What is a pinch of salt? How much is a pinch of salt?

Literally it refers to the amount of salt that you can pick up between your index finger and thumb.

Raspberry Friands

So here's the story.  I got my grubby little paws on some amazing eggs from my mates Bren and Hazel's chuckens.  But the question was what to bake that was worthy of such lovely eggs?  The answer is contained in this recipe.  Sweet and moist with the juicy contrast of the berries, they are simply divine.  There are a lot of egg whites in this and I made a deliciously rich custard from the leftover yolks.  - Happy Eating

75g Plain Flour

240g Icing Sugar

125g Ground Almonds

6 egg whites lightly whipped

150g melted butter cooled

150g Raspberries frozen or fresh

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c.  Grease muffin tin.
2. Sieve together flour and icing sugar.  Stir in the ground almonds.
3. Add melted butter and egg whites and mix well.
4. Using an ice-cream scoop measure out 12 portions.  Place 4-5 berries in each friand.
5. Bake for 25 mins until golden brown.

Tiramisu

Not my first choice on the menu when I'm out, not because I don't like it, in fact I'm quite the fan but I know what it tastes like and more often than not it's the disappointing pre-pack version that's served up to me in restaurants.

Below is the Paolo Tullio version and I need to make some exchanges because I don't have the ingredients here and I'm not going shopping especially for it.  You can use stale cake instead of ladyfingers providing you avoid brownies they're too gooey to soak the liquids.  I don't always have brandy so rum or coffee liqueur is good.

Like any trifle a nice glass dish to show the layers is pretty cool.

Please note that this is not suitable for children or those with a bun in the oven because of the raw eggs.

250g Mascarpone Cheese
200g Caster Sugar
Ladyfingers/savoiardi biscuits
3 eggs
Marsala
a room temp espresso
Cocoa for sprinkling

1. Separate the eggs and whisk yolks with sugar.  Add half an espresso and a splash of brandy and mix well.  Next add the mascarpone cheese a bit at a time until is thoroughly mixed.
2. In a clean bowl whisk egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mascarpone mix.
3. Lay down a layer of ladyfingers into the bottom of the glass dish dipping each biscuit into the remaining espresso on one side first (or you could just layer them down first and sprinkle them with coffee liqueur)
4. Place a layer of the mascarpone mix on top and repeat finishing with a layer of the mascarpone mix. Sieve a layer of cocoa powder on top.
5. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

Bread and Butter Pudding

I love those recipe books that lack glamour but are just packed with really good tried and tested recipes.  You quite often find real peaches of recipes in fund raising cookbooks for schools or hospitals and the ingredients tend to be a lot more accessible too.

 The other place that you will find good recipes tends to be with manufactures of baking suppliers Dr Oekter in Germany, McDougalls in Lancashire in the UK, Odlums and Shamrock here in Ireland and one I got as a present from New Zealand which is the Edmonds Cookery book from a friend of mine called Gillian who has since moved back home to NZ.

I made this recipe base on the Edmonds version except I used up a little brioche I had in the house, used vanilla extract instead of lemon rind to lift the flavour and used sultanas instead of currents.  It looked gorgeous when it was done and it tasted better than any Bread and Butter Pudding I've ever had, but I still don't like it.  I didn't as a child and it would appear that my opinions of it haven't changed and yet I love french toast - go figure.

This is an all in one recipe that is really easy to make and if you prepare it you can pop it in the oven while you have dinner and it should be ready for dessert.  Stale bread works well on this because it's so thirsty it absorbs more of the liquid.


6 Slices of Brioche or 4 slices of sliced pan
2 tbsp sultanas
3 eggs
2 cups/ 500ml milk
1/4 cup /50g Sugar

1. Layer slices of brioche or quoter triangles of bread, sultanas and sugar in a Pyrex dish.
2. Whisk eggs and milk together with 1 tsp of vanilla extract and pour over bread. Allow to stand for 15 mins meanwhile preheat the oven to 180c.
3. Bake for 30mins until set and if you're feelin' swanky sieve a bit of icing sugar over the whole thing to make it look pretty.

HEALTHY CHRISTMAS CAKE

This is stolen from Kate Farrells Facebook page.  Completely and unashamedly:

I made this one on monday, turned out beautiful. Plus its gluten and dairy free for those with allergies and intolerances. 

600 g mixed dried Fruit or a mix of the following (raisins, prunes, figs, apricot, currants, sultanas, dates)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla bean extract or paste
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
zest and juice from 1 orange
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 eggs
200 g (2 cups) ground almonds
50 g walnuts

Preheat your oven to 150 C (fan forced)
Prepare a 20 cm round cake tin with baking paper lining the sides and the base.
Combine dried fruit, spice, vanilla, orange zest + juice, olive oil and eggs.
Add the almonds and walnuts and mix through.
Spoon Christmas Cake batter into your baking tin.
Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Check with a skewer to see if it comes out clean, if not bake for another 30 minutes.
Cover the top if necessary to prevent over-browning.
Cool, then remove from the tin and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 month.

NOTE:
If you wish to soak your Christmas cake in orange liqueur, as soon as you remove the cake from the oven, skewer holes through the cake and drizzle over 1/4 cup orange liqueur so it can penetrate through the holes and infuse into the cake.

This cake can also be served as a pudding served with vanilla bean custard or thick natural yoghurt.

For nut allergies replace the almond meal for 1 CUP wholemeal or spelt flour and omit the walnuts. Add one more tablespoon olive oil.

20 serves per cake 
Nutrition per serve:
Protein: 4.4 g
Total fat: 9.8 g
Saturated: 1 g
Carbs: 18 g
Fiber: 3.3 g
kilojoules: 740
Calories: 177

Thanks to The Healthy Chef (www.healthychef.com)