Miss Dixie's picks for a hand-made Christmas - Cooking

Now that we are only a few days out from Christmas it's time for Part 3 in my hand-made Christmas series, Cooking!

Image from makebakecelebrate.com

One of the absolute classic desserts that are always served at my family's Christmas's, and is a pretty iconic Australian dish and that is Pavlova. I have taken over the responsibility of making the pavlova at Christmas time, and while it can be a tricky thing to get the hang of cooking, its well worth the effort over the store bought ones, and I think I am getting pretty good at it. For something a little simpler, that will still add Christmas cheer to any table, why not make these adorable little Meringue Christmas tree's that have been all over pinterest lately? These adorable ones and their instructions can be found here.

2011's Gingerbread mansion 

Another great Christmas Tradition the world over is Gingerbread, and for the adventurous bakers (or those who bought a kit) a Gingerbread house. For the past few years (excluding last year I think) I have made a Gingerbread house using this template which is based on the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland Paris! For longevity, I traced all the pieces onto cardboard. When cutting out each piece, it can get pretty fiddly, so I actually like to roll out my dough between 2 pieces of baking paper, then lay my template pieces over that and cut straight down through the paper and dough with a sharp knife. The paper helps keep everything in shape as you transfer it to baking trays (especially some of the long verandah pieces) Any firm Gingerbread Biscuit will do, my favourite is one from a free pamphlet from Coles from about 4 years ago. When making your gingerbread dough, you want a nice firm biscuit, so half the recommended bi-carb soda and make sure each piece is baked thoroughly. I didn't one year and my house collapsed. I told everyone a tornado hit it.

Recipe here

Another Traditional dish for my family is Trifle (seeing a recurring dessert theme here?) I am not certain if this is a big Christmas dish or even that big in Australia for that matter. We always have it, but my Husband thought it was weird. It's a dessert that seems to get mixed reactions, some people love it and some people hate it. There are many variations, but they are all based on the same sort of base ingredients. In our house it was traditionally sliced jam rollies for the first layer, sprinkled with couintreu (I think you're supposed to use sherry) then fruit salad for the second layer (just the regular canned type) third layer is custard (we make it so it has a thicker texture than store bought) then jelly and if there is enough room in the dish (We used to have a great deep flat sided trifle dish until I broke it last year, oops) another layer each of custard, fruit salad, custard and jelly, then topped with whipped cream and a crumbled chocolate flake.

Salted Caramel Fudge from Taste.com

For a super easy dessert, or you could even give some as a present like I did last year, microwave fudge never fails to impress. While I did post the recipes I used last Christmas, I'll post them here again anyway.

Chocolate fudge:

400g can of condensed milk (395g will do)

100g butter cubed

1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar

1 tbsp golden syrup

100g dark chocolate finely chopped

Line a 20cm pan with foil.

place condensed milk, butter, sugar and syrup in a 3L glass bowl (I use my trusty pyrex bowl from the op shop) cook uncovered in the microwave for 10-12 mins, stirring every 2 mins, until bubbles appear over the whole surface while cooking (honestly my old microwave needed 8-10 mins, but my new one cooked it in 5) Stir in the finely chopped chocolate until it is melted through, then pour into your tray, and refrigerate. When set, lift out the fudge with the foil and cut into small pieces. One time for valentines day, I even used cookie cutters to cut out fudge hearts.

Cookies and cream fudge:

395g tin of condensed milk

1 cup castor sugar

125g butter

2 tbsp glucose syrup

200g white chocolate chopped

1/2 of a 150g pack of oreos chopped

Follow the same steps as for the chocolate fudge, but after the chocolate is stirred in and melted, add the chopped oreos and mix.

For Strawberry fudge, I used the cookies and cream recipe, but left out the oreos and added some strawberry flavouring and a few drops of pink food colouring

I am terribly behind in my gift making, and haven't had the time to make my family's traditional Christmas Crackers that I have been doing since my Grandma decided it was too much work for her, so I am a bit upset about that, but I am sure I will have a lovely Christmas anyway. I don't know if I will get any other posts up between now and Christmas so I just want to take this chance to wish all my readers a Wonderful Christmas, and thank you for reading my blog. I get warm fuzzies every time I see a new comment!

Dixie

Prost! A little Oktoberfest

Since attending Oktoberfest in Munich last year while on our Honeymoon, my Husband and I have wanted to throw our own Oktoberfest party at home. Unfortunately time got away from us this year, so we didn't manage to organise a big party, but we did cook a few things from our time at Oktoberfest and had my little brother and his fiance' over to share in our feasting and beer drinking.

Naturally, we had to have some big soft pretzels.
I used Papa Drexler's Bavarian Pretzel recipe, which while it was fiddly and time consuming, created a tasty pretzel. Not exactly like the ones we had over there, but that could just be person who made them.....

Interestingly, this recipe call for the pretzels to be dipped in a water/bicarb mix for about 45 seconds, which isn't something I have done in baking before. I guess it does something to the outside crust of the pretzel or something.

My first few probably weren't rolled out quite long enough, giving a puffy little pretzel as a result, but I got better as I went. I divided the dough into 8 instead of 6, as there would be 4 of us. But then I made a second batch anyway.

I also made some basic little gingerbread hearts using the Gingerbread recipe from the Women's Weekly Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits, and iced them with royal icing in white, green and blue. Despite mine being a lot smaller than the ones at Oktoberfest in Munich, I attempted to ice them with words such as "Oktoberfest" "Liebe" "Bier" and "Prost!". I even did a couple that said "Ich Liebe Bier" (I love beer) which the boys loved.

Another food that we ate while at Oktoberfest were chocolate covered fruit skewers from the carnival food stands. I loved that most of the food stalls were lovely fresh foods, not the pre-packaged junk you get at shows here. Being a bit low on funds lately, meant I was a bit limited so I just used bananas we already had, as well as strawberries which were on special. I made some with a mix, some with just strawberries, some in white chocolate and some in dark chocolate. 

The strawberries with dark chocolate were my favourite!

We also had other foods (Sausages and mini Schnitzels...... ok they were chicken nuggets) but I wanted to get a nice photo of the foods I had made. Except the boys just couldn't help themselves.

And kept taking food while I tried to get a photo (that's only half the pretzels by the way. The rest were behind me on cooling racks)

All in all, everyone enjoyed the food and was absolutely stuffed by the end of the evening. The few gingerbread cookies and fruit skewers that didn't get eaten that evening were gone in the morning (I was hoping to have leftover for work lunches, oh well...) Best of all, most of the ingredients were stuff I already had, so it didn't actuallu cost all that much to do, however I was in the kitchen most of the day, as they were all a bit time consuming.

Hopefully next year we will be in a better position financially and organisationally, so we can throw a big party to share with all our friends.

Dixie

And here is the gingerbread recipe for those of you who aren't fortunate enough to have the Woman's Weekly Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits. I wouldn't ordinarily post something out of a currently published book like this, but a quick google search found that others had already posted this exact recipe, so I figured one more can't hurt

You will need:

125g butter

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 egg yolk

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

3 teaspoons ground ginger

2 1/2 tablespoons golden syrup  

Royal Icing

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1 egg white

4 drops of lemon juice (I left this out)

food colouring

Step 1

 Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add egg yolk, beat well. Gradually add sifted dry ingredients and syrup, mix well, knead lightly. Roll between two sheets of greaseproof paper to 3mm thickness. (mine might have been 4-5mm to make them soft fluffy biscuits)

Step 2

Gently remove greaseproof paper from top. Cut out gingerbread figures (or Hearts) with cutter. Remove any excess mixture around the cut-out figures.

Step 3 Lift the figures onto a lined baking tray. Bake in moderate oven 10 minutes. Cool on trays. Spoon royal icing into small plastic bag, snip off one corner to make a piping bag. 

Royal Icing

Sift icing sugar. Beat egg white lightly in a small bowl, using a wooden spoon. Add icing sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition. When icing reaches piping consistency, beat in lemon juice and desired food colouring. Makes about 20.

Banoffee Pie for Mother's Day Brunch

Last Year for Mother's day my mum and I tried to take my grandparents out for breakfast at a fancy restaurant. Grandfather wouldn't come as he had too much to do in his shed, and while grandma came with us, she seemed very concerned about the prices on the menu, even though she wasn't paying. This year when mum suggested we take grandma out to the same restaurant, I told her I thought she would enjoy herself more if we had it at her house and brought the food with us.

And so, I decided to make a Banoffee pie, while leaving mum in charge of something savoury. Banoffee Pie is so easy to make, but is definitely a little bit naughty and special. But it has fruit in it, so it has to be good for you, right? Hehehe

Here is the recipe I used, taken from the Woolworths website, with photos by me


Ingredients
125g butter for the base, 50g for the filling
250g arnott's granita biscuits
395g tin of condensed milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 bananas
300ml cream

Start by crushing up your biscuits. Use a food processor if you have one, I just used my mortar and pestle which did the trick pretty quickly. Mix with 125g of melted butter, then press into a pie dish. Chill in the fridge for at least 10 minutes.

Put the condensed milk, brown sugar and butter in a saucepan and put over a low heat, stirring constantly.

When the mix starts bubbling, cook for 5-10 minutes, making sure you keep stirring and scraping the mixture in from the sides so it doesnt burn.

Take it off the heat and pour into the pie crust you made before, then put the whole thing back in the fridge to set.

Once the caramel is set, slice up the bananas and lay them over the top of the pie. Whip the cream and pile it on top. Finish by grating a smidge of chocolate over the top.

Ta Dah!

I hope everyone had a lovely mothers day yesterday.

Dixie

The Blues Brothers at the Regal

Well this Friday just past was the cult classic Friday for the month of May at the Regal theater in Birmingham Gardens. As you may remember from my previous posts, I had thrown together a Penguin/Nun costume from fabric in my stash for this very night. To finish it off I bought a wooden ruler for $1 from Big W and the most expensive part of the outfit was a pearl rosary from the Salvos store for $10

And it paid off! I won Best Dressed! Woo Hoo!
That means 2 free tickets for me!

The Penguin and Joliet Jake
Photo By Ali Bracewell

Everybody!
Photo by some random with Ali's camera

The Blues Kids
Photo by Ali Bracewell

George (who runs the Regal) and Frankie the Blues Dog
Photo by Gillian Burgess

Best Dressed Winners
Photo by Gillian Burgess

Photo by Gillian Burgess

Photo by Gillian Burgess

Photo by Gillian Burgess

I'm not really familiar with the movie they have announced for next month's Cult Classic Friday, so hopefully the one for July will be one I know.

Dixie

PS. Here is a recipe for Orange Whip that The Regal posted on their Facebook page.

Homemade Christmas present roundup

Seeing as the Husband and I are pretty poor this year (we can afford bills and not much else) I decided that it would be best to make as many Christmas presents from my fabric stash that I could. Here's a roundup post of the things I made, as well as links to the tutotials I used. This list might help some of you save some money next Christmas.

Firstly, I needed something small for female coworkers and church friends, and after a discussion with my grandma, we came up with the idea to make them lingerie wash bags. Most ladies we know use them (I mean who wants to handwash delicates instead?) The last store bought one I had frayed after the first wash, and one my grandma had, the zip broke after the first wash. I had a quick look on pinterest (admittedly I could have come up with a tutorial/pattern myself, but time is of the essence this time of year) I found this cute tutorial, with fabric binding on the sides, that I liked the look of. I didnt follow the tutorial to the letter though, as I also overlocked and french seamed/top stitched my seams for extra strength.

The pieces of fabric cut out ready to make my first test bag

Almost done, just need to add the binding

Completed! Actually this was the second one, which I gave to my friend Rachel from Elsie George Boutique. We have very similar taste in fabric. 

My test one, just out of the washing machine.

I made 2 to start with, out of the same lovely floral cotton. I tested one out, by washing it a few times, and so far it has held up perfectly. I think the extra work I did on the seams should help it stay together for quite a while. After the first 2 turned out so well, I proceeded to cut out 6 more in differents fabrics, to suit different personalities.

4 more cut out ready to go

I didnt get photos of them all completed before I gave some of them as presents

My mum asked me to make her 2 plastic bag holders (you know, the tube kind with elastic at either end) so I whipped up 2 out of a bit of cherry print fabric I had. For each one, I used a rectangle 18 inches by 22 inches, overlocked the edges, folded in half longway and sewed the seam (I sewed it twice for strength) then turned in the edges with a wide hem, leaving a small gap open, which I then threaded some 1/4 inch elastic through. Attached a quick fabric hanging loop to the top, and they were done!

Mum's 2 bag holders plus her lingerie bag

I then found a fat quarter of horse fabric I knew my friend would love, and made her one as well.

My mother-in-law mentioned she would like a vintage style petal half apron, so I had a look at old patterns for inspiration, then drafted one up for her.

I based it off this one from pinterest

I started by folding a piece of tissue paper in half lengthways, then drawing a rough half petal shape out for the centre panel. I cut it out, then placed another piece of tissue paper under and to the side of the centre piece and drew out the side petal, which I then cut out. I then cut out a centre and 2 sides from both the main fabric, as well as a blue fabric to line it with. I also cut out a blue waist tie and a pocket from the birdy fabric. I added white piping along the edges, this is how it turned out:

I think she liked it. She wore it christmas day while cooking at her place.


I also like to hand sew felt christmas ornaments for my friends, so this year I came up with these (thanks pinterest)

This is before stitching them up

 I had someone in a facebook sewing group ask for the  pattern for these,  but as I had just cut them out free hand, I didnt have one. So I traced around the pieces I had and came up with this

Feel free to use this to make your own

For my Besties kids I thought it might be nice to sew them some christmas pyjamas. Last year I made them all toys (fort building kit, zombie bride with removable organs and a plush cthulhu) but I thought, as kids, they probably get toys from everyone. So using some of the leftover polka dot fabric from my christmas dress, as well as another different christmas fabric for each kid. I made each of them boxer shorts, using the Darcy boxer pattern from measuretwicecutonce as well as appliquing a piece of fabric to a plain shirt from big W/best and less, with help from this applique tutorial. The girls shirts were discounted winter shirts, so I took off the sleeves, and bound the armholes in the boxer short fabric, and I used the ladies size 8 option in the boxers (I'm hoping they will fit for a few years)

The girls pyjamas

The fabric I used on the boy's pyjamas

I somehow forgot to take a photo of all 3 finished sets. For the boy's pyjama top, I appliqued a koala to the front, then using a premade iron on applique, gave the koala a moustache. He loved his pyjamas so much, he wanted to wear them to the Christmas morning church service (his mum wouldnt let him) I made his boxer shorts a bit longer than the girls, added a few faux fly buttons, as well as taking a few inches off the sides, as the pattern is in adult sizes.

Then there are the people who are hard to sew for, particularly the men. So whipped up some fudge in a few flavours, and gave them that. Here are the recipes I use for fudge, theyre super simple and you only need to cook it in the microwave

Chocolate fudge:
400g can of condensed milk (395g will do)
100g butter cubed
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
100g dark chocolate finely chopped

Line a 20cm pan with foil.
place condensed milk, butter, sugar and syrup in a 3L glass bowl (I use my trusty pyrex bowl from the op shop) cook uncovered in the microwave for 10-12 mins, stirring every 2 mins, until bubbles appear over the whole surface while cooking (honestly my old microwave needed 8-10 mins, but my new one cooked it in 5) Stir in the finely chopped chocolate until it is melted through, then pour into your tray, and refrigerate. When set, lift out the fudge with the foil and cut into small pieces. One time for valentines day, I even used cookie cutters to cut out fudge hearts.

Cookies and cream fudge:
395g tin of condensed milk
1 cup castor sugar
125g butter
2 tbsp glucose syrup
200g white chocolate chopped
1/2 of a 150g pack of oreos chopped

Follow the same steps as for the chocolate fudge, but after the chocolate is stirred in and melted,  add the chopped oreos and mix.

For the Strawberry fudge, I used the cookies and cream recipe, but left out the oreos and added some strawberry flavouring and a few drops of pink food colouring.

I did have a great present planned for my husband, but unfortunately, I didnt get it finished in time for Christmas :( so everyone will have to wait (including him) to find out what it is.

Now that Christmas is over for another year, I'm looking forward to sewing up this baby for myself. Its a 2005 pattern, but with a distinct 1950's style to it. It was a present from my mumsy, and I'm thinking either view C or D

I hope everyone had wonderful Christmas, and that 2015 will be a great year for you!

Dixie O'Dare

CWA cooking Champion!

Last night was the Cessnock Evening branch of the CWA's cookery Competition. For those who don't know, CWA stands for Country Women's Association, and I joined as a member last time they had this particular cookery comp. I'm always up for a bit of a challenge (and also don't like too much competition) so I tend to pick the fiddly hard to make things (depending on what sections are available. Last year I got 2nd at group level with my assorted sweets. So this year I looked at the Schedule and scrolled through the sections, and decided on the Macarons.

I have never made a Macaron before. I've only eaten one before (aboard the Carnival Spirit) and I found it pretty tasteless. So I didn't really have a clue what I was doing, or what the final product what supposed to taste like. But I followed the recipe, and managed to make, what at least looked like a macaron.

The recipe called for the use of a food processor, which I do not have. I called my Grandma to see if she had one I could borrow, and she said to try using a coffee grinder. I would never have thought of that, but it worked a treat, even if it was a bit small. Then I simply put it through a sieve, and got rid of any pieces that were too big.

First 2 trays out of the oven

Completed Chocolate Macarons

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the other flavours or the rest of the process. But the Chocolate ones were probably the prettiest anyway.

I had a couple of issues along the way, and here is what I learned. 

Number 1: Do space them out on the tray as much as the recipe says. I overcrowded the first batch of strawberry (as it was late and I wanted to have to do fewer trays full) and they just did not cook through. Even ones that were over cooked on top, collapsed underneath.

Number 2: Although this recipe calls for you to let them sit for half an hour before baking, if you can leave them longer, it will help. A few sites I looked at suggested leaving them for 2-3 hours, I didn't leave them that long. Also don't preheat your oven before you begin making them, wait til 10-20 mins before you bake them or you'll be wasting a lot of electricity/gas.

Number 3: Don't always trust internet recipes, lol. I searched online for ganache recipes, and every site I went on said for a macaron filling, use chocolate and cream in a ratio of 1:1. So that's what I did. But even after refrigerating, it would not set! So then I googled "why wont my ganache set" which gave me a few forums and discussions where people were saying it was better to use a ratio of 3:1! Argh! Luckily I had enough chocolate left to be able to salvage it, but not before making a huge mess with runny ganache and macarons that kept sliding apart.

Watching the Cake Judging. There's me in my new Swirl Dress (photo stolen from Daisy Chatto)

My Award!

While I wasn't entirely sure I had made them correctly, the Judge said they were perfect, and when I shared some around with the rest of my fellow CWA members, the consensus was they were pretty good. I have to Admit, I was actually the one one who entered this Section, but that doesn't mean I got an automatic First Place. The Judge still has to deem the entry worthy of going to the next level of the competition.

I will definitely work better on my sizing for the group level (which I think will be around March next year) as I feel that was the only thing I hadn't quite gotten right. The Strawberry ones were too big and the Pistachio ones too small

In Case the CWA site changes and I lose the recipe (which will happen when they release the schedule for next year) I'm going to post the recipe below.

Dixie

Macaron Recipe—Section 4

Recipes supplied here must be used for competiton

Chocolate Macarons recipe

1 cup/160 g pure icing sugar
½ cup/ 60g almond meal
2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
2 eggs whites, room temperature
2 tablespoons caster sugar

Pre heat oven to 150C. Line a large baking tray with baking paper and draw 3cm circles approx 3cm apart.
Turn the paper over so that the pencil marks won’t blemish the bottoms of macarons
Process the icing sugar, almond meal and cocoa powder in a food processor until fine.
Sift mixture through a fine wire sieve into a large bowl.
Beat egg whites with electric mixer to soft peaks form.
Beat in the caster sugar until thick and glossy.
Fold egg whites into the almond, mix until thoroughly combined.
Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain nozzle.
Pipe approx 30 discs onto the marked circles and then drop the tray a couple of times onto the kitchen bench. This will shape the macarons and permit them rise uniformly onto a "little foot".
Set aside for 30 minutes or until a skin forms on top.
Bake for 20 minutes until just crisp set aside and cool.
Fill with chocolate ganache.

Pistachio Macarons recipe

125g pistachios
1 ¼ cup/ 190g pure icing sugar
These two ingredients are processed together
2 egg whites at room temperature
¼ cup/30g caster sugar
Few drops of green food colouring

Then use the same method for chocolate macarons minus almond meal and cocoa powder.
When cool fill with white chocolate ganache

Strawberry Macaron recipe (Pink Macarons)

1 cup/ 160g pure icing sugar
½ cup/ 60g plus 2 tablespoons Almond meal
These 2 ingredients are processed together
2 egg whites at room temperature
2 tablespoons caster sugar
Few drops strawberry essence for pale pink colour
Then use the same method for chocolate macarons minus cocoa powder
When cool fill with white chocolate ganache