Baileys White Chocolate Fudge

Another great treat for Xmas.....

Ingredients
150ml Baileys
50ml milk
30g butter
350g caster sugar
300g white chocolate, broken into squares

Method
1 Line a square 20cm cake or slice time with baking paper
2 Measure out 125ml of Baileys and pour into the saucepan
3 Add the milk, butter, caster sugar and put the pan over a low heat. Stir occasionally until the sugar has dissolved and the butter melted. This takes approx 10 mins
4 Turn the heat to medium and stir while the mixture gently simmers. You want the bubbles calmly breaking the surface for 10 mins.
5 Remove pan from heat and stir in chocolate and the last 25ml Baileys. Keep stirring until chocolate has melted and you have a smooth consistency.
6 Transfer to the tin, and chill for at least 2 hours. Cut into squares.

Sticky Date pudding

This is such an easy recipe and is sure to please guests!

Ingredients
1.5 cups (200g) seeded dried dates
1.5 cups (310ml) boiling water
1 tsp baking soda
50g butter chopped
half cup (100g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour

Butterscotch sauce
3/4 cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar
300ml cream
80g butter

1 Preheat oven to 175oC. Grease deep 20cm round cake tin, line base with baking paper.
2 Combine dates and the water in medium heatproof bowl. Stir in soda and stand for 5 minutes.
3 Blend or process date mixture with butter and sugar until pureed. Add eggs and flour, blend or process until just combined. Pour mixture into prepared pan.
4 Bake, uncovered, in oven about 1 hour (cover with foil if pudding starts to overbrown). Stand for 10 minutes; turn onto serving plate. Serve warm with butterscotch sauce, strawberries and vanilla ice-cream.

Butterscotch sauce  Combine ingredients in medium saucepan; stir over low heat until sauce is smooth and slightly thickened.

Serves 8.

Harvest Tomato Sauce

With summer here and extra tomatoes grown in the garden this is a fabulous recipe to make and then either bottle or freeze. It is so versatile, but I usually use it as a pasta sauce base. I must give credit where credit is due as it is adapted from an Annabel Langbein recipe, from the book A Free Range Cook!

Ingredients

1kg tomatoes, cred and cut into wedges
1 red capsicum
1 onion, cut into thin wedges
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 Tbsp chopped rosemary leaves
1 small chilli, seeded and chopped (optional)
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil
ground black pepper

Method
1 Preheat oven to 160oC. prepare the tomatoes, capsicum
and onion and place in a lined roasting dish in a single layer so they roast and caramelise rather than stew. You may need two roasting dishes.

2 Add the garlic, rosemary, and chilli. in a small bowl mix together the tomato paste, sugar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Spoon this mixture over the vegetables and stir through them to coat evenly.

3 Bake for about 2 hours or until vegetables are starting to caramelise and shrivel a little.

4 Allow the vegetables to cook then puree in a food processor or blender. The sauce will keep in the fridge for up to a week or can be frozen or bottled while still hot.