Rock Buns

We had a fabulous afternoon at the Cygnet Community Garden on Oct. 11th, with Costa, from Gardening Australia and about 60 people from all over the place. The Cygnet Community Gardeners cooked up a feast. Here’s my rock buns recipe. It is such an old recipe it is in ounces and I like to leave it that way.

It can easily be made gluten free by using half nut meal and half quinoa flour or buckwheat flour.

180°C fan forced

Makes 15 or so

Instructions	Ingredients
rub in	4 oz. butter 8 oz. plain flour 2 level tsp. baking powder 1 tsp mixed spice
add	4 oz. castor sugar grated rind 1/2 large lemon 4 oz. mixed dried fruit including some mixed peel /crushed nuts /ginger if you like
add	1 beaten egg 1-2 Tbl. milk and the juice of the lemon to make a stiff, crumbly mixture

Place spoonsful on a greased baking tray and cook 10-15 mins.

Leave 5 minutes before removing from the tray.

Crunchy Apple Crumble

Ingredients
7 apples, stewed lightly
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup coconut
1 dessert spoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2/3 cup melted butter

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and then mix in melted butter. Ensure all ingredients are moist and mixture has a crumbly texture.
Place apples in a oven proof dish and sprinkle crumble mix over evenly.
Bake at 180C for 30-40 mins. Or until crumble is lightly browned.

Gerda's Redcurrant Flan

RIBISEL KUCHEN

This recipe is from a dear, elderly, Austrian woman named Gerda. Measurements and wording are all her own….. I can hear her reciting it to me, in the beautiful way she spoke….

Prepare a pastry with two ounces sugar, four ounces butter and six ounces flour, a few drops of lemon juice and line a buttered and floured flan tin with this. Bake 'blind'.

When baked, but still hot, cover thickly with red-currants, sprinkle with a little sugar.

Whisk two egg whites until stiff, whisk in two ounces sugar, fold in another two ounces sugar.

Pile the whipped egg white over redcurrants.

Bake in cool oven until meringue top has set. Cut into slices when cool.

Gerda's Notes:

This simple pastry is ideal for any fruit you have that does not need precooking, such as berries.

Finely ground almonds or hazelnuts may be substituted for some of the flour. Toasting them in a dry pan first adds extra flavour.

Armenian Coffee Cake

Yummy for morning tea, or as a dessert with cream and ice-cream

Ingredients:

2 cups SR flour

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup milk

1 tsp. bicarb soda

1 egg

1 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

4 oz butter

Method:

Combine sifted flour and sugar, rub in butter

Press just less than half of mixture into the base of a greased tin

Dissolve soda in milk, add egg and nutmeg and beat well

Pour this into remaining mixture and beat again

Pour all ingredients over base in tin (will be runny)

Bake in moderate oven for about 45 minutes

Simple Carrot and Ginger Soup

This recipe is a very simple carrot and ginger soup from the great vegetarian cook Kurma Dasa.  It has a fresh, cleansing taste, and I love to make it if I feel a cold coming on.
Yellow acefoetida powder is available from asian grocers - it's a great, simple substitute for onions and garlic in many dishes - but very much has its own flavour.  Fantastic in dahl.

Ingredients:
2 tabsp. butter
1/2 teasp. yellow asafoetida powder
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
700g topped, scraped and sliced carrots, about 4 1/2 cups
1 cup potatoes, diced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
at least 4 cups light vegetable stock or water
chopped continental parsley leaves for garnish

1. Melt the butter in a 3 litre saucepan over moderate heat.  Sprinkle in the yellow acefoetida power and ginger, stirring briefly.  Add the sliced carrots, potatoes, salt and pepper and sauté for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the stock or water, and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer the vegetables, covered, for 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are very tender
2. Remove the pan from the heat, transfer the contents to a blender or food processor and process to a smooth puree
3. Rinse the saucepan, return the soup to the pan, and gently reheat over moderate heat.  For a thinner soup, add extra stock at this stage.  Serve the soup hot with a sprinkle of freshly chopped continental parsley leaves.

Whole Orange Cake

This recipe is from one of my gardening friends, Lou, in 2007. I more recently made this to share at the Cygnet Community Garden on my birthday 2015.

Gluten free, dairy free

Place into a large bowl and fold together:
1 cup coarsely ground almonds
2 oranges - blended to a paste
5 eggs and 1 cup sugar - beaten until thick
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup rice flour

Pour into a greased and lined 23cm tin
Bake 45mins at 180, even if it looks done before.

Meanwhile make syrup:
Boil together for 3 minutes: 1/2 cup sugar, a teaspoon of grated, fresh ginger and the rind and juice of 2 oranges

When cool enough to handle remove cake from tin and place onto serving dish. Prick all over and pour over warm syrup.

Serve with lashings of yoghurt.

Granma's Cheese Scones

At the Cygnet Community Garden yesterday we made a fire with old prunings etc and cooked some cheese scones to make use of the heat. I love fire.... and winter.... I am sharing this original page from my recipe book. (Thanks to Maurine, Roger’s mother, the Granma we all love). The adjustments for a bigger version are made by son Hugh when he was about 10.... he still loves Granma's scones and took this photo of me yesterday at the community garden.

Flourless Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup sunflower seeds
½ cup  flax seeds
½ cup hazelnuts or almonds
1 ½ cups rolled oats
2 or 3 Tbsp. chia seeds
4 Tbsp. psyllium seed husks (last time I used 1 Tbl + 1 egg)
1 tsp. fine grain sea salt
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
3 Tbsp. melted coconut oil or butter
1 ½ cups water

Directions:

1. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl, stirring well. Whisk maple syrup, oil / melted butter and water together in a measuring cup. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix very well until everything is completely soaked and dough becomes very thick (if the dough is too thick to stir, add one or two teaspoons of water until the dough is manageable). Put into a greased bread tin and smooth out the top with the back of a spoon. Let sit out on the counter for at least 2 hours, or all day or overnight. (I left it all day) and baked it in the evening.

2. Preheat oven to 180°C.

3. Place loaf pan in the oven on the middle rack, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove bread from loaf pan, place it upside down directly on the rack and bake for another 30-40 minutes. Bread is done when it sounds hollow when tapped. Let cool completely before slicing (difficult, but important).

4. Store bread for up to five days. Freezes well too – slice before freezing for quick and easy toast!

The basis of this recipe and the photo came to me from a friend of a friend via My New Roots website. It is very delicious and surprisingly bread-like!