Miss Kitty Bakes: spiced apple cider fruit bread

Mr K is a fairly undemanding spouse. When I asked him what he wanted me to bake him for Father's Day, he said immediately: "a loaf of bread."

"A loaf of bread? Just a loaf of bread? Not a cake, or something, I don't know... Challenging?"

"Yes. A loaf of bread," he replied.

So a loaf of bread it was. However, knowing him and his likes, I decided to make it a little more special than just your average white loaf. He has a soft spot for my hot cross buns, so I thought I might make something like that but in a loaf form.

I adapted a recipe from one of my newest cookbook acquisitions, the Great Australian Bake Off Cookbook. It's actually a really great book, full of good tips and hints and excellent recipes for everyone from the basic baker through to the most polished of patissiers.I really enjoyed the TV show and have already earmarked a number of the recipes to try at home.

This is a fairly easy bread to make. the dough is quite stiff in the beginning but it does rise well. The main changes I made to the recipe include substitution of fruit (we had no currants and we don't like mixed peel) and upping the spice levels. We have been nibbling away at it for most of the morning - the heady cinnamon and spice smell in the house keep drawing us back to the loaf. It would be fabulous toasted, but frankly, I don't think it's going to last that long here.

And Mr K's all important verdict? Delicious. That says it all, really.

Miss Kitty's spiced apple cider fruit bread

(adapted from this recipe)

¾ cup raisin

¾ cup sultanas

335ml bottle of dry apple cider, warmed (I used Monteith’s Apple Cider)

3½ cups white bread flour

Zest of one orange

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground mixed spice

½ teaspoon ground allspice

¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon salt

1 x 7g sachet dried yeast

Soak the raisins and sultanas in the warm cider while you measure out the other ingredients. Add the flour, spices, zest and yeast to a warm bowl and make a well in the centre. Strain the cider from the fruit, reserving the fruit. Add the liquid to the dry mixture. Knead well (15—20 minutes by hand or about 7-8 minutes in a kitchenaid) until the dough is stretchy. Add a little more water (2-3 tablespoons) if the dough doesn’t come together. Cover and leave in a warm place until doubled in size — about 45—60 minutes. I popped my dough back into the Kitchenaid bowl and into a sink half filled with warm water – our kitchen was cold this morning.

Knock back the dough and add the fruit. Knead until the fruit is evenly distributed. Shape into an oval loaf and place on the baking tray. Cover with baking paper and a clean tea towel and prove a second time for 30 minutes.

Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 220°C. Dust the loaf with flour and score it with a sharp knife. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the loaf is golden and sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack and eat slathered in good butter.

Miss Kitty Bakes: Roasted vegetable, goats cheese and hazelnut salad.

August is a funny time in Sydney. One day, the weather is warm and springlike. The next, the wind whips up and you have to swathe yourself in winter woolens again.


This is a recipe I made up last week when we had a range of rather sorry looking root veggies in the fridge. We were desperate for something green and leafy but the urge for comfort food has not quite left. This salad fits the bill perfectly: the comforting warmth of the cinnamon honey roasted vegetables combined with the smooth goats cheese and crunch of the hazelnuts makes for the perfect late winter salad. You could serve it without the rocket (maybe with some steamed beans or brocolini instead), but I think the peppery nature of the greens is an excellent foil for the dish and elevates it to a lighter plane.

I wasn't going to blog this (because it seemed somewhat simple) but I have had quite a few email/Facebook/Instagram requests after I posted the picture on Instagram, so I assume people are feeling like we are - a little desperate for some comfort food in a salady world.

Enjoy! We certainly did. So much so, we are having a version of this again for dinner tonight.

Miss Kitty's warm winter vegetable salad

1 small sweet potato or kumera
1 large parsnip, peeled
2 carrots
A piece (maybe 300g) of butternut pumpkin, peeled
2 tablespoons Coconut oil, melted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon honey
2 large handfuls of rocket, washed and dried
100g goats chevre (we used Meredith Dairy chevre)
50g hazelnuts, roasted, peeled and roughly chopped
Caramelised balsamic vinegar to drizzle

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Chop the sweet potato, parsnip, carrots and pumpkin into even pieces and place in a bowl. In a cup or jug, combine the melted coconut oil, cinnamon and honey, stirring well to combine, then pour over vegetables. Mix with your hands until everything is fully coated. Work quickly as the coconut oil may reset if your veggies are cold.

Spread the vegetables out in a roasting tray or baking sheet(s) in one layer. Roast for approximately 45 minutes at 180 degrees or until golden brown, tossing once or twice during cooking. Allow to cool a little on the tray.

Place the washed and dried rocket onto a platter and top with the veggies and a handful of chopped roasted hazelnuts. Dot with the crumbled goats cheese and drizzle with caramelised balsamic.

Serves Four as a accompaniment - we had ours with BBQd lamb chops. 

Miss Kitty Bakes: Carrot, zucchini and banana muffins

As I have previously mentioned, Georgie is a veggie hater. A genuine skeptic. But in order to try and get some green nutrients into her I have resorted to hiding veggies in other food. I grate every type of vegetable imaginable and pop it in bolognese. My "tomato pasta sauce" has about seven different vegetables in it. And then there are these muffins.

There's nothing revoutionary in including zucchini in a muffin. Zucchinis, when cooked, take on a lovely sweet flavour that complement the carrot and banana. You could always add nuts or raisins to the mix to add a different dimension but we seem to prefer this classic version and everyone in the house likes them which is also a bonus. This recipe makes a rather large quantity but the muffins freeze very well so it's worth making the full amount, then you always have a healthy, veggie laden snack on hand for morning or afternoon tea.

Zucchini, Carrot and Banana Muffins

Adapted from: The Sweeter Side of Amy's Bread via DelectablyMine

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (220 g) plain flour

11/2 cups (220g) wholemeal flour

1 1/8 cups (227 g) sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3 cups (340 g) carrots, peeled and grated

2 cups (255 g) zucchini, grated

1 cup (270 g) mashed, ripe banana (equivalent to 3 smallish bananas)

4 eggs

1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon (120 g) vegetable oil

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Set aside.

In another medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, and vanilla. Set aside.

In a large bowl, gently toss together the carrots, zucchini, and bananas. Pour the liquid egg mixture over the grated vegetables and bananas, and fold in gently to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and fold in until just combined.

Scoop the batter gently into greased or lined muffin tins. Bake for 8 minutes at 200 degrees, then rotate the pan and reduce the temperature to 175 degrees. Bake for an additional 9-11 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Leave muffins in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and place on a wire reach to cool completely before tucking in.

Yields: 24 muffins

Miss Kitty Bakes: Slow cooked lemon and garlic chicken

When I think of winter, I think of long slow braises and soft unctuous roasts that spend hours and hours in the oven. We spend a lot of time with the oven on in this house - the benefits of which are twofold: 1. we get lovely, yet easy food and 2. it keeps the kitchen snug and warm.


This delicious Nigella Lawson dish is no exception: minimal fuss, high reward for effort and a lovely warm kitchen to boot. And it reheats very well so you can spread the three minutes worth of effort over two meals. It seriously can't get much better than that!

We sometimes make this with a whole chicken cut into pieces, or marylands, or chicken thigh pieces on the bone. It's a very forgiving dish. And a delicious one. It's a winter staple in this house. Give it a go!

Nigella Lawson's Slow Roasted Lemon and Garlic Chicken
(From Nigella.com)

1 chicken (approx. 2.25kg / 4½lbs) cut into 10 pieces

1 bulb of garlic (separated into unpeeled cloves)

2 unwaxed lemons (cut into chunky eighths)

1 handful fresh thyme

3 tablespoons olive oil

150 ml white wine

Black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 160°C/gas mark 3/325ºF.

Put the chicken pieces into a roasting tin and add the garlic cloves, lemon chunks and the thyme; just roughly pull the leaves off the stalks, leaving some intact for strewing over later. Add the oil and using your hands mix everything together, then spread the mixture out, making sure all the chicken pieces are skin side up.

Sprinkle over the white wine and grind on some pepper, then cover tightly with foil and put in the oven to cook, at flavour-intensifyingly low heat, for 2 hours.

Remove the foil from the roasting tin, and turn up the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6/400ºF. Cook the uncovered chicken for another 30-45 minutes, by which time the skin on the meat will have turned golden brown and the lemons will have begun to scorch and caramelise at the edges.

Serve the chicken straight from the roasting tin strewn with your remaining thyme alongside yummy roasted potatoes and a green salad.

Georgie: on eating

It's been a while since you have had a Georgie focused post, so I thought I would give you a round up on what she loves and doesn't like when it comes to that subject that seems to obsess most mothers (after sleeping, that is): food.

I always assumed I wouldn't have a fussy child when it comes to food. Neither my husband nor I are particularly fussy. We eat reasonably well. When she turned 4 months old, we started her off on purees but moved to baby led weaning when she was about 6 months old and decided she didn't like purees any more. We have had mixed results. There is no denying that Georgie is a reasonably fussy eater. 

If you listen to Georgie, Vegetables are the Devil's Work. Enemy #1 is peas. Georgie won't touch anything that has touched peas (more on that below). Pumpkin, potatoes and sweet potatoes follow closely in succession (maybe it was ODing on orange food when she was little?). Salad vegetables are also verboten as are broccoli, beans and broccolini. The few vegetables she does eat are zucchini (surprisingly), carrot and corn. And cooked tomatoes (like in pasta sauce). Mum is getting very good at smuggling veggies into things. My "tomato" pasta sauce contains pumpkin, carrots, zucchini, onion and just enough tomato to make it look red enough to pass for tomatoes.

In terms of protein, Georgie is a bit of a champion. Salmon, tuna, flathead, whitebait are all favourites. Lamb chops and slow roasted lamb always go down a treat. Sausages, home made chicken nuggets, mince... She loves houmous, which is great. Sometimes I wonder if we aren't raising a toddler who has popped herself on the Atkins Diet. Her favourite protein is Pig: ham, proscuitto, bacon. Love it!

She is also a bit of a dairy fiend: cheese and yoghurt are both staples. She is quite fussy about brands - she loves the 5AM pouches of yoghurt (hates spooning it) and Mainland Tasty is her favourite cheese. She is not a fan of kids singles or plastic cheese. Milk still presents problems - she reacts badly to it, no matter what we try: Organic, lactose free, skim, full fat.... We are going to try rice or almond milk next but to be honest she doesn't seem to bother with it. She's more than happy on just a little bit of toddler formula, but if we stopped, I don't think she would miss it.

On carbohydrates, she is a bit hit and miss. She loves Pasta. Wholemeal, penne, butterflies.... You name it, she hoovers it. Rice is great, except for risotto. Eggs and crumpets also seem to be winners. When we go out, she'll eat fried rice at Chinese (even the peas, despite the at home aversion!). Bread? Well, sometimes. It you make her a sandwich, she will eat what's inside and give you back the bread. Toast is a bit more successful. She likes muesli but not porridge. Muffins, yes. We try and stuff as many nutrients into home made muffins as possible. The combinations can get a bit weird - the latest batch is carrot, banana and zucchini, but she seems to like them and that's all that matters. She doesn't have much of a sweet tooth - she's not really interested in cake, but does have a fondness for the occasional "cookie" which can encompass anything from a rice cracker to a shortbread or marie biscuit.She doesn't eat lollies or chocolate and she doesn't drink juice.

Our one great success has been with fruit. She eats a very wide variety, which is great: mandarins, bananas, strawberries, kiwi fruit, blueberries (or booberries as they are called here), raspberries, apples, pears.... Most things she will try at least once before making a decision, unless they are green :)

Over the last few months I have really started to obsess over what she will - or rather, won't - eat. I worry about her getting enough nutrients. I worry about her using food as a weapon, that mealtimes will become battlefields. But the more I speak to other mummies, the more I realise she is completely normal. All kids do this. It's the start of their independence: deciding what they do and don't like to eat. Making first choices for themselves.

I have come to realise that the problem is really with me - and my reactions to her defiance. Having to cook four different dishes for dinner (as well as a different main meal for the adults, because Mr K isn't a fan of eating corn, pasta and ham for dinner 3 nights a week) before she finds something she really does like or will eat can be a bit soul destroying and you do get stuck in a bit of a rut. Protein and pasta is our staple when all else fails and we have it more than I would like. New things are approached with a bit of trepidation, mostly on my part. I still think she is too young to understand the repercussions of not eating her dinner so I do tend to fill her up on banana, yoghurt and cheese if I don't think she has eaten enough for her main meal.

At the end of the day, I am coming around to the idea that she is one of those kids who just eats when she is hungry and she favours plain food over adventurous eating. If she's not hungry, nothing will tempt her. She is happy, more than active enough for her age (one might say very active) and thriving. More often than not, she sleeps well. She is amongst the tallest of her peers. If all of that means she doesn't eat her peas then I will settle for my happy, well adjusted child over a pea eating one.

Kitty x

Miss Kitty Bakes: Sour cream and lemon cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Recently a very good friend of mine, The Floury Baker, had a birthday. She is an absolutely awesome chick who has her hands full with two gorgeous yet spunky kids under the age of two. Now, I complain about having no time to myself but she really has no time, yet she juggles mummyhood, baking and a blog with aplomb.

I made these cupcakes for her - she had a bit of a crap week and I wanted to give her a bit of a pick me up for her birthday. They were delicious and I hope they did the trick in lifting collective spirits. The sunny happy zesty lemon yellow certainly made my day and I will make these babies again and again. The sour cream gives the cake a delightful delectable softness yet the crumb remains moist and delicious.They are super easy to make and will have your friends oohing and aahing about your baking prowess.

Lemon sour cream cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
(Original recipe from SBS Food)

Cake:
125 g soft butter
220 g (1 cup) caster sugar
Zest of one lemon
3 medium eggs
2 tbsp lemon juice
150 g (1 cup) plain flour
60 g (1/3 cup) self-raising flour
100 g sour cream

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with patty cases. Fancy ones, if you have them.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Scrape bowl down to make sure all the butter has been incorporated. Add lemon zest, then add eggs one by one, fully incorporating each one before adding the next. Stir through lemon juice. The mixture may look a bit curdled at this point, but press on.

Sift flours together and fold in carefully, alternating with sour cream. Mix to incorporate well.

Spoon into patty cases. Try not to eat too much of the batter - it really is delicious. Bake the cakes for 20 minutes. Test the cakes are done by inserting a skewer. If it comes out clean the cakes are ready; if it doesn’t, cook for a further few minutes and test again.

Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then remove cakes from tin and place on a rack, ready for icing. 

Frosting:
40g soft butter
125g cream cheese
Zest of one lemon
1 tbslp lemon juice
3 cups sifted icing sugar

Combine all ingredients until smooth and spread or pipe on cooled cupcakes. Makes enough for 24 cupcakes, but you know you'll make these again. Keeps covered in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Oh Hai! There you are!

Hi everyone,

Apologies for the lack of communication over the past few weeks. It's been a bit manic over at Maison du Kitty. Babies (well, a rather large toddler) and varying degrees of sickness around the traps have translated into not a lot of time for Kitty and no time for blog. The time that has been left (oh, about 4 seconds a day) has been spent comfort baking (don't you just love winter?) and filling my freezer like no-one's business.

I am hoping to get back on the wagon shortly, and thank you to all those kind souls who have sent both virtual and real shout outs to check on our well being. We are all fine, just stretched. I think we all go through phases like this, and in my particular case, I had started to wonder if I had run out of things to say. But alas, no, just time in which to say them.

I also have an exciting new project that I am spending most of my free time working on. Hopefully it will debut early next year but I will keep you well informed in the interim and hopefully over the next few weeks/months I will have more exciting news on the work front to share. It's certainly something I have been thinking about for some time and finally have the courage to do. Or at least start. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me.

More later, but in the interim, I promise to update with fun things like baking a little more frequently.

Kitty xx