laurasaur

This is based on the famous Sour Cream Coffee Cake by Rose Levy Beranbaum. It has a super rich eggy batter which bakes into a moist soft tight crumbed cake, topped with a layer of sweet apricots and then a golden crumble topping.  It looks time intensive but it comes together very fast.

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Well my husband came home slightly intoxicated tonight. First question: Do we have any more pie? Me: haha no you ate it all last night. Hubby: (standing in front of fridge) I’m going to make sticky date pudding!! Me: (staring in disbelief) um, okay? Do you want me to make you something? Hubby: (guilty look) Yes please baby!!

Haha OK that is a slightly shortened version but he is really cute. And a huge fan of toothsome desserts with fruit. So we didn’t have very many dates, and I hugely improvised this recipe with amazing success

Pudding:
100g dried dates (pitted)
150g sultanas – you can vary the quantities of the sultanas/dates as long as they add up to 250g.
1 tsp baking soda
250ml/1 cup water

125g butter at room temp
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups flour

Coconut Caramel Sauce:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cup coconut cream

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place dates, raisin and baking soda into a bowl. Pour over boiling water. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold through date mixture and flour until just combined.

Spoon mixture into casserole dish or cake pan. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Pierce holes in top with a skewer and then pour some of the syrup over the top.

To make the sauce: place sugar and water in a heavy based saucepan. Heat over medium heat until dissolved, stirring often with a wooden spoon. Once all the sugar is dissolved, stop stirring and heat until mixture turns golden brown. This will take about 8 minutes, but I looked away and mine burnt slightly.

Once it is brown, pour in coconut cream. It will bubble and sizzle like crazy but stir it anyway for about 3 minutes until all incorporated and thickened. Remove from heat and store leftovers in a jar in the fridge.

Pâte Sucrée is delicious and so easy to make yourself, you will never buy it ready made again.

The only thing you need to respect is to not overwork the dough.

This recipe is not as traditional as I did not have the full measure of almonds, so I added the finely sliced zest of one lemon to make up some of the difference, and the taste comes through very strongly.

300g salted butter, at room temperature
190g icing sugar
30g ground almonds
seeds from 1 vanilla bean
2 eggs
500g plain flour
finely chopped zest 1 lemon

Assemble all ingredients before starting.

Beat butter until soft and creamy in KA or by hand.

Add icing sugar, ground almonds, lemon zest and vanilla seeds. Beat until combined.

Add eggs one at a time, beating between each one until fully incorporated.

Remove from mixer if using and add all of the flour. Gently combine until dough is just crumbly but just holds together, do not overwork or it will be tough and chewy instead of flaky and crispy.

Divide into 3 balls, flatten gently and wrap tightly in gladwrap. Chill for 2 hours before using.

The dough can now be stored in the fridge for 2 days, or in the freezer for a month (Defrost fully in fridge before using).

I have refridgerated most of this, but I had to make a special treat for hubby.. a quick messy freeform strawberry pie which by all accounts was delicious!

most people underestimate the importance of protein in their diet. Protein is a vital part of a healthy diet and has way too many benefits for me to bother typing out, but a large benefit of making protein part of every meal is that protein requires more energy to digest and makes you feel “full” for longer.

1 medium banana
10 feijoas
30g whey protein isolate (or your protein of choice)
ice

peel the banana and add it to your blender. add the flesh of the feijoas, and blend until smooth. add the protein powder, ice and a spash of water. blend until ice is crushed and smoothie is thick.

So surprising how some things just taste so good together. Cheese and chutney, marmite and chips, tomato sauce and everything.. haha.. Feijoas and Bananas are another awesome combo. And real vanilla bean.. although you can substitute 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract if you want. Nice way to celebrate the first day of a new job… I feel like a proper grown up. Onto my second real job.. it’s all good.

10-20 feijoas, halved and scooped
1-2 ripe bananas sliced small
seeds of 1 vanilla bean
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of butter

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup oats
50g butter at room temperature

Mix fruit and vanilla seeds in an ovenproof dish. Sprinkle brown sugar over and dot butter on top.

Mix all dry ingredients in a deep bowl. Cut the butter into rough pieces and rub it into the dry ingredients with the tips of your figures until well mixed in.

Crumble this mixture over the fruit in an even layer. Bake for about 20 minutes at 180C until you can see the caramel mixture bubbling just under the crumble. Let cool slightly before serving.