Velvet Crumbs

Pancakes

Pancakes

Pancakes are one of my all time favourite things to eat. For me they transport me back to my childhood when I used to go shopping with my mother and she would take me to “Granny Mays” this was a pancake house tucked away in the corner of our local shopping centre. They would bring out gorgeous golden stacks of pancakes with real butter. Every table had their own pot of maple syrup so that you could control the intensity of gorgeous golden goodness.

The thing about pancakes is that they really are so simple to make from a limited amount of ingredients. I tend to always have the ingredients stock standard so that i can make them at a moment’s notice. The perfect pancake to me is thick and fluffy

As I had some apples left over from the French Apple tart I decided to try my hand at an Apple and Cinnamon Compote. After doing some internet searching I came across the below recipe with a few alterations.

Pancakes

2 Cups Plain Flour

3 teaspoons baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

2 Beaten Eggs

1 ¾ - 2 Cups of Milk  

Or

1 Cup regular milk & 1 Cup Buttermilk (See note)

1/3 cup Caster Sugar

75g Melted Butter

Sift Flour and baking powder into large bowl and add salt. Whisk in eggs, Milk, Sugar and butter

Tip: The amount of milk you add will depend on how thick you want your batter to be I aim for a cake batter consistency

Thicker batter = Thick, fluffy pancakes

Thin Batter = Thinner, crepe style pancakes

Spray some oil in a frypan and drop large spoonfuls of batter into the frypan. I like to cook one at a time in the middle of the pan to avoid overcrowding and give a consistent size and round shape.

Cook over a low – medium heat always keeping an eye on them

You will know when it is time to turn your pancake when bubbles start to appear on the surface, Flip and cook for another minute or so

Buttermilk

Sometimes if I have it I will use Buttermilk. It is best to use it if you have it as it gives the pancakes a lighter texture. Remember though that if you do use buttermilk, as it is thicker you would be best to use with regular milk or your pancakes will be too thick.

If you do not have Buttermilk you can make your own buy making a mixture of Natural Yoghurt and Full cream milk ½ Cup – ½ cup ratio would work fine.

 

Apple & Cinnamon Compote

2 Apples peeled, Cored and Diced (pink lady’s or Fuji are great)

¾ cup Water

½ cup firmly packed Brown Sugar

1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla Extract

Add all ingredients to a saucepan and bring to the boil and simmer until mixture starts to thicken and apples are cooked.

If mixture still seems to runny mix up a teaspoon of cornflour with enough cold water to make a paste and mix through mixture until it thickens.

Serve with pancakes and icing sugar and be transported to Pancake Paradise. YUM!!!!!

 

Serving Suggestion Alternatives:

-   Add a punnet of blueberries to the mixture before cooking and serve with Ice cream.  (the blue berries seep when cooking giving a great look) 

-   Serve plain cakes with Lemon juice and caster sugar

-   Serve Plain cakes with plump ripe Strawberries, Maple Syrup and Vanilla Ice cream.  (my personal favourite)

 

 

This is another recipe from our new French cookbook. Basically as mentioned before these are a really luxury version of a ham and cheese toasted sandwich. It combines white bread, ham, a béchamel sauce and Gruyere cheese. These really are just DIVINE I recommend that you purchase some really lovely ham like Gypsy ham or at the very least double smoked.  And the good quality fresh delicatessen stuff also. This recipe makes between 6-8 depending on how much of the sauce you use. I found that even the ones i had toasted that we did not eat I covered and put into the fried and all I did was reheat them in thy frypan and they were perfect if not better

Tip: If you cannot find Gruyere cheese or find it a bit pricey you could use Parmesan or Romano. (not the rotten socks packet variety)

*The recipe calls to put butter into a frypan and cook the sandwiches. However I found that this uses way to much butter so just butter both sides of the actual sandwiches and it works just as well.

Croque Monsieur

 

80g unsalted Butter

1 Tablespoon plain flour

¾ cup milk

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 egg yolk

Nutmeg

12 Slices white bread

Ham

1 cup grated Gruyere cheese

Butter or margarine for spreading

Melt butter in saucepan add flour and stir for a minute or two (it may froth but just keep stirring) Slowly add milk and mustard Whisking constantly. Leave to simmer until the mixture has thickened and reduced slightly. Remove from heat and stir in egg yolk. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and set aside to cool. 

 

  
 

Place half the bread on a board and top each slice with some ham, them with some of the sauce, then Gruyere and finally with another slice of bread. Butter one half of the bread and place in a frypan. Butter the other side and cook until sandwiches are golden brown on both sides.

Serve and Enjoy.

Tips:  This time round I used ordinary commercially sliced white bread yeah it was OK but I will use a nicer more rustic bread next time from the bakery

-   The sauce can be altered to your tastes i added a bit more mustard than the recipe

-   You want the consistency of your sauce to be thick remember it will also thicken as it cools

 

French Apple Tart

This Tart does take some time as you will have to make the pastry, Creme Patissiere Factor in chill times and baking. But it is well worth it i love the Pastry and the technique used is really fantastic feels really organic.

  

Tip: When i was rolling the pastry out i found it got sticky and would fall apart. So i incorportaed approx 1/3 cup flour and needed it a bit more. It firmed up and was much easier to roll and movouver.

Tip: Blind baking is a really important step for pastry, I always used to skip it but once i tried it never turned back It helps keep that perfect shape of your pastry. I never use baking paper but tin foil instead as i find it moulds buch better to your pastry.

 
 
 Tip: Once you have done the initial blind bake and have discarded the rice and foil. brush your pastry with Eggwhite. This will prevent your filling seeping into your pastry keeping it nice and fresh not soggy.

Creme Patissiere

This is just wonderful its thick and creamy with a gorgeous vanilla scent and tatse. This come from using real vanilla pods. I altered the recipe with the vanilla and cut one in half and split one half lenghtways and scraped the seeds into the milk along with the other intact half. The black specs give it an authentic rustic feel.

Chopping Apples. I used Fuji Apples for this recipe they are alot sweeter and hold shape well when cooked.

 
Fill the case and smooth mixture ready for apples.  

Tip: Next time i do the Apples i will add more. i only did a single layer but it needs more. This time round i ended up cutting up more apples and pan frying them in butter then laying on top .

Finished Product ready to be demolished. YUM

This was well received andwas really yummy. I will do this tart again as i would like to see what it is like with fresh blueberries in place of the apples. Even Raspberries would be wonderful.

 

 

Chicken Tarragon

Today i decided to cook up a storm from a new french cookbook that we purchased a couple of weeks back

(The Food OF France - A journey for Food Lovers Recipes by Maria Villegas & Sarah Ranell)

 
We have a love for everything French, we are yet to go to France but are hoping to in the new few years. My husband is currently taking fench studies in preperation. I am picking up some sayings but will stick to creating french food for now LOL

Last week we tried our first recipe from the book Croque Monsieur, Basically this is a very luxury and rich version of a ham and cheese toasted sandwich filled with a bechamal sauce, Ham and Gruyere cheese and toasted in butter in a frypan. YUM YUM YUM I will be making them again in a few weeks as part of an afternoon tea i am having for some family so i will post pics.

This weekend i decided to make two recipes from my new french cookbook. Chicken Tarragon and Apple Tart. The tart will be consumed at lunch at my parents house tommorrow but this dish was attacked tonight by myslef and my Husband. I have to say it was just tottaly DIVINE the sauce is unbeleivable. I bought a new cast iron Casserole dish especially for the task but for those that do not have one a lidded casserole dish would work just as well but the browning and sauce would have to be done in a stove top pan.

I dont think this was a very difficult recipe but some may. The flavours are wonderful. The Tarragon is unusual but subtle it is just wonderful. Definatley a repeater. I served this with Roasted salted  Baby potatoes in Olive Oil, Salt Pepper and some Rosmary. Along with Sauteed Zuchinni.

I must also say that the left over sauce over the potatows the next day YUMMMM .

Chicken Tarragon

 

Personally i like to use free range meat the tase and quality is so much nice. Worth the extra few dollars.

 

Filling The Cavity with the Butter, Taragon and Garlic Mixture.

Please also note my new Donna Ha Spatula From her Woolara Store. Its great the silicone head pulls off for easy cleaning.

Chicken has been browned on all sides and stock and wine added ready for the oven

 

1 Hours 20 mins later MMMM smells so great.

 

Next week i am going to try my hand at Rabbit Fricassee.  
 

 

Chocolate & Zucchini Cupcakes

For my first post I decided to try a recipe that I have been wanting to try for some time now. The thought of chocolate and Zucchini to me was interesting. I imagined that they would be Dense moist cakes. The end result was not what I was expecting but these cakes are REALLY yummy, not sweet like your normal cupcake more savoury, imagine carrot cake. and they are moist and light.

I topped them with a Chocolate Fudge Buttercream frosting from the Crabapple cupcake book YUM I am impressed and will do these again. I also think these would be great with a cream cheese frosting  even Lemon icing would be nice to add a sweet tartness to the cakes.

Chocolate & Zucchini Cupcakes

Makes Approx 16

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup Conola Oil

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs beaten (@ room temperature)

1tablesppon Vanilla (I normally use extract for cannot find the bottle I bought last night for the life of me so had to use essence)

1/2 cup Buttermilk

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1/4 cup Cocoa

1/2 tsp each baking power & Baking soda

1/2 tsp each ground cinnamon & nutmeg

1/2 tsp Salt

2 cups grated Zucchini ( I used 1 lage)  

1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used dark)

Set Oven to approx 170 degrees (this works for me but you may want to work with what your oven work best with as tehy differ greatly). Line you muffin tins with papers or I use the foils only. I feel they give a nicer finish to the cakes

In your mixer with the paddle attachement cream the butter until light and creamy add oil, sugar and eggs and mix until creamy, Add Vanilla and buttermilk and mix until combined thorouhly.

Sift dry ingredients and add to wet mixture and mix well (do not overwork mixture), add Zucchini and choc chips and mix until just incorporated.

 

Fill cases with mixture i use a really heaped desert spoon.

because this makes 16 you will obviously not be filling all the holes in the tins. Dont leave them empty though fill the others with water so the tempeature will distribute evenly.

Bake for approx 25 mins or until cakes spring back when tounched or use a skewer. Cool on racks before icing.

  

Chocolate Fudge Buttercream Frosting

100g Butter Softened

50 g Cream Cheese Softened

3 Cups Sifted Icing Sugar

3/4 cup Cocoa

1 tbs Vanilla

just under 1/2 cup milk

Sift icing and cocoa into seperate bowl

Cream Butter and cream cheese well for about 2 mins until pale and creamy

Add milk, Vanilla and half the icing Mixture  beat well for approx 3 mins until light and fluffy. Add rest of icing and beat well until mixture is light, fluffy and of a spreading concistency. Adjust with more milk or icing depending on desired concistency.

Enjoy.