Make ahead baked peach french toast

Weekends of late have been a bit frantic.  Since we got back from our holiday it was straight back to work, so unpacking has quickly turned around into getting ready for school and getting back to the farmgate, stocking up our freezer...  I picked up these gorgeous peaches and right now we're at the end of the stone fruit season here in Australia and it's just glorious.  Peaches that are soft sweet and juicy and I love the challenge of  trying to quickly eat them before end up with juice down to your elbows...

I saw this recipe whilst we were in New York on Pinterest and bookmarked it for when I got home.  I didn't want to used tinned peaches, although I'm sure it's still delicious if you do..  You need to prepare it the night before you want to eat it, it's 10 minutes prep and then 45 minutes in the oven... just enough time to get up, put the finishing touches on, then go back to bed for a snuggle, catch up on Facebook or watch some morning news before dishing up something wonderful.

Take it from me friends, you want to try this - it's custard-y, sweet but not too overwhelming.  Warm, filling and comforting.  A great way to start a day I think..

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 french stick or couple of rolls - make sure they are on the stale side.

2 -3 large peaches, sliced

8 eggs

500mls milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon 

200mls cream

Method:

Slice bread and arrange in a baking dish.

Slice your peaches and insert them around your bread

In a jug mix all remaining ingredients besides your brown sugar, cinnamon and cream.. whisk them together until well combined.. then pour evenly over the bread and peaches

Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon evenly.

Cover in plastic film and refrigerate overnight.

Next morning turn your oven on to 200 degrees c.
Pour your cream into a saucepan and heat on medium high heat until it reduces slightly - about 10 minutes.. then pour over your tray.

Bake for 45 minutes - leave it in if it seems very runny still... when it's done, leave it to sit for about 3-4 minutes before serving.  It won't need any accompaniments!

Lunchbox legends: Banana passionfruit 'schoffin' muffins!

Where did the school holidays go?  We even had an extra week for our trip and it still seems to have flown!  In our house there's usually at least one child who is itching to get back to school but this year, there are none.  I think it's because it's been such a busy holiday period for us perhaps.

So here I am last minute thinking of my school snacks.  My girls call these 'Schoffins'.  This is short for 'school muffins' but also because they scoff them pretty quickly.  During our farmgate trail this weekend we found the most gorgeous passionfruit... and my girls have gone 'off'' bananas.  So I set to work... using the leftover banana yoghurt too..

You can use any yoghurt you like and use tinned passionfruit if you can't find any fresh - but these are lovely and light with a sweet tang.  They will be 'scoffed' in no time.


Makes 22 muffins
Ingredients:
3 cups self raising flour
1 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup canola oil
1 egg
1 medium sized banana (ripe as you can) peeled
300ml banana (or your choice) yoghurt
pulp of 4 medium or 2 large passionfruit (or 1/4 cup if using canned)


Method:
Preheat oven to 190 degrees c fan forced

Put all the ingredients in a bowl, yes all of them!  You can mash up the banana beforehand if you like but I forgot....!

look at these lovely passionfruit!

Doesn't look very appetising now... but give it a mix...

... for about 1 minute and it's all well combined, you WILL put your finger in to taste it and it's delicious!

Scoop or spoon into your cupcake or muffin cases and pop in the oven for about 12-15 minutes

 Leave them to cool for about 10 minutes... they are lovely warm too!   I've popped mine in the freezer ready to go for school!

Shareworthy: My top ten frugal kitchen and cooking tips

Not many people have 'spare money' lying around and no matter what your budget is some quick frugal things to keep in mind when stocking and using your kitchen could save you potentially thousands of dollars a year.   You don't need to do all of them, but think about the ones you could do in your life and let me know if you have any others - hope it's helpful to you!

1.  Milk:

• Buy a carton of UHT milk, just to keep in the cupboard - because no one wants to pay $5 for a litre of milk at the service station.
• I always keep powdered milk in the pantry - I use it for pancakes, milkshakes and custards - anything that needs a lot of milk - much more economical and you can't taste the difference.

Here's some interesting Australian info on the different types of milk (fresh full, skim, condensed, evaporated and powdered)

2.  Meat:

Buy direct where you can.  Search out local and even within an hours drive an abbatoir.  If you can't store a side of lamb, get a bunch of friends to go in with - divide it up and take turns in the travel.   My meat costs are almost half the supermarket and less than half my local butcher.   I do love having a separate freezer to store a months worth of meat.... if you have room and have a family I think it's a worthy investment.

3.  Forget the Packet Mix

You know you probably have all the ingredients anyways?  Many people buy taco seasoning but don't realise they have ingredients on hand.  Same goes with devilled sausages.  Did you know gravy mix is basically stock powder and cornflour?  Do a bit of research on the packet mixes in your pantry.  What's really in them?  Do an internet search... maybe you can replicate it easily?    

How cool is this? I want 10 of them!

4.  Bake for school....
Truly 30 minutes a week can have you in school treats for a week.   Why would you buy muffins from the supermarket?  Yours will taste better and have half the amount of sugar in them anyways!

Mighty milo muffins

5.  Whilst I'm on school snacks..
Some other ideas on how to get bang for buck:

• A few crackers with a wedge of laughing cow cheese, PLUS a few cherry tomatoes = 60c - prepackaged le-snak = 80c.
• Buy a large tin of two fruits, freeze in tupperware containers for hot days - you can get 6 out of a large tin at less than 50c a portion, as opposed to 1.20 a portion if you buy pre-packaged
• Some goes for yoghurt! ....

Also buy a lunchbox with compartments where you don't need to use wrap! Huge money saver - we use the Boxy Designs lunchboxes - they have stood up to Eloise's tough handling of lunchboxes - she's killed nudie and tupperware ones...

6.  Get smart with yoghurt

Make your own yoghurt -even if it's the cheaty way - using Easiyo you can make a good quality yoghurt for about $3 a litre.  Don't buy individual yoghurts unless you have to!  Buy your favourite brand if you can't replicate it (some of my favourites I can't!) and divvy them up into pots in the fridge.

Don't let yoghurt go to waste!  If it's about to go out of date, freeze it in icecubes and use it in your smoothies or use iceblock moulds to make 'icecreams'.  The other thing I do is bake with yoghurt too - these muffins are a favourite way to use yoghurt!

7.  Eggs

Buy smaller eggs if you using for baking - they cost less and do the same job!  (Please use free-range though!)

8.   Buy in Season

This is a no-brainer.  Buying in season fruit and vegetables from Australia not only supports our farmers but the prices are better and the quality is much better!   Take advantage of good prices on fruit to make jam, make pickles with vegetables.  Make soups and stocks!  Blanch vegetables you may have a lot of and freeze too - have your own stock of frozen vegetables.  Get Season Savvy people!

9.  Farmgate shopping. 

Check out where there are farmgates around you - going direct to a farm and even picking yourself can save a lot of money,  most of the time more than farmers markets.   Do a google search on 'fruit picking near your nearest large town' and  you may be surprised!  Even honey farms sell their honey at a fraction off the price!

10.  Meal plan!!

You need to meal plan if you seriously want to save money!  Saves wastage, saves time, saves frustration.  Here's my tips on how to meal plan and also how to shop to your meal plan!


So, tell me - how do you save money in the kitchen?   Share with your friends and find out how they save money in the kitchen!

Sunday baking project - banana chip + chocolate chip buttermilk muffins (beat the banana price hike!)

Two things are going on with me and the shopping at the moment.  First thing is I've run out of bananas in my freezer (and I had a 4kg stash!) and secondly I'm a bit in love with buttermilk.  I see it and have a compulsion to buy it because it makes everything I bake beautiful.   You can make makeshift buttermilk if you put a splash of white vinegar (and I mean a little bit!) in the bottom of a cup measure and fill it up and leave it for about five minutes.... but I'm buying mine with freakish regularity....

So with these two things in mind and my splurge on Hershey mini-choc chips ($6 a packet from DJ's food hall) you only need a little to go along way so I think these are a worthy investment if you can get your hands on them.  Otherwise regular chocolate chips will do the job too!

I'm having banana withdrawals (never mind the kids, they look longingly over them when we see them at farmgate) but I buy a few and share them in slices... too expensive otherwise!  Banana chips on the other hand aren't expensive at all - $2 for a bag, and the first batch I made I used 1 cup of - second batch I used 2 cups, some whole and some chopped up - that's a good combination and just enough banana - the tops are  real 'muffin tops' too - a little chewy and sweet - that's what the brown sugar brings :)  so let them go a little crispy!

So give it a go this week - put them in the school lunches - sub the chocolate for oats if you don't want to send your kids to school with chocolate...


Ingredients
2 cups banana chips
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 egg
2 tb canola oil
1/2 cup chocolate chips


Method:
Preheat oven to 190 degrees c

Either with a knife or in the food processor, process/chop up 1 cup of the banana chips until they are in small pieces.

Mix together the flour, egg, sugars, banana chips (whole and chopped), buttermilk, oil and choc chips together until it comes to a smooth batter

Pour into cupcake/muffin casings and bake for 20-25 minutes

Leave to cool in the tray for about 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely before storing.

 Store in airtight container for up to 5 days or in the freezer for 2 months!

This could totally cure your (or your kids) banana cravings for a fraction of the cost!  Are you baking today?

Asian style pulled pork with tasty rice - in 2.5 hours!

When I lunched with the Australian Good Taste Readers Issue team with Tobie Puttock a few months ago we were served his pork neck stuffed with figs, fennel and pistachio (this recipe appeared in the reader issue if you have it and is also in the 'How to cook like an Italian' which I'm giving away this month)..   It was so soft and flavourful I swore to myself then and there I was ordering a pork neck at our next farmgate, and that I did.

However, by the time I actually got around to making it, figs were out of season - doh!  So I searched for another pork neck recipe.. and I found one for sticky Asian pork neck.  The recipe on screen looked amazing but never in a million years could I have anticipated the tenderness and the taste. It's not that sticky but oh lord it's so tender and melty-in-the-mouthy!  And flavour?  Amazing.

You could swear you slaved over this but you don't need to - really.  Its easy and would be perfect for feeding a crowd.


Ingredients

2kg pork neck
50g fresh ginger, sliced
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 red chili, roughly chopped
4 star anise
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup shaoxing wine (Chinese cooking wine)
1/2 cup oyster sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder


Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees

In the bottom of a lidded casserole dish place ginger, chili, garlic, star anise

Slice the pork about 3/4 of the way down and place in the casserole dish.

Mix the brown sugar with the shaoxing wine, oyster sauce and chinese five spice powder in a bowl or jug, stir until the sugar dissolves (only about a minute).

Pour the wine mixture over the pork, place the lid on the casserole dish and place into the oven for 1 hour.  

Remove lid, turn the pork over, baste with juices/sauce from bottom of the dish and place back in the oven for  another hour.

Whilst the pork cooks for the last hour,  steam/boil some rice, and as take the pork out of the oven, make a quick fried rice with the rice, some frozen peas and corn, finely sliced cabbage and a little carrot if you like - use some of the pan juices instead of oil, and toss the rice in it until everything is warm and the cabbage has wilted - about 5 minutes.

 Slice your pork and serve!

Sunday baking project: Sweet carrot and pecan pull-aparts

There's something utterly self indulgent about fresh bread from the oven - and apart from the therapeudic process (for me anyway) of making the bread, proving, shaping and baking the bread - the reward of fresh bread (and butter) - there is nothing like it.

This morning I surveyed my fridge - and after farmgate yesterday I realised I had overindulged in some produce - namely carrots and swedes - swedes are no issue to use - soup, mash, bake but carrots are different - carrot cake, blanch and freeze.. no.  I didn't want to do those - I wanted to bake and I thought the best way I combine the need to use the carrots and my passion for Sunday morning bread making was just one thing - carrot bread.

I found a recipe by my favourite baker - Leila Lindholm but I didn't feel like using all the nuts and seeds she puts in hers so I mixed it up a little, made it into a pull-apart and the rest we shall say is.. in my family's belly and stashed for later!!


Ingredients:
250 vegetable juice (I used carrot/orange V8)
1 cup skim milk, warm (not hot) with 2tb golden syrup in it.
2 tb melted butter (50g)
1 1/2 tb mixed spice
1 tb dry yeast
4 medium carrots, grated
1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped
5 cups plain flour (plus a little on hand just in case your carrots are juicy!)
1 tb golden syrup, extra


Method:
In a bowl or jug add the juice, milk, melted butter, mixed spice and yeast.

Grate your carrots and chop up your pecans (you could use walnuts instead if you like)

In your mixer or in your large bowl mix your liquid ingredients with the nuts and carrot.

Gradually add flour, cup by cup and combine until an elastic dough.

Place in a greased bowl with some clingfilm on top and leave to prove for 1 hour.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees c.  Grease some tins or a baking tray and divide your dough in half.  Roll each half into a sausage shape and cut up your dough and roll into the balls of about 2inches in diameter.

Place into tins with a little bit of room to move (I ran out of trays!)

 Bake for 25-30 minutes, until coked through.  Mix the remaining tb of golden syrup with 1 1/2 tb water and brush over the bread when it comes out of the oven.

Suitable to freeze and reheat for up to 2 months.

Sound good to you?  Who wants to make it?

A few pleasant surprises this farmgate trip

I look forward to our monthly farmgate trails - after doing this for two years it feels like we're visiting friends when we see everyone at M & A butchery at Wilberforce (a family business now passed down from the Dad to identical twin sons!) and then across to Riverview produce, another family who sell direct from the farm - you can see more about both here.

We went to the butcher first and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw SALE signs at the front - because seriously, this meat that doesn't travel more than 200 metres (It's the only remaining Sydney butchery that has it's own abbatoir) is the best value for money out there - but yes there was a sale going on.

My monthly meat came to a whopping $130.  This included 2 whole chickens, big leg of boneless pork shoulder, 3 large pork chops (to mince) 2kg lamb forequarter chops (to mince) 3kg topside beef mince, 2 kg beef sausages, 1 rack of american style pork ribs, 1 pork belly, 2 kg yearling blade steak, 1 kg bacon.  Crazy right?

Then we got another surprise happening upon this sign:

I'm a sucker for a street vendor , especially if you're getting it direct from a farmer.  Especially if it's produce.. and even better for me, honey (I adore honey!).

And honey there was!

 Creamed honey and honey with honeycomb!  Beautiful isn't it?

$8 for the creamed honey and honey with honeycomb and $10 for a litre of regular honey - all from a family farm 10 minutes away - all whitebox honey too (delicious!).  I just couldn't refuse - and took one of each.  If you are interested - pop onto Castlereagh Road, Richmond and pass Crowleys Lane and the orange and honey bloke will be there if the weather isn't bad and it's the weekend.


View Larger Map

Then we went to Riverside produce to get our veges and eggs - and another surprise!  Daniel (the farmer's son who is 5) couldn't wait to show us the newest additions to his family - Goats!

Aren't they cute?  I love goats - can't explain why.. just do.

Daniel also showed us his chooks and bunnies too!

After the farm, popped by the local salvos and picked up some copper baking tins for $1 a piece too.  I love old bakeware....

Great day, and the bonus is I have all the inspirational produce to cook now!  Hooray for farmgate!