Mixing things up

I have to share my delight with my Kitchenaid Mixer; I got this as a Christmas present a few years ago from my husband. The mixer along with my Kitchenaid Food Processor are two of my favourite kitchen gadgets. Having spent time in a tiny kitchen in our duplex in Sydney it is a real treat to now have a normal sized kitchen, I really do feel like I am back to making more things from scratch. I have found my love of cooking and baking (not always successfully) again. The only downfall is that I am used to cooking with a gas stovetop & oven, alas I am stuck with an old electric one at this stage. On the positive side one of this first upgrades we did to the house was get gas installed and get a new more energy efficient instantaneous gas hot water system.

Now back to my Kitchenaid Mixer fun yesterday. Despite the very cold weather at the moment most of my hens have decided it is a good time to lay eggs, so what to do with the influx of eggs – I made chocolate meringues.
Chocolate Meringues Recipe

4 egg whites, at room temperature

Pinch salt

Pinch of cream tartar

220g (1 cup) caster sugar

2 table spoons of coco powder

1. Preheat oven to 120°C.

2. Add egg whites and start whisking
3. Add pinch of salt and pinch of cream tartar
4. Still whisking add caster sugar one table spoon at a time
5. Add coco powder
6. Spoon mixture onto trays lined with baking paper. I am not too fussy about the shapes being prefect as you can see from my photo of them
7. Place into the oven; reduce the temperature to 90°C
8. Leave the oven on for 1 1/2 hours or until the meringues are crisp
9. Turn the oven off and allow the meringues to cool in the oven - this will take 3-4 hours.

Things didn’t end here; I try to make my own pizza dough for homemade pizzas (we had a wood fire pizza oven at our old house and plan to build one at this place) but had never made my own bread.

I picked up this Laucke Multigrain Soy and Linseed bread mix and finally made my own bread. It certainly didn’t turn out perfect in shape but the smell was amazing, it tasted and felt so fresh and it really wasn’t that hard at all. I will definitely be dipping my toes into the world of bread making more often.