Thermomix Apple and Apricot Jam Brioche

Brioche is a staple food in our home. Today I added 120gm peeled cored apple to the standard mix, which meant a stickier than usual dough.

I followed the basic EDC recipe with a couple of tweaks:

Blitz 120gm apple at speed 7 for 10 seconds.

Add 330gm milk (mixed nut milk and cow milk) and blitz at speed 9 for 10 seconds.

Add 30gm raw sugar and 2tsp yeast. Heat for 2 minutes, 37 degrees, Speed 1.

Add 80gm butter, 650gm flour, 1 egg and mix in at speed 7, then knead for 4 minutes.

Leave in the sun wrapped in a silicone mat to rise.

Roll out using plenty of flour, top with a generous quantity of apricot jam, roll up and shape.

Slash around the edges.

Allow to rise for a few more minutes before brushing with milk and baking for 30 minutes at 200 degrees.

Not a particularly attractive looking result straight out of the oven but sliced up into one of the lightest fluffiest brioches yet! The apricot jam (made in the TMX with a hint of cardamon last summer) worked perfectly with the hint of apple in the dough!

Thermomix Bread with Rice

I'm on a quest to squeeze the budget and really use up all those leftovers, so today I tried using up leftover rice and yoghurt in bread. Success!

A crusty white loaf!

I blitzed 110gm leftover white rice at speed 7 for 20 seconds.

Added 110gm natural yoghurt, 90gm water, 1tsp sugar and 2tsp yeast and mixed at 37 degrees speed 1 for 3 minutes to get it up to temperature (the rice was straight from the fridge).

Added 400gm cheap white flour, 1tsp salt, 50gm light olive oil and mixed in for 10 seconds at speed 7 to combine.

I found kneading for 3 1/2 minutes gave me a nice looking manageable dough. It was a very compact ball of dough and not at all sticky. I was worried it may not have been moist enough.

I started later than usual (when I realised I needed sandwich bread for the next day) so couldn't rise the dough in the sun. Here it is tucked up in the Thermomat in the Varoma on top of the Thermoserver with an inch or so of boiling water.

A modest but not very spongy rise. I would normally leave it longer, but time was pressing...

Punched down into a well oiled bread tin. I've been having problems with my dough sticking to the tin and tried using grapeseed rather than olive oil to oil the tin.

The kitchen was pretty chilly, so I popped the tin on top of the Thermoserver, and added another inch of freshly boiled water.

The second rise was excellent! I popped it into the oven for 25 minutes at 200 degrees, let it sit in the tin for 5 minutes then removed from the tin and popped back in the oven for another 3 minutes to crust up.

There are three very thin slices left now...

Either the grapeseed oil or the less sticky dough worked wonders on ease of removal from the bread tin!

Thanks, again, to Peta from The Road to Loving My Thermomix for the excellent white bread recipe!

Thermomix Carrot Bread

How do you hide a carrot in a loaf of bread? Easy!

I've been using the bread recipe on The Road To Loving My Thermomix partly because it's the perfect size to fit in my el cheapo eBay bread tin. She has some fantastic hints for making bread in her hints and tips section. You may need to scroll quite a way to find the bread tips, but it's worth the effort!

Here's a 110gm carrot waiting to be carefully concealed in bread...

Scrub the carrot, chop roughly and blitz at speed 7 until it stops hitting the sides.

Add 200gm water and blitz at speed 9 for 10 - 20 seconds. 

Add 1tsp sugar, 2tsp yeast and warm to 37 degrees, speed 1 for 2 minutes (or longer if your water was cold).

Add 400gm flour (I'm on a tight budget this week so using 75c/kg plain flour from Coles, but decent bread flour will give a better result and is easier to handle), 1tsp salt and 50gm oil.

Mix in by turning slowly to speed 3 for a couple of seconds, then speed 7 for 5 seconds.

At The Road To Loving My Thermomix, Peta likes to knead for 6 minutes, but I find there comes a stage where the sticker vegie-laden dough starts sticking to the bottom of the Thermomix, so I keep an eye on it and knead until the dough has come together nicely as a ball. Once I can see dough starting to stick to the bottom of the bowl, I stop and turn it out onto an oiled mat. This is usually 2 1/2 to 3 minutes for me.

Wrap in the Thermomat (or place in an oiled bowl) and pop in the sun or in a Varoma placed over warm water in the Thermoserver.

It should rise nicely, but I find I don't get as powerful a rise with the plain flour and carrot.

It's sticky so I oil my pan then handle it with oiled fingers. For a particularly sticky batch, I'll rise it in the baking tin and knock back down in the tin.

Knock it down then let it rise in the tin while the oven preheats to 200 degrees.

Cook for about 25 minutes, then leave to sit in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out. 

I usually pop it back into the oven out of the tin to form a solid crust right around the loaf.

Slice when cold. This makes great sandwich bread or toast.

The colour is a quite distinctive yellow, but there's little discernible carrot flavour and it works well with savoury or sweet toppings.

Leftover rice again!

Why is it so hard to make just the right amount of rice? It seems so miserly to run out of rice at the dinner table, but sometimes the leftover rice is just uninspiring.

I didn't feel like fried rice  ... but there were some serious rice leftovers to be used today, so I went hunting for new recipes and came up with these:

Rice chocolate cake

• 250gm cooked rice ( nice and moist ) (8.8 ozs)
• 250 gm caster sugar   (8.8 ozs)
• 1 Tablespoon golden syrup
• 6 eggs
• vanilla
• 200 gm almond meal (7 ozs)
• 50 gm cocoa (1.75 ozs)
• 1 tsp baking powder

This mix tasted delicious uncooked! I blitzed the caster sugar, added the rice, then mixed in the rest of the ingredients. Baked at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

The cupcakes were a bit dense and I think I might blitz the rice for longer next time ... but there will be a next time because the cocoa flavour was so dark and rich.

Leftover rice quiche probably would've been more successful if I'd been in less of a hungry hurry and cooked the base just a little longer...

• Enough cooked rice to thickly cover the base of the dish you want to use

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 3 eggs

• A handful or two of grated cheese – whatever is available, a mixture is fine

• A mixture of sliced onions, peppers and mushrooms (or other vegetables, see note)

• A generous handful of chopped fresh herbs

• Salt and pepper, to taste

I grated a good hunk of tasty cheese in the Thermomix, then left half of it in the bowl and mixed it up with about 2 cups of rice and one egg. I spread it over an oiled pie dish to make a base. A sprinkle of cheese then into the 180 degree oven to firm up. 

I did NOT firm it up for long enough.

While the base was in the oven I chopped a hefty handful of parsley with half a red onion then mixed them with the leftover cheese and two eggs. I poured them over then cooked it all for another 20 minutes (did I mention I was hungry?). 

It looked great, but the base was not particularly firm so I popped it back in the oven for another 15 minutes while I ate the first soggy slice. As with the cupcakes, I'll be making this again. 

PS The leftover quiche from lunch was a big hit for dinner! I'm thinking it will be a great picnic basket addition :) .

Sue's Penang curry

I've made this Penang beef curry a few times now since my friend Sue shared it on her blog, but this is the first time I've tried freezing it ready to go.

Here it is, ready for a stir...

And on the plate:

This recipe is such a winner! I was worried that the peanuts might not respond well to being frozen then defrosted, particularly since I used crushed peanuts not whole, but it worked well.

The only downside was that we ate a little late that night and it was slightly overdone ... but I'll be sticking another bag or two of this in the freezer!

Orange beef stew

This semester I'm working extra hours at the clinic and I've started a part-time study load so I'm experimenting with kitchen short cuts!

I've been a fan of the slow cooker freezer meal idea for years, and thought I'd start keeping track of some of our trials...

This Orange Beef Stew comes from the Mama Baby Love website.

I grabbed my pre-prepared bag from the freezer early in the morning and sat it on the bench to defrost enough for the bag to slide off.

The bag slid off nicely, and my frozen goods almost fitted entirely within the slow cooker. I added two cups of boiling water, put the lid on top, popped it on low, and when I came back an hour or so later it had settled enough to close the lid all by itself.

 

First stir - looks delicious, doesn't it?

The final result looks a little less appealing! I think there was too much liquid - if we make this again, I'll only add one cup of water. I added dumplings for the last 40 minutes or so which I won't worry about in future.

Scottish Oat Cakes

Inspired by the crone, I decided to deprive the hens of the leftover porridge and try my hand at porridge pancakes. My first batch were too sticky, but the second achieved a real "bready" consistency.

Scottish Oat Cakes
Take the pot of leftover porridge.
To every cup of leftovers add 1 egg, 2 tablespoons of oil, 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder.
Stir to mix the ingredients. It will be quite stiff.
Heat and grease a skillet or griddle.
Shape into thick pancakes on the griddle, as big or as little as you like.
Turn when browned on the one side.
Continue to cook until second side is browned and the inside is not sticky.
Serve with butter as a bread or spread with syrup or jam and serve as a desert.

From WikiHow

Banana Sourdough Spelt Pancakes

We were given a whole box of lovely bananas, so I've been experimenting with new ways of using them up!

1 cup sourdough starter mixed with 1 cup spelt flour and left to rise

In the mixer toss:
risen flour mixture
1 cup well mashed banana
1 cup flour
2 tbs oil
1 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
water as needed to provide a thick batter consistency

At the last minute, toss through 1 tsp bicarb soda mixed with a little water.

Allow to stand for a few minutes then cook in melted butter.

This was a BIG success served with a choice of maple syrup or apricot jam.

Sourdough Pancakes

1 cup sourdough
2 cups wholemeal flour
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1 cup water
1 tbs sugar
2 tbs olive oil
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda dissolved in a little water

Mix the sourdough with 1 cup of the flour and leave to stand overnight. In the morning mix in the remaining flour together with the egg, salt, water, sugar and oil, and finally blend in the bicarb soda dissolved in a little water. Let the mixture stand for a few minutes until light and bubly. Cook the pancakes in a non-stick pan that has been brushed with a little butter and serve with butter and honey, or cream and apricot jam.
From: The Sourdough Cookbook by Jenny Wagner

This produced a decent sized batch of very wholesome tasting pancakes. We ate them with butter, maple syrup and apricot jam (home made by Grandad B).

Next time I'll try adding the water as well as the cup of flour the night before because the dough was too stiff to be doing anything much. There was also a little taste of the bicarb soda, so I might reduce the quantity a little next time.

Leftover lamb bake

I baked an enormous shoulder of lamb last week, and still have leftovers. Today I invented a bake that seems popular so worth recording:

Saute a finely chopped onion and 2 cloves garlic in olive oil
Mince about 3 cups of leftover lamb roast and add to saute pan
Add 1 1/2c cooked peas, 1c of gravy and enough water to make a pie consistency.
Smooth mixture into a baking dish and top with a mix of grated cheese and crumbs (I used crust from a spelt loaf).
Bake in a hot oven until topping is golden and crisp.

This blog has been unattended for a while as Possum misplaced my memory card and camera charger while in Hawaii. I now have the camera working but still can't move the photos onto my computer - so frustrating!

Crabapple jelly

I sent the children up the garden wall to collect the last remaining crabapples as this year I was determined to make crabapple jelly. I must confess to not having realised just how many crabapples it would take to fill a container!

Up close, crab apples really are remarkably like miniature apples, and the older ones have a very apple-like odour once they're cut in half.

I washed and de-stalked the crabapples, which took quite a while as the stalks were determined to stay on. I also chopped several of them in half to check for worms or rotten spots - it was hard to tell from the outside with some of them, though by the end of the batch I was getting pretty good at predicting the bad ones.

The apples were boiled for an hour, by which stage they were very soft and the house smelt delicious. I strained them once through a colander, then again through a doubled over teatowel (that had been boiled up with the jars).

There were 6 1/2 cups of crabapple juice left after straining. I returned them to the pot with 6 1/2 cups of sugar and boiled until setting point. Sadly, it's been a while since I made a soft jam, and I underestimated the setting point. I've ended up with a jelly that tastes and looks gorgeous, but is quite runny.

So, the children are just going to have to climb the crabapple tree again for me...

Pear and Ginger jam

Here are the last of the pears in use as pear and ginger jam. A dear patient of dh was chatting with me in the clinic the other week, and I was very keen to hear about her pear and ginger recipe which sounded utterly delicious. Sadly, it was nowhere to be googled.

Imagine my delight when a handwritten recipe was faxed to the clinic from her farm! How truly generous and kind!

I bodged some of the proportions, but will give the original ones below:

Mix 6lbs pears chopped in squares (scrubbed, blemishes removed but not peeled) with 3 1/2 lbs sugar and let stand overnight. The next morning add 1lbs preserved ginger, 1/2 green ginger and a pint of cold water. Boil until thick (which I took to mean "reaches setting point") and bottle. Leave for at least 2 weeks.

Two weeks? I can't stand the suspense!

And Ms K - there's a jar of jam waiting here with your name on it, but no rush to collect it because you can't try it for two weeks! (I also have a box of assorted roomba parts for you :) )

Chicken rissoles

It's a miracle! Finally, a food that pleased all members of the family dinner eating club! And it was almost an accident - one of those nights where, at 5pm, I still had no idea what dinner would be, Ginger Ninja had to be at flute, and The Little Prince and Ginger Rose were very high needs. Out of desperation, Google, and the only package of unfrozen meat bought at Aldi earlier in the week on impulse came - chicken rissoles!

Mix 500gm chicken mince, one grated onion, one peeled (to hide the green bits) and grated large hunk of zucchini (about 1 1/2 cups full), some leftover wholemeal breadcrumbs and an egg. Form into patties and coat in a mixture of sesame seeds and wholemeal flour. Fry in olive oil then leave in a hot oven until everybody's ready to eat. Simple but effective!

As usual, more of the peas were eaten frozen than cooked...

Pear-ginger quickbread

I was still trying to work my way through the bag of pears, and wanted to use up some crystallised ginger lurking in the pantry cupboard. Sadly, when it came time to chop and toss in the ginger I discovered it was missing, so added a hasty shake of ground ginger instead. It was very light, fluffy and sweet - and there was nothing left of the two loaves to freeze.

The following recipe was a variation from the Barmy Baker's blog:

1/4 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
healthy dash of ground ginger
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
zest of one orange, minced
1/3 cup yoghurt
1 1/2 cups pears, peeled and diced

1. Preheat oven to 160 and grease and flour a couple of loaf tins
2. Cream butter, sugar and minced orange zest until fluffy
3. Add eggs and vanilla
4. Add yogurt
5. Sift dry ingredients together then mix quickly into wet ingredients
6. Fold in pears
7. Bake until set (about 40 minutes), cool in tins then turn out to cool.