Rice Pudding / Rice Cream

I realise that everyone knows how to make this, but it’s the sort of thing that I forget how much I like, so maybe posting it will remind someone else how much they also like it and they’ll stick it on the menu for dessert this week!

Ingredients

• 250g short-grain or pudding rice
• 1l full-fat milk
• sugar to taste (I think I used a couple of tbsp)
• single cream (optional)
• a few drops of vanilla essence

Method

1. In a heavy-bottomed pan, bring the rice, milk, sugar and vanilla essence to boil, stirring occasionally to stop the rice sticking or clumping.
2. When boiling, reduce the heat down to a minimum, put the lid on and leave for about 20mins, checking every now and again to give a stir.
3. After 20 mins, taste to see if the rice is cooked. If not, leave for a bit longer, otherwise remove from the heat and allow to cool.
4. Once cool, you can mix in some cream (or milk, if you prefer) until you have the consistency you want ie thick and sticky ,or quite thin and runny (this makes it sound rather unpleasant, but actually it’s gorgeous!).
5. Serve with sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on top!

 

Honey Biscuits (Medenjaki)

A friend of ours in Croatia always bakes Medenjaki biscuits for her grandchildren (and any other children that happen to be around!) and as we all really enjoy them, I keep meaning to ask her for her recipe. In the mean time, I did a bit of research on the internet and found lots of variations of these traditional honey biscuits (usually baked at Christmas, actually, and decorated appropriately, but just as nice now in summer too).

This is my version of Medenjaki, which makes no claims as to authenticity, but is rather delicious anyway!

Ingredients

• 150g butter, at room temp
• 100g icing sugar
• 2 eggs
• 500g plain white flour
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 3-5 tbsp clear honey
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 185°C and line a tray with baking paper.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Mix the dry ingredients together, then add to the butter and sugar, together with the eggs and honey. The amount of honey you will need depends on how sweet it is – taste it and see if you want more!
4. Mix until it forms a stiff dough-like paste.
5. Take about a tablespoon of the dough and form quickly into a smooth ball in your hands. Flatten it between your palms and place on the baking tray.
6. Continue until you have used up all the dough – this amount makes between 25 – 30 biscuits, depending on size.
7. Bake for 7 -10 minutes until lightly coloured on the outside. They may still be a bit soft inside, but they harden up slightly as they cool.
8. These keep very well for a few days, kept in a tin.

 

 

Brownies – 2 Variations

Or, as they’re called in our house: Pupischnutzis (no idea why!).

This recipe is the result of many, many, many trial-and-error-bakes. There was one 2-week period where we were eating fresh brownies pretty much every day. Of course, after that we couldn’t face another one for months. Anyway the first recipe below is the successful winning recipe which we liked best. It gives a firm, sticky but not too gooey brownie.

The second variation is what I came up with last night when I suddenly really fancied brownies but didn’t have quite all the ingredients necessary at home. So I improvised, and the result was rather good. I’d need to try both brownies at the same time to directly compare and see if I preferred one to the other, but the new, improved recipe from last night really was rather excellent!

Brownies - Recipe #2

Recipe #1
Ingredients

• 250g plain flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1  egg, beaten
• 100g sugar
• 50g cocoa
• 100ml oil
• 200ml milk
• 100g chocolate (half melted, half chopped OR all melted)

Method

1. Mix together and bake in a lined tin at 180°C for 15 – 20 mins.
2. Cut into squares when cool.
3. Keep in an airtight container – they get better and stickier after a day or so!!

 

Recipe #2
Ingredients

• 250g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg, beaten
• 100g sugar
• 50g cocoa
• 100ml oil
• 100ml milk
• 100 – 200ml natural jogurt
• 1 large heaped tbsp chocolate nut spread eg Nutella

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients together to a thick, smooth batter. If it seems a bit dry, add more jogurt.
2. Bake in a lined tin at 180°C for 15 – 20 mins until the top is dry and a wooden skewer poked in comes out clean (or cleanish, but def. not covered in sticky batter!)
3. Cut into squres when cool.

I’m sure if you keep these in an covered container they would also get better, but we polished the lot off last night, so I can’t confirm this.
As to the flavour, I felt the jogurt added a rather pleasant slight tang, but no-one else seemed to notice it, so it could just be that I tasted it because I knew the jogurt was there. Using chocolate spread meant I didn’t have to faff around melting chocolate, which is a bonus as far as I’m concerned, so I will be using that again. I didn’t factor in that there is already quite a bit of oil in there though, so next time I would reduce the oil that goes into the recipe by about 20ml or so.

 

Muesli & Fruit Bars

These make an excellent snack and are not messy or sticky so can be eaten anywhere!

Ingredients

• 100g plain muesli (ie no added fruit or chocolate, and as little sugar as possible)
• 100g plain flour
• 50 – 100g sugar (depending on how sweet you want the bars to be)
• 150g chopped dried fruit eg raisins, dates, bananas, apples, cranberries…
• 75ml milk
• 75ml apple juice

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line or grease a small, square baking tin.
2. Mix together the muesli, chopped fruit, sugar and flour.
3. Add the milk and apple juice, and mix to a thick batter.
4. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for about 20 mins.
5. Allow to cool before cutting into squares or bars.

 

 

Carrot Cake

This is a very easy to make cake, really tasty and moist so it keeps well for a few days, wrapped in foil.

Ingredients

• 350g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 180g brown sugar and/or honey or maple syrup
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 350g carrots (about 4 large ones), grated
• 3 eggs
• 75ml milk
• 200ml sunflower oil
• handful of chopped walnuts (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Mix everything together in a bowl. You can vary the amount of sugar, depending on the sweetness of the carrots, or replace some of it with either honey or maple syrup.
3. Pour into a greased and lined cake (loose-bottomed if round) or loaf tin.
4. Bake for about 45 – 55mins until dark brown on top.
5. Cool before slicing.

 

Dried Fruit

This isn’t a recipe, it’s just an idea for dessert or snacking (and, incidentally, explains how this website got its name):

Almost every day, my ds gets a “dessert” after either lunch or dinner, and this usually consists of a selection of dried fruit. I started doing this after reading that babies often get constipated when they start on solids for the first time, and you can avoid this by giving them a dried apricot every day. I did exactly this, and can report that we’ve never had any problems at all in the nappy department!

Anyway, the daily apricot eventually expanded to include all of the following:

• raisins
• cranberries
• mangoes
• apple rings
• pineapple
• banana pieces
• pears
• figs

You can basically offer any dried fruit that the baby can pick up and eat by itself. I buy organic, unsweetened dried fruit and it has proved to be an excellent “dessert” in the winter months when fresh fruit is hard to come by (I refuse to buy expensive and, usually, flavourless imported stuff out of season).