The Efx3 Recipe Collection

These are very tasty pumpkins and spice cookies that you can roll out and cut into cute fall shapes then decorate as you like, I did fall leaves and acorns here but last week I made some that were Jack-O-Lanterns. This cookie is firm almost like thick sweet pie crust(but moister) they have a good flavor to them and don’t really need the frosting if you wish to leave that off.

1 cup butter(it is safe to use half shorting if you want them to have a longer shelf life)

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 Tablespoon Orange Zest OR 1 Teaspoon Orange Extract

1/2 cup packed pumpkin puree

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2  1/4 cups regular flour

1/4 cup whole wheat/graham flour

1/2 teaspoon each Ginger, Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Clove

Prep time: 1 hour

First Cream together the butter, sugar and orange zest/extract.

Then add the pumpkin, egg yolk and vanilla.

Sift together the flours and the spices.

Carefully mix the flour/spice into the wet ingredients.

Chill the dough for 30 Minutes.

Roll out on a well floured surface and cut into desired shapes, place slightly apart on lightly greased baking sheets.

Bake at 375f  for 10 minutes. Makes about 2  1/2 dozen cookies.

Let them cool, and frost with Simple Icing. (1 cup confectioners sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1Tblsp milk)

Stupidly quick ‘n’ easy. No pics – they were gone too fast!

Base Ingredients:

2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup milk
2 tbsp cream
(If the milk / cream is sour, even better – it may sound icky but it makes the scones taste nicer )

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: roughly 20 minutes at 200C

Method:

• Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl until it makes a thick, sticky batter. If it’s too dry, add a little milk; too wet, add a little flour.
• Spoon blobs onto a greased baking tray. Should make 6 in total. Bake until the tops begin turning golden.

The good thing about this mix is you can add anything you want to the base ingredients. However if you’re putting something ‘heavy’ in, add a 1/4 tsp of baking powder too.

Last night I made them with 1/2 a small grated onion, some thyme and rosemary, and had one of those just now warmed with melted Camembert and plum jam on top – delicious!

This morning I used the same base mix and added about 1/4 cup of sugar and 2 tbsp of maple syrup (as well as the 1/4 tsp baking powder), and we had those for breakfast with butter and honey. Yum!

I just made this and it’s awesome. Unfortunately I forgot to take a pic while I was in the kitchen and now I’m on the sofa so you’re out of luck.

Ingredients:

1.5c Flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1c sugar
1c butter
2 eggs
2 tsp orange zest
2 tbsp orange juice
2tsp thyme

For the glaze:

1/3c orange juice
1/3c sugar (I used half white, half brown)

Preparation time: 15-30 minutes
Cooking time: 40-50 minutes at 180C / 350F

Method:

• Cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy
• Add the egg, orange zest and juice, and thyme, and whisk until smooth
• Sift in the flour, baking soda and baking powder, and mix
• Pour into a 9″ square oven dish and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the top starts to brown and a knife/toothpick comes out clean.
• To make the glaze, mix the sugar with the juice until it has dissolved.
• When the cake is ready, remove it from the oven and poke holes across the top with a fork. Pour the glaze over the cake and then let it rest until the cake is at room temperature before serving.

An Australian classic, this is like a meringue cake but the centre is very moist. It’s really important to follow the cooling-down process.

Preparation Time

10 minutes

Cooking Time

30 minutes

Ingredients (serves 8 )

• Pavlova base
• 4 large egg whites
• Pinch salt
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 220g (1 cup) caster sugar
• Topping
• 400mls thick cream
• 500g (2 punnets) strawberries, hulled
• 4 passionfruit
• 4 kiwifruit (Chinese gooseberries)
• Mango or peach slices, drained.
• Icing sugar, to serve

Method

1. To make the pavlova base, preheat the oven to 120°C. Use a 20cm round cake pan as a guide to trace a circle onto a piece of non-stick baking paper. Place paper, pencilled-side down, on a baking tray.
2. Whisk the egg whites and the salt in a large mixing bowl with electric beaters until soft peaks form. Add the vanilla and then gradually add the caster sugar, a spoonful at a time, whisking well after each addition until the sugar dissolves, Whisk the mixture until thick and glossy. Spread the meringue mixture over the prepared baking paper using the marked circle as a guide for the base. Reduce oven temperature to 100°C and cook for 1.5 hours. Turn off the oven and allow the base to cool in the oven with the oven door very slightly ajar.
3. For the topping, spread cream over the pavlova base. Place whole strawberries around the edge of the base to form a border. Slice the remaining fruits and arrange over the cream. Cut the passionfruit in half and scoop out the pulp over the fruit.

Notes:

It’s very important to allow the base to cool in the oven or the base will cool too quickly and will crack. Some cracking and possibly even some honey-like syrup will happen anyway. The best way to prevent too much cracking is to make sure the sides of the pavlova are smoothed straight before cooking.

Pavlova is like a meringue and some recipes call for the addition of cornflour and cream of tartar, to give the pavlova more ‘chew’. However, this can make the otherwise very light pavlova less ‘melt in the mouth’. Any sweet fruit will do for the topping, as long as it’s been quite well drained. If fresh fruit isn’t available you can make a thick sauce by adding a little water and or liqueur (Grand Marnier, Benedictine, etc) to a good quality jam (or jams). You can make wedges in the cream and fill alternate ones with different jams. Add a few chocolate curls at the end.

Not suitable to freeze or microwave. Best kept in a refrigerator and eaten within 3 days.

I make this sauce to spread over my chocolate cake. It sets on the cake so it stays in place, and if you microwave a slice of cake with the sauce on, it melts and gets nice and gooey
Ingredients:

200g bar of milk chocolate
100g bar of dark chocolate (adjust the ratios if you really like dark chocolate!)
1 tbsp honey
100ml pouring cream (single or double works)
1 tbsp butter (doesn’t have to be exact)

Preparation time: a few minutes to break up the chocolate
Cooking time: about 15-20 minutes

Method:

1) Break the chocolate into squares

2) Heat about an inch of water in a small pan – keep it hot enough to steam but don’t let it boil. Rest a glass pyrex bowl over the pan, making sure that the bottom of the dish isn’t touching the water.

3) Place the butter in the bowl. When it’s melted, add the chocolate and stir with a spoon while it melts. Keep stirring so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the dish and burn.

4) Add the cream and honey and stir until well mixed.

5) Remove the bowl from the pan. If you’re using the sauce for cake, spread some of the sauce onto one half of your cake, for the middle filling. Place the other half of the cake on top, and then starting from the middle, spread the remainder of the sauce over the cake until the top of the cake is covered. I usually have enough sauce to cover the sides of the cake too.