Berry Crumble Slice

This Berry Crumble Slice is delicious – the recipe comes from my Nana and my Mum has started making it too!  To make it, use whatever berries are in season with a matching jam for the filling.  I first tired this slice at Christmas time when my Nana had made it using strawberries.  It was amazing!  I couldn’t get my hands on any strawberries so I used blueberries instead.  The slice turned out just as great (it disappeared pretty quick when I took it into work) and I can’t wait to try out using different varieties of berries.  This is a simple slice and makes a delicious sweet treat to fill the tins.

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
240g butter, softened
150g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
1 punnet of berries (at least 125g – the slice in the photos is made using blueberries)
1 cup jam (in a the same flavour as the berries)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Grease and line a slice tin (the one I used was 16cm x 26cm) and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat through the vanilla essence.  Mix in the flour and baking powder.  Press ⅔ of the mixture into the base of the prepared tin.  Bake for approximately 10 minutes, or until the base starts to go golden in colour.
While the base is baking, chop the berries in half.  In a medium sized bowl, mix the berries and jam together. 
Once the base has begun to go golden, remove it from the oven and spread the berry mixture over the top.  Place bits of the remaining dough mixture over the top of the berry layer (my Mum and I flatten pieces of the mixture in our hands and break off bits to cover the jam with.  I think my Nana crumbles it between her fingers over the top of the jam layer).  Bake for a further 25 – 30 minutes, or until the crumble on the top has gone a golden brown colour.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool before cutting into slices.

Banana Berry Icecream

This Banana Berry Icecream is so simple, yet so delicious.  It is vegan and lactose free and made from only two ingredients – yup, just two ingredients!  Using just banana and berries, you can make this healthy, frozen treat, which I have found just heavenly on the hot Summer afternoons we have had lately. 
The texture kind of a mixture between icecream, sorbet and frozen yoghurt.  I found it tasted quite sweet and it was hard to believe that there wasn’t sugar added in.  You could experiment with this recipe – maybe take out the berries and try adding mango, or try mixing through some chocolate syrup to make a banana chocolate treat.

5 bananas
1 cup frozen mixed berries

Thinly slice the bananas and place them in a container, in the freezer for 3 – 5 hours.
Place the frozen banana slices in a blender.  Add in the cup of frozen berries and then pulse together until smooth (I found using the ‘chop’ function on my blender the most effective setting).
You can serve immediately, or place in a sealed container in the freezer to firm up and eat later.

*Blender c/o KitchenAid.

Individual Berry Tarts

Yesterday I was invited to attend a get together hosted by Lydia Bakes.  I decided to make two types of little tarts, one sweet and the other savoury (recipe to come later in the week).  These Individual Berry Tarts are delish, and really simple to make.  And, if you buy pre-made pastry tarts from the supermarket, they would be a really quick treat to assemble – perfect for Christmas day.

Ingredients:
Pastry cases:
2 ¾ cups flour
1 cup icing sugar
pinch of salt
250g unsalted butter, cold, chopped
1 egg
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Filling:
500g mixed frozen berries
½ cup icing sugar
400g marscapone cheese
½ cup brown sugar
200g white chocolate melts

Method:
Pastry cases:
In a food processor, combine the flour, icing sugar and salt by pulsing the mixture in 2 second bursts.  Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add the egg, lemon juice, zest and vanilla essence and pulse the mixture together, about 10 times.  The mixture should look dry and crumbly.
On a lightly floured surface, shape the mixture into a ball.  Wrap in cling film and place in the refrigerator for about 2 hours, or until firm.
Grease a 12 hole muffin tin.  Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Roll the pastry mixture out to about 5mm thick.  Cut out rounds from the pastry, about 6cm in diameter (I used a drinking glass for this).  Place the pastry rounds into the prepared muffin holes and press into place.  Prick the bottom of each pastry case with a fork. 
Cut out squares of baking paper (or use muffin papers) and line each pastry case before filling each with uncooked rice or baking weights.  Place the prepared tin of pastry cases into the freezer for 5 – 10 minutes (or the fridge for 30 minutes) to become cool again and firm up. 
Bake for 10 minutes.  Take the cases out of the oven and remove the paper and baking weights before returning to the oven for a further 2-5 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

Filling:
Place the frozen berries in a bowl and cover with the icing sugar.  Set the berries aside to defrost, mixing regularly to ensure an even coverage of the icing sugar.  If the berries taste too tart, add more icing sugar until you are happy with the level of sweetness.
Melt the white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl using 30 second bursts on high in the microwave, mixing between each burst until the chocolate is smooth.  Using a desert spoon, wave spoonful's of the chocolate over a piece of baking paper to make thin lines.  Turn the paper ninety degrees and repeat, to make a lattice effect.  Set the paper aside while the chocolate sets.
In another bowl, mix together the marscapone and the brown sugar.  Place a dollop of this mixture into each pastry case. 
Drain the berries.  Place a handful of berries on each tart. 
Break off pieces of the chocolate lattice and place into the side of each tart.
Keep the tarts refrigerated before serving.

Mini Berry Cheesecakes

I made these Mini Berry Cheesecakes for our High Tea Picnic Party.  They are actually something I have wanted to make since we began our blog but I was put off as they look tricky.  Truth be told, they weren’t as fiddly as I feared and I was able to make them the night before too, which meant I wasn’t rushing around on the day.  Win!

1 cup ground up biscuits (about 10 – I used gingersnaps)
40g butter, melted
½ cup frozen raspberries, thawed
2 tablespoons icing sugar, sifted
375g cream cheese
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
1 teaspoons vanilla essence
12 – 24 fresh raspberries, to serve

Preheat your oven to 165°C.  Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper or foil cases.
Mix the biscuit crumbs with the melted butter in a bowl.  Divide the mixture among the muffin cases, pressing down firmly.  Bake for 5 minutes, then remove from the oven and cool. 
To make the raspberry purée, mash the raspberries to a pulp with the back of a fork, then strain through a sieve into a bowl, keeping as much juice as possible.  Discard the seeds.  Stir the icing sugar into the raspberry juice.
Place the cream cheese and caster sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until the mixture is smooth, light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating until combined after each addition.  Finally add in the lemon rind and vanilla essence and mix to combine.
Pour the cream cheese mixture over the biscuit bases, filling right to the top of the cases.  Place small drops (about ½ teaspoon) of raspberry purée on the top of the cakes.  Using  a skewer, carefully swirl the purée through the cheese mixture.  Bake the cakes for approximately 15 minutes or until set.  Switch off the oven and leave the cakes in it to cool completely (they will shrink a bit).
Once the cakes are cool, top with fresh raspberries and dust with icing sugar before serving.

Lunchbox Bakes – Berry and Oat Muffins

These muffins are pretty tasty and they are easy to whip up.  I find them quite filling too.  They are suitable to freeze for later as well.  Lets get started…

Makes 8.

1 ½ cups self raising flour
⅓ cup caster sugar
1 cup rolled oats
¾ cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon grated lemon or lime rind
1 cup mixed berries (fresh or frozen)

Preheat the oven to 200°C.  Line 8 holes of a 12-hole muffin pan with paper cases.

Combine the flour, sugar and oats in a large bowl.  Combine the milk, egg, oil and rind in a separate bowl.  Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.  Stir in the berries, leaving a few out to decorate the tops of the muffins.

Divide the mixture into the muffin cases.  Place the remaining berries on the top.  If you want to be extra fancy you could sprinkle some coffee sugar over the tops or decorate each muffin with a banana chip – I had both to try but forgot!  Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the muffin comes out cleanly.  Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool.

So that is my first recipe for Lunchbox Bakes, a new feature that I introduced to you yesterday.  Remember you can take part too and get a link to your blog up on our next Lunchbox Bakes post.  If you are interested, there are more details on the Lunchbox Bakes page :)
If you make one of the recipes from our blog, leave a comment on the post or take a pic and post it up on our facebook page!

White Chocolate Tart

Last night I hosted a catch up for the girls I met and made friends with while I worked in retail during my Uni years.  It was so much fun; I don’t think we have all been in the same room for about 4-5 years.  Dinner was just pizza so I decided to make us something a bit more special for dessert.  This White Chocolate Tart went down a real treat :)

The tart is actually really simple to make.  I made my pastry from scratch, but if you buy some pre-made pastry or a ready-made shell, making the tart would probably take only 10 minutes!

You will need:
1 quantity of short crust pastry (I used this recipe that I have previously posted up)
300g white chocolate (I used a mix of Whittakers white choc and Nestlé choc melts)
50g crème fraîche
100g soft butter
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Your choice of decoration

Prepare and bake your short crust pastry then allow to cool (I followed this recipe).

Chop the chocolate and melt in a bowl over the top of a pan of hot water.  Heat the crème fraîche for 10 seconds in the microwave then add to the chocolate.  Stir to combine.  Stir in the vanilla.  Gradually add and stir in the soft butter.  Pour the mixture into the pastry shell, spread smoothly and chill.

I decorated my tart with lots of berries.  I purchased a bag of frozen berries from the supermarket, defrosted them and mixed them with icing sugar to taste (fresh ones were way to expensive).  You could decorate it with just few berries and some raspberry sauce, or shards of dark chocolate would look quite fancy.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Berry Buttercream

This recipe also came from the latest issue of Foodtown magazine (Oct/Nov 2011) – I would recommend getting your hands on a copy, it is packed full of awesome cake recipes (which I plan on working my way through) as well as lots of other meal recipes and ideas.

Ingredients:
100 grams butter (softened)
¾ cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs (beaten)
1 cup plain flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup cocoa
½ cup sour cream

Berry Buttercream
150 grams butter (softened)
2 cups Chelsea pink berry icing sugar
2-3 tablespoons hot water
Berry lollies to decorate

Method:
Preheat your oven to 170°C (fan bake). Line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake cases.
In a large electric mixing bowl , beat together the butter, brown sugar and eggs for 2-3 minutes until creamy.
Sift the flour, baking soda and cocoa into the wet mix, folding the two together lightly before adding the sour cream. Beat the mix for 2-3 minutes until smooth and fluffy.
Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases.
Bake in a pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes until the cupcakes are puffed up and spongy to the touch. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
To make the buttercream, beat butter until smooth and pale. Gradually add the berry icing sugar half a cup at a time with enough hot water to keep the mixture creamy, beating the mix well between each addition.
** I found the the berry icing wasn’t as “pink” as I expected it would be, because of the pale yellow colour of the butter it was more peach than pink so I added a small drop of pink food colouring – I tested the icing sugar by adding water to it and rest assured it was a lovely pink colour.

 
When the cupcakes have cooled completely pipe or spoon on butter cream and top with a berry lolly.

I think mine resembled what was in the magazine pretty well, but you can judge for yourself by taking a look at the photo below. The cupcakes themselves were very nice. Give them a go and enjoy!

Chocolate Berry Cheesecake

My mum made this Chocolate Berry Cheesecake the other day and bought around some slices for my flatmates and I.  Love.  The top of it is a little dented up from the tin foil she wrapped it up in, but that didn’t stop it tasting damn good.

I’ve got the recipe; it’s a pretty easy one as it uses a store brought pre-made filling :)

250 grams sweet plain chocolate biscuits
100 grams butter, melted
425 gram can boysenberries in syrup
500 gram pottle cheesecake filling (mum used the Tararua brand stuff)
2 teaspoons gelatin

Process the biscuits to fine crumbs in a food processor.  Stir in the butter.  Press into the base of a 23cm loose-bottom flan tin.  Refrigerate until required.

Drain and reserve the juice from the boysenberries.  Beat together the drained boysenberries and cheesecake mix until smooth.  Spread into the prepared biscuit base.  Refrigerate for one hour.

Sprinkle the gelatin over the reserved boysenberry juice and when it has been absorbed, warm in the microwave for 2 minutes on high and stir until dissolved.  Cool.  Pour over the chilled cheesecake and refrigerate for a further hour before serving.

Thanks for the cheesecake Mum!