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COOKING AND GARDENING


Sue's Fig and Orange Mincemeat

Posted by Sue Heward on

I stumbled on a great article/recipes from with Felicity Cloake's mincemeat recipe and it really kicked me into gear to try to get more organised for Christmas this year. Which in baking terms means starting now - such a scary prospect but I really loved Felicity's recipe with our new Spectacular Diced Fruit Mix so here is my version. Felicity does suggest making the mincemeat as Christmas gifts but to be completely honest I think I'm much more likely to bake mince pies in the lead up to Christmas and take to family and friends. I'm pretty excited about making this happens this year, our range of mince pies locally aren't always great.

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do.

Fig and orange mincemeat

650g Spectacular Diced Fruit Mix
1 apple grated
100g currants
75g almonds, roughly chopped
150g suet (I used chopped suet from my friends at Border Park Organics)
250g Sticky Quince Syrup
1 tsp Christmas spice (I used Gewurzhaus Christmas Cake and Pudding Spice)
100ml orange muscat or liqueur (I used Brown Brothers)

Method

Mix together the dried fruit mix, apple, currants, almonds in a large bowl. Stir in the chopped suet and then fold through sticky quince syrup and lastly the muscat. Stir well. If your mix looks a bit dry you can add the juice of an orange.

Spoon into sterilised jars, seal and leave for at least two weeks. I'm planning to keep mine for about two and half months then start baking pies with it. A note it will start to get hot here in the Riverland so I will put my jars in the fridge to prevent any chance of mould. 

Makes 3 x 500ml jars (or Fowler's no 20 jars).

if you put your camera on your phone to the QR code below it will take you to a reel I have done showing the steps I used to made my batch of fig and orange mincemeat.

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Rhubarb, Apple and Quince cream cake

Posted by Sue Heward on

If there is one cake you bake this winter please make it this one. This is my take on a cake by Belinda Jeffery. You can find the original recipe here. I'm so enamoured with it and completely love the texture that cream brings to it rather than using butter. So, so, light but so much flavour, it serves 8 but you could definitely stretch it further.

Rhubarb, apple, quince cream cake

Rhubarb, Apple and Quince cream cake

250g Apple peeled and chopped into 1 cm chunks

200g rhubarb washed and chopped chopped into 1 cm chunks

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Finely grated zest 2 large lemons

1 large egg

1 cup (220g) caster sugar

1 cup (250ml) pure cream

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 tlbspn Quince butter (I keep a stash of this in my fridge, the recipe is here)

Crumble topping

1 cup rolled oats / oatmeal

1 cup self-raising flour

1 cup brown sugar (loosely packed)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon powder

125g / 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

Pinch of salt

Vanilla bean ice cream or cream, to serve

Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 175 C. Butter a 23 cm springform tin, line the base with buttered baking paper and then dust the tin with flour.
  2. Have your chopped rhubarb and apple in one bowl.
  3. Measure the flour, baking powder and salt into another bowl. Use a whisk to mix them together for 1 minute so they’re thoroughly combined. Sprinkle in the lemon zest and whisk for another 10 seconds or so, then set the bowl aside.
  4. Whisk an egg into into your electric mixer bowl and beat it briefly (I did this by hand). Then I used the whisk attachment on my mixer. Add the caster sugar and whisk together for 1 minute so the mixture looks creamy. Pour in the cream and vanilla and whisk again until everything is thoroughly combined.
  5. Add all but 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture to the mixer bowl, and use a spatula to stir the two together. Do this by hand and don't beat just fold as this causes the cake to toughen. The batter is still lumpy when you are finished.
  6. Sprinkle the reserved tablespoon of flour mixture over the rhubarb/apple mix in the bowl, and give it a good shake so the pieces are lightly dusted in flour. Now, fold the fruit into the batter – it will be thick with fruit. Scoop the batter into the prepared tin and use a palette knife to spread it out evenly. 
  7. Spoon your quince butter over the cake mixture.
  8. Crumble preparation: Place Topping ingredients in a bowl. Mix until clumps form, like wet sand. Spread over your cake, crumbling with fingers if required to get that crumbly topping.
  9. Put the tin in the oven and bake the cake for 50 – 55 minutes until a fine skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and sit it on a wire rack. Let it cool for about 10 minutes before unclipping and remove the sides of the tin. Carefully remove the base. Leave it to cool until it’s room temperature.

Serve with ice cream or cream. Belinda does write that you can freeze the leftover cake for up to 3 weeks, but we did just eat it all. 

Rhubarb, Apple quince cream cake

 

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Sticky Fig Pudding

Posted by Sue Heward on

Changing up the classic Sticky Date Pudding to use local Riverland produce including our White Smyrna figs, jujubes and lentil flour.
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My annual ode to Hummingbird cake, with a figgy twist

Posted by Sue Heward on

Now I'm not totally sure I can still call it a Hummingbird cake if there is no pineapple. Probably not but its still delicious and this is my recipe for our annual ode to this family favourite.

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The reprieve of Autumn - Baked Brie with Pecans, Figs and Apricots , Platters and Chocolate of course

Posted by Sue Heward on

Oh my goodness Summer came and brought fig harvest with it. Some days seemed insurmountable with the heat but we made it through to glorious Autumn. I have some new Autumn recipes for you just in time for Easter feasting.
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