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.