Happy New Year!

Hello everyone!

I hope that you have all had a wonderful Christmas with friends and family. Today is the last day of 2010...time really is going by so quickly. The year ahead is going to be a busy and fun year. I have many expectations of great moments that lie ahead.

After all the sweetness of Christmas, I thought I would share a cookie recipe that isn't so sweet, and yet is still so delicious. When I grew up in South Africa one of my favourite cookies was "Eat-sum-more"...They are a shortbread cookie that just melts in your mouth. One day I will master those cookies, but this recipe will do more than well in the meantime.

They make a perfect present to give away when dining over at a friend's place. What I like about this recipe is that you can either roll out the dough and make cute little cookies in different shapes, or else you can just press the dough out onto some wax paper, poke some holes in with a fork and sprinkle with a little bit of sugar before baking. If you do it the easy way around, remember to cut it into slices as soon as it has come out the oven.

The other great thing with this recipe is that if you want a little more flavour or variety, you can dip the edges in dark or white chocolate...or both. YUMMY!





This recipe makes about 25 cookies.


5 dl (2 cups) flour
¼ tsp salt
250 g butter, room temperature
1 ¼ dl (1/2 cup) icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence/vanilla sugar

1. Beat the butter until smooth, for about 1 minute with an electric whisp.
2. Add the sugar and the vanilla and beat for a few more minutes.
3. Gently stir in the flour until just mixed.
4. Flatten the dough and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge for about 1 hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
6. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until just under 1 cm thick. Cut out in different shapes using cookie cutters.
7. Place cookies on some waxpaper and bake for about 10 minutes, until they are light brown.
8. Cool and then dip the edges in melted chocolate.



Happy New year!

Love,
Heidi

Malva Pudding

One of my absolute favourite South African desserts is Malva Pudding. It is AMAZING! A soft and moist texture combined with a creamy, vanilla flavour makes this pudding almost irresistible. This dessert is on almost every South African restaurant menu and found deep in the memories of many true South Africans. This is a real comfort food that is perfect for these cosy autumn evenings and especially for those of us South Africans missing home!

This recipe can be found in Swedish here!



Malva Pudding: 6-8 servings:

•1 cup sugar
•2 tbsp margarine
•1 egg
•1 tbsp smooth apricot jam
•1 tsp white wine vinegar
•1 cup milk
•1 cup flour
•1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
•1 tsp baking powder
•½ tsp salt
For the sauce:
•½ cup cream
•125 g margarine
•½ cup sugar
•1/3 cup water
•1 tsp vanilla essence
Method:
1.Put the oven on 180 degrees (Celsius)
To make the pudding:
2.Beat the margarine and sugar well.
3.Add the egg, apricot jam and vinegar while beating.
4.Mix in the milk first and then add the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate and salt, mixing until everything is just blended.
5.Pour the batter into individual ramekins. Cover the forms with foil and bake for 40 minutes.

To make the sauce:

6.Melt the margarine with the sugar and water on a stove.
7.Remove from the heat and add the cream and vanilla essence.
8.Pour the sauce over the pudding as soon as it is out of the oven. It may feel like too much sauce, so go on your feeling, but don’t be scared about pouring over too much sauce…this is what makes the pudding so mice and moist.
9.Enjoy served with some vanilla custard or ice-cream.

If you don’t have individual ramekins, the recipe will work just as well when baked in a larger oven proof dish. Just remember to increase the time spent in the oven up to around an hour.