Ginger Crunch

It is no surprise to people that know me, that I love to bake. I don't eat a-lot of it and sometimes I only have a tiny crumb to see if it tastes okay to give away. 

But not ginger crunch, it is one of my favourites, I have only made it about 3 times.  I was on a roll this week, I made two and one chocolate caramel slice (which I didn't take a photo of) and I also made a lemon and coconut brownie (which had no chocolate) 

I love using a round tin for this recipe because the layers are pretty even and I like the shape of the topping.

 Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I have to start my working week. 4 weeks to go.

Not A Pie Maker

Here it is, my first pastry made from scratch.

I have tried pastry before, as I love to eat it. Never before have they worked out.

So I had some time off work a few weeks ago and thought I would give it another go.

Lucky I did too, it worked out. I did have faith in the recipe. Armed with apples, I sautéed them in a little butter until soft. At the time I was drinking a pomegranate and blueberry juice, so I added a little of that and reduced it down.

I added a little crumble mix on top.

I forgot to photograph it after I cooked it and before we ate it. The end result was I golden crunchy top and a crisp semi-sweet pastry topped with vanilla ice cream of course.  (you will have to take my word for it.

I had leftover pastry that I took to work and made mini chocolate ganache tarts. They were good, as I ate 2.

Busy Two Days.

Baking and more Baking, When does the sew come into it.  Well it is coming, I am going to sew a doll for my niece's fourth birthday that is if I can stop baking and knitting.

Yum my favourite mud cake recipe it is quite runny so it is best poured.

Half of the cupcakes needed.

I did a couple of trial ones for my testers.

The roses swirl is a little harder with full buttercream, I possibly should have made the icing a little softer.

And a little birthday gift from my wonderful sister in law, I love these and I have seen these but I had measuring cups so never brought them. Yeah for presents, you can never have too many measuring cups. 

Heart Attack

Wait it is not as serious as it seems,

I have been baking again, it is a gift for my friend Rita. She moved to Taupo late last year and she doesn't bake, she does try and I love listening to her stories of baking disasters.

I borrowed the cutters from Lorna and they are a really great shape I will have to get some.

I had a takeaway container (yum Thai) and lined with baking paper which they stacked up nicely. I covered the lid with some stock card and added some ribbon. It ended up being the best shape for her as she told me that her boyfriend asked her to marry him. Yeah for hearts, and I just love a wedding.

Breakfast and lunch

Oh my Bagel feast, I had bagels for breakfast with eggs. As they are mini I had 6 bagels to two eggs.  So what for lunch at work?   Bagels and ham from christmas that the butcher chopped up for us this week.

Yum I will roast them on the AGA it is going to be delicious.

Bagels.

Happy New Year to you all.  I have had a break and it was great. I wanted to bake and make delicious meals but really did neither. So today I made Bagels.  I love Bagels and have always wanted to make some.  I found a website called delicious days and I made the Ricotta Gnocchi, which was exactly as it said silky and like pillows.

So I printed out the mini bagel recipe and here they are.  I will save mine for breakfast.  I topped them with rock salt and the next ones with parmesan cheese.  I also did sesame topped ones but they didn't really brown.

They will need a little work to master shapes etc... but they have passed the taste test, and they were fun to make.