Oreos - Home made is better

As much as we like to deny it, our lives are full of America. The TV shows we watch and the foods we crave, the good ol' US of A is all around us. It frustrate my husband no end that we are "allowing them" to brainwash us with their cool shows and delicious fast food but I am not complaining. Some things are just better with a twang.

One such thing, is the oreo. How we all rejoiced when they originator of the "but you can have the rest of my meeelk" graced our shores and several years on the cookie, and the iconic advert, still remain firm favourites. So, on one quiet and creative afternoon I thought "well how hard can it be?" and dived head first into the millions of results google handed me. Many very american short cuts like "chocolate cookie mix" later I finally found food networks version and made a few tweaks to match what I had (I was not in the mood to go shopping, if I was I would have just BOUGHT oreos and settled down with a glass of meeeelk)

What you need:

For the Dough:

• 1 1/3 cups NoMu cocoa
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 225g unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Filling:

• 115g unsalted butter, softened
• 3-4 cups icing sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

What to do:

Prepare the dough: Sift together the cocoa powder, flour and salt in a large bowl.Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, incorporating each ingredient before adding the next. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Divide the dough into 2 pieces; place one piece between 2 lightly floured sheets of baking paper and roll into a half centimetre thick rectangle. Repeat with the other piece of dough. Refrigerate both rectangles, covered with the baking sheets, until firm, at least 1 hour or up to several days.

Using a 4cm round cutter, cut the dough into 64 circles on the baking paper. It's easier to move the dough in between then the individual cookies. (You can reroll the scraps once.) Place the cookies about 4cm. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C.

Bake the cookies until they are set and slightly darker around the edges, about 20 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling: Using a mixer, cream the butter and vanilla until creamy. Beat in the icing sugar and lemon.

Flip half of the cookies upside down and top each with 1 level tablespoon of filling. Press the remaining cookies on top to make sandwiches.

Serve with a glass of cold milk and make sure your dogee doesn't get any cho'clate

Roasted veg with Walnut & Rocket Pesto

Winter has come for a quick educational* before it's arrival in a month or so and with it come the visions of warm comforting food and snuggling up with a hot drink while watching TV or reading a good book. It brings to mind the Afrikaans saying "Maagies vol ogies toe" meaning when the tummy is full the eyes want to close. This is all well and good if you hadn't had a pig-out weekend like mine.

Hummus im Basar on Sunday night, Romanian Kebabs with wedges on Monday (forgive me, it was a public holiday and I had forgotten it was meant to be meat-free) and then all-you-can-eat sushi on Tuesday night. I was looking for something comforting and warm but still light and healthy.

I first thought about what I would consider "Light & Healthy" and vegetables came to mind. Then the "Warming" aspect and roasting sounded like a grand idea. Next it was about what to serve it with and cous cous just was naturally at the top of the list. Relaying my idea to my father (who was also a little fed up with the heavy eating) I came up with the last minute idea of adding a little bit of feta to the mix. Viola!

Popping into the shop I looked around for some nice roasting veggies and was about to head downstairs for some more veggie hunting (after picking up some Willie's Cocoa for next to nothing" when I saw it was almost FOUR. Why is this a problem? Well see, we are currently living with my parents and the domestic worker leaves at 16:00 but some one has to be home when she leaves. So off I rushed with what ever I had, which in the end proved to be plenty.

When it came to assembly I realised that as much as I enjoy the olive oil + rosemary combination on roast veg, I felt like something a little different. I recalled a jar of Walnut and Rocket pesto sitting in my fridge and from there a star was born.

What you need:
1 Packet carrot balls (or chop up some carrots)
4 or 5 baby peeled onions (the kind that are perfect for pickling)
4 small mixed sweet peppers, sliced into quarters
1 small brinjal, cut up in cubes, salted and rinsed
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
4 or 5 cloves of garlic, peeledA
1 jar pesto princess walnut and rocket pesto (or make your own if you can't get any)
1 packet vine ripened cherry tomatoes, on the vine
2 cups instant cous cous
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups boiling water
1 cup crumbled feta (we used a combination of black pepper feta and Fairview's no-brine feta)

What to do:
Preheat oven to 200°C. 
Throw all the vegetables, except the tomatoes into a baking dish. 
Coat with the pesto and pop into the oven.
Set a time for 20 minutes.
At 20 minutes take the veg out and give them a stir, pop in the tomatoes.
Roast for another 10-15 minutes then turn the oven off but leave the veggies inside.

In a large bowl pour the 2 cups of cous cous.
Sprinkle the salt over the top and then pour in the boiling water.
Cover with a tea towel.
After about 5 minutes use a fork to break up the cous cous.
Cover and leave until ready to serve.

Serve the vegetables on top of the cous cous and sprinkle some (or lots) of feta to finish.

The verdict? 3 out of 5 people said it hit the spot. Of the other 2 the one doesn't eat roast veg (she got roasted butternut and loved it) and the other is TheHusband who complained that it wasn't meat :)


*An educational is a fact-finding trip that companies make before using a service provider


Disclaimer: Pesto Princess did give me the pesto for free but I was under no obligation to write a favourable review.

Hot water crust pie

Pie, I think there is a version in almost every culture. Short crust, puff or none at all the crust vary and some are easier then others. I have always used store bought *ashamed* and sometimes, for sweet pies I made short crust. I was about to pop some puff pastry out the fridge for a chicken pie when my sister gave me a "look". See the whole family is on a health drive and well, puff pastry if full of that heavenly evil "butter". 

We both concluded that if I made my own pastry, even if it had butter in it, it would have a lot less than the store bought puff pastry. 

I remembered seeing, on one of those in between sections on Food Network, something about "Hot water crust pasty" and googled around till I found a recipe I was happy to work from and then promptly changed it completely. Those that bake will know, changing a recipe before even trying it is like playing with fire but I figured what the hell. I had a really tasty filling and back-up puff pastry in the fridge. 

Hot water crust pastry (makes 2 pies)

What you need:225g Whole brown bread flour
225g Whole rye flour
2 tsp salt (the stone ground flours need a little more salt then regular flour I find)
200g butter
225ml chicken stock (My filling was made with shredded chicken which I boiled so I used the stock from that)

What to do:In a mixing bowl whisk the flours and salt together (whisking adds air that you would normally get from sifting, but since I used whole flours sifting wasn't an option). Make a well in the centre. Melt the butter in the stock. Pour into the well and mix immediatly until combined. Knead the dough a little. 

From this point use however you want. The hot water crust pastry is worked with warm, unlike shortcrust that must be chilled. 

Note: Any fat can be used where the butter is used so you can replace it with margarine to create an equally great vegan crust.