:: hungry cubs ::

She's as thoroughly clever and creative as she is beautiful. She's our sister and aunt and a mummy to a very sweet little one. We had a lovely time together yesterday morning with them both, as the wind blew and rain showers interspersed with sunshine and rainbows passed through the valley outside.

The girls had received a baking kit each for their birthday, complete with cupcake papers and toppers and the essential ingredients to make delicious chocolate cupcakes. Signature Hungry Cub goodies that are whole-food, gluten-free and refined sugar free. I watched as she helped the girls shake and mix ingredients into a bowl, a little in awe at how she can do it without a recipe and just knows intuitively approximately how much of everything needs to go in. Agh I can go with the flow to a certain extent, but not like she can! She's my go-to-guru for cooking and baking advice and I am always so grateful and impressed with her skill!

She's the brains, beauty and creative artist behind Hungry Cub. A food blog that was born out of her desire to provide her little girl with healthy whole-food meals and snacks. It's still in its early days, but with quite a growing following there and on its Facebook page. I think, with the increasing knowledge and awareness that there is about processed foods and what sorts of nasties can be added in to a lot of these, most of us are keen to make changes where we're able to, to make sure that we and our families are eating as healthily as we can manage. And, you know, it's actually quite tasty ;o) If you're interested I completely recommend you check out her recipes. They're all tasty, easy to make (for the most part!) and pretty amazing!

The girls love baking. They especially love doing it all - breaking the eggs, adding the ingredients and mixing it all together. They also love to taste the mixture at every cycle of mixing ;o) One thing that I'm learning as a mummy is to let go of my perfectionist tendencies to try to keep mess to a minimum and just let them at it...even if most of the mixture goes into their mouths before it gets into the oven. Surely most of the fun is actually in the process of creating...and what's left as the end product is a bonus!

We're going to miss this sweet little family when they move to Tauranga at the end of June. It will be quite the week with three of us (families) all moving at the same time! But at least a couple of hours down the road isn't too far to go and spend weekends together!

(...he's gonna miss your shoelaces too) ;o)

:: recipe : easy no knead bread ::

Here's another well-used and much-enjoyed recipe from our home, following hot on the heels of yesterday's Scroggin Slice. One thing I miss very much about Switzerland and France is the bread. It doesn't pay to dwell on it too much because the thought of all those fresh baked loaves of different varieties, the baguettes, the chocolate croissants...sends me into a bit of a spin of "wants" ;o) In fact, you can still buy the NZ type of pre-sliced -lasts-forever-bread in Swiss & French supermarkets but it's generally only used for toasted sandwiches or specific purposes...not so much for the everyday use of bread. 

Anyway, I like to avoid buying bread in the supermarkets here unless necessary, so we make our own. Most Sunday mornings we have our Swiss tresse for breakfast, but for the general day-to-day bread, the following recipe is my go to. Not having a mixer anymore to do the kneading, this no-knead recipe works perfectly!

This recipe takes about 3 hours from start to finish and makes two loaves or several buns (maybe 16?!)

No-knead bread

3 cups of lukewarm water
1 tbsp of dried/instant yeast
1 tbsp of salt
6 1/2 cups of flour (either all white flour or 5 cups of white flour & 1 1/2 cups of wholemeal)
Seeds (if you want them) - pumpkin, linseeds, sunflower seeds...

Pour the 3 cups of water into a large mixing bowl
Sprinkle the yeast over the water and leave for 5 minutes
Add the salt, flour and seeds and mix together. The dough should be still a bit sticky - but it doesn't matter too much if it's a little dry or on the wetter side.
Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 2 hours
When the dough has risen and pretty much doubled in size, heat the oven to 200 degrees C.
Cut the dough in half, not handling too much, just smoothing into a loaf shape and pop it into a loaf tin lined with baking paper. Repeat with the other half. You'll probably need a bit of flour on your hands and sprinkled over the dough if it's too sticky. Make three slashes with the knife across the tops of the loaves.
Let the loaves rise while the oven heats up, for about 20 minutes.
Pop them in the oven on the mid-lower rung for approximately 35 minutes.
Once looking well cooked, remove from oven, sit for about 10 minutes. Take out of loaf tins and leave to cool on racks until you can handle them enough to cut some slices to enjoy with butter and jam ;o)

:: recipe : scroggin slice ::

Recently we had friends from overseas staying with us and we had a zoo trip planned for our little people. In an effort to avoid buying snacks/biscuits laden with unknown processed baddies, I decided (against the wisdom given me to not add anything else to my already-enough-on-it-list) to make some myself. Flicking through mum's collection of recipes, I came across 'Scroggin Biscuits,' a recipe passed on from the mum of a very good school friend of mine. Not only did the discovery of this recipe bring back many treasured memories of spending many adventure-filled weekends on the farm that this lovely family own, but I also spied a note saying 'This can also be made as a slice.' We'd never tried it this way before but, because time was not on my side, I did...and it was delicious!

I often find myself a little disappointed after trying various muesli slice recipes. I probably go too healthy, or maybe it's just the honey that doesn't do it for me. This one has its fair share of sugar and butter, but for its taste I think there's no point trying to substitute those things (unless necessary!). The rolled oats, sunflower seeds, cranberries and dark chocolate over balance the health factor I reckon ;o) It's also very versatile - swap and change the dried fruit, chocolate and flavours and you can make any number of yummy combinations.

Here's the basic recipe, for biscuits or a slice. You can follow the recipe in the photo above, or my variation below!

Scroggin Slice

200g butter softenened
1 1/2c soft brown sugar*
2 eggs
1/4c peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
1c flour
1 tsp baking soda
2c rolled oats
1/2c cranberries or chopped apricots
2 handfuls of chopped up dark chocolate (find someone with big hands! I use Whittakers 50% cocoa)
1/2c sunflower seeds

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Cream butter and sugar together until light
Add eggs one by one into the creamed butter & sugar and beat together
Add peanut butter and vanilla essence and mix in
You're supposed to combine all the dry ingredients separately in another bowl before adding to the wet ingredients. I'm not great at reading details, so I typically just keep adding them all into the same bowl and it turns out fine!
Line a slice/sponge roll tin with baking paper (or grease if you want to take a risk!) and scrape the whole mixture evenly, smoothing over the top.
Bake for 20 minutes (check after 15 minutes to see how it's going). Should be golden brown and still quite soft to touch. At this point, don't worry if it's too soft - after 20 minutes it should be quite soft and just fine ;o) As it cools it will become more dense. Take it out and leave it to cool before slicing.

Delicious as an anytime snack - especially accompanied with little people and colourful fluffies!

*Today I took the plunge and substituted the brown sugar for 3/4c of runny honey (I hate to take risks for fear of wasting great ingredients like chocolate! But my curiosity got the better of me ;o) ). It worked! It's much more cake-y in texture compared to using normal old refined sugar, but it's almost as delicious and makes the whole thing almost refined-sugar free, if you're keen on that. Enjoy!

:: mummy, it's just like a party! :: butter cookie recipe ::

These were Amélie's words, exclaimed with a wide smile and sparkling eyes, when we sat down yesterday and ate freshly baked chocolate chunk cookies with cold milk. It made me smile. For all my impatience to get the cookies into the oven and not into little mouths first (though...does it really matter!) it was lovely to share that moment together and see it through my little girl's eyes.

We've made this recipe twice recently. It's one of Annabel Langbein's that is quite a basic, butter-cookie recipe (see below) with almost limitless possibilities of adding different flavours and creating varieties, from lavender, hazelnut & chocolate, 100s & 1000s, ginger, cranberries, and so on... Ours were chocolate and hazelnut and delicious!

And here are my little helpers, waiting patiently for a batch to bake while taste-testing, of course!

:: Recipe : Butter Cookies (Annabel Langbein - Simple Pleasures) ::

Prep time     20 minutes + chilling
Cook time    20 minutes
Makes          about 7 dozen

500g butter
1 cup sugar
4 1/2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp sweetened condensed milk
flavourings of your choice

Cream the butter and sugar. Stir in the flour, baking powder, vanilla and sweetened condensed milk until the mixture comes together in a ball. The raw dough can be made ahead to this stage and frozen until needed. Defrost before baking.

)At this stage you can divide the dough up into different portions and add further ingredients, i.e. chocolate bits, nuts, cranberries etc.) Taste a little raw dough as you go and adjust the flavourings to suit. Chill mixture for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C. Line 3 or 4 oven trays with baking paper. Roll cookie dough into walnut-sized balls, place on baking trays and flatten slightly. Bake until lightly golden and set (about 15-20 minutes).

Allow to cool for 10 minutes on the tray then transfer to a rack to cool completely before storing in an airtight container or jar. They will keep for several weeks - if they become a little stale simply refresh for 5 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees C.

Enjoy! Bon Appétit!!