Apple, Custard and Cinnamon Tea Cake

With kids going back to school next week, I'm feeling a bit anxious.  I think it's partly just part of releasing my precious frills to the risks, which hopefully are low.  Some of it is probably a bit of separation anxiety, I will just miss having several touch points with them a day and lastly I think it also means that the 'going back to norm' means it's getting more likely I'll have to wear work clothes and not slippers every day and I'll be braving commutes to and from work in a nearish future.   It's just change, and there's always adjustments..

So I'm getting in some home-baking whilst I can.  My work schedule is chaotic but I quickly whipped this up and put it in the oven in a small break between meetings and it does take 1.5 hours to cook so worked well into my schedule.

Smells amazing too whilst it's cooking - I mean seriously is there nothing better on a cold day at home than beautiful smells coming from your kitchen?

I adapted this recipe from taste.com.au  They use coconut and no cinnamon in theirs.  But you know me... cinnamon... mmmmmm......

You have some choices - stew your own apples or buy tinned apples (I keep them in the pantry to have with yoghurt) buy custard or make your own (I made mine in the thermomix in 8 mins) . swap out the apples for pears, peaches, apricots....  apricot and coconut would be delish....

Ingredients:
150g butter softened
2/3 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup custard
2 cups (400g) stewed apples
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Method
Preheat oven to 160 degrees c

Grease and line tray (I used a square tin) with baking paper

Cream your butter with sugar - if your butter isn't softened, grate it... (confuse your kids that you are making cake with cheese) .




and then add your eggs and vanilla.  Don't be concerned if it looks like this.



Remove from your mixer and spoon in 1 cup of flour and stir through.     Then add 3/4 cup milk and combine.



Do another cup of flour and the rest of the milk, then the last half cup of flour.  Your batter is ready.







































Spoon half your batter into the pan, spread into the corners.

Add half your apple and all your cinnamon, then half the custard.







































Add rest of your batter and then apple and custard on top, spread it to the corners.






































Pop into the oven for 90 minutes.

Remove - let cool..for about 15 minutes (or as long as you like it's nice warm or cold)





Lash it lovingly with custard or eat it on its' own!

Maurices fruit bread

Good ol Covid-19 and working from home has brought some unexpected and pleasant surprises.  In fact I'm probably one of the few who is actually quite happy with the situation of working from home and not going out too much.  I'm grateful for the dinners I get to spend at home with my frills and hubby, the ten-pace commute to my office and the fact that I can blog!

The other cool thing about it all is that I"m interacting with my colleagues in new and interesting ways.  I'm very lucky to work in an organisation that has a healthy and nurtured culture where caring for the employees is not just a catch-phrase - it is how it works.   As a leader in our business I'm fiercely protective of that... anyhoo we're pretty active on slack and we use Zoom like the rest of the world but we think nothing of people needing to 'duck out for a few hours to kid-wrangle' and at times we even get guest appearances by the kids too!   I love it.  We're all accepting we're human.

I started a cooking slack channel too and it's going gang-busters!  I love seeing what other people are cooking and with our diverse workforce there are some amazing curries, rice dishes and sweets... it's sometimes a bit distracting though if you're hungry...

This recipe is one such recipe - shared by my colleague Maurice - he shared a pic of his bread and I had to and I mean HAD TO have the recipe.. and he thankfully shared, and now I'm sharing it with you !

It takes some time but it's very little effort - no kneading and I popped it on in the morning and went about my day.   House smells amazing!

Ingredients:

3 cups plain flour

1 tsp salt

1.5 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp dry yeast

1.5 cups warm water

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

cup chopped mixed dry fruit - I've used dates, raisins, cranberries and figs

Method:

Start with your flour and add salt and cinnamon.   In a separate bowl or jug add yeast to warm water.

Add sunflower and pumpkin seeds

Chop up your fruit.

Add fruit to the flour and mix well ensuring your fruit isn't stuck together.

Add your yeasty water.

Mix it together with a spoon or your hands.   Don't be too concerned if it's wet, it's meant to be.  Put in a warm place for 3 hours it will roughly double in size.   At the two hour mark, heat your oven to 230 degrees c and pop your dutch oven or heavy lidded oven proof pot into the oven with the lid on.

It will be a bit fluffy after the three hours.

Pour out onto floured surface and shape into a ball.  Do not knead.

Pop the dough onto some baking paper and place into the hot dutch oven, then return to the oven and drop the heat to 200degrees c and bake for 30 minutes with the lid on.

After that 30 minutes, take the lid off and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

Lastly, take the bread out of the dutch oven, put onto flat tray and back into the oven for a last 15 minutes then place on bench to cool.

Cheat’s no-fail waffle and pancake mix

Waffles are a bit of a treat around here - and whilst I'm happy if if I've got time to make them from scratch, I've got lazy and made this mix recipe a while back and I now keep it in a separate container and the kids can then make their own (they make too much mess the long way) and they can also use it for pancake short-cut.

Waffles are perfect every.single.time.

Ingredients for the make-ahead mix:

6 cups plain flour (1 actually do 3 cups wholemeal and 3 cups plain but up to you)

1 cup icing sugar

2 cups cornflour

6tb baking powder

2 tsp salt

1 vanilla pod

Store in an airtight container

To make up waffle mix (makes about 6 waffles)

2 1/3 cup mix

1 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs

1/4 oil

If you want to make up pancakes (the frills do this not me)

2 cups mix

1 1/2 cups milk

1 egg

Instructions:

Mix the ingredients together with a whisk, gently first then when it's mixed through then give it a good beat.

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The consistency should be like thick batter but it should still drip.  If it doesn't drip easily add some water and keep beating through.

Heat your waffle iron, if you don't have one, they are very inexpensive.  I bought this one years ago for I think about $25.   Kmart have them these days I believe..

Pour your batter into the centre of your iron, I do mine with a cup measure, it should start spreading but you can give it a little coax with the back of your measuring cup.

spread butter or spread but whatever you like on top - whilst I like real maple, these queen ones are popular at our house - much less sugar,  and come in regular, apple cinnamon maple and blueberry maple..