Hot cross buns

2 teaspoons yeast

1 ¼ cup warmed milk

¼ cup caster sugar

4 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon mixed spice

½ teaspoon ground ginger, nutmeg, cardamom (not essentials but just adds a bit more spice)

60 butter, melted

2 eggs

1 ½ cups dried fruit

In a bowl, whisk together the yeast, milk and sugar.

Cover and put in a warm, draught-free place for about 10 minutes until the yeast has frothed. If it hasn’t foamed at all, the yeast is dead and you’ll have to start again.

In a big bowl, mix together the flour and spices. Add in the yeast mixture, eggs and butter and combine well.

If it’s too sticky, you’ll need to add more flour as you go.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead well, until the dough is a nice smooth consistency.

Put into a lightly greased bowl and cover, place in a draught-free place for about 45 minutes.

Mix in the dried fruit – there is no simple way to do this, but just slowly knead it through in a few batches until it’s all combined in.

Lightly grease a baking tray, and line with baking paper.

Divide the mixture into about 18 pieces, rolling each into a ball. It might make slightly more or less depending on how big you want them.

Line the balls up in the baking tray, placing them next to each other but not mushing them together. When they cook, they’re going to rise but they don’t expand too much, and they will break away from each other easily when cooked.

If there is a big gap of unfilled space on the tray, sometimes I put some rolled up foil in next to the end row just to hold it in place, but this isn’t entirely necessary.

Leave the buns for about 10 minutes in the tray.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Please note there are a lot of recipes for making the white crosses – I am terrible, or unlucky, at this part, I don’t know what I have been doing wrong. So far the best way seems to be combining ¼ cup self-raising flour with a couple of teaspoons of water to make a thick paste, and then piping the crosses onto the buns in the rows. 

Pipe the crosses onto the buns just before they go into the oven.

Cook the hot cross buns for about half an hour, or until golden brown. 

About five minutes before they’re due to come out of the oven, make a quick glaze.

I mix about 2 teaspoons of gelatine with 4 tablespoons of sugar and a few teaspoons of hot water, bring it to the boil.

You could also use an apricot jam, it is just as good as a glaze, it just depends on what you have available to use. You just want to brush it over the buns as soon as they come out of the oven.

Leave them to cool in the tray for about 10 minutes before popping them onto a wire rack.

Stir fried delights

Stir fries are, quite simply, awesome. You can use just about any vegetables or protein and eat it with any kind of carb or no carb at all. My favourite kind of dinner is one that’s quick, fresh, filling and tasty. I also like to know I can have it for lunch the next day, which makes this one even better cos you just cook a bit of rice or noodle to go with it, and it’s all good to go.

This is a basic recipe for a stir fry dinner, keeping in mind that you can use just about vegetable that you want, these are just the ones I prefer.

2 eggs, scrambled with a bit of milk

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 teaspoon minced ginger

1 teaspoon chilli

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 teaspoon fish sauce

4 tablespoons soy sauce

Protein – 1 chicken breast, 150 grams lean red eat, kangaroo, prawns

1 onion, sliced

2 carrots, sliced

1 cup mushrooms, sliced or quartered

½ cup sliced red capsicum

1 cup broccoli

5 asparagus pieces

1 bunch bok choy (or other similar Chinese vegetable)

Choose your carb – rice, quinoa, noodles and get them prepared before you start cooking everything else. If you want this to be a fried rice, it’s best to cook the rice earlier and then cool it in the fridge before adding to the wok.

First, make the omelette which will be put on top of the end meal. Spray the wok with oil, get it nice and hot and make one big omelette, or two smaller ones, and leave to cool on a plate.

Then cook the protein. Slice it thinly and give it a quick fry in the wok, then set aside.

Now for the veges. Spray a wok with a bit of spray oil. Add the chilli, garlic and ginger and fry for a minute before adding the onion and carrot.

Keep stirring for two minutes, then add the broccoli, capsicum and mushrooms and the three sauces, as well as a couple of tablespoons of water if it gets a bit dry. Add your protein back into the wok, as well as any juices.

Cook for a couple of minutes before adding the bok choy and asparagus.

Cook for another minute or two.

Add in the pre-cooked noodles or rice and stir well to heat through.

        - Note: If you’re trying to avoid carbs, this is more than hearty on its own without rice or noodles.

Roll up the omelette/s and slice them. Decorate the finished stir fry with the egg.

Banana oat cupcakes

180g butter, softened

150g sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

¾ cup milk

2 ½ cups self-raising flour

1 teaspoon bi-carb

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon  

2 very ripe bananas, mashed

1 ½ cups oats or muesli

You could also add in dried fruit, desiccated coconut or even chocolate chips for a bit of a different flavou as well. Just pop them in at the end. 

This recipe makes about 25 medium to large sized cupcakes. 

Preheat oven to 190C. Place patty tins into muffin trays.

Beat together butter and sugar until it’s fluffy and slightly lighter in colour.

Add in the eggs one at a time, beating well between additions.

Mix the flour, bi-carb and cinnamon into one bowl, and beat this into the sugar-butter batter at intervals with the milk and vanilla.

Beat it all well. Remove beater.

Using a spoon, gently mix in the banana and oats until well combined.

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake tins.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until risen and browned on the top.

I decorated mine with a simple vanilla butter creamfrosting. They also just taste good on their own, kind of like a muffin.

Chocolate zucchini cupcakes

125g butter, softened

1 ½ cups sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

¾ cup milk

2 ½ cups self raising flour

5 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups grated zucchini

This made about 22 decent sized cupcakes. It could also make one big cake, just adjust the cooking time to about an hour and reduce the temperature to 180C.

Method:

Preheat oven to 190C.

Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl.

Add eggs one at a time until well combined. Continue beating in vanilla.

Mix the flour, cocoa, cinnamon and salt in another bowl, and mix this into the butter-sugar bowl in three batches, alternating with the milk.

Using a large spoon, gently mix in the zucchini.

Spoon the mixture into the patty tins.

Cook for about 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean.

Decorations:

I made a simple butter cream icing with cocoa and choclettes, but you could also just sift some icing sugar on the top for a lighter dessert. 

Butter cream frosting

185g butter, softened
2.5 cups icing sugar
2 teaspoons water or milk

This can be flavoured with melted chocolate, cocoa, flavoured essences like mint or vanilla or simply coloured with food colouring. Be sure to add these additions at the end, not the start.