Peanut Biscuits Bake Off

Imagine my silent outrage when I walk into the office and find my colleagues munching on biscuits, which I did not make. 

Turns out, the girl from the neighbouring office decided to spread the Christmas cheer (I for one, was not cheered by this turn of events) and offered my I-don't-even-know-if-I-have-an-oven-in-my-kitchen team mates a plateful of home made (crunchy and delicious, may I begrudgingly add) baked goods. Thus, effectively undermining the Monday muffin monopoly I set up. This could not go unchallenged so as I gnawed my way through her crunchy yet crumbly cookie, I devised a counter attack (detailed below). Tomorrow, the proverbial swords will be drawn at the morning congregation around the coffee machine . The winners are, of course, my unsuspecting colleagues who get to gorge themselves on morning tea treats whilst the Other Office Girl and I bake battle.

PREPARATION TIME: 30 Minutes
TOTAL COOKING TIME: 15-20 Minutes
MAKES: 36

INGREDIENTS:

185 g unsalted butter, softened
2 cups (370 g) soft brown butter
140 g smooth peanut butter (I only keep crunchy in the house)
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
1 egg

1 ½ cups (185 g) plain (all-purpose) flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 ¼ (125 g) rolled oats

¾ cup (120 g) peanuts*

*I had no choice but to use almond shavings because just as I was about to spoil the recipe (and let the Other Girl win by default), my sister intervened and pointed out that the peanuts I was about to throw into the mixing bowl, were in fact BBQ flavour. The almond shavings were a last minute substitute. As an added benefit, almond shavings lend a flair to the biscuits that chunky peanut clusters can not offer while also reducing the oily, persistent peanut dryness in your mouth that forces you to reach for a glass of milk. I think I''ll prefer to use almond shavings in the future.    

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
   o   Baking paper in baking is about as current as shoulder pads in fashion. Use Canola Oil spray instead and marvel at the effortlessness with which the biscuits slide off the tray. Added bonus? The sweet smell of baking doesn't have to compete with the burnt paper odour rapidly fuming up your kitcheno   Two trays is better than one. While you wait for the biscuits to cool off (I of course did not, because I have the patience of a five year old and paid the price of my biscuits crumbling on contact with the spatula)
2. Beat the butter, sugar, peanut butter and vanilla extract in a bowl using electric beaters until light and creamy. Add the egg and beat until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and mix the combined flour and baking powder. Fold in the oats and peanuts* and mix until smooth. Chill until firm.
3. Roll heaped tablespoons of the mixture into balls and place on the trays, leaving room for spreading. Press down gently with a floured fork to make a crisscross pattern.
4. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until golden. Cool slightly on the trays, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

The brown sugar is preferrable to white as it simply doesn't sugar coat the other ingredients and allows their flavours to come forth.

Keep the balls modest size otherwise they'll spread all over each other on the tray in the oven.

Gently press the balls down with a floured fork. Sorry about the rubbish quality of the photo, had to bake in the night as been working too many late nights.

Mr Peanut Butter Biscuit !

We will see whose biscuits my colleagues will be reaching for tomorrow. Mittens are off !

RECIPE SOURCE: 

"Baking a Commonsense Guide" published in 2009 by Bay Books, an imprint of Murdoch Books Pty Limited, page 124

The Simunovich Olive Estate - Bracu Restaurant

First time driving past ‘Auckland’s finest country restaurant’, I nearly mistook it for a lavish private home of a wealthy uncle I don’t have. 

Located in the Bombay Hills, on the Simunovich Olive Estate, Bracu beckons its guests with the effortless confidence of a host who knows that if you have driven 35 minutes out of your way from central Auckland, you need no convincing to stay for dinner. Once seated on the veranda which orbits the restaurant, I was eager to see how the Metro Magazine’s 2013 Best Rural runner up measures up.

Well to begin with, it measures down. The (mouthful of a) menu of the ‘Four Courses of Seasonal Fare Designed to Showcase the Garden and Bracu’s New Wood Fired Oven’ featured all the key words ‘truffle ice cream’, ‘alpine salmon’and ‘pokeno pork belly’ to make this an experience worthy loosening my belt in public. But apart from the clever trick with a green ‘veloute of asparagus’, which the waitress made a point of circulating the table with and finally adding at the last minute to our ‘truffle ice cream’, the first course was unremarkable. Or maybe it was but I would of needed more than the one spoonful assigned to me to come to appreciate that.

The unremarkable Velouté of Asparagus with Truffle Ice Cream

But once the entrée of ‘Benmore Alpine Salmon Lightly Smoked Over Olive Wood, Avocado and Bloody Mary Vinaigrette’ arrived, it became apparent that all that my mouth was going to be full of tonight were words, instead of forkfuls. The presentation was immaculate but the portion size quickly made me regret passing up ‘Wood fired Sourdough with Cultured Butter and Simunovich Estate Olive Oil’ in an attempt not to fill up on starters.

Portion Controlled Benmore Alpine Salmon Lightly Smoked Over Olive Wood,
Avocado And Bloody Mary Vinaigrette

Bracu’s house wines come from the Duck Point vineyards and the Sauvignon Blanc in particular, with its   unobtrusive crispness, showcased the ‘Pork Belly and Fillet with Buttercup and Sherry Vinegar Jus’ main. And this course around, the minimalist approach to portion sizes worked in the pork belly’s favour because anything that rich and succulent in taste would have been overwhelming on a large scale.

Succulent and Satisfying Pokeno Pork Belly And Fillet With Buttercup And Sherry Vinegar Jus

The ‘Lemon Soufflé with a Blueberry Ice Cream’ dessert was the shortest and most straight forward offer on our tongue twisting dinner menu and ironically proved to be the most filling. I imagine the dessert chef must have earned his patisserie stripes with this little number because the soufflé was everything you have come to believe to be an unattainable baking myth - a high rise golden top which when prodded into reveals itself to be fluffy and creamy bubbles of dough of feather lite density. The experience, for the first time, made me appreciate the French origin of the word soufflé meaning to ‘blow up’.

The sweet send off Lemon Souffle With Blueberry Ice Cream

Monday Morning Muffins

Having started at a new job, I decided the best way to leap frog from 'new kid on the block' status to 'one of the team' was with baked goods. And since everyone likes muffins and no one likes Monday mornings, I combined the two and was instantly welcomed into the fold. 

PREPARATION TIME: 20 Minutes
TOTAL COOKING TIME: 20 Minutes
Makes: 12

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups (300g) self-raising flour

1 teaspoon mixed spice 

½ cup (100g) firmly packed brown sugar 

1 cup mashed bananas 

1 cup (160g) seeded chopped dates

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 cup (80ml) vegetable oil 

1/3 cup buttermilk (80 ml)

METHOD: 

• Grease 12 hole (1/3 cup/80ml capacity) muffin pan
• Sift dry ingredients into large bowl, stir in remaining ingredients
• Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Bake in moderately for about 20 minute

You will need about 2 large over-ripe bananas for this recipe. As you can see mine have a lot of over ripening still to do but my impatience to eat them prevents them from getting there. Check my Gardening Tip for what to do with the banana skins.

Fresh eggs laid by our chickens. We have four, one for each family member. My chicken, Paprika was assigned to me and cleverly named by my sister. Paprika is high maintenance and demands to be carried to her night chamber (coop) whilst she wildly protests at having to share her private boudoir with the other (more socially apt) chickens. There is a part of me that thinks my family's choice to give me Paprika is not entirely coincidental.

Dates drowning in a river of buttermilk and eggs. I'm very heavy handed with my buttermilk and only about 3/4 of the dates actually make it into the mix, as my friend and I have recently discovered dates to be the chewy substitutes to chocolate. Do make sure the dates are pitted because there is nothing more off putting than having to shove your hand in your mouth to pick the stones out of your food in front of your colleagues. Or just people in general. 

Remember that muffin mixtures require minimum mixing and should look coarse and lumpy. A metal spoon or fork will do the trick. This is not gravy - lumpy is good.

Double check to make sure the oven is set at the baking setting (the one that looks like a fan on its own, without a line at the top, nor the bottom). Otherwise, if the grills are on, the wee muffins won't have any room to grow and hide their heads in their muffin tin home without ever rising to the top, like all ambitious muffins should.

GARDENING TIP <> BANANA SKINS: The potassium, for which the banana is famous, is mostly contained in the skin, so instead of throwing them into the compost, layer them onto the soil of whatever you happen to be growing in your garden patch. My yellow "Sunshine" cherry tomatoes are presently chewing their way through the peels pictured in this photo. 

SOURCE: The recipe I am using here is from the The Australian Women’s Weekly Cookbooks series titled ‘Muffins, Scones and Breads’. The recipe are triple tested by the Australian Women’s Weekly Test Kitchen, making them fail proof. Thanks to my Mum who has introduced me to the book, disappointment has been eliminated from my Sunday afternoon baking.