{Simple Sorbet : Icy Poles}

Ahoy!

A couple of days ago I made strawberry and pear purée for Miss 3 who is going through a non-eating stage. 

I have these adorable reusable food pouches I purchased through Little Mashies. 

I filled 7 of these 100ml pouches with this purée and I was sure she would love them. I have been buying the supermarket equivalent which are $1.30 each and are only 70mls. 

But after all my effort, poaching, purreeing, and filling, Miss 3 turned her nose up at them and continued with her diet of canned peaches and Greek yoghurt.

Miss 5 decided they weren't her cup of tea either. So what was I supposed to do with all this purée? 

I had an idea! A little while back we bought the girls a fruit icy pole from a store named "Scoops". They came in the cutest reusable cow molds which you get to keep when you buy the icy pole. Yay! 

Cutest little cow molds around.

So I armed myself with all the pieces and my "Little Mashies" pouches. 

www.littlemashies.com  www.facebook.com/littlemashieshome

I filled the mold almost all the way to the top using my Little Mashies Food Pouch to get into all the little corners.  

Leaving a little bit of space to put the back on.

The back clicks into place easily and firmly and once it's on the thick puree can't leak out. A thinner liquid would if you held the mold upright.

All filled and ready to go into the freezer overnight.

Miss 3 oblivious to the fact that she is indeed eating the fruit puree I made her!
Delicious! One happy Mamma, no wastage here.

Until Next time.... Stacey xx

{Buttercream Frosting : 101}

{Buttercream : 101} 

Buttercream frosting is sometimes difficult to get right and I'll let you in on a secret, you need to beat the crap out of it! Ha ha! I'm not kidding. 

The secret to a good buttercream frosting is whipping it with your hand mixer or stand mixer for a long time. 

For 12 cupcakes frosted high like these or a layer cake you will need:

250 grams butter softened

2 & 1/2 cups icing (powdered or confectioners sugar) sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract 

2-3 TB milk 

Gel colours (I used 3 drops of americolor tulip red and 2 drops of Wilton orange to achieve this coral colour) 

Americolor Gel available at Spotlight & Wilton available at Kitchen Warehouse

                         

So the method to this madness is as follows..... 

In your stand mixer add the softened butter and mix on high for 5 minutes until it turns light and fluffy. It really is important to give your butter the time to turn that pale colour to achieve the best results. 

Turn your mixer down to a slower speed and add your sugar a small amount at a time and once it's all in turn up the speed. 

Add the vanilla 

At this stage you will have a very thick consistency this is when you add the milk Tablespoon at a time until you have the desired consistency. 

Add in your colours at this stage and whip for a further 2 minutes scraping the sides and bottom as you go. 

                       

I used a large open star tip and used the 2 and a half swirl icecream technique. 

(Mostly because it's the only technique I've actually mastered lol) 

This buttercream will stay fresh in the fridge for a week. You will need to bring it to room temp and stir before using. 

Also, freezes for up to 3 months and will also need to be defrosted and brought to room temp and stirred. 

                    

The colour didn't come out in the pictures unfortunately but they are a lovely light coral colour. 

So that is a super easy buttercream frosting recipe. To make it into a lovely rich chocolate butter cream add in 1/4 cup cocoa and 1/4 cup of melted dark chocolate. 

Nothing left to do now but sit back with a cuppa and a good read.  

                      

Until next time, 

Stacey xx 

Homemade Sandwich Cookies {Jammie Dodgers}

Well here we go, my first blog post and I've been making "Jammie Dodgers" my way.
I used a sugar cookie recipe I came by a while back that uses Greek Yoghurt and since I buy Greek yoghurt by the bucket (I'm not kidding, I literally buy buckets full of yoghurt), I thought why not? 
Let's give it a whirl.

Strawberry Frosting filled "Jammie Dodger"
or the correct term "Sandwich Cookie"

Now if you want to try out this recipe you'll need to set aside a good chunk of your day, It's 30+ degrees Celsius here in Perth, Western Australia and alas I do not have an air-conditioned kitchen. 
So I had to keep putting the dough back into the fridge to harden up, after rolling and cutting I would have to chill again and It's taken me since around 11 am (with a quick trip to the airport thrown in for good measure). It's 4 pm now and I've pulled out he last 2 trays of cookies, cooling ready to fill. 

I cheated today which is pretty bad considering it's my first post, but in my defense I've had a child home from school sick and a pile of washing to get through so Hubby had clean clothes to take back to work today. I decided to use bought frosting to fill my cookies.

So I am going to share this recipe with you and I don't know where I got it from, I've had it for ages and I've made some modifications but want you to know {THE ORIGINAL RECIPE IS NOT MINE}. 

Without further rambling here is the {BEST EVER!!! Sugar Cookie Recipe} 

{Ingredients}
3 & 3/4 Cups of All-Purpose flour
1 & 1/2 Caster Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Bicarb Soda
1 Egg
250g Butter softened
1/2 cup Greek Yoghurt (whole fat please)

{Filling}
I used Betty Crocker Strawberry Frosting

{Method}
Preheat Oven to 180 degrees Celsius

In your Mixer cream softened butter and sugar together, add Egg, vanilla and Yoghurt. Mix through until combined.
In a large bowl add your flour, salt and Bicarb and use a whisk to aerate the mix (you could sift it but ain't nobody got time for that!) 
With the mixer on low slowly add your dry ingredients, when it's all in there mix well until combined and smooth.

At this point you will need to split your mixture into 2 and shape into flat discs wrap in Clingwrap and refrigerate for half and hour or until nice and firm.
Roll out between 2 pieces of Baking Paper to 2mm thick and using a 1.7/8 inch crinkle cutter cut out your cookies. 
Line them up on the baking sheet so there will be 2 rounds for each biscuit and then punch a hole in every second biscuit with your 1 cm heart cutter.
Place your cookie sheet into the fridge for 10 minutes to chill the shapes so they will keep shape whilst baking and get to work on the next lot of cutting. 
At this point you may need to chill your dough again before rolling out and cutting again.
Once your cut out circles have chilled, Pop into the oven and set your timer for 12 minutes.
Take them out and cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Crinkle edged rounds look pretty

I always use 2 pieces of baking paper to roll out the dough.

Once you have all of you lovely baked biscuits sandwich 2 together making sure one has the lovely cut out heart shape, with around a teaspoon of the frosting (that you totally bought from the grocery store). 
Continue until you have a lovely mountain of sandwich cookies.

All ready for some afternoon tea. 

I had lots of fun making these and I hope that someone out there sees this and thinks that they might have a go at making them too. Now if you'll excuse me I have to find some deserving people to share these with so I don't eat them all by myself. 

Coffee, biscuit and relaxation perfect way to end the day.

Until next time.... Stacey XX