Author: Karen Claassen

These rusks remind me of energy bars because they are so full of seeds and nuts, but of course much more substantial. The recipe yields about 80 fingers/rusks.

1kg Nutty Wheat (make your own by mixing plain flour and wheat bran in a 5:1 ratio)

250ml X 4 rolled oats

250ml X 2 seeds and nuts (take your pick from sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, linseed, chopped pecan or almonds; I used sesame and linseed seeds and chopped almonds)

250ml desiccated coconut

250ml brown sugar

7.5ml salt

15ml baking powder

400g butter, melted

3 eggs

500ml buttermilk

Preheat your oven to 180℃.

Grease 2 standard roasting tins and set aside.

Mix together the nutty wheat, oats, seeds and nuts, coconut, sugar, salt and baking powder.

Melt the butter and pour it over the dry ingredients. Mix this really well, incorporating the butter throughout the entire mixture.

Whisk together the eggs and buttermilk and add this to the flour mixture.

Mix the ingredients together with your hands, making sure to incorporate dry and wet really well.

Spoon the rusk mixture into the two greased tins and press it into the pan with the palm of your hand.

Now cut it into bars, about two finger’s width.

Bake for one hour.

Cool the rusks so that it is cold enough to handle.

Break up the pre-cut fingers and place them slightly apart on large baking sheets.

Dry the rusks in a 100℃ oven for about 3 hours.

Store in an airtight container.

This is an idea, opposed to a recipe, for sprucing up a cheese platter and/or adding something with warmth. It is a brilliant idea for a dessert with a difference, if you and your company enjoy Gorgonzola cheese.

The amount of pears depend on what you want to do with it: one pear should serve 2 – 3 people if you are adding this to a cheese platter, whereas one pear per person will be needed if you are going the dessert route.

Gorgonzola cheese

Honey to drizzle the pears with

Two or three bamboo skewers per pear, for the baking process

Preheat your oven to 180℃.

Cut the pear into three horizontal pieces.

Place a slice of Gorgonzola cheese, about 0,5cm thick in between each of the pear slices.

Once you have reconstructed the pear with the Gorgonzola slices, gently pierce it with one or two bamboo skewers in order to keep everything intact.

Place the pears on a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and is oozing out.

Transfer to a serving dish, remove the skewers and drizzle with honey.

Serve with fresh crusty bread.

This roasted butternut with its coconut-curry sauce, sprinkled with feta cheese, makes a delicious vegetarian meal on its own but can easily be served as a side. It takes no effort to make and is truly more-ish!!

2 large butternut squash

about 120g feta cheese

Sauce:

60ml vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

30ml brown sugar

10ml curry powder

5ml turmeric

5ml ginger

30ml cumin seeds

5ml coriander seeds

2 dried, red chillies

15ml soy sauce

15ml balsamic vinegar

200ml coconut milk

Peel the butternut and cut it into cubes of 1,5 X 1,5cm. Add the cubes to a roasting tin, drizzle with some vegetable oil, season with salt and roast at 200℃ for about 30 minutes or until soft and slightly caramelised.

Sauce:

Put a saucepan onto medium heat and pour in the oil.

Add the chopped onion and cook until soft and translucent.

Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes.

Now add all the rest of the sauce ingredients, give the mixture a good whisk and simmer for 5 minutes.

Take the sauce off the heat and pour it over the roasted butternut.

Mix through and spoon the butternut onto a serving dish.

Sprinkle with some cubed feta cheese.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Schupfnudeln is similar to Italian gnocchi but more sturdy and easier to panfry. It is delicious both savoury and sweet. To make a sweet variation, follow the recipe until the nudeln is fried in butter and then simply add custard, raspberry sauce or roll the nudeln in poppy seeds before pan frying.

800 – 900g potatoes

1 egg yolk

180ml cake flour

90ml cornstarch

salt, pepper, butter

Bake the potatoes with their skins on, until it can be easily pierced.

Scoop out the flesh of the potato while it is still warm and push it through a sieve with the back of a spoon.

Add the egg yolk, flour and cornstarch and mix through. Season the mixture to your taste.

Add small amounts of flour if you find the mixture too sticky.

Now, flour a work surface and shape the potato-dough into long logs about 3-4cm in diameter.

Cut the logs into 3 cm lengths and roll down the ends. (See photograph for shapes).

You should have nudln of about 6 – 8cm long.

Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil, turn down to a simmer and cook the nudln in the water, in batches, until they pop up. Drain on kitchen paper.

Heat a heavy bottomed frying pan, add enough butter to it to cover the bottom liberally and gently fry the nudln until golden.

Serve warm with burnt butter from the frying pan and some parmesan cheese.

Olive tapenade is such a versatile staple to have in your refrigerator during the long summer months … serve it as an appetiser with crostini or crusty bread; as a dip to crudités; spoon a dollop on top of fish before baking it in the oven; stuff some portobello mushrooms or mix it into your pasta sauce, to add some depth of flavour. Easy, quick, delicious – you can not ask for more!

250ml black olives, pitted

2 anchovy fillets

45ml capers

80ml olive oil

Add the pitted olives, anchovies, capers and half of the olive oil to a food processor. Blitz together.

Now, taste the tapenade and think about what you want to use it for: do you want something that will “sit” on a crostini or are you going to use it as a dip. Decide on the texture and then add more olive oil if you prefer.

Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator.

Spinakopita in its original form is one of my favourite meals but combining the essence of this Greek classic with minced chicken, makes a complete meal out of it. This is my “stoep”-platter. My version of the perfect al fresco dinner served with a glass of wine, shared on the patio with friends.

I often make a few batches of these meatballs and freeze them for emergencies. Add some freshly baked pita bread or flat bread, a tzatziki sauce and you will have a delicious summer meal!

6 cloves of garlic, minced

500ml chopped spinach, stalks removed

the zest of one lemon

2,5ml salt

2,5ml smoked paprika

125ml feta cheese, crumbled

1 egg

500g chicken, minced (I mince chicken breasts in a food processor)

Preheat your oven to 180℃.

Prepare an oven tray by covering the base with a thin layer of vegetable oil.

Combine the garlic, spinach, lemon zest, salt, paprika and feta cheese in a mixing bowl.

Add the egg and minced chicken and mix thoroughly.

Scoop up some of the mixture (I use my 15ml measuring spoon for this) into your hands and press it into a ball.

Arrange the balls on the oiled oven tray, spacing them about 3cm apart.

Bake for 20 minutes, shaking the tray and turning the meatballs halfway through the baking time.

Serve hot or cold with olives, tomato, lemon wedges and feta cheese.

From a South African point of view, this is the French version of traditional Milktart. It is a beautifully smooth custard enveloped by an almond (and Keto friendly) pastry. Delicious on its own or served as a substantial dessert.

Pastry:

500ml cake flour

83ml almond flour

7,5ml baking powder

2ml salt

250ml sugar

165g butter

3 egg yolks (you can use the egg whites to make my Mini Pavlovas)

45ml water

5ml vanilla

Filling:

160ml sugar

45ml corn starch

5ml vanilla

6 egg yolks

380ml milk

250 double thick cream

Pastry:

Preheat your oven to 200℃.

Prepare a 25cm loose-bottomed cake tin by greasing and lining it with baking paper.

Add the flour, almond flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and butter to the bowl of a food processor and blitz the mixture until incorporated.

Mix the egg yolks, water and vanilla in a bowl, and with the food processor running, add the mixture in a thin stream.

Blitz until everything comes together into a dough.

Take two thirds of the dough mixture and roll it to about 4mm thickness, on a lightly floured work surface.

Line the bottom and sides of your prepared cake tin.

Keep the third that you have not utilised covered until later.

Filling:

Beat together the sugar, cornstarch and egg yolks in a mixing bowl and put aside.

Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan and bring to the boil.

Now pour the milk mixture onto the sugar and egg mixture in a thin stream, all the while whisking.

Immediately pour the mixture back into the saucepan and place it on a low heat. Stir continuously until the mixture is thick and smooth.

Allow to simmer for 5 minutes while stirring.

Take the saucepan off the heat and stir through the vanilla.

Pour the thickened mixture into the pastry-lined cake tin and allow to cool for about 5 minutes, so that you don’t have a steaming filling!

Now roll the remaining third of the pastry to 4mm thickness and carefully place it on top of the custard mixture.

Press and seal the pastry “lid” and cut off any excess pastry.

Score the cake on top with a sharp knife if you like.

Bake the cake for 20 minutes in your preheated oven, and then lower the temperature to 180℃ and bake for 15 minutes more.

Cool the cake in the pan before unmoulding it.

Tofu that is pan-fried usually “leaves behind” the crispy, caramelised bits in the pan and it is exactly those left-behind bits that have all the flavour! This oven-baked method will ensure you of a crispy tofu that is deliciously soft on the inside. It is a quick, easy and versatile way of preparing this popular protein.

Serve it as a snack with cocktails, add it to wraps or tacos, a salad or pile it onto some stir-fried veg.

350g firm tofu

15ml olive oil

15ml soy sauce

30ml cornstarch

Preheat your oven to 190℃.

Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.

Cut the tofu into bite-sized squares of about 1,5mm and place it in a mixing bowl.

Sprinkle over the olive oil and soy sauce and mix through with your hands.

Now sieve the cornstarch onto the tofu and once again mix with your hands so that all the tofu is covered in a thin layer of cornstarch.

Spread the tofu onto the baking sheet in an even single layer.

Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown and crispy.

I drizzled my tofu with Babylontoren’s Strawberry Kasundi as soon as I took them from the oven, to add even more flavour.

Most themed or sculptured cakes have more icing on it than your average tea-time cake, whether you opt to make use of butter icing or, as in this case, plastic icing and royal icing. Because of the added weight, cakes often sag. This cake recipe is “icing friendly” and can bear the load. It has a fine crumb and stays fresh for 2 -3 days.

I freeze my cakes before sculpting as it prevents the cake from breaking.

330g butter, room temperature

550g granulated sugar

5 eggs

5ml vanilla

660g cake flour

1,2ml salt

250ml milk

Preheat your oven to 180℃.

Line the cake tin which has the shape you want to make use of with aluminium foil, shiny side down and spray it with baking spray. This enables you to remove the cake from the pan and freeze it as it is, before sculpting it into your chosen theme.

Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment.

Cream the butter and sugar, scraping the mixture down once or twice, until light and fluffy.

Add the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time, incorporating them into the butter mixture.

Sieve the dry ingredients into a separate bowl.

Measure the milk into a jug.

Turn the mixer onto a slow to medium speed and alternately add the dry ingredients and the milk, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.

Scoop the batter into the baking tin. The tin should be about two-thirds full.

Bake for an average of 35 minutes, BUT CHECK THE CAKE AS YOU MIGHT HAVE A DEEPER TIN.

When a wooden skewer comes out clean after being inserted to the centre part of the cake, you may remove the cake from the oven.

Cool the cake on a cooling rack before freezing to shape/sculpt.

The aroma of these orange and pistachio biscotti will take you back to Marrakesh and Casablanca and if you have never been, it might just be the inspiration that convinces you to pack your bags and finally take that trip!

Enjoy these with a cup of tea, coffee or as an after dinner treat, paired with an ice cold glass of your favourite dessert wine. They also make for a perfect gift when packaged in a beautiful glass jar.

210g butter

370g sugar

3 eggs

grated rind of 1 orange

5ml vanilla

520g cake flour

15ml baking powder

2ml salt

170g pistachio nuts

Line two large baking sheets with baking paper or a silicone baking mat.

Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, orange rind and vanilla and mix well.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and add to the butter and egg mixture.

Add the nuts and mix until a workable dough is formed.

Place the mixing bowl and its content in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, as a cold mixture will be easier to work with.

Now, divide the dough into 4 – 6 even portions and shape each into “logs” of about 5cm in diameter. Space the logs well apart as they will spread when baking.

Once the dough has been shaped, place the baking sheets back into the refrigerator for another 30 minutes. This will prevent the dough from spreading too much when baking and to retain the “log” shape.

Preheat your oven to 160℃.

Bake the biscotti logs for 30 minutes and allow to cool slightly on the baking sheets. Do not allow them to cool too much as they will become brittle when sliced.

Slice the logs diagonally in 1cm thick slices with a sharp, seated knife and pack them onto the same lined baking sheets.

Dry the biscotti at 50℃ for 3 hours.

Store in an airtight container.