Beef and bacon casserole with crispy potato topping

¼ cup plain flour
1 kg chuck, blade or shin
50g butter
1 Tbs olive oil
12 pickling onions
250g button mushrooms
100g piece of speck
4 garlic cloves
2 cups dry red wine
2 cups beef stock
2 Tbs tomato paste
4 sprigs thyme
1 dried bay leaf

Topping
80g butter
2 garlic cloves
2 tsp thyme leaves
4 Pontiac potatoes

Preheat oven to 160. Toss 3cm pieces of beef in flour with seasoning.
In flameproof casserole dish brown meat in batches in half of the oil and butter. Set aside.
Sauté mushrooms and onions until golden brown in remaining oil and butter.
Add 1cm pieces of spec and crushed garlic. Cook for 2 mins.
Return meat to pan and add wine, stock and tomato paste. Bring to a simmer and remove from heat.
Add thyme and bay leaf. Place in the oven covered for 2 – 2 ½ hours.
When meat is tender remove from the oven and turn up to 200.
Toss thinly sliced potatoes in melted butter, garlic and thyme. Arrange on top of casserole.
Place back in the oven uncovered till potatoes are golden brown and cooked through, about 30 mins.

Source: Diana, ‘Notebook’

The Best Chocolate Brownies

Okay, so one of my favourite things to bake (and eat) is a good chocolate brownie. Vik has a really basic one we make quite regularly on her blog Apron Strings but it doesn't even have chocolate in it - it's an adaptation from a childhood friend's recipe. It has been my challenge this year to find the perfect chocolate brownie recipe - one that is both dense and chewy, chocolatey but not too sweet. And here it is - feel free to change the type of nuts used. (BTW, use yoghurt, cream or buttermilk if you don't have sour cream).

150g butter
300g dark chocolate (Lindt)
1 1/2 cups (330g) brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup (110g) plain flour
3/4 cup (140g) dark choc chips
1/2 cup (120g) sour cream
3/4 cup (110g) roasted macadamias, chopped coarsely

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line brownie (19cm x 29cm) pan with baking paper.
Melt butter and chocolate together, cool.
Stir sugar, eggs and extract into chocolate mixture, then sifted flour, choc chips, sour cream and nuts. Spread mixture into pan.
Bake brownies 35-45 minutes (this is the part where you need to know your oven), cool in pan.

Source: Jules, Bake, Australian Women's Weekly

Glazed Lemon Pound Cake

I'm a keen baker and so when I come across a cake or biscuit in packaging that I really like, I just have to work out how to make it myself. I have always loved a plain or iced madeira cake, usually Top Taste. There's something comforting about the smell and the density of that little slice. So began my journey to find a madeira cake recipe - and what would I find? Madeira cake has fruit in it... The closest I have found is a pound cake care of Martha Stewart - just be sure to make it one evening when you aren't feeling unwell and you have all of the right ingredients and baking tins! I didn't and all hell ensued!


250g unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
Zest of 2 lemons, finely grated
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups sugar
5 large eggs
2 cups icing sugar
3-4 tbsp fresh lemon juice


Preheat oven to 180 degrees, with rack in lowest position. Butter and flour two 4 1/2-by-8-inch (6-cup) loaf pans.
In a small bowl combine buttermilk with lemon zest and juice. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three parts alternately with the buttermilk mixture in two, beginning and ending with flour; beat just until smooth (do not overmix).
Divide batter evenly between pans; smooth tops. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes (tent with foil if browning too quickly). Cool 15 minutes in pan. Turn out cakes onto a rack; cool completely before glazing.
Set rack with cakes over a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Pour glaze over cakes, letting it run down the sides; let dry, about 30 minutes.
Glaze: Place icing sugar in a medium bowl, stir in lemon juice (glaze should be thick, yet pourable). Add more sugar or lemon juice, as necessary, to achieve desired consistency.

Source: Jules, Martha Stewart Living Online

Peanut Butter Choc Chip Biscuits

There is something special about chocolate chip biscuits - but I'm afraid these go just that little bit further. The addition of peanut butter is just heavenly and the use of two types of sugars gives a nice balance between crunchy and chewy. Enjoy (before somebody else does!).

250g butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup (150g) caster sugar

2/3 cup (150g) brown sugar

2 eggs

¾ cup crunchy peanut butter

2 cups (300g) plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

300g Cadbury dark chocolate chips

Beat butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs together. Don’t beat too frantically as overbeating will result in the biscuits spreading on the trays. At the last minute, add the peanut butter.

Stir in flour, bicarbonate soda and choc chips.

On trays covered in baking paper, drop tablespoons of mixture about 5cm apart. Alternatively, wrap dough into a log, refrigerate and then slice into rounds. Set out as above.

Bake in a moderate oven (180°C) for approximately 15 minutes. Once cooked, biscuits are golden in colour.

Cool biscuits on a wire rack, store in airtight containers for as long as they last (it won’t be long, they’re too good!).

Source: Jules, Bake, Australian Women’s Weekly

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

I was introduced to this most pleasurable of taste sensations through Angie in London. They are served at the Hummingbird Bakery in South Kensington and are a classic American recipe. The combination of the rich cocoa with the red colouring is irresistible to the eye and the cream cheese icing is just divine.

Cupcakes

170g butter
2-1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
3-3/4 cups sifted plain flour
1/3 cups cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/8 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups buttermilk
3 teaspoons vinegar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
30ml red food colouring

Icing

90g butter
250g cream cheese
4-5 cups icing sugar

Cream butter till light and fluffy. Add sugar slowly and continue beating for a few minutes.
Combine flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda and baking powder.
Combine buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla and red food colouring.
Add eggs one at a time to the creamed butter and sugar.
While the mixer is on, add a quarter of the dry mixture, then a quarter of the wet. Continue mixing on a low speed, alternating wet and dry.
Use a large spoon to divide mixture into 36 cupcake cases.
Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes in a moderate oven (180°).
While the cupcakes are baking in the oven, beat butter for a few minutes in the mixer. Add cream cheese and beat for another few minutes. Add icing sugar (sifted) one cup at a time and beat for about ten minutes.
Test cupcakes by lightly pressing on the middle of one – they should spring back to the touch. Cool cupcakes.
Once cupcakes are cool, ice with cream cheese icing.

Source: Jules