Little Box Brownie

A Baking Blog from Melbourne, Australia

Fruit

Super Yummy Raspberry Tart

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Let me introduce you to the newest member of the Little Box Brownie Family, My newest Toy, the most exciting purchase ever, the cuties thing you ever did see………….. Drum roll please……….

My little 1950’s bondwood caravan. Isn’t she a dream? Granted she needs a lot of work, but isn’t she cute?

I told you a few months ago about my mid life crisis and how I was looking for a little caravan well I found her just a couple of k’s down the road, there she stood in the middle of a huge paddock, with daises spring up around her. I didn’t even look inside her as the owner couldn’t find the key but she was just what I was looking for so I told him I would take her. Well he looked at me like are your serious, your going to take her? Yep I’ll take her! He asked me quite a few times if I wanted to think about it, nope I said I’ll take her.
You realise she needs a lot of work he asked, and you don’t want to look inside?, yep thats fine I’ll take her. So I gave him a deposit and said I would be back. I was going to have to get new tyres for her before I could drive her as hers tyres where flat and cracked. So the lovely gentleman I brought her off said he would get some and change them for me.
In order to thank him for changing the tyres for me and selling me his awesome caravan, I baked him and his wife this little tart. Nothing is better than home baked goodness, well not in my book there isn’t.

I haven’t thought of a name for her yet any ideas?
My list so far is…

  • Little B
  • Cookies and cream (because she will be cream) I can’t take credit for this name, it was my sisters.
  • truly scrumptious (because when I drive around with her I sing the song from chitty chitty bangbang, your truly scrumptious, yes truly, truly scrumptious. (at the top of my lungs I might add)
  • Miss daisy (Because I’m driving miss daisy)
  • Gerty
  • lola
  • Cupcake (cos she is so cute)
Raspberry Tart
 
Pastry
125g butter
1 3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup almond meal
1 egg
 
 
Filling
 
75g butter
1 Tablespoon flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1 cup raspberries 
 
 
To make the base, place the butter, flour, sugar and almond meal into a food processor, and process until fine breadcrumbs form. Then add the egg and pulse a few times until a dough forms.
Roll out and place in a lined 12x35cm tray, place in the fridge for 30minutes.
Pre heat the oven to 160C
Blind bake the tart case for 10 minutes then remove the beans and bake for another 10minutes or until golden.
 
To make the filling,place the butter into a saucepan and heat until the butter melts and starts to foam, remove from the heat and set aside.
Place the flour, sugar and egg into a bowl, using and electric beater, whisk until light and fluffy. Slowly pour in the butter while whisking until it is all incorporated. 
Place the raspberries into the tart case and pour over the mixture. 
Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. or until golden
 
 
 

Strawberry Friands

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Time to pack a picnic and head to a park with open fields or head to the beach and curl your feet into the sand and relish in the spring sun. Grab a friend or two, perhaps a special someone and get out there and do it. Take a little treat with you, these little friands would do very nicely. I love them and their something a little bit special than just a muffin, after all their french, oh la la. So go on hop to it, get baking.
Strawberry Friands
 
1 cup icing sugar
1/3 cup plain flour
1 cup almond meal
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
150g butter
7 strawberries
 
Pre heat oven to 150C
 
Sift the flour, icing sugar and almond meal into a bowl, then stir through the egg white and vanilla essence. Melt butter in the microwave, and then stir through the mixture.
Chop the strawberries into slices and reserve 8 pieces to decorate. Stir the strawberries through and pour into a friand tin or muffin tray. Place a reserved strawberry on top. Bake for 15 minutes.
 
Makes 8

Blackberry Slice

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A few weeks ago months ago (man times flies), I headed to the country in pursuit of an old 50’s bond wood caravan. I found one on gumtree which was 3 hours away. I know totally nuts, who drives 3 hours to look at a old caravan? Me, thats who! I put it down to my mid life no scratch that my quarter life crisis, most people buy fast red cars, not me I go looking for the old vintage stuff.
So I headed off to the country with my Mum, who I persuaded to come along with me for the company, that and I need a car with a tow-bar on it. See totally nuts I don’t even have a car that can pull a caravan!! Anyway we headed off and because we where out in the county I figured that would be the place to find an old caravan just incase the one we where off to see wasn’t right, which sadly it wasn’t. So this is how the trip went the whole way there and back, yep 6 hours of it, well something to this effect.
Mum is that a caravan?
No its a truck
Is that a caravan?
No its a sheet on someones clothes line
Mum is that a caravan?
Yes but too modern
Is that a caravan
No its a goat
Is that one?
No its a car
Is that one?
Yes but too modern
Until…
Is that a caravan??
No its not a caravan its just an over grown carport
Are you sure, it looks like a caravan to me?
So Mum jumps out to have a look and sure enough its an old wooden caravan.
The owner a older gentleman, Joe, happened to be in his garden and comes out. He shows me the caravan which sadly had been sitting there a very long time and the whole back of it had fallen out and the contents of the caravan were slowly finding there way to the great outdoors. It was a bit far gone for my handy woman skills.
Joe lives in a little town about 1.5 hours from Melbourne, where he has an amazing garden filled with all types of veggies. Joe and my Mum got on like a house on fire, as they both share a love of gardening, we were at Joe’s for about an hour with them discussing the way to plant different types of plants. We left Joe’s with a few rather large bags of plant cuttings for my Mum to plant.
Dotted all along the road side near Joe’s where blackberry plants which reminded me of where I lived as a child, there were no blackberries on the bush, however it gave me a craving for that sweet juicy taste that only blackberries have, so when I got back to Melbourne I decided I would whip this next recipe up for you, which unfortunately uses canned blackberries rather than fresh ones but hey, its sweet and delicious.
Blackberry Slice
 
Filling
 
1 can blackberries with liquid (415g)
1 cup sugar
 
Pastry 
 
200g butter
2 cups flour
1/3 cup almond meal
1/2 sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
 
Pre heat oven to 150C
 
Place the blackberries and sugar into a saucepan and simmer until  the mixture starts to thicken. Remove from the heat and set aside.
 
Place the butter, flour, almond meal and sugar in a food processor and pulse until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Then pulse in the egg and water until a dough forms. Remove from the processor and knead a couple of times. Press half the dough into a lines 25X20 cm tin. Pour in the filling and then roll out the remaining dough and cut into strips, lay these over the top to form a lattice pattern. Place in the oven and bake for 30mins or until golden.
 
 

The easiest fruit loaf you will ever make

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My Mum doesn’t bake very much, well not at all really, but this loaf she has been making it quite a lot lately. She has been changing the recipe each time she makes it, she has made fig ones and cranberry ones, this one though was my favourite apricot and prune. The recipe hails from good old New Zealand and is from G, a lady who for all my life has always been there for me. Its her 1 cup loaf, she puts in one cup of everything, its pretty healthy, well its probably the healthiest baked good to make it to this blog. My mum took out some of the sugar which I think made it even better for the apricot and prune one as the fruit are very sweet themselves. I hope you enjoy, I’m pretty sure you will.

One cup wonder Fruit Loaf
 
1 cup oat bran
1 cup of raw sugar (you can reduce this to 1/2 cup depending on the fruit you use)
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup of dried fruit (anything you like)
1 cup milk
 
Pre heat a oven to 170C
 
Mix the dry ingredients together and add the milk, the mixture will seem very wet but this is normal. 
Pour into a lined loaf tin and bake for 1 hour or until cooked. Test with by inserting a skewer into the centre of the loaf, if it comes away clean the its cooked. Cool on a wire rack.