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Crispy Three Chocolate Cookies

January 8, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

My family adores pailleté feuilletine, the crushed wheat wafers that I use to add crunch to our milk chocolate treats.

The problem though is that in order to get it at a reasonable price, I buy it in bulk from Chefs’ Warehouse, and then I struggle to use it all up before it goes stale or passes its expiration date.  So last week, I tried adding my last cup of feuilletine to a cookie dough. The results were quite delicious, giving the cookie an extra crispy texture…

I used a mix of three types of chocolate – Amedei Toscana Nut Brown (hazelnut), Amedei Toscana Black 63%, and Callebaut 44% cacao baking sticks…

  • 300g (2 cups) plain (AP) flour
  • pinch of fine sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
  • 110g (½ cup) white sugar
  • 100g (½ cup, packed) brown sugar
  • 185g (¾ cup) unsalted butter
  • 1 large (59g) free range egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used homemade)
  • 75g (1 cup) pailleté feuilletine (*see note below)
  • 250g (about 1½ cups) chocolate chunks

* These cookies were inspired by an old Mrs Field’s recipe, which used  a cup of crispy rice cereal – if you can’t  track down some feuilletine, you might want to try that instead (but I haven’t, so I can’t guarantee how it will work).

1. Preheat oven to 150C (300F) with fan. Sift together the flour, salt and bicarb (if you sift nothing else, make sure you sift the bicarb). Stir in the feuilletine (gently!) and the chocolate chunks.

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and both sugars until just combined, then beat in the egg and vanilla.

3. Add the flour mixture, feuilletine and chocolate, and beat on the lowest speed until just combined, being careful not to overmix the batter.

4. Shape the dough into walnut sized balls  (I used a small icecream scoop) and lay these on parchment lined baking trays, allowing room for a little spreading. Bake for 18 – 20 minutes, then immediately transfer to a wire rack to cool.

The cookies were a big hit with Pete and Small Man, but please note that they’re best eaten within a day or so of being made. They’re a nice change from all the slice cookies we’ve been making recently!

Posted in Recipes | 48 Comments »

Garden News

January 5, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Cockatoos are clever birds.

They perch atop our giant sunflowers and systematically pick out the seeds. Pete managed to chase one away before it had a chance to completely decimate the flower head above.

The smaller sunflowers remain unscathed…

Our mutant butternut trombie, as it’s now known, is sprawling vigorously…

…and already making more fruit than we can eat…

The basil plants are tall and lush…

Our self-sown snake beans are growing at a riotous pace, and just starting to flower. I love their orchid-like blooms…

They’re climbing up their A-frame support and heading for the sky…

The beans have started in earnest…

Speaking of A-frames, we now have three in the garden.

After years of hammering in stakes, we’ve finally figured out a reliable and economical trellis system for the plants to climb on. The frames can be folded up for storage when not in use, and are quite sturdy, even in strong winds.

Each frame is made using four long stakes for the legs, joined with a single screw in pairs. These are connected by horizontal stakes – one at the top and another half a metre (18″) from the bottom on either side. For rigidity, the sides are cross-braced with strong string under tension. Wire mesh is attached to provide a growing surface for the plants.

As you can see, the string is tied diagonally from the points where the horizontals are connected – we use strong nylon string which won’t rot (leftover from our kiteflying days)..

The string is basically just looped and tied around the wood to tension the frame and keep its shape…

The larger frame has cross bars and string bracing on both sides, but the smaller ones just have the bars and string on the front side…

 

I’m a rubbish artist, but I tried drawing a sketch nonetheless…

Our larger frame (made from merbau decking, cut lengthwise in half) is straddling two beds, with snake beans growing up one side, and regular (non-mutant) tromboncinos just starting on the other…

. . . . .

And an update on the chooks…

We lost Rosemary just before Christmas. She really was a poor old chook – still eating and walking around, but too old and tired to fly up to the roost at night. She was the youngest of our first flock of six, so it wasn’t surprising that she was the last to go, and she died very peacefully one day, lying down in the dirt.  The day after she died, it was a scorching hot 36C (97F), and I couldn’t help but feel relieved for her.

The other five girls are all doing very well. Amber, Mrs Gronkle, Billie and Lorraine are laying, with little Esme yet to start. The Lohmann Browns don’t seem to lay as intensely as the ISA Browns did, which is a good thing – the ISAs laid almost daily, which I’m sure wasn’t great for their longevity. The Lohmanns have lovely temperaments, and the flock seems quite harmonious.

And whilst we’ve lost Rosemary, we now have (Not Quite) Lorraine, who is every bit as mad! She spends her time trying to escape from the dome kamikaze-style, or flying up to the roost to peer eye to eye at us whenever we approach. She’s very friendly though, and doesn’t mind being handled…

If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, I hope your gardens are all going well (and if you’re up north, I’ll keep taking photos for you until your turn comes).  As I mentioned a while back, our garden is mostly self-sown this year, but it’s certainly keeping us well fed!

Posted in Garden | 83 Comments »

December Happenings

January 3, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

In December, our gorgeous Big Boy turned 21!

It was a fortnight of celebrations, starting with a party at the oh-so-cool Stitch Bar in town (for him and twenty of his mates, we weren’t invited), followed by several nights of dinners and French champagne with family, friends and neighbours, and culminating in dinner at Ristorante Pendolino in the glitzy Strand Arcade.

We also opened a bottle of Cullen Margaret River 1992 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot that I’d been saving for him since it was released in 1995. It was glorious…

. . . . .

December was filled with chocolate – several plates of assorted goodies went out the door…

My friend Carol, temperer extraordinaire, made gorgeous chocolate Christmas trees. The moulds can be purchased from Candyland Crafts (item C-171). I went over to help her assemble them…

. . . . .

We ate a lot of sushi in December – it was the perfect meal for our hot summer days and a wonderful accompaniment to celebratory Bollinger…

. . . . .

Christmas pudding necessitated microwave custard, and I turned six leftover egg whites into nine friands, using the last of the cherries that Pete’s sister Penny brought us…

Four of the friands went around the corner to our friend Luca, and I added a handful of chocolate chips to his…

. . . . .

We had a very quiet New Year’s Eve at home. I fried up a large platter of Hokkien noodles for dinner – the dish was filled with prawns, leftover Christmas ham, backyard eggs, butternut trombie, and our first two snake beans. My mother always says noodles at New Year are lucky…

. . . . .

On the recommendation of our friend PeteV, we gave this Spanish paella cooking base a go. It was expensive – $16 a litre – but claimed to be able to create an authentic paella (for four) in just half an hour with very little effort…

It’s hard to pass up something with such an awesome (and preservative free) ingredients list (note the snails!)…

The thick stock didn’t contain any pieces of snail (or rabbit, duck or chicken, for that matter), so we topped it with the grilled peppers that PeteV and Nic gave us for Christmas. It was quick and easy and really quite good – not as tasty as my Pete’s paella from scratch, but certainly much easier…

. . . . .

Hope all is well in your world, and you’re enjoying the start of the new year!

How was your December?

Posted in Food & Friends | 59 Comments »

In My Kitchen, January 2014

January 1, 2014 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Happy New Year!

In my kitchen…

…are small bulbs of purple garlic, a gift from our friends Ian and Diana. They didn’t produce a commercial quantity this year, so they’re sharing what they did grow with friends…

In my kitchen…

…are three rounds of Linda’s homemade soap. We use it at our kitchen sink, and find our hands are all the better for it. Her bars are made with olive, macadamia and coconut oils – in addition, one has a luffa embedded in it (great for cleaning grubby garden hands), another has calendula, marshmallow and comfrey, and the third has lemon zest and oats…

In my kitchen…

…are my first ever Tupperware containers, a gift from my darling friend Carol, who had to listen all year to my moaning about not having airtight storage for cookies…

In my kitchen…

…is this beautiful natural fibre bowl, a gift from our neighbours Shaun and Michelle. It was handwoven in Addis Ababa from elephant grass, with all proceeds going to support the Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia…

In my kitchen…

…are snowy sugary balls of spicy deliciousness, unusual Persian sweets that gorgeous Becca the InTolerant Chef sent us for Christmas. We’ve been nibbling on them after dinner – the coriander seeds impart a very unique flavour…

In my kitchen…

…are gourmet goodies from our neighbours Nic and PeteV. I’m particularly looking forward to trying the ajvar…

In my kitchen…

…is our Evesham Gold water jug, which gets an airing every festive season…

In my kitchen…

…are gifts from Maude – for Pete, a bag of golden Basmati rice and bottles of Sutton apple juice…

…and for me, an insulated teapot, with bespoke crocheted handle cover…

In my kitchen…

…are fabulous presents from my blogger besties – Charlie’s snowman Christmas cake…

…Lorraine’s flavoursome herbed honey, and Tania’s delicious shortbreads…

In my kitchen…

…is a swirly silicon chocolate mould, a surprise present from my friend Mandy in South Africa, and felted wool coasters from Nepal, a gift from Marcela…

And finally, in my kitchen…

…is lovely Jo’s homemade granola! It’s chockful of healthy goodies, and makes a delicious start to the day…

. . . . .

Tell me, what’s happening in your kitchen this month?

If you’d like to do an In My Kitchen post on your own blog, please feel free  to do so. We’d love to see what’s happening in your kitchen this month!  Please link back to this blog, and let us know when your post is up, and we’ll add it to our monthly listing. We ask that all posts be uploaded by the 10th of each month, please.

. . . . .

Here are this month’s posts…

Ardy @ Ardysez (first IMK post! Alice Springs, Northern Territory)

Maureen @ Orgasmic Chef (Sunshine Coast, QLD)

Andrea @ Shabby Chick (Cotswolds, UK)

JJ @ 84th & 3rd (Sydney, NSW)

Bernice @ Dish ‘n’ the Kitchen (Calgary, Canada)

Serena @ Anything But Toast (Canberra, ACT)

Mel @ The Cook’s Notebook (Brisbane, QLD)

Claire @ Claire K Creations (Brisbane, QLD)

Jane @ The Shady Baker (Broken Hill, NSW)

Laila @ Table of Colors (Finland)

Johanna @ Green Gourmet Giraffe (Melbourne, VIC)

Fiona @ TIFFIN – Bite Sized Food Adventures (Brisbane, QLD)

Rachi @ Le Bon Vivant (first IMK post! Canberra, ACT)

Mary @ Beyond Jelly (Blue Mountains, NSW)

Tania @ The Cook’s Pyjamas (Perth, Western Australia)

Debi @ Transplanted Cook (Sheffield, UK)

Becca @ The InTolerant Chef (Canberra, ACT)

Saucy @ Saucy Gander (Sydney, NSW)

Clare @ The Life of Clare (Geelong, VIC)

Sally @ My Custard Pie (Dubai, United Arab Emirates)

Heidi @ Steps on the Journey (Ohio, USA)

Catherine @ Cate’s Cate (Melbourne, VIC)

Andrew @ Andrew Faith (first IMK post!! Blue Mountains, NSW)

Brydie @ CityHippyFarmGirl (Sydney, NSW)

Pamela @ Spoon Feast (North Carolina, USA)

Charlie Louie @ Hotly Spiced (Sydney, NSW)

Jennifer @ My Blissful Journey (USA)

Giulia @ Love at Every Bite (Canberra, ACT)

Lisa @ Gourmet Wog (Sydney, NSW)

Liz @ Bizzy Lizzy’s Good Things (Canberra, ACT)

Julie @ Once in a Blue Moon 17 (Southern California, USA)

Leah @ Sharing the Food We Love (Brisbane, QLD)

Kim @ A Little Lunch (Oklahoma, USA)

Joanna @ Zeb Bakes (Bristol, UK)

Marian @ Apricot Tart (Adelaide, South Australia)

Linda @ The Witches Kitchen (Northern Rivers, NSW)

Kari @ Bite-Sized Thoughts (Western Australia)

Ladyredspecs @ Please Pass the Recipe (in Brisbane, QLD this month!)

Francesca @ Almost Italian (Melbourne, VIC)

Anne @ Life in Mud Spattered Boots (Essex, UK)

Anna @ Anna Shortcakes (Kentucky, USA)

Ale @ Ligera de Equipaje (Argentina)

Tania @ My Kitchen Stories (Sydney, NSW)

Sally @ Bewitching Kitchen (Kansas, USA)

Tandy @ Lavender and Lime (Gordons Bay, South Africa)

Jason @ Don’t Boil The Sauce! (Melbourne, VIC)

Joanne @ What’s on the List? (Adelaide, South Australia)

Misky @ The Chalk Hill Kitchen (West Sussex, UK)

Diane @ Photographs and Recipes (Massachusetts, USA)

Glenda @ Passion Fruit Garden (Perth, WA)

 

Posted in In My Kitchen | 186 Comments »

Christmas Countdown

December 23, 2013 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Only a couple more days to go!

The tree is up, filled with a mixture of bought and homemade decorations. The big glass baubles are a new addition this year, but old favourites, like this wee pig that my friend Annie from New Zealand made me a decade ago, always have a branch…

Last minute chocolate making is underway, although with our hot summer days, the tempering bowl has been cooling in the air-conditioned lounge room. We’ve made feuilletine-filled dark milk chocolate in the shape of dragons…

Twelve Days of Christmas..(the feuilletine often results in a few air bubbles)…

A new Nutella ganache truffle, dipped in a blend of dark and milk chocolate…

I didn’t end up using the Santa bags, but instead packaged the nuts, mini fruit cakes and an assortment of chocolates into small plastic bowls…

Finally, here’s my Christmas drink for the year, the risque sounding “Sex on the Beach” (I didn’t pick the name, it’s a well known cocktail)…

  • 30ml/1 oz vodka
  • 30ml/1 oz peach schnapps
  • 90ml/3 oz each of orange juice and cranberry juice
  • lots of ice

It’s over 30ºC in Sydney at the moment, and this is perfect sipping as we slide into the silly season…

♥ Wishing you all a joyous, blessed Merry Christmas!  We’ll see you in 2014! ♥

Posted in Food & Friends | 60 Comments »

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