Blueberry Muffins

Today was my day off work and the first thing i found myself doing was standing in the kitchen thinking, what am i going to bake today. Last week i found these cafe style muffin wraps in the supermarket which i have been looking forward to trying out and as i kept looking around the kitchen i found a packet of frozen blueberries. What better way to start the day then with warm blueberry muffins?

This is a great recipe that i found and adapted from the Delicious Sweets cook book, the ultimate collection of all things sweet from delicious magazine. They are moist, easy to make and the combination of blueberries and sugar lemon vest on top gives them a fresh, not too sweet flavour.

Serve them for morning tea warm with butter.

I love these new cafe style muffin pans

 





The perfect moring tea tray

New York Style Bagels

Bagels sprinkled with poppy seeds served with cream cheese

I first tried bagels while i was in America last Christmas and absolutely fell in love .Sadly it is hard to find fresh bagels in Australia and after trying the only brand i could find in the supermarket and being disappointed i started to look up recipes to create my own.
First i was amazed at how bagel are cooked. For years i have heard how bagel are not the most healthiest breakfast , so i immediately thought they were deep fried and cooked in oil. This is not the case. Bagels actually go through two cooking processes. You first poach bagels for one minutes each side before transferring to a tray and bake them in the oven for 15 minutes. I also discovered that there are so many recipes out there that all use different ingredients, some use honey, some use malt while others are dusted with onion flakes or have blueberries added to the mixture. After looking through many recipes i decided to go with this site, http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-homemade-bagel, it not only had a great recipe but also supplied a video with step by step instruction that i found very helpful.

I am completely satisfied with my bagels. They were easy to make, smelt amazing and the taste took me right back to snowy mornings in America. So if you have never tried a bagel before or if you want to give home made bagels a go, i would defiantly recommend this website, you wont be disappointed.
Bagels for breakfast, yum.........

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-homemade-bagels

Pecan Pancakes

        There is nothing better then waking up on a sunday morning after sleeping in and cooking pancakes for brunch, and thats exactly what we did this morning. One of my favourite restaurants to go to for breakfast serves the most amazing pecan pancakes. They are the perfect combination of sweet and slaty, fluffy pancake and crunchy pecan pieces, and are delicious served with maple syrup, a scoop of ice cream, and a cold glass of milk.

           I find the best way to cook pancakes is to start on a low heat so you dont burn the butter and then build the heat as they cook. Using a ladel to pour the mixture into the pan helps to create a more cirle shaped pancake. Once you see the bubbles coming through, turn your pancake. You should aim to only flip each pancake once. After a few pancakes you will be able to time your flips better. Enjoy!
 

Coffee Cake with Caramel Icing

I have sprinkled the top with Nescafe instant Caramel latte

I have always loved the smell of coffee but have only just recently taking up drinking coffee. After some trial and error i have discovered my coffee of choice is be a caramel latte. In inspiration of my new found love for caramel lattes here is my recipe for coffee cake with caramel icing, the perfect afternoon tea treat!

The Macaroon Challenge

I have decided to set myself a challenge to make the perfect macaroon. Yesterday was my first attempt to conquer my challenge and i have came to realise this will be no easy task. A macaroon is described as a meringue like biscuit, crisp on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside made with eggs whites and most commonly almond meal. My attempt at Pistachio and orange blossom macaroons was not a complete failure, in fact i was quite surprised how they turned out.
The key points to making macaroons i have found is to make sure they are all the same size, this is important when it comes to matching them up and how the end appearance will look. The eggs white would be the most difficult aspect, they have to be beaten until firm but if you go too far they will become watery and split. You must take care when folding the egg whites through the remaining ingredients and try to keep as much air in them as possible so it is best done with a metal spoon and a light folding action. You can tell when the macaroons are cooked as they will have a rim around the bottom which will look like it has risen slightly.
My plan is to keep working on this recipe, trial and error and experiment with different flavours until i come up with the perfect macaroon. So this is definitely not the last time you will see macaroons on this blog. Next time i am going to cook my macaroons for just a little longer as they were still a little sticky on the bottom. They were also a little too sweet so i am going to try and cut back some of the icing sugar. So take up the challenge, check out the recipe and join my quest for the perfect macaroon.