So good during blueberry season!

My cooking creativity is high when we are picking blueberries. I have been making blueberry gelato, blueberry and rhubarb sauce, blueberry pancakes, blueberry jam and more. But this, blueberries and cream muffin, is my latest recipe experiment with the sweet dark blue berries!

These moist blueberry muffins are good to eat just on their own. But if you like to indulge, then you can serve the muffins with fresh blueberries and cream. I also like to eat my muffin with yoghurt and a side of stewed rhubarb and blueberries. and freshly brewed coffee. Bring on morning tea!

Blueberries and Cream Muffin Recipe

Is it possible to eat too many blueberries? I eat more than a cup of fresh berries each day when the berries are in season. I am sure you can think of these muffins as delicious blueberry health treats!

All measures are metric.

Recipe Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup caster sugar
• 1/2 Cup olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 Cup milk
• 2 cups blueberries
• 250g cream cheese
• 2 Tablespoons icing sugar
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2 1/2 Cups self-raising flour

Method

Before starting the recipe, turn your oven on to 180 deg C. Then you can prepare a muffin tray suitable for six muffins. While the oven is getting up to temperature, you can make the six muffin cases (see below for instructions).

Mix the icing sugar and cream cheese together, then set the mixture aside.

Next, you can mix the oil, vanilla essence and caster sugar together then add the eggs. You should continue mixing, till the eggs and oil look creamy. Finally, add the flour and milk, alternately. to make a creamy sticky mixture.

Now remove the mixture from your beaters, and gently fold in the blueberries, by using a spatula.

Distrubute more than half the mixture into the muffin cases. Then spoon the creamed cheese on top of each muffin. Add the remaining blueberry muffin mix on top.

Bake the blueberries and cream muffins for about 20 minutes. Test the muffins with a small skewer. When the skewer pulls out cleanly, the blueberry muffins are ready!

Making muffin cases

First up, you will need to find a cup or glass or other container that will fit into your muffin tray. I actually use a container from my Ninja blender. It fits perfectly.

Cut six 20 cm squares of baking paper. I don’t bother measuring accurately. So, my cases are not text-book perfect! Fold each square in half from each side. This gives you the centre point of the square. Centre the paper on top of your glass and fold down the sides. I pinch along the fold lines then roughly smooth the paper around the container.

The blueberry muffin mixture is very sticky. So, if you manage to spoon the mixture into the cases without making a mess, you deserve a gold star!

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Just needs patience!

You will love this easy baked cheesecake recipe! I had planned to bake a cheescake for our 2024 Christmas. But COVID intervened making me too unwell to tackle the task. Then, finally, half-way through January 2025 – here it is!

Serve baked cheesecake with your finest espresso coffee for a perfect morning tea or lazy afternoon break. Of course baked cheesecake is made ten-fold better when you serve it with freshly-picked blueberries. Did I mention that Tin Dragon Cottages has a blueberry orchard?

Origins and Ingredients for the Baked Cheesecake Recipe

Just like my Best Ever Carrot Cake Recipe, this recipe was adapted from a baked cheesecake recipe in the Colorado Cache Cookbook.

The Cheesecake mixture

Using a beater, you can cream the cheese with the vanilla and almond essence, then gradually add in the sugar. When the cheese looks fluffly, you can add the eggs in one-at-a-time. You need to make sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next one.

The cheesecake mixture will be a thick liquid which you can pour on top of the room-temperature baked biscuit base.

Bake the cheesecake in a slow to moderate oven (about 150 deg C). Take a look after 45 minutes. The cheesecake is cooked when it is firm to the touch and has a glossy surface. When you test it with a fine skewer, the skewer should come out clean. Be patient, it can take up to 1.5 hours for the cheesecake to bake slowly. I find slow-baking results in the best texture.

Allow the cheesecake to cool down to room temperature before adding the cream-topping.

The cream on top!

Mix the sour cream with the sugar. Then, you can spread the mixture evenly over the (cooled) baked cheesecake. Pop the cake back in the 150 deg oven for about 15 minutes. The sour cream should firm up. After removing the baked cheesecake from the oven, allow it to cool to room temperature, before you place it in the fridge. Otherwise, you may see moisture condensing on top of the cream when it chills in the fridge.

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Embark on a culinary adventure with our Spicy Ginger Biscuits recipe, where the warmth of ginger meets the fiery kick of spices, creating an irresistible fusion of flavours!

A Somewhat Traditional Background

Legend has it that the origins of our Spicy Ginger Biscuits date back to the ancient Silk Road, where merchants traded not only goods but also culinary secrets. Along this historic trade route, the aromatic spice of ginger, prised for its medicinal properties and culinary versatility, journeyed from the Far East to the West, captivating the palates of those who encountered it along the way.

Then centuries later…well, this makes for a great story. But the reality is, that I really love ginger and I vaguely remembered my mother making ginger biscuits.

I remember these sweet ginger biscuits had a hidden delight of fabulous lumps glace ginger! Of course, back then we lived near the ginger factory at Buderim and that’s how I got my taste for fiery hot ginger. So, when I recently purchased a kilo of luscious glace ginger, I set about trying to remember how to bake ginger biscuits.

Ginger biscuits must be spicy!

I started experimenting with ever-increasing amounts of spices till I landed on the version published here. Of course, you can tone down the spices, if extra hot is not for you.

However, there is no substitute for the mouth feel of soft sweet hot ginger at the centre of each the biscuit. So, the main ingredient must be the glace ginger. I have also added a zingy counterpoint of a lemon icing drizzle to enhance the experience.

Spicy Ginger Biscuits Recipe

Ingredients

These measures are in metric units

Spicy ginger biscuits

• 1 heaped tablespoon of powdered ginger
• 1 tablespoon of powdered cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons of mixed spices
• 1/4 tespoon of nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon of finely ground black pepper
• 1 1/4 cup self-raising flour
• 150g unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup treacle
• 1 egg
• 200g roughly chopped glace ginger

Lemon icing

• 1 1/2 cup soft icing mixture
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon of butter

Method

Ginger biscuits

First up, you can beat the softened butter with the brown sugar and treacle. I use the paddle beater in my mixer for this.

While this is happening you can mix all the spices in with the flour. Then you can chop the glace ginger. But don’t chop the ginger too fine. Remember you want to have the soft squishy mouth feel of whole lumps of glace ginger in each biscuit. Add the egg to a glass and use a fork to lightly beat it.

Once the sugar and butter is creamed, you can change the paddle beater to a dough hook. Then add the flour, spices, ginger and egg to the mixer. Mix till a soft dough forms.

Sprinkle some flour onto a board. Then grab small amounts of the dough and roll the dough in the flour to make balls. Place the balls of dough onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. You should be able to make about 18 small balls.

Bake the biscuits in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg C. Check the biscuits in the oven after about 12 minutes, then turn the tray around and bake for a further 7 minutes or so. The biscuits should be looking brown and firm.

Now, you can remove the biscuits from the oven and place them on a cake cooling rack over a paper-lined tray. Let the biscuits cool to room temperature.

Lemon drizzle icing

Add the icing mixture, lemon juice and butter into a microwave-proof bowl. Heat the mixture till it feels hot, then quickly beat the icing mixture together.

When I first made this icing, I went to all the extra trouble of sifting the icing mixture and then whisking the mix to a very smooth consistency. This was to ensure there were no lumps. But, then I really couldn’t be bothered. I actually like the look of the fine lumps in the icing!

While the mixture is still liquid, you can drizzle the icing over each biscuit. You can then place the iced biscuits in the fridge so that the icing will set.

Post script

My neighbours loved these biscuits and thanked me for the Pfeffernusse! I had to look this up on the internet. According to Wikipedia Pfeffernüsse are small spice cookies, popular as a holiday treat with Germans and ethnic Mennonites in North America. Similar cookies are made in Denmark, and The Netherlands, as well. They are called Pfeffernüsse (plural, singular is Pfeffernuss) in German, pepernoten (sing. pepernoot) in Dutch, päpanät in Plautdietsch, pfeffernusse or peppernuts in English, and pebernødder in Danish.

How about that? I hope you enjoy these spicy ginger biscuits, too!

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Nothing is better than hot cross buns straight out of your home oven. And, with this easy recipe you will be able to impress your family and friends with delicious home-baked buns next Easter!

The meaning of Hot Cross buns at Easter

Eating hot cross buns on Good Friday is a longstanding tradition in many parts of the world, including here at Tin Dragon Cottages. I guess this rich history in Christian tradition, means they are more than just a tasty treat! The cross on top of the bun symbolizes the crucifixion of Jesus, and the spices represent the spices used to embalm his body after his death.

Why you should bake Hot Cross buns at home

Easter is a time for family, friends, and delicious food, and one of the most popular Easter treats are hot cross buns with their iconic crosses on top. The aroma of buns baking at home is simply irrisistible! So, why not try out my easy traditional recipe? My recipe is made more convenient by using bread maker (Panasonic SD-2501). Of course we often bake these spicy buns (without the cross and glaze) – why wait for Easter?

Hot Cross Buns Recipe using a Bread Maker

My recipe was perfected after several not-so-good attempts. I hope my final version saves you the time and effort of trial and error!

In this recipe I use soft white bread-making flour from the Tasmanian Flour Mills and Australian dried fruits. I really like citrus peel in these buns, but for reasons I don’t understand, citrus peel is not always available in our local supermarkets – go figure? Fortunately I was able to source some bulk amounts through a Tasmanian food wholesaler. As a bonus, this meant I could also supply my home-baking friends with this key ingredient, too.

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon dried bread-making yeast
• 3 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 1/2 Cups white flour
• 1 Tablespoon mixed spices
• 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 Teaspoon ground corriander
• 1 cup water
• 1 egg
• 1/4 Cup olive oil
• 1/2 Cup currants
• 1/2 Cup dried citrus peel
• 1/2 Cup sultanas

Method

Adding ingredients into the bread maker

After mixing the three dried fruits together, I add the mix into the top of the bread-maker. See the image, above.

Most bread-makers will have instructions for adding the dry and wet ingredients into the baking tin. For the Panasonic I add the dried fruit mix into the top of the machine, then I add the ingredients in the following order into the baking pan: yeast, brown sugar, flour, spices, egg, water then oil. I premix the egg in the water.

Now I set the program on the bread maker (setting 17 for the Panasonic), and go away for about two hours.

Shaping the buns

It seems crazy now, but I struggled with getting this to work. But I won’t bore you with my less than aesthetic misshapen bun results.

The bun mixture weighs about 1200 g. So I remove the mixture from the bread maker, then divide it into 12 100g portions.

Next I grab each portion in my hand, pinching it underneath to form a rough ball shape and add them to a lined baking tin (~ 20cm square).

Final rise

Using a pastry brush I lightly brush the top of the dough balls with water, then place them in a warm oven to rise. After about 1 hour at 30 – 40 deg C the buns have risen to the top of the baking tin.

Adding crosses to the hot cross buns

Before adding the white crosses, I brush each bun with a small amount of beaten egg. One egg is plenty! You can also use a milk wash. But for fancy hot cross buns, I prefer to use egg.

For the crosses you will also need a small plastic bag with a fine cut made in one corner of the the bottom of the bag. Or, you can use a fancy-pants piping bag and nozzle.

I add about 1/2 cup of plain flour to a bowl and gradually mix in water to make a paste. The paste needs to be liquid enough to squeeze it out of the bag, but not so liquid that it wants to drip out of the bag!

Baking the buns

The tray filled with buns is put into an oven pre-heated to about 200 deg C. The buns should be ready after 20 minutes. I test the buns by tapping the top of them. If they sound “hollow” then they are ready! However, if I feel uncertain, then I turn off the oven and allow the buns to sit a little longer (~ 5-10 mins).

Adding a fancy brandy glaze

While the buns are still baking in the oven, I cook up a small volume of lemon syrup in a saucepan by adding the juice of one lemon and at least 1/4 cup of white caster sugar. The syrup is brought to the simmer point till the sugar has dissolved and it looks syrupy. After removing the syrup from the heat I add a generous volume of brandy (about 2 tablespoons).

The glaze is then brushed on to the buns, immediatley after they are removed from the oven. Then the buns are returned to the still hot oven for a few minutes.

Once I take the tin out of the oven I let it cool down, then I remove the buns by lifting the baking paper. The buns are placed on a wire rack till they cool to room temperature.

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This refreshing vegan blueberry gelato is made from ingredients that are easy to buy in Australia–even in Tasmania! You will be surprised by how easy it is to make, too.

This time last year we hosted a HelpX volunteer from Germany. Swantje eats plant foods, only (vegan diet). So, for the six weeks of her stay with us our family followed a vegan diet. Swantje would be proud of me finally making a smooth delicious vegan gelato! Because, although we had tried making vegan frozen desserts, our attempts were less than great.

We may have liked frozen banana with peanut paste and chocolate sauce. But you can only eat this in small amounts. Our problem was we didn’t have an effective food processor. So, making vegan ice-cream from cashews was a dismal failure…and very messy too!

Vegan Blueberry Gelato Recipe

Then I discovered some convenient ingredients in our local superamarket! And I started experimenting with vegan ice cream again. This recipe uses ingredients purchased from Coles and the blueberries we picked from a local orchard.

Of course, I forgot to mention that I also purchased a small ice-cream maker– an Apuro DM067-A. I bought it online. It was one of those COVID lock-down impulses. But, I have had so much fun with this ice-cream machine!

Cashew cream

Blend the cashew milk and cashew butter together in a 1L bowl or jug. I used a simple stick blender. You need to blend the mixture till it is creamy (i.e. no lumps).

Putting it together

The final volume of the blueberry jam is about 1 1/2 cups. Take 1 cup of the jam and add it to the cashew cream mixture. Again, you need to blend this well. You will have about 600mL of mixture.

Freezing the blueberry gelato

Pour the mixture into the bowl of the ice-cream maker, then turn the timer as far as you can. This is about 60mins on the Apuro dial. I let the churning continue till it stops (30 – 50 mins). You will notice that the frozen mixture is more brittle than a gelato made with milk. Use the spatula provided with the Apuro to scrape the mixture into a 1L freezer container.

A note about the Apuro DM067-A: The online desciptions call this a 1.5L icecream machine. However, I have found that liquid volumes greater than 600mL tend to start lifting the lid of the machine before it finishes churning. So I can make about 800 to 1000mL of frozen dessert. The final volume depends on the amount of air churned into the mixture. Of course, the mixture expands as it freezes, too.

Serving the vegan blueberry gelato

After allowing the gelato to freeze for several hours, it bcomes firm. But it isn’t too hard to scoup. Serve the gelato with some of the blueberry jam. You’ll love it!

By the way, this is a healthy dessert, too! Cashew nuts with fibre and minerals and blueberries with antioxidants are good for your health. In addition, the gelato contains a moderate amount of glucose rather than sucrose, so there is no added fructose!

So I had a modest crop of tomatillos in my hothouse and decided to cook a dessert. This tomatillo tart was surprisingly tasty and easy to cook. I think you will enjoy it too! Of course the most difficult part was growing the tomatillos.

About Tomatillos

I purchased the seeds for these amazing plants from the family-run Southern Harvest Seeds based in the foothills of Mount Wellington in Southern Tasmania. Although their web page states the heirloom variety, Tomatillo ‘De Milpa’ (Physalis ixocarpa) is the best tasting, I didn’t buy them because the seed was sold out. (I note that over six months later these seeds are still unavailable). I purchased a packet of Tomatillo ‘Verde Puebla’ (Physalis ixocarpa). According to the web site the fruit has a tangy lemon flavour and I would also add that the fruits are wonderfully crunchy!

I planted the seeds at the beginning of September, then grew the young seedlings in my hothouse. Initially I staked the plants, but the plants soon started to spread. So next time I won’t use the stakes. My plants looked very healthy at first. Then they were attacked by aphids and after I removed the aphids, the leaves started yellowing. You can see the leaf damage in the photo.

Despite the plants looking sickly, they flowered profusely and there was a good rate of fruiting. I grew six plants and the bees did great work at pollination! The fruit became plump, some husks split and some fruit fell to the ground. In the end I picked a few kilos of fruit!

Cooking the Tomatillo Tart

This recipe was adapted from Margarita’s Tartela de Tomatillo recipe.

You will notice when you remove the husks that the tomatillos are sticky. Apparently this stick layer tastes bitter, so you will need to wash the fruit in warm water before you eat them.

Ingredients for tomatillo tart

Tapioca

I couldn’t buy tapioca flour in the small supermarket nearby, so I used some tapioca seed I had had on my pantry shelf for years. (The flour would have made a much better texture!)

Tapioca starch is extracted from Cassava roots. This starch is used widely in Asian cuisine as a gluten-free thickener for sauces and gravies. I have now discovered that one of the Woolworths stores in Launceston stocks it. Next time I am in Launceston!

Method for cooking tomatillo tart

You can use a saucepan to mix the cut fruit, sugar and orange zest together and a non-stick fry pan to toast the pecan nuts. Mix the tapioca and water together in a small bowl.

Using gentle heat, start cooking the fruit mix in the saucepan. The sugar will dissolve. When the mix looks watery, you can mix in the hydrated tapioca. You must keep stirring, till you see the starch turn clear. The mixture will become like a jelly! This is when you add in the toasted pecans.

Put it together: Pour the slightly thickened and cooled fruit mixture into the cooled tart shell. Then place the tart in the fridge. The tart should set after a few hours.

Serve the tart with some yummy thick custard or thickened cream (or both)!

Learn More about Tin Dragon Cottages

If you wish to learn more about our tourist accommodation in North East Tasmania, please explore our Tin Dragon Cottages web site. We look forward to hosting your next stay in Tasmania!

This is my motley collection of side dishes such as dips, salsas and chutneys. When I get a chance I will add to the collection!

Cashew & Dried Tomato Dip

This recipe is based on one of my favourite commercial dips. You can find a similar dip in our local Woolworths and Coles supermarkets. I used my home-grown and dried tomatoes, garlic and lemon in this dip!

Method

Tomatillo Salsa Verde

I am so pleased with the lively fresh taste of this salsa, and so proud of growing most of the ingredients, that I just had to share the recipe with you!

I won’t rewrite the recipe, because I used the fresh salsa verde recipe published on Sophie’s Patch. So I used about 15 of my tomatillos and a bunch of home-grown coriander and fresh garlic with store-bought lime juice and (only) two fresh jalapenos. I think you will enjoy this! The first time our family tried it, we combined the salsa with a green curry and rice. Yum!

Learn More about Tin Dragon Cottages

If you wish to learn more about our tourist accommodation in North East Tasmania, please explore our Tin Dragon Cottages web site. We look forward to hosting your next stay in Tasmania!

Cape gooseberry tart is an easy recipe to prepare at the end of autumn. This fruity, tangy tart is best served with freshly-made custard.

Cape Gooseberry tart and jam – another family tradition!

When I was a child living in south-east Queensland my Dad would bundle us up in the family car to head out to the forestry pine tree plantations near our town. Here we would meet up with some other family friends to pick buckets full of the cape gooseberries growing wild in the plantation. It was an annual ritual. My Dad would make enough gooseberry jam to last our family for the year. Jam-making was his “thing”.

About Cape Gooseberries

I guess I din’t think too much about the wild gooseberry plants growing in the pine plantations when I was a child. But now I realise the cape gooseberries were an invasive weed. The plant is classified as an invasive weed in Western Australia. The Cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana) was native to South America, but has been introduced across most of the world, including Australia.

In warm climates the cape gooseberry is perennial. However in Tasmania, where we live, it is a summer annual, fruiting by mid to late Autumn. I have only ever had success with getting ripe fruit when I have grown the plants in my hot house. And even then, the plants need to be raised as soon as possible after the last frosts in early spring.

My cape gooseberry tart recipe

Bake the pastry at 200 deg C for up to 30 minutes or till it becomes a light golden colour. It is best to use baking beads to prevent the pastry rising in the centre of the dish. However, sometimes I just use a small casserole dish placed on top of the pastry for the first 10 minutes of baking. 🙂

To cook the filling: Add the apricot jam and washed berries into a small saucepan. The last tart I made (pictured) was made with home made apricot jam. The apricots were from a friend’s garden!

Bring the heat up slowly till the mixture starts to simmer gently. Now you can make a smooth corn flour paste, using the hot water. Then you can slowly add the starch solution to the simmering mixture. But keep stirring to prevent lumps forming. Allow the mixture to simmer gently for about another 10 minutes. You should see the mix thicken and the berries start to pop.

It is not a good idea to keep cooking the mix for so long that all the berries split and lose their shape. If you think the mixture isn’t thick enough try adding a little more corn flour. However, it is probably better to just let the mixture cool down. I found that it will set when you place the tart in the fridge.

Put it together: Pour the slightly thickened and cooled fruit mixture into the cooled tart shell. Then place the tart in the fridge. The tart should set after a few hours.

Serve the tart with some yummy thick custard!

Learn More about Tin Dragon Cottages

If you wish to learn more about our tourist accommodation in North East Tasmania, please explore our Tin Dragon Cottages web site. We look forward to hosting your next stay in Tasmania!