Mini Donuts

 A few days ago i was browsing on my favorite site allrecipes.com and found a recipe i wanted to try for mini Donut Muffins, here is the original recipe.

I found the batter to be a little too thick so i added an extra 2 Tablespoons of milk and mixed it in and then it was the perfect consistency for pouring or in my case piping.

I wanted a more traditional looking donut, and it just so happened i had a mini donut pan i had bought several years ago from Amazon.com that i had only used once for a recipe that was really quite yucky! So this little fellow went deep into my cabinet.

 My wonderful little donut pan.

I followed the recipe but with the addition of 2 Tablespoon of Milk, and put the batter into a disposable plastic piping bag with the tip cut off. This gave me much better control when distributing the batter into the pan, all i did was pipe into the ring filling only half way up the sides.

 

I baked them for 13 minutes until they sprang back when touched. I turned them out and let them cool until they were safe to handle.

I dipped some of them in butter and then coated them in cinnamon sugar.

But i wanted them a little more special, so i carefully melted some white chocolate chips in the microwave and stirred until smooth and slightly runny. I added some candy color to make a lovely pink, then dunked the tops in the chocolate, turned them over placed into a small dish and sprinkled coloured sprinkles over the chocolate. 

So Pretty in Pink!

I did the same (with the exception of the candy colour) but with milk chocolate and they looked lovely.

I took one of each flavor to a friend that works at my boys school. She happily ate one while i was there, the look on her face and the nom..nom..nom.. sound she made was a good indication they were a success. Also confirmed by my boys when we got home from school and they each had one with a cup of milk. My youngest telling me that it was better than the local bakery, that made me very happy indeed! I hope you like the recipe as much as i do.

Here is the Recipe i used written out for you:

Mini Donuts

Ingredients:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup margarine, melted

3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 cup milk + 2 Tbs

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup all-purpose flour

 1/4 cup margarine, melted

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ cup milk chocolate chips or white chocolate chips (melted at step 5)

3 Tbs Sprinkles (choose your favorite)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease donut pan

2. Mix 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup margarine, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Stir in the milk, then mix in the baking powder and flour until just combined. Fill a pastry bag and pipe mix into pan sections filling each section half full.

3. Bake in the preheated oven until the tops are lightly golden, and spring back when touched about 12 minutes.

4.Turn out onto cooling rack.

5. Melt ¼ cup chocolate and holding the donut dip it into the melted chocolate and then sprinkle with the sprinkles.

Zucchini Blueberry Bread

When i think of Zucchinis i cant help but think of my husbands amazing and oh so loving Aunt Janet, and being at the "Moses Farm" as i called it. They lived a not too long 6 hour drive away, and once every other month we would make the drive from Maryland to Ohio to spend a long weekend their or a week or more in the summer or winter. Aunt Janet grew her own veggies and the ones that thrived the most were her Zucchinis, they were massive and so was their flavor. When we moved to Colorado and when i flew to the farm i would come home with the big zucchinis stuffed in my carry on. The look on the the TSA staffs  faces when they saw my Zucchinis in my bag as it went through the x-ray machine was absolutely priceless! 

Recently i felt very nostalgic about the farm and was very much missing all 7 of my beloved Moses' (Aunt Janet, Crazy Uncle George, Rebecca, Ruth, Rachel, Rita and Roger). So i thought i would make some kind of Zucchini concoction that would satisfy my sweet cravings but with down to earth goodness thrown in that would connect my heart to them. 

I went to my favorite site allrecipes.com and looked up Zucchini bread. The one that peaked my interest the most was the Zucchini Blueberry Bread. I read a LOT of the extensive reviews and made up this Zucchini Blueberry Bread by using the most helpful and popular suggestions that i thought would make the best and most tasty bread, i was right. I made it for an Afternoon Tea gathering in my home last week, but did not have time to make the crumble topping but all the same it was eagerly gobbled up. I made it in my handy dandy mini loaf pan and also into 12 muffins. It was truly a must make again and again recipe. I saved 4 loaves and gave 2 to the wonderful staff at our local Doctor's office, and the other 2 to the equally wonderful staff at our APO with the 6 muffins for my sons and husband. Everyone gave it 2 thumbs up, and who wouldn't be happy with that feedback. I hope you make and enjoy this delicious recipe.

Pumpkin Ice Cream

Thanksgiving! Oh how i love it!
When I moved to the USA 11 years ago, I must admit everything seemed like I was living in a strange movie land. I saw all the fast food places and restaurants you see in Movies and TV shows, I heard people talking with accents like those of my favorite movie and tv stars, but one of the things i was looking forward to the most was Thanksgiving. I loved the thought of having a Christmas like feast a month before our actual Christmas fest. I mean who wouldn't.

We (hubby and I, and the rest of his immediate family) went up to Delaware to the yearly Timko Thanksgiving family reunion. I met some really nice people and some pretty strange tickets as well, but almost every family have them, come on admit it you know you do! But what i loved the most was Pumpkin Pie. At first i did not want to try it. The Aussies and the Spanish (which i am both) don't usually mix their sweet food with their savory, the thought of it was pretty gross to me. But my curiosity made me want to try just a bite, and a little itty bitty bite i took and WOW it was so very very good. Since then i have been a fan of making a HUGE Thanksgiving Dinner and a bigger fan of Pumpkin desserts.

Since we are back in Australia now, i thought it important to keep the tradition alive for my hubby and our sons. So we have a few friends coming over to celebrate with us. Another American family that have missed big Thanksgivings since they moved here and my sweet baby boy's teacher and her hubby who have never had a Thanksgiving. I have had great fun looking up all different kinds of things to make for dessert, and the one i stumbled upon that i tested out and like the most was home made Pumpkin Ice-Cream. Yum Yum Yum!!!

Here is the great Pumpkin Ice Cream Video i found on Allrecipes.com. I also found the recipe to make your own Pumpkin Pie Spice make a big batch so you always have some on hand.

And here is the recipe written out for you:

Pumpkin Ice Cream

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups light cream
6 Egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3/4 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice (i put in a whole Teaspoon)
1 1/2 cups Heavy cream
1 1/2 cups Pumpkin puree (you can make it yourself or i used Libby's 100% Pumpkin Puree *NOT pumpkin pie filling*)

Directions:
1) Scald the light cream (do not boil).
2) In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and Vanilla.
3) Slowly whisk the light cream into the egg mixture and then whisk in the spice.
4) Over Medium heat stir mixture for 10 minutes, DO NOT SIMMER OR BOIL!!
5)Whisk in the heavy cream and pumpkin puree.
6) Strain to remove any lumps and cooked egg then refrigerate until well cooled.
7) Place in your ice cream maker bowl (that has been in the freezer for more than 18 hours) and churn for 20 minutes or until a little stiffer than soft serve.
8) You can place in an freezer safe airtight container and put it in the freezer.

I plan on serving mine on top of a big old slice of home made apple pie. What an amazingly good flavor explosion that will be.

Lemon Meringue Pie

The last time (which also happened to be the firs time) i made a Lemon Meringue Pie i was 13 and in my first year of high school year 7. It was my home economics class, i remember the teacher was a very little and very sweet lady, i wish i could remember her name. She inspired me with her infectious joy of cooking and baking. I remember being in absolute awe when i saw the egg whites turn fluffy and white, i was also in a little pain because we had to use the old hand cranked whisk to whip up the egg whites.

I felt so connected to the many generations before me as made and kneaded the short crust pastry dough, all the while thinking and feeling how beautiful it was to make something from scratch, to see the ingredients set out before me and turn them into something special.

Yesterday (20 years later) i made it again, with a few modifications. I used my trusty KitchenAid mixer aptly named "Mr Spin" in place of a hand cranked whisk, and i used the microwave to make my Lemon Curd in 4 minutes. I did not use a pastry blender to blend the butter into the dry ingredients, i used my hands. It felt wonderful and very grounding to rub in the tiny chunks of butter with my fingers and feeling it all come together. And i still felt that connection to the generations before me as i made and kneaded the French Pastry dough.

When the Pie started to come together i could hardly wait for the next step and then the next step after the next step. And then it was done and beautiful and i felt proud of my labor of love.

Here are the Simple recipes i used:

 

French Pastry Pie Crust

Ingredients:

3 Cups All-purpose flour
1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt
3 Tablespoons White Sugar
1 Cup chilled Butter (diced into very small chunks)
1 Egg
1 Teaspoon Distilled White Vinegar
5 Tablespoons Water

Directions:
1) In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar, mix well, then cut in butter until it resembles thick coarse bread crumbs.
2) In a small bowl combine egg, vinegar and 4 Tablespoon water and whisk it together.Then gradually add it to flour mixture stirring with a fork, until it forms a ball, add a little more water if needed.
3) Place in glad wrap or a ziplock sandwich bag and allow to rest in fridge for 10 minutes, then roll out for desired shape.

 Microwave Lemon Curd

Ingredients:
1 1/4 Cup White Sugar
3 Whole Eggs and 2 Egg Yolks
1 Cup Fresh Lemon Juice (of good quality bottled Lemon juice)
1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter Melted

Directions:
1) In a microwave safe bowl, whisk together sugar and eggs until smooth. Stir in Lemon juice and butter.
2) Cook in microwave in 1 minute intervals stirring after each minute, until mixture is thick and will thickly coat a metal spoon.
3) Pour through a strainer to remove and cooked egg. Place in a sterile jar and store for up to three weeks, or use right away in your desired dessert.


Pie Meringue

Ingredients:
4 Egg Whites
6-8 Tablespoons White Sugar

Directions:
1) Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C ).
2)In a large glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy. Gradually add sugar, then continue to whip untill stiff peaks form.
3) Spread Meringue over pie, sealing it to the pie crust.
4) Bake in oven for 10 minutes or until meringue is golden brown.

**Set Pie in the fridge for at least 3 hours to let the filling firm up to slicing consistency**

Pineapple Banana Bread

Today i made some wonderfully tasty Pineapple Banana Bread and muffins. I love cinnamon so i added extra, A LOT extra hahaha. and more crushed pineapple with a good portion of it's juice and 7 blackened lady finger bananas (mini bananas). I have an Awesome Mini Loaf Pan that makes 8 perfect sized mini loafs. I was also going to make mini muffins but as i pondered it some more, i thought to my self "Who am i kidding? Once i eat a mini muffin it only peaks my desire taste buds for more" So then I eat more of them than I originally planned. So i skipped the mini muffin plan and went to the yummy large muffin pan.

This Pineapple Banana Bread  recipe is my favorite. I make a very large batch of them in the school canteen and the kids love them, so do the teachers. Oh and me too. Hehehehe.

And this photo is of my very meticulous quality control panel working on my final product before heading to swim lessons.

 

Not even a few minutes out of the oven and one muffin is missing!

Mmmmm.....lovely chunks of goodness!

Entering the Foodie bloggersphere.

Early this morning was like knowing you have a lovely and perfectly delicious Red Velvet cupcake with decadent fluffy White Cream Cheese frosting nestled on top just waiting for you to eat it when you get home from a long busy day. You come home drop your bag on the floor throw your keys on the kitchen bench and make a beeline right to your perfectly cute little single serve cupcake box, Mmmmmm....the smell is so intoxicating with it's sweet aroma and then you stop dead in your tracks you may even stop breathing for a few seconds because you just heard "Oh man! What kind of cupcake was that? It was so good!". Yep your honey is there caught red toothed with tiny smears of cream cheese frosting, YOUR CREAM CHEESE FROSTING on their lips. Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

  That is how my morning felt when i dove into the computer editting thingy majig program world as I made my own personal logo on Microsoft Paint, then I learned what happens when you don't know to save your work periodically and your computer abruptly tries to sabotage you by giving you the Blue Screen Of Death then Shuts Down. Lukily if nothing else i am persistent when it comes to something i want to do. And so i did it all over again but pressed the little floppy disk looking picture at the top left hand of the screen every 30 seconds. Hahaha, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice no cake for you EVER!

So here I am a life time Foodie entering the Bloggersphere!