The Sweetest Thing - Part 5

Butterscotch Pudding

Angela is very clever with her baking.  Her cookies and cupcakes always look and taste amazing.  She is never afraid to try new things but in this week’s post she has chosen an old favourite to share.

Angela believes that there is no such thing as a ‘favourite’ sweet for our family so she has given me one of her much loved sweet recipes. It's also her six year old son’s favourite, he always asks her to make it. Ange tells me that she tries not to have any but usually finds a spoon full in her mouth and then is in frenzy for more!  If we need an excuse, this very old school recipe is perfect to get through these cold winter nights.

What you do;

Preheat oven to moderate

What you need;

Pudding -

1 cup self-raising flour

1/3 cup raw sugar

A pinch salt

60 grams melted butter

½ cup milk

Mix all ingredients together and put in a greased pie dish.

(Angela uses a rectangular 29 x 19cm and 5-6 cm deep dish)

Syrup -

2 large tablespoons of golden syrup

1 ½ cups hot water

30 grams melted butter

Mix together and pour on pudding.

Bake for about 40 minutes.

Serve immediately with cream.

Thank you sweet Angela.  Enjoy everyone!

The Sweetest Thing series part 5 of 9

copyright food for you reviews 2012

Macedon Railway Hotel

After a 12 month hiatus the Macedon Railway Hotel is back.  Open for business with a modern refurb, kids play area and terrific menu - it's ticking all the right boxes.

I arrive as a part of a group of about 30 people, which can upset some venues, but it didn’t impact at all on the service or food quality at the Macedon Railway Hotel.  The menu has plenty of pleasing entree and main options including the usual pub fare and a great specials board.  Kids and vegetarians are also well catered for.   To my delight I found a few of my favourite whites, reds and bubbles on the well thought out wine list.

I have narrowed this review down to two of the mains.  The ‘Chicken Parma’ ($20) and the ‘Chicken Breast topped with garlic prawns in a creamy white wine sauce’ ($24). The old favourite chicken parma didn’t disappoint.  It was well cooked and the flavors in the napoli sauce were rich but balanced and not too overpowering with the smattering of mozzarella sauce.

Chicken Parma

The chicken breast and prawn dish was fantastic.  The chicken was perfectly grilled – flavoursome, juicy and succulent.  Prawns were divine and the white wine sauce topped it off beautifully.  It was a faultless combination of flavor and texture.  The chips and salad on both dishes were also excellent.  It might sound silly but it does surprise me how many venues can ruin chips.  These tasty chips were cooked in fresh oil and cooked for the right amount of time and evenly salted.  The salad was fresh, fresh, fresh.

Chicken Breast w Prawn

After some toing and froing about dessert – should I or shouldn’t I? I decided I should - it was however a chilly Sunday afternoon.  What better way to warm me up than a ‘Hot Choccy Pudding’? (from the specials board).  This was potentially the best decision I had made that day.  It was to die for!  The rich chocolate sauce with the pudding swimming in the middle of it with a dollop of double thick cream and macerated strawberries certainly warmed me right up and I needed to refrain from licking the plate clean.  YUM!

Hot Choccy Pudding

The people of Macedon must be so pleased that the Macedon Railway Pub has reopened.  The new owners have thought about what is important to people when going to a country pub. They cater really well for families as well as a simple but tasteful front bar creating a great place for a beer and a game of pool or chat with the local barman.  It is certainly worth the detour off the Calder Highway to drive up the mountain and be amongst the picturesque surrounds of Macedon for a great pub meal.

Macedon Railway Hotel

33 Smith Street, Macedon
Phone – (03) 5426 3233

http://macedonrailwayhotel.com.au/

Open for lunch and dinner Wednesday – Sunday

Food – 8/10
Service – 7/10
Ambiance – 7/10

The Sweetest Thing - Part 2

Keely's Peach & Raspberry Tart

Keely is the reigning ‘Trifile-off’ champion in the family from ‘The Sweetest Thing’ story I posted a few weeks ago.  Strangely enough there has yet to be another challenge after all these years.  But the sweet thing that Keely is best known for is her version of Donna Hay’s Peach & Raspberry Tart.  This has been her speciality for a few years now and it never gets tiresome. 

I still remember the first time she made it for me, I loved it.  The textures of the fruits with the simple base make it seem like an old fashioned crumble when you bite into it.  With the contrast of sweet peach and sour raspberry the flavours are a mini explosion. Serve it warm with double cream and ice cream to be really decadent!  You can still love it completely naked at room temperature too.  It’s just gorgeous either way.

This exquisite tart is perfect to take somewhere when you have been asked to bring something sweet because it looks like it’s off the shelf. Your friends will be very impressed when you tell them that you baked it and didn’t buy it from your favourite store on the way over. It is impeccable as a dessert but is so versatile that it’s very suitable to have for afternoon tea also.  Someone pop the kettle on please.

Give it a try this weekend.  Thank you sweet Keely x.

Keely’s Peach & Raspberry Tart

What you need;

125g (4 oz) butter, softened

1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1½ cups self-raising flour
2 peaches, halved and cut into thin wedges*
150g (5 oz) raspberries*
2 tablespoons icing sugar

What you do;

Preheat oven to 160c (325F).

Line a 22cm round cake tin with a removable base with baking paper.

Place butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Add the eggs and beat well. Fold in the flour and spoon the mixture into the tin.

Top with peaches and raspberries and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Bake for 1 hour or until tart is cooked when tested with a skewer.

Remove from the tin and serve warm in wedges with vanilla ice-cream.

Serves 8 – 10

*Keely uses tinned sliced peaches and frozen berries

Taken from a Donna Hay cookbook "Off the Shelf: Cooking from the Pantry”.  Harper Collins, 2001.

The Sweetest Thing Series - Part 2 of 9.

copyright - food for you reviews

The Sweetest Thing

I am very fortunate to have a group of beautiful women in my family; most of them have quite a sweet tooth and all of them have a sweet personality.  They are all great cooks and very passionate about food – particularly sweets.  I don’t think I am exaggerating when I tell you this – I have never seen a group of women get so excited about cakes, slices, desserts, in fact anything sweet. I would go as far to say that in my opinion one of their favourite things to do would be to have some cake with a strong cup of tea over a chat with each other.  It is something that I get much enjoyment from watching.  I myself don’t share the same passion for sweet as I am more at one with savoury, however I love food and one of the main things that I love about food is how it brings people together and bonds them in such an ordinary and seamless way.

At our family gatherings there are many of us and it’s growing each year.  The dessert table is always the one with the most dishes on it and it gets the most amount of attention. It is the one that provides the shrieks of happiness. I am always waiting with much interest to see who has made what this time – an old favourite or has someone been experimenting with something new since we last met?  There was even one Christmas when my brother in law and his wife had a ‘trifle off’.  Each thought they had the best trifle recipe.  A panel of judges was assembled from within the family to determine who had made the best trifle. It was a tough contest but of course the sweet lady was triumphant.

Each of the girls has their speciality, possibly more than one. But they have mastered each one with patience, passion and a desire to share with those that they love.  That’s the thing – the sweetest thing, that no matter why or when, food is always the one thing that threads people together.  For happy times, sad times, difficult times, celebration times, family and friends come together and share their food and it becomes the fundamental point of the gathering.  It is the easiest way to express your condolences or your delight without a spoken word. You can just hand over a baked good and the other person knows exactly what you are trying to say.

So this love or near obsession for all things sweet that the lovely ladies in my family have, has prompted me to ask them to share their number one sweet recipe with me so I could share it with you.  It was not easy for some of them to choose just one.  Although this was to be expected!

Over the next few months one by one I will share each recipe with you to try.  In the meantime here is the list of number ones and the first recipe that I will share with you. If you do try one I would love your feedback.

·         Sue’s Golden Dumplings
·         Angela’s Butterscotch Pudding
·         Fiona’s Hazelnut Slice
·         Marita’s Trifle
·         Keely’s Peach and Raspberry Tart
·         Jess’s Fruit & Custard Tart
·         Veronique’s Easy Chocolate Cake
·         Rachael’s Apple Crumble
·         Amanda’s Caramel Butternut Snap Cups

The Sweetest Thing - part 1; Sue’s Golden Dumplings

This is one of Sue’s favourite sweets recipe.  It’s loved by many in the family.

What you need –

DUMPLINGS

1 cup self raising flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
A little milk

SAUCE
1 cup water

1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup

1 tablespoon butter

What you do –

Place sauce ingredients in pan and heat.

Rub butter into flour, stir in egg and enough milk to make a fairly stiff dough. Roll into little balls and drop into the boiling syrup for about 5 - 10 minutes.

Sue usually doubles the sauce.

THANK YOU SUE.  Enjoy everyone!

Sue found this recipe in the NMAA COOKS RECIPES FOR BUSY MOTHERS COMPILED BY NURSING MOTHERS' ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA