Seed & Nut Rusks

One of the best parts of our recent trip to Mozambique? Sitting on the deck with coffee and rusks, watching the sun rise over the Indian Ocean. 

What a sublime way to start the day. 

On the drive back home, I asked my husband Did we appreciate that enough? 

Because having my tea and rusk this morning, while I packed school bags and yelled at  reminded the kids to brush their teeth, wasn't quite the same!

Whether is time in a game park, camping in the 'Berg, or a trip to the coast like we've just done; having rusks in the morning is so very South-African, isn't it? 

It's just what you need before going on a dawn game drive, or heading down to the beach for an early morning swim.

These are the rusks I made for the trip. They saw us through until the second last day.
When the coffee and rusks ran out, it was time to come home!



Seed & Nut Rusks
Recipe by Tea, Cake & Create

Preheat the oven to 180'C. Grease and line a large shallow baking tray with baking paper (eg. a 40 x 25cm cookie tray)

Ingredients:
250g cake flour
200g wholewheat flour
50g coconut flour
200g brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
50g rolled oats
100g sunflower seeds
100g mixed seeds (pumpkin, linseed, chia, sesame, etc)
100g raw almonds, roughly chopped
40g desiccated coconut
2 extra large eggs, lightly beaten
250ml canola oil
250ml buttermilk

Method:
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Make a well in the centre, and stir in the eggs, oil and buttermilk.
Mix until well combined.
Spread the dough into the prepared baking tray.
Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
When cool, remove from the baking tray, slice lengthways into three long rectangles, then slice each rectangle into fingers, about 2cm wide.
Arrange these on cookies trays, slightly spread apart. Dry out in a warm oven  (3-4 hours at 70'C).
Remove from the oven once crisp.

Enjoy dunked in tea of coffee, preferably with your feet up in front of a great view!

xxM

Pistachio and Turkish Delight White Truffle-Fudge Squares

These were the result of a last minute request to make something for a colleague who likes white chocolate. 

It had crossed my mind to make white chocolate truffles, but I was deterred by the time-consuming, ganache-setting, truffle-rolling, chocolate-dipping part of their production. (The entire process, in other words!)  

So, instead, I looked for an "easy white chocolate fudge recipe"  - those being the exact words I fed into Google.  

The one I found certainly appeared quick and easy. But not typical.
And the results were not typical of fudge either.  (For me, there's a certain amount of crunch and crumble in a square of standard fudge.)

These, though, while smooth, rich, creamy, and not too-sweet, have a softer texture that's quite like, well ... like eating squares of ganache.
Truffle-like, in other words. (No truffle-rolling, and chocolate-dipping required, though!)

So here we go...

Pistachio and Turkish Delight White Truffle-Fudge Squares.
Recipe adapted from Inspired by Michelle Cake Designs

Grease and line* a 20x20cm square baking pan.
*Make sure to use a sheet of baking paper that rises above the edge of the pan. This will make it easier to remove the "truffle-fudge" once it has set.
 
500g white chocolate
1 can condensed milk
30g butter, chopped into cubes
50g chopped pistachios
50g turkish delight, chopped into small pieces / mini cubes

Place the chocolate, condensed milk and butter in a microwave-proof bowl, and microwave on high for 30 seconds. Remove from the microwave and stir. Repeat until the chocolate has melted, and the mixture is smooth (don't over-heat).
Stir in the pistachios and pieces of turkish delight.

Pour into the prepared square pan. Refrigerate for approx. 3 hours until set.
Remove from the pan and cut into small squares (dip the knife in boiling water to make cutting easier).

Pistachio and turkish delight is just one suggestion. Try other nuts, citrus zest, chocolate chips, etc for other flavour options.

Happy baking!

xxM  

Oreo Drip Cake

 So,  I thought I'd just quickly whip up a little something to celebrate World Chocolate Day yesterday...

That little something was a mug of hot chocolate. It was delicious.

This cake, on the other hand, took several hours to put together, and was made for a different reason entirely. And because there's not much more to say about my hot chocolate, I'll tell you about the cake instead.

Inspired by an image from Pinterest,  it's a choc-chip pound cake filled with cookies & cream icing, covered in white chocolate ganache, The drip is dark chocolate ganache, and the swirls on top are cream cheese icing  (I just put some plain icing aside when making the cookies & cream icing).

Because white chocolate is really beige chocolate, and I wanted to mirror the dark chocolate / white icing of the Oreos, I added Rolkem concentrated colour, Arctic Snow to the white chocolate ganache. It didn't change the taste significantly, but made it set really quickly. A little too quickly to work comfortably with.  (Ganache is tricky to smooth when it has set).
I was very happy with the end colour, though.  What do you think?

And no, I haven't posted a recipe for  the choc-chip pound cake yet.
Sadly, I couldn't take a slice of this cake to photograph before I handed it over to it's new home. (Strangely, they wanted it in tact...)
So, I'll just have to find an excuse to bake another one and post the recipe then...
Would you like to come over for tea?
😋

Happy baking!

xxM