Mexican Baked Eggs

I did a cheat’s version this morning using leftovers from last night’s Burrito dinner.  It is so easy to prepare such a hearty breakfast!

Ingredients (serves 1)

3-5 tbsp of leftover cooked mince/bean sauce or make fresh if you want to (I’ll post my mince sauce recipe for Burritos soon)

1-2 eggs

1 tbsp of shredded cheddar/tasty cheese

A few sprigs of fresh parsley or coriander

Method

1.          Preheat oven to 200C.

2.          Spread mince sauce at bottom of ovenproof dish.

3.          Make a little well in the centre and crack the egg in the middle.

4.          Sprinkle shredded cheese over.

5.          Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

6.          Sprinkle chopped parsley on top.

Apple Spice and Nut Cake

It’s spring! Enough of the cold weather. There are apples a plenty here, and somebody had doubled up on purchasing apples during last week’s grocery shopping. I used pink lady apples, but you can granny smiths or anything you have lying around. I didn’t bother peeling the skin. Fibre is good for the digestive tract anyway ;-)

Ingredients

¾ cup chopped pecans

3 cups plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 ½ cups brown sugar

4 eggs, lightly beaten

½ cup vegetable oil

½ cup melted butter

1 tsp vanilla essence

¼ cup yoghurt or buttermilk

¼ cup lemon juice

¼ cup castor sugar

2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp salt

4 large apples, cut into 2cm chunks

Method

1.          Preheat oven to 180C.

2.          Grease a bundt tin or 20cm cake tin.

3.          Toss apples with half of the ground cinnamon, castor sugar, salt and 2 tbsp of flour. Set aside.

4.          Sift flour, baking powder, and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl. Add in brown sugar, pecans, eggs, oil, melted butter, vanilla essence, the yoghurt and lemon juice.

5.          Spread 1/3 of the mixture into the bundt tin, sprinkle half of the apples over, then add another 1/3 of the batter, sprinkle the rest of the apples, and top with the rest of the batter.

6.          Bake in the oven for 45-50mins, until a test skewer comes out clean.

Chewy Chocolate Chips Cookies

These are Eddy Halmagyi’s recipe from Better Homes and Gardens’ Better Basics magazine. I needed some cookies to share for playgroup today. They turn out flatter than I expected and way too sweet to be honest. I’d reduce the amount of butter and sugar next time. It gets crispier if you leave it in the oven for a few minutes longer.

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter, softened

110g caster sugar

180g dark brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

350g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g dark chocolate chips or chocolate broken into chunks

100g white chocolate chips or chocolate broken into chunks

150g roughly chopped nuts

Method:

1.          Preheat oven to 180C. Line oven trays with baking paper.

2.          Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy.

3.          Add vanilla and eggs. Beat until smooth.

4.          Sift flour and bicarb into butter mixture. Do not overmix.

5.          Fold in chocolate and nuts.

6.          Roll tablespoons of dough into balls and put on trays. Press flat.

7.          Bake for 12-14 minutes or until just set. Cool completely on wire racks.