Fruit Balls

Sometimes it is once to have a little treat at morning tea, but it is very hard to find treats that don't contain an amazing amount of rubbish.
So.... Something to have with a cup of tea, a drink of water or even a juice.
An aside before we begin...... Most of us buy cinnamon from the supermarket, has a nice sweet smell, is dark rusty brown in colour... Most of the time it isn't even cinnamon,but casia. I went and bought whole cinnamon quills, they are a light beige brown in colour and have a very delicate scent, but when you grind them, wooooo hooooooo, lovely strong cinnamon scent. True cinnamon curls in one direction, not both edges into the centre as casia does,
Anyway, I digress, fruit balls is why you are reading this. All measurements are approximate and should be adjusted to your personal preferences.
Ingredients
1 cup Dates - roughly chopped
1/2 cup dried Apricots - roughly chopped
1/4 cup Pistachios - roughly chopped
1/4 cup Coconut, I use moist flakes
1/4 teaspoon Coconut butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon honey
Few drops rose water
How to
Place all ingredients into a food processor and mix until the mixture comes together in a ball. Roll mixture in your hands in 1/2 teaspoon amounts, to form small balls, then refrigerate. If you want to stop them from sticking together they can be rolled in desiccated coconut, sesame seeds or chopped nuts.

Makes about 24

Ricotta Pancakes with Spiced Fruit and Chantilly Cream

Recently we went to Zest in Leura, and enjoyed a lovely breakfast, I enjoyed the Middle Eastern Pancakes with Fruit Compote and Chantilly Cream, this is my take on them. The spiced fruit here are also inspired by Maggie Beer, on a recent episode of MasterChef, making a roast pork with apple sauce! Nothing like playing confusion chef!
Ingredients
Pancakes
1/2 cup fresh Ricotta
1 large egg
1/2 cup Plain Flour
1/2 cup Wholemeal Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Tablespoon Icing Sugar
1/2 cup Milk - approx.

Fruit
2 apples, peeled and diced - Jonathan, Pink Lady, Fuji - Red or pink skinned apples for one the other Granny Smith
1/2 punnet Strawberries, sliced *
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon sugar
Few sprigs fresh Thyme
Pinch ground Cinnamon
Zest 1/2 lemon
Cream
1/2 cup cream
1/2 teaspoon icing sugar
How to
Pancake batter
Blend ricotta and egg, I use a stick blender with the whisk attachment, until light and fluffy. Add to dry ingredients and whisk, adding enough milk to make a semi - thick batter.
Fruit
Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the leaves of the Thyme sprigs and gently fry to release the aroma, add the apple and sugar and gently toss, until a light caramel forms, add cinnamon to your liking and set aside.
Pancakes
Heat a heavy bottomed fry pan and lightly grease with butter, I use paper towel to do this. Add enough batter to make pancakes to your desired size - I make ours fairly big, cook on the first side until bubbles are coming through all over, then turn and cook for another 2 minutes.
Fruit
Re - warm the apples, they should be soft on the outside with some crunch in the middle, add lemon juice and strawberries and just warm.
Cream
With a stick blender and whisk attachment, whisk cream and icing sugar until thickened.
Serve
Place 2 pancakes on a plate, top with fruit and place cream on the side - enjoy
* if you can't smell the sweetness of strawberries, don't buy them, you will be disappointed!

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Pineapple Polenta and Thyme Loaf - Mother's Day 2013

I woke up to a day that was less than stunning, with very thick fog until nearly 10:00am, uuugh, can I just roll over and go back to the land of nod? No, Peta, you have guests for morning tea, remember? It's Mother's Day!
Hmmmm, what treat to make for Andrew's mum? I love Bev, and she's a terrific cook, I wanted something a bit different...........ahhhhh, Pineapple Polenta and Thyme Loaf - smells delish in the house while it's cooking, and I rather like the crunchy outside, dense moistness inside and the peculiar mix of sweet and savoury, here's the how to, if you want to give it a try........
Bev, this one is for you!
Ingredients:
150 g butter
150 g caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
75 g self - raising flour
75 g polenta
2 teaspoons baking powder
250 g canned pineapple, chopped in a processor - not too finely, the occasional chunk is rustic
1 teaspoon fresh or dried thyme, approximately
Dash of vanilla extract
How to:
Line a loaf tin with baking paper, and heat the oven to 190∘C.
In a food processor, process the polenta and thyme until the thyme is well chopped and the polenta nice and fine - set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the sugar and butter and light and fluffy, add 1/2 the flour and then the eggs, little by little, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix on a low setting until we'll combined.
Pour the very wet mix into the lined loaf tin and bake for approximately 40 minutes - until set.
Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack, it will likely ooze some butter.
It doesn't need icing, but a sprinkling of icing sugar will look pretty against the golden brown crust - if you are so inclined!
Enjoy!

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