A little bit about Donna Hay's caramel slice recipe

I love Donna Hay.
I used to watch her shows on TV, in awe of her fluid and simple cooking.

Then I got her cookbook!!

It has amazing photography and recipes of mains, baking and dessert...

Must try:

flatbread...

sponge cakes...

 Swirl loaves...

 panna cotta!! and brioche...

creme caramel ~I LOVE CREME CARAMEL~

Because it's a Donna Hay recipe, I thought I might as well go for gold by using quality ingredients, as opposed to the usual Basics/ Home Brand I purchase :p

Including Cadbury melts- which are really good to eat by themselves too...

And using the best butter!
Just kidding- these are too good I will not use it for cooking! I bought this from The Foodshow this year (blogpost coming soon..)

I made her caramel slice, this is pretty much the exact recipe except I substituted half the chocolate for white chocolate to marble the two :)

125 gr of butter to be melted

Mix it together with the dry ingredients

Press into a lined tin with the back of a spoon, and bake until golden :)

The filling: condensed milk, golden syrup and another 125 gr of butter.
Two cans of condensed milk is a lot ae?!
Most recipes only use one, but I trust you Donna!!

Looks like creme brulee after it has been baked, doesn't it?

And then marble that chocolate... :)

Marble Caramel Slice

base:

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup dessicated coconut

1/2 cup brown sugar

125 gr butter, melted

filling:

1/3 cup golden syrup

125 gr butter, chopped

2 cans of sweetened condensed milk

chocolate marble top:

100 gr dark chocolate melts

100 gr white chocolate melts

1 Tbsp vegetable oil (not olive oil)

1. Place the flour, coconut, brown sugar and melted butter in a bowl and mix well to combine

2. Press into a lined slice tin with the back of a spoon

3. Bake at 180C for 15-20 mins or until golden

4. To make the caramel filling, place golden syrup, butter and condensed milk in a medium saucepan over low heat.

5. Stir until butter has melted and the caramel has thickened slightly

6. Pour over cooked, slightly cooled base and bake for a further 20 mins or until golden

7. Refrigerate until cold

8. Melt the chocolate in seperate bowls, with half a tablespoon of oil in each

9. Pour over caramel top and spread with the back of a spoon for a marble effect (You can retouch the marbling with a toothpick :)

10. Refrigerate until set then cut into slices

Tips:

~ Pour hot water over the measuring cup before pouring in the golden syrup. This makes the syrup stick less to the cup when you pour it into the saucepan.

~ When melting chocolate, use clean and not wooden utensils. Chocolate is sensitive to moisture (wood is porous, it may contain moisture) and most importantly, careful not to get water in the bowl! It will spoil the chocolate

~ When you cut the slices, dip the knife in hot water so it won't stick to the caramel
~ Same idea with cleaning the slice tin; soak it in hot water and any sticky caramel on the sides will easily wipe off

Okay, it is really really sweet. I had one square and I'm reeling from its sweetness.
Next time: Lessen the sugar and maybe one and a half can of condensed milk only. Man it's so sweet...

My action group girls loved it! Even said it's not too sweet
So when you make it, up to you really whether you reduce the sugars or not :)

I gave jt two slices wrapped in tinfoil today and he said it's the best baking I've done!

<3

So I made a limit...

And to conclude,

I like this post by my friend Dominic
http://dominusdeussabbaoth.blogspot.sg/2012/03/just-kiss-away.html

by my friend Dominic

Signed,
Elisa

A little bit about banana chocolate chip muffins with cinnamon crumble tops

A couple of months ago jt mentioned how much he likes bananas; banana cake, banana muffins, banana bread... and ever since then it's been niggling me that I should do a banana bake item.

The thing is, the bananas have to be overripe- very brown and soft for easy mashing and sweetness of flavor.

And I forget to set aside any bananas!

 But this time I made a conscious reminder for me and everybody else in the house. 

It took about 3 days for these bananas to go from edible yellow to this color.

This recipe jumped out at me because it contains golden syrup. How special!

As I browsed other recipes, I decided to add chocolate chips and a cinnamon crumble topping for extra texture.

Banana chocolate chip muffins with cinnamon crumble tops

150g butter
2 Tbsp golden syrup
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 very ripe, brown bananas, mashed
2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chocolate chips (I didn't measure how much I used, maybe even up to a cup)

For the cinnamon crumble topping:
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons plain flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
20g butter

1. Melt the butter and golden syrup

2. Add vanilla essence, mashed bananas and eggs. Stir well

3. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and brown sugar with a whisk

4. Make a well in the centre and pour in butter mixture

5. Mix gently until just combined. Do not overmix

6. Spoon a tablespoon full of batter into each lined muffin tin

7. Drop a few chocolate chips and fill to the top flat with more batter

8. Put in the oven at 220C bake for no more than 5 minutes, while you make the crumble topping

9. To make the crumble topping, place ingredients in a bowl and cut in the butter until it resembles coarse crumbs

10. Sprinkle on top of muffins and continue to bake for a further 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean

Makes 12

I actually had a bit of trouble making the crumble topping (impatient) and I didn't know how to 'cut in the butter'. But mama rescued it hehee...

Note:
It is important that you do not overmix muffin mixtures. Otherwise they go hard and over-dense when they're cooked. Lumpy is fine.

I ate two straight out of the oven.

I gave jt five. During action group planning, Jeanny and Abigail had one each (she fed a piece to her fiancee, it was so cute and funny; she sanitised her hands afterwards) and JimBob was so nice, he gave us the couches to have action group! So I gave him one too and he said my bf is a lucky man. And then I was thirdwheeling the other EJ couple ("Where's-Joshua Wednesday"), and mile is always hungry so they shared a muffin and said it was yummy!!

I hope you all enjoyed it!

And to conclude,

highlight of my day: watching the Athletes in Action basketball team from USA play against our very own UoA team! An event hosted by Studentlife!

I was really excited.

We have weekly events every thursday 1pm in SLT 2 with speakers each week talking about how God has changed their lives. You should come!


Signed,
Elisa