Chocca lotta

It's beginning to feel a bit like Easter around here with Easter eggs and Hot Cross Buns in the shops (well actually they have been in the shops for weeks!), so today I decided to share with you a Chocolate Tart recipe I made a few years ago, and have just searched for again. I haven't made them since, but I think I will have to as they were delicious!

 The recipe says only 20 minutes prep time, but it took me longer than this. So allow 1 hour preparation, 30 minutes chilling, and 35 minutes to cook. 

Here's the recipe: (from Woolworths Fresh magazine, July 2012)
Chocolate Tarts

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
125g butter, chopped
2 eggs
2 pears, peeled, cored, thinly sliced 
2/3 cup cream
200g dark cooking chocolate, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons roughly chopped roasted hazelnuts

 Process flour and cocoa in a food processor for 30 seconds. Add butter and process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add 1 egg and process until mixture comes together.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Divide dough into 6 even portions and form into balls. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease 6 individual loose bottom fluted flan tins (approx 8cm x 2.5cm deep). 

On a lightly floured surface roll each piece of dough out until 3mm thick. Press into pans and trim off any excess dough. Place plans onto a large baking tray. Line each with baking paper and fill with baking beans or dried beans (not that I bother to do this). Bake tart shells for 10 minutes. Remove beads and paper. Bake for 5 minutes more or until pastry is just cooked. Set tarts aside to cool.

Arrange pear slices into each pastry shell. Heat cream in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until small bubbles form around edge. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and stir until melted and mixture is smooth. Cool for 5 minutes. Stir in remaining egg. 

Pour mixture over pears and sprinkle nuts on top. Bake for 15 minutes or until mixture is just set. Stand for 5 minutes before removing from pans. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or cold. 

Sit back and enjoy the compliments. 

If that sounds just a little bit like too much work when you are trying to have a relaxing Easter too, try this recipe instead. 

I've often made a quick chocolate self saucing pudding in winter, but this one is cooked in individual dishes. Have you ever made the one made in a mug in the microwave? I haven't. 

Quick Chocolate Self-Saucing Puddings (recipe from Woolworths Fresh magazine, June 2011)

Prep time: 15 minutes. Cooking time: 30 minutes. Makes 4-8 depending on the size of your pots. 

125g margarine, melted
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
2 cups self-raising flour
2/3 cup cocoa
1 cup milk
3/4 cup caster sugar, extra
2 cups boiling water
2 tablespoons icing sugar
thick cream or ice cream to serve 

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease 8 x 1 1/4 cup capacity ramekins or ovenproof dishes. Stand dishes in a large roasting pan. Whisk melted butter, sugar and eggs in a large bowl. Sift flour and half the cocoa over mixture. Add milk and whisk until smooth. Divided evenly between prepared dishes.

Place remaining cocoa and extra sugar in a bowl. Slowly add boiling water, stirring constantly until well combined. Pour cocoa mixture gently over each pudding. Pour enough boiling water into roasting pan until water comes half way up the sides of the pudding dishes. 

Bake for 30 minute or until puddings are cooked when tested in the centre with a skewer. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve with a dollop of thick cream or ice cream. 

Here is a pic - they shrunk back from the sides of the dishes when they came out of the oven and started to cool. 

 PS - I had a question about caster sugar which is readily available in Australia, but might not be in your country, or might be called something else. Here is an explanation I found - What is caster sugar and does it make a difference in baking?

Thank you so much for stopping by. If you celebrate Easter I wish you a safe and happy one. Do you have a favourite chocolate recipe? Perhaps you would like to tell us about it in your comments. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week.  

You might also like:
Winter days and an energy bar recipe 
Making and photographing blueberry pancakes
Melting moments and hydrangeas in my garden

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

   
All Seasons
Mosaic Monday 

Our World Tuesday

Pictorial Tuesday 

ThroughMy Lens 

Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global
Travel Photo Thursday 

The Lovin' Life Team over at Deep Fried Fruit
Little Things Thursday

Life in Reflection

Hello there! I love reading your comments. If you scroll down to the bottom you can comment too! I would love to hear from you.

If you are a blogger you can also link your blog to Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global.

Summer salad days

It is summer over here down-under in Australia. Australian's love the beach, though I don't frequent the beach in summer so much these days, except when I am on holidays. I tend to stay indoors in the summer out of the burning rays of the sun.

 And when the hot days of summer hit the last thing I feel like doing is cooking. So that's when the salads come out. I have a particular favourite which I often make when we are invited to a BBQ and are asked to "bring a salad" to share. It is common here in Australia to "bring a salad to share". Is that something that happens where you live? 

How to Escape from the Kitchen

With so many of us time poor these days it is fabulous to find somewhere that will cook delicious nutritious mid-price-range meals for you to take home. Last week I was invited by former restaurateurs Bree & Dale Wiley to go down to Escape the Kitchen in Dunsborough to take photos for their new website.

 Despite the rain that morning it was a lovely drive through the trees to their small rural property just out of Dunsborough in south west Western Australia.  The road took me along a shady country road that I had never been along before despite having visited the Dunsborough-Yallingup area many times over the years.

Bree and Dale welcomed me like old friends and they were a joy to work with.  One of the things I really enjoyed was working closely with a professional chef and his partner to create the food shots they were looking for. We collaborated all the way through. They just didn't leave it to me because I was the photographer. Bree & Dale were easy to work with and knew what they wanted - a clean, no fuss look.  They wanted the food to look like it would when the customer took it home.

Escape the Kitchen came about when many people bemoaned that Bree & Dale no longer owned their restaurant and they were no longer able to enjoy the food that Dale created in his kitchen. And with so many people time poor these days, Bree & Dale realised there was a nitch they could fill, creating delicious nutritious take away food at a reasonable price. They built a commercial kitchen on their property, and Escape the Kitchen was born.

Bree & Dale are currently creating their website with a technical friend, and they searched on the net for a food photographer. They found me! Bree and I chatted on the phone and within a week I was in their kitchen in Dunsborough.

Hearty winter fare..........  

Or perhaps a light salad.......I can vouch that the Caesar salad was delicious! 

Or something for the sweet tooth.

We photographed a lot of dishes but I thoroughly enjoyed photographing Dale's chef created food and collaborating on the styling with Bree. Oops don't mind the fingers! 

How's the sauce drizzle?

Dale and Bree also cater for functions and weddings. I'm looking forward to seeing the new Escape the Kitchen website when it is completed. I'll let you know!

Thank you so much for stopping by. Are you time poor? Do you long for take away food that is delicious and nutritious? I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week.

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

Mosaic Monday  (sadly Mosaic Monday has closed)

Life Thru the Lens 

Lifestyle Fifty Monday Linkup 
Our World Tuesday
Through My Lens 
Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global
Worth Casing Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday
The Weekly Postcard

Lost your mojo? Want to learn something new? Take on a project.

Do you ever feel that you have lost your mojo for a pursuit that you love and you need a boost to rekindle your passion, or you would like to try something new?  I think it has happened to many of us.  Do you have a yearning to learn something new? Try something different? It could be the beginning of a wonderful new path in your life towards a passion you don't even realise you have yet. Be open and take a chance. And don't let me hear you say you are too old! never! 

A project can be a great way to start.  Recently our photography group ran a fun 12x12 project. The task was to photograph 12 set topics in a 12 hour period over a particular weekend.  The topics were: 

1. moving subject, with background blur

2. repetitive shape (must be edited to black and white)

3. let's eat

4. things that float

5. sports action

6. 3 (Three)

7. minimalist

8. human hand/s

9. creepy crawlies

10. closer than a metre

11. makes my heart sing

12. my most amazing photo

Apple roses - easy and delicious dessert

I don't know if you have seen the little video that this trolling around Facebook at the moment for little Apple Roses.

 I've been seeing it pop up now and then over the last few months. They looked so delicious and easy to make. A couple of weeks ago we had some friends coming to our house for lunch so I decided Ito stop procrastinating and make them! They were a hit with our guests.

I'm not sure how to upload the little how to video - but please go to the link from Just Eating Real Food - Apple Roses - I hope it works for you ok. 

They were fun and easy to make and used very few ingredients. They were a bit fiddly to make so allow 1 hour preparation time. 

And here is the recipe - 

2 red applies - half and core - I used Pink Lady apples - and cut into thin slices. 
Put into a bowl of water with juice of half a lemon. Microwave for 3 minutes. 
Drain water.
Put 3 tablespoons of apricot jam with 2 tablespoons of water into a small bowl, and microwave for 1 minute. (You could try other sorts of jam too)
Thaw 1 or 2 sheets of puff pastry. (1 sheet will make 6 rolls, 2 sheets 12 rolls)
Roll the pastry out thin and cut into 6 strips.
Spread with jam. Place slices of apple on one half of the pastry strips. Sprinkle with cinnamon. 
Fold over the other half of the pastry strip and roll into rose shapes.
Put into muffin tin. (I put squares of baking paper into each muffin hole first).
Bake at 375F or 190C for 40-45 minutes. (I brushed over a little melted butter before cooking)
Sprinkle with icing sugar to serve. Enjoy! 

Do you have the grandies coming over to stay? I am sure they will love helping you make and eat these!   Usually I would do a bit better with my food photography styling, but everyone was waiting to eat!

  Last night I went to the first of four Spanish cooking classes conducted by my Spanish  friend Montse. We made two Tapas -  Potato Tortilla Espanola, Mushrooms with garlic and lemon sauce and finished with Churros. Oh my goodness those Churros are so delicious! and easy to make. Now I just have to find the little machine needed to push the mixture through. 
I'm looking forward to next weeks lesson. 

Have you a little easy recipe you enjoy making or been to cooking classes? Perhaps you would like to tell us about it in the comments. Montse says the most important thing for the Spanish is to enjoy the food with friends.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week.

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

Mosaic Monday

Lifestyle Fifty Monday Linkup 
Our World Tuesday
Through My Lens 
Image-in-ing
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global
Worth Casing Wednesday
What's It Wednesday

What's baking at your house?

I don't know about you, but winter seems to me to be a time for baking, and making hearty soups and casseroles. I love the smell of biscuits baking. Home-made biscuits are so much better I think than their store bought cousins - although there are also yummy store biscuits too. (For my American friends, when I say biscuits I mean cookies  :)

When I was a newly-wed almost 40 years ago, and not yet quite 20, I baked biscuits for my husband for the first time a few weeks after we were married. You can see a pic of me below here making that first batch of biscuits, a pic of the two of us, and our little flat. We were on the top floor and thought we had it all. Oh to be that young and carefree again!  My husband must have thought my making biscuits was note-worthy to have taken a photo.

While I had young children at home baking cakes and biscuits continued with recipes from my Mum, Aunts, Sister and those favourite cookbooks for Australian cooks - The Golden Wattle Cookbook, and the Country Women's Association Cookbook. No household would have been complete without these cookbooks.

Autumn arrives in Western Australia

Autumn has arrived in the south west of Western Australia. Although our Australian native trees are evergreen you can see autumn colour starting to appear in the imported tree varieties that are dotted throughout our towns and countryside.


On the weekend I celebrated the arrival of autumn by joining a water-colour workshop run by Marguerite Aberle at Lyndendale Gallery on Crooked Brook Road just out of Dardanup, about a half hour drive from my home. I had been promising myself to attend one of Marguerite's workshops for a couple of years, and what a joy it was to finally attend. The theme for the workshop was autumn colours.

Please click on "read more" to keep seeing and reading more

Continuing my 52-2 project

My regular readers may remember that in 2014 I completed a 365 project - one photo a day for a year. If you go to the link you can see my 2014 year in pictures - 365 project  It was a huge undertaking, but I found it hard to stop when the year ended so I embarked on a new project - 52-2. This is a project conducted through the Western Australian Photographic Federation and is encouraged by our local Photography Group of Bunbury. You can read more about it here - WAPF - 52-2 project

The brief for the project is to take two photos a week - one colour and one mono for 52 weeks. It is actually a great way to get into the habit of experimenting with mono images. I introduced my project to you on a blog post in early February - A new photography project for 2015 and I thought today I would bring you an update

PS - I did finish this project - and printed a book at the end - for some reason I haven't shared with you.  Sorry! 

Please click on "read more" to keep seeing and reading more

Melting Moments & Hydrangeas in the garden

Do you sometimes have a day when you set out to do something, and then it ends of as something completely different? That's how my day was today.

Inspired by a recent photo I had seen of afternoon tea in a lavender garden I made a batch of Melting Moments from my Mum's recipe that I used to help her make when I was a child. It is a happy memory I have from my childhood, pressing the top of the biscuits with a fork to make the pattern.

While the biscuits were in the oven I set up the chairs and table in the garden. 
It's nice to use pretty cups sometimes don't you think?




Please click on "read more" to keep reading and seeing more

Playing around with food and light

It's been a little while since I posted about food photography, so today is the day!                                                          If you are a newbie food photographer with only basic equipment you might struggle with light. I know I did. I                                                            You should study the light around your home as you will probably find that the light changes around your house throughout the day. My patio is great in the mornings, and my kitchen window is great around midday or later on if I am looking for backlighting.

 

Please click on "read more" to read more!

A little bit of Christmas baking

It's nearly Christmas. Do you go all out and do a lot of Christmas baking? Or only a little?

In truth Christmas in the Australian summer is not the best time for baking, so I usually target a cooler day to cook.





Looking for a simple Christmas cookie recipe? Try these Ginger Stars.


To find the recipe, please click on "read more" to read more!

Hello sunshine yellow and lemony delights

Yellow is such a happy colour don't you think?  I love it when the yellow daisies start to flower in my front garden.


 To me yellow is also the colour that says summer. In Australia spring is on the wane and summer is moving in. My front garden is starting to put on its brilliant summer display -  red Coral Bush, purple/blue Agapanthus, yellow daisies, green kangaroo paws, pink hydrangers, roses, and sprawling nasturtiums. Someone called Agapanthus "Aggie's Pants" the other day - I love that.

To read more please click on "read more"!

Cook it, plate it, take a photo, and pack it for a picnic

Prawns in Penang

It has been a little while since I have done much food photography as life seems to have gotten in the way over the last few months.  Any food photography was at best just a snapshot before I ate it! 
This is a pic of a delicious food-hall dish we ate in Penang in October.


So last Monday, my day off work, I rectified this and had a day in the kichen cooking and taking pics.  I have just bought a long cable so I can attach my camera to my laptop while I am shooting. This is called "tethered" shooting. You work through "Lightroom".

To read more please click on "read more"

Photographing Food in the Ferguson Valley, Western Australia

I have had a great weekend being immersed in Photography.

On Friday I attended a "Lightroom" photo processing workshop. It was part of a 3 day weekend of events organised by the Photography Group of Bunbury and the WA Photographic Federation at Evedon Park Bush Resort in the beautiful Ferguson Valley only about 30 minutes from Bunbury in the south west corner of Western Australia.  Evedon Park has cottages which would be lovely for a weekend getaway.You can see some pis from around Evedon here -

We have had quite a bit of rain the last few weeks so the rolling hills of the Ferguson Valley have put on their best green dresses. It's beautiful driving up around here this time of year. There are wineries and galleries and walks.  In the bottom pic you can see some cows and calves being moved along the road from one paddock to another on my way home this afternoon.

 To keep reading and see more pics, please click on "read more" .....

Secret Garden Affairs and photographing cupcakes!

I am late blogging this Monday. We have had a busy few days starting with my Saturday morning when I went to photograph cup cakes for a lady who is starting up a new home based business making cupcakes. Her son is producing her brochure and starting up a Facebook-blog. 

Visitors to my blog will know that I have been playing around with food photography for a couple of years. I did some childrens' recipe pics a couple of years ago for a friend who had a blog for young mums. 

But these cupcakes were my first official paid food photography work! Very exciting. I would be interested to know what you think of the result....the brief was to photograph the different sample varieties she had made with packaging.  The room wasn't particularly well lit, so I was glad I brought along my lightbox to photograph the cup cakes in.  Minor post-processing in Lighroom for exposure, sharpening and straightening.

 To keep reading and see more pics, please click on "read more" .....

Playing with food - a food photography journey

I have been playing around with food photography for a couple of years now, practising at home, scrolling through foodie blogs and Flickr pages, and reading books. My husband says he always knows when I have been playing around with food photography on my day off because I cook him something a bit different for dinner.  I don’t exactly know how it all started….I think I can blame the Digital Photography School - Digital Photography School - and my Flickr friend “Lindyannajones” for her “still life” series where she invited people to post still life images for critique. 

One of my early attempts - 

 A couple of weeks ago I made these two dishes…………A Mediterranean pastry and a Pumpkin and Caramalised Onion Quiche - delicious.

 To keep reading and see more pics, please click on "read more" .....

Summer plum galette

A few weeks ago a friend brought me a huge bag of plums fresh picked from an orchard - firm, with a sweet-sharp taste - delicious.  

(I had a bit of a problem with the on-line photo editor this morning) so I made this collage free hand in Photoshop Elements. I didn't realise you could drag different pics into one image in Elements - but it worked ok)

I decided to make a plum tart. I had seen a few blog posts recently about "galette" which is a French term for a rustic free form tart, so I decided to make one.  It really is a simple pie to make and you can use just about any sort of fruit, or make a savoury galette. 

Please click on "read more" to keep reading and see more pics! see you there!

Summer fruit sorbet

Have you ever made sorbet? I hadn't until the other day. 

I saw the food magazine - "Taste Summertime" -  on the shelves in the newsagent a couple of weeks agao and was attracted to the summery image of sorbet on the cover - yes covers do sell, because I bought the magazine, and made the recipe! 

Making the sorbet was a little fiddly as it was made in four parts over 2 days, but I think the result was worth it. The ingredients are super simple, you just need to be a little organized. Easy but fiddly but yummy! 
They served theirs in little white dishes with ice-cream sticks - think "summer beach days". I decided to serve mine in cocktail glasses for an elegant dessert.

 Please click on "read more" to keep reading and seeing more pics!

Summer fruit and salad days

It's summer here in Australia and while the land is baking it is often too hot to bake, so fresh summer fruits and salads served simply with minimal preparation and cooking is the way to go.

Where I live in the south west of Western Australia we have an abundance of fresh summer fruits this time of year - apricots, peaches, plums, nectarines - as well as grapes, cherries, strawberries, mangoes, pomegranates - the list goes on. It is absolutely my favourite time of year for fresh fruit, just waiting to be quickly prepared and served fresh and juicy. 

How about fresh fruit with musli for breakfast on the patio? I don't know why I don't have this more often. So delicious. Just chop, layer, serve and enjoy!

These collages I have made with "PicMonkey" on-line photo editor. I have only just heard of it - Have you tried it? It's free on the web and lots of fun.

How about a fresh tossed salad for lunch?  Pomegranate adds a yummy zing. 

To keep reading and seeing more pics, please click on "read more"....

Christmas baking while it's baking hot in Australia!

Hi everyone and welcome to my 2013 Christmas baking edition.  

While the far northern hemisphere enjoys a white Christmas we here in Australia swelter in the heat. But true to our European backgrounds we still bake the traditional goodies for Christmas - well some of us do anyway! 
I set last Monday aside for my Christmas baking. It really wasn't the weather for it (in the high 30sC), but Monday is my day off work, so it had to be done, heat or no heat. So I turned on the aircon and the overhead fan, put some cds in the player, and got to work. 

First off a new recipe for pear tarts which I saw in a Christmas magazine and wanted to try out. It is a fairly simple and easy recipe made with a base of bought puff pastry. While not technically for "Christmas cooking" we were going to our street "Christmas party" so I thought these would be something a bit different.

First you need pears - I used a pear variety which has a golden brown skin. 

Please click on "read more" to keep reading and see more Christmas baking!....