Mouth watering Passionfruit Kiss Recipe

 

Melting Moments

Mouth watering Passionfruit kisses

Passionfruit Kisses or Passionfruit Melting moments are a delicious way to impress your guest and use up some passionfruits.

Ingredients

Passionfruit

 

250g unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla essence OR 1 tbsp passionfruit
1/2 cup pure icing sugar
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 custard powder

Passionfruit filling
120g butter
2 large passionfruit
2 cup pure icing sugar

 

Preheat oven to 160°C.  Line two trays with baking paper.
Cream butter, vanilla and icing sugar with an electric mixer.

When mixture is light and fluffy, add flour and custard powder and continue to mix until a soft dough is formed.

The most artistic and probably easiest way to place mixture on the trays is to use a piping bag.  If this is not an option, roll mixture into a ball and flatten neatly with a fork.  I like to make mini ones about 3cm in diameter but they look great a bit bigger too.  Depends how far your want your mixture to last!

 

Place in oven for 15mins or until firm – note they don’t really change colour.

Allow biscuits to cool completely before creaming.

To make the passionfruit cream filling, beat butter until light and fluffy and then add in icing sugar and passion fruit.  Mixture should be nice and creamy.

Again, if you have a piping bag it is easiest to pipe icing onto biscuits and then place a second biscuit lightly on top and squeeze together.  If you don’t have a piping bag gently spoon icing on and smooth with a knife.

 

Then let them melt in your mouth with a nice hot cuppa tea!  My sister taught me how to make these delicious melting moments.  If you want to change them up a bit use freshly squeezed lemon, vanilla or even coffee instead of passionfruit!

Happy baking!

A Saturday in Auckland…Matakana Markets

If you ever happen to be in Auckland or somewhere in that northern vicinity of the North Island of New Zealand on a Saturday I HIGHLY recommend driving to Matakana for at least a day to visit Matakana Markets.  It takes about a one hour, peaceful drive from Auckland, through beautiful green rolling hills.  It is a central hub to vineyards, beaches, restaurants, cafes and parks and has everything you need to enjoy your day or weekend away.

 

Every Saturday, Matakana Village Farmer’s Market comes alive!  From 8am to 1pm the place is an absolute hive of activity with local stall holders selling organic eggs, cheese, wines, chocolate, fruit and veges, soaps… you name it!  It’s amazing.  You wander around taste testing and buying little samples of different types of amazing food.  The aroma’s are intoxicating.  Wood fired pizza’s are being cooked in one corner in handmade ceramic fireplaces and fresh coffee is brewing in another.  Local artists are playing in another corner… all creating the perfect concoction for a relaxing Saturday morning!  Very difficult knowing where to spend one’s money!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My friends, Jared and Kelly, had their children babysat for the day so we could enjoy the day – adult style – strolling through the Matakana region.  After thoroughly enjoying the markets, we visited a few of the local art galleries and then Bella Fuego the place where the handmade ceramic fireplaces are handmade.  The artist was ‘home’ and he even gave us a tour or his workplace.  Love to get my hands into some of that clay one day!

For lunch we visited the most amazing winery, OBV Omaha Bay Vineyard.  It’s in an absolute stunning location overlooking Omaha Bay and Little Barrier Island.  Upon arrival you taste whatever wines you desire and then pick one!  The cheese platter we bought for lunch was delicious.  Amazing hummus, olive pates, cheeses, breads….etc… let the photo below wet your appetite!

So, if you are ever in Auckland, get yourself to Matakana.  You can happily spend a day up there and feel like you’ve just had a weeks holiday.  Most of the restaurants have kids playgrounds so it can be an option for a family day out.  Thanks Jared and Kelly for such a wonderful day!

Easy Rocky Road Recipe

Plate full of Christmas goodness... rocky road, Raspberry lollies, cashews and chocolate hand drawn stars

This is one of the easiest recipes for Rocky Road I’ve ever made.  My sister shared it with me years ago and every year it gets made for someone or some special occasion!

Ingredients

Packet of good cooking chocolate.  (I like to use Australian Cadbury or Nestle. The better the chocolate the better the sweet.  Use dark, milk or white – whatever you fancy!)

Packet of Raspberry Lollies (I couldn’t find these in the US but used red swedish fish or something jelly like.  Preferably a raspberry flavour)

Cup full of Peanuts (I’ve even used chocolate coated ones!)

Packet of Marshmallows

Method

Prepare a pan – 30cm x 20cm.  Line with grease proof paper – or it will be VERY difficult to get off!

Depending on the size of the Marshmallows, cut to small bite sizes.

Cut Raspberries in half – so the jelly goodness spreads throughout the whole mixture well.

Melt Chocolate

Quickly, add all ingredients into a large bowl and then stir everything in well.  Pour into the pan and flatten down.  Chill till hardened and then cut up and serve!

If you want to add a little texture, melt white chocolate and place in a zip lock bag, cut a whole in the corner and scribble lines across the Rocky Road before cutting it up.  The stars in the picture above where made using the same method.  Put grease proof paper on a tray and then draw like you would with a pencil.  You might need to put a towel around the zip lock bag if its too hot to handle!  Place in the fridge till hardened and then just peel off the paper.  Everyone will think you’re an chocolate connoisseur!

Make a cuppa hot tea and enjoy a delicious bit of Rocky Road goodness!

Ipswich Fat as?!

Jamie Oliver's Thai Beef

I think it’s a good thing we’re getting the opportunity to learn some healthy cooking tips off such a pro.  I might just have to go and check a sess out!  My bro has the ‘Jamie Oliver recipe’ ap. It’s great and makes it easy to knock up a restaurant quality looking meal in no time at all! The picture above is a Thai Beef Stir Fry we made a little while ago.

Don’t you think all these cooking shows are very strategic marketing ploys?  I can’t imagine how fun it must be for mums to shop with their kids now. Milky Way’s and Mars Bars are overrated… It’s ‘Muuuum…. I Reeealy need the ingredients for ‘Gout De La Mer’… (whatever that is?!?) Everyone else is making it….pleeease!?!?’.   And notice half the ingredients you see on Master Chef you’ve never heard of!?  Probably another ploy to get us trying turnips and other random stuff we’ve managed to live without thus far!

All good though… Learning how to cook… Maybe it’s a good way to get us all eating a few more veggies!   Find a recipe on ‘google’ or on Jamie’s site… you non-cooker, eat takeaway every night peeps… you might actually love it!!  Cooking dinner has never been easier… impress your spouse and have a shot at it one night!

Happy Cooking!

Awesome Coconut Ice recipe used for wedding favours

Chocolate covered Coconut Ice with CherriesI used this Coconut Ice recipe for my sisters wedding favours or Bombonieres.  It worked like a treat and everyone loved it!

Ingredients

2 cups of icing sugar

395g can of condensed milk

2 1/2 cups of coconut

1/2 tsp of vanilla

1/4 cup of glazed cherries

Pink colouring

Dark Chocolate

Decorated Coconut Ice

Method

  • Combine sifted icing sugar, condensed milk, coconut and vanilla till evenly mixed.
  • Chop cherries finely
  • Grease a shallow 20cm square cake tin then line base and sides with baking paper.

Homemade Bombonieres

  • Divide mixture in half and then press the white half into the pan until evenly spread.
  • Mix a 2-3 drops of pink colouring to the rest of batch along with the chopped cherries and mix till colour is distributed evenly.
  • Press pink layer into pan on top of white layer and then refrigerate for 2-3 hours till hardened.
  • Once hardened remove from pan and cut into desired size.  For our Bombonieres we had a clear plastic, heart shaped box that we put the coconut ice in so I used one rectangular piece and one square piece.  See the pic below.
  • Decorate the coconut ice with dark melted chocolate.  I just used a zip lock bag with a 2mm hole in the corner to draw my squiggles.

I times-ed this Coconut Ice recipe by four to make enough for 70 people at the wedding.  Definitely a fun, quick, inexpensive way to make a homemade piece of goodness!  Make some… I dare you!

The Australian Bakery in AMERICA!

Yesterday, April 25, was ANZAC day.  We had had a great show in Macon, Georgia the night before at Christ Chapel and I was driving the Alabaster Box tour van home.  Everyone was in the back watching movies or sleeping when I remembered that there was an “Australian Bakery” in Atlanta somewhere.   After some quick consultation with Naarah – Alabaster Box’s lead singer, we decided to stop there for lunch seems it only added 2mins to our ETA.


It was a hit!  I had a lamb, curry and vege meat pie [Meat Pies are a savoury crust with filling inside - usually a saucy stewy meat and gravy consistency some have veges], a Lamington [a sponge cake dipped in chocolate and coated in coconut] and bought a Cherry Ripe Chocolate bar for the ride home.  All very authentic and not that healthy!   They had fish ‘n’ chips, burgers with the lot (Beets, fried eggs, tomato, lettuce, cheese, fried onion…etc..etc.), pavlovas, caramel and cherry ripe slices, Bundaberg Ginger Beer (non alcoholic gingery carbonated beverage)…etc…etc.   It seriously felt like an authentic Australian Cafe.  Needless to say we stayed there for a while savouring the moment.

Fact…

Australians are the world’s largest consumers of meat pies per capita, with each person on average consuming over 12 meat pies and a further 17 combined pastries, sausage rolls, and party pies per annum.  (The Australian Bakery)

Seriously though, every ‘servo’ [Gas station] or cafe you come across in Australia will serve some sort of meat pie and/or Sausage Roll.  Although… some of them I’d be hesitant to recommend… This photo above was taken of Naarah and I somewhere on the side of the road between Adelaide and Berri in South Australia.  We were broken down and some kind dude took us to the nearest cafe for us to buy Ginger Beer, fish n chips and meat pies!

If you have a minute… here is a classic video of us trying to decide whether to actually eat the food and share it with the billions of flies that were plaguing us!  Eric’s classic fly dance is priceless… I’ll prob get busted for showing this one!

So you wanna experience some Aussie goodness?  You can either visit the Australian Bakery next time you’re in Atlanta OR you can buy online! Check it out! Or you can come visit and I’ll make ya one!

Have you ever tried an Aussie meat pie?  Whats your thoughts?

High Resolution Press Images:

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Fondue Heaven!

Melting pot nashville joy argow

Saturday night I had the privilege of joining my room mate, Theresa and her famous ‘Aunt Gretchen’ at one of America’s premier fondue restaurants, ‘The Melting Pot’.  Its basically ‘fondue’ heaven.  Our new friend, Aunt Gretchen ‘shouted’ (treated) us.

The first thing our great waiter Brad, wanted to know was the reason for our ‘special’ night out.  Three people in our group – Theresa, Aunt Gretchen and Melissa were all going to Haiti to help with ‘Restore Haiti’ in the city of Jacmel.  The waiter was impressed and next thing we knew a photographer was at our table taking a ‘happy snap’ (and ended up giving each of us a copy free!) and the owner of the store came by to find out more info and to welcome us to his restaurant.  They were so sweet!  One thing you will notice about ‘The Melting Pot’ is they take pride in customer service and satisfaction and there is more then enough people making sure you are ok and treated like royalty… mind you, you do pay for it!  I highly recommend it for a special occasion.

If you go all out…
First course – a scrumptious cheese fondue where you get a bunch of different fresh breads and apples to dip in the bubbling hot cheese dip thats made to perfection in front of you.

Second course – salad… hard to eat rabbit food when you know whats still to come…

Third course – meat and veges that are served raw and you cook them in the boiling fondue broth!  Awesome – shrimp, tuna, beef, chicken, pork, lobster, kangaroo… just kidding  You can batter the shrimp just how you like it and fry it in the oil fondue… or cook a hunk of meat in the broth or have more then one stewing away while you wait! Very good

Fourth course – my favourite of course!  Chocolate Fondue.  We got a ‘Ying-Yang’ Fondue – Dark chocolate with Passionfruit white chocolate and a ‘Smores’ Fondue.  Comes with lots of delectable dipping options – fresh strawberries, pound cake, brownies, marshmellows, cheesecake, oreo covered marsmellows…etc….etc.  Delish!!!!

Ok, so seriously… visit the ‘Melting Pot’ if you ever come to America.  Even if its just for dessert or a cheese fondue.  Great way to spend a night with special friends.   Thanks Aunt Gretchen for making us all feel like we’ve known you for a lifetime and giving us an excuse to dress up and have an awesome night!

Wild horse saloon joy argow

High Resolution Press Images:

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Aussie’s experiencing ‘Hillbilly Hot Dogs’!

Yesterday we experienced a little American culture.   Our lovely host from Highlawn Baptist Church, Jason took us to Hillbilly Hotdogs!  This place was pretty different…. behind the doors I am opening in this pic is literally two outhouse toilets facing each other… I’m not sure I would want to eat in there! I guess you would have your privacy! Decor was really eclectic and cluttered…. and completely random.  Check out this video… you can eat in a bath tub!

Here’s Josh from Alabaster Box taking a great picture of Hillbilly’s eclectic clutter!
I wasn’t game to try one of the hot dogs but Naarah tried the Hillbilly Dog and liked it but had to take two TUMS after it!  Maybe our Aussie tummies are a bit sensitive!

We also got to go to Marshall College where the movie ‘We are Marshall’ was made.  It’s based on the true story of when a plane crashed and claimed the lives of members of almost the entire Marshall University football team and some of there fans.  Such a tragedy.  It’s always interesting seeing where legendary movies come from.  Brings them to reality a bit better.

Great times in West Virginia.  We’ll be back there on Wednesday for a little show at Cross Lanes, WV at Cross Lanes Baptist Church.   Good to be on the road again!

Best Chocolate in Nashville

I will admit it… I’m a chocolate snob.  I get in trouble all the time voicing my disgust at the taste of America’s Hershey’s Chocolate or the Hershey’s Chocolate bars packaged in Cadbury wrapping.  I guess if you haven’t tried Cadbury from New Zealand, England or Australia you probably wouldn’t realise the difference.  It’s just dang well better – apparently there is a difference in milk taste (grain fed cows versus grass fed cows) and also Cacao content.  Hershey’s gets away with putting very little Cacao into their secret recipes!


So where can you find good chocolate in Nashville?  Last night I was invited by Brock and Auny to attend a chocolate tasting evening at The Cocoa Tree.  The Chocolatier, Bethany has created mouth watering exceptional quality artisan truffles made from all natural ingredients – using chocolate from the finest chocolate makers in the world.

During the taste testing she taught us how to take our time and enjoy the taste of chocolate using all senses…
1. Hold the chocolate in the palm of your hand and admire it
2. Hold the chocolate piece up to your ear and break it, listen to the sound.  The darker the chocolate (more Cacao) the crisper the sound!
3. Smell the chocolate
4. Taste it… place on tongue first allow to melt.  Enjoy the first flavours.
5. Nibble it… by nibbling just slightly into the piece a second burst of flavours will come through (I just had to go grab a piece and relive the experience!)
6. Bite into the rest of the piece and experience a third round of flavours!  I never knew this was possible… I think I’ve always consumed it way to quickly!
7. Experience the chocolate just disappear quickly from your mouth.  High quality chocolate will do that yet will leave a lingering sensation still in your mouth.

So last night at the taste testing we tried this will white chocolate, milk chocolate and then different grades of dark chocolate.  Crazy the flavours you can taste in one bit of chocolate… a connoisseur like Brock Gill, can virtually pick where in the world the Cacao beans came from and what other plants where grown in the same region.  IE  At a tasting at their house you could taste a distinct tobacco flavouring in one of their dark chocolates because it was grown nearby.  Interesting hey!

Did you know that this is what a cacao tree looks like?  And that all chocolate is made from cacao grown on the equator?

Bethany then uses this fascinating flavoursome chocolate to make her own original truffles.  They are incredible.  Each truffle took years to master and were made after a friend who’d influence her life in some way – mostly people she knew.  The one above with the raspberry topping is called Amy’s Balsamic Raspberry – ‘The one that knows the bitter and the sweet.’  Made in honour of the famous Nashville singer, Amy Grant.   I’m not a fan of Balsamic vinegar nor would I have imagined putting it into a truffle!  But this one was delicious!

Highly recommend you visiting “The Cocoa Tree” in Germantown, TN.  Fella’s this would be a great place to win your dates heart and possibly go broke

What is your favourite place to get chocolate?  How often do you eat it?  Are you a fan of white, milk or dark?

Simple, healthy Ginger and Lemon Tea recipe


Picture by Faeriesfinest.

I recently ran out of my favourite Ginger and Lemon tea so decide to make my own from fresh ginger root and lemon. I will admit it tasted just as good as a bought one and felt a whole lot healthier!

Ingredients
1 1/2 Tbsp Lemon (fresh is best)
1 Tbsp ginger root
2 cups boiling hot water

Method
Grate finely ginger root onto small plate
Squeeze lemon juice then mix with lemon allow to marinate whilst water
boils. (Best to use a kettle rather then boiling water in a mug in the
microwave)
Pour boiling water over ginger and lemon into a teapot (if possible)
Brew for 3-5mins and then strain into a BIG mug!

Sip and enjoy while reading the following health benefits of Lemon and Ginger

Cheers!