Nut Bread

Another strangely labelled recipe. Nannas of yore, we really need to sort out your naming conventions! Bread that is absolutely nothing like bread. No kneading, no proving, no yeast. Just a lot of dates and some nuts. I’m renaming this to STICKY DATE NUTTY SOMETHING. It’s not quite like a cake, nor a pudding. I’m really at a bit of a loss to explains its real purpose. The texture was soft, fluffy, full of air, slightly elastic and sticky. Like eating sticky date fluffy clouds. But it has no real sense of place; is it a dessert post-dinner, a mid-afternoon snack with a cuppa, a high tea contender? Confusing.

I took this one into work (like I do all the recipes), and I don’t think I’ve heard quite so many appreciative moans emerging from my guinea pigs work colleagues as I did today. I was told by many that this recipe, this one, is the best yet. The Coffee Biscuits That Could Bring About World Peace may have just lost their edge… (they still hold a warm fuzzy in my heart, but this Sticky Date Nutty Something was quite…wonderful). The stakes raise higher and higher with each cooking effort! I do realise this paragraph is somewhat lacking in humility, however I make no apology for the food joy I bring others. It’s how I give love. Sticky date love. That’s not a euphemism by the way.

I had to make this one twice, as does happen from time to time. It seems I had incorrectly transcribed the original handwritten recipe and typed one tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda, rather than one teaspoon. That’s 20ml v. 5ml. A huge difference. I tasted the mixture prior to popping it into the baking tin, and my face may have acquired a very strange and pained expression for a long moment in time. The salt levels were horrendous. Like poison. A quick look at (my photocopy of) the original and I quickly realised my error. Effort number two with the correct version was thankfully much better! I also trebled the amount of walnuts in the second version, as the original recipe seemed a bit light on. 

  

Nut Bread

1 cup dates

1 tsp. bicarbonate soda

1 cup boiling water

1 egg

½ cup sugar

1 tbsp. butter

½ cup self-raising flour

3 tbsp. chopped walnuts

1 pinch salt

Preheat oven to 160°C.

Grease (really well) well and line with baking paper a medium sized loaf tin.

Stone & chop the dates, place into a bowl & sprinkle the bicarbonate soda over them. Onto this, pour the cup of boiling water, stirring a little to mix through then let stand until cool.

Cream the butter and sugar, then add the well beaten egg, sifted flour and salt. Add the chopped walnuts and the date mixture, stirring well. 

Pour into prepared loaf tin, and cook for around 25-30 minutes. It browns easily so you may want to check that it's cooked by using a skewer to check the centre of the cake/pudding thing. You'll know it's done when the skewer comes away clean. 

Note, the mixture may seem quite runny before you pour it into the loaf tin, however don’t worry! It works out fine, and I think it’s meant to be like this. 

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For those of you who are not in Australia, please find here a selection of Measurement & Temperature Conversion Charts which should help with the accuracy of your own cooking. 

Grated Apple Pancakes

I went walking through the bush on the weekend with a friend of mine, she and I had decided to explore a National Park about an hour and a half’s drive from home and it was such a peaceful, warm and sunny, relaxing day. We ambled through quite beautiful countryside, and with a little guide book and a giant map, found our way to a couple of really pretty spots. Of course while walking, we talked and talked about all sorts of stuff — life, food, travel, other walks completed and those not yet trod. We spoke about travel, in particular the different experiences we’d had when travelling to India and Nepal, having both been some years apart.

Natural Bridge, Springbrook National Park

While we were making our way up a bit of a hill, I was struck by a memory from my Nepal trip. This is a food memory of course, please bear with me while I get to the recipe we’re eventually going to talk about! I had become ill while hiking through the Himalayas and had to unfortunately cut my trip short; I had a fantastic guide who walked back with me through the mountains to the small airport so I could fly back to Kathmandu. We had stopped in at a little guesthouse somewhere between Khumjung and Namche Bazar for a snack and a cup of lemon tea (hot lemon flavoured Tang actually, and yes, there is such a thing). I had zero appetite but I had to eat something. My guide, Lal, gave me a potato thinking I’d be able to manage that. To a chorus of giggles from the other guides sitting nearby, I bit into it, not realising that one is to peel the potato before eating it. Potato etiquette…who knew? Anyway, I managed a bit of that, but Lal was not convinced I’d eaten enough, so he ordered me an apple pancake with lots of extra sugar sprinkled on top. This I ate most of, eventually, and will never forget how patiently he sat next to me making sure I got that next mouthful down. At this point in the telling, I remembered that one of the recipes in Nanna’s cookbook was a grated apple pancake recipe! I knew then what I should be cooking next for this blog.

This recipe for the Grated Apple Pancakes seemed easy enough, however as the scones have taught me, I really should know to approach some of these recipes with a cynical gaze. Before we begin cooking, a reminder, one needs to have squeezed the moisture out of the grated apples before mixing all the ingredients together and frying them. The original recipe calls for just the grated apple, sugar and eggs. What I ended up frying, the first time, were a heap of wet sloppy pieces of grated apple which formed nothing resembling a pancake. A disaster.

Grated Apple Pancakes…take two. Once the mixture had been made the correct way, and I had added the self-raising flour (a modern addition that I think is essential to this recipe, nothing was holding those pancakes together otherwise), I was thinking to myself how healthy they seemed. Apple! Egg! A small amount of flour and sugar! Then I remembered, these are shallow fried pancakes, fried in oil. Quite tasty with a sprinkle of cinnamon and a piece of fresh apple, it must be noted that these fit firmly into the comfort food category. Delicious comfort food.

Grated Apple Pancakes

4 medium apples

1 tbsp. sugar

2 eggs

3 tbsp. self raising flour

Oil, for shallow frying

Peel, core and grate the apples. Squeezes excess moisture through a strainer, and place into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar, eggs, sifted flour and stir well together.

Heat oil in frypan — only a few tablespoons should be required, depending on the size of your pan.

Spoon around a dessertspoon’s worth of the pancake mixture into the hot oil, and cook for a few minutes each side, until golden brown.

Enjoy with a glass of apple juice! (I swear, that's what's in the glass in the background of the photo.)

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For those of you who are not in Australia, please find here a selection of Measurement & Temperature Conversion Charts which should help with the accuracy of your own cooking. 

Mildred’s Nut Loaf

While out at dinner tonight with 3 lovely friends, I discovered to my horror that some (all) of them haven't been reading my blog! Incredible news I know, and yes, I am just as shocked as you. It did make me think about how I can further spread the news of these ye olde recipes — I really think these recipes are pretty delicious, surprisingly delicious, and I want more people to be able to see what I'm doing. Also, some of the recipes are very delicious. Very.

Last week I was talking with my mum about these recipes, as I am wont to do quite a bit given my levels of confusion with ingredients, cooking styles and odd and mysterious measurements. (Just what sort of trombone can be used to make a cake? A trombone pumpkin as it turns out. Yes, THAT recipe went straight into the bin let me tell you. Pumpkin.) Anyway, I'd mentioned I was going to give Mildred's Nut Loaf recipe a go, and Mum asked if I had a nut loaf tin. Of course I replied, "I don't know what that is". Two days later, one appeared in the mail. 

It's like wishes I didn't even know I wanted made are being rained upon me! I then had to google how nut loaf tins are actually used. One stands them upright as it turns out, and they have to be well greased and lined, in order for the cooked nut loaf to slide right out. To become the cake equivalent of what looks awfully like a strange roll of luncheon meat, I know that's a disgusting comparison, but it does. Thankfully though, it tastes delicious and now I feel a bit guilty about potentially insulting the memory of Mildred. 

Mildred’s Nut Loaf

2 cups self-raising flour

1 tbsp. sugar

1 tbsp. treacle

115g finely chopped walnuts

Pinch salt

1 egg

1 cup milk

85g chopped dates

1 tbsp. raisins

Preheat oven to 160°C.

Grease and line with baking paper your nut loaf tin (or a normal loaf tin if you don’t have one).

Sift flour into a bowl, add the sugar, salt, walnuts, and raisins. In a separate bowl, beat the egg and milk together, then add the treacle and chopped dates, mixing well. Add to dry ingredients and then spoon the mixture into prepared loaf tin. The mixture shouldn't completely fill the tin, about half to two-thirds full.  

Cook for 45-50 minutes. Once removed from the oven, allow to sit for 5 minutes before removing nut loaf tin lids and tipping (or pushing) the loaf out onto a cooling rack.

Slice the nut loaf, and serve with lots of butter!

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For those of you who are not in Australia, please find here a selection of Measurement & Temperature Conversion Charts which should help with the accuracy of your own cooking. 

First Prize Scones

The most erroneous title ever, given how long it's taken me to bake scones that look, or taste, anything like scones. Or food. I think I hate scones. They are my baking nemesis. I urge you once again to revisit Scones of Horror. 

The scones I ended up making were as a result of a plaintive cry made on Facebook, a wail of despair that caused friends and family to come running with their suggestions and tricks and tips for 'The Perfect Scone'. I received some great suggestions about how to 'fix' my Nanna's recipe for 'First Prize Scones'; lemonade was mentioned, as were special mixing implements that seemed to have been invented just for scones. Offers of phone calls from scone savants to talk me through the recipe were made. It was wonderful and overwhelming, and I want to thank everyone who responded in my moment of scone need. 

The recipe I ended up using was one I identified as being the simplest to follow, and ended up with scones that looked and tasted like scones. Also, these are an excellent medium by which one can consume vast amounts of jam and cream legitimately. 

Simple Scones

2 cups self raising flour

1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 220°C

Sift flour into bowl, add milk, stirring through with a knife. Roll to a thickness of about 2 cm, then cut with a biscuit cutter or into squares. Place the scones close together on a greased/floured baking tray, and brush lightly with milk, or dust with a little flour.  

Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes. 

I took the scones to work, and was describing how simple I found this batch to a colleague, who turned to me and said, "two ingredients? You know you've made glue, right?". Yes. I've made glue. It was delicious.

For those who are better at sconning than I am (and I suspect that's every single one of you), I include below the recipe from my Nanna's cookbook for you to try and fix for me! 

First Prize* Scones

3 cups plain flour

3 tsp. Cream of Tartar

1 tsp. Bicarbonate Soda

1 tsp. salt

Milk

Sift dry ingredients together thrice. With a knife, mix through enough milk to create a medium paste consistency. Roll and bake in a quick oven.

*First Prize? Not sure what competition these scones would be winning.  

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For those of you who are not in Australia, please find here a selection of Measurement & Temperature Conversion Charts which should help with the accuracy of your own cooking.