Coconut Jam Slice

I wanted to use up an opened jar of strawberry jam cluttering in the fridge. Found a nice recipe to use all that jam, Coconut Jam Slice. The jam is sandwiched between a buttery shortbread  base and the top is a crumbly mixture of coconut, eggs and sugar. 

One of my favourite ingredients in bake, coconut, which imparts a delicious fragrant aroma during baking. 

Lovely fragrant jam slice. Great for snacking and makes a nice tea-time treat with a cup of warm tea!

Coconut Jam Slice

(Mastering The Art Of Baking, Anneka Manning)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup self-rising flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
5-1/2 oz chilled butter, chopped
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup strawberry or raspberry jam

Topping :
1/2 cup superfine sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
3 cups shredded coconut, toasted

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/Gas 4. Brush the base and sides of a shallow 7x11-1/4 inch pan with melted butter or oil. Line the base and 2 long sides with a piece of nonstick parchment paper, cutting into the corners to fit, and allowing the paper to extend above the sides.
2. Put the flours, confectioners' sugar, butter, and egg yolk in a food processor. Using the pulse button, process until the mixture starts to come together. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and press together until smooth. Use your fingertips to press the dough evenly into the prepared pan. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool in the pan.
3. Spread the jam evenly over the cooled slice base in the pan.
4. To make the topping, put the sugar and eggs in a medium bowl and use a balloon whisk to whisk until combined. Stir in the coconut. Spread the topping evenly over the jam, pressing down with the back of a spoon. Bake for 20 minutes or until the topping is light golden. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool in the pan. Cut into squares or fingers to serve.

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Twice-Baked Walnut Crisps

I love biscotti, the crunchy twice-baked Italian biscuits. I love eating biscotti with a mug of hot coffee or tea. This German biscuit, Twice-Baked Walnut Crisps is similar to a biscotti, but it is a healthier version, without using any butter or oil. 

Ingredients used are flour, egg whites, salt, sugar, walnuts and dried blackcurrants. Egg whites are beaten till stiff and glossy, then the rest of the ingredients are added in. Bake until light brown, then the dough is left overnight. The next day, slice the dough to 3mm thick pieces. The dough will be quite sticky on the outside at this stage.

Arrange the slices on a baking tray and bake till light brown. I prefer a crispier biscuit, so I have baked them a little longer, about 3 to 5 minutes longer. They will crisp up further as they cool.

I love these crispy biscuits. They are not too sweet and rather addictive. Great with a cup of either coffee or tea. Perfect as a tea-time treat with a mug of warm tea.

The recipe can be found here.

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Swabian Parsley Cake

This is not a cake, but a flatbread with a savoury topping. The base is a yeasted bread and the topping is made up of parsley, egg, bacon, heavy cream, sour cream and season with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.

The base is a chewy soft bread. I baked in a 9"square baking pan (the recipe uses a 10" pan), as I wanted a thicker bread base.

I like this! Perfect for tea time, especially good when eaten still warm, minutes after baking. Yum!

Swabian Parsley Cake (Peterlingskuchen)
(Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss)
makes 1 (10-inch) cake
Dough :
1-2/3 cups, scooped and leveled, minus 1 tablespoon/200gm all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading (I use bread flour)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
pinch of granulated sugar
1/2 cup / 120ml water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for the bowl

Topping :
2 tightly packed cups / 80gm flat-leaf parsley, stemmed (about 2 bunches)
2-1/2 ounces / 70gm Speck or slab bacon, finely diced
1/3 cup / 80ml heavy cream
1/3 cup / 80gm sour cream
1 egg
freshly grated nutmeg
salt
freshly ground black pepper

1. To make the dough : Place the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the middle. Put the yeast in the well and add the sugar. Slowly pour in the water, stirring gently with a fork. Keep stirring, adding the salt and oil. As soon as the dough is starting to come together, dump it out on a lightly floured work surface and knead vigorously until the dough is smooth and silky, 4 to 5 minutes. Resist adding too much more flour as you knead; you want the dough to remain as soft as possible. Put the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a clean dishcloth. Place in a warm, draft-free spot and let rise for 1 hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 400F/200C. Line a 10-inch cake pan with a piece of parchment paper, letting the sides hang over the edge to function as a sling after baking.
3. Place the dough in the prepared pan. Gently push the dough down and out to cover the bottom of the pan and make a very slight rim, taking care not to stretch the dough so much as simply spread it out with your fingertips, The dough should be even and slightly dimpled. Cover with the dishcloth and set aside for an additional 30 minutes.\
4. To make the topping : Coarsely chop the parsley and place in a mixing bowl. Add the speck, heavy cream, sour cream, egg and a few gratings of nutmeg; season with salt and pepper. Whisk to combine well. Scrape the parsley mixture evenly onto the risen dough.
5. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the top is starting to brown. Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack for a few minutes. Using the parchment paper as a sling, remove the cake from the pan and place on a cutting board. Cut into wedges and serve hot or warm. The cake is best eaten the day it is made, but you can keep it for 1 day at room temperature, wrapped in plastic wrap. Warm leftovers in a 350F/180C oven before serving.

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Green Onion Pancakes

These green onion pancakes is a Chinese savoury flatbread. The dough is made with only flour and warm water. Dough is rolled out thinly, brush a thin layer of oil, then scatter with some finely chopped spring onions and some salt. Roll up like a swiss roll, then roll into a spiral, then rolled out to flatten into a round disc. They are then pan-fried in a little oil on both sides until golden brown. Cut into slices to serve. The slices are eaten dipped in the very tasty Soy-Ginger Dipping Sauce. 

To make the dipping sauce, combine soy sauce, rice vinegar, chopped green onions, finely chopped garlic, chopped fresh cilantro and minced fresh ginger. 

They are perfect for tea-time, or an afternoon lunch  and even for breakfast. Do not skip the Soy-Ginger Dipping Sauce, they go perfectly well together. 

If you would like to try at making this pancake, the full recipe and instructions can be found here.
Or from the book Chinese Soul Food by Hsiao-Ching Chou, page 90

As for me, I'll be making this again when the spring onions in my garden pot are ready for harvest, which will be quite soon! And I would love to try with fresh coriander greens, my favourite herb.

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Coconut, Almond and Blueberry Cake

This month at Cookbook Countdown, we are making Tea Time Treats! You are welcome to join us. Make any tea time treats, share and link your post with Cookbook Countdown.  Head over to Cookbook Countdown for more details. 

This is a super simple, fuss-free cake to make, no need of a stand mixer! Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl, and the wet ingredients in another. Pour the combined wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add some of the blueberries, stir to combine, and pour mixture into the baking pan. Scatter more blueberries over the top along with the flaked almonds, then bake. How easy is that!

I made half a recipe, reduced the sugar to 80gm, baked in a 7 inch pan for 40 minutes.

Cake is not too sweet, with tender moist crumbs. A slice is perfect with a cup of warm tea, for a lovely tea-time treat.

The full recipe can be found here

Coconut, Almond and Blueberry Cake
(Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh)
(my adaptation for half a recipe )
90gm ground almonds
30gm desiccated coconut
80gm caster sugar
35gm self-raising flour
2 large eggs
100gm salted butter, melted, then set aside to come to room temperature
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
100 gm frozen blueberries
10 gm flaked almonds

1. Grease and line a 7inch round cake pan. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Place the almonds, coconut, sugar, flour and salt (a pinch, if using unsalted butter) in a large mixing bowl and whisk to aerate and remove the lumps.
3. Place the eggs in a separate medium bowl and whisk lightly. Add the melted butter, vanilla extract and lemon zest and whisk again until well combined. Pour this into the dry mix and whisk to combine. Fold in 70gm blueberries, then pour the mixture into the tin. Sprinkle the last of the blueberries on top, along with the flaked almonds, and bake for 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Keep a close eye on it towards the end of cooking, the relatively large number of eggs in the mix means that it can go from still being a little bit liquid in the centre of being well cooked in just a few minutes.
4. Set aside for 30 minutes before inverting out of the tin, removing the baking parchment and placing the cake the right way up on a serving plate. It can either be served warm with cream or set aside until cool.

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Triple-Oatmeal Cookies

This month at Cookbook Countdown, we are making Tea Time Treats! You are welcome to join us. Make any tea time treats, share and link your post with Cookbook Countdown.  Head over to Cookbook Countdown for more details. 

Every once in a while, oatmeal cookies would come to mind. I love chewy oat cookies with some dried fruits thrown in. I would choose any oatmeal cookies over chocolate cookies anytime! 

I did make some slight changes to the recipe. The recipe uses oat flour which I do not have, so I have used wholemeal flour, as suggested by the author if oat flour is unavailable. The recipe also uses  both steel-cut oats (a small amount) and old-fashioned rolled oats. Did not have any steel-cut oats, so have used all rolled oats instead. Replaced the pecans with walnuts. As usual I have reduced the amount of both sugars (brown and white) slightly.

The cookies really spread during baking, so make sure to space them well apart. I did bake them 2 minutes longer as I like my cookies a little crispy. 

This recipe yields  31 cookies (32 in the recipe), which is close enough.

I love these cookies. It is crispy round the edges, with chewy centre, and tasted so yummy with the oats, cranberries, and walnuts. After a few days later, the cookies get a little drier but  became crispier as they sit, which is a plus in my books!  I think this is the best oatmeal cookies. Great for breakfast, as snacks throughout the day, and especially with a cup of warm tea for a superb tea time treat!

The recipe can be found here : Triple Oatmeal Cookies, or from Bravetart by Stella Parks, page 39

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