Not-your-old-fashioned Shortbread

I’m a huge fan of shortbread, and whilst I love the good old-fashioned plain shortbread, I like to up the ante and add flavours to it. So below you’ll find the basic recipe. I divided this recipe into 4 and added the flavourings to it. Depending on how you slice the shortbread this recipe will make between 50 and 60 pieces of shortbread. You can easily halve this recipe if you want less, but why? these little slices of buttery richness will disappear pretty quickly.

For each flavour, take the quarter recipe and knead the additional ingredients into the mixture.

• Coconut Shortbread - add 1/4 cup dessicated coconut

• Orange and Cranberry - add 1/4 cup cranberries and grated zest from 1 orange

• Chocolate - add 1/4 cup cocoa powder

• Ginger - add 1 teaspoon ginger and 1/4 cup crystallised ginger finely chopped

These make a great gift. They also freeze well - just wrap in plastic and seal well, otherwise they may absorb other odours from the freezer. They’ll keep for at least a month in the freezer and are quick to defrost.

Happy Cooking

gill

Buttery Shortbread

• 2 cups butter (454 grams)

• 1 cup icing sugar

• pinch salt

• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

• 1 cup cornflour

• 2 3/4 cups flour

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar until pale in colour and well mixed and add vanilla.

2. Whisk the cornflour, salt, and flour together.

3. Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture and stir well.

4. Split the mixture and add ingredients as above. Feel free to leave some plain.

5. Shape into rectangle logs, about 2cm high by 15cm long. Refrigerate for about 10 minutes.

6. Slice into 1cm slices, and arrange on a baking tray, note that they will spread as the butter melts so leave 2cm between each one.

7. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius) for 10 minutes.

8. Cool and serve.

Blueberry and Raspberry Muffins

I was rummaging in the freezer and found a bag of mixed berries and decided to make some muffins. The fact the berries were mixed meant I didn’t have to decide between raspberries and blueberries and instead, got to enjoy both. I actually stripped out the strawberries and boysenberries, and I’ll pop those into a smoothie later in the week. I find strawberries can make muffins a bit soggy, and no one likes a soggy muffin.

When you’re using frozen berries, don’t defrost them - that will make the muffins too wet, just pop the frozen ones in directly into the batter and cook straight away.

You can use other berries or fruit as well, and you can use fresh instead of frozen. They are not always available or affordable so I love having a recipe that works well with frozen.

And the final, and most important tip, don’t over-mix, if there are lumps in the mixture or dried bits of flour that’s ok. They will bake out. Mixing too much is likely to result in flat stodgy muffins.

Enjoy and

Happy Cooking

gill

Berry Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups flour (200 grams)

• 3/4 cup sugar (150 grams)

• pinch salt

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

• 1 large egg

• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

• 100 mls milk

• 1 cup fresh or frozen berries, blueberry & raspberry work well

Method

1. Mix the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a large bowl.

2. Whisk the egg and add the oil, vanilla and milk and mix to combine.

3. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and gently combine - it may be lumpy and have bits of dry flour in it, that’s ok.

4. Add the berries and fold them through lightly.

5. Spoon into muffin cases - I use an ice-cream scoop and fill the cases to about 2/3 fill. This recipe makes 12 normal size muffins.

6. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius) for 10 minutes to set the muffins, then turn the oven up to 400 degrees F (210 degrees C) and bake for another 5 minutes. Turning the oven up at the end will help pull the centre up into a lovely crisp dome on top of the muffin.

7. Cool in the muffin tin for 10 minutes.

Malaysian Curry Puffs

It’s party season and I have quite a few catering gigs on at the moment. I’m always looking for tasty finger food to serve, so combine my love of Malaysian food with an equally strong affinity for pastry and you get Malaysian curry puffs.

I was looking for a good pastry recipe that holds up to a wet filling and bakes really well, and with the help of Google, I came across the fabulous Bea of El Mundo Eats, a Malaysian living in Spain. Her recipe for curry puffs uses a different technique for the filling, whereas I just use my standard Malaysian curry - I just cut the chicken smaller. Her pastry is awesome, and one I now use for other savoury pies. Pop over to her blog if you want to see and cook some fabulous food.

With this recipe there is a lot of the curry sauce left over. I love using this over my lamb murtabak recipe, or just serve it with roti or paratha, it makes a great dip.

Enjoy and

Happy Cooking

gill

Malaysian Curry Puffs

• 500 grams chicken - cut into 1cm cubes

• 2 tablespoons Malaysian curry powder (or a good Madras curry powder)

• 1 medium onion cut into quarters

• 1 inch of ginger (grated)

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1 cup of coconut milk

• 1 cup of water

• 1 stick of cinnamon

• 2 cardamom pods, 2 cloves, 1 star anise

• 1 potato peeled and cut into 1 cm cubes

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

  Pastry ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter (113 grams) - softened

• 3 3/4 cups flour (490 grams)

• 1 egg

• 1 teaspoon turmeric

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2/3 cup warm water (160mls)

Method

1. Make the pastry - whip the butter in an electric mixer with a paddle blade until smooth and white, add in the egg and mix to combine - don’t worry if it looks a bit curdly, the flour will fix that. Add in the flour and turmeric and mix to combine. Change the blade to a hook attachment and add the warm water slowly while mixing to form a dough. Knead for 5 minutes.

2. Roll the dough into balls - I use a scale and make them 40 grams for snack size pastries and 80 gram for dinner size. Pop the balls into the fridge for at least an hour.

3. Make the curry. Blend the onion, ginger, garlic, curry powder and 1/2 cup of the water in a blender until smooth.

4. Heat the oil in a deep pan over medium heat and add the chicken and curry mixture. Fry for about 5 minutes, then add coconut milk, the rest of the water, potatoes, salt, and spices. Cook for about 25 minutes until potatoes are cooked.

5. The curry will be a bit runny. I drain it and keep the sauce to pop on to roti or paratha for a snack. Don’t forget to discard the whole spices and cinnamon stick.

6. To make the curry puffs. Roll each dough ball into a 10cm circle. Put a tablespoon of the chicken and potato mixture on the dough. Paint a little bit of beaten egg around the edges and seal. I crimp mine, but you can press the edges together with a fork - you’re just looking to stop the filling popping out while you’re cooking.

7. Place onto a lined baking tray, Brush with the beaten egg and cut a small slit in the top for the steam to escape.

8. Bake at 180 degrees celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit) for about 12 minutes - look for a lovely golden colour and a crisp outer shell.