Little Box Brownie

A Baking Blog from Melbourne, Australia

Recipe

Cranberry Hot Cross Buns

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Happy Easter!! Hope you’re all having a great few days off. And it goes without saying, enjoying some great food with your family and friends.
Did you all enjoy some freshly baked, hot out of the oven hot cross buns today? No you say? You bought them already made? Well then, do I have the recipe for you. Its a little less traditional but equally as tasty. Thats the great thing about making your own, you get to choose what goes into them! Plus you get the bonus of fresh bread baking and that lovely smell wafting throughout your house, giving it a homely and inviting smell.
I do realise they are a little more labour intensive than picking some up from the supermarket, but they are great fun, and something you have to do at least once in your life.
Hot Cross Buns

50g butter
1 cup of milk
3 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon 
1/4 teaspoon of ginger
1/4 whole nutmeg grated
1/3 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons of yeast
1 egg
1 cup cranberries 
 
 
2 tablespoons of water
1/2 cup flour
 
Melt the butter in the microwave, then add the milk and place back in the microwave for 30seconds just to warm the milk slightly. 
In a separate bowl, Sift the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg in, then add the sugar and yeast. Pour in the butter and milk mixture along with the egg. Stir to combine then pour out onto a floured surface and kneed for 10minutes, during this time sprinkle the cranberries in as you kneed.  Alternatively use a freestanding mixture and place a dough hook on it, turn it on slowly then when the mixture has combined, add the cranberries, then turn up the speed for about 5minutes. Then remove from the bowl and kneed for 5 minutes. 
Place into an oiled bowl, cover with cling wrap and leave until the dough has doubled in size. Remove from the bowl and knock the dough back down, place the dough back in the bowl and leave again to double in size. Remove the dough, knock it back down again then form into 9 round balls and place them on a baking tray or into a square cake tin. Leave for 1 hour, during this time, pre heat the oven to 180C. Brush the dough with some egg whites.
 
To make the cross, combine the flour and water and put the mixture into a pipping bag. Pipe the mixture on and place in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until cooked.

Peanut Butter Cup Cakes

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Peanut butter cup cakes
Peanut brittle

Since my last experiment with peanut butter, the peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies, I haven’t been able to resist eating the stuff. Its an addiction, I’ve been eating it on toast morning, noon and night, taking spoonfuls of the stuff straight from the jar. I have even started stirring it through curries, which if you have never done you really must try it, its simply delish. So to deliver on a promise I made to you, to start baking with more peanut butter (well thats what I’m telling myself, definitely not to satisfy my cravings), I have come up with these peanut butter cup cakes. To take the peanut taste a little further, I have topped them with a crunchy amber peanut brittle. So if you need a nutty sugary fix these are simply perfect.

Chocolate cup cakes
 
Chocolate Cup Cakes
 
Cup Cake
 
250g dark chocolate buttons
200g butter
4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
 
Pre heat oven to 180C
 
In a double boiler heat the chocolate and butter until they melt and come together. Set aside.
 
In a separate bowl beat the eggs and sugar together with and electric whisk until they are pale and fluffy, this will take about 5 minutes. Slowly add the chocolate and butter mixture to this, whisking the entire time.
Sift in the flour, baking powder and cocoa and stir through until the mixture is combined. 
Spoon the mixture into 12 cup cake cases, fill them till about half way as they will rise.
 
Place in the oven for 20 minutes or until cooked, let cool before icing
 
Peanut Butter Frosting
 
200g soft butter
1/2 cup of peanut butter
2 cups of icing sugar
 
Place the butter and peanut butter into a bowl and beat with and electric beater until they are pale and fluffy. Sift the icing sugar in, and stir through until combined. Place in a piping bag and pipe onto the cooled cup cakes.
Peanut Brittle 
 
1/2 cup roasted peanuts
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of water
 
Place the peanuts on a lined baking tray, set aside. Place the sugar and water into a saucepan on a medium heat. I like to swirl the pan just to combine the sugar and water, I never stir it. You don’t want sugar crystals to form, many people use a wet brush to brush down the sides of the pan. I just leave it to do its thing, it will take about 5 minutes to become a beautiful amber colour, just make sure you watch it the whole time as it can burn very quickly. When it turns amber remove from the heat and pour over the peanuts. Be careful as it is ridiculously hot. When the toffee is hard either chop it up with a knife or place it into a bag and smash it with a rolling pin. Sprinkle over the top of the frosting and place the bigger shards into the top.

Guinness Stew

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Happy St Patricks Day everyone! Whats more Irish than Guinness, ok maybe four leaf clovers and leprechauns, which are really hard to find, and I could hardly cook them, could I?

Now I was never a lover of stews (casseroles). I think I have childhood memories of eating to much of the stuff. I’m sure all New Zealand Children grow up eating stews. Well it really is a good hearty meal, and because of the climate, well what better meal to cook on a cold winters night.

 I think when you eat something to much especially as a child you get it in your head that you really dislike it, well I certainly did.
It wasn’t until a few months back that I was working late one night when my Dad was in town, and he cooked a stew for dinner. He put all sorts of things into it including parsnips which is vegetable that I have never really been fond of. The meal was a simple hearty stew that was really good.
So when I saw a recipe in ‘Good Taste’ magazine for a Guinness Stew, I thought hey why not. Being me I can never follow a recipe to the exact detail so this is my version of their stew…..
Guinness Stew
1.5kg of stewing beef chopped
olive oil
1 chopped red onion
5 chopped french shallots
1 teaspoon of crushed garlic
5 slices of bacon
1.5 cups of mushrooms sliced in half
2 cups of beef stock
400mls of Guinness stout
4 sprigs of thyme
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
2 tablespoons of cornflour
1/4 cup of water
 
Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees
 
Heat the oil in an french oven on the stove top. When the oil is hot, brown the meat. Add the onion, shallots, Garlic, bacon and mushrooms and cook until browned. Then pour in the stock and guinness. Add the thyme, rosemary, tomato paste and stir to incorporate. 
 
Cover with the lid and place in the pre heated oven. Cook for 3 hours or until the meat is tender.
Combine the cornflour and water to make a paste and then stir into the stew to thicken. 
 
Serve with some mashed potato.

Banana Bread

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Ok, so its taken me about three hours to figure out how to put a like button for Facebook on this page. I have come to the conclusion that I simply hate HTML coding, its like talking in a foreign language. Its worse than that it would be like trying to communicate with aliens, in actual fact that would probably be easier. I finally managed to find a website that explained how to do it and gave me the coding (Jump for joy). There was however one small hick-up, I had an account with facebook not a page, which who knew made all the difference.
So to those who are following my old account sorry but I will be getting rid of that just as soon as I have attempted the impossible and tried to bring the content over to the new page. The new page is a little empty at the moment, but all you have to do is click like. Over there ———->

Banana Bread

So….. I have no food in the fridge, well limited food in the fridge, which, to be honest is an unusually occurrence for me.
I do however have a banana which probably should have been eaten a week ago, and has turned black. One banana is not much good, so a quick rummage through the freezer, to find the other two bananas I put in there a couple of months ago. And what do we have? Banana bread I think. I haven’t made it for the longest time.
I am, however out of milk, yet for some strange reason happen to have some cream in the fridge, so my fridge isn’t completely empty. Oh and there is eggs and butter in there too, but even an empty fridge has these vital ingredients, doesn’t it. Well mine does.
So out of nothing comes something…..

Banana Bread

100g butter
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 eggs
2 tablespoons golden syrup
3 very very old bananas, mashed
1/2 cup of cream
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Pre heat the oven to 180C

Cream the butter and sugar together, add the vanilla, eggs, golden syrup, bananas and cream and stir through. Sift in the flour and baking powder into the banana mixture and stir until combined.
Pour into a lined loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes or until cooked.

The beautiful cups in these photos where generously donated to me my a good friend, Maree, thank you Maree there so beautiful, I will treasure them.