Platypus Pam's Recipe Corner

Platypus Pam in her natural habitat
Glazed Honey & Almond Loaf
Made by: Platypus Pam


Ingredients:
100 g margarine or butter
75g castor sugar
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 x 15ml spoons clear honey
150g SR flour
100g glace cherries,halved
50g blanched almonds chopped

For icing:
15ml spoon clear honey
75g icing sugar
50g glace cherries halved
50 blanched almonds

Method:Cooking time 45 minutes
Oven 180oC

 
1½ to 2 lb loaf tin well greased and floured or lined. Cream butter, sugar and honey until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs with spoon of flour with last amount. Sieve in remaining flour and fold in with cherries and almonds. Turn in to prepared tin and level off top. Bake for 45 minutes or until skewer come out clean when put into middle. Leave in tin for 5 minutes and remove and cool on wire rack. When cold, beat honey into icing sugar and add sufficient cold water to give a very stiff flowing consistency. Spoon over cake and decorate with cherries and almonds so that icing flows down the sides a little.

Pauline’s Yummy Flapjacks
Made by: Pauline McCracken
For a 28x20cm tin (for 23 x 32 tin in brackets)

Ingredients:

225g butter (295g)
125g sugar (I used soft brown) (165g)
300 g golden syrup (390g)
400g porridge oats (520g)
Plus any amount of extras e.g. dried cranberries, chocolate chips, sunflower seed, currants etc.

Method:

Grease tin and line with baking parchment
Melt butter, golden syrup and sugar
Mix all together and add any extras
Turn in to tin and press down with fork

Bake 180o C for about 20 minutes or until beginning to go brown at the edges.

Leave in tin to cool and cut into piece.



Jotato Salad

Made by: Top Totty Arbon


Mix new potatoes with mayonnaise, whole grain mustard and lemon and chop some chives over. Jump for joy.




Mutiny-free Homemade Bounty
Made by: Pauline McCracken
Ingredients:
Bar of high cocoa content chocolate
Bag of desiccated coconut
Tin of condensed milk
Knob of butter
Spoonful of sugar

Method:

Melt a bar of dark chocolate with a lovely high cocoa content and pour it into a medium sized dish so you have a good covering of chocolate - I line mine with clingfilm to make lifting it out easier -put it in the fridge to harden. Cream together the butter and sugar. Add coconut and condensed milk and mix. Add it to the hardened chocolate and move it back to the fridge to harden. Slice up when you are ready for it and mmmmm enjoy!!!

Date, Apple and Walnut Loaf

Made by: Pam Jones
Ingredients:
110 g soft margarine
175g soft brown sugar
2 eggs beaten lightly
110g whole wheat plain flour sifted
110g plain flour sifted pinch of salt
1 ½ teaspoons of salt
1 small cooking apple chopped roughly (or chopped eating prunes)
110 g walnuts or pecans roughly chopped
75 g dates roughly chopped
3 – 4 tablespoons milk

Method:

Preheat oven to 180oC

Grease and line a 9 x 19 cm loaf tin (used to be called a 2 pound tin). Mix margarine, sugar, eggs, flours, salt and baking powder in large bowl with an electric whisk. Add apple, nuts and dates and then milk to give a dropping consistency. Spread evenly in tin. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes until loaf fees springy and skewer come out clean after inserting into centre.

Cool for minute or two and turn out.


Sharon’s Choc Chip Cookies (Sharon Curtis)

Made by: Sharon Curtis; carried by Charles (who is on the bank)
Ingredients:
115g/4oz butter
115g/4oz caster sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
230g/8oz plain flour
0.5 tbsp baking powder
100g dark chocolate chips
100g milk chocolate chips (alternative is orange or strawberry chips – sold on baking section)

 
Method:
Preheat oven to 220C (425F, GM7).

Grease baking trays lightly or line with baking parchment. Mix well together in a bowl, the butter, sugar and syrup. Add the flour, baking powder and chocolate chips. Mix thoroughly.

The dough should now be slightly crumbly and just holding together when you squeeze it. Press balls of dough (about the size of large conkers) onto baking trays.

Bake in the oven for 8 minutes, at which point they should be just starting to turn golden brown. The cookies don't spread much, so immediately that they come out of the oven, use a spatula to flatten the mounds into cookie shapes.

Leave on the baking trays to cool for a while, then once they have hardened up, they can be
transferred to a cooling rack to finish cooling.


Four Nut Chocolate Brownies

Made by: Platypus Pam
Should be crispy on the outside and really squidgy inside – unlike a cake.
Ingredients:
110g (4 oz) butter
50g (2oz) unsweetened chocolate (75% cocoa solids)
2 eggs beaten
225g (8oz) granulated sugar
50g (2oz) plain flour sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
25g (1oz) each chopped nuts – macadamia, brazil, pecans and hazelnuts Total 4 oz or 110g

Method:
Well grease and line an oblong tin 7x11 inches( 18 x28 cm). Paper 1 inch above tin edges. Preheat oven to 180oC. Chop nuts. Melt chocolate and butter in bowl over saucepan of simmering water. Beat until smooth when chocolate melted. Remove from heat and add other ingredients. Bake in prepared tin for about 30 minutes or until it is slightly springy and still squidgy in the middle. Cool ten minutes, cut and turn out onto wire rack to cool.


Black Banana Cake

Made by: Pam Jones; carried by Pam's lovely assistant, Bob
Stealth Pam
Ingredients:
175g/6oz unsalted butter, softened
175g/6oz sugar (half light muscovado, half golden caster)
75g/2½oz hazelnuts
2 free-range eggs
175g/6oz self-raising flour
2 very ripe bananas (about 250g/9oz total weight)
Drop vanilla extract
175g/6oz good-quality dark or milk chocolate chips
A little demerara sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3. Line the base and sides of a 20cm x 12cm/8in x 5in loaf tin with baking parchment. Beat the butter and sugars until light and coffee-coloured. This is best achieved in a food mixer. Toast the hazelnuts, rub them in a tea towel to remove their skins, then grind quite finely. Slowly add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture, then mix in the toasted ground hazelnuts and self-raising flour. Peel the bananas and chop them the small pieces. Gently fold the vanilla extract, the bananas and the chocolate chips into the cake mixture, turning gently and taking care not to overmix. Scoop the cake batter into the prepared loaf tin. Dust with a little demerara sugar. Bake for between. 1 hour and 1 hour 10 minutes, covering the cake with foil if the top starts to darken too quickly


Chocolate Oreo Brownies
Made by: Speedy 'first time for everything' CD

Plenty of calories in this one to keep you going on a cold day!  You will need a 33cm x 23cm x 5cm baking try, lined and greased with greaseproof paper.
 

No swimming unless you have Oreo Brownies
Ingredients:
200g dark chocolate, broken up
175g unsalted butter
325g caster sugar
130g plain flour
3 medium eggs
1 packet of oreos (optional, but then it would be plain brownies, unless you want to add a generous handful of nuts instead)
 

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 170C (150C if you've got a fan oven) 325F or Gas 3.

Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (do not let the base of the bowl touch the water). Leave until melted and stir to a smooth consistency.


Alternatively place both chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave for 1 minute, stir, 30 seconds more, stir again and then 30 seconds again and stir until combined and silky smooth. This works well in my microwave which is 900W (Cat E), obviously if W is lower do it for a bit longer but keep an eye on it or if higher it won't take as long but has a tendency to burn.

Meanwhile, mix the sugar and flour together. Then pour the melted chocolate/butter mixture into the sugar and flour and stir until fully combined. Break and mix the eggs in one at a time until fully combined. You can either break the Oreos up now and stir them in. But I like to pour the mixture into the pan and then break the Oreos on top, pushing a few into the mixture. Or you could use nuts.

Bake in the oven for 30 - 35 minutes. Add 5 minutes to make them less gooey for an easier post swim eat, if you prefer.  Do not put a skewer in to test if cooked in middle as you want it to be gooey (if you do put a skewer in, the middle will come out). Leave to cool before removing from the tray. Once removed from the tray, remove the greaseproof paper (it needs to be completely cool by this point) and cut up into squares. 


Steven's Winnie the Pooh Flapjack

Made by: Steven


Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 - 20 minutes depending on your oven.



Ingredients:

 2 oz butter / margarine plus a little extra for greasing.
1 rounded tablespoon golden syrup
1 oz – or 1 rounded tablespoon of dark brown sugar or molasses sugar
4 oz – or 8 heaped tablespoons rolled oats
Pinch of salt.

PS adding sultanas and cinnamon or using honey instead of syrup are nice variations



Method:

Preheat the oven to Gas 4/350F and grease a shallow 7" cake tin. In a non-stick saucepan add the butter and syrup and sugar. Stir the mixture over a low heat until all the ingredients have melted then remove from the heat. Add salt and oats and mix well. Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Don't be scared to open the oven and check your flapjack, it will do it no harm and depending on your oven it might need a little less cooking time. When it comes out of the oven, make your cuts but don't turn it out, leave it to cool completely first. (if I'm honest this stage rarely happens in my house!) Enjoy!