Strawberry Crumb Bars, to make a sick Cookie feel better

I flew home from Melbourne on the Friday evening, and to Sydney on Saturday lunch time. I know. I'm such a jet setter. Saturday night I worked, we do once a quarter, to test updates. Sunday, which was my free day in Sydney I woke up so ill I couldn't get out of bed. Thank god for room service.

Monday, believing I had flu I braved the walk to my office (5 minutes, with a pharmacy downstairs) and after that was packed back to the hotel by my manager, where I slept pretty much the entire day.

Tuesday was just awful. I rang in sick, I could barely get out of the bed….and my manager rang me back to say I'd been booked into the 1.30pm flight home. I knew fear. What I found out later that day (I got off a flight and was bundled into a doctors surgery by my mother in law), was that I had a throat and a sinus infection. The state of my ears had me frightened, and justifiably so. We won't talk about that flight.

I spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday on my sisters couch. Our roof was being removed and replaced during this period, making me a sick, but non-contagious, couch surfer.

While I slept on Thursday (let's be honest, I did little BUT sleep) she made this Strawberry Crumb Bar with some of the 15 punnets of strawberries we bought between us…although she dropped out quite a lot of sugar. It was magic. I took a slice home for hubby and he loved it too.

So on Saturday afternoon, after a pretty good nap, I made it too. Baking, I think, is a pretty good sign you're on the mend….even if I was really too tired still to stand up for the time it took.

I made two alterations to the recipe as it reads. I halved the sugar. And I swapped 1 cup of flour for custard powder. I also gave it an extra five minutes in the oven because I know my oven. Make this when you can buy lots of strawberries cheap. It's very forgiving for bruised strawberries!

 

 

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Anniversaries, cake and strawberry ice cream

At the beginning of May, my hubby and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. The lovely thing about having gotten married at a restaurant on top of a mountain, means we can revisit it each year. Assuming of course that The Summit at Mt Cootha doesn't close down anytime soon!

We had a lovely meal, in the best seats, and even had a view of some fireworks from Suncorp Stadium. We ordered an entree and main each, but, skipped dessert in favour for a slice of wedding cake frozen from last year.

I made some strawberry ice cream to add something extra, we weren't sure how well the cake would hold up after 12months. But after, it was just lovely, and we had it over a couple of nights, with ice cream, and chocolate sauce.

Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole milk, chilled
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups thickened cream, chilled
• 1-2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup frozen strawberries

Method

Put the strawberries in your food processor and blitz until, chunky but the kind of size you'd want as chunks in your ice cream. Set aside.

Using a whisk, or electric mixer, or similiar, whisk to combine the milk and sugar until the sugar is dissolved.

Stir in the cream and vanilla to taste, mix in the strawberries and pop into your ice cream maker.

 

 

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Waffle I do?

I still had jam left over. And trying not to waste my very expensive, foolishly purchased strawberries I decided to make something for breakfast the next morning to help use them.

I don't have a waffle pan. Its a dangerous thing, waffle pans….it encourages you to eat more waffles.

I do have a griddle pan. And Jamie Oliver, has a griddle pan waffle recipe.

Winning.

Griddle Pan Waffles

I would suggest you jump straight over here to view the recipe: Jamie Oliver Griddle Pan Waffles

I enlisted the help of my hubby to do the flipping, because its a bit tricky to flip as one giant piece, and I may or may not have forgotten to add the melted butter. Maybe. I'm admitting to nothing. I also had my stovetop to hot, hence the somewhat blackened centre. Nevermind.

My first waffle had bacon, eggs and maple syrup, which was delicious. The next one used up the left over jam with a little scoop of yoghurt. Both ways worked really well.

 

 

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Strawberry Fields

We had a long weekend recently in Brisbane, which felt disjointed because hubby worked the Saturday, and I worked the Monday. My sister was away on a beach holiday and I had a day with which to work out how to run solo, without spending the entire thing at home.

So I ventured out, on foot, to a recently started local market. It was a little to warm honestly for the 7.5km round trip, but, thankfully no birdlife swooped me on the way.

Hot, sweaty and very thirsty (hydration Cookie, when will you learn?) my first purchase was a Virgin Mojito Ice Tea. Over a week later and I'm still thinking about it……mmm…..mojito…..and I can't be sure if I loved it, because it was awesome, or because I was hot and thirsty and it was full of ice!

It was a harder choice on the food front, when my head kept saying 'yeah, but I could make that' and I finally convinced myself on a lemon slice for comparative purposes. And yeah, I should have made that! I did cave and buy some churros in a cup…..because in all honesty, deep frying scares the bejesus outta me.

Then came the most foolish purchase. Absolute folly. 2kgs of fresh strawberries. Why? They smelt amazing, cost more than I should have paid, but the smell was just hypnotising. After 40mins jammed in my backpack on a hot day though, they were a bit squished.

So, what do you do with 2kgs of 'a bit squished' strawberries? Well, you cook with them of course.

Strawberry Sillyness Part 1 – Jam

While flicking through some recipe magazines I came across a quick strawberry jam recipe. Perfect for using up the very squished strawberries.

from Donna Hay magazine, Issue 71 page 122

Ingredients

• 500g strawberries, hulled and roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (the recipe was for white, but I used what I had to hand).

Method

Heat a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Add the strawberries, sugar, vanilla bean paste and stir until the strawberries start to soften and release liquid. Bring to the boil and cook, stirring, occassionally, for 14-18 minutes or until thickened.

Add the vinegar, and stir well to combine. Remove from the heat, and allow to cool completely. Refigerate until cold.

 

Of course, that left me with the 'what do I do with strawberry jam' question. I made a cake. Yes, how predictable.

My First Chocolate Sponge Layer Cake

This is also from the same Donna Hay magazine, same page even, but instead of pairing my jam with a classic Victoria sponge, I picked the chocolate sponge from the next recipe because…..well….'Chocolate?'. Need I say more?

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (75g) plain (all-purpose) flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 5 eggs
• 1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
• 50g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly grease 2x20cm round shallow cake tins and line them with non-stick baking paper.

Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa three times and aside. I did this three times. I'll be honest, I don't know why. Next time I won't and we'll see if it makes a diference.

Place the eggs and sugar in an electric mixer and whisk on high speed for 12-15minutes or until pale, thick and tripled in volume. Sift half the flour mixture over the egg mixture and using a large metal spoon, gently fold to combine. Repeat with the remaining flour. Add the butter and fold to combine. Divide the mixture between the tins and gently spread the mixture evenly with a palette knife.

Bake for 14-18minutes or until the sponges are springy to the touch and come away from the sides of the tins. Remove the cakes from the tins and cool completely on wire racks.

 

At this point, I was worried that the jam and chocolate sponge needed something else….something perhaps like…..

Chocolate Rum Liqueur Buttercream

Because if we're in for a penny, we should be in for a pound. Right?

adapted from Marianne Hudsons 'cupcakes' recipe on page 96

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons chocolate rum liqueur. I used the Bundeberg Rum one, because my husband brought an ENTIRE CARTOON of the stuff.
• 1 cup confectioners'/icing sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

Method

Combine all the topping ingredients in your electic mixer and whisk until combined, and as fluffy as you can get it.

 

So now we have one hell of a triumphant looking chocolate, strawberry cake with a layer of buttercream and jam between the sponge, and another layer of both up top. Delicious.

 

 

 

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