Homemade Flour Tortillas

If you've never had a real, homemade tortilla... you seriously don't know what you're missing! About a year ago that was me... before I tried my boyfriend Patrick's grandma's (Lala) homemade tortillas. Once you taste a homemade one, store bought ones just don't cut it anymore. Don't get me wrong, you can still get a pretty awesome tasting burrito out of packaged tortillas, but the legit kind just makes the whole thing taste 100% better. They are good just on their own, straight off the stove with butter, or even with just beans and cheese. So today I had the privilege of learning how to make flour tortillas from Patrick's Mum, she makes it look really easy...I guess i'll have to practise, practise, practise!

This recipe makes about 20 medium sized tortillas.

What you need:

Ingredients:

-4 cups of flour + about a tablespoon extra for dusting
-1/2 tablespoon salt
-1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
-2 cups of warm water
Equipment:
-Kitchen aid/mixer
-Cast Iron Grill (you can just use a pan but they don't taste as good)
-Flat tortilla smasher (I don't know what they are actually called,but anything flat that you can squish them with is fine)


How to make them:


1. Prepare your space. This first step sounds simple, but it is really important. You want to get everything ready before you start on your dough...if you leave your dough sitting there while you prep your space and get your head together, it will dry out and will be harder to roll later on.

2. Next place your cast iron grill on the stove on high. This is so the grill is really hot! The hotter it is, the better they cook.

3. Place your flour in a large bowl (or kitchen aid/mixer bowl). Create a well or whole in the middle of the flour inside the bowl and pour your oil, salt and baking powder. Mix them with a spoon roughly before mixing it in the kitchen aid.


4. Next heat up your water, I just put ours in the microwave for about 2 minutes. You don't want it to be too hot otherwise your dough will be too sticky.


5. If you have a dough hook, attach that to the kitchen aid. Start your mixer on low speed, with the flour/oil/baking powder/salt. Slowly add water to the bowl as it mixes. The reason why you add it slowly is so it can evenly mix, if you add it all at the same time your dough will be too sticky. Mix on low for about 5minutes until its all mixed well.


6. Take the dough out of the bowl and place it on your prepared cutting/pastry board. Roughly shape the dough in a ball. Rub it with a bit of olive oil. Place a tea-towel over it and leave for about 5minutes.

7. Next you need to separate your dough into smaller pieces for each tortilla. Start by peeling out a small nub of dough. Roll it in a ball. Try to hollow out the middle with your fingers to make it easier to roll out into a circle.


*Make sure to not over-work the dough!! It will crack and become dry.


*Also...make sure you always keep the dough under a tea-towel so it doesn't dry up.


8. Once you have separated and rolled out each piece you're ready to roll! ha...ha. Get it? Sorry guys it had to be said.

9. Start with your first tortilla dough ball. The first few are really hard to get, but it will get easier! Place the dough ball on your rolling tray/cutting board. Rub a but of flour on your rolling pin and board so it doesn't stick. Roll outwards. Try not to think too much about it, the more your work it, the harder it gets. If you want to get your tortilla round, just focus on the wonky parts and roll outwards. Roll it for a bit, the flip it over until its as thin as you can get it.

10. Place your first tortilla on the cast iron. Leave it there for about 5seconds and flip it immediately so it doesn't burn, the first time its on the heat it will cook really quick. after the first 5 seconds, you can leave it on the heat for 10 seconds, then flip again. Your tortilla should look cooked after about 4 flips. take it off and place it on a paper-towel to start your pile!

That's one tortilla done! Now continue with the next 19 tortillas!!

It's not the easiest thing to do, but i'm hoping it gets easier and quicker after practising it. They are so worth it! Give it a go.

Sweet Potato Crumble

One of my new found joys Pinterest. Go check out my Pins here http://pinterest.com/sarah_kmas/. For those of you who have not discovered this website, do yourself a favour and make an account, or don't...if you value your time. That's what's been eating my time up lately but i'm fine with that because i've been finding fascinatingly wonderful things like this recipe there. 
For me, sweet potatoes have always been a vegetable that I would only find in a roast or in a salad, never really served like this delicious dessert. When I saw this recipe I was up for the experiment. It's a super easy recipe, a lot easier than I thought it would be. Basically its just cooking the sweet potatoes, mixing it with your ingredients, cooking and putting the crumble on top. I'm thinking you could even serve this as an appetiser or with dinner, just don't add sugar to the recipe? But I'll get back to you on that one. 


What you need:
(makes about 8 ramekins full)
For the Sweet Potato Mix
-3 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes (About 3 whole potatoes)
-1 cup sugar (I only used 2/3 cup. Sweet potatoes are already sweet!)
-½ teaspoon salt
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-2 eggs, well beaten
-1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

For the Crumble:
-1 cup brown sugar
-1/3 cup flour
-1 cup chopped pecans
-1/3 cup butter, melted


You can present this dish however you like! You could use ramekins or just one large baking dish. I preferred the ramekins purely because they look cuter. 


How to Make it:
1.First you're going to need to cook your potatoes somehow. Before you do any cooking, make sure you wash and dry the potatoes and keep the skins on! It doesn't really matter how you cook them, as long as they are soft inside. There are three options to this step:
          a) Bake them at 200°C (400°F) for about 50minutes. 
          b) Boil them for about 30 minutes
          c) Microwave them. This is how I cooked mine. It's the quickest, easiest way. Peirce the potatoes a few times with a fork so they don't explode in and leave you a lovely mess in your microwave. Leave them in there for about 15minutes.
2. Preheat your oven to 190°C (375°F) and spray your ramekins or baking dish with nonstick spray.
3. Once your potatoes are cooked and soft on the inside you need to mash them up. An easy way to do this is to leave them in their skins and just squish them up, it's lots of fun! Then cut them in half and scoop out the middle. If you need to mash them up some more then go for it, with a fork or masher. 
4. In a large mixing bowl place all of your potato mix ingredients. Start with the sweet potato, then add sugar, salt, vanilla, eggs and melted butter. Beat the ingredients with a hand mix or kitchen aid mixer. Beat for about 4 minutes until the mixture is a light orange colour and fluffy and smooth. 
5. Spoon the mixture into your baking dishes. Be sure to leave enough room on top for the crumble. 

6. Put them in the oven to cook for around 20minutes. Pull them out when they are just brown on top. 
7. Make your crumble while your sweet potatoes are in the oven. To do this, just mix together your brown sugar, flour, pecans and melted butter. Use a fork to roughly mix the ingredients. 
8. Once your potatoes are done in the oven, pull them out and place the crumble mixture on top. Put them 
back in the oven for 10minutes until the pecans are lightly browned and the crumble is crunchy. 


Allow the ramekins to cool for about 15minutes before serving so the crumble is nice and crunchy! 
Delicious comfort food. Just the right amount of sweetness plus sweet potatoes have a butt-load of nutrients. I'l be definitely making these for thanksgiving. Enjoy :)

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

In light of the festive season fast approaching, I've discovered a deliciously fun and simple recipe to try. For the past week I've been in the U.S- California actually. This will be my first ever Thanksgiving since we don't celebrate the holiday in Australia. I'm really excited to be spending it with my boyfriend and his family and being constantly woahed by the amounts of pumpkins around. I'm pretty sure I've seen more pumpkins this week than in my entire life combined. I've never really appreciated the slightly ugly orange fruit until now (yes, not a veg). Last year I was delighted to finally try my first Pumpkin Pie and fell in love with pumpkin flavoured desserts, so I decided it was time for me to bake something pumpkiny myself to show my appreciation to my new orange friends. 

Enter, pumpkin snickerdoodle. Another first for me, I've never baked a snickerdoodle before, and frankly the only reason I was drawn to this recipe is because its uber fun to say. Go on, just say it one more time out loud [Pumpkin Snickerdoodle]. 

You too might be scratching your head just like I was...why not just call it a pumpkin cookie? Why are snickerdoodles so special anyways? Well fine friend, according to Wikipedia, snickerdoodles originated in Germany and are characterised by the 'cracking' on the top of the cookie. After tireless amounts of research, ive come to the conclusion that snickerdoodles are special because of the sugar/cinnamon coating which the dough is rolled in before baking. It gives it a slightly crunchier texture and since when has extra sugar on a cookie ever been a bad thing? 

Makes: 36 big cookies

Prep Time: 30 mins

Cook Time: 10 min (plus 1 hour chill time in the fridge)

What you need for the Cookie Dough:

-1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, at room temperature


-1 cup white sugar


-1/2 cup brown sugar


-3/4 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree

-1 large egg


-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

-3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour


-1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder


-1/2 teaspoon salt


-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

What you need for the Rolling Sugar:


-1/2 cup white sugar


-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


-1/2 teaspoon ground ginger


-1/2 teaspoon allspice

How to make them..

1.  First for the pumpkin liquid mixture. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the butter until fluffy, it only took me about 2 minutes. Add white and brown sugar to the butter and beat for about a minute. Add the pumpkin puree and beat well it all well. Mix in egg and vanilla, scraping down sides of the bowl to incorporate all of the ingredients. By the time your first set of ingredients are done, your mixture will most probably look like baby vomit… a baby who just finished eating mashed pumpkin for dinner. Delish. But don’t worry! Once the mixture is mixed with the flour it will look like cake batter, not puke.

   2.Now to make your cookie dough look like dough. Mixing the dry ingredients with your pumpkin mix. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and ground cinnamon. Add your flour mix to the pumpkin little by little beating for about a minute each time you add more flour. Once its all mixed through it should have a peanut-butter type texture and look.

   3. Cover the bowl with all your dough with plastic-wrap and put it in the fridge for at least an hour, or until dough becomes slightly firm. The firmer and cooler the dough, the smoother your cookies will turn out and the easier it will be to roll them out. I only chilled mine for about half an hour, frankly because I’m way too impatient and was really looking forward to the sugar hit. Chill for about an hour. Let the beater licking begin!

   4. While the dough is in the fridge chillin like a villain, take this time to mix up sugar topping. This is what you are going to roll the dough in before it goes in the oven. Mix all the rolling ingredients in a small bowl; sugar, cinnamon, ginger and allspice.

   5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. Line baking trays with parchment paper (or spray with nonstick spray). I used about 4 baking trays.

   6.  Remove cookie dough from fridge. Use a medium cookie scoop (1 1/2 Tablespoons) or a large spoon to scoop out dough and roll into balls. Use your hands to roll the balls in the cinnamon sugar and make sure they're coated really well! Place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Use a glass with a nice, flat bottom to dip in sugar and flatten the balls.

   7.  Bake for 10 to 14 minutes, or until they are slightly firm to the touch. It’s kind of hard to tell when they are done, I left one of my trays in for too long because I thought they needed to get golden brown…don’t make that mistake! They just need to be slightly firm. Let the cookies cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes or so, then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Now to enjoy your snickerdoodles! Don’t be afraid to experiment with flavours…maybe try adding powdered Chai or Chocolate or just try them plain with lots of cinnamon.  

Patrick's dog Snickers...appropriately named.

Low-fat Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins

Lately i've been really into low-fat cream cheese, I think it's all the Philadelphia cream cheese ads on the tv all the time! So I came across this recipe online and remembered I have some frozen blueberries in the freezer- perfect! Once I started cooking the recipe, I decided to change it a bit- it wasn't very low fat. I swapped the regular sugar for brown sugar and the plain flour for wholemeal self raising flour (to give it a big more volume). I was really surprised how easy these muffins were. 

What you need:

-2 Cups wholemeal self raising flour

-1/2 tsp baking powder

-1/2 tsp cinnamon

-1/2 tsp salt

-1 cup brown sugar

-1 egg

-1/4 cup veg oil

-1 cup frozen blueberries

- 1/2 cup low fat cream cheese

-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

-1 tbsp caster sugar

-1/3 cup milk

How to make them:

1. Preheat your oven to 180C (360F)

2. In a bowl combine your flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and sugar. 

3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together egg, brown sugar oil and blueberries. It should be pretty think.

4. Add wet ingredients slowly to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Try not to mix it too much, otherwise the blueberries will get mushy.

5. In a separate bowl, whisk cream cheese, vanilla extract and caster sugar. Whisk it nice and fast so it combines completely. 

6. Fill 12 muffin tin holes with baking cups. Fill each 1/3 of the way up with the batter. Place a small dollop of the cream cheese mixture in the centre. Fill the cups with the rest of the batter on the top of the cream cheese. Make sure you don't over fill the cups- a few of mine were filled right to the top, so when they cooked and rose, they leaked over the edges.

7. Bake for about 30 minutes, the muffins should be a light golden brown. 

Wait 10 minutes till they cool till you take them out of the muffin tin. Eat them while they're hot!!!

Hands down, best tasting muffins i've ever made! They are crispy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside. Definitely try them people! you won't regret it :)

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

Hello happy blog readers :)
I know, I know... I've been pretty slack lately I haven't blogged a recipe for a very long time. So, lend me and ear and here my excuses; I started a new uni degree this year which has been pretty hectic and assessments have gotten the best of me. But... excuses no longer, I'm going to try my best to post as often as I can, because I enjoy it! 
So today i've been home, sick. Yesterday I woke up with no voice...just like that- it just rudely disappeared with no warning. In between the coughing and tv watching I needed a sweet snack to lighten the mood. And what's sweeter than sugar- literally nothing! I randomly came across this recipe and even just looking at the recipe made me feel better. Personally, I would call cinnamon a comfort food. It makes me feel warm, loved and happy. This recipe for Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread jumped out to me because frankly, i've never seen or eaten 'pull-apart' bread before, and it looked ever so scrumptious! It's pretty much a first for me, i've never really worked with dough before.
I'm not going to lie, it took quite some time it put together but it was actually pretty fun and relatively easy! It takes patience and time, perfect for a day at home in-between movie watching.


So here's what you need:
For the dough:
-2 x 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
-1/4 cup granulated sugar
-2 x 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast
-1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 ounces unsalted butter (30 grams)
- 1/3 cup whole milk
-1/4 cup water
-2 large eggs, at room temperature
-1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


For the Filling:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
- 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted until browned (30 grams)


How to do it:
1. In a large mixing bowl mix together 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. Set aside.
2. Whisk the 2 eggs together in another bowl and set that aside too.
3. In a small saucepan, melt together milk and butter until butter has just melted. Remove from the heat and add water and vanilla extract. Let mixture stand for a minute or two.
4. Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula. Add the eggs and stir the mixture until the eggs are mixed into the batter. The eggs will feel soupy and it’ll seem like the dough and the eggs are never going to come together.  Keep stirring!  Add the remaining 3/4 cup of flour and stir with the spatula for about 2 minutes.  The mixture will be sticky...perfect!
5. Place the dough in a large, greased bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel.  Place in a warm space and allow to rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour.  
6. While the dough rises mix together the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg for the filling.  Set aside.  Melt 2 ounces of butter until browned.  Set aside.  And lastely, grease and flour a 9x5x3-inch  loaf pan and leave that for later as well.  
7. Deflate the risen dough and knead about 2 tablespoons of flour into the dough. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 5 minutes. On a lightly floured work surface, use a rolling pin to roll the dough out. The dough should be 12-inches tall and about 20-inches long.  If you can’t get the dough to 20-inches long… that’s okay.  Just roll it as large as the dough will go.  Use a pastry brush to spread melted butter across all of the dough. Sprinkle with all of the sugar and cinnamon mixture.  It seems like a heck-of-alot of sugar, but hey, its called a sugar-pull apart bread, so don't stindge on the sugar!
8. Slice the dough vertically, into six equal-sized strips.  Stack the strips on top of one another and slice the stack into six equal slices once again.  You’ll have six stacks of six squares.  Layer the dough squares in the loaf pan like a flip-book.  Place a kitchen towel over the loaf pan and allow in a warm place for 30 to 45 minutes or until almost doubled in size.
9. While your dough is rising for the last time...thank goodness because you won't want to wait any longer for this yumminess, pre-heat your oven to 180degrees Celsius (350F). Place loaf in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is very golden brown.  The top may be lightly browned, but the center may still be raw.  A nice, dark, golden brown will ensure that the center is cooked as well.
10. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20 to 30 minutes.   Run a butter knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the bread and invert onto  a clean board.  Place a cake stand or cake plate on top of the  upside down loaf, and carefully invert so it’s right side up.  Serve warm with coffee or tea... yum to the max!! Make sure you eat it while its warm!!

Day 27: Blueberry Banana Coffee Cake

When I first saw this recipe I got a little excited #1 because I am a bit of a coffee addict and #2 because I like cake. Two of my favourite things in one; except that there was no coffee in the actual recipe. The only reason it's called coffee cake is because it goes perfect with coffee- which is good enough for me! I have an early 6am shift at work tomorrow morning so this is perfect to go with my morning coffee!

What you need:

-1 + 3/4 cup wholewheat plain Flour + 1 teaspoon

-5 tablespoons sugar

-4 tablespoons Butter, cold

-1 + 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder

-1/2 teaspoon baking soda

-1 teaspoon Cinnamon

-1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg

-2 eggs

-1 cup Banana, ripe, mashed

-1 + 1/2 cups Blueberries, fresh or frozen, do not thaw

-1/4 cup Walnuts, chopped

How to make it:

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Grease an 8-inch square deep-sided baking pan.

2. Combine 3/4 cup of the flour and sugar in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two forks used scissor style until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. I found that this was the hardest step of the recipe, so I just got my hands into the mix (make sure you don't heat the butter up with your hands too much). Set aside 1/2 cup of the mixture for the topping.

3. Add the remaining 1 cup of flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix well. Add eggs and banana, mix just until incorporated, careful not to over mix.

4. Toss the blueberries with 1 teaspoon of flour. Stir them in with the walnuts. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle reserved topping evenly over top.

5. Bake 40 to 45 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

So delicious. It's perfect to have with your early morning coffee because it's not too sweet and has that whole-wheat kind of taste + blueberries for antioxidants and bananas for fibre. Nice and healthy...plus throw in your coffee and you've got a wonderfully tasty morning pick -me-up. 

Day 26: Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

Today I feeling a bit under the weather, so the only thing i really felt like eating (and cooking) was soup. At first, even the thought of even cooking was making me tired, but once I got started, it actually felt quite therapeutic. I took my time with all the chopping and slicing which made the soup taste even better. 

Ingredients:

(serves 4)

• -2 tbs olive oil
• -1 medium onion, finely chopped
• -1 medium carrot, diced
• -1 large stick celery, thinly sliced
• -1 medium potato, peeled and diced
• -6 cups (1.5 litres) chicken stock
• -300g chicken breast fillets, diced (I used left over charcoal chicken from last nights dinner- even easier!)
• -50g dried asian noodles, broken into 5cm pieces
• -Thick wholegrain toast, to serve

How to make it:

1. Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat until hot. Add onion and cook, stirring often, for 3 minutes. Add carrot, celery and potato and cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes.
2. Add stock, cover and bring to the boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add chicken and pasta, partially cover and cook for 8-10 minutes or until pasta is tender.
3. Stir through parsley. Season to taste. Ladle soup into serving bowls and serve with wholegrain toast

MMM yummy in my tummy- making me feel so much better already. I couldn't believe how easy and quick it was to make!