Well, I did say we had been given some bananas, and they do ripen so quickly, so I was happy to try another inspired recipe.  This time, I thought I would try to make it sound a little healthier by making a type of bread,  which really is just a cake!

What You Need:

• 2 cups self raising flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 cup of sultanas
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cup mashed banana
• pinch salt

What You Need To Do:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line the base of a loaf pan about 23×15 cm

Start by sifting the flour with the baking powder, salt and cinnamon then stir in the sugar and the sultanas.  You could use dates or raisins if you don’t like sultanas.  You could leave them out altogether or add crushed walnuts for a change.  Thats what I like about this recipe, it’s a really pantry friendly!

Combine the milk, beaten eggs and the mashed banana and whisk until well combined.  Use a metal spoon and stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.  Pour the batter into the pan and place some sliced banana along the top for a nice effect!

Cook for about 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.  Allow it to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack.

It is delicious warm, and is so moist that it doesn’t need any butter or anything!  It is quite a dense cake, and because there is no fat in the recipe, it might not keep as long as other breads so you could keep it in the fridge ( if it lasts that long!) You could also toast it under the grill and have it for breaky with a nice cup of tea!

Have you ever been to a coffee shop and ordered one of those big, beautiful looking biscuits they have in fabulous glass jars on the counter?  Thinking you might just savour it with your double shot cap.  Oh! the disapointment when it arrives on the tiny white plate.  It is tasteless, and either too dry and hard or crumbles into million pieces when you try and daintily break a bit off, never mind trying to dip it into your coffee!  These biscuits are tasty, sweet and chewy, but a little crunchy, so you can dip them if you like, or you can eat it without looking like a mess!

What You Need:

• 175g caster sugar
• 110g brown sugar
• 225g butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 450g plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bi-carb soda
• 1/4 cup crushed macadamia nuts
• 1/4 cup white chocolate bits
• pinch salt

What You Need To Do:

Preheat the oven to 200 degress Celcius.
I always use butter in my cooking.  I think it performs better than margarine, so make sure you let the butter almost come to room temperature so it will cream better with the sugars.  So, obviously that is the first step, cream the butter with the sugars!

Whisk up the eggs with the vanilla and add a little of the egg to the mix and beat in well.  Keep doing this until you have added all of the egg.   This is practically the same recipe as the Jam Drops, but I changed a few things, so with this one you don’t have to freeze the dough, so therefore, eating biscuit time comes quicker!  This is great news for when the hungry hordes (insert names of various children/spouses here) come home from school/work!

Next, sift the flour, soda and salt over the mix and add the nuts and chocolate.  Carefully fold the mixture until there are no lumps of flour left.  Roll about a tablespoon size lump of dough into a ball and place onto a tray, lined with baking paper, leaving a space between as they will spread a little.  If you have any helpers at this stage, especially 4 year olds,  make sure that more mixture is rolled into balls than is going into the mouth!

Bake them for about 8 minutes or until a pale golden colour.  I like them chewy so I take them out just as they are starting golden and leave them to cool on the tray for a bit.  This mix makes alot of biscuits so you can sit the dough in the fridge while you are waiting for the others to cook.  It will firm up a bit but it is a little easier to roll if you want perfect, round, smooth looking biscuits.  Actually, I would love that, but my lot don’t care for fancy they just want to eat them NOW!

I was actually after a recipe for kids healthy muesli bars but I didn’t really have all the ingredients for them so I decided to sort of make my own recipe. So, I used an oatmeal slice base and just added what I thought would be yummy, but they are not as healthy as I would have liked! The girls sort of helped me make these by telling me what they wanted in them, mostly honey and sugar and not much else and definately none of those sultanas! Well I only had muesli in the cupboard, and honey and dates, so in they went! (they don’t realise that muesli is full of sultanas, shh!)

What You Need:

• 50g butter
• 1/4 cup raw sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 1/2 cups muesli
• 1/2 cup chopped dates
• 75g wholemeal self raising flour

What You Need To Do:

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celcius and line a 20cm tin with baking paper. This is so quick to make so get this out of the way first!

Melt the butter, honey and sugars over a medium heat. You want the sugar to dissove and the mixture to be smooth. Don’t be tempted to taste it because it’s that hot it will take your tastebuds right off! (not speaking from experience or anything) Set it aside to cool a bit before mixing into the dry stuff.

Mix the flour through the muesli and dates then add the melted honey and sugars. You might need to use your hands because the mixture is quite thick. Knead it all together and then press it into the baking tin.

Bake it for about 20 minutes or until it is golden on top and then let it cool in the tin before cutting into pieces. It will still be soft when it is done but it will firm up as it cools. I like them a bit chewy but if you want them crisper leave them in for a bit longer.

Oh, and a big Thankyou! to my precious 4 year old for her expert hand modeling work!

Well for the first recipe back from the rather extended break, I thought I would let the kids take over the kitchen!

Insane I know, but I was rather surprised that there was only a few cupfuls of flour and sugar on the floor!! But I think the end result rather speaks for itself.  I am quite proud of the 9 year olds ability to cook and the 4 year olds ability to spill things ( but I already knew she was talented in that department!).  These are easy to make, so are a good school holiday activity, as long as you walk away and don’t witness what goes down during a kids cooking class!

What You Need:

• 225g butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 110g brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1tsp vanilla
• 450g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
• 55mL milk
• pinch salt
• jam

What You Need To Do:

I get the kids to measure everything out first so all the ingredients are layed out in front of them because there have been a few times when things have been left out!  So first of all you have to cream the butter and the sugars.  Keep going until it is pale yellow and nice and light.

Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl with the vanilla and add it to the sugar mixture a little bit at a time and beat it between additions. This just helps to stop it curdling which sometimes happens if you add the eggs all at once.

Sift the flour, soda and salt over the mixture and carefully fold until there are no lumps of flour.  Now is the time to walk away, no run, if you want to keep your sanity, cos things get pretty messy!

Gradually add some of the milk until a soft dough forms.  You probably won’t need the whole 55ml, depending on your flour, because you don’t want the dough to be too sticky.

Roll the mixture into 2 logs, wrap them and put them in the freezer for about an hour.  You can use this time to hose out the kitchen or sit back and relax while the kids do it.  As I said earlier, if sanity is important…….its up to you!!

When the mixture has set hard, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius, and cut discs from the rolls about 5mm and place on baking trays lined with baking paper.  Leave a space between each disc because they will spread out during cooking.

To make the jam drop centre, I used a 1/4 teaspoon measure to press into the centre of the disc to make the hole for the jam to go into.  Drop the same amount (1/4 tsp) of jam into the mark and bake for 8-9 minutes or until golden.  let them cool on the tray for a few minutes because they will be soft and then transfer them to wire rack to cool.

Have fun making these with the kids!!

School Holidays! So much time, so little to do! Only joking! Today we made pikelets for the kids for morning tea. Which was good actually because I now have a recipe to use and pass on. I usually cook with the precise measuring system called – a little of this and a pinch of that – so to actually measure out the ingredients was a good exercise. Now my daughter won’t look at me with that quizzical -I don’t understand look- that eight year olds seem to have!

What You Need:

• 2 cups self raising flour
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• pinch salt

What You Need To Do:

Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl. Crack the egg into a jug and pour half of the milk in as well and whisk until the egg and milk is frothy. Also add the vanilla to this mix.

Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour the milk mix in. Mix with a whisk, from the centre, gradually dragging flour into the centre liquid and add more milk until the batter is runny but still coats the back of a spoon. It will be full of air bubbles and very shiny in appearance.

Heat a frying pan and coat with a little olive oil and butter. Use some paper towel to remove the excess and then pour a spoonful of batter into the pan. Wait for the bubbles to burst and then flip it over to cook on the other side. They should be golden brown, but cooked through!

A little tip to keep the pikelets soft, is to put them on a plate and cover with plastic wrap, to trap a bit of the steam. Be sure to let a bit of steam out though because you don’t want them to go soggy. And no, I don’t mean let some steam off because the kids are pestering you for the pikelets that they can smell cooking!

Serve them hot with butter and honey or lemon and sugar ( my kids favourite)!

I bought some of these at Bakers Delight the other day, for the kids, and they loved them.  The down side is that Bakers Delight is about 50km away!  So I got to thinking that maybe, just maybe, I could try to make my own!  The girls like helping me to cook, and making our own recipe was very appealing to their tastebuds!  They are great to pack in the school lunch, as an unexpected surprise, and even the husband likes them too!

What You Need:

• 4 cups self raising flour
• 60g soft butter
• 1 cup milk
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• 1/2 cup dessicated coconut
• 1/2 cup choc chips
• pinch salt
• milk for glazing
• extra coconut for sprinkling

What You Need To Do:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius and spray a flat oven tray with cooking spray and then line with baking paper.  This makes life a whole lot easier when the kids take off after the fun stuff is over!

Start by making the usual scone mix, sift the flour with the sugar, salt and the cocoa.

Rub in the butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.  At this point add the choc chips, remember to have extra on hand as some always have to be taste tested!  Add the coconut, and mix so they are both evenly distributed throughout the flour.

Next add the vanilla to the milk and pour into a well in the centre of the flour and use a flat bladed knife to start forming the dough.  When this seems too dry to mix any more, add the water.  You can always add a little more water if the dough is not coming together.

Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough until it is smooth.  It won’t take long and will probably be a little more sticky than ordinary scone dough because of all the extra stuff!

Roll out into a rectangle about 15mm thick and cut into even triangles about 6cm each side.  This is not entirely accurate because I used a biscuit cutter for some and made traditional scone shaped ones as well!  They both turned out fine but the triangles were more photogenic.

Place them on the baking tray and brush them with the extra milk and sprinkle over the coconut.  Cook for 10 minutes or until the chocolatey smell is strong and drawing you to the oven!  The coconut should be golden brown and smelling delicious.

Thankyou to Bakers Delight for letting me discover this delicous treat and inspiring us to cook!

Ok, I stole this recipe from a can of condensed milk, but it is so yummy and more-ish and easy that I just had to make it to show you.  If you have visitors, you can impress them with this, and it will only take a minute to throw together but looks like you spent hours perfecting that golden caramel-ly top!
I will admit, it is not for the diet concious but it is so-oo good that you have to have at least one bit, or two, or th… or stay right away because it will suck you right in with its sweet, chewy deliciousness.

What You Need:

• 1 1/2 cups crushed sweet biscuits (Butternut Snaps)
• 75g butter, melted
• 1 cup milk choc bits
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup dessicated coconut
• 1 cup flaked almonds
• 395g can Nestle condensed milk

What You Need To Do:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.
Crush up the biscuits using a food processor or, if you don’t have one, like me, use a heavy rolling pin to smash them up in a plastic bag in between two tea towels.  This is an oddly satisfying job if you have some tension to get rid of!

Combine the biscuit crumbs and the butter and press it into a cake tin (18cmx28cm), lined with baking paper.  This makes it easier to remove from the tin.

Sprinkle the choc bits, raisins and coconut evenly over the biscuit base.  You can even mix these three together first and then sprinkle if you don’t mind not having the layered effect when you cut it.  Make sure that you sprinkle the almonds separately though, because you want them to be on the top all toasty and golden brown.

Next, carefully pour the condensed milk over the top of everything.  Make sure you get right into the corners and along the edges so it holds together when you cut it.

Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the centre is firm to the touch.  Allow it to cool in the pan.

Ah! Afternoon tea. That time of day you can sit down and enjoy your cup of coffee or tea and a nice homemade treat. We usually have ours at about 4 o’clock, which is ok in summer but not so good as it gets cooler and the days get shorter. Well, not so good for the waistline anyway! Good for us, as we can sit and talk about the day we have had, or muse about going for a walk or doing something other sitting and eating!

Today I made some shortbread, which would have to be my favourite type of biscuit. They are pretty simple to make and and really buttery and a bit chewy with a crunch to finish off!

What you need:

• 250g butter
• 2/3 cups caster sugar
• 1 2/3 cups plain flour
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar for dusting

What you need to do:

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celcius. I use a flat oven tray, but line it with baking paper, so it is easy to slide the wedges off when they are done.

Cream the butter and the sugar in a bowl until the butter is light in colour and has a creamy texture.

Sift the flours into the butter mix and use a flat bladed knife to mix together to form a soft dough. It will seem a bit crumbly at first, and you might be tempted to add more butter, but it will come together. Turn it out onto a bench, floured with a bit of the rice flour, and gently knead it together. Shape it into a ball.

Place the ball onto the oven tray and press it out into a circle about 25cm across. The dough will spread out a bit when cooking so make sure the tray is big enough to allow for the extra. Smooth the edges or, if you like fancy, pinch and flute the edges with your fingers. Prick the surface lightly with a fork (to make it look authentic) and mark the circle into wedges. Sprinkle the caster sugar on top. This will make aout 16 nice sized ones or you could just go for the eight or four if you want!

Bake for 35 minutes or until firm to the touch and lightly golden. Cool on the tray and cut into wedges.

The next step is to make you self a cuppa, sit and talk about your day with your loved ones!

I thought I would make something yummy for morning tea today.  I just bought some new flour and some vanilla extract that I wanted to try, and the girls wanted to help so I thought -scones!  They are easy to make and always work out well.  The girls are great helpers, getting everything out for the recipe.  Georgia nearly knows it by heart now!

You need:

• 2 cups self raising flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• pinch salt
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1/3 cup of water
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• chunk of butter (about 30g)
• extra milk for glazing

What you need to do:

Preheat the oven.  About 190 degrees Celcius is good.  I use a flat oven tray to cook them on and I just spray it with some cooking spray so they don’t stick.  Always do this first because it saves washing all the dough off your hands later!

Sift the flour, salt and sugar into a bowl.  You can use a wire whisk and whisk the flour lightly if you don’t have a sifter!

Add the butter, chopped into pieces, to the flour and rub it in until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the milk, vanilla and about 1/2 of the water.  Grab a flat bladed knife and use it to mix until a soft dough is formed.  You can add more liquid if you need to.  The dough will be a little sticky at first but will come together when kneaded.

Spread a little self raising flour onto the bench and turn out the dough.  Knead the dough lightly, dusting with a little flour if still a bit sticky.  It will come together nicely and feel quite soft and pliable.

Pat it out into a neat little round and use a biscuit cutter to cut about 12 scones.  You may need to scrunch up the remainder and pat it out a few times to get the 12.

Place them on the baking tray and brush with the milk.  Pop them in the oven for about 12 minutes or until they are golden brown and you can smell their deliciousness!

When they are cooked place a clean tea towel over them and let them cool for a bit.  The tea towel traps a bit of the steam and keeps the outer crust soft.

Serve with some jam and cream or honey and lashings of butter.

Enjoy!