My Cooking Diary//Recipe Two

I had a blast in the kitchen early this morning...everything slipped away as I rolled out biscuit dough and smelt the gingery smell of baking cookies wafting around the kitchen...

Mmmmm...I love ginger... It just so happens that on Wednesday I’m preparing my first complete meal of my ‘cooking course’ and the dessert I’ve decided to make is ‘ginger tart’. The recipe calls for ginger nut biscuits and preserved ginger pieces. I made the biscuits this morning to stay ahead and I am also going to try making my own preserved ginger....we’ll see how that goes – anyone have some tips???

These delicious ginger cookies make wonderful tea time treats and don’t have that dreadful ‘overly ginger’ taste to them which you find in many shop bought ginger biscuits.

To make them you will need:

270ml (250g) butter

625ml (530g) sugar Note: I used less sugar than the recipe called for as I found the biscuits too sweet...and unhealthy:0

2 large eggs

125ml (180g) golden syrup Note: You really don’t need so much

1200ml (650g) cake flour

15ml ground ginger

12.5ml baking powder

12.5ml bicarbonate of soda

Method:

Step one: Beat together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and syrup and mix well. Sift the dry ingredients and 4ml salt together and add to the butter mixture. Mix until a soft dough is formed.

Step two: Roll out the dough into small balls and place on a greased baking tray – leave enough room between the biscuits. Bake in preheated oven (180 degrees Celsius) for 12 to 15 minutes.

Step three: Leave the biscuits to cool for a few minutes on the baking tray then transfer to a metal rack.

Enjoy with a cup of tea...

Recipe credit: Ideas Magazine January|February 2010

Cookies will stay fresh for a week or so if you keep them in an airtight container.

More from my kitchen soon,

Kelly-Anne

My Cooking Diary//Recipe One

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you’ve been having a wonderful and blessed day so far.

As my school curriculum mainly consists of practical things such as photography courses, blogging, card making, cooking, etc, my mom and I have come up with a way for me to document one of my passions and learn more about it.

......

I have chosen to work through a recipe book containing over 400 recipes and share my experiences and photographs of the finished meals on my blog. It will be a way to document my work and hopefully inspire others to have fun in the kitchen.

Of course I cannot make all the 400 recipes listed, but I certainly can choose a few to try each month.

The book I plan to use for the rest of this year is an old South African seasonal recipe book. Each month the author gives a run down on the ingredients available for that particular month. Recipes contain a selection of those specific ingredients. Most of the recipes are savoury but there are a few sweet ones, too, as well as preserves and pickle recipes using seasonal fruit and veggies.

I also hope to grow most of my own ingredients to make my food that much more delicious, tasty, economical and healthy. 

I hope you enjoy the journey with me and feel free to join in...

Recipe One//A Breakfast.

“This morning I put together a breakfast dish for my family. I wanted to bake it in the wood oven, but, since we are a considerably larger family than the norm, we needed to double the recipe and use two ceramic dishes instead of one, which weren’t going to fit in our wood stove!

Next time I make this dish I hope I can add home grown vine tomatoes to it as well as use dairy products and eggs from our farm. Milking is on hold for now while we introduce a new calf to Molly, the cow. I miss having raw milk...

I did, however make my own bread – I popped the ingredients in the breadmaker last night to get a nice and ‘airy’ loaf. Usually we make ‘farm bread’ which is a bit denser than bread made in our little machine.”

Breakfast Bread and Butter Pudding

Butter, for greasing

12 slices homemade bread, crusts removed

Olive oil, for frying

3 chorizo or other spicy sausage, cut into chunks (I used boerewors)

1 punnet (250g) brown mushrooms (I used button)

1 packet (300g) vine or cocktail tomatoes

Salt and milled pepper

2 tbsp (30ml) thyme leaves

1 cup (250ml) milk

4 extra-large eggs, beaten

Serves 4

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Grease a 20-25cm ovenproof dish with butter.

Cut bread into triangles and overlap slightly in dish.

Heat a glug of oil in a pan and lightly fry sausages and mushrooms.

Scatter over bread and allow to fall between slices.

Dot with tomatoes, season and sprinkle with thyme.

Beat milk and eggs together and pour over bread.

Allow to stand for 10 minutes or until bread soaks up liquid.

Bake for 30 minutes or until egg has set.

Serve.

Recipe Credit:  Pick n Pay Fresh Living - October 2010, Issue 31

Mmmmm...it was divine:)

Kelly