup
Mix the eggs, pumpkin, oil, sugar and vanilla together. Add flour and spices slowly mixing.
Dollop onto tray in smallish rounds, cook for 12ish minutes til slightly browned.
Whack on some of the icing, and snadwich them together.
I have been craving this for weeks now, but had put it off because of the disbelief in myself that I could possibly pull it off...turns out it's not so difficult, and is probably my (new) favourite pastry to make and consume. If you love the taste of croissant or flaky goodness – then give this a go, for shiz.
The all important pastry:
3 cups plain flour
250g butter, chilled
1 egg
¼ cup sugar
1 tsp salt
7g sachet yeast, dried
¼ warm water
½ cup milk
Combine warm water and yeast into a bowl, give it a mix and let it aside for 5ish mins.
Mix flour, salt and butter in the food processor til the butter is slightly mixed in. Be sure not to mix the butter in any more than, say, one 1cm, or it won't be flaky.
Mix milk, egg and sugar into a bowl. Mix. Add the yeast mix, which should be frothy by now.
Gently add the milk etc. to the flour mix, folding in VERY carefully, so as not to mix in the butter.
Put in fridge for a couple of hours (about 3ish).
Once firm, roll out into a square (about the size of a typical square baking tray). Fold over into thirds, like a letter going into an envelope. Roll again, do the same. Roll AGAIN, do the same. Place, folded up, back into the fridge.
Take out once firm again, and use to fill any kind of shape you like with whatever you wish – I used custrard and plaited it...easy once you know how. I put some almonds on the top of the custard too...
Croquettes, mini meatballs and baked stuffed cabbage rolls
I've never made tapas before – mainly because it seems fiddly and annoying...I decided to give it a go, seeing as though I have uni work to do and was feeling like procrastinating as much as possible.
This all took quite a bit of time, but was worth it.
The croquettes are like creamy, bechemel- sauce- ridden crispy little nuggets of goodness.
Croquettes
½ cup flour (plus extra for dusting)
1 egg
70g breadcrumbs
50g butter
50g cheese
bacon/ham/prosciutto
300ml milk
oil to fry
salt/pepper
Make a regular rue – melt butter, add flour, cook off flour for about 4 mins, add milk slowly and make a thick paste. Take off heat, cool in fridge for 30 mins. Add bacon etc. and cheese, stir.
Shape mixture into small batons (little logs), and coat in flour first, egg, then breadcrumbs.
Fry (shallow) in oil (sunflower ) for a few mins each until brown. Be VERY careful taking them out of the oil, as they can fall apart easily. Drain on a towel.
Mini Meatballs
300g mince (beef/pork/lamb – your choice)
1 onion
parsley
50g breadcrumbs
1 lemon
1 egg
tomato puree
sugar
Cook mince and onion til brown/cooked. Cool.
Add egg, breadcrumbs and parsley to mixture and mix well. Roll into small balls, place in fridge to set for 30 mins. Fry on high heat for a few mins, then put into an oven tray to bake in the oven for another 20 mins.
Heat puree and sugar, then add to meatballs in oven tray. Serve with squeezed lemon.
Cabbage rolls
½ head cabbage
200g mince
½ cup cooked rice
1 egg yolk
1 onion
Cut the 'v' out of the cabbage bottom – place in boiling water for 5 mins til soft (yeah, the whole ½ cabbage). Take out and cool.
Cook mince, onion til brown. Cool.
Cook rice – absorption of whatever you like. Cool.
Once mixtures are both cool, add egg yolk and mix together well. Salt and pepper.
Carefully take the cabbage leaves off, one by one. Dry well.
Roll the mince up in the leaves – about 2 tablespoons for each leaf – and place in oven tray.
I put some tomato puree on top, left over from the above meatball recipe.
Bake for 25 mins.
This was a bit of an accident – adding rice milk. I had run out of normal cows milk, so substituted it with rice milk. It turned out pretty yummy, and is good if you're intolerant to cows milk.
The recipe is easy – apart from the pastry – but I love making pastry so it wasn't a bother for me ;)I used packet custard powder to make it simpler, though you could make your own if you like.
Pastry
1 ½ cup of plain flour
125g butter
¼ cup caster sugar
1 tablespoon water
1 egg yolk
Put flour, butter and sugar into a food processor – process til it looks like crumbs. Add the water slowly and the yolk til it comes together. Knead til soft (about 2 mins). Wrap and place in fridge for at least 30mins.
Once firm, use a cup upside down to make small rounds – I used a cup cake tray. Or else, you could make a big tart. Blind bake the shells for 10mins with weights in it, then 5 mins without in an oven at about 200 degrees. Cook til slightly brown. Let cool.
Custard
4 tablespoon custard powder
11/2 tablespoon sugar
100ml rice milk
500ml rice milk
vanilla essence/extract
nutmeg
I used Poppy brand custard powder – which is made in QLD and is very tasty indeed.
Put custard powder into 100ml of milk, whisk. Set aside.
Bring the 500ml of milk to the boil, with the sugar and vanilla to taste (I used ½ teaspoon).
Once boiling, remove milk from heat, and whisk in the 100ml of milk and powder.
Place back on heat and whisk til thick.
Allow to cool for a few mins, then place into pastry shells.
Refrigerate til cool and firm. Sprinkle on nutmeg.
¼ pumpkin, diced
¼ cup cream
Spring onion (3-4 strands)
Sage leaves, shredded
Spinach, cut finely
1 tablespoon parmesan
Roast pumpkin til browned and soft, allow to cool slightly; fry spring onions and add spinach to soften; add all ingredients together, making sure to mash the pumpkin well.
I don't have one of those fancy ravioli trays, so I used my own fancy brain to work out the spacings between each 'rav'. Use a bit of egg yolk and some water to seal the edges, and a pastry cutter to cut the edges, too. Cook in boiling water for around 5 mins, depending on the size of your rav's.
For a sauce, you can pretty much use anything. I made a cream, precorino and spinach sauce. But it would work with maybe a tomato based sauce, too.
