Glenorchy Flapjacks

Flapjacks are a traditional British treat…this version coming by way of Glenorchy on the South Island of New Zealand.

Flapjacks have nothing to do with pancakes, which is what comes to mind, but rather more like a granola bar. It is all about the oats…and Lyle’s Golden Syrup, which is also British. The syrup is made from refining sugar cane, or sugar beet juice, into sugar. It had a butterscotch flavor to me and was the consistency of honey.

The bars are easy to make…consisting of oats, coconut, crystallized ginger, and dried cranberries…held together with a melted mixture of butter, brown sugar, and Lyle’s. The batter is smoothed out into a pan, sprinkled with sesame seeds and baked until golden.

We are cautioned against over-baking…that they will firm in the cooling but I seemed to have under baked mine because I didn’t get really nice, tight bars. They tasted great but not the prettiest when separated…seemed a bit more like big granola clumps. 🤷‍♀️. So, either I didn’t push down enough on the batter in the pan, or I slightly under baked them…or maybe a little bit of both.

I am happy to say they did firm up a bit more by the next day…not super pretty squares, but at least squares haha.

We liked these! I think anyone who enjoys granola bars, or anything with oats, would be a fan. It was a nice change from our usual go-to.

This one is a keeper!

Beef and Beer Stew

My husband was all about trying this one. We don’t eat a lot of red meat…or bacon for that matter, so he was pretty excited I had a recipe calling for both.

This recipe is Dorie’s take on the Flemish dish, Beef Carbonnade…”a slowly braised stew characterized by an abundance of onions, a little bacon, and a base of dark beer”.

This dish is slow cooked for a long time…3 hours in the oven. There is also about and hour and half prep time.

There are a number of steps…none of them hard or individually time consuming.

We need to prep/sear the meat, cook the bacon, caramelize the onions and then combine all the ingredients..of which there are quite a few. We have allspice, cloves, dark beer, beef broth, brown sugar, cider vinegar, grainy mustard, tomato paste, fresh thyme, and bay leaves.

All of this is brought to a boil in the Dutch oven and then transferred to the oven to cook for 3 hours. We are told traditionally this is served over wide noodles and that we should as well…so I did.

My husband was in heaven. He loved this dish…said it was restaurant worthy and reminded him of short ribs. For me, I am just not enough of a beef lover to have much of an opinion, but I did say if I am going to have bacon, I want to be able to taste it…and I couldn’t really taste it. 😂🤷‍♀️

All in all…a huge success! My husband and I were talking and I don’t think in almost 32 years of marriage I have ever made beef stew so it was time I guess haha.

This one is a keeper!

Swirled, Spiced Sour Cream Bundt Cake

This was a hit!

Our bake this month is a re-make of a classic sour cream Bundt cake. We take the basic batter and elevate it with some allspice, cinnamon, and brown sugar and then take it to another level with a double swirl made up of sugar, mini chocolate chips, chopped nuts, cocoa, cinnamon, and allspice.

This recipe is one of those that is pretty easy to pull together. None of the ingredients are out of the ordinary and you basically mix, assemble, and bake. After it cools you have the option of adding an icing glaze…which, is there really ever any option?? 😂

This was another recipe that smelled so good while baking. I did have a little trouble getting my cake out of the pan…I am assuming I wasn’t as careful as I thought I was with the swirl…maybe some got to the edge of the pan. It was a little touch and go, but it all turned out ok…and it tasted amazing. Somehow my “double-swirl” turned into a single but my tasters were none the wiser. Not sure what happened with that but clearly it sank a bit together. When I make this again, I will have to try a slightly different approach…or not…I didn’t hear any complaints haha.

This one is a keeper!

Carrot-And-Mustard Rillettes

I had no idea what a Rillettes was, but those who do, would know right away this has to be a take on the classic dish.

I looked it up…traditionally Rillettes refers to a dish, usually of pork but could be a number of meats, which is slowly cooked for up to 10 hours immersed in fat. The final product is a pâté…very smooth, which is spread on bread.

Ours is not meat, or smooth but is a version similar to what is served at The Bar Room…the restaurant at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. I figured they must know what they are doing but nothing about this dish made sense to me. Carrots, mustard…lots of mustard, and cheese on bread…with more mustard hahaha.

I was intrigued.

There is a process for making these…with some standing time. You don’t just whip these up…they take some planning.

• First you prepare the carrots…it is suggested to steam them but I opted to roast them. They are to retain some of their crunch to match the chewiness of the cheese.
• Next, the carrots are seasoned with cumin, salt, and pepper and are to sit for 30 min.
• After sitting, the carrots are mixed with small cubed cheese…I used Gruyère…grainy Dijon, smooth Dijon, and olive oil. This is to sit and “ripen” at room temp for 1-3 hours.
• Broil some bread…I used a baguette
• Prepare the spread…of Mayo, Greek yogurt, grainy Dijon, smooth Dijon, salt, and pepper
• Assemble..drizzle olive oil on top

So, I served these with dinner not knowing what we would think of these…I mean carrots and cheese with mustard on toast 🤷‍♀️. I think it sounds a bit wild and not what I would order at a restaurant BUT maybe I should be…ordering those things that seem a bit wild because these were absolutely fantastic!!

Fantastic.

My husband said he loved them, that he would crave them. He did say he thinks you have to love mustard, but for some reason the combo works. I had only made half of the recipe, not knowing how we would like it…ended up making the other half the next night since I had ingredients to do it again. What a pleasant surprise.

This one is a keeper!

Leckerli

What a history lesson our recipe was for this one!

I have never heard of Leckerli, so I was glad for the overview. These cookies date back to the 1400s with deep roots in Switzerland and also the Alsatian region of France. They are a spice cookie, in the gingerbread family…most commonly associated with Christmas but are enjoyed all year long.

The BEST part about making these was sharing them with a friend of ours that lived in Switzerland. He took one bite and said, these are Leckerli!! I was like, YES!! He LOVED them…said this was the best version and loved the addition of the candied orange peel in these cookies. That was just the best…his enthusiasm made my day.

The cookies are made from a heavy dough of honey, sugar, candied orange peel, and almonds. There are some variations, but it is always cooked in one slab and then cut down into pieces.

There were a few steps to this recipe…the first being, to make candied orange peel. This was a first for me which I will have to remember because I have an orange tree in my backyard haha. I can have candied orange peel on the ready. It didn’t take too long…basically simmering the peel in some sugar water for about 45 min until the skin is translucent. Interestingly I tried the candied peel and did not like it BUT loved it in the cookie. 🤷‍♀️. Maybe it is better baked into something.

Once I had my orange peel, I made up the dough…the very stiff dough; honey, sugar, candied orange peel, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, black pepper, sliced almonds, and some rum. We need to roll it out between parchment and then let it rest either at room temperature for 24 hrs or in the fridge for 48.

The next day, the slab of dough is baked for 15 min, taken from the oven and given a glaze of confectioners sugar, water, and a little more rum. The whole thing then cools to room temperature so it can be cut into small bars.

This smelled amazing while baking… a little bit of Christmas going on in March! All of my tasters agreed that this was very unique…unlike anything we had tried before….with the exception of my Switzerland friend of course! The orange flavor is in the forefront, but does not overpower the dessert. The chewy texture was on point. These were such a nice surprise, and probably something we would never have had the opportunity to try. They would make a welcome addition to any cookie platter…especially during the holidays.

This one is a keeper!