Fig and Cranberry Hot Cross Buns stuffed with Mixed Berry Compote

My first job was Baker’s Delight. I was there for close to 4 years and Easter was 6 absolute crazy time. Coming home sticky and burntfrom bagging hot cross buns all day. But even through all that, I still love hot cross buns.

I prefer mine with less traditional fruits like figs , apricots and cranberries. And to be honest, this recipe doesn’t have apricots just because I was lazy and didn’t want to go to Coles for the thousandth time.

I’ve put a spin on these buns though. Theyre stuffed! Only a little bit. With Baker’s of NZ mixed berry compote. When these buns are warm and covered in butter, they’re heaven if i do say so myself.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 sachet active dry yeast (7g)
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1½ cups luke warm milk/milk alternative
• 4¼ cups plain flour, plus extra for kneading
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 50ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 egg
• 1.5 cup dried figs, chopped
• 1 cup dried craisins/cranberries
• ¾ cup Barker’s of NZ Mixed Berry Compote

Extra

• ½ cup plain flour
• ½ cup of water
• ½ cup of sugar
• ½ cup of water

METHOD

• Place the yeast, 2 teaspoons sugar and the milk in a large bowl and set aside for 5 minutes. When the mixture starts to foam, the yeast is active.
• Add the flour, spices, oil, egg, fruits and remaining sugar to the yeast mixture and mix until a sticky dough forms.
• Knead the dough on a floured surface for 6-8 minutes or until elastic. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean, damp cloth and set aside in a warm place for 1-2 hours or until doubled in size.
• Divide the dough into 15 pieces and roll into balls. Use your thumb to press a hole into the centre of the bun, not breaking the dough but making a deep hole. Spoon approximately ½-1 tsp of compote into the hole, do not over fill. Press the edges of the dough together so the compote is buried into the centre of the bun. Some compote may leak during this process, just ensure the dough is well joined so no compote leaks when baking.
• Arrange the dough balls in a lightly greased 30cm by 20cm rectangle tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Cover with a damp cloth and set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes or until risen.
• Preheat oven to 200°C.
• Place the extra flour and the ½ cup of water in a bowl and stir to combine. Place in a zip lock back and snip a small bit of corner off. Pipe crosses onto the buns.
• Bake for 30–35 minutes or until golden and springy to touch.
• While the hot cross buns are baking, make the glaze. Boil the water on a stove top, add the sugar and stir until dissolved. When the buns come out of the oven, brush the buns with the glaze immediately. Enjoy!

Notes:

• I have made this with gluten free flour with success! Generally just requires about 1/2 cup extra flour
• I have also made this vegan by removing the egg! Still works well, just a little denser

Jammy Coconut Slice

I think jam and coconut are a match made in heaven. Do you remember those Iced Vovo biscuits? Yeah they were my favourite! The blend of biscuit, jam, marshmallow and coconut was unbeatable! They always remind me of steaming hot cuppas at my nanna’s house.

I’m so lucky to be working with Barker’s NZ, a family run business in New Zealand that specialise in preserving fruits into jams, compotes and cordials. Their jam is absolutely delicious. Real berries in traditional slow cooked jam.

So I put together this recipe to hero the jam and pair it with coconut of course. The coconut flour adds extra fibre to keep our tummies happy and you can easily make this gluten free by using a gluten free flour

Jammy Coconut Slice

Ingredients

Base

–          ¼ cup of butter

–          ½ cup of coconut flour

–          2/3 cup almonds

–          ¼ cup desiccated coconut

–          1/3 cup of plain flour

–          ¼ cup of sugar

–          1 tbsp honey

–          1-2 tbsp of milk

Filling

–          1 cup of Barker’s NZ Raspberry Jam

Top layer

–          3 eggs

–          2 cups of desiccated coconut

–          ¼ cup sugar

–          5 figs, sliced (optional)

Method

1. Preheat over to 200c fan-forced
2. Using a food processor, combine all base ingredients, starting with the almonds to form flour. Add the remainder of the ingredients and add enough milk so the dough is combined
3. Press the base into a lined tin, approx. 20cm by 30cm
4. Baked for 30 minutes, until the top becomes golden. Remove the base and cool for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 180c
5. Meanwhile, combine the top layer ingredients well with a fork in a medium bowl
6. Spread the Barker’s NZ Raspberry Jam over the base evenly and then pour the top layer batter over the jam. Use the back of a spoon to gently spread it evenly. Place the figs over the topping
7. Bake for 30 minutes until the top is golden brown all over. Leave to cool before serving.

Tips

–          If you don’t have any coconut flour, you can use almond meal. I use coconut flour due to the high fibre content.

–          If you’re not using the figs, the top layer may cook quicker as there is no extra moisture coming from the fruit. So keep an eye on it and take it out once golden brown.

Let me know what you think, and tag me @LM_nutrition if you post it on Instagram so I can share it ❤️

Love, LM

Broccoli and Basil Pesto

It’s been quite a while since my last blog post. I’ve still been recipe developing but mainly just posting the recipes up on my Instagram in the caption.

However, this one is deserving of its own post. I’ve always love pesto. Pesto on pasta, pizza, crackers or even as an addition to a simple cheese toastie. But pesto has the potential to be bland and so-so.

Full of good fats, antioxidants and flavour!

Basil and Broccoli Pesto

Ingredients

• 1 cup of pine nuts
• 1 cup of fresh basil
• 1/3 cup Cobram estate extra virgin olive oil
• 4 florets of broccoli
• 1/2 cup of rocket
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Preheat oven to 180°c
• Roast pine nuts for 8-10 minutes until golden
• Steam broccoli until soft
• Blend all ingredients together, but leave of 1/4 of a cup of pine nuts
• Once creamy, stir through the rest of the pine nuts for extra crunch!
• Enjoy!

 

Easy Peasy Sweet Potato and Basil Gnocchi

I absolutely love gnocchi. Not the package stuff. Once you have real, homemade gnocchi it’s so difficult to go back to the rubbery stuff from the supermarket.

I always forget how easy it is to make gnocchi. So I never have it.

And I’ve never made a sweet potato version.

So I gave it a shot and it rocked if I do say so myself.

• Vegan
• Gluten Free
• Low GI
• Full of Flavour
• Increased veggie serves to your day

So the recipe goes…

Ingredients:

• 1.5kg sweet potato
• 1 cup of teff flour
• 1 to 1.5 cups of cassava flour + extra for rolling
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/4 cup of roza’s gourmet basil pesto (or your favourite basil pesto)
• 1 chia egg (1 tbsp of chia mixed with 3 tbsp of water, left to sit for 15 minutes until jelly-like)

Method

1. Peel and cube sweet potato. Cube small, so less steaming time.
2. Steam all sweet potato and drain any remaining water. I steam mine in batches in the microwave and drain liquid from the bottom of the bowl
3. Mash the sweet potato well, add pesto, chia egg and nutritional yeast. Mix well
4. Add flour a bit at a time. Mix in well before adding more. Once it is a soft dough-like consistency, flour your hands and mix/knead dough with your hands in the bowl.
5. Sprinkle flour on a clean surface and roll out dough into sausage like objects. Cut into desired size.
6. To cook, just add to a pot of boiling water and once the pasta comes to the surface, it’s ready to eat (usually ~3 minutes)
7. Serve with a killer sauce and roasted pine nuts!

Cauliflower, Potato and Chickpea Curry

Curry is such a perfect winter meal. Especially when it takes minimal effort and you have leftovers for weeks!

When I made this curry, I sort of made it up as I went along. And you can do the same if you want. Switch around the veggies, add some more chilli or whatever suits you. But I promise, this version will not disappoint.

Double Choc Caramel Slice

Who doesn’t love caramel slice?
I certainly do. I remember my school canteen sold caramel slice for $3.50. It was a huge slice! And I would only sometimes let myself by it, but when I did, I would make it last all day, savouring every bite.

Since turning vegan, I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect caramel slice that wasn’t overly complicated. It’s been hard. The caramel has been to gooey, the chocolate doesn’t taste right or it has just taken too long to make!

Spiced Apple Muffins

I had so many apples. Some how I had ended up with 2 huge bags of homegrown, beautiful, crunchy apples. And there are only so many apples you can eat before they go bad!

I made simple apple crumble, stewed apple, grated apple in bircher, apple in smoothies. But there were still so many left! And they were starting to go soft as well.

My mum used to always make a lot of fruit based baked goods. Banana cake, Berry muffins, Orange and Poppy seeds cake and of course Cinnamon and Apple Muffins. My mum, being health conscious, would always make them healthy of course.

So I set out to make a huge batch of Apple Muffins. All the recipes I found only required 1 or 2 apples! That wasn’t going to help my apple dilemma. So instead I made up a recipe myself, and hoped for the best.

Surprisingly, I got it first shot! I knew I’d got it right because I got home from work the next day and only 1 muffin was left! Out of 12!

So I made them again. And again. And again. They are chock full of apples, so sweet from the sugar of the fruit and so soft and moist from the juice of the apples. These babies are ridiculously simple and I even know the recipe off by heart now.

Are you ready for this?

Spiced Apple Muffins
Makes: 12

Ingredients

• 1 cup of soy milk
• 2 tsp vinegar
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 4 medium apples
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 2.5 cups of flour (white, wholemeal or gluten free)
• 1 tsp bicarb soda
• 1 tsp baking powder

Method

1. Line a 12 muffin pan with patties and preheat oven to 180C fan forced
2. Put milk and vinegar into bowl for 10 minutes
3. Dice the apple with skin on, into small pieces
4. Melt the coconut oil on the stove top at low heat. Add the milk mixture and heat until the milk is warm
5. Put the oil and milk mixture into a large bowl and whisk in coconut sugar and vanilla
6. Add spices, flour, bicarb and baking powder. Stir with a large spoon until smooth
7. Add apples and stir through
8. Divide evenly between muffin patties
9. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the tops are golden and feel firm when the tops are pressed.
10. Store for up to 5 days in an air tight container.

Sushi Bowls with Lettuce Cups

I’ve been having crazy sushi craving recently. All I want is sushi. Even for breakfast (sounding a little crazy right now, I know).

But the issue is, I am terrible at making sushi. It always falls apart everywhere and it never tastes the same as store bought vegan sushi.

Also buying vegan sushi can be such a mission sometimes because everyone puts that mayonnaise thing through the rice. Make sure you’re checking for that when you buy it!

Anzac Biscuits Minus the Nasties

I love Anzac biscuits. They’re sweet, chewy yet crunchy and so freaking delicious. I used to beg my mother to buy them whenever I saw them at the supermarket. They came in these huge ANZAC tins and the biscuits were not even that good now that I look back on them, but I still loved them, especially dunked in a big cup of tea.

But what really gets me about these biscuits is that as I was mixing them together, they completely smelt like all of my Food Tech memories. Food Tech was one of those electives in school that children either hated or loved. I loved it except the teacher always wanted you to follow the recipe EXACTLY. No alterations, no additions, nothing.

I’ve been looking for a vegan recipe for a little while but then I decided to just adapt an old recipe and you know what? They turned out just as good!

Vegan ✓
Dairy Free ✓
Fructose Friendly ✓
Refined Sugar Free ✓
Easy to Make Gluten Free ✓

Sunday Morning Brunch

I never do brunch on Sunday.

I am impatient when it comes to food and coffee so brunch on Sunday in Melbourne is a terrible idea. Almost every cafe is bursting with people, with waiting lists and lines and did I mention waiting? 

But I still love brunch. So when my boyfriend said ‘Hey let’s go to Top Paddock for breakfast!,’ how could I say no?

So we get to Top Paddock and (as I suspected) there was a half an hour waiting list. My boyfriend thought this was too long but was craving their Hotcake. Then I remembered that The Kettle Black did a similar Hotcake so we ventured over to South Melbourne, knowing there would be yet another wait for breakfast.