Hot Cross Buns

This has to be the most obvious recipe for this time of year. Be prepared to spend a lot of time waiting around on this one guys, cos it takes a while..

You will need:

1 sachet (7g) of dried yeast
1tsp caster sugar
3/4 cup warm milk

1/2 cup cold milk
60g butter, melted
1 egg

4 cups plain flour
1 1/2 cups sultanas
1/3 cup caster sugar
2tsp mixed spice
a pinch of salt

1/2 cup plain flour
2/3 cup water

2 tbsp caster sugar
1/2 cup water


Whisk the yeast, sugar and warm milk together. Set it aside.
In another bowl, whisk together the cold milk, butter and egg. Add the flour, sultanas, sugar, spice and salt. Mix with a wooden spoon.
Make a well in the centre and add the yeast mixture. Use the wooden spoon to combine. Turn it onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes. 
Put the dough into a grease bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1 1/2 hours to prove.

Punch down the dough, turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3 minutes. Shape the dough into 12 buns. Grease an oven tray and place the buns on it. Cover with a clean tea towel and set in a warm drought-free place for 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat the over to 200 degrees celsius. Combine the flour and water. Put it in piping bag or a snaplock bag and cut off a tip. Pipe the crosses onto the buns.
Bake for 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 160 and bake for a further 20 minutes.

Place the sugar and water into a small saucepan and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves and the glaze thickens.
Brush the tops of the buns with the glaze and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Curried Sausages

I have never been a fan of curried sausages that have gravy in them but I love these ones. This is a recipe I learnt from my mum years ago, shared with her permission of course.

You will need:

• 8 sausages (I have found Coles brand sausages to be the best for this recipe)
• 2 cups of frozen peas and corn
• 1tbsp mild curry powder (gotta keep it child-friendly here)
• cornflour to thicken

Boil the sausages until the skin starts to separate from the sausages. Turn the heat off and, one by one, remove a sausage from the water, pull the skin off and cut it to bite sized pieces. The reason I say to do it one by one rather than to drain it all first is because once the sausages start to cool/dy, the skins stick down and it makes this step is a real pain.

Once all the sausages have been skinned and cut, throw the skins out, tip out the remaining water and rinse out the pot.

Add the sausages to the pot along with the veggies, fill with water until just covering the food. Bring it to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add the curry powder and give it a good stir. Make a paste with about a tablespoon of cornflour and a few drops of cold water, add it to the pot while stirring. Simmer for a further 10 minutes.

After the 10 minutes you can add more cornflour or water to the pot of needed for your desired consistency, just remember that it will thicken a little more over time as it simmers. Simmer for another 10 minutes or until veggies are cooked through and you have reached your desired consistency.

Serve with mashed potatoes.

Sorry, I didn't pause to get a pic of it served like I usually do.. It tastes too good to be pausing for anything ;-)

- To freeze, under-cook the vegetables and leave out the cornflour. When you are ready to defrost and eat, you may need to add more water and then thicken it.

Mini Chocolate & Banana Muffins

The other day while at the supermarket I found a big bag of over ripe bananas for less than a quarter of the usual price so I thought I would take the chance to do a bit of baking this week. Little did I know just how many Bananas there were in the bag. I baked these muffins today to try to use some up, and the kids love them!. They have in them banana, milk chocolate melts and white chocolate melts, which in my opinion, is much better than chocolate chips.

To make these, you will need:

• 2 cups of SR flour
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 2 bananas
• 2 eggs
• 125g butter
• 1/3 cup white chocolate melts
• 1/3 cup milk chocolate melts

Grease a muffin tin and pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. 

Mash the bananas and, using an electric mixer, combine all ingredients except the chocolate.

Roughly chop the chocolate melts and add them to the bowl, gently stir them in using a wooden spoon or spatular. Spoon the mixture into a muffin tray. Bake the muffins for about 10 minutes per batch. This recipe made 34 mini muffins.

Yum!

Minestrone

This is such a healthy recipe! And so so yummy! I'm not a fan of tomatoes at all but I loooove this recipe..

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of crushed garlic
• 1 small brown onion, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 stalk of celery, diced
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 100g of green beans, topped and tailed and cut to about 2-3cm
• 60g of cabbage
• 70g of bacon, diced
• 1 400g can of diced tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 2 cups of chicken stock

Over high heat, heat the oil in a frying pan (I actually like to use my wok because it gets so mud hotter). To the pan, add the garlic, bacon, onion, carrot and celery. Fry for about 3-5 minutes until the onion is soft and fragrant. 

Add tomatoes, tomato paste and stock. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the zucchini, beans and cabbage and simmer for a further 10 minutes.

Serve with crusty bread.

Banana Bread

Who doesn't like banana bread?! Yum! Here is my recipe:

• 3 1/2 cups of SR flour
• 1/2 cup of plain flour
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
• 1 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• 1 cup of milk
• 4 eggs, lightly whisked
• 100g butter, melted and cooled
• 4 bananas, mashed

Pre-Heat the oven to 190 degrees celcius, grease a loaf tin with cooking spray. Combine all ingredients well, pour into the loaf tin and bake for 50 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before removing it from the tin. Cool on a cooling rack.

Serve with a cup of tea (or if your as desperate for some delish banana bread as Mr Bay is, eat it before you even put it in the oven) :-)

Carbonara

This is such a simple recipe but it's oh so good. If it were up to Logan I think we would have it for dinner 99% of the time.

I don't like to say how many servings a recipe makes because everyone eats different amounts, but this recipe feeds our family of five with the kids going back for seconds and Logan bloating his bowl.

You will need:

• 1 small/normal sized packet of penne pasta
• 4 rashes of bacon
• 1 small tub of thickened cream
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 a cup of finely grated parmesan cheese
• 60g butter

Cook the pasta to packet directions.

Fry the bacon until it is cooked, add the cream and turn the heat down.

Whisk the eggs and mix them with the cheese.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it, mix through the button and cover for a few minutes. Stir through the raw eggs and cheese, and the bacon and cream. Cover and let sit for five minutes. Serve

See? Easy peasy!

Chicken Risotto

I love chicken risotto, it is such a good hearty meal with some really lovely flavours. 

This recipe will make enough for a family of 5 to eat twice.. With young kids anyway. 

You will need:

• 1 tbs olive oil 
• 1 whole cooked chicken, shredded (I like to dice my chicken)
• 2 cups of arborio rice
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 stalks of celery, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 tbs crushed garlic
• 1L of hot chicken stock
• Boiling water
• About 60g of butter
• 2/3 cup of grated Parmesan

In a large frying pan (or pot) heat the olive oil over high heat, fry the onion and garlic for 3 minutes or until the onion is soft and transparent, add the carrot and celery and fry for a further 2 minutes.

Add the rice to the pan and give it a good mix. Add the stock a cut at a time to the rice, stir often and wait in between each cup for the rice to absorb it. Once you have gone through the stock, just replace it with boiling water, gradually adding it until the rice stops absorbing it. 

Once the rice is cooked and absorbing no more water, take it off the heat and stir through the butter and cheese, let it sit covered for a few minutes while the butter and cheese works it's magic. Give it one last stir then serve it up. 

This recipe is still so good for the next couple of days.