thursday baking - blueberry and yoghurt scones

Morning tea today was one of these delicious scones, warm from the oven. The yoghurt in them makes them beautifully light, and the sugar on top forms a lovely crunchy crust. I stocked up on frozen blueberries yesterday, Countdown sell the -18 below brand of frozen blueberries which were on sale for just $7.99 for a kilo bag, a great price. Lois Daish has long been one of my favourite NZ food writers, her departure from NZ Listener being sadly lamented. The recipe makes 9 scones, just the right amount to eat while they are still fresh. I will definitely be making these scones again.

Blueberry and Yoghurt Scones - Lois Daish - Week 32

2 c flour
4 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp castor sugar
80g butter
1/4 c natural yoghurt
3/4 c milk (may need a little more)
milk/sugar to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 200c. Combine the flour, bp and sugar. Rub in butter with fingertips. Add combined yoghurt and milk, pouring into a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Mix lightly with a knife until just combined. Gently pat into a square 2-3 cm thick, and cut into 9 scones. Brush tops of scones with the milk and sprinkle with extra sugar. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and crunchy on top and bottom.

Thursday baking...and the winner is

Jessica! Congratulations. Please email us at the address below so we can arrange delivery of your new book & you can start baking.


We were astonished by the number and quality of responses from those of you eager to join the LWD baking family. And we're keen to take advantage of your enthusiasm!

We are always thrilled to have special guest posts. So, we've made a list of all the recipes we are yet to bake from ATONZB. If something takes your fancy and you'd like to post it for Thursday baking, then please send us an email at lovelyweedays@gmail.com. We'll provide you with the recipe, which you can then bake, photograph, write up and email to us to be published one Thursday. Here's the list of treats still to be baked - we look forward to hearing from you!

All-in-one Pavlova
Almond, Cherry & Cranberry Cookies
Almond Sponge with Citrus Yoghurt Cream and Summer Berries
Baked French Chocolate Tart
Caramel Meringue Slice
Caramel Pecan Slice
Carob Espresso Brownie Slice
Carrot Cake
Cheese Muffins with Melted Brie
Chocolate & Hazelnut Biscotti
Chocolate Custard and Fruit Pastries
Chocolate Date Crumble Slice
Chocolate Raspberry & Coconut Slice
Coconut Meringue Cake
Courgette Slice
Courgette Walnut Loaf
Cranberry & White Chocolate Shortcake
Dark Ale Fruit Cake
Date & Orange Muffins
Delicious Family Favourite Banana Cake
Dream Kisses
Eccles Cakes
Fay's Mumbles
Fig & Aniseed Plaited Scone Loaf
Forgotten Cookies
Fresh Peach Cake
Fresh Plum Cake with Spicy Plum Sauce
Fruity ANZAC Biscuits
Ginger Shortbread
Greek Yoghurt & Honey Cake
Hazelnut Meringue Cake with Grapes
Jewel Nut Cake
Jilly's Chocolate Cake
Lemon Cream Cheese Cake
Lemon, Lime & Almond Cakes
Lemon, Lime & Poppyseed Syrup Cake
Lemon Yoghurt Cake with Orange Blossom
Lolly-Scramble Cupcakes
Louise Cake
Macaroon Dessert Cake
Madeira Cake
Madeleines
Manuka Honey Ginger Snaps
Margaret Price's Ginger Gems
Melting Moments
19th Century American Spiced Apple Cake
No-Bake Ginger & Coconut Chocolate Slice
Oat & Barley Scones
Olive Oil Cake
Orange & Hazelnut Cakes
Orange Blossom Water Madeleines
Orange Muesli Slice
Orange Sponge Cake
Panforte
Pineapple Cake
Plum and Cardamom Shortcake
Rhubarb Cake
Rhubarb Friands
Rich Christmas Cake
Rose Petal Shortbread
Scones
Spiced Date Cake
Summer Berry Baked Cheesecake
Superb Chocolate Cake
Sweet Orange Angel Food Cake
Tamarillo Friands
Upside-down Blueberry Polenta Sponge
Vanna's Chocolate Cake
Viennese Pineapple Cake
Walnut & Orange Passover Cake
Walnut, Prune & Apricot Slice
Wee Choc Almond Cupcakes
Weekend Cake

Thursday baking - rhubarb and strawberry shortcake

The other week I had a random selection of toppings left over from my porridge stall at the farmers market, roasted rhubarb, raspberry coulis, apple and blackcurrant compote and some blueberry compote. I wanted to make something for pudding, and crumble was the obvious choice, but I have crumble fatigue at the moment, having made so many to sell at the market. So it was the perfect opportunity to try Lois Daish's shortcake recipe, using my mishmash of leftover fruit. I didn't measure the fruit at all, and probably used quite a bit more than the recipe called for.

This was a lovely pudding, but we also enjoyed it the next day, cut into wedges and served cold from the fridge. Next time instead of making it in a round cake tin as advised I might use a square one and then cut it into squares to serve as a slice. Either way, it worked. In summer I will try it with strawberries, as they are such a perfect partner to rhubarb, but we loved the flavour of the mixed berryfruit with the tart rhubarb and granny smiths.

My adapted recipe below is in extreme shorthand, apologies but my earthquake-obsessed-sleep-deprived brain just doesn't have the energy or desire to quote Lois word for word (fellow food bloggers is there anything more tedious than transcribing other people's recipes verbatim onto said blogs?!) Thankfully Daisy and I are about to depart to more stable and sunny climes, and Miriam will be joining us shortly, so LWD may be a little quiet for the next wee while...

rhubarb and strawberry shortcake - Lois Daish (Week 24)

3-ish cups of cooked fruit

125g butter

125g sugar

1 egg

225g flour

25g cornflour

1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 180c. Line the bottom of a 20cm cake tin with baking paper. Cream soft butter and sugar, add egg, sift in dry ingredients. Spread 2/3 of this mix into the cake tin, pressing it evenly over base and up sides. Top with prepped fruit, and crumble the remaining shortcake over this. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Dust with icing sugar and enjoy

thursday baking - cappuccino date slice

Thursday baking this week was made by Mum, who has been making this yummy slice for years. It's like a coffee (flavoured) cake with dates in it, and being a melt and mix, one bowl recipe it is very quick and easy to put together. The dates tend to sink to the bottom; I'm not sure how to avoid this, as flouring the dates first tends to result in pesky bits of uncooked flour getting trapped in their crevices, not so nice! Maybe we could try chopping them a bit smaller. It's quite sweet so is nice cut into smallish pieces, Mum took it to a morning tea so this batch was bite size.

Cappuccino date slice - Jo Seagar - Week 23

Slice

2 eggs
1 c brown sugar
180g butter, melted
1/2 c milk
2 tbsp coffee and chicory essence (avail in the coffee section of supermarkets)
1 c dates, chopped
1 1/2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder

Coffee Icing

2 c icing sugar
1 tbsp coffee essence
25g butter, melted
boiling water

Preheat oven to 150c. Line a 20 x 30cm slice tray with baking paper.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl or cake mixer, add the other ingredients and mix well to combine. Spread into the tin and bake for 30-35 minutes until firm in the centre. Cool in the tin.

To make the icing beat all ingredients together with enough boiling water to form a smooth, glossy icing. When cold cut into 30 slices. This can also be frozen.

Thursday baking - sultana cake

As we bake our way through A Treasury of NZ Baking...

This week's Thursday baking is brought to us by our guest blogger Jane:

I’ve been enjoying baking date loaves and taking them to work for morning tea with my Milo (I’m not yet a coffee drinker - Miriam is working on this). This week Miriam suggested I try something different from the Treasury book, and this Sultana Cake looked a suitable substitute. We often have sweet treats at work so I enjoy more filling cakes and loaves if I’m going to have a daily snack. I also appreciate the simplicity and quick preparation of a basic cake/loaf.

I felt a bit of guilt as I watched the sultanas absorbing the melted butter… however I took heart in the fact that I didn’t cover the cake in butter, as I normally do when I have date loaf! In saying that, I found the cake very sweet with all the sugar and sultanas in it. I think you could reduce the amount of sugar and still be satisfied. The cake was plentiful so we won’t go without morning tea for quite some time.

Sultana Cake – David Burton (week 21)

225g butter
450g sultanas (I used slightly less sultanas and put a few dates in)
3 eggs
145g raw sugar
145g white sugar
½ tsp vanilla essence
½ tsp lemon essence (I used lemon juice)
1 tsp baking powder
170g wholemeal flour
170g standard flour

Preheat the oven to 160 deg C. Remove the paper wrapping from a block of butter and place, greased side up, in the bottom of an expandable baking tin. Expand or contract the tin to fit the size of the butter paper (we don’t have the recommended 20cm square tin so use a spring form round tin lined with baking paper).

In a saucepan, cover the sultanas with cold water and bring to the boil. Drain off the water. While the sultanas are still hot, cut the butter over them in little pieces and leave to melt.
Whisk the eggs and both sugars until creamy. Add the essences. Sift the baking powder with the standard flour, mix with the wholemeal flour, then combine these with the sultana batter. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.

Bake for 1-1 ¼ hours, until the cake shrinks a little from the sides of the tin. Remove when still warm and leave to cool on a wire rack. This cake will keep in an airtight container for several weeks.

Thursday baking - gingerbread loaf

As we bake our way through A Treasury of NZ Baking...

I love gingerbread, and this simple loaf looked worth trying. It was easy to put together, and spread with a little butter it has been an understated, but perfect morning tea morsel lately to enjoy with my daily coffee. Substantial and sweet without being too OTT or treaty. My loaf was a fraction dry - I suspect I overcooked it a little - but it was lovely all the same. I upped the amount of ground ginger, which I think it definitely needed. I don't usually go for crystallised ginger, but was so glad I included it, as this and the sultanas really made it. This loaf kept well for over a week (I think I was the only one eating it as we have had a surplus of baking in the house lately!)

gingerbread loaf - Tui Flower (Week 20)

125g butter

3/4 c brown sugar

2 eggs, beaten

3/4 c treacle

2 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 tsp ground ginger (I added 2 tsp and it still wasn't overly gingery, just nicely spiced)

1/4c crystallised ginger, chopped

1/4c candied peel, chopped (I added orange zest instead)

1/4 c sultanas

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp milk

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and treacle and mix well. Sift in dry ingredients and mix in thoroughly. Add dried fruit. Dissolve baking soda in milk and add that.

Spoon into a lined 19x7cm deep loaf tin. Bake at 160c for 1 - 1 1/4 hours. (Next time I think one hour would be plenty in my oven).

Thursday baking - crunchy lemon muffins

As we bake our way through A Treasury of New Zealand Baking...

Alison Holst says she's often told these are the most frequently made muffins in her several muffin books. Becs and Libby both remember having these muffins in the 90's, however I think my family missed that craze as I don't recall ever eating or making them before. As we have a bowl full of lemons, I thought I'd give these a go and see what I've been missing out on.

The muffins are easy to make. They were delicious when still warm out of the oven, but I found that even an hour or so later they were a bit tougher (perhaps I over-mixed the mixture - mine didn't look nearly as delicate as the ones in the picture in ATONZB). The recipe recommends serving the muffins warm or reheated with tea and coffee, and I agree this is the best way to have them. The lemon and sugar mixture definitely lifts these muffins, and I think they'd also be delicious with a dollop of cream cheese in the centre - I might try that next time!

crunchy lemon muffins (Alison Holst) - week 19

2 cups self-raising flour

3/4 cup sugar

75g butter

1 cup milk

1 egg

grated zest of 1 large or 2 medium-sized lemons

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 200C. Coat a 12-hole muffin pan with baking spray.

Stir the flour and place it into a fairly large bowl. Add the first measure of sugar, and using a fork, toss to mix. Melt the butter in the microwave. Add the milk, egg and lemon zest, then whisk together with a fork until combined. Tip this mixture into the dry ingredients.

Mix gently, using a flat-bladed stirrer, until the dry ingredients are dampened, but the mixture still looks rough. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pans, try to put only one rounded spoonful into each hole (I forgot to do this when I was spooning in my mixture!)

Bake for about 10 minutes, until the tops of the muffins are lightly browned and the surface of a muffin springs back when lightly pressed. While the muffins bake put the juice and the second measure of sugar into a small bowl. Without stirring to dissolve the sugar, use a pastry brush to apply the sugar and lemon mixture to the hot, freshly cooked muffins in their pan. Repeat until all the lemon mixture is used. While the muffins are still fairly hot, lift them carefully from the pan onto a wire rack to cool. Serve them warm or reheated with tea or coffee, add to packed lunches or enjoy on any other occasion.

Thursday baking - bran biscuits

As we bake our way through A Treasury of NZ Baking...

Something savoury this week....I love a good oat biscuit with cheese, so thought I would try these bran biscuits to see how they stacked up. They are quick to make, and so much nicer than crackers you can buy. The mixture was really dry, there didn't seem to be nearly enough liquid to dry ingredients, so I added at least 1/4 c milk to make a dough.

They were quite nice, great for a filling (fibre rich!) mid morning or afternoon snack topped with some aged cheddar and quince paste. I think I prefer the texture of oat biscuits to the bran ones though, and will post my favourite recipe for these next time I make a batch.

bran biscuits (Amanda Laird) - week 18

100g butter, softened
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 c bran
1/2 c wholemeal flour
1 c self raising flour
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180c

Cream the butter and sugar until pale, add the egg and beat well. Stir in the combined dry ingredients, then tip onto a floured surface and knead lightly. (I had to add milk at this stage).

Roll out and cut into rounds, 5mm thick. Bake on a greased or lined tray for about 20 minutes. (I turned the biscuits over half way through so they browned evenly).

Thursday baking - pear and ginger upside down cake

As we bake our way though A Treasury of NZ Baking...

Our sister Sarah is on holiday at the moment so she's helping us out with the Treasury baking this week, here's what she thought of the pear and ginger cake...

I'm a big fan of pears and ginger together and this cake caught my eye when flicking through the book. It looked like the perfect dessert for a cold winters night. Friends coming for dinner provided an opportunity to test it out.

Instead of the fresh pears suggested in the recipe, I used some that Becs had poached in red wine. Served with custard, the cake was delicious. It had a nice texture and the poached pears worked really well. I was worried that uncooked pears may have remained a little crunchy. I was, however, a little disappointed with the lack of ginger flavour. I had suspected this may be the case when I saw only 2 tsp of ground ginger in the recipe. If feeling like more of a ginger kick, next time I would probably use the tried and true Ruth Pretty gingerbread recipe as the base. Nevertheless, it was very simple to prepare and still very tasty.

Upside- down Pear Cake (Helen Jackson) - week 17

150g butter
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
11/2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
50g butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 pears peeled and sliced into eighths

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line 20cm springform tin with baking paper.
Cream first measures of butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, baking powder and ginger and stir into egg mixture.

Melt second measures of butter and brown sugar together and pour over baking paper. Cover with sliced pears. Spoon cake mix over the pears. Bake for 4o minutes. Leave to rest for 5 minutes before inverting on to a serving plate. Serve with whipped cream, custard or caramel sauce.

Thursday baking - crunchie bar shortbread

As we bake our way through A Treasury of NZ Baking...

This recipe jumped out at me when I first flipped through the Treasury. A shortbread recipe with ground almonds and big chunks of smashed up Crunchie bar. Yum. I have made these twice now, the second time with self raising flour as we had run out of regular flour. This resulted in chunky cookies rather than crisp shortbread, these were ok but rather ordinary, and I preferred the texture of the shortbread.

The second time I also used half chopped Crunchie bars and half chopped Crunchie bar chocolate block (you can see the difference on the chopping board below...) and it was better with the chopped bars as you get more honeycomb, which melts as they cook so provide a lovely toffee-ish crunch. It looks cool too.

This shortbread would be a fun recipe to make with kids, who I am sure would love to smash up the crunchie bar. Next time I make this (and there will definitely be a next time) I think I will double the recipe, in order to keep one roll of dough in the freezer for last minute baking.

Crunchie Bar Shortbreads - week 10 (Claire Aldous)

250g butter, softened
1 c icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp rice flour
3 tbsp cornflour
70g (1 pkt) ground almonds
2 x 50g Crunchie bars


Preheat oven to 175c and line 2 trays with baking paper. Beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy. Combine the remaining ingredients except the Crunchie bars, and add to the butter mix. Beat to combine.

Put the Crunchies in a plastic bag and crush roughly with a rolling pin. Gently mix this through the dough, taking care to not crush the larger pieces - you are after a range of sizes.

Roll tablespoons of dough into balls and flatten lightly with a fork. (I rolled the dough into a log, chilled it and then sliced it into rounds) Bake for 12 minutes, rotating trays halfway through to ensure even cooking. Leave shortbreads on the tray for 5 minutes to firm up before transferring to a rack to cool.

This makes about 24

Thursday baking - feijoa coconut bread

As we bake our way through A Treasury of NZ Baking...

Here's a good recipe to make while feijoas (my favourite fruit) are around. I really liked this loaf, it had a delicious tropical flavour, and the texture from the cooconut took away that grittiness that feijoas can give to cakes. I didn't have quite enough feijoas - with my source not being a free one they are less than abundant around here - so I made up the difference with mashed banana. Feijoas have such a strong flavour I don't think it would have made too much difference, and I think I will make this next time as banana bread. There is an option to ice it but it really doesn't need it, a little icing sugar does the trick.

The recipe makes 2 huge loaves, so enjoy one now and perhaps pop one in the freezer for winter when you are missing feijoas...

feijoa coconut bread - week seven (Susan Fleischl)

460g flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3 eggs

420g castor sugar

330ml vegetable oil (I used 300ml and this was fine)

2 tbsp vanilla extract

125ml buttermilk (none in the fridge, so I used warmed milk with a squeeze of lemon juice)

1 1/2 c feijoas, peeled and mashed (I used 1 c feijoas and 1/2 c banana)

Preheat the oven to 170c. Line 2 large loaf tins with baking paper.

Combine dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl combine the eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla and milk until smooth.

Gently combine the two mixtures, then fold in the feijoa and coconut.

Bake for 50 minutes (mine took an hour) or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out.

Thursday baking - Gateau aux Noix

Our challenge to bake our way through A Treasury of NZ Baking...

I decided to make this cake for us to eat on Easter Sunday. I loved the simple, sophisticated look of it in the book, with the glossy chocolate icing and perfect walnut halves, and I really like the texture of cakes with ground nuts in them instead of flour. With fresh walnuts being in season and therefore plentiful and cheap at the moment, it seemed like a good time to make it.

My only quibble with the recipe was the ingredient list stating '2 slices of white bread' were required, from which you are instructed to make the breadcrumbs that go into it. Libby recently gave me a copy of 'The Pedant in the Kitchen', an amusing little book, the author of which would have a field day with this instruction. While I wouldn't usually consider myself a pedant in the kitchen, this lack of precision was a bit annoying. The kitchen scales were out to measure the other ingredients so why couldn't the breadcrumbs just have been listed by weight too?! Anyway, I used some baguette as we otherwise only had Vogels, and used 8 slices, figuring the small rounds would equate to '2 slices of bread'. In hindsight it was probably a few too many breadcrumbs, as although the cake was moist it was a little crumbly.

Pedantic comments aside, this cake was quite delicious. The flavour of the lemon zest came through quite strongly which was nice. The chocolate icing added richness, but overall the cake tasted rather elegant and understated, just as it looks.

Week Two: Gateau aux Noix (Peta Mathias)

Cake

2 slices of bread
150g butter, soft

100g sugar

4 eggs, separated

zest of 1 lemon

150g walnuts, ground

pinch salt

25g sugar (extra)

Icing

100g dark chocolate
30g butter

walnut halves

Preheat oven to 150c. Toast the bread in the oven till dry, then grind up in a food processor.

Grease a 23cm round cake tin, dust it with flour, and line the base with baking paper.

Cream the butter and first measure of sugar, then beat in the egg yolks one by one, beating in well.

Stir in the lemon zest, breadcrumbs and walnuts.

In another bowl whip the egg whites and salt until they form stiff peaks. Add the extra sugar and beat for another minute. Fold this into the cake mixture and pour into the tin.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean and the sides of the cake pull away slightly from the tin edge. Cool in the tin.

To make the icing gently heat the chocolate and butter together and mix till smooth.

This cake will keep for 4 days.

baking on thursdays

Introducing a new LWD regular...

Every Thursday one of us will post something we've made from A Treasury of New Zealand Baking - a collection of 104 recipes from New Zealand cooks, bakers and food writers. That's exactly two years worth of baking if we try each recipe... Hopefully it will provide some motivation to bake out of our comfort zone and try some new recipes.

Wannabe bloggers - if you have the book and want to help us out, send one of us an email with a picture and a wee rundown of the recipe you tried and we will post your results!

Week One: Fruit Salad Loaf (Claire Aldous)

This recipe seemed familiar when I chose it from the book. After flicking through my pile of yet-to-be-filed recipes I found I already a copy of it cut from Ruth Pretty's Saturday Dominion Post column a couple of years ago (its also here on her website). The version in the Dom Post (called Orange and Apricot Cake) has more fruit in it, and vanilla which is missing from the version in the book. Next time I'll try the Dom Post version and compare.

It made a lovely moist loaf and although it says its "a keeper" I took it to work for morning tea where it quickly disappeared. It reminded me a bit of hummingbird cake, but with apricots and orange and no almonds.

Next time I won't add nearly as much lemon juice to the icing - it was much to thin and most of it ended up dripping onto the bench. Next time I'll also use tart Central Otago dried apricots - much nicer than their Turkish counterparts.

Fruit Salad Loaf

150g butter, at room temperature
175g caster sugar
175g standard flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp mixed spice
3 eggs
zest and juice of one orange
8 plump dried apricots, thinly sliced
1/4 cup well-drained crushed pineapple
1/3 cup mashed banana

Icing
3/4 icing sugar, sifted
Zest and juice of 1 lemon (I just used juice and made candied lemon and orange zest to decorate)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease base and sides of a loaf tin and line with baking paper.

Beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and ,mixed spice.

Beat eggs into butter, one at a time, until well mixed. Add the dry ingredients, orange zest and juice, apricots, pineapple and banana. Fold together using a large metal spoon. Tip the batter into the tin and smooth the top.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the loaf is firm and the sides are pulling away from the tin.

To make the icing, sift the incing sugar into a bowl and add enough lemon juice to make a smooth pourable icing. Drizzle this over the loaf, allowing some to run down the sides. Sprinkle the lemon zest over the top while the icing is still wet.

The loaf will keep in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

Variation
Candided lemon and orange peel can be substituted for the fresh lemon zest. Before icing the cake, cut strips of zest, then cook in 100g sugar and 100ml water until soft. Drain and dry on a kitchen towel. (I also rolled the zest in caster sugar once cooled).