Pumpkin Bread

This bread was super easy and turned out great. The raisins and walnuts are optional but the bread is sort of blah without them.

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

1 can 16 oz pure pumpkin puree
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups sugar
3 eggs

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 1/4 cup green pumpkin seeds for decoration

Mix sugar with vegetable oil in a large bowl. Mix in pumpkin puree and eggs. In a separate bowl, sift together all dry ingredients. Add dry mix into wet in two batches. Fold in walnuts.

Set oven to 350 F

Grease two loaf pans and divide batter evenly between pans. Bake for about 1 hour; in the last 20 minutes, sprinkle pumpkin seeds on top.

Milk Tea Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 1 qt of light cream
• 1.5 cups of sugar
• 7 tea bags (I used Lipton)
• 1 cup of 1% milk
  

Methods

1. Heat cream to 175 degF.
2. Turn off the heat and add sugar.
3. Steep the 7 tea bags in the hot cream. Stir and just let it sit for at least 30 minutes. Squeeze the tea bags before removing them, if you'd like.
4. Add the milk to thin the mixture a bit.
   
5. Let the mixture chill in the refrigerator overnight or leave it in the freezer for an hour or so.
6. Churn it in the ice cream machine! Approximately, say, 45-50 minutes.
7. Harden in the freezer.

Note: I've been finding that the viscosity affects the amount of air that can be put into the ice cream. Longer churn time is better, too. There seems to be thickening really happening at around 40 minutes and the last 10 minutes is where lots of air gets incorporated.

Carrot Cake Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 1 qt light cream
• 3 carrots shredded, about 1.5 cups
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup 1% milk
• 1/2 cup crushed walnuts (optional)
  

Methods

1. Gently heat cream, shredded carrots, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to about 150 degF.
2. Simmer until carrots are very tender and break apart easily, approximately 40 min. Let cool and add vanilla.
3. Chill overnight.
4. At this point, the mixture is quite thick. If put into the ice cream machine, it will be difficult for air to be churned into it. So, add the milk to reduce the viscosity of the mixture.
5. Put it in the ice cream machine until you can see a significant change in volume, about 40-45 minutes. Add walnuts during the last 10 minutes, if desired.
   
6. Let it harden in the freezer for several hours.
   

Coffee Ice Cream

Note: This recipe turned out to be too much for my 2-qt ice cream maker. It overflowed slightly, but the texture is amazing.

Ingredients

• 6 shots espresso (I used a moka. Yay!)
• 1 qt light cream
• 1.5 cup sugar

Methods

1. Heat light cream to 175 degF. In the meantime, make the 6 shots of espresso. You may use decaf beans if you want decaf coffee ice cream.
2. Turn of heat, add sugar and espresso. Stir
3. Let cool to room temperature, then chill in refrigerator overnight.
4. Pour into ice cream machine. Churn, baby, churn. This time, I let it go almost 45 minutes. So much air got churned in that it overflowed my machine. May need to cut down on liquids next time.
5. Harden the ice cream in the freezer for several hours. With all that great fat from the cream, it'll stay airy and creamy!
   

cookie recipe

thursday, 1 january, 2009 20:10 MAT

i made these cookies for everyone whilst we were in newcastle. i made them when brett's parents visited us for brett's birthday and was instructed that i must do so over christmas. i was led to believe that harry would love me forever if i did. =P


cookie recipe

ingredients:
1 packet cheapo (black & gold, homebrand, etc) butter cake mix
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1 T vanilla
1 T brown sugar
chocolate melts disks (dark, milk, or white)
dessicated coconut (optional)

destructions:
1) mix together butter cake mix, oil, egg, vanilla, brown sugar
2) dough will be oily, so add dessicated coconut or more brown sugar until it is less oily (if you want or not), it shouldn't ever be not oily though
3) roll dough mixture into little spheres and drop on cookie sheets
4) press 1 chocolate melt disk into the centre of each sphere until it is sorta flattened
5) bake at 180 degrees centigrade for about 10 minutes or until golden brown

makes as many as you can make from the dough dependent on the size of sphere you choose to use (duh). i usually make rather big ones, but i have made smaller ones for larger gatherings so i get more to go around.

variations:
* instead of chocolate melt disks, use almonds or something else decorate the top (using almonds makes me think of my mum's famous almond cookies)
* use chocolate or vanilla cake mix instead of butter kind for chocolate or vanilla cookies

,` )