Little Box Brownie

A Baking Blog from Melbourne, Australia

Pastry

Muesli Slice

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Well Miss Daisy’s second event is now done and dusted, and what a show it was. We were so lucky to be able to attend the first Melbourne Cake Bake and Sweet Show. I was in baking heaven, there were so many stalls to choose from, and this time unlike the last event we went to I got time to look around. We meet so many lovely people, and event some of my readers came to say hi, which was the biggest thrill. Some people had brought my book through a store and realised it was me, which was and even bigger thrill. Miss Daisy was such a show off with many people coming up to her saying she was the best thing in the show. She dressed up for the occasion with bunting and some little lights, she was delighted with how much people loved her. She was even asked to attend some more events, lucky girl….

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Peanut Brittle Slice

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Well… doesn’t time fly when your having fun? It seems to be flying for me even when I’m not. I can’t for the life of me believe how quickly the weeks are blurring together to form months. Its been nearly 3 weeks since my last post, I think thats a bit of a record. Its not that I haven’t had recipes to put up, in fact I have a number of them, its just that I haven’t found the time. So I hope no one has been waiting for their next sugary fix.
Wedding season is back in full gear and between that and spending every free minute sanding little Miss Daisy, which has had its fair number of dramas I might add, I have just lost track of time,

This next recipe is one I made months ago, so many months ago I can’t even recall why. but its good, supper tasty in fact, just a little on the hard side to eat.

 
Peanut Brittle Chocolate Slice
 
Base
 
200 g butter
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
 
Filling
 
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 water
50g butter
2 cups unsalted peanuts
1/4 cup cream
 
Topping
 
250g dark chocolate
50g butter
 
pre heat the oven to 170C
 
To make the base, cut the butter into cubes and rub into the flour and baking powder until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Then stir through the sugar and combine the egg until the mixture forms a dough. Press this into a 20 x 30 cm tin and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown, remove from the oven and set aside.
 
To make the filling, place the corn syrup, sugar and water into a saucepan and heat until the mixture becomes golden, swirl the pot rather than stirring the ingredients, or alternatively use a wet pastry brush to brush down the sides.  Remove from the heat and stir through the butter and cream, be very carful as the mixture with splatter and rise up. Stir through the peanuts and pour into the base immediately. 
 
To make the topping, place the chocolate and butter into a double boiler and heat until the chocolate has melted. Pour over the slice and leave to cool. Cut when cooled.

Gingery Vanilla Slice

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Who loves vanilla slice? I don’t mean that awful stuff they sell at a lot of bakery’s, that rubber that they try to pass off as vanilla slice, I mean the fresh home made slice, the slice that tastes fresh and most importantly tastes real. The slice that when you bite into, it just ooze’s out and has to be licked from the plate. Its not the most perfectly lady like slice to eat, but wow how worth it it is to make yourself.
Have you ever made it? No? Well jump to it! I have a wonderful vanilla slice just for you, with a little bit of a twist. I’ve added a smudge of crystallised ginger to the mix which gives this slice a new and revived taste, equally as good as the original. As a bonus it has little chewy gingery bits, amazing.

Happy baking.
Sophia xxx

P.S Check out the awesome article on The Vivant ‘Top 25 blogs to book mark now’, they have included Little Box Brownie with some of the most fantastic blogs and have given me the most amazing write up, I am so thankful for the kind words. Please check it out.

Gingery Vanilla Slice
2 sheets store bought puff pastry 
1 1⁄2 cups milk 
1 cup cream 
5 egg yolks 
2⁄3 cup white sugar 
1⁄4 cup of cornflour 
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 cup of crystallised ginger
Preheat oven to 180°C 
Cut both pieces of puff pastry to the size of the cake tin if you don’t have one the same size as the puff pastry otherwise use that. Place both sheets of puff pastry on a baking tray with another baking tray over the top of the pastry this is so it doesn’t puff too much. Bake until golden. Place one of the sheets into the cake tin.
Meanwhile, to make the filling, place the milk, cream, yolks, sugar, cornflour, ground ginger and the crystallised ginger into a saucepan over a low heat. Whisking constantly until the mixture becomes thick. Pour over the sheet of puff pastry. Place the other sheet of pastry on top. Cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge for 6 hours to set.

 

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.