{Recipe} Copycat Ritz crackers

I always have a packet of Ritz crackers handy for when Umar or visiting kiddies get hungry, I can just whip out a few and cut slices of cheese into cutesy shapes and they just devour them.

But then I thought of the amount of salt and ingredients with numbers in those crackers and I wondered if someone's already replicated the recipe with much more natural (unaltered) ingredients. And Stef from the Cupcake Project did! So I copied her recipe, cut out some more salt and I was happy with the outcome. 

The crackers are all different adorable shapes that scream homemade and they are delicious! I hope you'll have a try and let me know how they turn out! 

Copycat Ritz crackers (makes about 100 pieces depending on your cutter size)

Ingredients
2-2¼ cups bread flour (you can use all purpose flour)
3 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1½ tbsp raw sugar
2 tbsp oil (I used grapeseed but you can use extra virgin olive oil)
80 g unsalted butter (cold)
2/3 cup cold water
1 tbsp unsalted butter (melted) 

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan-forced).
2. Pulse all the dry ingredients in a food processor. Add oil and pulse.
   
3. Add butter bit by bit and pulse until thoroughly mixed through. 
   
4. Add water little by little until dough comes together. If you used too much water, add a little more flour until dough comes away from the bowl. 
   
5. Roll out thinly (about 3mm) on a floured surface and cut with a scalloped cookie cutter (or whatever small shape you like).
   
   
6. Place on lined baking trays and pierce the surface of the cracker surface with holes (I used a candy thermometer like Stef but any substitute is fine). Brush lightly with the melted butter.
7. Bake for about 10-12 minutes and cool on wire racks. Enjoy!
   

Notes:

• If you don't have a food processor, you can quickly rub the butter into the flour with your fingers.
• Cold butter gives 'layers' to these crackers.
  
• Next time I might refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes before rolling and 10 more minutes before baking to keep the shapes more consistent.

Please leave comments on other yummy snacks for the kiddies! Thank you for stopping by!

{Recipe} Sweet banana loaf

So what are you going to do with those two overripe bananas that you wouldn't let your toddler eat yesterday because you didn't want him to spoil his appetite? You can of course just mash and freeze them. Even better, bake banana stuff!

We made banana loaf. It's not as dense as banana bread but not as light as banana cake either. Its texture is somewhere in the middle of the two. This is a sweet loaf so we didn't embellish it with anything else. And the best thing about this recipe is that there's only 6 ingredients! 

Sweet banana loaf (makes one loaf)

Ingredients

 
150 g unsalted butter
150 g raw sugar
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
150 g self-raising cake flour (see notes)
1 tsp baking powder
2 very ripe bananas

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Line a loaf tin. 
2. In a small bowl, mix flour and baking powder. 
3. Mash bananas and set aside.
   
4. In the mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
   
5. Add eggs and mix until incorporated.
   
6. Add flour mixture and beat on low until just mixed. 
   
7. Fold in bananas with a spatula. 
   
8. Place in loaf tin and bake for 25 minutes. The centre of loaf will be 'jiggly'. Turn down the oven to 120°C (100°C fan-forced) and bake for another 10 minutes. 
   
9. Skewer should come out clean. Otherwise, leave for another 5-10 minutes to bake. 
10. Cool completely and slice.
    

Notes:

• Cake flour makes bakes very soft and fluffy (soft flour). If you don't have any self-raising cake flour, you can just use plain self-raising flour but the loaf will turn out a little denser.
• I am a sucker for warm bakes so I sliced it while warm. It was a little crumbly because it was so soft but so worth it!
• The loaf is awesome on the day and becomes a little denser on the next but don't worry it will still be awesome. It should keep for a few days in an airtight container at room temperature.

Thank you for stopping by!

{Recipe} Soft oat and coconut slices

I absolutely love Carman's Oat slice and I could have them every day! But they're pretty pricey in the long run so I thought I'd find a recipe that would make something similar. I came across this one from Budget Bytes. I changed a few things as I tend to do. I used honey in place of brown sugar, milk instead of soy milk and omitted the walnuts. 

These things!

These turned out soft and delicious but sadly not the texture I wanted to copy the Carman's slice. Taste-wise it's pretty much there though. So I will have to find a recipe that is more cookie-like in nature. 

The slices are on the less sweet side so if you want them sweeter, consider adding sugar (not more honey as that might add too much liquid to the recipe) or even make a quick icing to drizzle on top. 

The baby was napping so we mixed everything by hand. If you use a mixer to cream the butter, the slice will turn out puffier and lighter. 

Ingredients (6-9 slices)

¼ cup unsalted butter, softened and at room temperature
¼ cup honey
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1½ cups traditional oats
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
½ to 1 cup shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (170°C fan-forced).
2. Line your baking tray (I used a 9x9" glass dish).
3. Mix all the dry ingredients together. 
   
4. Cream butter. Mix in honey.
   
5. Add egg and mix until fluffy. 
   
6. Add milk and vanilla essence and mix thoroughly.
7. Add dry ingredients and mix gently until just mixed. 
   
8. Place in baking tray and bake for 20-30 minutes. The time depends on the type of dish you use, oven, etc. When it's done, it should look golden and start browning around the edges and you'd smell the 'doneness' if you know what I mean lol.
   
9. Cool and slice as you wish. I used a bread knife to get clean slices. 
   

Notes:

• When baking, make sure your ingredients are at room temperature unless stated otherwise
• I use unsalted butter when making sweet bakes

 Thank you for stopping by!

{Recipe} Jacket potatoes

A repost from my old blog

I wanted to post this recipe a few weeks ago (forgive me!) but I was caught up in so many projects that I just couldn’t sit down and spend half an hour writing this up. But here it is now! As with many of the recipes on the blog, It was a whatever-I-had-in-the-pantry-and-the-fridge recipe. And as usual you can substitute wherever you need to.

Jacket potatoes (serves 2 or 4 as a side dish)

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

4 potatoes

50 g Wensleydale cheese with cranberry

2 tbsp cream

Salt and pepper

1 spring onion (I only used the green part), chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (190 fan-forced).
2. Pierce the potatoes with a fork in six places.
3. Rub with olive oil and salt and pepper.
4. Place on a baking tray lined with aluminium foil and put in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes.
5. Turn down the oven to 180°C (170 fan-forced) and bake for a further hour.
6. Check if the potatoes are done (when the skin is golden and crisp), take out and place a potato on a clean tea towel. Cut a shallow cross on top and squeeze from underneath to ‘open’ the potato. Repeat with the rest.
7. Mix the cheese and cream and spoon 1 tbsp of the mixture onto the potatoes and top with spring onion (I don’t like raw spring onion that’s why I cooked it but you can leave this until after you take the potatoes out of the oven).
8. Place in the oven for 5 minutes or until cheese has melted.
9. Serve with your favourite main or enjoy it on its own!

Tip: You can use a softer cheese and omit the cream altogether or use whatever toppings you have on hand.

Sorry for the shadowy photo! Ta ra~

Photo sources for ingredients board:

http://www.newhealthguide.org

www.huffingtonpost.com

http://canadacheeseman.wordpress.com

http://www.vegetables.co.nz

http://a2milk.com.au