Warm doughnuts with caramel and plum sauce

So day three of my doughnut week brings you to another cheat recipe and I thought it would be perfect for a humpday cheat! We are over the worst of the week and that is worth celebrating! I suppose I am the type of girl that will find any reason for a party, especially one that involves food!

This recipe is really only going to teach you something new with the sauces but they are great to have in your arsenal as they can be used over and over again! The plum sauce is great to serve with a crumble and the caramel is a great dipper for baked apples! 

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Ingredients:

6 large cinnamon and sugar doughnuts

Vanilla ice cream

6 large pitted and sliced plums

5 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon water

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

3/4 cup heavy cream

3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon sea salt, crushed or kosher salt

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Instructions:

Plum sauce:

Pit and slice all your plums. Place them in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Add your sugar and water and allow to soften and become slightly gooey. Add butter and whisk until all butter and sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

Caramel sauce:

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the sugar and water over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and bring to a boil, without stirring. If necessary, use a wet pastry brush to wash down any crystals on the side of the pan. Boil until the syrup is a deep amber color, about 5 to 6 minutes. Keep an eye on it as caramel can burn very quickly!

Remove the sugar from the heat and carefully whisk in the heavy cream. The mixture will bubble. Stir in the unsalted butter, and salt. Transfer the caramel to a dish and cool.

Warm your doughnuts in the oven until they are hot. Serve them with a dollop of vanilla ice cream and top with plum and caramel sauce. 

-Melissa 

Doughnut bread and butter pudding with strawberries and almonds

Right so I don’t usually do this but I do know that not everyone has a whole lot of time these days before dinner parties. At the end of the day my blog is about teaching you how to cook without the recipe as well as to know how to make simple things taste amazing!

So here is the first of two recipes that both involve store bought cinnamon and sugar doughnuts. Mine come from Woolworths but I am positive any fresh cinnamon and sugar doughnut that is light and fluffy will do. 

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Ingredients:

6 cinnamon doughnuts, torn

50 grams salted butter, softened

3 extra large eggs

75 grams castor sugar

1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla essense

1 cup (250 ml) milk

1 cup (250 ml) cream

1/2 cup Strawberries roasted with butter and caster sugar, to serve.

50 grams chopped almonds

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Instructions:

Preheat an oven to 180 degrees celcius

Place the torn doughnut in a dish and dot with the butter.

In a bowl, whisk the eggs, caster sugar, vanilla essence, milk and cream together well.

Pour the milk and egg mixture over the doughnuts and bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the custard is set.

Place strawberries in a small saucepan over a medium heat, sprinkle with castor sugar and add a knob of butter. Let them soften and remove from heat once sugar has dissolved.

Serve warm with roasted strawberries, almonds and whipped cream if you wish!

-Melissa

Do you get better than doughnuts?

I don’t think that I have ever met someone who doesn’t love doughnuts and because of this fact I’ve decided to do a doughnut week. I know you will love these recipes because they are fun, easy and will make you feel like a rock star in the kitchen. 

I’ve played around with recipes that are made from scratch and yes, there will even be cheat recipes. Who can blame me? In this day and age some of us barely touch side and at the end of the day this blog is about teaching you how to cook.  

We all need those little black book recipes and trust me; you are about to see a few! Have fun with them, bake them with friends and even better eat them with family! 

So the first recipe for the week is a simple cinnamon doughnut with a coloured glaze! 

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Ingredients:

·      1 cup all purpose flour

·      ½ cup sugar

·      1 ½ teaspoon baking power

·      ¼ teaspoon salt

·      ¼ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

·      ½ cup milk

·      ½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar

·      ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

·      1 egg

·      4 tablespoons butter, softened

For the glaze

·      2 tablespoons milk

·      ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

·      1 cup powdered sugar

·      blue colouring gel (or which ever colour you want)

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Instructions:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. You can sift it if you wish but whisking it also removes lumps and adds air to the batter.

In a small saucepan bring together the milk, apple cider vinegar, vanilla, egg and butter.

Cook over a medium heat until the butter melts. Remove from the heat.

Add milk mixture to dry mixture and whisk together until combines into a smooth batter

Using a large tablespoon, spoon the doughnut mixture into the tin. Work as neatly as possible.

Bake for 12-14 minutes or until a toothpick comes out smooth.

Remove from the tin and set aside on a cooling rack.

For the glaze:

Place all ingredients in a saucepan over a medium heat and stir continuously until just combines and no lumps appear.

When the glaze cools you wont be able to dip your doughnuts in so place the glaze in a bowl over hot water and dip your doughnuts in.

Place them on a cooling rack as they will have some glaze drip off.

Give them a few minutes before you serve them!

-Melissa

double chocolate chip chocolate cookies

Everyone that looks back and remembers Christmas as a child has a distinct memory of how your parents used to sell it to you, that Santa was real.    

I have the memories as clear as daylight. Coming from a German household we open our presents on the night of the 24th. I remember after dinner we would hide in our rooms with our Mom who would convince us that Santa was arriving any minute now and that my Father would have to go out and greet him. My Father of course was on the outside chucking pebbles onto the roof while our mom would hush us because reindeer had just landed and we needed to hear the sound of their hooves. It was so believable and so real to me as a child.

When I close my eyes I can actually remember the sounds and the rush I used to get from the fact that Santa had just arrived.

No Santa visit is complete however without putting out cookies and milk. We did this every time and I am certain my father loved the role he played at having to snack on them and sell it to my brother and I that Santa had a good munch before he was off!

The funny thing is that in all the years of doing this I never actually tried cookies and milk. I reckon it must have been the sheer excitement of wanting to pop that might have been the culprit. Fast forward all these years later and here I am, food blogging and realising that although I had killer Christmas’s there was still something missing in my memories as a child.

Needless to say I am not that sore about it at all because I do feel like I have saved the best for last in a way. These are the ultimate mouthful. The sweetness of the cookie is perfectly cut with the milk. It is the Swiss to the cheese, the apple to my eye. Well at least these cookies and milk are a revolution and make up for any childhood memory that needs to be set right!

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 Ingredients:

·      2 1/3 cups of Flour

·      1 tsp. baking soda

·      ¾ tsp. salt

·      ¾ cup coco powder

·      2 ¼ cup butter at room temperature

·      1 cup brown sugar

·      1 cup white sugar

·      1 egg

·      1 tsp. vanilla extract

·      1 ½ cups milk chocolate chips

·      1 cup white chocolate chips

·      150 grams of chopped almonds

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Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Cut baking paper and line baking tray.

In s separate bowl sift flour, baking soda, salt and coco powder.

Add your sugar and set aside.

Using the paddle attachment beat together all wet ingredients (you can do this by hand but get ready for a work out with your spoon!)

Add all your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients and pulse together. Don’t over mix.

Last step is to add your chocolate chips and your almonds. Pulse again until it has just mixed through the cookie dough.

Scoop out about two Tablespoons per cookie size. Do not let them be too close to each other on the baking tray, as they will spread when baked.

Once you have all your cookie dough balls sectioned out bake at 190C for 15 minutes.

Allow to cool on a cooling tray before eating 

Serve with a cold glass of milk!

USEFUL TIP: This cookie dough freezes very well. You can roll the batter into balls and put them in a Tupperware. Lining each layer with grease paper will stop them from freezing. Then when friends come over for tea you can pop them in the oven for cookies freshly made on demand!

-Melissa

Maison Gateau, Cape Town

In my head I am convinced I am a seasoned baker that can create masterpieces that stand sky high and compete with the best of the bakers out there. I often wonder why as I still have the odd cake that flops and I have no idea why it did so in the first place. The good thing is that I am ok with it. I am a home baker and proud of it. The wonderful thing is that every now and then on my food adventures I get to work with amazing talents that pass on pearls of wisdom as they glide through the kitchen.

One such person is Tara from the lovely Maison Gateau. I spent the morning moving around this beautiful bakery listening to Tara talk as she worked. From guidance on how to ice the perfect cup cake to making gum paste and Italian buttercream, my mind was a sponge. I will definitely keep the tricks in my little black book for future baking days! Let us just hope I remember them all!  

This bakery is actually my favourite because of the fantastic selection of sweet treats. Tara is constantly pushing the boundaries with her flavours. Honeycomb chocolate cupcakes to freshly baked éclairs and Macarons with flavours from your wildest dreams that line the display cabinets in the front of the shop.  I mean who would of thought of mojito cupcakes and red velvet chocolate?

Tara also does exquisite wedding cakes and is a master at decorating them. So regardless of the event, birthday or prenuptial, Maison Gateau is a must visit and lets all pray she starts doing deliveries! A cupcake to my front door is something I wouldn't resist!

You can place orders for cakes, cake pops and cupcakes because every person needs a wicked bakery in their phone book! Next time you find yourself in Woodstock I would stumble upon this little piece of heaven! 

Here are the details if you are on the hunt for delicious cakes:

Mason’s Press, 7 Ravenscraig Road, Woodstock, Cape Town.

-Melissa