Wednesday, July 28, 2010

American-Australian Food conversion chart

Found something interesting today... I always get confused when I see terms like "all-purpose flour" and "granulated sugar" on a recipe but not find them at the supermarket. I even thought "vanilla essence" and "vanilla extract" were two different things! Until I found this handy American-Australian Food Conversion chart on http://alldownunder.com/oz-k/convert/food-chart.htm.

"The cultural differences in food can be quite entertaining. However, when you're trying to use a recipe from another country, it's nice to know what they're talking about. You'll find below some of the most common cooking conversions used."
Australian
bicarbonate of soda
biscuits
scones
chillies
chocolate, cooking
cocoa
copha
conserve
corn flour
cream, whipping
cream, single
desiccated coconut
essence
vanilla essence
flour, plain
flour, self raising
flour, whole meal
gelatine or Airplane jelly
stock cubes
hundreds and thousands
sugar, caster
sugar, icing
syrup, golden
tomato sauce
treacle
zest, lemon, etc
Rice Bubbles

beetroot
capsicum
chickpeas
onion, Spanish
onion, spring
rock melon
shallots
sultanas
paw paw

Balmain bug
banger
minced beef
minced meat
prawns
skirt steak
king prawns

baking tray
oven slide
cake cooler
cake tin
ring tin
Swiss roll tin
Lamington tin
greaseproof paper
patty cups
tea towel
griller (separate from oven)
American
baking soda
cookies
biscuits
chilli pepper
chocolate, baking
cocoa powder
vegetable shortening
jelly
cornstarch
cream, heavy
cream, half and half
shredded coconut
extract
vanilla extract
flour, all-purpose
flour, self-rising
flour, whole wheat
gelatine or Jello
bullion cubes
sprinkles (nearest equivalent)
sugar, granulated (but finer)
sugar, confectioners
syrup, corn
ketchup or catsup
molasses
zest or rind, lemon, etc
Rice Crispies

round beets
bell pepper
garbanzos
onion, purple / red
scallions
cantaloupe
scallions, green onions
raisins, golden
papaya

small, sweet crayfish
link sausage
ground beef
ground meat
shrimp
flank steak
jumbo shrimp

cookie sheet
cookie sheet
wire rack
baking pan
tube pan
jelly roll pan
13" x 9" x 2" pan
wax paper
paper cupcake holders
dish towel
broiler (inside oven)

Friday, July 16, 2010

Tiramisu Mini Cupcakes

I am yet to make a proper Tiramisu, but this comes close to my favourite recipe. For now anyway =) This takes a bit more effort than normal cupcakes because of all the layering and decorating - but if you love cheese and coffee like me, it's worth every minute perfecting it! What's best about it? It's bite-sized, and tastes oh so good!



There are three parts to this recipe: the basic vanilla cupcake, the cream cheese filling, and the coffee syrup.

Basic Vanilla Mini Cupcakes

1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1/3 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

  1. Preheat oven to 160'C. Line a 24 mini-cupcake pan.
  2. Use electric beater to cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
  3. Add flour, milk, egg and vanilla, and beat with electric mixer on medium until well combined.
  4. Divide mixture evenly into the pan, bake for 10-15mins until firm to touch. Allow to cool fully before putting it together.

Coffee Syrup

Mix together:
1Tbs coffee powder
1/2 cup hot water
3 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs brandy/Kahlua (optional)

*Allow to cool before use.

Cream Cheese filling

Whip together:
170g cream cheese @ room temp.
3 tbs thickened cream
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1-1/2 cup icing powder (depending on how sweet you like it)

Now the fun part!
  1. Cut a neat round cone off the top of cupcake.
  2. Pour 1 tsp of coffee syrup into the pit, then fill pit with cream cheese.
  3. Soak the tip of the cone cut-out with coffee syrup and put it back in place on top of the cream cheese.
  4. Spoon or pipe more cream cheese on top, sprinkle cocoa and/or coffee powder to finish off.
  5. Repeat with the rest of the cupcakes!

Practise makes perfect! Enjoy!

Chocolate Ice-cream

Had some thickened cream sitting in the fridge and didn't want it to expire... so looked through my collection of recipes and found something that I've made once a while ago... Chocolate ice-cream, without all the fuss =D This recipe is awesome, because it tastes great, and is compatible with my laziness ^^ I think I got it from either the Nestle or Carnation website (the wonders of condensed milk!) The result is creamy, but leaning towards a bit too sweet for my liking. Has that sweet condensed milk after-taste. But what can I say, it's ice-cream, and I'm not a big ice-cream fan =P



What you need:

1/2 tbs Vanilla essence
225 ml double cream
198g condensed milk (~1/2can)
75 ml milk
2tsp cocoa powder (or Milo)

How to make it:

1. Add vanilla essence and cream into a mixing bowl and beat/whip until very thick.
2. Pour in condensed milk and fresh milk.
3. Mix cocoa/milo powder with 1 Tbs boiling water and add to bowl. Whip until even consistency and mixture thickens a bit.
4. Pour mixture into large bowl/tray so that it forms a shallow/thin layer (freezes quicker). Freeze for 2 hours, then remove and beat more if not thick. Return to freezer for another hour (alternately, leave tray in freezer overnight like I did =D)

*Optional: stir in choc chip, nuts or dried fruit after step 3.(I put Malteasers in once)