Berries andPie

baking, cooking, recipes, eating, and obsessing over food

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Fig & Gingerbread Biscuits

Fig and Gingerbread BiscuitsAs the weather heats up and Christmas draws ever closer, my desire to cook seems to rise with the mercury. So it was, when my Mum told me about some fig and ginger biscuits she was enjoying, I was inspired to create my own version.

Last year around this time Fiona, from The Grape and The Grain, and I found a seriously amazing recipe with a twist on gingerbread. It's quickly became s favourite! I made this for 2 friends and my hubby last year to find it had dissapeared only moments later. The delicious bite sized pieces do make this quite easy, though!

While not the prettiest biscuit, their spicy lovliness and the slight crunch of the fig seeds are really quite enticing, if I can say so myself! My recipe is really quite similar to the original with a couple of extra ingredients.

Ingredients - 1 cup chopped dried figs - 1/2 cup chopped crystalised ginger - 1/4 cup golden syrup - 40g brown sugar - 20g butter - 100g plain flour - 1tbsp self-raising flour - 1/4 tbsp bicarbonate of soda - 1tbsp dried ground ginger - 1/4tbsp cinnamon and 1/4tbsp allspice OR 1/2tbsp mixed spice - 1 egg yolk

Makes about 15-20.

Method 1. Preheat oven to 160°C, and line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

2. Combine the golden syrup, brown sugar, butter and figs in a saucepan over low heat; stir until the butter is melted, sugar disolved and figs coated. Remove from heat and allow to cool a little while you complete the next step.

3. Sift flours, bicarb and spices into a bowl

4. Stir the egg yolk through the syrup/fig mixture and add to flour, along with candied ginger. Stir the ingredients until combined, use your hands to form a dough if needed.

5. Roll tablespoon(ish) sized balls of the dough, and place about 1 1/2 inches apart on the baking tray.

6. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden. Remove from oven, and allow to cool on trays

7. Enjoy!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Good Food Affare

I'm getting really excited about Good Food Affare - an event coming up at the end of November at Castle Hill Showground (map), in Sydney, which is only 15 - 20 minutes from where I live.

It's on November 21st to 23rd, and even better is the free admission! I'm hoping to go on the Saturday, and I'm really looking forward to the Growers Market and Skye's Cafe.

(a sucker for pretty anything, I love their website,too!)

A Garden's Growing

"Of all the wonderful things in the wonderful universe of God, nothing seems to me more surprising than the planting of a seed in the blank earth and the result thereof."

Julie Moir Messervy

The last two days my husband, Nick, and I had the rare luxury of a weekend at home together. Nick works shifts, swapping between rising before the sun, and finishing long after I should be asleep!

We've been speaking (with the slight possibility of me nagging) of setting up a herb and vegetable garden for a while now. Yesterday's beautiful weather, plus a few too many hours spent watching Jamie at Home on the Food channel prompted us to go ahead and do it.

So off we went to the nursery where we bought pots, plants, seeds and soil, and toiled our afternoon away, finally collapsing, satisfied, with our hands covered in dirt. It felt so honest and real, and I realised how much I've missed the garden. I remember hours of our childhood which we spent planting freesias and digging up weeds. My Grandma showed me how to grow geraniums from clippings, which was an absolute delight!

I'm now eagerly awaiting the fruits of our labours in the kitchen, and can't wait to share!

Friday, October 3, 2008

Step 1. About This Blog & Me

Oska

I'm a Sydney based web designer who loves to bake. I live with my husband, ridiculously fluffy cat, and rickety electric oven. Sadly, husband and cat can not eat as much as I'd otherwise like to cook!

After admiring a bounty of beautiful foodie blogs for a while now, the creation of my friend Fiona's blog pushed me over the edge and I 'had' to start my own.

The name of this blog comes from one of my earliest food memories: my brother, cousins and I climbing the fence to pick mulberries from our neighbour's tree (she didn't mind - I promise!). We'd take them (with stained and sticky hands!), inside and nag our mother to make mulberry pie. She would always refuse (there was little she could do with only a handful of mulberries!), but the activity, something we had done ourselves, was so fun and exciting. The memory still makes me smile to this day (and want to pick mulberries!).

I love to bake and cook, and this blog is really to document this, hopefully disasters avoided (or omitted!), so let's see how I go!