Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Here’s a super easy treat to make and bake: Butterscotch Bars.

I first posted my version of this Mrs Field’s recipe in 2009 and it’s still one of the simplest (and most calorific) recipes on my blog. Bake it no more than two or three times a year or your jeans won’t fit – you have been warned! But it’s also the perfect recipe to use up any chocolate you might have lying around – one year I used solid milk Easter eggs and broken up supermarket chocolate bars. My most recent bake used five types of Belgian chocolate – Callebaut 811 Dark, 823 Milk, Baking Sticks, Ruby Chocolate and Cacao Barry Venezuela Origin 72% Dark. Yup, five types. I made a double batch for Easter, which was actually a bit crazy because it used nearly half a kilo of butter and brown sugar and 720g of chocolate. It weighed a ton!

Here are the quantities for a more manageable amount, but feel free to double it if you wish. There are more detailed instructions with imperial measures and photos in our original post.

• 300g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarb (baking) soda, sifted (don’t not sift, or you’ll get bitter lumps in your bars)
• 215g brown sugar
• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• Pinch of salt
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 360g mixed choc chips (or broken up bars, or solid baby eggs etc)

1. Preheat the oven to 150C with fan. Line a 20cm (8”) square tin (my photos are of a double batch, baked in a 23cm x 33cm pan).

2. In a bowl, sift the flour and bicarb together, add the pinch of salt, then stir well. Then add ALL the chocolate. Stir to combine.

3. Beat the softened butter and sugar using an electric mixer, then add the egg and vanilla, beat until light and smooth. Scrape down the bowl, add all the dry ingredients, beat on low speed until just combined. That’s it. Simple, right?

4. Scoop and scrape it all into the prepared tin and flatten the top. The dough will be very stiff. Sometimes (often) I use a wet hand to work it all into the corners, then flatten out the top with an offset spatula.

5. Bake for 35-45 minutes until firm and a thin sharp knife inserted into the centre comes out clean of cake mixture (ignore the melted chocolate). Don’t overbake. Cool in the tin on a rack before cutting.

Eat in very small pieces and share with as many people as possible!

All is well in our house now, because we finally tracked down rapini seeds!

Also known as cima di rapa or broccoli raab/rabé, these are our staple winter green, growing abundantly in our backyard. All vegetable seeds have been in short supply in Sydney in recent months, so we were pretty happy to discover that The Italian Gardener still had these available. Here’s one of our favourite recipes for this slightly bitter green leaf, but these days we often eat it simply stir fried in garlic and oil. It also freezes brilliantly, so we get to eat it year round.

The name “Quarantina” refers to the fact that the plant takes an average of 40 days to flower (there are also slower flowering varieties, but we’re far too impatient to try them).

Ironically, the origin of the word “quarantine” is not unrelated – according to dictionary.com, it used to refer to “a period, originally 40 days, of detention or isolation imposed upon ships, persons, animals, or plants on arrival at a port or place, when suspected of carrying some infectious or contagious disease.” So these really are the perfect leafy green to be planting now! ♥

Here’s a batch of neighbourhood lime curd, made with Jane’s eggs, the caster sugar Ellen picked up for me on her last shopping trip, and the butter that darling Will left at my back door a couple of weeks ago. Oh, and some old limes I found in the fridge. It only took five minutes to make!

Now normally I’d fill nice, new jars but I decided instead to give everyone half a jar and used what we had. I did rinse them in boiling water first!

Want the recipe? I posted it over a decade ago so many people know it already, but if you haven’t seen it before, here’s a quick recap (the original post is here).

• 150g lime or lemon juice plus grated rind
• 150g caster (superfine) sugar
• 50g unsalted butter
• 3 large eggs plus one egg yolk

Step 1: Mix sugar, juice, zest and butter in large microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 2 mins, then stir until combined.

Step 2: In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and yolks until no streaks remain.

Step 3: Pour the eggs through a sieve into the hot juice mix, whisking briskly as you go. Extra hands help here.

Step 4: Microwave again on high for 30 seconds, whisk, 30 seconds more, whisk, then 1 minute more and whisk. That’s often enough for me but sometimes it needs an extra 20-30 seconds. Give it a real good final whisking and you’re good to go!

Spoon the curd into sterile jars and eat promptly – I’m not sure how long it keeps because I’ve never had it around for more than a few days. Store it in the fridge and share it if you can. My friend Ale freezes hers and finds it keeps well for at least a year that way.

. . . . .

I dropped half-filled jars on my neighbours’ front porches when I went out for my walk at 7am – a sweet surprise for breakfast – and was rewarded with photos a couple of hours later.

Graeme and Sharon had theirs on pancakes…

Jane spread hers on wholegrain sourdough toast…

…and Pete and I? We just ate it with a spoon…

Oh, and I had two egg whites leftover from the double batch I made, so I turned them into meringues…

Wishing you a happy day filled with sweet treats! ♥