Armenian Rice

One from the vaults! A cheapo side dish/meal.
Now, food snobs will turn their nose up. Pfffft. Many a Uni student has eaten this and survived (and even liked it).

Armenian Rice

Ingredients

4 Tbsp (50 g)butter

1 cup rice (uncooked white)

1 packet of 2 minute noodles (Chicken Flavour), broken up

2.5 cups chicken stock(add the chicken noodles flavour satchet to this)

basil (optional) 

Method

Melt butter in large saucepan, add noodles, and cook until browned.

Add rice, stir to coat with butter. Cook on medium high heat for 1 minute.

Add chicken stock, and optional basil, and stir to mix.

Reduce heat, cover, and cook for 25-30 minutes until rice is done. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes before serving.

Chewy Coconut Macaroons

Chewy Coconut Macaroons

I love Coconut Macaroons. So when I stumbled across this recipe late last night I had to try it. Really very easy to do!
1 250gram packet Fine desiccated coconut (I used a mix of dessicated and shredded)
1 tin 395g Sweetened Condensed Milk.
Glace Cherries (quartered) for decoration.

Add ingredients into bowl and mix until all coconut is mixed into milk spoon heaped teaspoons* onto lined baking try and bake in 160degree oven for 15 minutes.

*I rolled them into balls, placed cherry on top and squashed them a bit. I also found that the temp was better at 150 as I have a fan forced oven.

Gugelhupf

Gugelhupf - finished result,

When I came across a recipe for Gugelhupf the other day, I just knew that I had to give it a whirl! Gugelhupf is one of those nostalgia cakes for me. I have fond memories of my father buying it occasioanlly from a local patisserie. I have fond memories of buying it from the same patisserie for my husband when we first started dating. It is a fond memory cake :)

Ingredients

Melted butter, to grease

1 + 3/4 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla sugar

3 eggs, separated

2 cups self-raising flour

1/2 cup milk

2 tbs cocoa powder

1 tbs milk, extra

Icing sugar, to dust

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush a gugelhupf pan (Fluted Ring Tin) with melted butter (I use Rice Bran oil spray) to lightly grease.
Use an electric beater to beat the icing sugar, oil and vanilla sugar until smooth. Add the egg yolks and mix until just combined. Mix in half the flour, then half the milk. Repeat with the remaining flour and milk, and mix until well combined.
Use an electric beater to whisk the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until soft peaks form. Gently fold half the egg white into the cake mixture. Fold in the remaining egg white until just combined.
Spoon half the cake mixture into the prepared pan. Combine cocoa and extra milk in a small bowl. Stir into remaining cake mixture until combined. Spoon into pan. Use a round-bladed knife to fold together cake mixtures until marbled.
Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean (50 minutes at 160 fan forced was perfect for me). Remove from oven and turn onto a wire rack to cool slightly. Dust with icing sugar. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Luscious Lemon Cake

Luscious lemon cake 

I couldn't find my fluted ring pan. I also iced and cut it when cake was still hot because I was dying to try it!

Ingredients

Melted butter or margarine, for greasing

4 large eggs

1 + 1/4 cups caster sugar

180g butter, melted, cooled

3 lemons, rind finely grated, juiced (1/3 cup)

1 + 1/4 cups self-raising flour

Lemon icing

6 tbs fresh lemon juice

50g butter, melted and cooled

360g (2 1/4 cups) pure icing sugar, sifted

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C (160 fan forced). Lightly brush a 24cm (3-litre/12-cup) fluted ring pan with the melted butter or margarine to grease.

Beat the eggs and caster sugar in a large mixing bowl with electric beaters until very pale and thick and a ribbon forms when beaters are lifted. 

Combine the cooled butter with the lemon rind and 80mls (1/3 cup) of the lemon juice (reserve the remaining juice to make the icing). 

Sift half of the self- raising flour over the top of the egg mixture and fold in very gently with a large metal spoon until just combined. Add the butter and lemon mixture and fold in gently. Sift over the remaining self-raising flour and fold in very gently to combine.
Pour the mixture into the greased pan and bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean**. 

Stand cake in pan for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool. 

To make the lemon icing, combine the reserved lemon juice and butter in a saucepan and stir over medium heat until butter is melted. Place the icing sugar in a bowl and stir in the lemon juice mixture with a wooden spoon until the icing is smooth.

Place the cake on the wire rack over a tray and pour the icing evenly over the cake in a steady stream, allowing the icing to run down the sides (the excess icing will drip onto the tray). Allow the icing to set.

**different cooking time will be required if you use a 'solid' pan, ie square, round or rectangle. The donut shaped ring tin will take half the time of a 'solid' tin. Also note that if you use a 'solid' tin, there is a very good chance that it will sink in the middle.