It’s been a while since I’ve done a kids in the kitchen post, so for all you mums and dads out there here is a quick and fun idea. If you have trouble getting your kids to eat breakfast this might be your answer! It’s so easy and yet the result is such fun. You can combine art with cooking and hopefully follow it with consumption of the creation.

Isaac jumped at the chance to make this, these days it seems a little more difficult to get him into the kitchen since he’s getting terribly grown up at five and a half - gotta make sure you mention the half. It also seems though that adults like to do this too. I could not resist having a go myself and Kit moseyed into the kitchen to make his own toast masterpiece.

Milk Painted Toast

• White toast sliced bread
• milk
• food colourings
• paint brush

Pour a small amount of milk into a container and add food colouring for your desired shades.

Paint on to white bread and toast in the toaster.

Eat.

You really cannot get any easier than that! Remember to have some fun in the kitchen with your kids, it’s a fantastic learning opportunity in so many ways.

Tip from Isaac: Don’t paint too much milk on or your bread will get wet and fall to bits.

This recipe came from one of my local library forays. I modified a recipe from Carole Walters book - Great Cookies.  In a moment of desperation with hardly anything in the cupboard I was looking for a cookie recipe that used the ingredients that I had on hand. In the winter I find myself prone to hibernating and not wanting to take trips to the supermarket unless I have to. Staying in my slippers and turning on the heater and hardly wanting to poke my nose outside the door. But we all do that, don’t we?

I think I see it as a kind of challenge, looking in the cupboards and seeing what I can come up with without buying anything. I often think of women who had to cook in the depression at times like this, and I imagine them with only the absolute basics and still having to come up with something to feed their families. I have a number of depression years cookbooks including a very special one that I was sent recently by a friend. I’m going to be cooking and sharing some of the recipes from it with you all soon. There are all sorts of exciting chapters like “Father carves the fowl” and “Coffee at the bridge table”, it’s a real treat! Sorry I seem to have wandered away from my topic - but I just had to share that with you.

I really only had the most basic of ingredients and no white sugar. So brown sugar cookies with a handful of walnuts seemed like the obvious choice. That was pretty much all I could make with the selection in the pantry. I also had no eggs, so the ones you see pictured here are made with egg replacer. These are a nice little bite with a hot cuppa, and Isaac seemed to enjoy them tucked into his lunch box. Walnuts are more prolific here than pecans, but if you prefer you could add pecans to these. You can chocolate dip them as I have (I did this the following day with half the batch when I was forced to go outside and take a trip to the supermarket) or just roll the edges in some chopped nuts or demerara sugar.

I gave some of the cookie dough to my mother to bake when she was ready. Cookie dough can make a nice little “I’m thinking about you” gift for someone and lets face it, there is nothing quite like cookies fresh and warm right from the oven. Just bundle up the dough with the cooking instructions written down and you have an instant and tasty gift.

Brown Sugar Cookies with Walnuts

• 3 1/4 cups of flour
• 1 tspn baking soda
• 1/2 tspn salt
• 1 cup of walnuts finely chopped
• 200g/8oz butter (softened)
• 2 cups lightly packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tspns vanilla extract

For decorating: (optional)

• 1 egg lightly beaten with a tbspn of water
• 1/2 cup of coarsely chopped nuts
• 200g chocolate for dipping

Blend butter and brown sugar together until light in colour, then add in eggs one at a time, finally adding in the vanilla extract stirring until combined. I use vanilla paste - if you can get this, it’s fantastic, look at all those little seeds in that glorious amber syrup.

Sift in your dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda) and add in the finely chopped walnuts. Mix until well combined.

Shape into three 20cm/8 inch logs roughly 4cm /1 1/2 inches in diameter, wrap in plastic and chill until firm. This dough will keep in the fridge for up to three days or 1 month in the freezer.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.

Using a sharp knife slice the logs into cookies roughly 1/8th of an inch/1cm thick. Obviously you can make these slightly thicker or thinner depending on your personal taste, but cook time will need to be adjusted.

Decorate with nuts before baking, using the egg wash to help the nuts adhere to the cookie. If you wish to chocolate dip them you will need to do this once the cookie is cooked and cooled.

Bake for 7-8 minutes or until golden brown. These cookies may be frozen.

Crumpets - you cannot get more English than that. The word itself conjures up ladies with fine bone china cups of fragrant tea balanced delicately on saucers with their ankles demurely crossed. Quiet and polite conversation ensues while Thomas and Edward play croquet on the lawn.

Well .. not in our house. I mentioned quietly, I’m going to make crumpets. A very loud YUM was the response. They were not eaten with tea in china cups, but hot out of the pan at the bench with golden syrup drizzled from the bottle. In fact I think Kit ate his over the sink so he would not have to bother with a plate. Isaac actually contemplated no golden syrup for a moment so he would not have to wash his hands afterwards. Yes, we’re a rather uncouth lot our family.

The origin of crumpets has been dated back as far as the 1300’s, with something called crompid cake, which food historians seem to think was the humble crumpets first appearance. Crumpets are not the same as an English muffin. They are quite different and have a totally different cooking method and texture. Some crumpet recipes have eggs in them, while others do not. The one I’ve given here is a recipe without eggs, and easily made vegan with the use of soy milk.

I had a bit of an interesting time making these. I weighed and measured out my ingredients carefully - but I had a feeling that my batter was too thick. It had been a while since I’d made them and I could not quite remember what the batter was supposed to be like. I went ahead anyway. Once I started to cook them I decided the batter was definitely too thick and added extra liquid. I realised at that point that my kitchen scale had been resting on the lid of the cookie jar and consequently I had measured way too much flour into the mix. Easily rectified though with the extra liquid.

Lesson learned. Your batter needs to be thick, but should spread to the edges of the rings that you use to mould your crumpets in on it’s own and the little bubbles on top should appear within the first minute or so of cooking. If you are not getting many little holes in your crumpets add a little extra water to your crumpet batter. Also as the batter stands while you cook you may need to add additional water since it thickens a little.

If you don’t have special crumpet rings you can still make these. Try using high sided cookie cutters, tuna cans with the bottom and top cut out (be careful on sharp edges), egg poaching rings or food moulds. I used a combination of egg poaching rings and food moulds for these. If you can, choose something that is 2-3 inches across that is roughly the right size for a crumpet. Make sure you grease your pan and your rings after each crumpet. This is important or they will stick to the rings. You can use a little cooking spray or butter.

English Crumpets

(recipe from Bill Granger - Sydney Food)

Makes 16-25 crumpets depending on your mould size)

• 1 1/2 cups of milk
• 1 1/2 tspns sugar
• 7g (1/4 oz)sachet of dried instant yeast
• 375g/12 oz flour
• 1/2 tspn baking soda
• 200ml/6 1/2 fl oz water
• pinch of salt

Pour the milk into a saucepan and heat until just warm. Transfer into a bowl and add the sugar and yeast. Allow to stand for 10 minutes or until the milk starts to bubble.

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the milk/yeast mixture to the flour and beat with an electric beater until completely smooth.

Cover in plastic wrap and stand in a warm place for 1- 1 1/2 hours until doubled in volume and full of air bubbles.

Mix the baking soda with the water and use your electric beater to combine this with the batter.

Heat a heavy based frying pan or griddle over a medium  heat and grease with a little butter.

Grease your crumpet moulds also - keep them greased throughout the cooking. Place your moulds on the hot surface and place 2-3 Tblspns of mixture inside the mould. Your first 2-3 crumpets will be a little trial and error to get your desired thickness. Your mixture will rise in the moulds.

Within a short period of time your crumpets should get small bubbles all over the surface that begin to break. It will look like this.

Once the surface is covered in broken bubbles and a light skin has formed you can remove your crumpet from the mould, turn gently and cook on the other side.

Remove from the pan and snuggle your crumpets in a clean tea towel while you cook the rest.

The crumpets can be eaten fresh or toasted.

Some ideas for topping your crumpets:

Crumpets are great used for either sweet or savoury toppings

• Honey
• Golden syrup
• Jams
• Nutella
• Top with cheese and bacon and grill
• Tomato and fresh mozzarella
• spaghetti and cheese
• meatballs and cheese
• refried beans and salsa
• sloppy Joe toppings.

This is not the kind of thing that I envisage people making regularly unless you have a lot of time at home. But to make now and then on a lazy weekend, they are perfect.

I seem to be making a lot of loaves lately. I guess I am going through a phase. I do that, I have temporary obsessions - I do it with books, crafts, TV shows, computer games, and various other grand ideas but most especially with food. Indulge my loaf obsession just for a little longer.

This is one of Bill Grangers recipes. For those of you that are not familiar with him, he’s a very handsome Australian self taught cook that makes simple but incredibly delicious food. He has a family and he shares the recipes that he likes to make for both his family and his restaurants. No garnished within an inch of it’s life and smothered in thick sauces food here. This recipe has come from his Sydney Food book.

This coconut bread recipe has been cooked countless times in our house. It’s quite substantial, after you’ve eaten a slice you know you’ve eaten it. This is not a light loaf, this is dense and slightly chewy with the shreds of coconut adding texture.

The reason I made this loaf this week is because of this:

It’s a new toaster! My old one finally died and I had to trundle off down to the store and buy this shiny little number. It was a month for appliance deaths in our house. The electric jug also came to an untimely end, as did a bedside light, an electric blanket, and the television.

This toaster can fit extra wide and large pieces of toast. In the recipe for the coconut bread it mentions that the loaf is very good toasted for breakfast. I’ve always wanted to try it toasted but I’ve never had a toaster that would fit a nice thick slice of this loaf. Making this loaf was the first thing on the agenda when this toaster took up residence in our kitchen.

What actually happened of course was that we ate all the loaf while it was warm from the oven and there was none left to toast because I have a very greedy family that appreciates home baking.

If anyone actually manages to get a slice of this into their toaster please let me know what it’s like, I’m pretty sure none of it will ever last long enough to make it into our toaster.

Jamaican Coconut Bread

• 2 eggs
• 300mls milk
• 1 tspn vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tspns baking powder
• 2 tspns cinnamon
• 1 cup of caster (superfine) sugar
• 150 g shredded unsweetened coconut
• 75 g butter melted

Preheat oven to 180c/350F and line a loaf pan with baking paper.

Lightly whisk eggs, milk and vanilla together.

Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl and add the coconut and sugar. Make a well in the centre and stir in the egg mixture until well combined. Add in your melted butter and stir until just smooth.

Pour into your loaf pan and bake for roughly 1 hour or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Serve in thick slices with a light dusting of icing sugar, with butter and lime marmalade. Or toast it when it’s completely cool if your family have not eaten it all.

My home town is called Dunedin which means “little Edinburgh”, there’s a very strong Scottish influence and heritage in this little town of ours. We have a statue of the Scottish poet Robbie Burns in the town centre, a castle called Larnach castle, haggis served now and then, and Octagonal Day once a year where all the pipe bands from all over the country come to compete. It’s not at all uncommon to see a piper on a street corner busking, or hear the hurl of the pipes drifting out over the city.  A man in a kilt walking down the street will not even get a second glance here, unless he has particularly nice legs of course!

Scones are Scottish in origin and very much a part of our cultural heritage, including girdle scones. An interesting fact for you - Did you know that Scone Palace is the place where Scottish kings were crowned?

Why are they called girdle scones? Apparently the Scots refer to a griddle as a girdle and these little scones are not cooked in the oven they are cooked on a hot griddle or frying pan with a little salted butter.

If you are sweltering in the heat in the northern hemisphere and don’t want to turn on that oven, this is the perfect way to make scones. If you are freezing in the southern hemisphere, then treat yourself to some hot scones. See? Perfect, no matter where you live.

Unlike an oven baked scone, these are ever so slightly crisp on the outside, with the gentle flavour of brown butter. They are super fast to make and of course you can use any of the flavour variations that you would with an oven baked scone. Currant, cranberry, sultanas, or cheese would all work well. You could cut them into wedges before you cook them as I have, or make one giant girdle scone and cut into wedges after it’s cooked if you wish. This recipe is easily doubled. Fast to make, great to eat, what more could you ask from a wee bit ‘o bread.

Girdle Scones

- variation from the Edmonds cookbook.

Note: this is not a sweet scone - the mix is plain, if you like a sweet scone you may add 3 Tblspns sugar in the dry ingredients stage.

• 1 cup flour
• 2 tspns baking powder
• 1 Tblspn of butter
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup of currants
• aprox 1/2 cup of milk

Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl

Cut or rub in the butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs

Add enough milk to make a soft dough and shape into a circle on a lightly floured board. Roll out to roughly 1.5 cm (1/2 an inch) thick and cut into eight wedges.

Cook on a hot greased girdle, hotplate or frying pan until golden and cooked in the centre - this will be roughly 5 minutes on each side.

Snuggle them up on the girdle arranged in the same way you cut them.

When you turn your scone wedges place them gently on the hot surface and only turn once.

Serve hot from the pan, slathered in your favourite jam.