Food & Lifestyle Scene

These Greek almond shortbreads, drenched in icing sugar, are one of my favourites. The recipe is very straightforward, however they are a little time consuming to make, depending on how pedantic you want to be with getting all the crescents to look the same.  Also they can make a bit of a mess due to all the icing sugar, and the need to work fairly quickly once they come out of the oven.  Despite this they are well worth the effort.  Give me a cup of coffee and plateful of these and I’m a happy woman. 

I found this recipe on David Lebovitz’s blog. He has many delicious-looking recipes there, but this is the only one I’ve made so far. The brownies are very rich and super delicious. David made his own caramel which of course you can do, however they taste just as good if you use a store bought caramel sauce or dulce de leche.

I think probably pretty much every Australian kid had honey joys at their birthday parties. Even though my boys are well into their teenage years they still get pretty pleased when I make these. They are really quick and easy to make, and only have a handful of ingredients. Though no matter how many times I’ve made them I’ve not been able to work out how to stop them from sticking to the bottom of the patty pan.

I hadn’t made this for ages, then I was invited to a 70’s themed do and felt this would be the perfect thing to take along. Sweet fruit in a sticky caramel glaze atop a fluffy butter cake – yum. You can decorate this however you like and can also replace the pineapple with fresh or tinned pears, peaches or other stone fruit. If using fresh fruit, replace the 1/3 cup tinned syrup with any other fruit juice that would complement the type of fruit you have chosen. It’s best eaten on the day, served with cream, ice cream or custard. Or all three.

I feel that focaccia has gone a bit out of vogue, people seem to be replacing it with Turkish bread. While I love Turkish bread, I still really enjoy eating a lovely piece of focaccia either as a toasted sandwich or an accompaniment to dinner. You can of course top a focaccia with anything you fancy. I’ve gone for the classic rosemary, cherry tomatoes and rock salt for this one.

This cake is a cracker – really easy to make, works every time, and I’m yet to meet someone who didn’t love it. You can use any type of ground nutmeal, though I think cashews work really well. Other nuts that are delicious are hazelnuts, pistachio or macadamia. This is another ever-reliable Women’s Weekly recipe, copied almost word for word from their big yellow Bake cookbook. To get a great chocoaltely flavor I always use Dutch pressed cocoa – you can use any cocoa, but the Dutch really does have the best flavor, and makes for a darker, richer cake.

Who doesn’t love a sweet fresh scroll, warm from the oven. Yum. I’ve filled this batch with a blueberry almond filling, but you can put whatever you like in – other crushed berries mixed with almond meal, mashed banana and Nutella, cinnamon, whatever takes your fancy. I have been known to make two batches in short succession, as they really are eaten up quickly.