Change of Seasons, oh yeah and some new recipes

Ah yes the change of seasons.  Still throws me off living in Sydney being that it is backwards!  Although I will say this spring feels much more like spring-time to me… maybe I am doing a much better job of just accepting and going with the flow.  Thinking back to last year, I was a hot mess around this time.  To be fair, I was in the midst of the culture shock/wallowing in self-pity phase of my life.  During this time I cried over lack of pumpkin treats, foliage and BC football games.  It did not feel right to be in September/October and not be taking out cozy sweaters and putting away summer dresses.  I was angry that it was so different here.

What a difference a year makes my friends… right now life is good.  Must have something to do with being at the beach as the weather gets better! We have a long weekend coming up and are heading to Jervis Bay with some friends.  The hubby and I have never been, even though it is just a couple hours south of Sydney.  Should be a lot of fun... even if the weather is a bit cool like they are predicting we will still do some bush walks and kayaking.  One of the beaches there apparently has the whitest sand in the world.  

Like I said, life has gotten really good here in Australia with all our crazy adventures and good friends. Not to say that I don't get homesick or miss things about the US, but I feel like I am much better able to appreciate things here.  I was too busy this week to get a lot of good pictures around the house and new area, but I will do a quick post of that next week sometime. 

Anyways, I don’t want to go on and on about all that.  As promised (umm months ago) I will try to be better about recipes and such.  I think I mentioned that a friend had bought me a cookbook by Bill Granger.  For those who don’t know the name, he is one of the big name chefs here in Australia.  In Sydney he has several nice restaurants known particularly for the breakfast. 

The cookbook is great.  Filled with lots of traditional/modern Australian cuisine type stuff.  I have tried a bunch of them over the past few months and will be posting several over time.  First up oat, pear and raspberry loaf.  Brace yourselves for this one, because I completely adapted the recipe to my taste.  The original is amazing, but not necessarily what I would be eating on a daily basis.  I have made it with raspberries, blueberries and strawberries and have used all different apples and pears (pretty much whatever I have on hand).  It works well with pretty much everything.  My version is a bit healthier with less sugar, butter and using wholemeal flours.  Strawberries are in season now and have been on sale so that is what I used today along with some pink lady apples.  This is good timing for baking to bring stuff along on the road trip (which may be a bit of a long drive with holiday traffic).

Okay here we go...

Most of the yummy ingredients- missing honey though oops.

All the ingredients for the crumble ready to be mixed up.

Perfectly mixed and crumbled!

The oats getting all ready to go... these make this recipe taste like a delicious bowl of 

oatmeal in bread form.

Mixing up all the ingredients for the batter.

 Half the batter already in the pan topped with all the chopped fresh fruit... now ready to top off with remaining batter and crumb topping.

 One of the muffins straight from the oven... I need to make sure they tasted okay before bringing them on our road trip!  Okay fine... I had a couple... but just to make sure they came out fine.  And they did :)

Oat, Apple and Strawberry Loaf 
(or muffins depending on your mood)

Yield: 2 loafs or 2 dozen muffins

Ingredients

Topping

½ cup rolled oats

2/3 cup brown sugar

¼ cup whole meal flout

1 oz chilled butter cut to small pieces

Batter

2 cups rolled oats

3 cups boiling water

1 tablespoon canola oil

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup honey

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 ½  tsp ground cinnamon

3 cups whole meal flour

1 tsp sea salt

3 ripe apples (or pears) finely dices

1 ¼ cups berries fresh or frozen (thaw and drain frozen berries and chop up larger berries such as strawberries)

- Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC)

- Grease muffin or loaf tins with cooking spray

- Make Topping

•  Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix together with hands until well incorporated and small clumps begin to form.  Set aside.

- Make batter

•  Place oats in a bowl and top with boiling water.  Let sit until luke warm in temperature.
• Mix the oil, sugar, and honey in a bowl.
• With an electric mixer add the eggs one at a time, beating well until mixture slightly thickens.
• Add the vanilla.
• Sift flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon to bowl and fold to combine.
• Drain any excess water from the oats and fold them into mixture until just combined.

- Spread about ½ to 2/3 of the mixtures into prepared muffin tins or loaf pans. Top with fruit/berries. 

Top with the remaining batter and then sprkingle the topping over as evenly as possible.

- Bake loafs approximately 1 hour 10 minutes.  Bake muffins approximately 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Recipe adapted from Bill Granger's book Best of Bill

I also baked these beauties today.  Recipe for them is below as well.  Not sure where I got this one initially… it was in my recipe box and I remember making them probably in high school and college.  Most likely something from my mom… but no source to quote on where it is from exactly! Typically recipes similar to this are called Monster Cookies.  You can switch out the chocolate chips for anything else... butterscotch or peanut butter chips, other small candy etc.  Options for that stuff are kinda limited here down under so I stuck with the M&Ms and mini chocolate chips.

And yes, I had to taste test these too.  Don't worry, they are delicious as well.

Monster Cookies

Yield: 24 large cookies

Ingredients

1 stick butter (softened)

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups of creamy peanut butter

3 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

4 1/2 cup quick oatmeal

1 cup M&Ms

1 cup mini chocolate chips

- Preheat oven to 375ºF and prep cookie sheets with parchment paper or cooking spray.
- Cream together the butter, sugars and peanut butter with an electric mixer until fluffy and creamy. 
- Add the eggs one at a time and vanilla mix until just combined. 
- Add the baking soda and mix well. 
- Fold in the oats and then the chocolate chips and M&Ms. 
- Use a cookie scoop or large spoon to make rounded balls of dough.  Press down slightly on dough to flatten.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until slightly brown on outside.
- Cool on parchment paper.

Wow that was a lot of recipe posting for one day.  I am off to pack up for the weekend away.  Hopefully the weather is good and I am back next week with lots of fun pictures and such. 

Until next time, I leave you with this gem of a picture of me and Uncle Glenn from our trip back to Boston in June.  Uncle Glenn knows all too well my love of all things pumpkin (and how much I miss all the pumpkin spice goodness being away) and picked up some canned pumpkin for me.  Have I mentioned before you can't get that here?! Anyways, here is the ridiculous picture of us with a can of pumpkin.  I have perfected some pumpkin recipes coming up next week  :)

Time for change... and some baked doughnuts

Time for change... and some baked doughnuts

Well this week has flown by as usual...  It seems there have been a lot of exciting changes this week for some reason.  Exciting piece of news #1: officially accepted into the doctorate program at UMass.  #2: We are officially moving to the beach this August!  It was not our original plan to have to uproot after a year, but due to some changes in how taxes impact expats in Australia it makes the most sense.  The more we have talked about moving, the more exciting it is becoming (and yes, I am aware most would love to “have” to move and be living near a beach).  #3 the hubby signed us up for City to Surf- Woo!  Time to get him into running form for August.  For those not in Sydney, City to Surf is a fun run they do here each year from the CBD to Bondi Beach.  I am super excited because we did not have the chance to do it last year since it was right after we arrived in Sydney.  #4 took my first zumba class (courtesy of Liz) and it was awesome.  I’m sure I looked a bit ridiculous but it was awesome none the less.

Future view from the new house... I will get some better pictures after the move.

Well, writing that all down makes me jam packed with change the week has been. Life’s changes seem to always make me think of seasons (I know that sounds cheesy).  This is still a source of confusion for me here with the backwards seasons from what we are used to in New England.  It is currently getting dark by 5pm and cool… think Octoberesque weather.  Since it is currently going into June, this just doesn’t seem right.  Although, this weather is quite condusive to baking and making all sorts of comfort food stuff in my crockpot… always a good time. 

As I mentioned before, I am obsessed with my mini-doughnut pan I bought at Kmart of all places (Kmart is a story for another post I believe).  I think I am a bit behind on this trend, but I love it anyways.  I’m not going to lie and say these taste anything like an actual fried doughnut- they don’t.  But they can be a really good baked treat anyways.   Because it is feeling so much like fall I’ve been having cravings for all those typical autumn flavors. 

I’m thinking pumpkin, ginger and strong spices… and of course, maple.  Well, let me tell you maple will win in my mind most of the time!  Spiced “doughnuts” with maple glaze it is!  Hmm… but the downside is the hubby does not share my obsessive love of all things maple.  Because I am such a good wife, triple chocolate “doughnuts” for him.  First up, the chocolate batch!

Triple Chocolate “Doughnuts”

Since I only have one of these cute little doughnut trays (and essentially we are making slightly dense muffins in the shape of doughnuts) extra batter can be made into either muffins or baked in a loaf pan.

Yield: 12 mini doughnuts and approx 6 muffins or small loaf with remainder of mixture

Ingredients

2 cups flour (plain or whole wheat would work well)

½ cup sugar

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp nutmeg (optional)

1 cup milk

¼ cup honey

2 eggs

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

2 ½ tablespoons canola oil or melted butter

½ cup mini chocolate chips

Glaze

3 tablespoons cocoa

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup powder sugar

2-3 tablespoons milk

Sprinkles for decorating

  

- Preheat oven to 325º F (160º C)

- Mix all dry ingredients together in medium bowl

- Beat with a whisk all wet ingredients in large bowl.

- Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture in 2 batches.  Mix until just combined.

- Stir in chocolate chips.

- Here is the fun part.  Fill a ziplock bag with mixture and cut a small opening in the corner.  Pipe filling into greased doughnut and muffin pans.  Fill approximately ¾.

- Bake 10-12 minutes for mini-doughnut pan, 14-16 for muffins.

- Let cool completely.

- For the glaze: melt butter and mix with all other ingredients well.  Dip doughnuts into glaze and let cool to set.  If you want to put sprinkles on top, do so right away before the glaze hardens.

The line up of ingredients

Get the dry and wet ingredients ready...

Mix it all well.

 Ready to bake...

Spiced “doughnuts” with Maple Glaze

This is a combination of an old gingerbread recipe and apple bread that I had from my grandmother's recipe box, with a slightly healthier twist.

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour

¼ cup brown sugar

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp allspice

1/3 cup applesauce

¼ cup molasses

1 egg

3 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon canola oil or melted butter

Maple Glaze

2 tablespoons maple syrup

2-3 tablespoons milk

1 ½ cups powder sugar

1 tsp maple extract (for a stronger maple flavor, but vanilla would work as well)

Sprinkles for decorating

- Preheat oven to 350º F (175º C)

- Mix all dry ingredients together in medium bowl

- Beat with a whisk all wet ingredients in large bowl.

- Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture in 2 batches.  Mix until just combined.

- Fill a ziplock bag with mixture and cut a small opening in the corner.  Pipe filling into greased doughnut and muffin pans.  Fill approximately ¾ full.

- Bake 10-12 minutes for mini-doughnut pan.

- Let cool completely.

- For the glaze: combine all ingredients well.  Dip doughnuts into glaze and let cool to set.  If you want to put sprinkles on top, do so right away before the glaze hardens.

Ah the final products.  Much to my dismay (and my stubborn love of all things autumn and maple) 

I actually enjoyed the chocolate best.