Pasta Salad with Tomatoes, Olives, Ham

I love onions, tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, olives. If I can combine them all, I just will :)

I pull this from various recipes so I can't really reference anywhere. Let's just say this is my first creation 

I made a large quantity as it was for a dinner party.

Ingredients:

1. 750g fusilli pasta

2. 200g diced ham

3. Tomatoes, a huge bowl, cut into small pieces 

4. Sun dried tomato- 1 cup

5. 1/2 cup sliced olives

6. 1 large red onion, thinly slice

7. 6-7 cloves of minced garlic

8. 1/2 cup red wine vinegar

9. Salt and pepper to taste

1tablespoon of dried oregano

10. 1 cup olive oil or use oil from the sun dried tomato

1. In a large bowl, mix tomatoes, olives, oregano, onions together with olive oil and the red wine vinegar. Season with salt and pepper as well

Let it sit for around 30 minutes and keep tossing in between

2. Cooked pasta till al dente

3. Let it cool then mix together with the mixture in step 1. Add in ham and sun dried tomatoes. Keep tasting and adjust accordingly to suit.

4. Chill in fridge until ready to serve

Ginger Cranberry cocktail

Adapted from tenina.com for her fabulous tmx recipes.

I tweaked it a little to suit taste

Ingredients:

2 cups water

180g sugar

1.5 cup sliced ginger

1 bottle apple cider 

1 bottle of white wine

Mint leaves for garnish

Ice to serve

Method:

1. Place water, sugar, ginger. 10 mins, 80C, Sp1

2. Allow ginger to soak into the sugar overnight before sieving it out

3. Combine all ingredients when ready to serve

Lemon shortbread slice

Adapted from:

http://tenina.com/recipes/lemon-shortbread-slice

Base:

250g walkers shortbread biscuits

60g butter

1 lemon zest

2tsp vanilla essence

Topping:

4 eggs

Zest of 2 lemons

70g plain flour

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

200g caster sugar

180g freshly squeezed lemon juice

Icing sugar to garnish

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C, line a 16cm square cake tin with baking paper.

2. Place all base ingredients in tmx. 15s, Sp8

3. Pressed into tin and bake 10 minutes till golden brown

4. Cool. Reduce oven to 160C

5. Make the topping. Place all ingredients except for lemon juice into tmx. 20s, Sp8

6. Add lemon juice and blend 20s, Sp8

7. Pour into baked base and bake for 20 minutes or until centre is just a little bit wobbly but set.

Boil Christmas Cake

Adapted from : http://www.themotherhubbardscupboard.com/boiled-fruit-cake/

Ingredients

375g Mixed Fruit (pre packed mixed dried fruit or your own concoction)

7 Dates

7 Dessert Figs

2 Tablespoons of Fig Jam

1 Cup Brown Sugar (160g)

1 Cup Water (250g)

125g Butter

3 Eggs

1/2 cup Brandy (optional)

1/2 teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda

1 Cup Plain Flour

1 Cup Self Raising

1. Place pitted dates and figs into the bowl, chop 3 seconds/speed 7.

2. Place butter,  mixed fruit,  jam, sugar, and water into the mixing bowl and cook 13 minutes/100 degrees/reverse/speed 1.

3. Add rum (optional) and bicarbonate, stir for 30 seconds/reverse/speed 3. I omit alcohol for this time

Leave to cool for almost 4-5 hours.

4. When mixture is completely cool and you are ready to cook. Preheat oven to 120 degrees and prepare cake tin (20cm round) with 2 layers of baking paper on the bottom and sides (this is to stop the cake from drying out.

5. Place eggs and flour into the cooled fruit mixture and 1. mix 2 minutes/reverse/speed 3 then pour out into prepared tin

oven for 2 hours or when a cake skewer comes out clean. Leave in the tin to cool (As stated, I normally turn off the oven after 2 hours and leave overnight to cool)

7. When cake is cold, wrap in aluminium foil then plastic wrap and keep in the fridge, it is a very moist cake and will get mouldy if left out! Then you can wrap it all nice and pretty and give it to friends.

Gingerbread Cookies

Adapted from:
http://thermobliss.com/the-best-thermomix-gingerbread-recipe/

I doubled the recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup of golden syrup
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons of ground ginger
• 2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 250g of butter - chopped into cubes
• 2 egg
• 4 1/2 cups of plain flour

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and line two baking trays with paper.
2. Place the golden syrup, sugar, butter and spices into your Thermomix bowl and cook for 5 minutes at 50 degrees on speed 2.
3. Add the egg and mix for 3 seconds on speed 3.
4. Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda and mix for 10 seconds on speed 5 or until combined.
5. Knead for 2 minutes before turning the dough out onto your Thermomat and lightly knead to form a ball.
6. Flatten the dough into a disc, cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
7. Roll the Gingerbread dough between two sheets of baking paper until approximately 5mm thick. Use cutters of your choice to cut out shapes and place on baking trays. Bake for approximately 9 - 11 minutes - please note baking times will vary depending on the size of the cutter used.
8. Allow the gingerbread to cool and decorate as desired.

* I had to add a it more flour as mixture was too wet. After resting in the fridge for 40 mins, it was much workable but became soft quickly. Had to put inside fridge to make it workable again.

Baking was fast, 11minutes was perfect for mine cookies. I used the large gingerbread cookie cutter as it will be used for decorating.

Easy Thermomix Rich Chocolate Cake

Adapted from:
http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/baking-sweet-recipes/rich-chocolate-cake/17281

INGREDIENTS

Rich Chocolate Cake

• 200 g dark chocolate,, broken into pieces
• 180 g sugar
• 180 g unsalted butter,, cut into pieces
• 50 g plain flour
• 1 pinch of salt
• 3 eggs
• 150 g fresh or frozen raspberries

RECIPE'S PREPARATION

Rich Chocolate Cake

1. 

Preheat oven to 190°C.

2. 

Place chocolate, butter and sugar into mixing bowl and melt for 5 min/60°C/speed 2. Don't be concerned if the sugar doesn't dissolve, just make sure the chocolate and butter have melted.

3. 

Add flour, a pinch of salt and eggs and mix for 15 sec/speed 4.

4. 

Pour into a lined 20cm round cake tin and bake for 20-30 minutes or until the edges have come away from the sides of the tin and a skewer tests almost clean.

5. 

Garnish with raspberries before serving.

TIP

This cake is best eaten cold as it almost sets when it is cooling to a fudgy interior and chewy sugary crust. Just lovely.

Dust with icing sugar or top with chocolate icing to serve. This cake is wonderful as a rich, decadent dessert cake.

Use any flour you like. Self raising flour for a lighter cake, plain flour for a denser cake, gluten free flour for people with allergies or spelt flour for the extra protein.Use any sugar you like. I've used white sugar and rapadura sugar in this recipe and both work well.

Gummy lollies tmx way

1 litre of fruit juice. Ensure to sieve

12 tbs of gelatine powder. Soaked into juice for 10 minutes

Pour into tmx, cooked 5mins on 50C , Sp2

Added 2 tbs sugar

Pour into mold and chill for 1-2 hours 

Egg tart cake flour pastry version

Adapted from:

http://themissinglokness.com/2012/03/12/egg-tarts/

Another take of the egg tart recipe, custard taste the same but pastry is lighter as it is made with all cake flour. Will be good if you need to use up cake flour

My version:

–    I used 15 tart tins

Ingredients:

Egg Custard:

–   2 large eggs (room temperature)

–   45g sugar

–   40g evaporated milk

–   145ml water

Pastry Crust:

–   230g cake flour (sifted)

–   140g butter (room temperature)

–   40g powdered sugar

–   20g evaporated milk

–  1 large egg yolk (room temperature)

Directions:

1. For the pastry crust, in a large mixing bowl with an electronic mixer, beat the butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Add ½ egg yolk and mix together. Add the evaporated milk and beat well. Slowly add the flour. Mix until the dough starts to come together. Form the dough into a round disk with hands. Wrap it in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 200C
3. Meanwhile, for the egg custard, in a small saucepan over high heat, bring the water to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium, add the sugar and cook until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and let it cool completely.
4. Back to the crust, divide the dough into 15portions. My pastry weighs 450g I weigh 25-30g for each tart tin. Roll each portion into a round ball. Flatten each ball into flat disks with hands. Place a flat disk into a tart tin and mold the dough into a tart shape. The dough should be about a ¼-inch below the top of the tart tin edge. Poke at few holes at the bottom of the tart with a fork. Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
5. In a medium bowl, beat 2 eggs with a hand whisk. Add evaporated milk and beat until combined. Stir in the syrup. Strain the mixture and remove bubbles with a spoon.
6. Line the prepared tart tins on a baking sheet. Fill the tarts 80% full with the egg mixture. Bake for 18 – 22 minutes until the egg custard is puffed up a little, and the crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and cool for 5 – 10 minutes. Tap the tart tin bottom lightly on the table. Turn the tart tin over and remove the egg tarts carefully. Serve immediately for best taste.

Blueberry and Choc Chip muffin

Adapted from the thermomix Facebook

Ingredients:( I doubled it to make 24 muffins)

340g milk

150g grape seed oil

4 eggs

210 g sugar

600g self raising flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 cup Choc chips

250g fresh blueberries

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C

2. Add milk, oil and eggs. Mix 10s Sp 4

3. Add sugar, flour,baking powder. Mix 5s Sp 4

4. Add blueberries and Choc chips. Gently folds till combined. Do not overmix

5. Divide the mixture into lined muffin trays and baked for 20-30 mins until toothpick comes clean when inserted into muffins. Mine took 20 mins

* I used the kitchen aid to mix as my mixture was too much for the tmx bowl. Still turn out well. Original recipe ask for desiccated coconut but I omitted as I am not a fan of coconuts.

Pork Meatballs

Adapted from:
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/2854/soy+sesame+pork+balls

I have modified accordingly to what is available. I have doubled the recipe to 1kg of mince and adjust seasoning as per taste

•  40g (1/4 cup) sesame seeds - omitted cause there is no sesame
•  480g pork mince- 1kg
•  1 egg, lightly whisked -2 eggs
•  2 tablespoons oyster sauce- a few large dashes
•  1 tablespoon kecap manis- thick soy sauce + 2 tablespoon sugar
•  45g (1/4 cup) rice flour- 1/2 cup
•  1/4 cup loosely packed finely chopped fresh Thai basil- replaced with garden basil
•  2 green shallots, ends trimmed, finely chopped- 4 shallots
•  2 garlic cloves, crushed-4 cloves
•  Peanut oil, to shallow-fry
•  Plum or sweet chilli sauce, to serve- omitted 

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients well and leave overnight in fridge

2. Roll into medium size balls

3. Heat up oil in non stick pan. Make sure there is enough to oil to cover half of the meatballs

4. Fry around 2-3 minutes each side or until light brown

5. Serve as it is.

Banana Pineapple bread

IAdapted from
http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/moist-pineapple-banana-bread

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar (1c brown And 1c White)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1-1/4 cups canola oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple, drained ( blitzed with thermomix together with banana)
• 2 cups mashed ripe bananas (4 to 5 medium
• 1/2 cup of walnuts

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, oil and vanilla; add pineapple and bananas. Stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened. Pour into two greased 8-in. x 4-in. loaf pans.
2. Bake at 350° for 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Yield: 2 loaves (16 slices each). 

Originally published as Pineapple Banana Bread in Quick Cooking May/June 2001, p37

Banana bread

• 
  
  
  1⁄2cup  butter -113g butter
• 1cup  sugar ( mix one brown and one white)
• 2eggs, beaten
• 4bananas, finely crushed
• 1 1⁄2cups  flour
• 1teaspoon  baking soda
• 1⁄2teaspoon  salt
• 1⁄2teaspoon  vanilla

1/2 cup walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Cream together butter and sugar.
2. Add eggs and crushed bananas.
3. Combine well.
4. Sift together flour, soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture. Add vanilla.
5. Pour into greased and floured loaf pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes.
7. Keeps well, refrigerated.

• Adapted from
• http://www.food.com/recipe/best-banana-bread-2886

I like this recipe cause it is simple and tasted very good too. Keeper for sure

Orange chiffon cupcake

Adapted from:
http://nasilemaklover.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/orange-sponge-cupcakes.html

Followed recipe to the dot.

Orange Sponge Cupcakes( makes 12)

25g corn oil

35g fresh squeeze orange juices

3 eggs (large), cold from fridge
95g caster sugar
100g Top flour or cake flour
1/4tp fine salt
1 orange rind

Method

1. Mix corn oil and orange juices together, set aside
2. Mix flour and salt together, sift them twice, set aside
3. Remove eggs from the fridge, add into the mixing bowl, add in caster sugar, immediately beat it till pale, thick and fluffy (I use KA mixer with balloon whisk, 3mins at speed 8-9, 10mins at speed 4-5, 2mins at Speed 1-2, total time 15mins ).
4. With mixer running at speed 1-2, add in orange rind, add flour spoon by spoon, then add in corn oil + orange juices, do not over mix. Remove mixing bowl, use a spatula to fold the batter till well combined.
5. Pour batter in a lined 12 holes muffin pan until 90% full. Lightly tap on countertop twice to remove air bubbles.
6. Bake at pre-heated oven at 170C for 25mins at middle rack.

Sourdough boule

This boule is using the Tartinr method. Stretch and fold is used for bulk fermentation

Long process

Ingredients :

100g fed bob

350ml water

500g flour

2tbs chia seeds+ 6 Tbs water

1tbs salt and 10g water

Autolyse: mix bob, water and flour. Let it autolyse for around 1-2 hours

Once done, squeeze in salt into dough and starte stretch and fold process

I have done stretch and fold for 7 times in intervals of 30mi s

After folds are done, prepare for preshaping. Flour the bench and dough and start to shape and tighten

Rest for another 30mins and do final shape

Let it proof for another 5-6 hours in a floured basket lined and flour teatowel then preheat oven to 230C

Place a parchment paper under the dough then gently place in Dutch Oven , quickly slash and cover for 20 mins

Open cover after 20mins and bake for another 20 mins until top is nicely brown

Pumpkin Loaf

Prep the pumpkin purée.

150g pumpkin purée

30g flour

100ml water

This pre dough is done using the scalding method, mix all ingredients and stir until a boil then lift off heat and let it cool. Place in fridge overnight

Main dough:

Pre dough

400g bread flour

60g caster sugar

3/4 tsp salt

100g Bob fed and ready

100g milk (add more if dough is too dry)

35g butter

Method:

Knead all ingredients in the mixer until pass window pane test

Bake in 180C oven for 20-30 mins

Once done, remove from oven and cool on rack

Apple braid bread

Apple filling:

4 large green apples, skinned and cored and diced

30g melted butter

1 lemon juice

2-3tbs sugar depending on taste

1/2tsp cinnamon

Melt butter on saucepan, cooked apples until soft

Mix lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon.

Leave aside to cool

Proceed with bread dough. This dough is using the usual tz recipe

Roll a rectangle shape, cut each sides to strips, place cooled Apple filling in the middle of dough and start braiding

Bake in 180C overs for 15-20mins or until golden brown

Sourdough white loaf

This is adapted from Mike Sorokach recipe for sourdough white loaf bread. This recipe is available on the Facebook Bread Baking group.

I have tweak it to suit my starter which is a wholemeal one

Makes a 9x5 inch bread loaf

Ingredients:

1/2 cup milk + 2 teaspoon as required 

1/2 cup spring water

1 cup of wholemeal fed starter- my starter sits on my bench and is fed daily so no refresh required here

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp salt

30gm butter

3 1/2 cup flour

1/2 flour as required( I only use 1-2 tbsp)

Directions:

Place all liquid, starter, sugar, butter and slate into the mixer 

Add 3 1/2 cup of bread flour and mix on Speed 2 for 10mins

I added more milk and abit more flour just to make it soft and elastic. The problem with wholemeal is it gets more dry and it might yield a drier bread.

Once it passes the window pane test I stopped

I covered the bowl and let it double the size but with home made starter I just make sure it pass the poke test despite not being doubled

Slowly deflate dough and start shaping. I just shaped it into a log and place it in a baking paper lined tin to proof second time

Once it hits the top of the loaf and pass the poke test, preheat oven too 220C

Brush top of bread with melted butter and bake for 20 mins

Take it out and brush with butter again and bake for another 10 mins or until internal temperature is 190C

Wholemeal Raisin Loaf

After yesterday's sweet potato loaf, I need to try out my hydration calculation. I tried another recipe from honeybee's site and make sure hydration is not more than 70%. Somehow the silly part of me kept thinking and fearing for the wholemeal dryness and added around 50ml more water while it was kneading.

The dough was very sticky but I pour some flour when shaping before 2nd rise. It was still a very soft dough but much more manageable than the sweet potato one. 

After waiting for it to cool and eating into it, truly a soft loaf considering it is a wholemeal loaf. 

Sponge:

425 wholemeal flour

210 bread flour

2 1/2 teaspoon instant dried yeast

400ml water

Mix and knead all ingredients for around 5 mins, I left it on the counter for an hour before leaving in the fridge overnight

Main dough :

210gm bread flour

2 teaspoon salt

70gm brown sugar

130ml water

35ml milk

45gm butter

2 packet of small raisin boxes soaked in water to softened

1 teaspoon of instant yeast

Method:

1. Knead all main dough in the mixer with dough except for butter and raisins hook until well combined. Tear up pieces of the sponge and let it knead till soft and elastic.

2. Add in pieces of butter and knead until the window pane consistency is reached. I reached this when dough was still sticky but then I prefer it to be well hydrated than drying out later

3. I let my dough proof in the Kitchenaid bowl until double the size. I use a cling wrap as well

4. Once it has doubled, punched it out and divide the dough into 2. I floured my bench and divided each part into 2 again. I rolled the, into a long elongated shape, flattened and squashed raisins into dough. Fold the dough and roll to ensure all raisins are secured in the dough

I roll the dough into long sausage shape and place them side my side in. 9inch loaf pan.

5. Do the same for the other dough and you will have 2 loaf of bread ready for second proofing.

Second proof took 1.5 hours for me and I just can't wait anymore. 

Preheat oven to 175C, bake for 30-35 mins until golden brown and hollow sound when tap on surface.

Cool completely before cutting 

I manage to fill our whole box of bread with bread!! 

This is Chapie, very happy feeding on wholemeal flour. This starter is ready for baking soon