Sibyl's biscuit tin - chocolate eclairs

You know for many years i thought i hated chocolate eclairs. That firm texture that made them seem a bit stale with tasteless chocolate icing. Then a couple of years ago i realised the truth, i hate supermarket chocolate eclairs. My oldest sister is a fantastic baker and they are one of her specialties and a couple of years ago i gave one a try. My oh my had i been missing out on something! They are amazing, especially with an extra icing and the cream scraped out. I can almost hear your collective gasp, scrape the cream out! Yeh i'm just not a cream person and tend to scrape it off many things. Weird i know.

Anyway since my sister was recently here for a visit i begged a choux pastry lesson from the expert. Turns out it is pretty simple.

Chocolate eclairs

Choux pastry

45g butter

90g flour

3/4 C hot water

2 eggs

Put the water and butter into a pot and bring to a rolling boil. Remove from the heat and add the flour all at once. Stir quickly until well mixed and leave to cool. Add the beaten eggs one at a time beating well after each addition until the mixture is shiny.

Place spoonfuls onto a greased tray.Bake in a hot oven for 20 mins then poke a small hole with something like a knitting needle in each eclair to let the steam escape.

Then return to the oven for another 10 mins.

When cool ice with chocolate icing and fill with cream. 

I find these are better eaten on the first day you make them.

Done! Dessert time.

Melting together the butter and water  

A rolling boil.

 mix in all the flour and stir until it clumps together

 Adding in the beaten eggs, resulting in a glossy colour.

Whoops missed a picture here, but i placed spoonfuls on a tray and cooked them. 

The finished product

Don't they look amazing? They tasted amazing too.

Give this one a go for your next party and you will be very popular.

Take care people

xxx

Prickly cuteness

I have a soft spot for these prickly little critters. A nice surprise to see one while out for a twilight walk.

The week gone

A few pictures from the past week

~ Lumberjack cake, one of my favourite birthday cakes.

~ Sharing a slice with a friend willing to brave illness to come and share it with me on the day made it extra special.

~ Pumpkin pie pancakes from the nourished kitchen for breakfast

~ Some beautiful rose china to add to the set

~ Some stock finally cooked up and in the freezer for future meals.

~ (Not pictured) Kindle! Yah a baby kindle has been added to the family, awesome gift from the other half! I love real books but its nice to have a more portable option on occassion.

Nap time

xxx

Roasted pork hocks

For the past few weeks we have been on a mission to work through some of the excess in the freezer and the pantry. Digging around for inspiration in the freezer last week i came across 2 ham hocks. My first thought was soup but the other suggested we roasted them. A quick google search later and yes it appears you can indeed roast them.
So we picked out a recipe called Polish pork hocks and off we went.
First up you boil the pork hocks in a pot with veges, salt and vinegar for a few hours. After they were boiled i realised i hadn't burnt the hair off. Ick, i'm sorry i'm a totally towny there should not be hair on my food. So the other half got the job much to his delight as it meant he could do it with his butane torch.

A lighter probably would have done the job but no where near as much fun i suppose.

Then into the oven they go, i only basted them with honey and a sprinkle of salt.

40 minutes later, golden sticky pork hocks.

They were actually very tasty, the meat was tender and had a very mild ham flavour. A good change from the usual pea and ham soup. Also pork hocks are cheap to buy, so double bonus.

I hope you're all having a great week.

xxx

Sibyl's biscuit tin - Vanilla custard

Monday was a public holiday here for us so my week is all messed up and i've just realised i forgot my usual Tuesday post for Sibyl's biscuit tin. So here it is a day late but no less tasty.

Who doesn't love custard, warm, sweet and comforting. But i have never actually made it from scratch. I've always used custard powder. But for the past few weeks i've been on a mission to use up only what's in my cupboard and no shopping except for the essentials. So when the need for custard with leftover birthday arose i stepped up to the challenge. Lol ok not really a challenge, actually super simple and amazingly delicious.

Vanilla custard

2 cups milk

2 tablespoons cornflour

1/3 C sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 t vanilla essence

Have the eggs in their own bowl ready to go. Dissolve the cornflour in a little of the milk, then add the rest of the milk and the sugar to a pot.

 Heat until small bubbles appear around the edges of the pot (this is called scalding the milk).

Stir frequently.

Then grab a whisk and remove the pot from the heat. Then quickly pour the eggs into the milk whisking continuously. Once the eggs are fully mixed in, return to the heat and warm until the mixture thickens. This takes a few minutes. Don't let the mixture boil or it may separate.

Once thickened remove from the heat and mix in the vanilla. 

If you end up with egg white flecks in the mixture you can push it through a sieve to remove them.

If you mix frequently when adding the eggs you should avoid this.

That's it, all done. Pour over cakes, puddings or fruit. Trust me you will be pleasantly surprised by how easy and delicious this is.

Yum lumberjack cake with warm custard. The perfect way to finish of a birthday cake.

Also perfect the next day with fruit and granola. The baby approved, he was shoveling handfuls in his mouth as the spoon was taking too long.

Have a great week and hopefully some delicious pudding!

xx

A taste of spring - Lemon Syrup

On this horrible un-spring like day i thought i'd share a lovely summer drink to brighten your day. Many years ago my dad used to make up bottles of this lemon syrup concentrate each summer and fill the freezer with the bottles so we always had iced lemon cordial to take to the river. It was so nice that a couple of years ago  when i stumbled across the recipe again i started making it myself.

The recipe is so simple and is printed on the back of the citric acid packets over here. It only takes about 5 mins to make too.

Lemon Syrup

Makes 1.5 L of concentrate

3C sugar

1.2 L boiling water

2 T citric acid

Juice and rind of 3 lemons

Dissolve citric acid and sugar in the boiling water. Then stir in the lemon juice and rind.

All done, Store in the fridge or if like me you make multiple batches at once i often freeze a bottle or 2.

Dilute 1 parts syrup to 3 parts water.

Delicious chilled with ice or hot with honey. A refreshing twist is to make it with soda water and add some chopped fruit. Yum. 

Give more this year for christmas

I have started donating to charities this year. I've done it in the past but just every now and then. Since having Cohen i have become more tuned into the world around me and particularly how harsh it can be at times. I've also come to realise just how blessed my life is and i want to share a little of that to hopefully help make things a little better in the world. 

What i really want to do is some volunteer work but i haven't been able to find the time to commit fully just yet. I also haven't found the right thing for me yet either. So instead, for now, i try to donate a little bit each month.

This month i decided to support Canteen, an organisation which supports young people, and their families, who are affected by cancer. It was one of those phone calls many of us get for fundraising efforts. It's a great charity so i made a donation and purchased some of their christmas cards. 

I recieved them today and i just wanted to share them with you all.

These are the cards, aren't they lovely? And a uniquely NZ christmas feeling to them. I didn't realise that on the back there was the story of each artist. Stories of young people affected by cancer. It was beautifully touching.

So if you are buying christmas cards this year i urge you to consider supporting this or other charities by purchasing theirs. Give more than just a picture this year.

xxx

Just to clarify, i recieve nothing for writing this post other than the hope of making things a little better in the world.