Coconut, Almond and Nut Butter Bars (No Bake, Paleo)

It's almost the end of term two and my immune system has not been very kind. I've been sick in bed with a burning sore throat and no voice for three days, it's no fun! As a teacher your voice is your most important professional tool, without it, the job becomes very difficult. Whilst being held up in bed, I've had some time to edit some photos of a gorgeous little slice from a few weeks ago. Now it wouldn't be a Master Chefette post if I didn't write a bit of an anecdote that has little or no relation to the recipe in question, so here goes. 

Last week I was at an author event at a local bookshop. Books are my absolute weakness as a shopper (in addition to shoes and bags and everything really) and I knew this event would be dangerous given that is was in a bookstore. I am an absolute sucker for picture story books that I can use in the classroom and professional literature. The author I went to go see was renowned and celebrated Australian author; Glenda Millard. If you have children, are a teacher, actually if you just love beautiful literature, she's freaking amazing and also one of the loveliest people, so go check out her gorgeous books.

After being on a 'book high' and armed with all of my fabulous Glenda Millard books, I had to take one last look around the store, enter my other weakness; cookbooks. I have mountains of cookbooks, which is quite funny given most of my favourite recipes come from the blogosphere. None the less, I spent some time perusing the cookbooks especially the Paleo section. Now I am not here to spark debate regarding the Paleo Pete Evans lifestyle, but when I was a Paleoist (is that even a word?) Paleo eater, I felt good and I really loved some of the Paleo recipes on offer. Enter this little piece of healthy heaven. After doing lots of flicking and thinking, I decided I wanted to come up with a snack type bar, for morning tea to replace the muesli bar which was full of goodness. So here's my paleo slice, bar which is a definite crowd pleaser, it's full of all those buzz words, organic, paleo, wheat-free, gluten-free and sugar-free but loaded with de-lish!

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Paleo Coconut, Almond and Nut Butter Bars (No Bake)

by Master Chefette June-11-2015

A healthy, quick and easy lunch box treat for adults and kids!

Ingredients

• 300g Almond Meal
• 90g Shredded or Dessicated Coconut
• 130g Nut Butter (I used organic peanut, but you could use cashew, hazelnut etc)
• 4-5 tablespoons (I went with 5, I'm a sweet tooth) Maple Syrup
• 100g Coconut Oil (Melted)
• 1 Vanilla Bean (scraped)
• 1 tbls Coconut Flour
• 150g Dark Chocolate (for topping, optional)
• For decoration Cashews and Goji Berries

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients (except for chocolate) into food processor and whiz until well combined.2. Line a slice tray with baking paper.3. Pour mixture into tin and press down firmly with a spatula.4. Set aside and melt chocolate. The kind of chocolate you use depends on how much sugar you like the higher the cocoa % the less sugar. I used a lovely Lindt 75% . Spread melted chocolate on top. 5. I pressed in some goji berries and cashews for good measure. Refrigerate and cut once set.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: Total time: 15 mins Yield: 12-18 bars

Sugo Al Ragu - Slow Cooked Oxtail Ragu Pasta Sauce

Ragu seems to be the 'flavour of the month' so to speak. It's all over Masterchef, My Kitchen Rules and what all the celebrity chefs are talking about. As an Italian (Sicilian) we never actually called this simple pasta sauce a ragu, to us as the children, the Aussiefied version was just chunky meat sauce. We had this discussion around the dinner table not too long ago about all the trendy terminology that has been picked up and is now in everyday vernacular. If I had a dollar for everytime my Nonna said that a 'latte' literally translates into milk and how absurd it would be to order a large milk from Gloria Jeans, I'd be a rich lady! So is similar with ragu... "what's this ragu?" she says, you would have never seen that on a menu 30 years ago. Well I'm certainly glad things have changed and we are seeing this delightful dish more and more.

This particular dish brings me back to some of my earliest memories. My Dad has always taken great pleasure in watching the infants in our family suck on a big juicy bone (like a puppy) and get a lovely big sauce moustache after having pasta with sugo al ragu.

Like a lot of Italian cooking, it's very hard to place quantities on ingredients and such, since Italians are BAD with recipes, everything is by look and feel, which is kind of beautiful too. Although this forever means that nothing is ever as good as Nonna's!

With this recipe anything goes really, so if you have pork use that, if you have lamb use that, spice it up and use a combo if that's what takes your fancy, whatever your taste buds desire will be perfect!

Watch the tutorial...

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Sugo Al Ragu - Slow Cooked Oxtail Ragu Pasta Sauce

by Dee @ Master Chefette April-29-2015

A delcious, full-bodied, melt in the mouth pasta sauce. Perfect comfort food!

Ingredients

• 2kg Oxtail
• 1 Diced Onion
• 2 cloves Garlic
• 1/2 cup Red Wine
• 400g tin Diced Tomatoes
• 2 x 700g bottles Passata
• 2+ litres Water
• 2 Bay Leaf
• 1 stick Celery
• 1 Carrot
• 500g Tomato Paste
• Salt, Pepper, Herb Seasoning
• 1 tblsp Sugar
• 1 knob Butter
• Dash Milk

Instructions

1. Heat a large pot on the stove covering base with olive oil. Once warm add onion and garlic.2. Add oxtail or preferable meat to the pot and seal until lightly caramelised.3. Add in red wine.4. Add passata, tomato paste and diced tomatoes to the pot followed by the water. At this point the sauce should be quite thin and liquidy (see video).5. Throw in celery stick, whole carrot, bay leaves and seasoning followed by milk, butter and sugar.6. Allow sauce to simmer on a medium heat for 3-4 hours stirring constantly. Keep tasting to see whether more seasoning or water is needed.7. Nonna says when you start to see the dark oil on top of the sauce, it's ready. So once ready, serve on top of your favourite pasta.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 3 hour Total time: 3 hour 15 mins Yield:

Wholemeal Vanilla Yoghurt & Blueberry Muffins

Spring has definitely sprung here in the UK, it is no exaggeration when I say the sun has been shining for a whole week, as in 7 days of sunshine. I'm no stranger to the sun being an Aussie, but I am a stranger to celebrating the sun like the Brits do, because it is a sight they rarely see. I saw bright yellow daffodils in the garden and a crisp green lawn and I knew I had to bake some spring time Blueberry Muffins and get out in the garden and take some pictures. These muffins aren't as unkind to the waistline either... you're welcome ;-) ! What's cooking at the moment in your kitchen?

Ingredients

1¾ cups wholemeal flour

¾ cup raw sugar 

½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs 

125gm butter or margarine
1 cup vanilla yoghurt (I use Danone Vanilla)
1½ cups of blueberries

1 tsp of vanilla extract
Cinnamon for sprinkling 

Method

1.   Preheat oven to 170°C (fan forced)

2.   Cream butter, sugar and vanilla bean paste in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, I use the paddle attachment.

3.   Add eggs to the mixture.

4.   Gradually add salt and flour in 3 batches.

5.   Once combined gradually add the yoghurt.
6. Fold in blueberries with a rubber spatula.

7.   Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups ⅔ full and sprinkle muffins with a touch of cinnamon and raw sugar.

8.   Bake at 180°C (fan forced) for 20-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake with Coconut

It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago. I turned the ripe old age of 26, obviously cake was going to be a big part of my birthday. I was starting to get excited because I could pick a recipe and it didn't really have to please anyone else, after all, it was my day! I was then told it would be "sad" if I made my own cake, so the condition was that I was not allowed to bake but I was allowed to decorate! I settled on the Donna Hay Melt and Mix Chocolate Coconut cake. Coconut is one taste I've acquired as an adult and I think it is perfect in cake. However when I thought back to the Donna Hay cake, there was nothing technically wrong with the recipe, in fact I love the flavour, but I really did want a super moist cake, and that one is just a tad dry for my liking. I'd long heard the urban cake myth about using mayonnaise in a cake to make it extra moist and when you think about the main ingredients (oil & eggs) , it really does make sense, so I thought if I could find a good choc-mayo recipe (thank you Serious Eats) and then add some coconut, I'd have my Donna Hay favourite with extra moisture... So here it is, it was perfectly moist, perfectly cocnutty and perfectly fun for a birthday. I was channeling my inner cake inspiration with the decoration on this one, Sweetapolita as I droooled every time I saw this post!

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake with Coconut

• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups mayonnaise
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 cups + 1 tablespoon dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, generous
• 1 1/3 cups hot water
• 1 cup shredded coconut

Chocolate "Galaxy" Frosting (enough to fill generously between layers and frost outside)

• 440 grams salted butter (room temperature)
• 380 grams (sifted) icing sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 250grams of your favourite plain chocolate ( I used Galaxy/Dove)
• 1 tablespoon of Nutella
• 1 tablespoon of milk

Cake Method

• 1. Preheat your oven to 180°C. Grease and line two or more 9" cake tins (I used 3).
• 2. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl on medium-high speed until thick and very light in color; about 6 to 8 minutes. 
• 3. Add the mayonnaise and vanilla extract, and beat on medium speed until combined.
• 4. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt, and beat on low speed until combined. The mixture will look thick and fudgy. 
• 5. Add the water and mix on low speed until it's incorporated. The batter will be much thinner. 
• 6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and bake for about 30 minutes (check it at about 25 minutes), or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.Allow the cakes to cool on a rack, in their pans, for 10 to 15 minutes or until they are cool enough to handle. Invert them onto the rack and allow to finish cooling to room temperature.

Frosting Method

• 1. Combine icing sugar and butter in an electric mixer for about 3 minutes or until combined.
• 2. Add vanilla, melted chocolate, Nutella, and milk and mix until combined (approx 3-5 mins)

Best Ever Scones

I love scones. I love the simplicity. I love a good Devonshire Tea and what I really LOVE is a good scone recipe. We all have our favourite scone recipes, maybe even ones that have been passed down from generation to generation, well not mine. Mine is actually from Super Food Ideas and ever since I found this gem, I've been making them ever since. The beauty of them is, that there are only four ingredients... just four. They are quick, easy and tasty and this recipe is a great classic to have in the recipe book.

Ingredients 

3 cups self-raising flour
pinch of salt
1 cup of double cream
1 cup of lemonade or sprite for you Americans

Method

Yield- 24 small or 12 large scones

1. Preheat oven to 220°C. Sift flour and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the center. Pour in cream and lemonade.

2. Mix with a knife or with an electric mixer with the dough hook until mixture has come together.

3. Turn on to a lightly floured surface and kneed until smooth, being careful not to over-kneed.

4. Cut with a scone cutter or even cut with a knife in squares, whatever takes your fancy. I normally keep my dough at about an inch thick, because I like big scones, but this is completely up to you. 

5. Bake for around 10-15 minutes or until golden, again this will vary on the size of your scones. Best served with jam and freshly whipped cream!

Happy Baking xxx

Nigella Lawson's Coca Cola Ham

So you probably read the title and thought "Ham? But it's April. Ham is a Christmas thing." Well, yes traditionally ham does come out at Christmas time, but why should it just come out during the festive season. Growing up in an Italian family, ham is not something we ever had at Christmas, it's just not our thing, our thing is lasagne and lamb and loads of other Italian goodies, so we never fully embraced the ham, and what a shame. This past Christmas I was in charge of making the ham, I had never made one before and I wasn't even sure I'd even sure I'd eat it, but I did and I loved it! I went to the trusty Nigella Lawson website and followed her Ham in Coca-Cola recipe, step-by-step and it turned out perfectly, so much so that I even made it this past weekend as a bit of a care package for someone. Considering how much meat is actually in a ham, it was actually really cost-effective and using this recipe made it oh so tasty, don't diss the coke until you've tried it!

(Adapted from the Nigella Lawson recipe featured here. Recipe credits from nigella.com)

• For the ham
• 2 kilograms mild-cure gammon or ham
• 1 onion (peeled and cut in half)
• 2 litres coca-cola

For the glaze 

• 1 handful of cloves (I left them out)
• 1 heaped tablespoon black treacle
• 2 teaspoons english mustard powder
• 2 tablespoons demerara sugar or raw sugar 

1. Put the gammon in a pan, skin-side down if it fits like that, add the onion, then pour over he coke. Bring to the boil, reduce to a good simmer, put the lid on, though not tightly, and cook for just under 2½ hours. (If your ham is larger or smaller, work out timing by reckoning on an hour per kilo, remembering that it's going to get a quick blast in the oven later. but do take into account that if the gammon's been in the fridge right up to the moment you cook it, you will have to give it a good 15 minutes or so extra so that the interior is properly cooked.)

2. Preheat the oven to 240°c/gas mark 9. When the ham's had the appropriate amount of cooking time, take it out of the pan and let cool a little for ease of handling. 

3. Remove the skin, leaving a thin layer of fat. Score the fat with a sharp knife to make fairly large diamond shapes, and stud each diamond with a clove. Then carefully spread the treacle over the bark-budded skin, taking care not to dislodge the cloves. gently pat the mustard and sugar onto the sticky fat. 

4. Cook in a foil-lined roasting tin for approximately 10 minutes or until the glaze is burnished and bubbly.

Easter Nest and Mini Egg Vanilla Cupcakes

A few weeks ago I saw the cutest picture on Pinterest, it was a cupcake with a gorgeous little frosted nest and mini eggs in the center, the perfect treat for Easter! I knew I HAD to try and create it, so I got my eBay on and ordered my Wilton grass/hair 233 piping nozzle. I had a very trusty co-Chefette in the form of Lisa and we baked these little babies for a work "Bake Off". Again, I used my favourite vanilla cupcake recipe from Rosie at Sweetapolita, so all recipe credits to her magical baking talents for these little babies!

 Classic Vanilla Cupcakes

(Recipe Credit: http://sweetapolita.com/2012/10/vanilla-bean-white-chocolate-birdie-cupcakes-and-video-tutorial/ )

275grams or 2 ½ cups cake flour

OR

100 grams corn flour

175 grams plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup full cream milk

2 large egg whites

1 whole egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

300grams caster sugar

115 grams butter

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and center the oven rack. Line 2 muffin/cupcake pans with your favourite standard-size cupcake liner, and put the first cupcake pan on a baking sheet. (You will place the second cupcake pan on the same sheet in the oven once the first tray is baked.)

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk together the milk, eggs and vanilla extract in a medium bowl or large glass measuring cup.

3. In an electric mixer fitted with the whisk or paddle attachment (I used the whisk), cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until very pale and creamy, about 5 minutes.

4. With the mixer still on medium speed, alternate additions of the flour mixture and milk-egg mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (3 dry additions, 2 wet), beating after each addition until incorporated. Continue mixing on medium speed for 2 minutes.

5. Divide batter evenly among your cupcake liners–about 2/3 full–and bake until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs only, about 16 minutes.

6. Carefully remove the cupcakes from the pan and let cool on wire racks. Repeat with second tray.

White Chocolate Frosting

227 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature

175 grams white chocolate

½ vanilla bean, seeded and scraped

Pinch of salt

375 grams sifted icing sugar

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter for 3-4 minutes on medium speed (I use “4″ on my KitchenAid). Butter will become very pale & creamy.

2. Melt chocolate in microwave in a small heatproof bowl, or over a pot of simmering water on the stovetop, stirring often. Let cool.

3. Add melted chocolate to butter and beat until incorporated. Add vanilla bean and salt and mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Add sifted icing sugar, beating on low speed until just combined, increasing to medium speed until well combined. (I added some pink food colouring to mine and piped the frosting on top using the Wilton rose attachment)

(I added dark chocolate to a portion of the frosting to make the nest, and green food colouring to the rest to make the base)