Homemade custard

Whoops! I am so overdue for a post!! I have been pretty busy these last two weeks, first going on a field trip for one of my papers and secondly preparing and doing my experiment to collect the data that I need for my dissertation. Unfortunately I only managed to collect half of what I need, so I will have to do one more day of data collection. To make things scarier, we were told today that there are only 8 weeks left until we have to hand in our dissertations. Eek! 

But of course I can't let that stop me making good food....

Up until earlier this year, custard to me was going to the cupboard, finding the custard powder, adding milk and cooking it up. Sometimes, if I wanted a really nice and creamy custard I may even add a few eggs. Because I relied on a package that had lots of numbers on it, it didn't really factor in as part of my whole food diet, it was more of a treat. However, because I really love custard, especially when I get sick, it made me determined to find a better way of making it. So I went searching on the internet and came away absolutely gobsmacked that I have been making it from a packet for so long.

It is so easy to make!!

I really didn't find it any more difficult than using pre-made custard powder. What's more, making it from scratch I know exactly what is in it and can use a more natural form of sweetner. Now I don't feel bad about enjoying custard all the time and it most definitely counts as a part of a real food diet.

Ingredients

2 cups milk (full fat works best)

2 Tbsp cornflour

1 tsp vanilla essence (or vanilla bean paste, which makes it taste awesome!)

1 egg

1/4 cup rice malt similar (or othe liquid sweet```ner)

In a small bowl whisk together the cornflour, egg and vanilla essence.

Place the milk in a pot and place over a medium-low heat unitl the milk gets nice and hot but not boiling. 

This next part you need to do quickly. Add the egg mixture and thoroughly whisk the mixture so that the egg white doesn't scramble. Keep whisking until the custard gets nice and thick.

Stir in the rice malt syrup, adding more or less to taste.

Serve immediately (Delicious with some grated chocolate)

Healthy Hot Chocolate

It's snowing!! Well if you can really call hail and sleet snowing, however, it has settled on the ground in Dunedin and therefore shut down most of the schools. I am currently on dissertation leave at the moment so it hasn't affected me too much. One thing it does mean is that i am very keen to just stay inside with lots of warming food.

This hot chocolate definitely fits the bill! I came up with this last week when I was trying to watch the amount of sugar I was consuming. This actually makes a great afternoon snack as it is quite filling. I will note that I tried this with both full-fat cows milk and with an almond milk/ coconut  milk blend (both were delicious!). I know that there is a lot of debate around full fat dairy vs. low fat dairy, but at the moment I find full fat dairy much more satisfying. You also have to watch low fat dairy as often extra sugar is added to improve the flavour.

This would probably work with almost any type of milk so let me know what you used and if it tasted any good!

Ingredients
1 cup milk of choice
2 tsp raw cacao or cocoa powder
1-2 tsp rice malt syrup or honey (depends on your sweet tooth)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Cinnamon for sprinkling (optional)

In a mug mix the honey/rice malt syrup, vanilla and cacao to form a paste. Add the milk stirring to combine a little. Heat in the microwave for a minute or so, depending on your microwave. Stir very well to make sure that the paste has fully combined with the milk.

Sprinkle with cinnamon and enjoy!

Caramel and Salted Walnut Tarts

Phew! After a few really busy weeks at uni things are calming down just a tad. What I find quite interesting is that this week would still be a really busy week under my old standards, but I suppose it is all relative and I actually feel quite relaxed. What made things better is that I finally got a chance to get into the kitchen this weekend and make something exciting.

Today's post isn't quite so healthy, but because it is still made with completely 'real' ingredients I definitely think that they have a place on this blog. Besides, they were just far too delicious not to share. I have actually had a request to make them again this weekend. I know that salted caramel is a bit of a trend at the moment, so i thought that I would play around with those flavours. However, I thought that rather instead of salting the caramel, I would instead use the walnuts for this purpose. The result was delicious!!

Note: The caramel is more of a caramel custard so they are best kept in the fridge.

Ingredients
400g sweet, shortcrust pastry (made with butter is best!)

300ml cream
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 egg yolks
2 Tbsp cornflour

1 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp coconut oil (butter will also work)
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp sea salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and grease a 12 hole muffin tin (Depending on the size of your tin the recipe may make more or less than 12). Roll out the shortcrust pastry to around 5mm thick. Using a class cookie cutter (I used one the same size as the muffin tin hole to make them a small tart size), cut out circles. Gently press into the muffin tins and prick. Bake blind for 10 minutes or until cooked through.*Leave to cool.

*To bake blind, cover pastry in baking paper and use rice or beans to weight it down. These instructions may help.

While leaving bases to cool make the filling. Place the cream, brown sugar and vanilla in a saucepan. Over a low heat, gently heat together until the brown sugar has dissolved. Increase to a medium heat and continue to stir for 2-3 minutes. Whisk the eggs yolks and cornflour with a little milk together. Add to the cream mixture, stirring quickly so the egg doesn't scramble. Continue to cook over a medium heat until the mixture is thick.

For the walnuts toast them in a 180 degree C. oven for around 5 minutes (they should start to smell walnut-y). Place the hot walnuts in a bowl with the honey and coconut oil and mix to coat. Sprinkle with sea salt.

To assemble: Spoon the caramel mixture into the pastry cases and top with walnuts. Leave to cool before serving.

Valentines Treat- Raw Double Layer Freezer Brownie

Valentine's Day is just around the corner so I thought that I would get somewhat into the spirit by creating a special treat to give to any loved one. Valentine's Day isn't really anything for Hungry Male and I. Every year I tend to get quite jealous when I see all of the girls carrying around their over-priced flowers, but then Hungry Male points out that he would much rather just spoil me randomly throughout the year and there doesn't need to be a special day for it.


My logical side fully understands this reasoning.


My not so logical side is still waiting for flowers :)



Even though I don't really 'do' Valentine's I still thought that it was a great opportunity to come up with a sweet treat, because really, Valentine's is about sweet not savoury. This particular treat is full of goodness, with lots of fruit and nuts and no refined sugar.

Ingredients
1 cup dates, chopped
1 avocado, removed from skin
1 cup mixed nuts (I used a combination of raw peanuts and almonds)
1 Tbsp real maple syrup or honey

1 cup cashew nuts, soaked for 2+ hours in cold water

In a food processor, add the dates, avocado, nuts and maple syrup. Whiz in the processor until well broken up and clumping together. Press the mixture firmly into a metal slice tin using your hands.

Wipe out the food processor. Drain the cashews and add to the food processor with 2 Tbsp water. Whiz for around 30 seconds, thens crape down the sides and repeat until the mixture has turned creamy. Spread over the top of the date mixture.

Place in the freezer for 2 hours. If you want heart shaped bites, use a heart shaped cutter, pressing firmly down. If not cut into small squares. Store in the freezer.

Better Made At Home- Bounty Bar Bites

I am all finished with my second week at uni. Apart from a couple of research proposals and some readings things haven't gotten too busy just yet. This have given me some time to think up ideas for the blog and do some experimenting in the kitchen.

I was thinking the other day, that while I try to have a relaxed attitude to food and not completely restrict myself to completely unprocessed foods, there are quite a few foods that I really like that are heavily processed and have a lot of sugar in them (yes I have a major sweet tooth). What really sparked my interest was a bounty bar. Wikipedia describes these delights as a coconut filling enrobed with milk or dark chocolate. What they are is freaking delicious! However, they are really quite a simple concept.

As they are one of my favourite chocolate bars, I was inspired to get into the kitchen and make my own! I challenged myself to make a version that was completely refined sugar free so that I could enjoy them without guilt. I have given you two versions in this post. One is completely refined sugar free and uses a chocolate coconut oil coating. The other uses normal semi-dark chocolate to coat it. To be honest the normal chocolate ones look better and do taste slightly better, but if you are trying to reduce refined sugars, the sugar free ones are more than satisfying.

This recipe is also linked to my last post about how much I love coconut oil. Coconut oil was the perfect ingredient to bind them together. You could potentially use butter as an alternative to bind the coconut but I haven't tried it so therefore cannot vouch for its taste or success.

So welcome to the first post in the 'Better Made At Home' series.

Ingredients
1 cup dessicated coconut
5 Tbsp melted coconut oil
2 Tbsp honey

In a medium bowl stir all of the ingredients together thoroughly until the coconut is binding. You may need to let the mixture sit for a few minuted for the coconut oil to firm up for this to happen.

Using a rounded spoon (I used my Tablespoon measure) scoop out the mixture and firmly press into a half circular shape. Alternatively you could try to mould it with your hands. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Either melt 4 rows of semi-dark chocolate or melt together 4 Tbsp coconut oil, 2 Tbsp honey and 4 tsp cocoa powder. If using the coconut oil option, let it sit to firm up until it is melted chocolate consistency.

Take the frozen coconut mounds and gently coat them in chocolate using two forks. Place back on the plate and then place in the freezer until completely set (about another 30 minutes)

Cookie #2- A healthier Chocolate Chip Cookie

I like cookies as much as the next person, however cookies tend to involve a bit of sugar. Despite having quite the sweet tooth, sugar and I don't have the best relationship... it gives me migraines if I eat too much.

It is for this reason that I love these cookies, a delicious sweet cookie without the sugar overload. These cookies can either be sugar free or made with a little bit of sugar. These use banana to naturally add sweetness, but if you are not a banana fan (AKA hungry male) these could also be made with apple puree.

Makes 12 cookies

Ingredients
1 large banana (or 1/2 cup apple puree)
1/4 cup peanut butter (You could you a hazelnut spread too)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking powder
4 Tbsp chocolate chips
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup plain flour
1 Tbsp stevia powder or 1/4 cup sugar

1. Mash together the banana and nut butter until very creamy.
2. Stir in the vanilla essence.
3. Add the other ingredients and stir well.
4. Scoop tablespoon fulls of mixture on to a baking tray.
5. Bake at 180 degrees C for 12-15 minutes.
6. Halfway through cooking, flatten the cookies put with the back of a metal spoon.
7. Cool on the tray for 5 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.

Choc Chip Cookie's 2 Ways

The other day I bought myself a huge cookie jar, so today I set about baking some cookie to fill it. I decided that I wanted to bake some delicious treat cookies as well as some healthier cookies that I can scoff down without getting a sugar overload. Therefore I made 2 versions of chocolate chip cookies.

Think of this as like online cookie dating. You can read the two profiles of the cookies and choose which one is the best for you. I will post one recipe today and the other one tomorrow.

Cookie #1= This cookie is your traditional, American soft-style cookie. Think soft, chewy and full of chocolate chips. I don't usually dip cookies into milk, but if I was going to, this would be the cookie. A hungry male favourite.

Cookie #2= This is the ultimate guilt-free cookie. This cookie is for those who like their cookies a big more chunky and hearty and the bonus? You won't get a sugar overload with these and get some health benefits while eating them. Perfect to feed children who you don't want on a sugar high.

Recipe Cookie #1

The recipe for this cookie comes from "Real Girls Eat". It makes extremely delicious, soft, chewy cookies. However, these are more of a 'sometimes food' cookie.

This recipe is also a great time saver. You can whip up a batch of cookie dough, cook half of the cookies then and then freeze the other half of the dough for later.

Makes 30-40 cookies

Ingredients
230g butter
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
3 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
2 cups chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the 2 sugars (Beat with an electric mixer for around 5 minutes until creamy).
2. Beat in the vanilla essence.
3. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until combined.
4. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt.
5. Add the chocolate chips
6. Fold all of the ingredients together until just combined.
7. Place the mixture in the fridge for 1/2 and hour.
8. If not using now, shape the mixture into a log, roll in plastic wrap and freeze.
9. Roll tablespoon-full lots of mixture into balls and place on a baking tray (These spread heaps, so give them plenty of room).
10. Gently flatten the balls with a fork.
11. Bake at 180 degrees C. for 9-10 minutes or until the edges are golden.
12. Leave to cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Amazing Freezer Brownie

This is the recipe that I promised to post in yesterday's What I Ate Wednesday post. Last week I came across a recipe for a raw brownie by Hannah. This recipe had a nut/date base and an avocado icing. When I saw it I knew that I had to make it as a study treat!

However.....

In the process of making it something amazing happened........
I whizzed up the base mixture, pressed it into the pan, spread the icing on top and then froze it. A few hours later when I came to cut it..... disaster! It was all just a crumbly mess (although a very tasty crumbly mess).

I really wanted to save this brownie, so I put everything, icing and all back into the food processor. I repeated the whizzing, pressing and freezing process and TA DA!! This amazing, fudgy, chocolatey goodness was born.

Life will never be the same again (and i'm going to need to stockpile avocado's in the freezer for when they are out of season).

Ingredients
2/3 cup raw peanuts
1/3 cup natural almonds
1 cup dates
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 avocado
2 Tbsp maple syrup

1. Place the peanuts, almonds and dates into the bowl of a food processor.
2. Process for 3-4 minutes or until everything is broken up into small pieces.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and process until well mixed.
4. Press into a 20cm square tin.
5. Place into the freezer for 1 hour.
6. Cut the brownie into slices (I did 16).
7.Freeze for at least 3 more hours, the store in the freezer.
8. Before eating, let it sit for about 5 minutes.

Double Berry Cupcakes

Since the cupcakes that I made for valentine's day got so much attention on my WIAW post I thought that I would share the recipe with you today. I got the base of this recipe from High Tea with Dragons. Now initially I did have visions of cupcakes with beautiful piped, swirled icing like Kirsten's. However when it came to make the icing it turned out that I had used the rest of my butter in the cupcakes themselves. Therefore I ended up using some berry flavoured icing sugar and water to make a thick icing. While this icing worked to cover the cupcakes, it would not hold a piped shaped.

While they may not look as professional as I hoped they still looked pretty darn cute and they taste even better. I made some white chocolate hearts on top in some chocolate mould for a valentine's feel but these would look just as cute with a white chocolate button on top.

(Recipe made mini muffin sized cupcakes)

Ingredients
125g butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup berries (I used frozen mixed berries, defrosted)

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg.
4. Sift flour and baking powder together before adding to the butter/sugar mixture.
5. In a separate bowl crush the berries.
6. Mix the berries into the other mixture.
7. Pour the mixture into cupcake cases.
8. Bake for 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
9. Ice with an icing of your choice.

Oat, Coconut and Almond Cookies

I think its about time for a nice mid morning or afternoon treat. Except like most of my recipe there is some nutritious ingredients snuck in here in the form of oats almonds and coconut. As you probably know oats are high in fibre, have no fat and lower cholestrol. Almonds also lower cholestrol and are great for your heart, and coconut, despite the bad rep it seems to get, is high in fibre, vitamins and minerals. All of this is one cookie!

For those of you from New Zealand and Australia, these reminded me of modified Anzac biscuits. They have a nice crunchy outside and a slightly chewy inside. If you were feeling adventurous I think these would be really nice with some dried cranberries in them too.

From Eat Good 4 Life

Ingredients
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup shredded (dessicated) coconut
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 tsp vanilla
1/2- 3/4 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like things)
2 Tbsp honey
3-4 Tbsp milk

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line 2 baking trays
2. Add all of the ingredients to a bowl and mix well, adding extra milk if the mixture is very dry.
3. Place a tablespoon of mixture on to the baking tray and flatten out slightly with a for or your fingers.
4. Repeat with the rest of the mixture leaving enough room for the biscuits to spread.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden.
6. Let sit for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Pumpkin Spice Latte Muffins

Before I get into the recipe just a quick update on my 200 list. I have currently made 37 recipes from it, the most recent being last nights Salmon Pasta Bake. So far I would say that I would make almost all of the recipes again, but there were a couple of duds.

After a busy couple of weeks I'm bake into my cooking groove, so much so that I had 3 recipes to choose from today, wholegrain beer bread, breakfast banana scramble and these muffins. After eating one of these yesterday I just had to share it. These muffins are inspired by a trend in the US, pumpkin spice lattes. Apparently they are huge in Starbucks, so these are like Starbucks in a muffin. All I know is that I like coffee, I like pumpkin pie and I love things with a streusel topping.

What I particularly liked about these muffins is that they weren't too sweet so are good for just an ordinary morning or afternoon tea and the coffee in them makes them perfect for these times too.

Just as a side note, I definitely think my food photography is improving. I had to put in several photos as I couldn't choose.

Ingredients
2/3 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup wholemeal flour
1 1/2 Tbsp espresso( I used a plunger grind)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 pumpkin puree (Well cooked, mashed pumpkin)
1/4 cup raw sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup apple puree
2 Tbsp canola oil
2 eggs
1/4 cup strong brewed coffee, at room temperature

Streusel
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp rolled oats
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp espresso powder (Like a plunger grind)
2 Tbsp canola oil

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Grease 12 muffin tins
3. In a medium bowl combine the flours, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder and the spices.
4. With an electric mixer beat together pumpkin, sugars, apple puree and canola oil.
5. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
6. Add the dry mixture and fold in until just combined, don't overmix.
7. Spoon evenly into the muffin tins.
8. In a small bowl mix together the streusel ingredients until crumbly.
9. Evenly sprinkle the streusel mixture over the muffins.
10. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
11. Let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Homemade LCMs

 

Today is the last day of my 7 day recipe fest! I hope you have enjoyed all of the recipes. My last recipe for the week is a wee lunch box treat for both young and old. This recipe is not healthy in any way but sometimes a little indulgence is good for you. 

This is a much cheaper alternative to the store bought ones and are just as good. If you wanted to make them a little more interesting you could use different flavours of marshmellows.

 

This is what the melted marshmellow mixture looked like.

Ingredients

50g butter

150g (ish) bag marshmellows

4 1/4 cups rice bubbles

1. Spray a slice tin with cooking spray

2. In a large saucepan place the butter and marshmellows

3. Melt the butter and marshmellows over a medium heat, stirring constantly

4. Working quickly, add the rice bubbles to the marshmellow mix and combine well.

5. Push the mixture into the slice tin.

6. Leave to sit for at least 20 minutes before cutting into slices