White Christmas Slice

Fruit Mince Pies

Eat Drink and Be Merry ...

With exactly 4 weeks to go til Christmas eve, I will start the holiday season baking tomorrow! This time of the year is the most anticipated 4 weeks in my baking diary! I can not resist the sweet smell of sugar and spice in the air, and the fruit mince tarts ... and the shortbreads ...

Chocolate Coated Brownies

Panna cotta

The last panna cotta I had was "Rose panna cotta with strawberry&pistachio salad and orange blossom dressing". Tasted and sounds too divine, but ... it can be done cheaply and easily at home.

Panna cotta often appears in restaurant menus and when I see it on the list, it sounds too fancy. But, do not worry ... this is another "cheap as chips" dessert! Panna cotta is Italian for cooked cream. So, what is more expensive than cream&sugar for dessert? ? ? hmmm .... To me, panna cotta is cream jelly. It needs gelatine to set, same as fruit jellies.

Get a bowl, place 1/8 cup cold tap water, sprinkle 2 teaspoons of powder gelatine in the bowl. Leave it for 5 minutes.

In a small sauce pan, pour 2 cups of cream and 1/2 cup icing sugar. Turn the stove on very low and stir. Dip your finger in the cream mix every minute, until you find the temperature, a little hot (won't burn instantly), this will take around 5 minues.

Stir in the gelatine mix for 2 minutes (making sure the cream remains hot but not boiled). Strain and pour into ramekins. Refrigerate and allow to set. Um-mould and serve with berries.

If you need to re-create a restaurant version of it....I suggest you make a fruit salad with chopped fresh strawberries, chopped mint and chopped pistachios. You need to add sugar syrup to sweeten it so, the options are almost endless (rose syrup, vanilla syrup, orange blossom syrup, etc ...) Scented waters and syrups are available at New World's or Farro's.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Strawberry Icing - Gluten Free

Yesterday was hot hot hot, a perfect day for strawberries&cream on the beach. I continued my gluten free baking yesterday, and, did a vanilla cupcake. On a hot day, nothing can quench my thirst like a good old fashioned lemonade ... but what is better than lemon and lime together? Thanks Charlie's for this amazing drink. I think I can claim this recipe as truely mine since, I haven't seen it in any cookbooks yet and it's way too easy.



Make these little lovely cupcakes by creaming sugar and butter first. Add crushed strawberries to buttercream icing. Makes 12 cupcakes. Bake at 160C fan-forced.

Ingredients: 125g butter, 3/4 cup caster sugar, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup almond meal, 1/2 cup rice flour, 3 tablespoons corn flour, and 1 teaspoon baking powder.

Double Chocolate Slice - Gluten Free

Some people believe that they are sensitive to gluten and some believe that gluten free diet is just a food trend. Or perhaps, the bakers invented gluten free diet maybe cos they got bored with flour, or perhaps, medicine and science are advancing too quickly. Whatever the reason, I am a big fan of gluten free products. I find the flavour and texture of gluten free cookies and cakes very interesting.


So, here is a slice created out of thinking outside of the square .... gluten free brownie with double chocolate bars stuck together .... and the taste? .... imagine almonds, dark chocolate and fluffy chewy milky chocolate .... equals ... an explosion of harmonious flavours.

Linseed and Fruit Cookies - Gluten Free

I find fine rice flour a good alternative to wheat flour. Cookies turn out a little like shortbread, but hey, at least they are gluten-free! Make these the same way as you would with normal cookies ... cream butter and sugar, add egg and flour so, here is the list of ingredients ...

250g butter
1 cup icing sugar, sifted
vanilla essence
1 egg
3 cups rice flour
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
Linseed and dried fruits

A New Look

This is still the same site, but I felt like a change and spent a few good hours discussing it with others and finally, here it is ... The all new and a perfect Kiwi DIY project of making nzbakingdiary.com's logo. Thank you to those who put in their ideas ... Muchas Gracias!

Double Chocolate Bars

Vanity Fair is my number one magazine, but a NZ version of it, MindFood has been my biggest purchased magazine in the past year. I must admit, MindFood has a local feel to it, and with their Christmas pull out cookbook, I managed to meet "double chocolate bites". This strange recipe, is fun to make and requires no baking time. Only melt and mix then allow to set and cover with chocolate. Of course, it is gluten free! So, if your excuse is "my oven is no good"... or ... "I can't bake" ... "I don't have time to bake" ... then, this recipe will convert all the home chefs into home patisserie chefs.


Get a sauce pan and place 60g butter with 200g white marshmallows. Melt on low heat, stirring continuously. Then, add in 125g white cooking chocolate and stir to melt. Once the chocolate has melted, take the pan off the heat and stir until the mixture comes together (the butter must be blended into the marshmallows). Pour into paper lined&greased slice tin and refrigerate to set (about 2 hours). Once set, it feels spongy. Slice into squares and drizzle with dark chocolate melts.

I cannot stress enough how easy it is to make this, but also, how decadent it will be. If you make too much of it, why not give them away? They keep very well in cellophane bags.

Coffee and Walnut Fingers

Take 100g melted butter, add 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 egg, 1 cup ground walnuts and mix well. Add 1 cup flour with 1 teaspoon baking powder and mix. Pour the mix into 20cmx30cm slice tin and bake at 160C for 20 minutes.

For the icing; melt 50g butter in the microwave, add 1.5 cups icing sugar and enough strong coffee (about 40ml) to make a thick but slightly runny icing. Pour the icing over sliced cake and allow to set.

Peanut and Chocolate Chip Cookies

What a great way to fill a cookie jar with pantry ingredients and only 10 minutes of baking time! We have all tried this simple recipe and it is in almost every cookbook!


Cream 125g butter with 1/2 cup caster sugar. Add 1 egg and mix. Add 1.5 cups plain flour with 1 teaspoons baking powder. Mix well. Now, you can add as much or as little as chocolate chips or nut you like. Bake at 180C for around 10 minutes.

Baklava

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Ask many people and they will all tell you Baklava is too sweet! well, it is too sweet with a bland scented sugar taste to it, and that's probably why baklava never gained popularity in New Zealand. I love the nutty taste of it, but seeing old baklava in kebab shops about to grow mould or having it served with ice cream/cream is a real turn off.

The origin of baklava is not clearly known. We all know that it is made widely through out middle East and Greece with close variations of it in other countries. There are endless ways you can make baklava, use any nut mixtures you like, add rosewater if you like, or add cardamom, cinnamon, clove or star anise or even chocolate. The shape of it is pretty much free-form...roll it up, round, triangles, or just plain stacked and cut into squares. If you want to see a whole heap of varieties, then head down to Ginelli's to see it all.

Here, I did baklava cigars. I like this shape as you can make individual ones. There is no way I would make a sugar syrup to go with it but, instead I drizzled honey and serve it with Greek yoghurt.

Boysenberry Friand

1000 Views ...

Once upon a time ... in those beginning days, I thought this site would be a low key site, a place I can store my baking knowledge. Never thought a site like this, in not so distant future, would attract 1000 views in just over 5 months.

I hope, that all you blog readers&lovers will come again and again, because of your love of baking, love of learning, love of killing time, or simply the love of being nosey. So, check this place often to see an old recipe being polished or modified. It's all in the love, understanding of ingredients, and the way food is prepared that will ensure magic on your plate and an explosion in your mouth :)